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The Solar Bodies and Bodhichitta

1/7/2020

Today, we are going to discuss the nature of consciousness, the nature of mind as it is explained within the gnostic doctrine, as well as its relation to the famous solar bodies of esotericism. We are going to elaborate on how mind, or consciousness, is related to the vehicles of the soul.

The solar bodies are well mentioned throughout the literature of Theosophy. And we are going to address the nature of the solar bodies in relation to the path, which is the path of the Self-realization of the Being and the complete development of the human being.

This path and the solar bodies are well explained within the Christian, Buddhist, Sufi doctrine, through all the world religions. As we are going to elaborate today, Master Jesus of Nazareth, Master Aberamentho, explains the nature of the solar bodies, in detail, in his gospel.

We also have in this image, Padmasambhava, who is known as the Second Buddha. He originally brought Tantrism to Tibet. Now he is recognized by having documented The Tibetan Book of the Dead. He taught the nature of Dzogchen, which means the Great Perfection.

So, we have here, in this image, Padmasambhava with his consort, the force of the vehicle of Tantra. Sexual union is how we create the soul. Let us remember that Master Jesus never taught that we have soul. He said: "With patience will possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19). The soul or the solar bodies are vehicles through which God can manifest and express. These are only created precisely through tantra: pure, pristine, chaste sexual connection or union, and the transformation of one's vital principles.

When we talk about the solar bodies, we also need to talk about the nature of mind, because there are many misconceptions in spiritual circles between the consciousness and the solar bodies. We emphasize that the solar bodies are merely vehicles that can transmit light, in the same manner that a lightbulb transmits light.

The bulb is the vehicle. The light is Christ. So, in the path of Self-realization, we need to create the solar vehicles. We need to become solar beings, pure souls that can transmit the light of Christ, without blemish. This path has been taught in all the religions. And we have a saying by Padmasambhava about he nature of this path.

“Dzogchen is the secret unexcelled cycle of the supreme vehicle of tantra, the true essence of the definitive meaning, the short path for attaining buddhahood in one life.” —Padmasambhava

When we talk about the solar bodies, we emphasize there are many steps in the process of Self-realization. There are many who think that when creating the solar bodies, one is done. But that is a mistaken concept. Because the solar vehicles are merely a footstep in order to enter into the higher stages of initiation.

So, again we have a description of the solar bodies in relation with the Egyptian mysteries. In this image, we have the Tree of Life, kabbalah. On the right, we have the Tree of Life transposed on an egyptian god, Ptah, which is where we get the word Patar, Father. So, this father is our Inner Christ, our Inner Lord. And notice that his body is made of gold. Gold is the symbol of Christ, the light of the Being, the light of our real identity or Innermost God.

Solar bodies are created intentionally. Human beings do not possess them by nature. And that is why we discussed elsewhere in the lectures; we find that the only way to create the soul is by revolution. Not against other people, but ourselves. The requirements are very specific.

We typically possess what we call lunar vehicles, which we are going to explain in relation to the Christian Gospels. But speaking in general about the solar bodies, we are referring to the kabbalah, the Tree of Life.

Here, we have in the bottom Malkuth, which means “Kingdom” in Hebrew. This is our physical body, which we receive as a gift of nature by the procreation of our parents. Above it, we have Yesod, which is the vital body. And our vital body is the origin of all our chemical, metabolic, catabolic processes—reproduction. It is our energy and vitality.

Our physical body would not be able to exist without Yesod, our “Foundation.” After creating the Ssolar bodies like Ptah, Patar, the Father, as it is represented in gold, we can reach the Father—if we want to work with Yesod, our foundation, our vital forces, specifically our sexual energy, which, as we elaborate in the scripture, is the foundation of all genuine spiritual Self-realization.

Above that we have Hod, which means “Glory.” This is our emotional body, our astral vehicle. That is what we commonly have when we go into the astral plane when we dream.

What we typically possess is not a legitimate astral body, but a lunar phantom known as kama rupa, meaning “desire body.” This in relation to the theosophical teachings, as well as the Hindu scriptures.

In the right, we have Netzach, which means “Victory.” This is typically referred by theosophists as the mental body. But we know from esotericism that we do not possess a solar mental body, but manas or lunar mind. Sometimes, we say kama manas. Kama means “desire” and manas, “mind.”

So, our mind is animal, in desire and nature, as evidenced by the fact when we observe our psychology from moment to moment. We are constantly afflicted by negative thoughts and discursive elements which keep the consciousness enslaved.

Above that, in the middle of the Tree of Life, we have Tiphereth, which means

“Beauty” in Hebrew. This is our willpower. We call this human soul, which is not developed in us. As Jesus taught:

“With patience will possess ye your souls.” —Luke 21:19

We have to develop Tiphereth into a fully illuminated human being. But Tiphereth, as it is, is merely our willpower, which is typically channeled through our mind and desire, mind and emotions, which are subjective in nature.

We do not possess yet what is the called a solar casual body, a solar vehicle that only knows how to express the will of Christ. And which all the great initiates have developed.

So, in emphasis to this point, we explain that we are not yet human beings. Because the human being is made to the image of Elohim, God. Or better said, “gods and goddesses.” When we refer to the human being, we refer to the Hum (Sanskrit for) the breath, the wind, the spirit and man, manas, mind. So, the real human being is man or mind, not exclusively of the male sex, that is united with Hum, spirit.

Our image of Ptah represents a human being with his bodies of gold that are only created with alchemy, the science of perfect matrimony.

Above that, we have in the left, Geburah, which means “Justice,” severity, in the kabbalah. We call this our consciousness, divine soul.

To the right, we have Chesed, which means “Mercy,” our Innermost God, our inner Being.

Now, notice above we have the trinity, which is known as Christ: Kether, the Father; Chokmah, the Son; Binah, the Holy Spirit.

Understand that the top three sephirah [Hebrew for “emanations,” spheres, “jewels”] are Christ. The trinity is Christ.

Chesed and Geburah, the Innermost and divine soul, are God within us. It is our inner Lord. God never enters into degeneration, meaning: God has not fallen. His human soul, Tiphereth can obey God or fall down into the abyss, Gehenna mentioned in the scriptures.

The problem is this: the willpower obeys the inferior quaternary, the inferior four bodies, which are elementally, lunar vehicles in most of us. Because in order to create the solar vehicles, one needs to work in alchemy, in a matrimony.

Speaking about the lunar bodies, what we typically possess, if we examine them in the internal planes, they are of a phantasmic nature. They are of a ghost-like appearance. They are not substantial.

Question: The four lower bodies, those are the lunar bodies, the four lower ones?

Instructor: In most of us.

What we need to accomplish in alchemy is to create the solar vehicles, which are represented by the Tree of Life. But for most individuals who are not human beings yet, but intellectual animals, souls with intellect, our mind, emotions, vitality, as well as our physicality, are vehicles of the ego. We do not yet have the conduit, which are the solar bodies, in order to reflect the light of God and return it back into its source.

Question: So you’re saying our willpower over the ego at this stage?

Instructor: Our will typically follows our mind or emotions, which are the expressions of the ego.

Question: So if you’re able to astral project and stay conscious in the astral plane, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you created that solar body, right?

Instructor: It does not necessarily mean that, but, at the same time, individuals that did practice alchemy in the past are basically recapitulating their work.

So, some individuals who do already have those bodies, tend to have experiences as a grace of God, to bring those souls back to the path. But just because one has experiences in the internal worlds, that does not mean that one has the solar bodies yet. The way to verify that is to learn to astral travel, to communicate with our God.

For most of us, we do not have those vehicles. And Samael Aun Weor stated solar bodies are a luxury which can only be created through the work alchemy. It is Master Jesus that taught us we typically have what we call the lunar bodies.

The importance of creating the solar bodies in order to express Christ is emphasized in the scripture—in Matthew 22:1-3 and verses 8-14, where we have the parable of the wedding garment. The wedding garment are the solar bodies, which can only be created in a matrimony.

“And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said:

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.

“And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come...

“...Then saith he to his servants: The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

“Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

“So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

“And he saith unto him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

“Then said the king to his servants: Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“For many are called and few are chosen.” ―Matthew 22:1-3, 8-14

In order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we need to create the solar bodies. Because without those vehicles of Christ, we cannot resonate with the divine laws.

Christ needs a vehicle in order to express himself. And the way He does that is through the soul, the solar vehicles. So, with our lunar bodies we cannot enter into heaven.

However, I will emphasize, even creating the solar bodies is the first step. It is not the end. We need to be born again, which fanatic Christians of these times associate with doctrine or belief. They raise their hands and say: "I believe in Jesus and I am saved." And they say, “Well, you are born again.” That is not the case.

To be born again is a sexual problem. We need to use the sexual force in a matrimony. For as emphasized in this gospel: the wedding garment is the result of a marriage. Therefore, individuals who seek to enter heaven through abstinence, or as renunciates, or by rejecting sex, walk the path of error. Because Christ taught us that to be born again is to work in a matrimony, with the sexual power and to use it for Christ.

For as Jesus taught us in the book of John, Chapter 3, verses 3-8, when he talked to Nicodemus:

“Jesus answered and said unto him: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

“Nicodemus saith unto him: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

“Jesus answered: Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

“That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit.

“Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must born again.

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” ―John 3:3-8

So, we have in this graphic Jesus talking to Nicodemus, where he explains that which is born of flesh, meaning through the animal orgasm, is flesh, physical children. But that which is born of the spirit, through the sexual act, that is conserved and controlled, is spirit.

So, birth is, whether physical or spiritual, the result of working with the sexual power in a matrimony. There is no other way. Master Aberamentho taught this.

Alchemy, Chakras, and Kundalini in the Psalms

We talked about the pneuma, the spirit like the wind, which we are going to elaborate further in relation to the bodies themselves, how to create them. When working with the spirit, we work with the sexual force known as the Holy Spirit, which we mention as Binah in Kabbalah.

In this image, we have an illuminated spinal medulla and the seven chakras. These chakras awaken when the power of the Divine Mother, known as Kundalini, awakens from the coccyx and ascends up the spine into the brain.

When that fire awakens in the matrimony, it ascends slowly in accordance to the merits of the heart, never by one’s own whim, but by the intelligence and power of the Divine Mother. She is the one who, as the Weaver in Arcanum 24 in the Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, weaves clothes for the soul to inhabit.

She is the one in this card who spins the wheel. She elaborates the soul, so that the consciousness can be dressed. When she awakens in the coccyx and ascends up the spine, She awakens all the faculties, the seven chakras. That is a divine fire that you can see in this image. And, when we rise the fire within the different spinal medullas within our lower bodies within the Tree of Life, we create the solar bodies.

As we illustrate, Kundalini is the sexual force. The seminal energy is the power that gives life or can produce death, if we abuse it. For it is stated many times in the scriptures of the Old Testament, we find one reference in the sons of David, in the Psalms.

“The trees of יהוה Iod-Havah are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.” ―Psalm 104:16-17

So, that is why this sap that the Bible talks about is the semen. The sap is the semen of plants. And we know that semen, physically, in man or woman, is the condensation of blood. So, that sap that fills the cedar tree is precisely our sexual matter, seminal fluids, whether in man or woman, because semen does not only apply to man, but to woman as well.

And the cedar tree relates to this process of creating the solar bodies. The cedar tree represents our spine. And the angels that govern the cedar family can aid us if we practice sexual magic. Even the word Lebanon teaches us a great mystery. Samael Aun Weor explains in Igneous Rose:

“In the word Lebanon (Spanish: Líbano), we find the IAO that permits the angels of the cedars of the forest to open the door of the spinal medulla when we practice Sexual Magic. IAO is the mantra of Sexual Magic.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose

IAO in Latin means Ignis, Aqua, Origo; fire, air, spirit; or fire, water, spirit. And Samael explains this is the mantra of sexual magic to create the solar bodies. First, it is the wind of the spirit working with the fire of sex in order to generate the pneuma, the wind, the breath of spirit, which is the essence of the practice of tantra.

So, Lebanon in the Old Testament refers to the science of IAO. This secret mantra is considered the holiest of all mantras amongst the great temples of mysteries. And we know from the writings of Samael Aun Weor that when this sacred name was pronounced in ancient times, they would pound the drums so that the profane outside would not hear the name of this mantra, because it is exceptionally powerful.

IAO relates in Hebrew to י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vav. And IAO or י Iod, ה Hei, ו Vav is יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah. When we work with the sap of our bodies, we practice alchemy and raise those forces upwards, the Kundalini, so that it illuminates the chakras and gives birth to the soul.

Solomon and Sacred Sexuality

To elaborate this point of our sexual nature, of the creation of the soul, we have the following teaching by Solomon, who is in synthesis a great solar man. He was a great king recognized for his kingdom of gold, meaning: he was self-realized. He was a great master.

He taught in Song of Songs the sexual nature of the spiritual union with God. And it is precisely through sex that solar bodies are created. And what will be relevant in this passage is that we examine this image of Shiva-Shakti, which is the Holy Spirit. Shiva is the Father or Abba Elohim with the Divine Mother Shakti, Aima Elohim. These are the two polarities of the Holy Spirit, which is masculine and feminine.

This is represented in the scripture of the Song of Songs by Solomon. He talks about his wife, who is his sister, which if we interpret it literally, is absurd. Because the fact this great master was practicing incest would be a crime. Instead, these are principles.

Just as Adam and Eve, in the garden, united sexually, they represent man and woman, or brother and sister. They are principles. They are not literal figures. So, Solomon and his wife, his sister can represent Shiva-Shakti, because the same power is male and female. And when we talk about Shiva, we need to talk about Shakti. And when we talk about Shakti, we need to talk about Shiva. Because the Holy Spirit is dual, both powers, male and female.

Question: In Indian philosophy, one of them is the creator and the other is a destroyer.

Instructor: Shiva-Shakti is the power of God that can create the soul or damn the soul, if that energy is expelled through the orgasm. That is our original sin.

And so is represented in this scripture, we will explain how scientific chastity, purity in sex, is precisely which leads to the development of the soul.

As Solomon states:

“Thou art all fair my love; there is no spot in thee (meaning that you are completely chaste with no impurity in you, my Shakti, the sexual force).

“Come with me from לבנון Lebanon, my spouse, with me from לבנון Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountain of the leopards.” ―Song of Songs 4:7-8

What’s interesting with Shiva is that he is typically portrayed sitting on a leopard's skin or a lion's skin, meaning he has conquered animal desire. So, when he talked about being elevated in the mountains, that is the symbol of having looked the path of initiation and that one has conquered desire, like Solomon did.

“Thou hast ravished my heart (which in Hebrew is לֵבָב lebab, similar to לבנון Lebanon, as we are going to explain), my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes (which in Hebrew is עיניים Ayneen), with one chain of my neck.

So, he talks about the heart as לֵבָב lebab and mentions right next the city of לבנון Lebanon. There is a profound relationship there.

We know that in transmutation, we bring the energies inward and upward to our brain, and into our heart. לֵבָב Lebab, as in לבנון Lebanon, is heart. The last part of Lebanon is נ Nun [or ן Nun Sophit, final Nun], which in Aramaic means “fish.” נ Nun is sperm, literally, because our sperm and ovum swim within the waters of sexuality.

Lebanon represents those who practice chastity. As Samael Aun Weor mentions, Lebanon or Líbano is IAO. In order to really dwell in that divine city, one has to transmute the נ Nun, the sperm or the ovum through the spinal column into the brain, and then into the heart, לֵבָב lebab. That is the meaning of Lebanon.

Question: You mentioned נ Nun again. Could you give the description where you mentioned fish?

Instructor: "Nun” in Aramaic means “fish,” and refers to sperm and ovum. The letter N [the Hebrew נ Nun] hides the meaning of the sexual principles.

Now, Solomon says: "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes (Ayin)."

“How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices.” ―Song of Songs 4:9-10

The word for smell is ריח reyach. ריח Reyach relates, in Hebrew, to רוח ruach, which is spirit. In the book of Genesis, the spirit hovers over the face of the waters, the אלוהים רוח Ruach Elohim.

Genesis is a work of alchemy. So, by working in a matrimony, the spirit hovers on the waters of sexuality and creates the heavens in the seven days of genesis, which explains the teachings of the solar bodies in depth.

It would take many lectures to explain each component, but here, we are speaking more generally.

And the "smell of thine ointments”—the word “ointments in Hebrew is שמן shemen, which is where we get the word “semen.”

“And the smell of thine ointments,” the רוח ruach of thine ointments, the רוח ruach of thy semen, the spirit of thy semen, is more voluptuous, “delightful than all spices,” meaning: all the common and terrestrial pleasures we typically experience—because the sexual act is the ultimate consubstantiation of love between man and woman, and Christ.

When we talk about the spirit, or the ריח reyach, the smell, which is really רוח ruach, “the spirit of thine ointments,” it talks about, how through alchemy, by being sexually connected and controlling the breath, inhaling profoundly the energy, conserving it, transforming it, bringing it up in the spine, and later into the heart—that is how we enter in the kingdom of Lebanon. I mentioned נ Nun is the sperm and ovum, the sexual matter, and לֵבָב lebab, the heart. He continues:

“Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under my tongue...” ―Song of Songs 4:11

That is honey, which was originally pollen. Through work, the bee transforms that into sweetness. This is the symbol of the soul. Because through the impurity of our daily life, we work on ourselves and transform that garbage into honey, through alchemy, into sweetness of the spirit. And that is ultimately achieved when one is working in a matrimony.

“…and the ריח reyach, the smell of my garments is like the smell of Lebanon.” ―Song of Songs 4:11

So, what are these garments? It is the solar bodies. Here, it is very explicit. The solar bodies are created trough sex. There is no other way. “The smell of thy garments, the ruach of thy garments, is the smell of Lebanon,” meaning heaven. Those initiates who entered the Heavenly Jerusalem, into the Kingdom of God, which is Lebanon or Jerusalem.

Lastly, Solomon states:

“A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” ―Song of Songs 4:12

So, the Hebrew word for fountain is מַעיָן ma'yan. And, if we look at this graphic, we have the word מַעיָן ma’yan, which is Mem, Ayin, Iod, Nun.

Notice, we previously talked about Solomon, ravished with one the eyes of his sister, his spouse. The word מַעיָן ma’yan is the same word as eye, עין ayin. It just has the letter M in front of them. So, instead of עין ayin, it spells מַעיָן ma’yan. That is fountain.

So, these are the fountains of life that Jesus mentions, which will never allow you be thirsty again. As explained in the parable of the woman at the well, when the woman asks: "Give me the water that springs up to everlasting life." And Jesus says: "Go call thy husband." Meaning that if you want to know how to find the water, work with your husband, because in the matrimony is where the fountain is produced.

These waters of life are precisely the sexual energy. And sexual energy has a profound relationship with our perception, as evidenced in Hebrew: עין ayin, eye; עיניים ayinim, eyes. מַעיָן Ma’yan is the same word, but with מ mem; and מ mem is water.

So, in order to have spiritual perception, we need to work with our water. That means we need to be married in order to begin this process. In order to enter the higher stages of initiation, we need to work with the waters, represented by Mary, מרים Miriam, the Divine Mother. And עין ayin is an eye. [Remember that “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (pure), thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil (impure, lustful), thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! —Matthew 6:22-23]

So, he says very clearly: "A garden enclosed is my sister. A spring shut up. A fountain sealed." So, we will have the energy of sex, but we need to be sealed hermetically with this force. We must never expel it. It is very well known in tantra, from the teachings of the Dalai Lama. He even explicitly states:

“Sexual energy should never be let out.” ―The 14th Dalai Lama

And this fountain should never be spilled, meaning one should never reach the orgasm, because if we lose that fountain, we cannot assuage our thirst for the kingdom of heaven.

Question: But only in procreation—you would have to. That would be the exception, right?

Instructor: In the past humanities, procreation was accomplished without the orgasm.

Comment: But still, it was a fall.

Instructor: There was never loss of the seminal fluid, but one sperm would be emitted in order to enter the womb of the wife. So, in the past, human beings procreated without orgasm and they had children which were pure.

Question: Is that possible today?

Instructor: Yes. What matters is that we follow the will of our Being, so that he can guide us as when to practice in the appropriate astrological hour, so those forces are conducive for producing a child without pain. It is mentioned in The Yellow Book, specifically.

Question: So, you are saying that if a couple procreated without spelling the semen, the woman would give birth with no pain?

Instructor: Less pain, I would say. When following the divine laws, we avoid pain.

Comment: That’s tremendous pressure on the man, to get to the point that only one cell is emitted!

Instructor: The force that guides that is the Holy Spirit, the Divine Mother.

So, we need to be sealed. A fountain that is enclosed. We should never let the energy out. If we want to have children of a divine nature, of a pure nature, we must learn to practice according to the guidance of the Elohim. Because that energy, in a matrimony, should not be expelled. But according to the will of God, one sperm can leave the phallus in order to enter the ovum. But that is in accordance to the will of God [and therefore constitutes what original, esoteric Christianity denominated an “immaculate conception,” sexual generation without impurity, blemish, orgasm].

Comment: These are spiritually developed people! They will have to be very spiritually developed to do that…

Soma, Sexual Energy, and the Power of Shiva

Instructor: In this image, we have the picture of Shiva by an ocean. When explaining the nature of the fountain, the waters of life in Hindu language are Soma. In this image, we see Shiva drinking from an ocean that is being churned by a great battle between gods and demons, which results in the ocean being polluted and poisonous in order to extract Amrita, which is the nectar of the gods, the pure sexual energy. He drinks the poison, which I believe in the myth explains how he came with the blue pigment in his skin. He drinks this drink of Halāhala or Kalakootam. And this represents how the energies of sexuality have to be extracted from impurity. So, the impurity is the poison that is being generated in the battle with our own ego, our own lust.

Soma has a great relationship to the Christian scriptures. Soma or Amrita is the nectar of immortality. This is the substance, the seminal energy or seminal matter which can create the solar bodies.

We find different definitions of soma, “a secret drink of Hindu Gods through ancient Hindu religious texts.” It also refers to the “press of drinks made of juiced plants.” So, the significance of being pressed in order to extract the juice of a plant is very significant in relation to alchemy, because when a man unites with his wife, the organs press together and, therefore, if the breath is controlled, the juice can be extracted, sublimated, and elevated to the brain, and into the heart.

Soma also connotes the God Chandra, who relates to the moon. And we know that the moon relates to the vital forces of Yesod, which is the sexual energy.

Question: Which is in the etheric body?

Instructor: Yes. In Greek, soma signifies “body.” In order to create the solar bodies, we need to work with our own soma, our sexual energy.

Unfortunately, in modern times soma can also mean hallucinogenic substances, which we do not advocate in these teachings.

The Śvetāśvatara Upanishad and Sexual Yoga

So, as I elaborated in relation to soma, we have this image of the Christ crucified, which someone may find strange in the context of expressing the Hindu teachings. We find the symbol of the cross with the symbol of alchemy: the union of man and woman.

Christ, the force of God, is crucified whenever a man with an erect phallus enters the uterus of his wife. That forms the cross. The vehicle beam is the phallus. The horizontal beam is the uterus.

And we see in this image his crucifixion in which all the impurities of his psyche are annihilated. This is what the crucifixion of Christ represents. And notice how in his right side, he is pierced by the spear of Longinus, in which flows his blood. This ties to the scripture known as Śvetāśvatara Upanishad, Chapter 2 verse 6:

“Where the fire is rubbed, where the wind is checked, where the soma flows over, there the mind is born.” —Śvetāśvatara Upanishad 2:6

So, when a man and a woman are united in the cross, the fire is rubbed, as mentioned in the scripture. When a phallus unites with the uterus in holy matrimony, the fire is stimulated. And when the wind is checked, when the breath in the sexual act is controlled, the soma grows and develops. The sexual energy is activated and begins to flow inwards and upwards.

We have two ways of energy flowing in our body: we have centrifugal force when the energy goes from inside to outside, which is what we do not recommend. And then, we have the centripetal flow of forces, which is from outside in, which is the science of transmutation.

When the fire is rubbed in sexual union, and when the wind is checked, the spirit, the breath, ריח reyach, רוח Ruach. When the sSoma flows over, or rather, inside and upwards, then the mind is born, meaning: the Solar bodies can be created in this context.

When we talk about flow, we talk about tantra. Tantra means “flow, continuum.” That is an eastern term for the nature of this science.

The Four States of Consciousness

In relation to the solar bodies, we have to talk about mind. We make the distinction between the states of consciousness and the solar bodies of the Being. It is true that solar vehicles can grant us access to higher states of consciousness, but they do not determine a completely awakened state of being. There are many individuals with solar bodies, or could have developed these bodies in the past, and they are asleep. Or, even worse: many of them have fallen into the path of demons.

Do not think that once you have created the solar bodies one is saved. The consciousness needs to be developed further.

When we talk about the mind or consciousness, we need to talk about four states, which we are going to the Christian Gospels as given by Paul of Tarsus. We have four states of consciousness mentioned in Greek, by Plato.

Eikasia is the first state of consciousness and refers to a state of profound sleep, instinctual, animal desire, barbarism, war, violence. There is an instinctual state of being where there is no self-reflection or cognizance.

If we translate εἰκασία Eikasia directly into English, it means “imagination,” which is interesting about this is that, as Master Samael explains, Eikasia is darkness. And yet the translation means “imagination.” What this relates is the fact that, even though we are physically awake, and active, we perceive imagery, sensation, concepts, thoughts, we are in darkness, spiritually speaking. It is a type of perception, but is devoid of any spiritual understanding of the nature of the phenomena.

So, we have Πίστις Pistis, which means “belief.” This is the common state of consciousness of humanity. Pistis is belief, sometimes translated as faith. But here, we are referring to belief and faith in a conventional sense, devoid of any spiritual substance.

Many people have beliefs and concepts of the afterlife, about astral travel, the internal dimensions, the solar bodies, but they have no cognizance of these things. They believe in religion, but they do not practice the esoteric heart of religion.

Humanity tends to gravitate between Pistis and Eikasia: beliefs, fanaticism, and war.

We have a third state of consciousness, which we seek to develop, and which grants us the doorway to really enter initiation. This other state is διάνοια Dianoia. Dianoia, as Samael Aun Weor explains in The Perfect Matrimony, is revision of beliefs. The way we review our beliefs is by awakening consciousness. This is the state of awakened perception. And in order to really develop this state, we need to be, like Solomon told us, a fountain sealed, a מַעיָן ma’yan sealed. Because עין Ayin and מ Mem, perception developed though the waters of transmutation help to awaken us to the state of Dianoia.

Diá means “thoroughly, from side-to-side," which intensifies noiéō, "to use the mind," noús, "mind.” So, when we awaken our consciousness by working with our own fire, with our own fountain of life, we begin to change many concepts that we have about ourselves. This is to revise our beliefs about who we are, what we know, who we think we are, where we are going. Dianoia is the alert state of perception, the alert novelty.

But now, we have a fourth state of consciousness, which can only be fully developed and reached by working in alchemy. It is νοῦν Nous. Nous literally means mind.

Question: Excuse me, sir. Did you say something that relates to the left ventricle of the heart?

Instructor: There is an atom that relates to the Innermost, a spiritual power, a force relating to the left ventricle of our heart. So, Nous relates to that. The atom Nous is in our heart. And the state of Nous is illuminated perception. It is the consciousness, which is in union with the Innermost, that perceives as the Innermost, that is one with Christ.

Nous refers to heights of the Tree of Life. From Geburah, Chesed, and above. That is the spirit of the Inner Christ. Those heights can only really be developed, as Samael Aun Weor explains, by working in alchemy, because to develop the spirit is very arduous work related with transmutation, related with the perfection of the psyche.

We explain this in relation to the solar bodies because, in order to work in alchemy, we need to establish ourselves in Dianoia. We need to cease being asleep in Eikasia. We need to cease being hypnotized by our beliefs, our concepts, which is Pistis. To work in alchemy effectively, you must possess Dianoia to be awakening, to develop that state of alert perception through mediation, through self-observation.

As I mentioned, there are many who have solar bodies, but they forget this fact. They forget this work on the ego. And Nous is fully developed when we have no ego. This path of Nous is represented by the path of the spirit, Pneuma. Nous, our Innermost, relates to that Atom Nous which is connected to our spirit.

The Heavenly and Terrestrial Man of St. Paul

We have in this image, a teaching by a great master. His name is Hilarion IX. He was known as Paul of Tarsus. He was known as a great persecutor of Gnostics until he converted through a revolution in his experience.

Question: He was a tax collector?

Instructor: I do not know what he physically did as work, but what happened to him was very profound. He experienced Nous, an illuminated state of consciousness when he knew Christ directly. The Logos. The force of God. And therefore, he stopped persecuting the Gnostics physically.

Comment: In the Christian teachings, I think they claim when he was on his way to Damascus, and a lightning bolt hit him that the divine sent. “Paul, Paul, why have you hurt me, betrayed me, deny me,” I think. That was in the Christian teachings as I remember.

Instructor: And the lightning bolt represents the force of Christ which descends from the Trinity, at the top of the Tree of Life down to Malkuth. So, he was struck by an experience, which Christ reprimanded him to change. And, so, he gave a very beautiful doctrine on the nature of the solar bodies. The nature of Nous. The nature of perception.

He explained that the solar bodies are created through sex. But importantly, we need to awake, he says, to righteousness. Meaning to work in Dianoia. If we do not awaken consciousness through meditation and annihilate the ego, we cannot walk to Christ. In fact, we can make the solar bodies and attain development to a degree, but if we do not fully eradicate our own desires, then we will suffer. We will go down.

Question: That means you’re desireless for anything?

Instructor: Desire in terms of ego. Animal lust, pride, vanity. Not longing.

So, Paul of Tarsus taught [in 1 Corinthians 15:34-40; 42-43]:

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God (the esoteric doctrine): I speak this to your shame (to those who study, but do not practice).

“But some men will say: how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?

“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die (meaning: you want to create the solar bodies, but those vehicles cannot be fully perfected until you die in your ego).

“And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance or wheat, or of some other grain.

“But God giveth a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed in his own body (so, that is the seed, semen, the sexual force. And so this grain represents the wheat, which has represented Christ. As we have in the Holy Gnostic Unction, the bread and the wine of the Eucharist). ―1 Corinthians 15:34-38

Question: Does that correlate in the Greek mysteries to Ceres, or when they’re talking about grain?

Instructor: Yes, because the grain represents the seed of the sexual force that gives birth to the solar bodies.

Comment: I have to say, you go really well into details. There are so many things that are allegorical that the Gnostics, the way you teach it—for some reason, the others, whether it be the tarot schools, the fish coming up out of the waters, pulling it out through mercury, but they don’t, none of them go behind it like the way you do. I have to say that, I’m finding out things. I thought, “I know this, no!” So much is allegorical, but they do not explain the relationship.

Instructor: So he says, “Every seed to his own body.” Meaning: our body produces the semen. The seed that gives birth to our solar vehicles, which do not manifest fully in the beginning, but they are germinated slowly, in the same manner a child is born in the womb of his mother. Nine months. Nine relatesd to Yesod, the foundation, the sexual force.

He continues in relation to the solar vehicles:

“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” ―1 Corinthians 15:39

When he talks about the flesh of men, he means real human beings. Because a real human being has the solar bodies created. Those solar bodies define a real Hum-Man. Because the spirit [the Sanskrit Hum] can only incarnate when one has the solar bodies, and we fully eliminate the ego.

So, the flesh of beasts is really us. We have the flesh of beasts. Our family procreated in an ordinary manner, so to speak, and we are the result of fornication. We have the flesh of animals born through animal desire.

We also have the flesh of another fishes, meaning those initiates who know how to swim in the waters. Who control the waters. Who are beginning on the path develop the seminal energy.

And also we have the flesh of birds, meaning those initiates that know how to fly through the Tree of Life. That is one meaning we can derive from them. He continues:

“There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

“So is also the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.

“It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power...” ―1 Corinthians 15:40, 42-43

So, this topic of resurrection refers to one level, the creation of the solar bodies. One has died to a certain degree and resurrects at a spiritual level. That is the process of the Major Mysteries, of initiation.

The solar bodies are sown in corruption, meaning: our body is imperfect. We experience many illnesses and diseases because our bodies are degenerated with fornication. But the solar bodies are sown in corruption, because we practice alchemy with this body. And the solar bodies are raised in incorruption, meaning they are pure.

Just as the same matter in Buddhism, how the lotus flower floats above the muddy waters. That impurity is our mind. It is Eikasia. It is Pistis. However, the lotus is above that. It is pure. It rises above the impurity of the mind. “It is sown in weakness,” meaning we are weak in the beginning. But, when we practice alchemy, the solar bodies are raised in power, with tremendous force.

The Psychic and Spiritual Bodies

The teaching of the solar bodies also relates to Paul of Tarsus and his teaching on the Tree of Life. Here, we have the image of the Kabbalah again. Another way to look at this is in terms of three triangles, which Paul of Tarsus explain in relation to the bodies of the soul.

Within the triangle of the Logos, again as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: Kether, Chokmah, Binah.

Within the triangle of the spirit, the pneuma, which is Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth.

Then we have the triangle of the psyche, which is Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. Malkuth is a fallen sephirah.

Question: Is that top triangle, the very apex at the top, that’s smaller?

Instructor: Smaller?

Question: That’s Da’ath?

Instructor: Kether, Chokmah, Binah, the upper triangle is the Logos. The secret sephirah, Da’ath, does not have any image. No representation. It is the secret science of alchemy. So, Da’ath relates to the throat, which relates to the practice of alchemy, uniting sexually with our partner, the mantras we pronounce, “I… A… O…” in relation to sex; we are working with Daath, the Verb. That is how we create spiritually. When we connect sexually, we pronounce the mantras: IAO is the most sacred.

So, the triangle of the spirit is Chesed [pneuma], Geburah, Tiphereth. The bodies of the psyche relate to Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkuth. Mind, emotions, vitality, and physicality.

Question: Kether is the Father?

Instructor: Kether is the Father.

Question: And Binah is the...

Instructor: The Holy Spirit.

Question: And Chokmah is the Son?

Instructor: Yes. And so, as we show the image of Shiva-Shakti that is also the Holy Spirit. Because Shiva-Shakti is male-female. Or, we say Jehovah Elohim in Hebrew. But that is digressing a little bit.

So, when talking about the solar bodies, we can refer to these triangles in relation to levels of spiritual development. Paul of Tarsus gives a very profound kabbalistic teaching, as he continues:

“It is sown a σῶμα ψυχικόν psychic-image body [Soma Psuchikón]; it is raised a σῶμα πνευματικόν spiritual-image body [Soma Pneumatikón]. There is a σῶμα ψυχικόν psychic-image body, and there is a σῶμα πνευματικόν spiritual-image body.” ―1 Corinthians 15:44-45

Soma means body. Psuchi relates to psyche. Ikón is image. So, we can translate it as psychic-image-body, to be literal.

People think that it usually say terrestrial body in the translations. That is not what the Greek taught us. By terrestrial, I mean relating to our lower personality, whether the terrestrial or they say the heavenly personality, the heavenly Being. So, Soma Psuchikón, the psychic-image-body, the body that bears the image of the psyche, relates to this triangle, as we showed: Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malkuth. This is the lower quaternary, which is what we are. So, Paul of Tarsus states:

“It is sown a σῶμα ψυχικόν psychic-image body [Soma Psuchikón]; it is raised a σῶμα πνευματικόν spiritual-image body [Soma Pneumatikón].” ―1 Corinthians 15:44

Soma is body, as I mentioned. Pneuma is spirit. They usually translate this as celestial body or spiritual body. Again, remember that soma is the sexual energy that gives birth, life to the bodies of the soul.

So in the beginning we create…

Question: Some would be Yesod?

Instructor: Soma relates to the vital force. It is the vital force. And, through this energy of the sex, we give birth to the bodies of the psyche, Soma Psuchikón.

In the later process of initiation, if we are destined to walk that path, we elaborate the Soma Pneumatikón, which is really the solar bodies when they are completed, when they are perfected.

In the beginning, we develop the psychic bodies, which, through intense alchemical transmutations, by destroying our desires, our ego, they become completely perfected and give birth to the bodies of the spirit.

So, first comes the soul. The sSpirit comes next. There are many initiates who forget this detail, like Nietzsche. He thought that all human beings have these vehicles, the psychic bodies, or even have spiritual bodies. But he ignored that these have to be developed through initiation.

Question: So soul is the reflection of the spirit, right?

Instructor: Yes.

Comment: I always get confused by…

Instructor: Yes. The spirit is God and the psyche is the consciousness. The Being is. The soul needs to be created. We do that through alchemy for working with our soma.

Question: So, soul and Being are two different things?

Instructor: Yes. The Being is God. And through this work, the spirit, Pneuma creates the psyche.

Question: So, spirit and Being are the same?

Instructor: Yes. We use different terms, interchangeable. The Being is the Pneuma, the spirit.

So, as Paul of Tarsus states:

“It is sown a σῶμα ψυχικόν psychic-image body; it is raised a σῶμα πνευματικόν spiritual-image body. There is a σῶμα ψυχικόν psychic-image body, and there is a σῶμα πνευματικόν spiritual-image body.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living ψυχή soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening πνεῦμα spirit.” ―1 Corinthians 15:44-46

To elaborate, first, we create what we know as the terrestrial man. The human being is made through the creation of the solar bodies. Remember that the bodies are meant to project the image of the psyche and the Being.

First comes the psyche. We have to create the soul. Later, we develop the image of the spirit, which is a very long process.

“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from οὐρανός (Ouranos) heaven.” ―1 Corinthians 15:47

Notice that psyche is mind (Netzach), emotion (Hod), vitality (Yesod), and physicality (Malkuth).

We can also count Tiphereth. Tiphereth is psyche, human soul. The heavenly man is above, relating to Geburah (divine consciousness), which is the reflection of our own Innermost, our inner God, inner spirit.

Above that, is the triangle of the Logos, Christ. So, first, we need to the develop the image of the psyche trough alchemy. And then, if we follow the path of the Christ, if we incarnate the Christ, He takes us to the development of the higher sephiroth within us.

“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

“And as we have borne the εἰκόνα image of the earthy, we shall also bear the εἰκόνα image of the heavenly.” –1 Corinthians 15:48-49

What is important to state is that, many Christians say they are “born again,” as if they had these bodies—“I believe in Jesus and now I am saved," whereas [the solar bodies] can only be created through alchemy.

You need a man and a woman [to create, to give birth]. They think they bear the image of the earthy. That is equal to saying that they have the bodies of the soul already developed.

Comment: I’ve been to summer service. They mean well, some of the preachers. Then again, they say, in the emotion of the moment, they place some music in the background. Yeah, because like Dion Fortune said that in that moment, they go to the emotions only, but cannot go above that. So, when they get out onto the street, sure, well enough… (we all have the same defects…) in the emotion of the moment—I’ve also seen that when I was in Georgia—they all really get emotional down there. Some of them have tambourines, the spirit…

Well, they may mean that! At that time, but then they slip back into everyday routines, defects… Maybe they’ve reduced a little, but they’re not reborn…

Instructor: So, they say “we will bear the image of the heavenly,” meaning they have not entered alchemy to develop the psyche first. First comes the soul and then we develop the spirit within.

The Manifestation and Contemplation Buddhas

So, continuing in relation to this topic about the heavenly man and the terrestrial man, we could refer to Buddhism, which teaches the same thing.

The solar bodies are what grant one the capacity to unite with God. But only with the condition the ego is fully eliminated.

In Buddhism, we have the Inner Being, which is the Buddha, which we call the Contemplation Buddha. These are just Buddhist terms for the same thing, as told by Paul of Tarsus. The heavenly man is the Contemplation Buddha, God.

Question: Who is Adam Kadmon?

Instructor: Adam Kadmon is the heavenly man, which we are discussing.

We also have the Manifestation Buddha, which is the psyche, the initiate who is developing his solar vehicles, and is walking the path to completely express the Being, the Contemplation Buddha.

So, this is just to emphasize this teaching is not only from Paul of Tarsus, about the solar bodies. But it relates even to Eastern doctrines. So, Samael Aun Weor states in Mental Representations:

“Much has been said of the Buddhas. There is no doubt that there are Contemplation Buddhas and Manifestation Buddhas. Manifestation Buddhas are creatures who dominated the mind, who destroyed the ego, who did not let negative emotions enter their hearts, who did not create mental effigies in their own mind nor in the minds of others. Let us remember Tsong Khapa who reincarnated in Tibet; he was the Buddha Gautama previously.

“The Buddha of Buddha Amitabha is another thing, his true divine prototype. Amitabha is the Contemplation Buddha [we can say the celestial man], and Gautama, we could say, is the Manifestation Buddha [the psyche, the soul that is manifesting the Being], the worldly Buddha or Bodhisattva [Bodhisattva means incarnation of light, an expression of Christ]. We cannot deny that Amitabha expressed himself brilliantly through Gautama. We cannot deny that later Amitabha sent Gautama (the Bodhisattva or worldly Buddha) directly to a new reincarnation. Then he expressed himself as Tsong Khapa.

“These are Contemplation Buddhas, they are masters of their mind, creatures who liberated themselves from the mind. [This is the Heavenly Man. This is God above]. The Lords worship the Great Buddha that we also know as the Logos and they pray to him.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Mental Representations

So, again. What is the Logos? It is the Christ. The Buddha that manifests is Tiphereth, the human will, the human soul. That is created after we have raised the fire in Malkuth, the Kundalini force through the spine, in Malkuth, to the brain.

Afterward, one must create the solar vital body through this process of alchemy. After that one, one must create the solar astral body. Once that one is created, the alchemist creates the solar mental body and possesses the solar body of will.

This is beautifully represented in the Wizard of Oz.

We find Dorothy, the consciousness [who needs to return home to divinity].

The scarecrow needs a new mind. He needs a solar mental body.

We have the Tin Man who needs a new heart. He needs a solar astral body.

We have the lion who has no courage. He needs the solar casual body, willpower.

The one that gives them that gift is the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard of עץ Otz, the Wizard of עץ החיים Otz Chai’im, the Tree of Life.

So, the wizard is our Innermost, spirit, pneuma. And Geburah is an unfoldment of him.

Dorothy represents the consciousness that has been sent to Malkuth. From Kansas to the Land of Oz.

And we find the golden red road through the spinal medulla, up to the Emerald City, which is the chakra of the crown, which produces the halo of the saints.

And the lower five sephiroth are the Manifestation Buddha, the Bodhisattva, the incarnation of Christ who manifests in the physical plane.

The Contemplation Buddha is the five sephiroth above, which is our Inner Wizard, our Inner Magician.

The Spiral and Direct Paths

What is important to state in relation to the nature of the solar bodies, and to put this in context, is to emphasize that that the solar bodies are merely vehicles in which we can express Christ. However, there are many individuals that develop the solar vehicles and do not enter into much higher stages of initiation, and much higher stages of spiritual development.

And we often talk in these studies about different kinds of angels or buddhas. In the realm of Nirvana, which is really Tiphereth, we find many masters. They reflect the spirit to a degree, but they remain at that level. They do not ascend to the higher stages of the path. Because, in order to access the higher sephiroth, which is Christ, the Trinity, they have to enter into a very elevated path of spiritual development.

We call this the Direct Path. So, we talk about the solar bodies and creating those vehicles. They are necessary. We need to create the means by which our Being can manifest himself into our psyche. But, in order to develop the image of the spirit completely, in order to enter the realm of the Logos, we need to enter a very specific path.

In the beginning, one learns to rise the five Kundalini [serpents] within the lower five vehicles in order to give birth to the solar vehicles. But, upon reaching Tiphereth, one needs to make a decision. This really depends on the will of our Being.

Comment: Rudolf Steiner corroborated everything you said now. Some people, you know, they advance so far. They have no desire at that point to really, for whatever reason, whether due to karma. But it’s their option, not that they’re going to be condemned, or anything like that, because they do not want to go any higher. For whatever reason, they chose not to. They develop themselves apparently…

Instructor: We call them Nirvanis, Nirvani Buddhas, Sravakas, or Pratyekas, different terms. They are buddhas that have attained initiation, but they choose to remain in Nirvana to enjoy the blisses of that realm. They forget about the suffering of humanity. They do not descend to help.

Question: Some people call them selfish buddhas too?

Instructor: They are called selfish buddhas, and the thing is that many people think this is a bad path because they forget about the cares of the world. They develop themselves little by little in very long spiral path that leads to the Absolute.

The problem with this is that is a very long path. They manifest according to karma. They are still victims of karma. And the difficulty lies in the fact they can easily fall again when they have to return to a body.

And so, many of them become Nirvanis. They fall again. They become demons. They become Nirvanis. They fall again. They become demons. It is a cycle that repeats itself. This is represented in Buddhism by the Bhavachakra, the Wheel of Samsara. We find different realms between gods, demons, humans, hungry ghosts. A constant cycle of different manifestations.

Question: You’re saying eventually that they will see the light and eventually ascend even higher than Tiphereth?

Instructor: That depends on the Being of that individual. Because there are many buddhas, spirits or monads that say: "Well, we are happy in this level. So, we do not want to go higher." Then, there are sSpirits like Jesus of Nazareth, Muhammad, or Krishna. They want to go to the very height which is known as the Absolute.

In order to reach those degrees, one has to incarnate Christ. To enter that path is to walk the Direct Path. Because the Nirvani Buddhas go to the spiral through eternities, to the Absolute. There is nothing wrong with their process. But in this path, we teach the path of the Bodhisattva, which is very revolutionary.

Question: Are these conscious decisions to go in either direction, or is it unconscious?

Instructor: It is conscious. The Being is the one who decides whether to enter the straight path. And when the Being decides that, one must follow.

Bodhichitta

In order to get to that point, in relation to this topic of the solar bodies, it is important to state that we need to develop a very specific type of consciousness if what we want is to enter the straight path after creating the solar bodies. We call this Bodhichitta.

I mentioned the term Bodhisattva and now I mention Bodhichitta. Bodhi means “light, wisdom, enlightenment.” Chitta means “mind.” So, in this lecture we are talking about the [enlightened] mind and the solar bodies. And to elaborate that, the solar bodies are a step on the path. They are not the end if we follow the Direct Path.

We need to develop something very specific, a state of mind which is the combination of conscious love for humanity and comprehension of the Absolute. It is the union of two things. And Buddhism teaches this very beautifully.

One cannot have real love without understanding the nature of That, the Absolute, which we call emptiness, inconceivable to our intellect.

Neither can we have real cognizance of the Absolute, the source of all the gods, the universes, That which is beyond all concept. We cannot have understanding of That without real love for humanity.

When we comprehend the inherent nature of emptiness, of all phenomena and how human beings suffer in illusion, naturally love is born within our hearts, to want to serve and help others to realize their real, [intimate divine potential, which we call Christ. The Absolute is in the Christ.

Bodhichitta is a state of consciousness in which we comprehend the emptiness of phenomena and how life is illusory. But also, to have that experience in meditation when one approaches to the Absolute.

Bodhichitta is taught in Buddhism as a type of attitude. And it is so powerful when it impregnates the soul, that it goes beyond having the solar bodies. One does not create the solar bodies and develop Bodhichitta necessarily. In fact, what is important is to develop Bodhichitta now, before we even enter the path or developing the solar bodies.

Question: Just define Bodhichitta again? I missed that.

Instructor: Bodhi is light, which refers to Christ. Chitta means mind. So, it is mind or consciousness that has experienced Christ. So, just like Paul of Tarsus had that experience going to Damascus, he developed that lightning spark that illuminated him, in order to recognize he needed to serve humanity, to serve others.

Comment: Well that was an epiphany!

Instructor: Epiphania relates to revelation, to experience the state of Nous that illuminates the consciousness.

Question: That’s what he experienced?

Instructor: Yes.

So, we often talk about Bodhichitta as a very deep topic. But in synthesis, it refers to conscious love for humanity and cognizance of the Absolute. One that has that experience returns to the physical body and then works to serve others so they can experience divinity for themselves.

Question: Just one other thing. You mentioned about the solar bodies, that they’re vehicles. But then again, what are they? Do they refer to the five lower sephiroth, in terms of how the solar bodies relate to the Tree of Life…

Instructor: The lower five sephiroth.

And so, we seek to develop Bodhichitta above all things. And then, if we are married, we work to create the solar bodies. It is more important to develop that aspiration to serve others than to seek to acquire powers and initiations. So, as it is explained in The Voice of the Silence, the nature of Bodhi, the light:

“The Dharma of the ‘Eye’ is the embodiment of the external, and the non-existing.

“The Dharma of the ‘Heart’ is the embodiment of Bodhi, the Permanent and Everlasting [which is the Absolute, the Christ].”

Here is an image of Buddha Maitreya. People think Buddha Maitreya was one individual. They do not recognize Maitreya is a title. As I mentioned, there are many buddhas in nirvana, millions, zillions. You cannot count. However, there are very few who incarnate the Christ. In order to enter the Straight Path that leads to the Absolute, one needs to become a Bodhisattva.

But first, one develops Bodhichitta.

Bodhichitta is that aspiration to help others. And that service comes about as a result of comprehending one's empty states, or the emptiness of phenomena, as well as the Absolute, which is the goal. Many Buddhas do not have Christ incarnated. Because Christ only enters the human being who has shown he has served humanity. And that aspiration and love for humanity is Bodhichitta, cognizance of the Absolute, emptiness.

Question: So, Mother Teresa might be one?

Instructor: I never investigated her, but she embodied Bodhichitta because she really showed sacrifice for others. She said: "You must sacrifice for others to the point it hurts." And always the utmost sacrifice requires pain in our part in order to genuinely benefit others.

Question: Bodhichitta is developed through meditation and transmutation?

Instructor: Yes. Bodhichitta develops when we meditate and we really work to develop compassion and love for humanity. To serve others and to experience God.

Comment Just along those lines, I’m thinking of an article I read about the nurses who work in children’s hospitals. Usually in five years they say that it’s too much. They say the pain and then the relatives coming in, the interaction and the pain. They actually have to put up a shield. It’s too much! They do good, God knows, but that’s one occupation they take them to task there, compassion-wise. Those people who stay on for a couple of years have to balance that. The pain they feel, you can’t help it, since there’s transference.

Instructor: In order to develop Bodhichitta, we need to transform our psyche. So, whatever pain we experience, we transform it as an opportunity for compassion and love for others.

So, Samael Aun Weor continues in a lecture called The Esoteric Path:

“There exist the Transitory Buddhas and the Permanent Buddhas.

“A Transitory Buddha is a Buddha who still has not achieved within himself the incarnation of the Inner Christ.

“A Permanent Buddha or Buddha of Contemplation is a Buddha who has already Christified himself, a Buddha that has already received the Inner Christ within his own internal nature. This type of Buddha is a Buddha Maitreya, since it is a Buddha who incarnated the Inner Christ (this is how the term “Maitreya” should be understood). So, Buddha Maitreya is not a person: Buddha Maitreya is a title, a degree, which indicates any given Buddha who already achieved Christification.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Esoteric Path

So, the Heavenly Man is the one who fully develops Christ is known as a Permanent Buddha. But, one who is a Transitory Buddha, the Nirvanis, they spiral through Nirvana and come back to Malkuth. Maybe they descend. They go back to Nirvana. They fall again. They are in transit. They are never stationary, meaning they never attain the absolute heights. So, a Permanent Buddha is the one who has incarnated Christ.

Question: So, a Transitory Buddha did not really incarnate the Christ [or made preparations...]

Instructor: Transitory Buddhas are those Nirvanis who have not incarnated the Lord yet. They haven’t walked that path. But those who do walk the Straight Path, they incarnate Christ and they walk a dangerous road to fully eliminate the ego in the most profound depths of their own abyss, in order to unite with the Absolute.

Comment: Then they didn’t fully eliminate the ego!

Instructor: So, the Transitory Buddhas are those who have ego. And even Bodhisattvas, those who incarnate Christ, they still have ego. They are only perfected until they fully eliminate desire.

So, the importance of mentioning the solar bodies is the fact there are many who create these vehicles, but they remain in Nirvana. They do not care about helping humanity.

Question: Why do some people say that that’s the end? Some read a book, and don’t go beyond…

Instructor: There are degrees. There are stages of the Tree of Life. There is Nirvana. There is Paranirvana (beyond Nirvana). And we have Parabrahma, which is the Absolute. So, there are degrees.

The problem with many buddhas in Nirvana is that they do not care about serving humanity. They want to enjoy bliss in their realm, but they do not sacrifice themselves in order to incarnate the Lord, Christ. As stated in The Voice of the Silence:

“The Shangna (“initiation”) robe [the solar bodies], 'tis true, can purchase light eternal. The Shangna robe alone gives the Nirvana of destruction; it stops rebirth, but, O Lanoo [disciple], it also kills — compassion. No longer can the perfect Buddhas [Nirvanis], who don the Dharmakaya glory, help man's salvation. Alas! shall SELVES be sacrificed to Self; mankind, unto the weal of Units?

“Know, O beginner, this is the Open PATH [the spiral path of Nirvana], the way to selfish bliss, shunned by the Bodhisattvas of the "Secret Heart," the Buddhas of Compassion.” ―The Voice of the Silence

So, again, just to really get to the point: there are many buddhas in Nirvana. They have solar bodies, but they remain in that realm. They do not work to help others. And unfortunately, they are afflicted by their own karma. They manifest and they return to Nirvana according to the laws of the cosmos. They are not masters over the laws of the universe.

All those who incarnate Christ become lords of all things. In order to get really inspired to that path, we seek to develop Bodhichitta (the aspiration to reach the Absolute for the benefit of others). Working to self-realize, not for oneself, but for humanity. And to clarify what Bodhichitta is, Samael Aun Weor states in The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled:

“Bodhichitta is the awakened and developed superlative consciousness of the Being. Bodhichitta emerges in the aspirant who sacrifices himself for his fellowmen, long before the Mercurial [solar] bodies have been created... The one who does not possess Bodhichitta, even when he has created the superior existential bodies of the Being, is still unconscious and absurd.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled

Do not think like many esoteric practitioners, when they create the solar bodies and that is it. That is the path of the Nirvanis. If we really want to enter the path of the Bodhisattva, the path of Christ, it means we have to renounce our own mind and give everything for humanity.

To conclude, solar bodies are necessary, but they are not the end of the path if what we aspire is to imitate the example of Christ.

Comment: You could see that on the Tree of Life where you showed us the five solar bodies. Above it are the other, higher sephiroth, so you can’t stop really from what you’re telling us. You can’t stop there.

Instructor: The one who decides to enter that path is the Being, our own pneuma, our own spirit. If we have attained to the height Nirvana, meaning we reached Tiphereth and we have the solar physical, solar vital, solar astral, solar mental, solar causal bodies, related to the five spheres below, and if our own spirit demands it, if our own Innermost, Chesed or pneuma decides we enter the path of Christ, then we do. That depends on the will of our Being.

Comment: Seems in a way, you might say, that some of these things might be predestined.

Instructor: If your Being is pushing you to practice this science, it may be the chance he wants you to walk the Direct Path. But that path is not necessarily finished in one life, like I mentioned in the beginning of the lecture with the quote from Padmasambhava. There are few initiates who can do it in one life. It is very rigorous. But for most of us it takes many lives.

Comment: This path you are talking about [the Direct Path], going back to… Steiner, on the Tree of Life, what he called the hermetic path, is doable. That was one path. He called it the mystical path, straight up the Tree, like that, but it involved a different type of esoteric practices in a way than you would if you went from sephirah to sephirah like some people do with tarot cards, correlating astrology and all that. Steiner said it had a lot to do with the heart, and he mentioned there a lot of things that were in line with what you’re saying regarding the Direct Path, or the arrow, קשת Qeshet

Instructor: קשת Qeshet in Kabbalah, which is the Hebrew word for “rainbow,” which we see in the Book of Genesis after the flood of Noah. He saw the rainbow, קשת Qeshet. So, that rainbow is the path that Dorothy takes to Oz, from Malkuth with her companions up the straight road, in the middle, to the Father, Kether, who is our wizard, our Inner Magician.

But the only way that path can be reached is by sacrificing oneself for humanity. Because if we only work for our own liberation, we enter the Nirvani Path. But if we work to help others, to help humanity to reach Christ, then Christ would say: "Well, if you reach the Fifth Initiation, I will incarnate in you." Then, you must die completely. The solar bodies are not quickened unless you die. Like Paul of Tarsus said: "We do not perfect those vehicles until we die in our ego."

Any other questions?

Question: Does the Being nudge by putting events on our path?

Instructor: Yes. We can refer to karma specially. We have many events in our life which are the result of past actions, the karmic results of our previous lives. But in many other cases, our Being, in order to help us, changes that, such as finding this type of science. The Being is intervening to help that soul to change.

Comment: Or even meeting someone who is studying esoteric studies, and saying, “Here, read this book!” And then something turns on. It could be when you’re very young, middle-aged, or even old, and say, “I want to pursue this further.” Since you look back on your life and you see that you get resentful, but then they tell you you can’t. You say, “There’s something pushing me. There’s something I have to do.” It could be based on fear too, of the unknown, or the whatever. But it starts you on a metaphysical reading, attending classes, but something happened…

Instructor: Those longings are the impulse of the Being to make that soul work to walk the path of the Self-realization. Now, what is necessary is to cultivate Bodhichitta, that aspiration to serve humanity and attain liberation for the sake of others. We need to develop Bodhichitta if we really comprehend our mind, and work to serve in whatever way possible, whatever is the idiosyncrasy of our Being.

For some people it is teaching. For some people it’s like Mother Teresa, providing shelter for others who are sick. Gandhi was teaching and leading political movements. That is how he worked with his aspiration basically.

Comment: Can I just add one other thing? Just getting back to finding out the meanings behind a lot of those teachings. But the Bible, and Rudolf Steiner said too, in a lot of ways it was a closed document, he wouldn’t go into detail. […] Someone I know who is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Jewish-American fellow, fairly intelligent, he said, “When I was in the Navy I went out and took an eclectic approach.” So he was related to the Jewish religion, but he wanted to find out, you know, he studied other religions. He said, “I used to sit on the fan tail of the ship… by myself and read. The only thing,” and sad in a way, “But Christ spoke in parables. I couldn’t follow that.” That’s another thing. People need experience in the way they see things.

Instructor: We need to know Kabbalah to understand the Christian Gospels. So, we explain in brief the meaning of the teachings of Christ as well as the teachings of Paul of Tarsus.

Comment: There’s just so much, really, is in [parables]… some people think there’s just surface meanings. They quote the waters, but what’s really behind it? And they talk about… in the human being! As it relates to the human being! What are these waters? You never see, I’ve never read this in any esoteric books except in things you’ve explained.

Instructor: What is necessary for us is to meditate. To experience this for ourselves. But personally, when I am talking about the solar bodies and Bodhichitta is because I have studied these teachings, not from a book, but from experience.

So, do not take this at face value, but practice. And awaken your psyche so you can experience your own pneuma. And a practice you can use to develop Bodhichitta is the prayer of Saint Francis. I do not remember specifically every line. "Let me not seek as much to be loved, but to love. To be understood as to understand. To give in order to receive. For in giving, we receive and in death we are born to everlasting life."

Comment: Francis of Assisi, and he, that was interesting, he certainly had an epiphany or an awakening, because he was born, as history tells us, into a very wealthy family in Tuscany, in Italy. And the father wanted him to get married and live well with possessions, but he totally renounced everything…

Instructor: He is a great Bodhisattva. He fully developed Christ within himself. He was an embodiment or expression of the teachings of the Straight Path. So, meditation and prayer can open a lot of things in terms of how we can help humanity.

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The Science of Mind: Phenomena and Noumena

12/29/2019

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"Before the Soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion." —H.P. Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence

In this lecture we are going to be discussing the nature of the three minds. In this type of knowledge, it's important to reflect and understand that this teaching or practical science has methods and practices that can change us and transform us radically. In studying the nature of the mind, and studying the nature of what we call consciousness or soul, we make an emphasis that we possess three types of mind.

Specifically we like to relate psychology, which we've been covering in the past few weeks, with the ancient scriptures, founded within the most upheld, venerated, respected and practiced traditions. This is very different from the psychology of today that has divorced itself from religion, and which is no longer very practical for developing one's spirituality. And while we find that Gnosis has a practical application, we do refer to a scholastic component, including the study of the Torah, or the Bhagavad-Gita, the Qur'an, the New Testament. Therefore in discussing these types of psychological teachings, we emphasize the explication and utilization of many languages. We like to refer to things in the original language of the scriptures, since they hold much more meaning than the adulterated and translated English, or "plain English" that really does not get to the point of what we spiritually seek.

So as we discuss these types of principles, we will refer to many traditions and many different languages, but with the purpose of clarifying practical aspects of how to change oneself into something better, to unite with our divine source, that intelligence which religions have given many names: the inner Buddha, the inner Christ, Allah, Vishnu, or amongst the Nordics, Baldur, the Christ within that warrior culture, which at one time was not a culture of violence but the warrior ethics of the spirit, being strong within one's spirituality in order to conquer the internal factors that cause pain and ignorance.

With these principles, we seek to study ourselves. This is about the science or knowledge of understanding our inner nature, our inner divinity. When we approach this we study specifically what we call the three minds, which we are going to elaborate upon in depth.

It's important to recognize that the term “mind,” especially as it has been translated from eastern doctrine, has been misappropriated, and extremely abused, in relation with the term's practical application towards ones spiritual development. In this type of teaching we refer to the soul as consciousness, and we refer to the mind, which is something completely different, as the intellect, a tool in itself, which is not our authentic identity.

It's important for us, in order to have a strong foundation in this teaching, and when approaching the science of the mind, to reflect by studying the various world scriptures, and to comprehend that there are really two types of science, relating to the original Latin word scientia, which means "knowledge" or gnosis.

There are two types of science. The first is nothing more than a compost heap of subjective theories that abound out there; the second is the pure science of the great illuminati: the objective science of the Being. —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

This demarcation between "official" and esoteric science is fundamental to the study of mind. For while there have been many great marvels in materialistic science, we know that science without genuine spiritual principles has produced atomic bombs, wars, chemical weapons, and more complex ways to harm each other. I believe Albert Einstein said that science without religion is lame, or better said, dangerous, and that religion without science is blind. Without these types of principles to guide one's ethics, one's spirituality, science in turn becomes something detrimental.

It is very obvious if we examine the times we live in. We find that despite technologies such as the iPhone, communication, attempts to traverse space, we have in turn become more cruel. Humanity has become more violent, more abusive in relation with drugs and alcohol. There are more acts of genocide than there has ever been. To quote the founder of this tradition, Samael Aun Weor, our humanity is morally bankrupt. This is very painful to behold, especially when we are honest, because we recognize that we are a part of this humanity, and in turn contribute to the global problem, which, to use Buddhist ideology or principles, is the suffering of all sentient beings.

If we really want to change the world, we need to change ourselves first, to rectify our own mistakes and to have the courage not to blame others. This in turn is perhaps one of the most difficult conflicts to overcome: the tendency to blame others for our suffering. "He offended me!" "She said this!" "Can you believe what my family member did?" "He betrayed me!" "He hurt me!" We undergo a constant slew of negative emotions and violent thoughts, an insurgence of profound suffering: anger, pride, vanity, etc., which in turn creates conflict and chaos within our internal and external worlds.

So if we really want to seek to know the divine, the Lord within, we need to know how to change our own internal world through a very particular mystical science, an esoteric or hidden teaching about the nature of mind. There is a saying in the Gnostic teachings that "God searches the nothingness in order to fill it." It's important to have a mind that is silent and serene, so that like a lake it can reflect the starry heavens of Urania, the Cosmic Christ, the Solar Logos, to use Greek terms for divinity.

To unite with divine reality and change our way of thinking, to improve the world for the better, we study the nature of two principles in Gnostic science. For this purpose, we use terms employed in Immanuel Kant's philosophy, the famous philosopher from Königsberg. He stated that there are really two types of experience, which we emphasize in relation with the study of mind:

Phenomena: appearance, illusion
Noumena: spirit, the truth, what we seek to unite with.

We make this distinction, that phenomena relates with occurrence, circumstance, or facts that are perceptible by the senses. We know from original scriptures that the senses in themselves are merely a vehicle through which we experience life, but do not take us to the reality of things. Unfortunately it is due to the sleep of the consciousness, the sleep of the soul, the sleep of psyche to use Greek myth, that we fail to perceive the true and inherent reality of life, the truth of things-in-themselves, or noumena, as they are without contradiction, without illusion.

Some people say this world is maya, and that it is from this world of illusion that we must escape, so as to harmonize oneself and unite with God. This is partially true. In these types of studies, we seek to bring down and to experience our own pneuma, the spirit, or Khrestos, Christ, here and now. We consciously invoke that divine intelligence within ourselves, so that we know how to live fuller lives, without the mind wandering lost in distractions, hypnotized with the phenomena or "appearances" of the world.

This is the essence of the esoteric study of the mind, which was never given to the public until recently. Materialistic science looks towards phenomena to explain the universe, and even has the audacity to reject, through blind atheistic beliefs, that there are no guiding spiritual principles that direct the course of life. Phenomena is appearance, what we think something is like, but in truth we do not really perceive the inherent thing-in-itself. Such a principle was the basic tenet of Immanuel Kant's philosophy, for which he was greatly criticized, because for thousands of years humanity has tried to approach divinity through the intellect, which, according to Kant, cannot know the truth. A very radical postulation to admit and realize within oneself!

Most of humanity still does not have access to the divine spiritual truths contained within religion or real philosophy, which is philos, love, and sophia, wisdom. Wisdom in Hebrew is חכמה Chokmah, Christ in the Kabbalah. So genuine philosophy is one's love and connection with that divine source.

The Three Minds

In relation with the study of the mind, we talk about three types. If humanity were aware that we possess three distinct types of mentality, or ways or processing information, many things would be different on this planet. There would be no war, violence, ignorance, hatred and bigotry. Instead, there would be brotherhood, fraternity, and a unified world effort to alleviate the suffering of all beings. The reasons will become clear as we discuss the particularities of each type of cognition:

Sensual Mind
Intermediate or Mystical Mind
Inner Mind

The Sensual Mind processes knowledge gained from physical senses or phenomena. The Intermediate or Mystical Mind is the storehouse of theories, beliefs, mysticism, and religions as commonly taught in the exoteric or public traditions of today. The Inner Mind relates with information garnered from direct mystical experience of the truth, and has constituted the esoteric heart of every authentic tradition in the world. This hidden knowledge was only given by mouth to ear, the science which we are explaining here.

The Limitations and Dualism of the Sensual Mind

The divine inner nature we call Christ, or Christ-mind, is a spiritual type of mentality and forms the basis of esoteric philosophy and genuine spiritual science. This is completely opposed to the intellect or type of Sensual Mind we commonly experience. In order to address Christ-mind, or a consciousness in harmony with the divine, the pneuma, it's necessary to address what we commonly term as the Sensual Mind.

The intellect is part of the inferior two types of mind. Here we are referring to the Sensual Mind, in which the intellect processes itself. We also find that intellect relates to the Intermediate Mind, which we are also going to explain in depth.

The Sensual Mind is what we typically think of as mind. "I think, therefore I am." Or, "I experience thought, therefore I exist." Or "I have a physical body, therefore I am." In these types of studies, we must politely contradict these statements. If we study the spiritual scriptures, the mind in itself is not the spirit, the pneuma, and if you're familiar with the Christian gospel, when Christ said, "I Am," or the Hebrew word אהיה Eheieh, this does not refer to the kind of thought we commonly experience. The latter state refers to the awakened and heightened perception of God, which brings peace, joy and harmony.

The Sensual Mind only knows how to categorize and formulate concepts and information in relation with physical senses. It is a type of mind or experience that only knows physicality. It only knows how to look at physical senses, and to establish or formulate information about it. We can see, then, that this is really the greatest source of our suffering, since the majority of our life is spent occupied with physical matters. The intellect, the psychological process or mechanism of the Sensual Mind, fills our life with worry, anxiety over bills, fear and uncertainty about living conditions today, fear about our health, how long we will live, our evaluations of our failures in this life and what we need to accomplish physically.

These types of sensual thoughts about physical life constitute the churning of the mind, which is the intellect, not connected with divinity. Someone who has a mind that is in harmony with the divine within has no fear, has no anxiety or worry. The problem lies in the Sensual Mind as we know it, our intellectual processes, which, when subservient to God, constitute a useful vehicle of the spirit.

But as I mentioned to you, if it is divorced from spiritual principles, it becomes the greatest enemy that any person can have. This is the essential tenet or teaching of Islam. Islam in Arabic means "submission." So Muslims who truly submit themselves to Allah, bowing to the east towards Mecca, in which they place their head completely to the earth, signify that the intellect or Sensual Mind must be a servant to God, and it must not be a tool for our own internal misery, anger, negative elements, which create friction in our life.

In discussing the nature of mind, we must address the misconceptions about it, and how the Sensual Mind is only a machine. It can present a thesis; it can present an antithesis, but only in relation with physical experience. It can present a theory; it can present a criticism of that theory based upon physical analysis. It has one concept, followed by another that can be in complete contradiction to it. This is how we find the common movement of philosophy, at least in the West specifically, such as with empiricism, but also in Eastern traditions as well, between good and bad; thesis, antithesis; a constant conflict of principles and disagreements amongst thinkers, because the intellect or Sensual Mind only knows how to sway between positive and negative, good and bad, in relation with physical information, physical phenomena. It is caught between what we call the duality of the mind.

People always justify themselves with "reason." They champion reason, but then again, there's two sides to it. Everyone has their point of view, and any argument can be defended to the death through rigorous analysis, evidence, and explanations. Reason always feeds itself through opposites.

This is a very famous principle in eastern traditions, the duality of forces within nature, the body, the soul. When we discuss the nature of reasoning in itself, there is duality, just as there is a duality within scientific investigation: one which can be cultured by the spirit, or another at the service of anger, pride, or negative internal psychological elements.

The Sensual Mind in itself is caught within dualistic tendencies: thesis, antithesis; good, bad; without capacity to perceive the nature of the synthesis, unable to see different perspectives at once. The Sensual Mind is rigid; it never accepts anything outside its own materialistic parameters. It cannot comprehend how two arguments may both be true, even when conflicting.

Never can the formulating power of logical concepts imply the authentic experience of what is real. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

This statement really gets to the heart of what this entire lecture is about, because many people think that because they experienced a thought or concept about the nature of a physical phenomenon, they feel that they have understood the real intrinsic nature of this type of phenomenon. But the experience is something else. The thought or concept is a projection of the Sensual Mind. Typically when science observes any phenomena in this physical universe, they project their theories onto the screen of nature, and believe that their theories are the truth, even when they cannot verify the noumena of such an experience. They are trying to explain noumena through phenomena, the truth within appearances, ascertained through the senses and processed through the Sensual Mind.

For example, scientists have observed the process of rain and classify it as the accumulation of moisture through heat and evaporation from the earth. Little do they know that there are conscious intelligent principles behind physical phenomena—which the ancient traditions, such as folklore or fairy tales that we grew up with, talk about—sylphs and sylphids, nereids and mermaids, elementals of the air and of the water which help nature to function and flow.

Deep down, in these simple processes of life and nature, we find divine intelligent principles functioning throughout nature, which is a fact we can verify through direct conscious experience. We do not need to believe anything. We can learn to awaken our soul or clairvoyant vision, to awaken within dreams, to converse with those forces or intelligences, which work under the auspices of the divine architect, the Elohim in Hebrew, the angels of life and death. Then, such statements are no longer outrageous, because we are no longer skeptical. We simply know.

To present this type of postulation to materialistic scientists is to incur their ridicule and criticism, because due to the conditioning of their mind, they only see physical phenomena. They do not perceive the pneuma within things; they do not see the conscious and divine principles that animate nature, the noumena of life, because their consciousness is asleep. They rely completely on the physical senses.

Therefore many of them are extremely atheist. Atheism falls into the category of the Sensual Mind, because most people do not have the capacity to experience God, and therefore feel that there is no God, ignoring that their degenerated state of mind inhibits them from knowing the truth. Due to their spiritual emptiness, they concoct absurd and ignorant materialistic theories to explain how the universe operates, since they lack the ability to investigate life with the consciousness.

The Intermediate or Mystical Mind

So we find that the intellect as we know it only knows how to categorize and to theorize. While this pertains to the Sensual Mind and its processes of physical information, we also find it in relation with spiritual traditions, philosophy and mystical belief. As we mentioned, the Intermediate or Mystical Mind is the storehouse for beliefs of all types, whether in religion or metaphysical phenomena, but without being grounded in actual experience of divine truths: noumena.

Continuing with Kant's philosophy, who is a very interesting and eminent figure in Western thought, a significant point was made that has been completely ignored by many other philosophers, scientists, theologians, and other persons of knowledge and education. They ignore what he called the antinomy of reason.

Basically an antinomy is a paradox whereby two completely contradictory arguments about the same principle can both be valid. For example, Kant gave what are called his four antinomies:

Space and time: the limitations of the universe
Atomism: whether the universe is composed of infinitely small particles or none at all
Free will: the problem of its existence relating to causality
God: the existence of a divine principle

We find different conflicting arguments, specifically and most importantly in relation with God. One antinomy: "There is a God." The mind debates, provides evidence, apparent facts to support that there is a divine intelligence. This is the reasoning of the Intermediate or Mystical Mind: it rationalizes based upon truths it has not experienced. And then there is the side of atheism, that says, "There is no God, and here are the facts." This is the counterclaim or reasoning of the Sensual Mind, establishing its thesis on inferences based upon physical evidence. Both arguments, founded upon their respective evidence, can both be right according to intellectual analysis, if we do not know how to activate what we call the pneuma within.

The Sensual Mind only knows how to create theories, concepts and store information from the physical senses. The Intermediate Mind, on the other hand, knows how to create theories and concepts, as well as store information, about metaphysical phenomena that one has not experienced. We know at least from education or the educational psychologists of modern school systems, that memory is the least reliable form of learning, which tends to be the main emphasis of secondary, middle school and elementary education, even in the primary grades.

Memory, or the ability to recite or quote information, to compare ideas, to present concepts or counterarguments, is the domain of the intellect. It can only theorize and memorize, but it cannot know the truth. The Mystical Mind, as well as the Sensual Mind, cannot perceive divine reality. This is why Kant was so ridiculed and opposed, because he said that in our present condition, the mind cannot know God—it cannot know noumena―it cannot know the truth. Meanwhile for thousands of years, people have been trying to prove the existence of God through the intellectual processes of the Intermediate Mind, the domain of beliefs. Kant’s statement bothered many philosophers, theologians and metaphysicians, incurring their criticism, especially while his teaching is a very valuable contribution to both exoteric and esoteric thought.

Samael Aun Weor wrote something very interesting about this in Igneous Rose:

"The Age of Reason was initiated by Aristotle. It reached its culmination with Emmanuel Kant and ends now with the birth of the new Era of Aquarius." ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose

Interesting statement when taking into consideration that Kant's major contribution to philosophy is the realization that the mind cannot know the truth. Definitely a good end to the age of intellectualism or subjective reasoning!

We're not saying by this that Kant was an initiate and that he developed his own pneuma within, but he came to some potent realizations that the intellect, the Sensual and Intermediate Minds, cannot know God. It cannot know the divine within.

The Inner Mind and Direct Experience

It's important that we have an open, receptive mind, so as to impartially investigate this type of science or teaching. For as the Buddha taught, do not accept anything at face value. One must test his words like gold: burn it, scratch it, to see if it really is gold and of value. If not, disregard it. But through investigation and scientific inquiry, by developing the legitimate science of the Being within, we can verify for ourselves these truths, intrinsically within ourselves and within nature.

This is the purpose of the Inner Mind. The Inner Mind is a type of comprehension that only processes data derived from direct mystical experience within the consciousness of the Being. The consciousness which has freed itself from the dualism of the mind experiences the reality, which is far beyond the body, the affections and the mind. It is a type of experience that goes very far beyond the theories and debates that have plagued this planet for so long, in which people have argued over reality but have not experienced it for themselves.

"Any psychological process that is correctly structured using precise logic is opposed by a different one, strongly developed with similar or superior logic. Then what?” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

The mind can present an intricate philosophical system, which is in conflict with another, and both of them may appear to be right, even though they disagree. The ability to form concepts in that way does not equate with genuine spiritual experience. This type of knowledge or spiritual experience in the consciousness has to do with transcending the Sensual and Intermediate Minds, so that we can verify in a didactic, clear, unbiased and vigorous way the essential teachings given in all the religions and scriptures.

Only the awakening of the Inner Mind grants us access to comprehending the world's scriptures. The Inner Mind stores all the information and spiritual experiences of the awakened consciousness. It is the only type of mind that can know God and properly comprehend Him, since it is a mind that has gained direct access to the nature of divinity, pneuma or noumena, the truth.

It's important to have this as our basis, to be sincere and to earnestly seek for that experience ourselves, in order to unite ourselves with the divine through awakening our Inner Mind.

The Inner Mind, Force, and Spiritual Realities

As we awaken the Inner Mind, we in turn come to know hidden realities. Rudolf Steiner said that once you develop yourself, your pneuma, you will experience the reality of etheric forces, the force field behind the physical. He mentioned how flowers, even animals, have a different force field. When you experience that, you feel astonished.

To quote Shakespeare in Hamlet, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Act. I, scene v. ll. 166-7). There is even technology now that is able to capture this type of phenomena. It's called the Kirlian camera, developed by Russian scientists, in which they captured images of the auric energy or etheric depth of stones, plants, leaves, and water. This is the vital life behind physical matter, known as Yesod in Hebraic Kabbalistic terms, the mysticism of Judaism.

The camera in itself has the capacity to show us what is beyond the physical, but through this type of mystical science, we are able to experience that type of perception without the use of other technology. We can say that the greatest technology we possess is our own consciousness, for it has the capacity to perceive the very roots of nature, of all things, if we know how to awaken our Inner Mind in order to be in harmony with Christ.

In order to recognize the states of the Inner Mind, we have to introspect and be honest. We must evaluate our mind, and take an inventory of our experience: what is it that we project and what are moments where we truly comprehend the nature of life in its flow? This takes tremendous practice and esoteric discipline.

So when we talk about the intellect and the antinomies of reason, it's important to remember, especially if we're new to this type of knowledge, or even if we have a lot of experience in this or other traditions, to approach this science with the spirit, or pneuma, of investigation, of inquiry, and not to take things at face value. We should practice and employ the techniques of this tradition to awaken our Inner Mind. Through experimentation and experience, we transcend the theories, beliefs and limitations of the Sensual and Intermediate Minds.

People caught within materialism and intellectual dogmas become over-complicated. They lack the ability to discern reality from the mind. The Inner Mind is simple, but profound. It knows how to ascertain mystical truths without resorting to the depressing process of 'options,' of theories, speculating about everything but not knowing anything.

To reiterate, the Sensual Mind processes data from physical experience, the Intermediate Mind in relation with beliefs, theories from religion or mysticism, and the Inner Mind through knowledge of one's experience of God.

The Sensual Mind bases its theories on the physical senses, which are not reliable, since they are born in time and die in time. They have no direct correlation with the spirit and cannot get to the root of the pneuma or noumena of life. Within the Intermediate Mind are all the beliefs within traditions we find today, but which are not grounded in actual experience. There's a quote that comes to my mind which I find is very potent; it comes from Deepak Chopra:

"Religion is belief in someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience."

This is the heart of this type of teaching. It is the essence of Gnosis, the essence of the Inner Mind, or Christ-mind, a mind which stores its information and direct experiences with God. If what we want is to know divinity, the etheric world, energies and consciousness, we must overcome our own predisposition towards the Sensual and/or Intermediate Minds.

The Three Minds in Scripture

In relation with the scriptures, there is a very famous story in the teachings of Jesus about the nature of the three minds. Particularly, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who condemned Christ to death in the gospels.

The Sadducees, the materialists, are persons who belong to the Sensual Mind, who debate, argue and theorize about things of the physical senses. If we go back to Greek philosophy, we find the school of Epicureanism and Empiricism, or the nihilistic belief about acquiring as much sensation and pleasure in life as possible before dying. They say one should indulge in senses or "enjoy one's life fully." This, however, ignores the fundamental law that we call Karma, cause and effect, in that the soul, with all of its attachments, craving and ignorance, continues after the death of the body. This is a fact we can verify by awakening our Inner Mind.

The Intermediate Mind is represented by the Pharisees. The Pharisees are all of those who are very religious, have a lot of knowledge of scripture, and have studied religion very deeply, but who have no experience of what the scriptures and religions teach. This is the essential reason why they were always in conflict with Christ, or Jesus, who was the living representation of the Christ-principle in the times of the Middle East, two thousand years ago.

Christ was always in conflict with the Sadducees and the Pharisees, because he sought to teach them what he knew of the pneuma of God. Because they were incapable of experiencing God, all throughout the New Testament, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; they constantly sought to test the Lord, and confront the Lord, using the intellect in the attempt to trick and sabotage Christ, into identifying with their negativity.

They asked questions such as, "Can you show us God?" This is beautifully represented by Pilate asking Jesus, "What is Truth?" Yet Christ remained silent. This is a beautiful answer, because the truth is the unknown, and to seek to explain it in words misses the point, although through lectures we seek to help students develop their spiritual practice so you can experience the truth on your own.

This raises a very important point, that Pilate represents the mind. The Sensual Mind cannot know the truth, and that is why Jesus in the gospels, who represents our own Intimate Christ, is always in conflict with these inferior types of mind, whether within ourselves or in other people.

This has been the great battle of all the prophets who have awakened their Inner Mind and experienced God. The masters always affirm knowledge from the scriptures and explain this science, coming to teach those of the Sensual and Intermediate Minds, but are always being rejected. Since humanity loves to defend egotism, desire, the Sensual and Intermediate Minds, it always rejects the Lord, in every time, place, and culture throughout history and today. The teachings of Christ are very radical and require the complete renunciation of one's egotistical sense of self, or one's inner negativity, symbolized as the seven deadly sins: anger, pride, lust, vanity, greed, gluttony, laziness.

This was symbolized in the story of Lazarus, or the man who was possessed by many demons. Christ asked him, "Who are you?" And the man said, "We are legion, for we are many." (Mark 5:9). This typifies a type of psychology that we commonly have and commonly find on this planet, a mind that is fractured, fragmented into a multiplicity of discursive psychological elements. This is what we call ego in Gnostic Psychology.

It is this inner negativity we seek to eliminate in order to awaken what we call the Inner Mind. What we call soul or consciousness is trapped within all those elements, the pluralized ego, or negative self. Do not confuse this with the Higher Self or Innermost, the Being, our Inner God. Our consciousness or soul can be referred to as נֶ֫פֶשׁ Nephesh, animal soul, which is trapped in the ego like the genie in Aladdin's lamp. This is a middle eastern symbol of this teaching. The lamp represents the ego which is the foundation of the Sensual and Intermediate Minds.

So when one knows how to awaken or to extract the genie from the lamp, one can perform miracles, and this is specifically in relation with the awakening of the Inner Mind.

The Inner Mind is the mind which stores and comprehends the information experienced with the spirit. It is a type of knowledge that relates with the soul. It is "inner" because it pertains to the very root of our being. All the mystical experiences that the disciple has, such as through samadhis or ecstasies, whether out of the physical body or in meditation, those are experiences of the Inner Mind. To go to the Latin root of ecstasy, we find ex-statuo: "to stand outside oneself." It is when the consciousness or the genie is pulled from the lamp, from the conditioning filters of the ego, in order to unite with the divine reality.

So when one has that type of knowledge, this indicates the synthesis of the Inner Mind, a mind which knows God; a Christ-mind that experiences the divine source. Therefore, we find a stark differentiation between this type of mind with the previous two: the Sensual Mind, which is only occupied with the five senses, which is transitory and phenomenal (not in the sense that it is "stellar," but that it relates with the world of phenomena or appearances). We have the Intermediate Mind that only has beliefs and no experience, which is commonly what we find in many religions and spiritual groups. But the awakening of the Inner Mind is very different and relates with the practical experience of God, the scientific experience or perception of the divine within.

Understanding this differentiation is important because Christ warned his disciples and warned us:

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, [It is] because we have taken no bread. [Which] when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?...

...How is it that ye do not understand that I spake [it] not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. ―Matthew 16:6-8, 11-12

When we talk about "leaven," we are speaking about yeast, which is placed in bread in order to inflate it. Now this has no other practical purpose but to make the bread more appealing and enjoyable to the senses. It does not add to the bread itself. Jesus often said that "I am the living bread" (John 6:51) which is לחם Lechem in Hebrew. We also find ceremonial Jewish bread named חלה Chalah, which has the same letters, but in different sequence. This refers to the bread of knowledge or wisdom, symbolizing the science of the Inner Mind. ח Chet reminds us of חיה Chaiah, "life." ל Lamed is the letter of the hanged Apostle who sacrifices himself for humanity in the twelfth arcanum of the Tarot. And ה Hei is the "womb" through which the initiate is born. Together, the bread of Christ is the life force through which any apostle is born. Interesting that Christ was supposedly born in Bethlehem, which means "House of God" or "House of Bread," which hides this meaning here.

Now it's important to remember in the scriptures that the unleavened bread is the pure science of the divine, which is why in the Old Testament the Jews ate unleavened bread or מַצָּה Matzah, without the yeast of theories and beliefs, the yeast of the Sadducees and Pharisees, the theories which seemingly inflate and make the doctrine better than it is, which is an adulteration. מַצָּה Matzah is the pure manna from God, which means genuine faith or direct experience, and was eaten as a symbol of divine remembrance within one's psyche upon achieving states of liberation from suffering:

You are not to eat any hametz with it; for seven days you are to eat with it matzah, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Thus you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt as long as you live. ―Deuteronomy 16:3

Matzah also has etymological similarity to מִצְוָה Mitzvah, which means "commandment." So this tradition is not about literally eating bread as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice, like the ignoramuses suppose, but of fulfilling the ten commandments within ourselves, which we receive through the strength of the bread, the holy Gnostic Unction as dictated by our Lord Melchizedek to Abraham in Genesis 14.

When we truly examine the religions of today, we find they are all adulterated and watered down. We find this degradation within all the great traditions of the world. It has happened to Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism—all religions have experienced this problem, where the great prophets would teach the science of the Inner Mind, the direct experience of God, and the followers who studied but didn't practice would only theorize, believe and condemn their teacher. This has happened with Jesus and many great masters, constituting a great problem.

Christ said, "I have come not to break the law, but to fulfill." Therefore we find his teachings are completely founded on the Old Testament, since he was a Rabbi of Kabbalah. Christ referred to himself as "the bread of wisdom." He was born in Bethlehem, "House of Bread," the pure science of direct experience: a very Kabbalistic statement. However, most Christians know nothing of Kabbalah, let alone the Gnostic Kabbalah, and thereby, even when they believe in the Eucharist, present a dead corpse without a heart.

Also, such imbeciles eat "inflated" bread; they take the Matzah, or better said, the מִצְוָה Mitzvah, the commandments and instructions given in the Old and New Testaments, or even the Qur'an, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Buddhist scriptures, etc., and give it a personal, whimsical interpretation without basis in the direct knowledge of God or the authentic scriptures. Pharisees not only exist in Judaism and Christianity, but all over the world, in every religion.

Christ taught to beware of the yeast or leaven of the Sadducees and Pharisees. Meaning: people very strongly rooted in the Sensual or Mystical Minds take the teachings of Christ and adulterated it. They project all their materialistic theories and metaphysical beliefs into that teaching, like yeast in bread, in order to inflate it, seemingly to make it "better" or more appealing. Meanwhile it only adulterates the original teaching, and this was Christ's warning: that his teachings would degenerate after his death and resurrection, because if we look in these times with Christianity, we understand that it died many centuries ago, precisely since it divorced itself from its Kabbalistic roots. It produced many initiates in the past, but every religion is born, has life, and dies in time. So Christ warned about this by saying there would be a time in which the Pharisees and Sadducees would take his teaching and adulterate it. You find in public Christianity people who raise their hand and say, "I believe in Christ and I am saved!" Meanwhile they ignore the Apostle James that "Faith without [internal] works is dead." (James 2:26).

Christ, or the Inner Mind, is always crucified amongst criminals, because the Sensual and Intermediate Minds have no direct knowledge of God. Therefore, humanity does not recognize Him and thereby rejects Him. It's interesting to note, however, that the word Pharisee in Arabic or Farsi can indicate, esoterically: "Worshipper of fire," someone who worships the flame, Christ. But, how do they worship Christ? That's the question. The Pharisees who condemn and crucify Christ supposedly worship the Lord. This is the great treason, irony and damnation of these individuals, since they crucify the Lord by even using His own words against Him.

So the teachings of the Master are given, and the disciples, who only remain within the Mystical Mind, take that knowledge in order to condemn their teacher. This problem happened with Christ and many other initiates.

Jesus warned very heavily against this fact.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. [Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men's] bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. ―Matthew 23:25-28

A Pharisee or Farsi studies this type of knowledge, studies this type of science, but only remains within beliefs. To quote Samael Aun Weor, the damnation of the Pharisees is that they use the very same words of the Christ in order to condemn Christ. They therefore have a grave karma to pay in relation with that, because they take the words of the Lord and reject the Lord, with the same teaching, but adulterated.

What many Pharisees don't understand is that Christ did not come to teach the angels; he came to teach the sinners.

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?

When Jesus heard [it], he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. ―Mark 2:16-17

What great humility! That is the nature of the Inner Mind. Jesus, who incarnated the Christ, is the greatest initiate our humanity has ever known. For him to come and serve us is mind-boggling, because the greatest in heaven are those who serve best. These initiates were once in our position, therefore they feel tremendous compassion. The Pharisees, however, feel they are better than the sinners, and thereby are filled with sanctimoniousness and false piety, ignoring that the "goats" (individuals ignorant of the science of transmutation) may often be closer to the truth than the "sheep" (who know about alchemy, tantra, sexual transmutation, but who do not seriously practice). Their Mystical Mind is very inflated like the adulterated bread of knowledge.

Pharisees and Spiritual Communities

It comes into my mind an experience I had in the internal planes many years ago, before I physically met any other students or teachers of Gnosis. An initiate came to my house in the astral plane and was instructing me in relation with spiritual groups. She warned me to beware of the Gnostics, the spiritualists and other groups, individuals who say they practice, but don't practice. She warned that many of these people came from the times of Jesus, the return and recurrence of the individuals who condemned Christ and who are now studying this type of knowledge, but repeating their ancient fanaticism and mistakes.

It was a very interesting experience. Just because a person studies this type of knowledge, doesn’t mean he or she practices it. Living the truth implies a lot of work and a lot of practice. It is very difficult. Many students, whether in Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Tarot, Kabbalah, Anthroposophy, Gnosis, etc., study the books, but they don't practice. They are Pharisees, Farsis; worshiping the fire in their beliefs, but crucifying the Lord in their actions, such as when authentic initiates come to teach them. The prophets are always rejected by students, even with the very same words that Christ taught. It's a very grave problem.

The problem is ignorance. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Spiritual students are ignorant that they cause harm, and if they knew that what they're doing is harmful, they would not do it. Such as with the case of Paul of Tarsus, the great Gnostic Master, whose inner divine name is Hilarion IX. He was said to have been killing Christians before he had an illuminating experience that shattered his beliefs, completely converting him. He was a Pharisee, Farsi, studying the tradition of Kabbalah, and was traditionally depicted slaying Christians.

This type of behavior shouldn't surprise us. There were many initiates in the past who, before entering into initiation, physically killed, but afterward repented, understanding that their actions were wrong. We find this in the Buddhist story of Milarepa, who became the greatest saint of Tibet. He used to be a murderer. He practiced black magic and many other negative arts. But he had an experience, like Paul of Tarsus, and realized that what he was doing was wrong: that he was a Pharisee with many beliefs, and through humility he awoke his Inner Mind, transforming himself completely. He's a great master, a great initiate.

Usually, the greatest sinners become the greatest saints, because the lower one falls, the higher one can ascend. We find this such as with alcoholics, to use a mundane example. We find that since they have suffered so much, they repent and say, "I will never do that again." That is gnosis, real comprehension that those actions create suffering. When they fully comprehend that alcohol is destructive, they cease to indulge in those habits, no matter the temptations that arise.

However, the problem is that many spiritual devotees do not comprehend they are merely intellectual and fanatic, and therefore do not repent like Paul of Tarsus or Milarepa. Regarding spiritual groups, since we have participated in many, we can attest that this is a great problem. Members are often very indoctrinated with the intellect, but have no spiritual experience, simply because they do not practice what they preach. Spiritual schools can become grounds of contention, conflict and argument, without a genuine basis in love, fraternity, understanding, and compassion. Anyone who has been with Theosophists, Rosicrucians or other spiritual groups for a long enough time is able to witness the collective ego of such groups. The greatest crimes are usually committed within such communities.

Let us provide concrete examples. The esoteric tradition of the west, the Order of the Golden Dawn, was founded around the turn of the century, and was constituted by very intelligent persons. However, no matter how prestigious or exalted such esotericists considered themselves to be, many of them chose to enter into bickering, politics, and even sorcery. Many of them degenerated into black magic and competition for power. While presenting themselves as spiritual people, emphasizing divine ritual, Kabbalah and everything else, many of these practitioners entered into vicious types of psychic attacks. Dion Fortune wrote about it extensively, having been a member of the Golden Dawn. While the original order was very spiritual, beneficial, and altruistic, it degenerated to the point to where its members practiced psychic and occult violence in the internal planes.

This is why it is important to remember what Christ taught, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3). Those with a big intellect cannot even fit throughout a doorway, which is דעת Da'ath, Gnosis, since the mind is so stuck in books, intellectual theories and knowledge. Such people typically filled with bookish culture are extremely arrogant and proud, feeling they are better than other persons because they have read. Meanwhile, they have no experience. They simply don't know anything.

I will quote for you Samael Aun Weor in relation with this subject in his book The Major Mysteries, specifically in the section entitled “Preparation for Initiation”:

All spiritual schools, orders, and lodges are delectable gardens within which are nests of dangerous vipers and poisonous flowers filled with perfume. Ineffable enchantments that lead us to the abyss as well as sublime theories that can lead us to the precipice, and sweet smiles that carry us to disgrace exist within those schools where the devotees are filled with hypocrisy and fanaticism. Indeed, the opium of theories is more dangerous than death. Spiritualist devotees hug with one hand and with the other they stab the back with the sharp dagger of treason.

It's important to be aware of this fact, that people who say they are very spiritual commit the worst crimes. For example: Hitler. At one point, he knew this science, but he deviated. He let himself be hypnotized by a Tibetan known as "the man in the green gloves," who entered his occult order and convinced him to practice very negative arts, or black magic. So, he horribly destroyed himself, but also many millions of people. He had very good intentions. He was an initiate at one point, but who let his mind be pulled by a Pharisee. He was very convinced that what he was doing was right, feeling very holy.

People even commit adultery in the name of spirituality. There are innumerable examples of devotees who had sexual intercourse with their guru and not with their spouse because they were told that in order to advance spirituality, they must practice tantra with their teacher. Such individuals appear very holy, with big beards and very elaborate names, manipulating the naive and stupid. This is why Jesus taught, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15). They come to devour souls and steal power. This is the nature of the Pharisee.

Fear is a great motivator amongst spiritual groups: fear of hell, fear of death. People who only know the Sensual and Intermediate Minds have no experience of God, and therefore become associated and rely on groups out of fear of punishment.

Now, a spiritual group is important, simply for the benefit of transmitting the esoteric doctrine, the sciences, the methods by which we can change individually. It's important to learn what one can, but really it is an individual effort. Groups can provide energy, enthusiasm, strength, and instruction, but the real instruction comes from within, when we awaken our Inner Mind. This is how we know how to unite with our internal divinity.

Samael Aun Weor and many initiates warned about fanaticism in groups, where people feel that, because of their attendance, they are somehow saved. You find this in every tradition of spirituality, where fear is the motivating factor for maintaining spiritual communities.

In order not to be hypnotized by these distractions, one must be like Odysseus in the scene with the sirens, as depicted in the Greek myth by Homer. Odysseus was returning home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. Here you see an image of Odysseus tied to a mast of his ship, and the sirens are attempting to pull Odysseus and his crew to shipwreck. This is the essence of the Greek myth, where sirens would tempt sailors to crash into the reefs. This represents how negative elements of the mind, such as fear, lust and fanaticism, seek to pull the disciple out of the path. Notice how the mast is by Odysseus' spine, which means he is rooted in willpower through tantra, working with the forces of the Divine Mother Kundalini, which is the source of real faith, up the spinal column to the brain.

We also find that this image corresponds to what Nietzsche denominated the "tarantulas" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He employed this term for people who try to teach spiritual doctrines, but who are truly, extremely vengeful and spiteful, such as with the Christian priests who teach hellfire and damnation. However, this applies more to people in esotericism who know about gnosis, but are horrible hypocrites and do not have development, wisdom, or compassion. As it says in the aforementioned text:

Alas, then the tarantula, my old enemy, bit me. With godlike assurance and beauty it bit my finger. "Punishment there must be and justice," it thinks; "and here he shall not sing songs in honor of enmity in vain."

Indeed, it has avenged itself. And alas, now it will make my soul, too, whirl with revenge. But to keep me from whirling, my friends, tie me tight to this column. Rather would I be a stylite even, than a whirl of revenge.

Verily, Zarathustra is no cyclone or whirlwind; and if he is a dancer, he will never dance the tarantella.

Thus spoke Zarathustra.

When fanatics preach in this way, they bite the soul and seek to fulfill their mistaken sense of power and justice, trying to incite their victims to react. One must be like Odysseus amongst such people in order not to return evil with evil, to tie one’s mind to the mast of willpower, to be humble in spirit and not respond with anger or hatred.

One must control ones senses in order not to be pulled away from the teaching, just as the crew of Odysseus had wax in their ears in order to ignore the sirens, while Odysseus was tied to the mast in order to not abandon the ship and drown himself in the sea of theories.

While we address the nature of spiritual groups, what's most important is not to point our finger at others. We must address our own inner Pharisee, which believes and thinks it knows, but has no cognizance of the truth. Therefore, it's important to have genuine faith, but this term is poorly understood.

Belief and Faith / Phenomena and Noumena

Carl Jung said that "Faith is no substitute for experience." He also said that faith that comes by miraculously could disappear equally miraculously!

We are going to talk about the specific difference between belief and faith. In relation with Carl Jung's quote, he's speaking about belief. But in the Gnostic teachings we make a differentiation between authentic faith and the belief of the mind. That is precisely the problem we find in people, that they lack genuine faith, which is the direct experience of God, the pneuma or noumena behind all things.

Faith is one's cognitive experience, one's cognitive knowledge based upon the direct perception of God. Belief is the domain of the mind. The Intermediate and Sensual Minds only believe or theorize about the nature of God, but does not know. This is why Christ was crucified, and who pronounced with great pain, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). The Pharisees or the great spiritualists of the time could not accept him as the prophet of that era. But this also represents something in our history. It more importantly represents something in our psychology, because the scriptures in themselves have an allegorical application to our life. Adhering to mere history is to be dead in the present moment.

Many Pharisees or persons of the Mystical Mind will say, "No, it is impossible. You cannot know God." That's what such individuals declare, through writings or pamphlets, that God is unknown. They say humanity cannot know God.

This is sad, because Christ said, "Know the Truth, and Truth shall make you free," referring to the original Greek root word, gnosis: the experience of God. The Intermediate or Mystical Mind only takes information and theorizes about what it doesn't know. It judges based on appearances, phenomena, without perception of the Noetic principles, the latter relating with Christ-mind, Nous or noumena. These are spiritual archetypes that vivify matter. It's sad but, when people say they are agnostic, or that one cannot experience or know God, that is admitting that one is a fool, incapable of living life with real understanding or wisdom. The truth is that the prophets were once like us, so if they could experience divinity, so can we. If this were not true, we would have never received so many scriptures from different religions, which all taught the science to experience God and to unite with the divine.

I would like to quote for you a passage from the Qur'an which beautifully explains the differentiation between the three minds and the true meaning of solar conscious faith.

And they say, "None but Jews or Christians (who follow the dogmas of the Intermediate Mind) shall enter Paradise.' This is their wish. SAY: Give your proofs (from the consciousness) if ye speak the truth.

But they who set their face with resignation Godward (meaning, to perform Islam, to submit one's Sensual and Intermediate Minds towards the east, towards one's pneuma), and do what is right (by awakening the Inner Mind),— their reward is with their Lord; no fear shall come on them, neither shall they be grieved.

Moreover, the Jews say, "The Christians lean on nought:" "On nought lean the Jews," say the Christians: Yet both are readers of the Book. So with like words say they who have no knowledge (Gnosis: direct experience). But on the resurrection day, Allah shall judge between them as to that in which they differ. ―Qur'an 2:5-7

So we find in the Qur'an that only men of knowledge, men of understanding, can interpret the scriptures through awakening the Inner Mind. The fanatics always kill and debate in the name of religion; if not physically, then with words, by seeking to indoctrinate members of other groups against their will, or by forcing their ways of thinking upon others. This is a form of black magic: to impose one's will upon another person in order to get what one wants. This is the problem with mistaken beliefs in degenerated religions.

As I said, the greatest sinners can become the greatest saints, and in the Bible we have the story of the Prodigal Son. He left his home, his father and his brothers, in order to enter the world of prostitution, drugs, sensualism, forgetting his pneuma, his inner Father or אבא Abba in Hebrew. Yet because he renounced, repented and came back, his Father had great celebrations in his honor, honoring him more because since he left, he returned. For "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance." (Luke 15:7).

In order to truly repent, it's important that we are honest and seriously evaluate where we are spiritually, to really examine what it is we know and what it is we don't know. It's this honesty or humility that opens the gateway to genuine experience. So in these studies we often refer to the Heart Doctrine, the experience of God, and the Eye Doctrine, teachings that are merely theoretical, beliefs, speculation.

When we know how to awaken our Inner Mind, through our heart, when we actually experience God, here and now, the heart becomes inflamed, and we live life more intensely, with greater joy, humility, because we have experienced God and know that He is always with us. It is this direct knowledge that we call faith.

Faith is a force. It's not a belief. It is not a concept in the mind. It is knowledge from experience. Faith is the direct experience of the divine. This might sound redundant, but this is necessary to emphasize. Faith has nothing to do with speculations, scholasticism, or religious debates. When we know something from experience, our conviction is unbreakable. No outer force, no matter how strong, could break that faith.

This type of knowledge is within the heart, when we know with absolute certainty and conviction, that we have an Inner Being, that He guides and illuminates our actions in life and seeks to direct us to be in harmony and union with Him and Her. It is an unbreakable conviction that blossoms in the temple of the heart, which is why we refer to the awakening of the Inner Mind as the Doctrine of the Heart. It is a genuine type of joy and beauty when we come to know God for ourselves, to verify what the great authors have written about. We also understand that they taught a basic introduction to a limitless science, the science of one's personal knowledge of the divine, of Christ.

This experience gives us hope, for oftentimes we are overwhelmed by anxiety, fear, anger, resentment, depression, longing, or negative emotions. Faith transforms us radically and has the potential to completely illuminate our soul.

It's important to remember that this knowledge is always born within the heart and relates to this psychological center in the human machine. There's many experiences we can have in relation with superior emotion. We discussed in previous weeks how our psychology is composed of intellect, emotions, sexuality, instinct and movement, which are physical components to our body, but more importantly relate with psychological processes.

We have superior centers that don't belong to negativity or ego: superior intellect and superior emotions. It is in the superior emotional center where we experience genuine faith: that blossoming, joy and peace which is produced when we practice effectively and don't crave results, but simply let them come on their own.

The Heart Doctrine is one's knowledge of Christ. Therefore we teach that gnosis is a heart doctrine. It has nothing to do with theory, even though we study books and seek to possess a strong intellectual-spiritual culture so as to guide our heart. Book culture and knowledge by itself without the pneuma is dangerous and creates a lot of suffering, since individuals may read a lot, but have no experience of God. When we know how to experience God through practical science, discipline and methodology, then the literature becomes accessible and vivified, meaning that the knowledge in print becomes living and impregnates our heart. Even if all the demons of the ten directions, to quote Buddhist cosmology, want to pull that from you, they can't. They faith is so ingrained, is so potent, that it has the capacity to remove all obstacles.

In relation to solar conscious faith within the Heart Doctrine, we have the following passage from The Voice of the Silence, an ancient scripture transcribed by Blavatsky:

Learn above all to separate Head-learning from Soul-Wisdom, the “Eye” from the “Heart” doctrine…

False learning is rejected by the Wise, and scattered to the winds by the Good Law. Its wheel revolves for all, the humble and the proud. The “Doctrine of the Eye” is for the crowd, the “Doctrine of the Heart,” for the elect. The first repeat in pride: “Behold, I know,” the last, they who in humbleness garnered, low confess, “thus have I heard.”

“Great Sifter” is the name of the “Heart Doctrine,” O disciple. ―The Voice of the Silence

The Heart Doctrine is called the "Great Sifter," just like a person would go to a river during the Gold Rush in the Yukon, sifting for gold through the riverbed soil, sifting through the coarse sand to find the purities. This is a perfect analogy for this knowledge, evidenced by the fact that only a few people are interested in these studies. We have don't have a huge auditorium with thousands of people who genuinely want to sift through the mind in order to procure the gold of the spirit, the pneuma or noumena of life, because most people are fascinated with the theories of this world. They don't have willpower to really check within themselves and comprehend their inner illusions or phenomena, to see past the teachings of the Pharisees. They lack the courage to truly investigate the science of the living bread, the מַצָּה Maztah born from interior affliction, to recognize the horrendous state we are in. Many do not want to follow the Lord's commandments, the מצוות Mizvot of God. We accomplish this through practice.

It's a sifter because, as all the initiates have taught, not many individuals want to change. Not many want to get at the heart of life, the noumena, the heart of God. Instead, people are lost in the labyrinth of phenomena. This truth was beautifully illustrated in the Greek myth of the Minotaur, whereby a maze was constructed to house this mythological beast, half man and half bull, representing our dual nature composed of both spirit, the man or pneuma, and our animalistic psychology, the lunar ego. Many would go into the maze and get lost, slain by their own internal beast. However, the great solar hero Theseus conquered entered the maze and killed the Minotaur, the animal ego.

That maze is the mind. Many go into it, few return. As Christ taught, "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 strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." ―Matthew 7:13-14.

We need courage. It is the reason why we are here in this class, because we want to know for ourselves. It takes tremendous willpower and courage to be able to come to the realization that one is ignorant, lost within the mind, and wants to know the truth.

Belief is the Eye Doctrine. Faith is the Heart Doctrine. Faith is what we know. When we know something is true, we can't deny it, even if we would lose our life, and Joan of Arc lost her life for that very reason:

“I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God's will." ―Joan of Arc

Knowledge or noumena of God is permanent; it cannot be forgotten. Martyrs of the past who were killed for their faith had loved God so much, their compassion for humanity was so great, that they gave their life willingly (see "The Passion of Al-Hallaj" in The Narrow Way by Samael Aun Weor, previously published as The Doomed Aryan Race). This might be inconceivable for us, swamped by our own negativity and problems, but we all have this potential for divine love within, Noetic thought or noumenal consciousness. As a foundation of this tradition, we seek to develop such compassion for self and others, borne from comprehension of the causes of suffering and the transformation of mistaken perceptions, or phenomena within.

The compassion of the Inner Mind or Christ Mind is so powerful within the initiate that he can give his life for others, such as with the crucifixion of the Master Jesus. This Master physically gave of himself completely in order to demonstrate, with his birth, life, passion, death and resurrection, this science, because his faith and love was so profound. The real initiates are always the embodiment of pure love, born from the direct knowledge and experience of the divine.

To quote Samael Aun Weor from, perhaps, the most important writings within Universal Gnosticism ever produced, an exegesis from a scripture called The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled:

Faith is pure knowledge, direct experiential wisdom. Faith has always been confused with vain beliefs; Gnostics must never make such a serious mistake. Faith is direct experience of the real, the magnificent vivification of the Inner Human Being, authentic divine cognition... Faith is the direct perception of what is real, it is fundamental wisdom; it is the experience of that which is beyond the body, the affections and the mind.

Inner spiritual experiences unfold within our perception, through the application of forces. It is the perception of the pneuma within all things. Instead of seeing phenomena, such as leaves, plants, or people, we see auras, we see thoughts, we see feelings; we experience things in a more integral way. People who want to see miracles, such as the animation of statues, which is a well-documented phenomena, or individuals walking on water, can experience a much greater miracle: the transformation of one's negative states. That is really genuine change and spiritual experience.

This should not be confused with extreme forms of asceticism, such as walking on coals, which is a 'spiritual' form of circus performances. Some people think that entering a hypnotic trance, swallowing swords, or cutting one's flesh and surviving, makes certain practitioners 'spiritual' or 'holy.'

Such acts are not genuine mystical experience, but constitute Fakirism. Fakirs develop enough willpower to withstand pain. However, Fakirism does not develop the will of the spirit. It is merely the conquering of physical sensation for that purpose alone. Willpower, increased to an infinite degree, still cannot awaken the consciousness or develop the spirit within. That is because willpower must be guided by conscious efforts, not the mechanicity of the mind.

The type of faith we speak about is about spiritual perception, whereby we see the vital elements of life, our own internal worlds, our thoughts, feelings, in a new way—typically, a good sign of deepening spiritual perception is when we see a familiar thing in a completely new way, in a way we never saw before. This is how our state should be from moment to moment. That is the direct perception of what is real: seeing things in a new way—constantly, and not to be stuck within one's mental processes, the intellect: thesis, antithesis, etc., the duality of the mind.

We find this image of Doubting Thomas serves as a representation of what the Inner Mind is. When Christ was crucified, slain, and resurrected on the third day, he returned to teach his disciples. Many of them approached Thomas and said, "The Lord is arisen!" He replied, "I don't believe you! I need to see and experience for myself." Even when before the presence of the Master, he doubted. This demonstrates the level of investigation, inquiry and criticism he had enact to really verify what is true. After placing his finger in the Lord's side wound, he said, "Yes. This is the Christ!" This is the type of conviction we speak of. This demonstrates to us that even if Christ is before us, we must always seek to clarify our understanding, intimately, profoundly, so that we genuinely know, and so no one can divert or mislead us, because there exist many wolves in sheep's clothing, as we mentioned.

People often criticize Doubting Thomas, that he was skeptical. He represents the science of experimentation and verification, the Buddhist philosophy of experiential wisdom, to only stand upon experiences we have tested and proven true. Skepticism belongs to the Sensual Mind, not the experiential knowledge of the Inner Mind, the Apostle Thomas.

Knowing the truth for ourselves is intuition. We've spoken previously about imagination, inspiration, intuition, the three obligatory steps to initiation. Imagination is the perception of images or phenomena. Inspiration is the realization that there is a symbol involved, whether we see one in meditation or we perceive life in a new way—we feel inspired with cognizance, we feel that there is some meaning in this event or situation, in one's internal states or conscious sentiment, known as superior emotion. Intuition is comprehension, when we know something in our heart completely, and nothing can divert us.

This is the type of faith that Thomas had in relation with Christ. He only accepted what came from God, and we should do the same, meaning that as much as we have books, or as much as we have lectures and classes, what's important is to really receive that knowledge from God, to understand it in meditation. Our Inner Buddha, our Inner Christ—He is the teacher, the prophet, the messenger. We each have our own, therefore we must seek to investigate this so that we can verify these teachings for ourselves in more depth.

I'd like to quote for you the great Master Morya from The Dayspring of Youth, who talks about faith very beautifully. He describes faith as a manifestation of force, as the utilization of force. As we mentioned earlier, when we awaken our perception, we perceive forces in a new way—we perceive the energy behind phenomena. This perception is fueled precisely by that force, relating to Eros, the sexual energy. Eros awakens psyche.

Throughout The Dayspring of Youth, Master Morya describes how it is by this Determinative Energy that the yogi receives his or her strength and capacity for meditation or spiritual practice. It is this energy that fuels one's faith, one's internal experience, for as we find in the first commandment of Moshe, "You shall love thy God with all thy heart (emotional brain), with all thy mind (intellectual brain), with all thy soul (conscious will), and with all thy strength (bodily energies, especially the forces we carry within sex)." This energy, known as Kundalini in the east, has the power to transform us radically and elevate us to real faith.

Here we think a note upon faith should be of interest. Initiates say that its meaning has been misunderstood. Faith, as the world uses it, possesses no spiritual nature; though in the secondary system it means power and energy applied to action. All success in Yoga comes from this application; for the true quality of faith is a Solar force that illumines the mind and attracts to it atoms of power and energy. More human wrecks have resulted from the misconception of this quality than man realises. ―M. The Dayspring of Youth

So it's a force, the solar energy we have in our breath, in our body, within our sexual energy, within our psyche. Eros has the capacity to awaken us completely, which is discussed in literature such as The Perfect Matrimony, how a married couple can fully awaken that sexual force in order to awaken the Kundalini completely, the solar force, which can rise within the spinal column to illuminate the mind and then the heart. This is the path of initiation.

Single individuals can also practice with the solar force, but with less power, developing what can be called genuine faith. As Morya indicates, faith is not belief. It is intention and will, with force, applied to action. This is why James the Apostle stated:

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ―James 2:20-26

You can believe in something, but if you don't practice, if you don't have the energy or force to fulfill practices of concentration, meditation, and samadhi, then one's faith is meaningless. It is then not genuine faith, the solar force applied to action. The solar force grants us the entire capacity to develop real faith and change within. To believe without working in transmutation is to be dead. The corpse of exoteric Christian religion is a testament to this fact.

If we possess even a grain of faith, it has the potential and capacity to remove any obstacle. When we have true conviction and knowledge, when we really experience God and apply his teachings to our life, we can overcome any difficulty. This is why Christ said:

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. ―Matthew 17:20

Even if we have one small experience, a moment of comprehension, which is something we all have, since we are interested in these studies, we are propelled to want to work on ourselves, to change, to be inspired, to want to practice, to want to learn real religion. It is this grain or seed that can blossom into a Tree of Life. It is the solar sexual force, the Determinative Energy of God, that grants us the ability to transform us radically.

Relating to this, we say that the Egyptian Tarot is the Hebraic Torah, meaning "law." These are different laws that govern our universe and psychological experience, mapped out by the Initiatic Kabbalah. We study in Gnostic Kabbalah the twenty-two major arcana of The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, as well as the minor arcana. The first card is the Magician, who initiates every genuine spiritual work. The Hebrew letter associated with this card is א Aleph, the wind or breath associated with the sacred name of God, "Eheieh Asher Eheieh"—"I Am that I Am," which is what God, or better said, Kether on the Tree of Life, the Burning Bush, said to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

א Aleph is the wind, the breath of pranayama or alchemy that transmutes the sexual matter into solar force of Christ. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet—it is what initiates within us. The breath is in itself the solar force that we harness through pranayama and alchemy. It is the energy that grants us the capacity to change.

The blood in our body is the medium or means of transmission of that force. Blood in Hebrew is דם "Dam." When we breathe, we assimilate oxygen into our body, which mixes with our blood. א Aleph enters our blood, or דם Dam. א Aleph with ד Daleth, ם Mem is אדם Adam, the man made into the image of God. Therefore it is through the science of the breath where we accumulate solar force, and as the Master Morya explained, it is the solar force applied to action that constitutes real faith. Therefore if we do not transmute, we have no real faith.

I'm now going to describe a practice for you that can be performed in the morning hours. This is known as the runic exercises. What I want you to focus on is the Rune Man (see the figure on the right within the image). We have a man standing with his arms raised to heaven, this is the position of the rune. Simply put, this is the man made into the image of God, the symbol of Christ crucified with his hands and feet nailed to the cross, supplicating to God to be redeemed of his suffering.

Now when we say this represents the man, we are not excluding women, because the word "man" comes from the Sanskrit Manas, which means mind. Or better said, intuitive mind—Inner Mind. And when we say "human being," we are referring Hum, the Spirit, the Pneuma or Noumena within a person, that works as breath upon the mind. Therefore a real man or human being is the Spirit-Man, the Spirit-Mind, the Inner Mind. So as a posture, the Rune Man helps us awaken our Manas, or Inner Mind, through transmutation—the breath It is a yogic position than can be practiced in the early hours of the morning or at night. Those are good times to practice due to the energies present.

Again, with the assimilation of the breath, the Prana, the Christic force of the morning hours, which vibrates very intensely, this energy has the capacity to stimulate and awaken our consciousness, to develop what we call genuine faith. In this runic position, we pronounce a prayer, known as the prayer to the Solar Logos, as explained in Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic by Samael Aun Weor, in which we say:

Oh Thou, Solar Logos, Igneous Emanation, substance and consciousness of Christ, powerful life whereby everything advances, come unto me and penetrate me, enlighten me, bathe me, go through me and awaken within my Being all of those ineffable substances that are as much a part of Thee as a part of me.

Universal and cosmic force, mysterious energy, I conjure Thee, come unto me, remedy my affliction, cure me from this illness and take apart from me this suffering so I can have harmony, peace and health.

I ask Thee in thy sacred name, which the Mysteries and the Gnostic Church have taught me, so Thou can make all of the mysteries of this plane and superior planes vibrate within me, and that all of those forces together may achieve the miracle of my healing. So be it.

Remember that the Magician, from the first arcanum of the eternal tarot, assimilates the א Aleph, the Prana, the Christ force, which as Morya stated is the potency of real faith. Next, in this position, we repeatedly pronounce a sacred mantra:

OM TAT SAT

This mantra was mentioned in The Voice of the Silence, a holy scripture transcribed by the Master Blavatsky. OM generates and transmutes sexual power to the heart, awakens our superior emotional center. OM is prolonged. TAT, SAT, pronounced TAHT, SAHT, is short. These latter two mantras open the spiritual and psychic atmosphere around us, so as to bring down the forces of the Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light of Christ, and כתר Kether, since TAT reminds us of the Hebrew letter ת Tav, which is the central letter in the word Kether, signifying "seal," "covenant," "perfection," "completion." SAT is the Seity beyond Kether, the Solar Absolute. These mantras are exceptionally powerful, helping us to vibrate with the solar Christ forces of faith through the transmutation of our sexual energies.

Pneuma, or spirit, relates with the word pneumonia, which is a problem with breathing, indicating that the spirit is associated with the breath. When we talk about the science of energy, breath is highly important. Pneuma relates with pranayama, the science of breathing, in that the spirit has the capacity to generate and open a type of mind which is in harmony with Christ, the divine source, the divine intelligence. Let us recall that the runic exercises are a combination of meditation, prayer, and pranayama, which works with the erotic force. The psyche, as described in the Greek myth, is very asleep, and only Eros, the divine power of God harnessed through the science of breath and divine sexual energy, has the potential to awaken us spiritually. This is known in the traditions of alchemy and Tantra in the east.

We can do this mantra, OM TAT SAT, as long as we like within the position of the Rune Man. In the beginning we can practice for fifteen minutes, resting our arms down when we need to, then continuing with the prayer with the position of this rune, since it can be hard in the beginning to hold up our arms for a long period of time. We need to accustom the body through practice, as with any Yogic discipline. When we pray, or rest our arms, we should place our hands over our heart, with the right hand over the left, as in the style of the Egyptian initiates, since the right hand is solar and the left, lunar. The solar forces must conquer the lunar forces of our Sensual and Intermediate Minds, represented by how we place our hands on our heart (Tiphereth, our will).

This exercise, as part of the Nordic Runes, comes from the Nordic alphabet, which have an intimate relationship with the Hebrew alphabet. This is well discussed in the Runes Course on Glorian Publishing's website.

Morya taught the Nordic runes to his disciples, and these exercises are alluded to in his book The Dayspring of Youth, specifically in how we invoke Christic, Transformation and Aspiration Atoms in order to develop solar faith. Through this invocation to Christ, with our eyes closed in prayer, focusing on our breath, we also imagine the solar light is entering our palms and breath in order to strengthen our soul. These practices charge our body, soul, and Spirit with Christ, and in turn constitute the martial arts or Judo of the Spirit.

Particularly in relation with faith, the Rune Man helps us in the generation of spiritual force, which grants us the capacity to awaken our consciousness and the Inner Mind. This grants us more peace and the ability to concentrate, helping us as a precursor to meditation.

So this relates with faith because it is energy applied to action. To clarify this further, Morya elaborates in The Dayspring of Youth:

When Jesus used this word in the sentence, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,” He meant that one could work miracles if one possessed the atomic energy contained within a mustard seed. But in this world of illusion this is reversed, and the weak man sits still and believes that all will be applied to him if he has faith. It is not a force that should only be applied to religious belief. It is the power of the Innermost working through the densities of our bodies, and the more we respond to it the greater will be our powers.

The physical body is very dense, polluted with negative elements from the psyche. The runic exercises bring in the solar force, elevates our vibration, literally Christifying the body, little by little. Faith, therefore, is the power of the solar logos in the body applied through conscious action. With this, the real Man, the real Human Being, is developed, particularly through the rites of Sexual Magic within the Perfect Matrimony.

We always need to feel inspired in our hearts when we practice. That sincerity is what gives us strength and the capacity to effectively apply these techniques.

The Inner Mind and Mystical Death

It's difficult in the beginning to learn how to activate and generate that force. Later it is a matter of controlling it. With time, we learn how to apply that force in our daily life and in meditation, and this is where the teachings of mystical death come into play.

Once we activate the solar force, we become sensitive, and our psychological elements of anger, pride, and lust will attempt to use that energy in the wrong way.  This is why self-restraint is essential within all teachings of genuine yoga, and how this energy is the foundation for helping us dominate the mind.

Whether or not we were practicing such things like Milarepa in the past, we all have some level of iniquity within, with pride, anger, vanity, etc., which we need to know how to renounce and to eliminate through practical meditation. If we do not remove those elements, then we will not grow spiritually and will not change.  But when someone has comprehension that anger, pride, and vanity cause suffering for oneself and for others, we say, "I will not act on anger."  This restraint is the beginning of mystical death, the restraint on the mind in order to stop feeding the ego.  The less we feed the ego, the more we kill it.  It starts to wither and die, but as a consequence, it fights to keep its life.  The more we know how to restrain our mind and to kill the ego, the more we awaken the Inner Mind.

This is why the initiates of the past gave different commandments for their disciples to follow, so as to assist in the mystical death of the ego, such as, “Do not lie.  Do not kill.”  While this has physical applications, this really refers to not speak words of anger, to not indulge in pride, to not indulge in lust, psychologically speaking.  It has to do with how we control our mind.

We need this force, so when this force is activated we can initiate a new way of seeing, a new way of living.  It’s necessary to learn how to control the mind.

The runes are a form of pranayama as we have mentioned.  Prana is Christ.  Yama in Buddhism is death.  It means “to yoke” or “to control,” but it also means “death.”  Prana also means life.  Therefore we have life and death within this practice, since it is the power of life and death, Shiva-Shakti, creator and destroyer.  We find Prana in the air we breathe, but also in our semen, which is condensed and materialized Prana.  We therefore seek to awaken the forces of life, but also death, in order to control the mind and eliminate its defects in meditation.

Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Great Rebellion:

The Angel of Death has the key to nature’s laboratory in his right hand.  We can learn very little from the phenomenon of birth, but from death we can learn everything. The unprofaned temple of pure science is found in the depths of the dark sepulcher.  If the seed does not die, the plant is not born.  Only with death comes forth what is new.  When the ego dies, the consciousness awakens to see the reality of all of Nature’s phenomena in and of themselves. ―Samael Aun Weor

So again, noumena, real faith.  The transmutation of our energies is birth.  But then we also have to learn how to control the mind, so this can produce mystical death.  Therefore this is self-observation, self-restraint of our desires. Control the mind.  Do not act or speak in harmful ways.  Do not indulge in intoxicants or drugs.  These are basic tenets of religion that have a foundation in this practice, because with the accumulation of solar force, we have greater potential not only to do good, but to do harm. This is why individuals such as Hitler were so dangerous, because he had so much force, but channeled it through his anger, thus destroying millions of people. That's how powerful this energy is, that if we know how to control, we can become like Jesus, leading millions of people.  This relates to the science of good and evil, the tree of knowledge.

Another simple practice when we sit to meditate after working with the Rune Man is to observe the mind.  Don’t think or occupy yourself with a certain image.  Simply observe the mind as it is, be aware of the energies present.  See what emerges.  You will find that with this energy you will see a lot more.  This is a simple exercise, but also very difficult, because the mind always wants to think about something.  This is how the mind distracts us, wanting to abuse this energy in order to think, to think, to think.  Or the emotional brain or center wants to indulge in anger, pride, or resentment.  So after this practice, just sit and observe, so we can become more familiar with our internal worlds.  It will give us more solidarity in our practice.

That is the beginning of mystical death, having restraint of the mind.  Then when we learn to perceive in the moment, we develop genuine faith, because we see what in us in negative and what in us is positive. It is the awakening of the Inner Mind that provides us with the perception of the ego, so we can separate ourselves from it, comprehend it, and eradicate those defects.

It is through death that the Inner Mind awakens.  The more ego we eliminate, the more consciousness and aspects of the Inner Mind develop.  So it begins with saving our energies and transmuting, to not justify or repress defects in self-observation, but to comprehend them.  We must not constantly swing between these extremes, which is known by the law of the pendulum, but to be equilibrated.

To conclude, we say that humility is the gateway to genuine faith.  When we humble ourselves, such as through the Rune Man, we invite the solar logos into our home, meaning our body, in order to elevate our level of being.  When we make this our foundation, we initiate a new way of being as exemplified by the Magician of the Tarot.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. ―Isaiah 40:4

Be humble, if thou would’st attain to Wisdom.  Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast mastered. ―The Voice of the Silence, H. P. Blavatsky

Questions and Answers

Audience: You brought up a good point there about humility and about temptation. Pride can be insidious, but by developing humility that can off-set that. It’s easy, the temptation to almost be an elitist. It’s latent, I think, and its dangerous, and you brought that out when saying humility is important. As you discover these things, you might feel, “I’m one of the elect.” Or it could sneak in like a serpent, but to be aware of it is good.

Instructor: I will tell you a story that happened to me many years ago when I first started this type of teaching.  I awoke in the astral plane and I asked my Being to take me to Egypt.  So I found myself, through His power, going through the earth, and, whish, came out flying over the city of Cairo.  It was very dark and obscure, nearly impossible to see anything.  I flew over to the pyramids of Giza, where exists a great temple of the White Lodge, a very ancient place that has a lot of power, since the angels and Masters of Egypt are working there very intensely to help humanity.  Mozart, the great composer, received an initiation in that temple.

So I wanted to gain access to the grounds there.  When I approached the gate, the entrance, a guardian stopped me.  I couldn’t see him, but I felt that he had a dagger pointed at my throat, and I was stunned when he said, with great severity, “Many are called… FEW are chosen!”  I then returned to my body (snaps fingers) like that.

This experience haunts me still today, because the dagger symbolizes treason, and the fact that it was pointed at the throat is highly significant.  If we transpose the Tree of Life upon the human body, the throat represents דעת Da’ath, which in Hebrew means “knowledge” or gnosis.  It refers to the sexual teaching, the knowledge of using the creative energies in the right way.  This was a humbling experience, because even if one has a lot of experiences, or is a missionary and instructor, practicing for many years, there is no guarantee that one is saved.  One is only saved after the complete annihilation of the ego.

This Egyptian initiate did me a great service by humbling me, because I felt proud to be able to travel out of my body and visit temples of the White Lodge.  He really put me in my place, for “Be humble to attain enlightenment, but after attaining it,” through having numerous Samadhis and mystical exaltations, “be humbler still.”  This initiate told me this fact, that “Many are called… few are chosen.”  Just because I am called here to teach this science, does not guarantee I will succeed.  What matters is mystical death.

The Egyptian guardian sent me back to my body because I was not worthy to enter this temple.  The experience he gave me indicates that by remaining faithful to the science of sexual energy and meditation, we do not betray the Lord.  When we use our energies through vocalizations, we produce transmutation.  Therefore, we must never cease in transmutation, and to never fornicate.  Otherwise we will not be one of the few.

To have a dagger at one’s throat, as in my experience, tells us, “Be careful with how you use this energy!”  If we use it in the wrong way, it will slay us.  But if we know how to use it well, it becomes our sword for battle.  If we know how to restrain our minds, we can enter the temples.  But if we are like donkeys, kicking, flailing, and not obeying the Good Law, when we do not know how to submit to God, we will not be admitted.

Even if this might be a disturbing story, it was tremendously helpful, an honor to be instructed in such a way.  It continues to push me to practice very hard.

So work with the Rune Man.  It is very powerful.  More questions or comments?

Audience: When you say conjure, what does that mean?  Does it mean to evoke, to call on some entity?

Instructor: We have available the Gnostic Prayer Book, which contains prayers from most of the major traditions. It says here, "To conjure, comes from the Latin cum-jurare," meaning "to swear together." It means to invoke a superior force in order to be in communion with it. This indicates that we are asking a being to resonate with the Christ-force. So in the prayer to the solar logos, we say, "I conjure Thee!" we invoke the Lord so we are in harmony with Him. When we conjure, we bring down, we invoke the Christ.

Audience: And when you're trying to distance yourself from a negative force, you can use conjurations for that purpose?

Instructor: Yes, the conjurations have that purpose. When we conjure a being, we are commanding, "Swear with me that you are with Christ!" If they are not with Christ, they will show us through their actions that they do not swear on it. Then you will know you are with a demon. This relates with internal experiences, to awaken within dream yoga. Prayers to invoke Christ have the power to protect us.

When we assimilate Christ-force, we have the struggle with the mind, but also with outside negative forces that seek to deter us. However, this is nothing to be afraid of. It is very common for the one who matures and has experience, so they learn how to deal with those types of forces. The way that we learn to manage the negative energies of other beings is by controlling our own mind.

Audience: We're having access to this knowledge now. It certainly gives us pause for thought, really. Not only to reflect on, but to get into certain practices. You pass cemeteries, and there's millions of people there. Some of them went along with conventional religion. We students are a minority here, I believe. We're trying to open our minds up. Where do these souls end up if they didn't even know about this path? They were incarnated on this planet, and all you see are their headstones. This is the reality. They were human beings once, and all there is left are their decaying, organic remains in the ground. Where is this reservoir of souls? What's their destiny? They didn't even have access to thinking like this! They maybe went once a week to church on Sundays, and the most edifying thing they were thinking about was, "What are we going to have for supper tonight?" You know what I am saying? These are very profound subjects!

Instructor: The truth is, many decades ago, or better said, many centuries ago, people did not have access to this knowledge, yet they have returned in order to be given the chance to change. Right now, this knowledge is being given openly.

Those who are given the chance, but don't take it, they descend, they go towards what is called the Second Death.

Audience: Do those souls who never knew about this knowledge get punished? It would seem the vast majority of mankind was never exposed to this science!

Instructor: The truth is now this knowledge is being given openly. Anybody can get it. But people have to want it. They have to search. Those who have no longings, who don't search, are what we call "empty houses." They're dead already, which is why Christ said, "Let the dead bury their dead."

Audience: But there were a lot of people who would have. They just had no knowledge; they didn't have negative intent. They were incarnated...

Instructor: Those people who are sincere and want to change, and who have the capacity to change, they are given the opportunity. But they have to work to get it. It's learning to swim against the tide, and those who show that they want to change, even if they have no books or no knowledge, they WILL find the teachings. They will find them. All of us have been like that.

Christ said, "Out of a thousand who seek me, one finds me. Out of a thousand who find me, one follows me. Out of a thousand who follow me, one is mine. And out of a thousand who are mine, one knows me perfectly." Those who search, many times they get lost, because they're not strong enough. Those who are strong, who reject the orthodox teachings, they find the secret path, eventually, because God is pushing SO hard, even if the person breaks. Personally that is what I experienced, the breaking point, where real humility and acceptance is born, so as to find this knowledge.

Many run away from death, ignoring that death is the path to life. Those who are really searching for the knowledge really want to die in their defects, and when a person really wants to change fundamentally in that way, the angels look down and say, "Look! Help him or her!" They give you everything you need, and in accordance with Karma, sometimes those people have to suffer a lot in order to receive this wisdom. Since after that suffering and by finding this teaching, one experiences great joy and can finally appreciate the value of it. There are many who come and find this teaching, out of curiosity, and thereafter leave, developing nothing spiritually. Those who suffer the most comprehend this knowledge in depth, and thereafter they develop more faith. "For in much knowledge is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

It's not that people were never given the chance. Everyone is given the opportunity, but there's work involved. In the past it was way more difficult to find this knowledge, because the great colleges of initiation were kept private. But times have changed. What was very difficult to find decades ago is now openly available. People are searching and able to find this science easily. The search was hard in the past for disciples like Gurdjieff, who eventually entered into an initiatic order and attained Mastery. This shows that those who really wanted the knowledge, found it. But they had to weep tears of blood to really get to it.

The truth is that now this knowledge is given openly, most people don't take it. Those who want Gnosis will find it. God ensures that the sincere devotee will find it. Whether the soul takes it is up to individual will. But those who genuinely want it, have suffered a lot, and develop very strong faith like Milarepa, since he realized how much harm he caused and feels true repentance. This is generally what it takes to really enter the path.

In the past, there was the excuse that one couldn't find the knowledge. It was extremely hard to find schools of initiation. In these times, there's no excuse. Everything is given openly and for almost for free. The books are not for profit, and the proceeds go towards future publications, and to maintain our website. There's no monetary gain here. It's solely for the dissemination of the teachings of Samael Aun Weor.

Whoever does not want gnosis, it's their choice. But there is no excuse now. This is why it was stated in Jeremiah 21:8, "Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death." How we use our sexual energy determines whether we walk the way of life or the way of death, again relating to Prana (life) and yama (death).

Those who found the knowledge, now it's just a matter of study and practice, applying and experimenting with the different exercises. It is hard to learn how to practice effectively, but we learn little by little, generating true faith, joy, and happiness, inspiring us to continue working. Since with "Faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains." We can take this a step further through Nietzsche's postulation:

"And the lover of knowledge (gnosis) shall learn to build with mountains. It means little that the spirit moves mountains. Did you know that?” ―Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: On the Famous Wise Men

This means to build with spirit through initiation.

Audience: Master Samael mentioned that each soul revolves through the Wheel of Samsara three thousand times in one of his books. This is in relation to your comment about individual souls that are searching but simply, because of their own will, do not find the path. They're drawn away by their own egotism or outside influences. As souls suffer tremendously through this Wheel of Samsara, do they build Dharma even if they do not enter the Direct Path?

Instructor: There's knowledge gained, but it is minor in comparison to the Direct Path. There are different paths in the development of the soul. Many simply incarnate, suffer in life and die, going to the abyss to be disintegrated, and returning once again to through progressive incarnations through mineral, plant, and animal consciousness, until becoming humanoid once again. That is one rotation of the Wheel of Samsara. Those souls that definitively do not want realization proceed on such a path, until finally, after the 3000th turn, are reabsorbed back into the Absolute. There is knowledge gained, but nothing in comparison to an initiate of the Straight Path, who consciously works towards realization. You can read more about this in The Mystery of the Golden Flower by Samael Aun Weor.

Audience: What is the role of Purgatory in esotericism?

Instructor: Purgatory is a place of suffering like hell, but for the conscious purification of sins. It refers to processes of initiation [Editor's Note: see our course on The Secret Path of Initiation], and is not simply a place of condemnation as misrepresented in many religions. It refers to a process of paying penance, purifying the mind while ascending to God. In hell, it's the opposite. One distances from God and suffers terribly, without gaining spiritual development. Purgatory is an ascension towards God, where the initiate works to unite with God by paying the Karma of their past actions through mystical death. This is the Second Mountain mentioned by Samael Aun Weor in The Three Mountains, entitled the Mountain of Resurrection (or mystical death).

To conclude, what we need most is practice, to develop real faith. Without practice, all of this is just conjecture. What's the point? It applies once we know how to awaken our pneuma, our noumena within through spiritual experience. These are interesting things to know, but don't let it just sit in your intellect. For with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move, or climb, mountains. This has to do with how we use our seminal seed in order to change psychologically.

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Preparation for Initiation

12/8/2019

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So throughout history, divinity has expressed itself to humanity in a variety of forms. We see the world’s great religions. We also hear about many spiritual movements that have taken place across time. And as humanity changes, as languages change, as people migrate to new places, we often lose touch with the old forms, but that light of divinity remains active and alive, and moving. And at different points in time, this light of divinity can become more active in certain places, in certain cultures. Now, that is not to mean that it does not exist in other cultures. It just moves its activity depending on certain contexts.

What we know is that God or divinity, however we like to conceive it in our mind, is a very living force. It is a universal force. It is a force of life, and love, and wisdom, and truth.

In our Gnostic teachings, we often use the commonly known word of Christ as the title of that universal force. But Christ is not just one individual, Jesus Christ for example, but it is actually the wisdom, and the love, and the intelligence that can express itself through a human being who is properly prepared. And we call these human beings masters or prophets, buddhas, Christs: these titles for an individual who has reached that level of self-realization—to be able to express more purely at their own degree, the love and the wisdom of divinity, the teachings to help humanity.

So in the gnostic teachings we have to understand that the light of divinity that touches each one of us, and that reaches out to each one of us is beyond any one form, any school or doctrine. These schools, these movements and these spiritual groups, and religions can be the vehicle through which God can express in multiple times and places. But if we just attend a school and we do not ourselves enter personally into contact and connection with our own inner connection to divinity, we do not experience what we call initiation.

The Definition of Initiation

Initiation is the beginning. To initiate means to start. And when we enter into initiation, we enter into a new birth, a spiritual birth, a spiritual growth. And this is something that does not have anything to do with schools, or titles that are given to you, or sold by different movements. But it is something that is deeply within ourselves. It is a profound growth and evolution of the human soul.

And, when we experience that, we change as a person. Not just externally, by acting in a different way, or hanging out with different kinds of people, but actually by our quality of presence, by the wisdom and love that we are able to express, by the way that we encounter situations and respond to them. We will notice that we are deeply changing because we do not force it, but naturally, we are evolving, we are growing as a soul, as a being. In a deeper way than to just externally achieve a kind of social rank, or spiritual title from a given community.

Contacting and Experiencing Divinity

How do we come into contact with that universal light of divinity? All of us at one point of time have experienced this. Maybe it has been as simple as going outside to a beautiful, natural scene and feeling that awe and that beauty within that is spontaneous to the human soul. Or perhaps is when we truly loved someone, purely and from the deepest part of our heart.

That is a form of experience that changes a person. And sometimes this can be little ways that we are changing. And sometimes it can be a more profound spiritual awakening, an experience where we really feel that connection to our inner divinity. Or maybe we have a mystical experience, an out-of-body experience for example, a near death experience, as we hear many people talk about. And that will change people in a profound level.

When we experience that, we are actually using a type of sense unrelated to our physical senses. So, we have five physical senses through which we experience the world as gateways that energy can come through and be processed. But there is also a sense within us, a spiritual sense: our imagination, our soul, our intuition, our ability to perceive something divine. And the more we awaken those spiritual faculties, the more that we are able to perceive things that are beyond just the physical level, that are beyond just physical nature, in a more energetic, more spiritual, more subtle and refined levels of nature.

These are still material in a sense, but not in the gross, physical material that we are used to experiencing with our physical touch. And so, as we awaken on deeper levels, we can even awaken out of our body. When we go to sleep physically, we can remain awake in the dream state with full consciousness, able to control what we do and where we go.

And all these kinds of spiritual gifts are often what people associate with initiation: to be able to awaken spiritual powers like telepathy or clairvoyance or prophecy, to be able to see the future, or to hear the word of divinity within us, so that we can share that light with others or to see what steps we need to take in our own life, to become better people.

So, if we want these types of powers, we often go to different schools and different places that promise us that they will enroll us in a certain course, and we will advance through degree to degree to degree, and be initiated and become masters, or become self-realized.

But as I mentioned previously, what we really want is the external validation from any other person, but that inner experience, that inner knowledge, that connection with divinity through which we know we are really growing as a soul and that we are really understanding life in a more profound way that decreases our suffering, and decreases the suffering of people around us. So we have the ability to understand other people and to help them. And most importantly is to begin by helping ourselves and understanding ourselves, to touch the truth of who we are.

The Practicality of Aquarian Gnosis

In this time, we have these Gnostic teachings as taught by Samael Aun Weor and the instructors and students of his tradition, which we call the Fifth Gospel [which explains the significance and secret meanings of the Four Gospels from the conservative Piscean Era]. This is the same light that has expressed itself throughout humanity’s history through many religions and that is why in this teaching, we discuss various religions and we talk about how their essence is the same. And how their essence is a practical teaching that each of us must strive to experience for ourselves. Not merely to learn it intellectually, or to take it as a belief, but to actually, practically experience it by using those spiritual faculties which awaken when we feel love, or awe for nature, or that genuine intuition within our divinity.

That’s why this Fifth Gospel is a very practical teaching. And if we really want to experience initiation, we have to be well prepared. Throughout history, when the ancient mystery schools in Egypt or Greece, or all around the world, in ancient Tibet as well, were going to take an aspirant into the secret teachings, they would prepare them rigorously for decades, to make sure that this person had purity of heart. They had worked to eliminate their vices and to practice virtue, and were skillful in meditation, awakening their concentration and awareness to be able to go deep within.

Now, the Age of Aquarius has brought this new doctrine which openly gives the secret teachings, or at least a degree of them, so that anyone can enter into these practices immediately, and that is because all of us are well aware that the state of our world is becoming more chaotic. The crises that are impacting humanity are greater than ever. And there is just not enough time for all of us to go often to the mountains for twenty or thirty years in order to become really prepared.

But that puts the burden on all of us: to decide if we are truly going to commit to our spiritual growth. If this is truly something that we want to take seriously, then we have to take serious steps. It is not a practice that can be entered into at a whim. It is a very serious commitment of the soul, which has ramifications whether for good or for bad. So, if we make this decision, we have to work on our own level in order to progress, but constantly being progressing in the direction of improvement of virtue, of getting closer to divinity, and further away from the selfishness and the vice which has characterized much of humanity, and as all of us are well aware, characterizes much of our own lives.

The Conservation of Energy and Spiritual Awakening

And so, when we talk about initiation, as I mentioned, we are talking about an essential change, a change in the quality of our soul, and the birth of our soul is only possible when we are working with our own energy.

Each day we expend a tremendous amount of energy: emotionally, intellectually, physically and even consciously, our willpower. So, when take the step to become aware of our actions each day, and to meditate or reflect, in the evenings, on what we have done that day, how we are living our lives: are we living ethically, or are we really getting caught up in superfluous things that will pass away and not have much value to us in the future?

We can evaluate how we are using our energy. If we want to awaken spiritually, we have to really conserve our energy.

The reason that all the great religions taught ethical principles, or commandments, or rules for us to follow, is not because, arbitrarily, we need to do what someone else tells us to do, but because these principles, these ways of living an upright life actually change our energetic quality of being. If you have ever been around an angry person whether they are talking or not, you can feel that quality of their being. And if you have ever been around somebody who is truly loving, maybe they are expressing love to you, you felt that power of their being.

This is a spiritual energy that we are trying to cultivate. When we work with principles of honesty, selflessness, charity, chastity, and humility, we are actually cultivating a level of being that conserves energy and transforms it inwardly, to awaken our consciousness.

But when we engage in anger and envy, and all these other vices that have to with a false self, a false sense of self that needs to be defended at any cost, but which is just a figment of our own mind, that is when we lose our energy. We compromise our inner values. And we in essence forfeit our soul and our integrity for temporary gains, for that false self.

The Role of Kundalini, Initiation, and Spiritual Knowledge

Nāgārjuna was a Buddhist teacher and a great master, a great initiate. And we can tell as we look at this image of Nāgārjuna here that he is an initiate. Does anyone know why we can see in this image he is a master? There is a symbolism to this image.

Yes, the serpents. So, behind his head we see seven serpents. I am going to talk a little bit later about the structure of initiation. But simply put these seven serpents represent that he has mastered the seven initiations of Major Mysteries. This is a very high level of development. Raising the serpents.

Has anyone heard about Kundalini before? So, Kundalini is symbolized as a serpent rising up our spine. And this is because, as an initiate, we learn to work with that energy that we are conserving, to transform that energy up the spine into the brain, into the pineal gland, in particular, to awaken our consciousness. This awakens our spiritual faculties which are innate in all of us. But for many of us have become a bit atrophied over time.

This awakens our ability to become wiser, more compassionate to human beings, and to perceive our reality beyond the shell of our mind, and our false self.

As Nāgārjuna point out to us here, he stated that:

"All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things." —Nāgārjuna

Sometimes people say that this type of statement means, “I don’t need any spiritual teachings. I don’t need to read any books. I can achieve awakening by myself.” And this is true that there are some masters who are illiterate, but for many of us we can actually benefit from practical teachings that guide us and that help us to realize where we may be imbalanced, or which techniques we may be able to use to gain some energy, to gain some strength, to then do our spiritual work, to then enter into the essence of things.

But if we just read books or if we go to a church or a temple, and we go through the motions of prayer or spiritual practice, but we ourselves never feel that connection, that power, that inner spark of divinity calling to us, then we are not truly growing internally.

We may externally receive some amount of recognition. But when we go to the end of our life, and we evaluate the quality of our quality of being, we may feel empty. We may feel that we have created as Christ said, the whitened sepulcher, which on the outside looks beautiful and holy, but in the inside is dead.

And so, what we want is the spiritual birth. We want to enter into the true essence of things, the true essence of ourselves, the true essence of nature and reality, and the true essence of divinity. All of which are essentially one and the same.

Conscience, Discernment and Internal Judgment of the Soul

Another great master, Swami Sivananda gave us this practical teaching:

“The intelligent or wise one has to discriminate within and advance by himself towards his own goal, his own self, while also searching for the emancipation of others.” —Swami Sivananda

It is not about following anyone who claims to be a master, but truly studying in an effort to awaken your own inner discrimination, to find the teachings that resonate with you, that call to you and that awaken your own inner judgment.

Many of us have been in situations where we feel a pang of conscience, when we are about to tell a lie and a part of us says: “Mmm… maybe I should just tell the truth!” But then our mind begins to rationalize and to say: “Why? Well, but I’m lying for a good reason. I have a good intention for doing this unethical thing. In the end, I might be able to work things out and brush it over and get away with it.”

For some of us, maybe it has been many years since we felt that pang of conscience. But we all have some direct experience of our inner judgment, that discernment. And this is really important as we try to prepare ourselves for initiation. Because, as I mentioned, it is not about any external master saying to you that you are ready. It is about your Internal God, your own inner divinity teaching you, and awakening you, and helping you to grow as a father and mother would a young child.

And as a soul, we need to be behaving in a certain kind of way through which we demonstrate the maturity within ourselves to our own inner divinity, that we are willing to learn, that we are humble to learn and to change as people.

That is something that only each of us can know. We have guidelines, we have general principles in all the world religions that we are all familiar with and which we can use as a great starting place to gain our bearings, to begin living more ethically. But it is really when we are in a situation and we are observant of ourselves, in the quality of our action, and we act on a vice, and we see the effect of that, and we see how that affects other people and affects us, and create problems in our life. Versus when we do something virtuous, and we see how that ripples towards other people and changes our own quality of being and gives us a sense of peace with ourselves.

So, as we begin to evaluate ourselves, regardless of what other people’s judgments about us may be, we have to be very severe with ourselves, and very honest with ourselves. We have to really see in our life: “What are the places where I have compromised myself? And maybe at that time, I did it for what I thought were good reasons. But now I realize that it was really a mistake and that I am missing something of value to me, part of my own soul that I want to reclaim. And what steps can I begin to take to gradually put my life back in order, to get myself back to the place where I feel that I am a person that I can respect, an individual with character that is noble or virtuous?”

Or at least striving to that point, because of course, we know this is not something that just happens magically overnight, but it is an effort of the soul that takes tremendous super efforts, day to day, to be continually honest with ourselves and to see where we have shortcomings, where we have anger, greed, gluttony or lust, that is creating problems, that is actually creating suffering. And not because someone else tells us this is creating suffering for us, but because we repeated these behaviors again and again and again and we know that they lead us to the same unfortunate places.

When we truly begin to work towards ourselves and understand deeply our own suffering, we begin to see how other people that we love and cherish around us are also suffering. That many people are controlled by their anger or their greed, or their fear, their insecurity and that they live their lives completely controlled by these negative states of mind and they do not understand how to access the power within themselves, to begin to take control over their lives and to access a higher state of being: a state of being that is within the spirit, that has faith not as a mere belief or good intention but truly by directly knowing that what we are doing will produce peace and happiness for themselves.

And so this come even more crucial for us as we search for the emancipation of others from their suffering, that we really work to liberate ourselves from our own negativity and our own problematic behaviors and delusional states of mind.

Identity, Illusion, and Conflicts with Reality

When I say a delusional state of mind, I mean the mental cage within which we often imprison ourselves. We hold to one belief so strongly. Maybe it is a belief about ourselves. Maybe we believe we are a certain type of person and if someone comes across us who shows us otherwise, who disagrees with us, or who insults us. We cannot help but suffer and be upset and argue or fight, or react in some strong way to that situation.

That is all because we have a belief. We have an idea in our mind about who we are. And when we notice challenges, we do not want to see reality. We want to refute reality. We want to argue with reality and observe that this idea that “What I believe is the truth and everyone else is wrong!”

And we just do not have ideas about ourselves, but many ideas about how other people are. Maybe many grudges against other people that “Well, you’re always this way. This is just the way that you’re gonna be!” Or ideas about life and maybe some of them are more cynical ideas that really good people don’t make it out in the end. “Maybe it’s only the bad people that really get what they want in life.” Or maybe we have nice beliefs, but that don’t actually produce fruit in our life.

So, we have to evaluate our beliefs and we do not necessarily have to throw all them all out right away, but we have to see them for what they are. We must have this discrimination. We must identify how beliefs in our life are a filter through which we are not able to perfectly perceive the reality beyond our mind.

Meditation, Introspection, and Inner Discrimination

Anybody who has tried to meditate and silence the mind knows that in the beginning the mind is very chaotic and that is often hard to actually achieve that stability and that quiet of mind through which we can hear any inner voice of the silence as many call that spiritual wisdom.

Much of this has to do with how we behave in our physical life. If we are constantly distracted in our physical life for behaving unethically, we are producing imbalances energetically in our mind and in our consciousness. They make it nearly impossible for us to be able to meditate. And we may develop a high degree of concentration, but we may not feel that we are accessing that inner wisdom, because we do not have that balance. We are not vibrating at that level in which we can be in tune with that.

It’s really essential for us that we try to not only meditate daily or regular—to an amount that is reasonable for us where we are at—but also that we try to behave ethically and become aware of the way that our mind acts during the day, ad how we become distracted.

These are the beginning steps to develop inner discrimination. To be able to see, first of all, our own mind for what it is, and to question our own mind. To separate our own consciousness from the mind. To know that we are not these thoughts, but that we are the perceiver of these thoughts. We are not these emotions, but we are the perceiver of these emotions, and the perceiver of our physical life. And that we have the power to free ourselves from the negative thoughts, and negative emotions, even to have the power to free ourselves from the suffering of our negative life experiences by changing our conscious attitude towards it, and by behaving in new ways that are inspired by our inner wisdom, rather than inspired by our fear or our envy, or anger or greed.

Exercise to Awaken Inner Judgment

When we need to awaken this type of judgment, when we realize that we lost the ability to discriminate within ourselves, we have a special practice in the Gnostic teachings that comes from The Magic of the Runes by Samael Aun Weor. But I wanted to read this excerpt for you about the Rune Rita which can you see pictured here, on the slide.

“The present runic practice has the power of liberating internal judgment. We need to convert ourselves into judges of consciousness. To awaken the Buddhata (the seed of our own Buddha nature), the soul, is urgent. This rune has the power of awakening the consciousness of the judges. Let us remember what is called remorse, which certainly is the accusing voice of the consciousness.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Magic of the Runes

So, a lot of us have an accusing voice of self-criticism or we are evaluating ourselves according to standards of how others may view us. But this is very different from the genuine remorse of the soul, and the conscience, which tell us right from wrong, which in the moment when we are about to lie tugs at us and say: “Can you behave in a better way? Can you just tell the truth and put this bad behavior aside?” Or whatever that might be. Maybe it is not a lie. Maybe it is something else.

But we know that in some cases, what is the right behavior would be the wrong behavior in another circumstance. And that is why is so important to just not blanket a code of conduct, but to really develop our awakened sense of what is right and wrong. To re-awaken it, I should say, because as children I think many of us are more in touch with this. But the more that we act on bad behaviors—and our mind justifies it or gives a really great reason for why we should continue in this route—the further away we get from our inner conscience.

That is why we want to work with this runic practice, to work with this energy of nature, the energy of our own internal judge, our own inner divinity, which can help us to remember remorse. To remember the part of us that has a great spiritual value, and which suffers tremendously when we compromise it for things which, spiritually, are not of value. Whether that is money or recognition, or relationships, or social status, or a worldly success.

It is not that these things are bad in themselves, but if we have to compromise what we believe as right in order to get these things, we are losing a part of our soul. And that part of our soul we may have to work much harder and later on to reclaim. Each of us has to make the decision for ourselves on where we strike that balance of meeting our worldly needs, but doing so in a way that we feel is contributing for something good or a value to the rest of humanity. Or in whatever way we have a particular talent.

When we begin to steer off that course, and when we begin to take those steps into a different, which causes us suffering, that we feel that remorse, in order to re-evaluate: “Is this the path that I want to take or are there a variety of other responses that I can bring up, and think of, to this situation, some of which may help me to feel more peace with myself?”

And Samael Aun Weor goes on to describe this rune:

“Those who never feel remorse are truly very far from their interior judge. Commonly, they are lost cases. People like that must work very intensely with the Rune Rita, thus they will liberate their interior judgement. We need with urgency to learn to be guided by the voice of the silence, that is to say, by the innermost judge.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Magic of the Runes

Within each of us, we have an individualized connection to that universal force of divinity, which as I mentioned earlier, we call the universal consciousness of Christ in this particular tradition. Each of us has our inner spirit, our Innermost God that is our Father or our Mother that is helping us to grow as a soul.

When we hear the voice of the silence, we are hearing that powerful, direct experience of our own inner judgment, of our own inner wisdom, which is guiding us in our life. What we need to do next to continue to learn and grow and flourish as a soul, what we need to do is to perhaps make up for the error of our ways.

And now, this particular rune, we are going to practice—as I mentioned, if you stick around from the meditation afterwards—we will just try it three times. But simply put, you will stand with your left hand on your hip, and your left leg out to make the shape of an “R.” And then you will repeat:

Another Instructor: The mantras RA, RE, RI, RO, RU.

Instructor: Each time you pronounce the mantras RA, RE, RI, RO, RU, each of those vowels you are going to hold them for one long breath. What is important is not so much to focus on the vocalization, but to feel that energy, that current within in us, in the spine vibrating throughout our whole body and awakening our consciousness, giving strength to the consciousness, to the soul.

Working with this type of energy transforms the forces in nature, takes them into our own body and helps our consciousness to awaken and have more strength.

So, we will talk more about his later, but I felt his very important in relationship to preparation for initiation because, frankly, if we do not have our conscience awake, if we do not have to ability to discriminate by ourselves, it is easy to become lost in the sea of life—and in the multitude of spiritual movements and masters, and to no longer have that sight of our inner compass that guide us in our own growth, in our inner development. So, that is why it is truly urgent to awaken that.

Additionally, when we do awaken this, we have to act on it. We have to really follow our inner judge, our Inner God, because that will help us to achieve sanctity of our mind and heart.

The Sanctity of Mind and Heart

The purity of the mind and heart is a prerequisite for spiritual initiation. Now, what we are talking about is an initiation in Christ, in which, degree by degree, we begin to incarnate our own inner spirit more and more, and to express according to our level of development, divinity as it manifests in us. And if we do not have a temple in mind, heart, and body in which divinity can rest, because we are vibrating at an antithetical level of being, then we cannot enter into initiation.

Many people are able to develop spiritual powers, to awaken out of their bodies, to work with energy or concentration and all these practices, but they are awakening in a very egotistical way. In a way that strengthens the mind and that strengthens our desires, and many of these desires are desires to overpower other people, to make other people see things the way we want them to be. To gain more influence, to make people like us more or to have more success in our worldly affairs, but not necessarily for good reasons—not to want to have success in our worldly affairs to truly help people, even if that is what we tell ourselves. But maybe our intention on a deeper level is more selfish.

And so, that is why each one of us can really determine if we are awakening in a positive way towards God, if we are lessening the sense of our false self and we are really awakening more wisdom and compassion. Or if we are strengthening our sense of self and our sense of pride as an individual, and we are only wanting to accumulate more power and more knowledge in order to gain our selfish ends.

And that is why Samael Aun Weor teaches in the book The Major Mysteries:

“We need to have the mind of a child in order to enter into the Major Mysteries. We need to be like children in our minds and hearts. We need to be perfect as our Father who is in the heaven is perfect. The great mysteries are not achievable through vain intellectualisms; the Major Mysteries are achievable with the heart of a child.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries

I know a lot people, a lot spiritual friends who spend much time, whether on the internet or with books, reading and studying about these things. And I myself of course am a very curious person and have read quite a bit about these things, but what is really important is that we can set aside the mental concepts, the intellectual concepts, and we can approach reality as it is, as it presents to us.

In order to do that, we do need a purity of mind. As a child, they can see many things which adults have forgotten how to see. If a child is in a room where his or her parents are fighting, they can see that situation and the pain of that situation in a way in which the parents, who may be identified with their particular perspective, are not able to see anymore. Because now they are caught up in the mind, caught up in the sense of self in the tallies of who did what and “What you have done wrong to me,” and “What I deserve,” and all of these ideas about ourselves that we have developed and strengthened into adulthood.

And so, we become more aware as adults of the many manipulations and complications of adult life, of our modern world, our society. But oftentimes, we are so caught up in this that we confuse them for reality.

Unfortunately, we need to be aware of this in order to navigate society, but society does not have much to do with reality of nature and its existence, and divinity, which is a natural experience that the soul can witness.

So, when I talk about simplicity of mind, we have to be able to not totally give up intellectualism, but to set it aside, to put it in his place. To have the mind become the servant of our spiritual goals, rather than to fortify the mind in order to serve the selfish goals of our desires.

Really, initiation is achieved by the quality of our heart. It is through the merits of our heart that we raise the Kundalini up each vertebrae of the spinal column and it is through the merits of our heart that our own inner Divine Mother, and our Innermost Father and spirit, judge us and determine whether or not we are worthy of genuine spiritual wisdom, powers and abilities and those types of things.

We cultivate this childlike quality the more that we are virtuous and act upon the genuine ideal that we have for ourselves, a spiritual ideal. If you remember as a child what you thought made up a good person, you may be interested in money or those types of things, but really there is a certain character that you might have strived for. And that is the ideal that we want to re-awaken: the best part of us from our childhood, but now with the wisdom of an adult, with the power of an adult, with the choice of an adult, to be able to actually give birth to that.

Psychological Death: The Initiatic Path of Life

Also, we have to die in many ways in order to give birth to that inner child.

I mentioned about our false beliefs, our false ideas about ourselves, the mental prison in which we live and suffer which causes suffering for us, because we cannot understand reality, we cannot understand other people or ourselves.

This is the part that we have to be willing to let go of. That we have to be willing to change. Maybe it is our addictions, which are not necessarily alcohol or drugs, but our addictions to certain behaviors or ways of thinking and living that we know create suffering for us, but that we just cannot seem to break out of.

If we really want to come a more enlightened person, if we really want to work toward the level of development that saints and prophets and masters were able to achieve through their own direct efforts, and through the grace of divinity, then we have to be willing to die to who we are today.

You cannot live in both heaven and hell at the same time. This is about our own psychological state of being. We have to be willing to let go of the way that we have lived, the person that we have been when our inner judgment tells us. That that is not taking us anywhere, but into pain. Then we have to be brave and to take those steps courageously into what we believe as right, in order to really have life. To have that inner power and inner life that gives us real meaning and peace.

So, Samael Aun Weor writes:

“When one enters into gnosis (direct experience of divinity), one has to die in order to live; however, proud intellectual people who have the habit of thinking in accordance to their own whims, vanities and prejudices are not good for these gnostic studies; this is a very difficult enterprise for intellectual people because they only want to stuff their minds with these gnostic studies, and the reality is that gnosis is a very deep functionalism of the consciousness. What we have to do with the mind is to kill it, and thereafter to resurrect it, totally transformed.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries

We want a new quality of mind. For many of us, mind is out of control. It is going in the same directions day after day, repeating the same thoughts, the same worries, the same problems, seeking the same desires day after day just on repeat.

We want to get rid of this old mind, to really fight against it in those moments when we feel that pain of conscience, to not let our mind continue to justify and hypnotize us, but to break free and to allow something new to be born. Because with this new quality of mind, this totally transformed quality of mind, we will have that bright awareness of our experience of life, the quality of mind that can see the best in other people. That can enjoy other people and love other people spontaneously and naturally. That has a wisdom to penetrate into the heart of a situation and to really see its spiritual value, not just its value according to society.

Kundalini Yoga or Sexual Alchemy

In order to do this, we do need to work with a very powerful energy, in a very powerful practice. And in our tradition, we call this sexual alchemy.

Just as with the practice of the Rune Rita, we are working with our creative energies. We recognize that creativity is born of our sexual energy. And that is why the Kundalini rises from the bottom of the spine where our sexual organs are, and whether male or female, we have physical, sexual seed, sperm or ovum. But we also have an energy within that physical seed which can be transformed, which can be raised into the pineal gland, which will awaken the spiritual nature of our soul which will awaken consciousness, which is beyond the mind and beyond the body.

Now, as a single person we have the practices which we can use to awaken sparks of that Kundalini energy. We call these pranayamas, generally speaking, and we can talk more about them [see Gnostic Meditation: Pranayama and Sexual Transmutation], but the one that I primarily teach is just to sit, to focus on that energy, to sit in a meditative comfortable pose, in which the spine is straight or you can lie down if that is more comfortable and to just breathe deeply in trough the nostrils and out through the mouth. And as you are breathing in, visualize that energy as light coming up through the spine into the head, saturating our mind and our pineal gland with that energy, that light, and then breathing out, visualizing that energy moving to the heart.

As simple as that, we can harness the breath, we can harness the energy that is within the breath, and within our body and within nature, and begin to strengthen our consciousness that way.

But as Samael Aun Weor points out here in his quote, we need sexual alchemy in order to really create the bodies of the soul. This is because nothing in nature, whether physical or spiritual, is born without the union of masculine and feminine principles, the activity of masculine and feminine forces. He writes:

“The only objective of the [first] five initiations of Major Mysteries is the fabrication of the solar bodies [the vehicles of the soul]. In Gnosticism and esotericism, one understands that the fabrication of the solar bodies and the incarnation of the Being are known as the Second Birth.” —Samael Aun Weor, Practical Astrology: The Esoteric Treatise of Hermetic Astrology

If we truly want to incarnate the force of our inner spirit, of our internal Christ, that is a frequency which is very, very powerful. We have within us currently astral bodies and mental bodies that can transform mental, emotional, and spiritual energies to a degree. But these are relatively weak and dirty vessels and through which the light of divinity struggles to shine.

Now through the cooperation of male and female, retaining that energy in the body, we are able to create spiritual bodies, spiritual vehicles: a solar physical body, a solar vital body, a solar astral body, a solar mental body, a solar causal body through which divinity can express on all levels.

Now what is important is when we talk about sexual alchemy, we have to retain the sexual, so seed whether male or female, we have to refrain from orgasm, and to transmute that energy upwards. We know that when we let that physical energy out of the body, we produce a physical body. But to harness this energy and to move it inward into the soul, into the consciousness, we can create a spiritual body, a spiritual vessel which is talked about in the Bible as the terrestrial man and the celestial man. We want to create a new type of individual, and so we work with this very powerful energy.

The warning here is that we talked about white initiations, which are initiations into divinity, into the light of Christ, and black initiations through which we awaken in ego. We become demons.

Now, we may be convinced that we have good intentions, and that we are awakening power because we are really becoming great people. But we have to trust our inner judge to determine if we are walking on an egotistical path or the path of light. When we practice White Sexual Alchemy, we are trying to come into connection with our Inner Christ, our inner divinity. And we are working with a very powerful energy.

The outcome of this type of practice is either an angel or demon. So, we will either awaken our own spiritual potential and give birth to our soul, or we will awaken powers, but powers that are demonic, that are entirely engaged in the prison of our false self which grows, and grows, and grows in intensity and increases the suffering of us as an individual and also in others. So we have to really be prepared and really establish our own ethical center before we step into initiation.

So, we will be talking a lot more about sexual alchemy and what is involved with that in the rest of the course, which will be talked about by the other instructors.

The Structure of Initiation

But simply put, to give you an outline, for what initiation is—as we teach it here—this outline is just a framework. Of course, the experience of it is something internal, which is experience in our daily life. In fact, Samael Aun Weor says that “Initiation is life itself intensely lived with rectitude and with love.” It is an inner experience, the development of the hero within our own heart, within our soul. But it is something that we create by the way that we face the ordeals presented to us in physical life.

Sometimes in astral experiences, in our dream state, we may experience ordeals, symbolic ordeals that strengthen us. But many times these are conflicts that we are having in our physical life, or problems which challenge us, exactly in the way that we talked about before, in which we are very tempted to go in a behavior, which we have repeated many times, but which we have the opportunity now to face ourselves, to understand ourselves, to understand why we have gone in wrong direction before, and to take a step in a more positive direction as we see fit.

The Guardian of the Threshold

I separated this chart into four levels or four parts to enter the Major Mysteries. The first is the Guardian of the Threshold. Now, this is described in many traditions as a terrifying beast, which we know in our tradition is the form of our own inner defects. If we looked at ourselves as we truly are, we would see there is a monstrous beast in the mental plane or the astral plane, that we have many vices and many problems, and a lot of suffering within us that we cultivated in and fed our creative energy to throughout this lifetime and even previous lifetimes.

And so, when we face our own ego, we face the Guardian of the Threshold, we are actually breaking our ties with all of the vices that we carry within. Sometimes, this is described, as in Hinduism, as going to battle with our own beloved relatives. Because our vices and our defects are part of ourselves that we very much cling to. And that feels very comfortable for us that we like a lot. And in Hinduism, Arjuna has to go to battle with his own family members who are doing wrong behaviors. And Krishna, which is in Hinduism the representation of Christ, comes to him an says: “You must do your duty. You must go to battle here.”

When we face the Guardian of the Threshold, when we begin to enter into initiation, we begin by breaking all of our ties to the Black Lodge, the Black Lodge being a representation of the black path of initiation, which is the path of vice and selfishness.

And we make a commitment to really go against ourselves because we are own worst enemy. So, this is about taking on and battling ourselves. And if we defeat the inner guardian, we have not fully destroyed, but if we defeat it, then we become the master of our energy. We begin to be able to have more power, more self-control in situations.

But if we fail in this ordeal, then the Guardian of the Threshold becomes our master and our ego dictates how we will live our life, and creates more suffering for us.

Of course, we can battle again, and again, and again. So, we have to be persistent if we fail.

The Four Ordeals of the Elements

The next step is the four ordeals of the elements: air, fire, water and earth.

These elements come to us through many situations in our life.

Air is often associated with instability, with the loss of what one loves, maybe the loss of the job, in which we face a total uncertainty in life and this forces us to develop a quality of consciousness which is unattached, which is able to continue on even in spite of losing stability. We have a lot of movement. And this develops and helps us to balance our consciousness in that area.

And the next area in which we need to balance our consciousness or our state of being will be fire, which causes in the ordeals an emotional pain. Criticism from others is often a common ordeal of fire in which we have to respond with the right temperature. Sweetness in many cases is hard to develop in the face of criticism. And so, after we balance our nature to be firm when we must be firm. And to be soft, and gentle, and sweet when we must be. And to not be completely controlled by how other people behave or what the external situation is, but to really have a level of being in ourselves in which we have control over our response.

The next area in which we balance the consciousness is water, which is often a very emotional ordeal in that we feel overwhelmed. We are thrown into social circumstances in life, which overwhelm us or force to adapt. Or radically adapt: maybe after moving to a new place, and really radically being able to adapt to a new situation.

And finally earth, which helps us to develop the stability and the perseverance of the soul in response to obstacles and difficulties in our life.

The Initiations of Minor Mysteries

After we have made the commitment to the path, and the Guardian of the Threshold in that battle, and then we balance our own consciousness in the four ordeals of the elements, then we begin the initiations of the Minor Mysteries.

Now, there are nine initiations of the Minor Mysteries which relate with nine spheres of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, if you are familiar with Judaic mysticism.

But what is important is to understand that these Minor Mysteries are different ordeals in our physical life, which may have these qualities of the different elements, but which ultimately test our ability to persevere and to remain true to our spiritual goal, in spite of many temptations and challenges which call us off of the path.

It is often called the probationary path because we must pass this before we truly enter into the initiations of the Major Mysteries in which we are giving birth to the soul.

Now, a single person can progress through all of three of these parts of the initiatic path [the Guardian of the Threshold, the four ordeals of the elements, and the Minor Mysteries]: the entrance into the initiatic path. But in order to enter into the initiations of the Major Mysteries, in which we give birth to the solar bodies, the solar vehicles, we must be married. We must be working with our spouse in Sexual Alchemy.

As I mentioned, we are going to talk a lot more about that, and all of these different faces of initiation in future lectures.

Conclusion

What I really want to emphasize and summarize in this preparation for initiation is that is completely up to us to enter into initiation. Each person, regardless of their culture or their religious background, or their upbringing, or their current physical situation in life, has within the main connection to their inner divinity—has a spark of conscience which can be fed and strengthened. And each of us has within us an inner Father and Mother that want us to grow spiritually.

The whole purpose of our existence physically is for us to realize a certain spiritual truth about ourselves: to have an understanding of nature, and reality, and divinity, and ourselves. And oftentimes we are so distracted and hypnotized by the many things that we must keep up with in society, that we forget about the real reason why we are alive.

So, to take the time to really assess our current situation in life in meditation, and to really evaluate the different areas of our life that we spend most of our time and energy and to see where we have compromised our values, and to begin to take steps back to where we really believe we are leaving our spiritual dignity and integrity as a person—that is the preparation for initiation.

And when we couple that with preservation and the purity of our sexual energy through transmutation, then we are really knocking on the door to enter into initiation. And our inner divinity, and all of these masters—that we have talked about in religions, which still exist in the spiritual nature of our reality—will come. The masters of the White Lodge, the prophets, you know, whichever spiritual master that you resonate with can help you, can aid you in this journey because it is very difficult, but that will come from within.

We can be in spiritual groups and we can be in spiritual schools, and we can read spiritual books. And these can be of help to us if we are awakening our own inner discernment. But we must be careful not to get caught up in the politics of many religions. And to not get caught up in problems that will distract us from the real growth of the soul, and from cultivating within us that type of being and spiritual potential that we are really capable of.

Does anyone have questions?

Questions and Answers

Question: How do when we know when you have created solar bodies?

Instructor: Some people have created solar bodies in previous lifetimes, although this is pretty rare, speaking for humanity. And so, if that is the case you would know because you will be awakened in the astral plane, in the mental plane, in the causal plane, depending on which solar bodies were used, and not just a moment of awakening which every person can experience, but continuous awakening and being able to consciously project oneself out of the body and travel at will.

Now, if one has created these bodies in past lives and but then fell, for example, lost their sexual energy or behaved very unethically and lost that level of development, the spirit still maintains that degree of initiation. The initiations never belong to the human person, but always belong to the inner spirit. And so, that spirit can never fall, but the soul can fall. So, the soul will have to recapitulate and re-go through all of these steps of initiation in order to re-gain access to those solar vehicles.

Question: When the Kundalini rises according to degrees…

Instructor: According to the vertebrae…

Question: If it doesn’t do that, it just rises?

Instructor: We can have sparks. We can have very vivid experiences in which all at once you now feel this fire, this illumination. But if that experience passes, and we’re back with the same problems that we always have in life, if we haven’t fundamentally shifted as a person in our quality of being, the essence of who we are hasn’t really grown and developed.

That was just an experience meant to help us and to teach us that we actually have to do the hard work. Just as physical body is important in a day and develops over many months, so with our soul do we have to go through the pains of labor, so to speak, and develop those growing pains of the soul, in which we struggle against ourselves in order to become upright individuals.

Question: So that’s almost better though?

Instructor: Well, nature doesn’t take leaps. So, naturally speaking, there are certain people who say you can pay us twenty thousand dollars and we’ll awaken your Kundalini and they will produce some sort of energetic experience for you, but that’s very different from what we’re talking about initiations into the Christic Path, actually incarnating our own Being happens degree by degree.

Question: Kind of going back to the topic of Kundalini. So, you’re saying that in the Minor Mysteries, the Probationary Path, that’s when you’re moving up the Tree of Life, correct?

Instructor: You are actually cleaning out the parts of you that are submerged in the inferior Tree of Life. So the Tree of Life has a shadow in the hell realms. And we actually have each time to clean out the parts of us that are trapped there.

Question: So at that point you’re starting off from Malkuth (the Kingdom)?

Instructor: Sure, actually, I guess it would be the inverted Yesod. Not much is written about the Minor Mysteries. Experientially, you are experiencing parts of yourself that are very rigid, psychologically speaking, that are very hard to work against. Perhaps you have an answer to this if you start in the inverted Kether or if you start in the inverted Yesod.

Another Instructor: So Dante talks about the nine inverted hell realms, spheres of Klipoth, which is the Hebrew term meaing, “shells” or the world of ego, which exists as they mentioned within the interior of the Earth. If you physically go into the terrestrial crust, you will find caves or caverns, but not people, because the infraconscious dimensions are in the astral plane, but inverted. And as part of the Minor Mysteries, we need to transform ourselves. So, we start to perceive internally experiences about our own inner hell. Because the White Lodge, the Christic Lodge is showing us what you need to work on in order to change.

So, yes, to go up you first will go down. Every ascension is preceded by a descent. This is why in every cosmogony or epic the hero has to enter the hell realms first, which is why Aeneas, from The Aeneid by Virgil, has to descend in order to find the truth that is hidden in those realms. Because our soul is trapped. Part of our consciousness is conditioned in ego, which belongs to those dense regions of nature.

Then, if you want to go up, to ascend the Tree of Life, you progressively must go down, to see and investigate parts of yourself: your anger, pride, lust, fear, laziness, ego. So that by working on those false and understanding them, we can extract light. So, first as Dante depicted in The Divine Comedy, you want to go to Paradiso, Paradise. He states that if you first descend Inferno, relating to initiation, because every type of exaltation in divinity, every type of progress is stipulated upon what we have worked on eliminate the Guardian. Maybe in that way, you get started into higher stages of the path, such as Purgatory, and then, at the end to experience all the bliss.

Unfortunately humanity, whenever people enter religion, or spiritual studies of this type, we all want to go the Paradise first. But the truth is, if you enter the Major Mysteries, you will have astral experiences where the masters of the White Lodge will come to you and will show you: “you need to descend first.”

Personally, when I first started this teaching, I had an experience in which I was being attacked by a demon in the astral plane. And so, I was of course, in the beginning, terrified. Then, a master came up to me from the White Lodge and said, “Descend into the Earth!” He started to conjure this demon and kept him away from me. So, I obeyed these orders and went down through many layers within this internal dimension.

And then finally I came to a cavern where found sepulchers, tomb with the bones, debris. I intuitively got that I had to go out of that cave and in that experience I eventually found myself in Egypt in the astral plane, where I saw the temple of Giza, which physically is an ancient piece of architecture, which is a cadaver.

But in the internal planes the temple of Giza is active. And that temple was, I remember looking at the three pyramids and seeing the light of Christ there. And the Egyptian masters opened the doorway and let me in. And I remember having many other teachings they gave me related to this process. But the simple reality is that they were showing me: “You want to enter this temple, like the great masters before in antiquity, but first go into your Earth, descend down into your own mind. Confront yourself!” And the term descent simply means to face the results of our previous actions, our mistakes.

So, you can have experiences like that, that show you what the Minor Mysteries are. And there are many other ways to verify where you are at through symbols, which is why we study the Kabbalah, which is Jewish mysticism, the language of the internal planes.

Every religion has its symbolism. The cross of Christianity or Jainism, many traditions have the same symbols, which is why we balance the study the different religious traditions and accompany them with our meditation, so that we can verify and understand: “This is where I am at.” First, you have to face that which conditions us first, and when you free consciousness then, they say, “Enter our temple, and let us help you.”

In the beginning we get a lot of help, because, as we are now, we need light. And sometimes those masters will come to you and awaken your consciousness with the [snaps fingers] spark, when you are working with energy exercises, such as pranayama, mantras, runes, sacred rites of rejuvenation, which we have available in books, but also on the websites.

When you start to spark that energy in yourselves, the sexual energy, conserving it, transforming it, you start to have the fire that is going to empower your soul. And that is the beginning, to initiate. So, you can awaken sparks of Kundalini; it does not rise immediately, but you are, so to speak, fanning the flames. The coal is heated, so you have a spark, so you could have ecstasies, experiences, but to do that you need to descend, not only to the Earth, but literally into your physical life. Because Malkuth in Kabbalah, the bottom sphere of the Tree of Life, is our body.

In the internal planes or in the cavern so to speak, you have to discriminate what is happening physically, in our jobs, in our homes, in our bedroom, looking at our behaviors. Because if we act egotistically, we are wasting energy. And then, if you have no energy, you cannot see. I mean if physically you waste energy or expend energies, you feel tired. The consciousness also goes to sleep if we have no force, which is why in the beginning of religion: ethics. If you want to enter the Minor Mysteries, train your mind. Save your energy. And when you build that up, and you are changing your physical life, your behaviors, and no longer performing actions that harm yourself or others, then you have a reservoir [of energy] which you can start to see.

Instructor: So, as you can tell, that is why we will be continuing with this course because there is much to say on each of these different parts. And even more beyond this. This is just the beginning. There are initiations of fire and initiations of light. Many things are already written on the books, so this will be an ongoing course in which we have a lot more to say.

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States

11/17/2019

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Everybody who enters and practices the gnostic teachings always wants to have direct experience, mystical states, knowledge of God. When we read the writings of Samael Aun Weor, it is difficult to not feel inspired by the beauty, the depth, the power of the many personal anecdotes and experiences that he conveys. He often speaks firsthand of astral projections, awakened experiences, out of the body in the internal planes, the higher dimensions of nature, in which he has spoken with his Inner God or the masters of the White Lodge. Jinn experiences. Tremendous ecstasies of the soul.

What is particularly attractive of this kind of writing is that it goes against the theories, the conjectures, the beliefs about religion, or spirituality. These writings are powerful. They inspire us and they should enliven our heart, to push us to want to experience these things for ourselves.

It is not the intention to merely show off this kind of knowledge. That was not the intention of the writings of Samael Aun Weor and many other prophets. As Ibn ‘Arabi, a great Sufi master, stated (paraphrased), “When someone raises a lamp, it is in order to show light, not to be proud of one's elevation.” This is why such experiences are beautiful, are necessary. But if we wish to have that kind of knowledge for ourselves, to follow in the footsteps of the prophets, we must be practical.

There are many people who study meditation. Many decades. People love to read about religion, about mystical experience, about divinity, but they don't practice. Many people are merely content with reading about the Being, reading about experiences, and not working effectively to have that knowledge for oneself.

This is similar to reading about the experience of drinking water and yet one is dying of thirst. If you wish to understand the experience of water, you have to walk to the faucet, the well, and extract that water for oneself and to drink it. While this analogy is very simple, this perfectly illustrates the state of many students, not only within Gnosticism, but all religions, all esoteric schools.

We can hear about how wonderful water tastes. How it nourishes our body. And yet we will be thirsty and starving, emaciated, weak, if we do not drink for ourselves.

This is the same nature of spiritual experience. It is refreshing to the soul. It is liberating. It is the essence of life. Without meditation we cannot drink from the fountain of God, which is the well of our own knowledge, our own inner wisdom, our Inner Being. It is through meditation that we refresh our souls. That we nourish our souls. That we become inspired.

It is fundamental. We cannot know divinity without meditation. It is the method that grants the capacity for transformation.

Annihilation and Subsistence

Transformation is essentially the purpose of our practice. We wish to cease suffering, to comprehend what in us gives us pain. Why do we not know divinity? What have we done that prevents our direct access with the truth?

We always state in these studies, every religion states in its esoteric heart, that the obstacle to interior illumination is the ego. The self. The "I." It is only when we die to the ego, eradicate the self, eliminate pride, fear, hatred, lust, that we can learn to approach divinity. We have been stating that our own conditions of mind obscure our consciousness from seeing the truth. This is well explained within Sufism.

They say that in order to know Allah, to experience the truth, the self must be annihilated. The Arabic term they use is fana. It means “annihilation.” When we die to our defects, when we annihilate the self, that multiplicity of defects: anger, resentment, fear, gluttony, etc., we extract the consciousness that was trapped, conditioned. That is how we generate light—the light of our soul that can allow us to see with intensity, with clarity, the profound mystical states of the Being.

The Sufis also state, when we have annihilated the self, we learn to subsist in divinity. We learn how to be, to be one with God. The term subsistence in Arabic is baqa. It is a profound term relating to Al-Baqarah, the second Surah of the Qur'an, “The Heifer,” “The Cow,” which relates to an aspect of our divinity known in different religions as the divine feminine, the Divine Mother, which the Muslims refer to as Baqarah.

That Surah is very profound. It is the longest in the the Qur’an. It refers to the verb, the power of speech, recitation, mantralization, which expresses the perfect unity of God.

Sufism in its heart, in its true expression, is a very profound and practical teaching through which we learn different levels of being, states of consciousness, elevated aspects of the soul and of divinity. We learned to subsist in our work, to continue in our path only through annihilation, fana. There is no way that we could obtain inspiration to continue in this work if we do not comprehend ourselves.

So we need help. We need inspiration. We need to feel joy in this path. It is very easy to sit in meditation, to observe in our day our own negative qualities of mind. If we only focus on the negative, our own morbidity, our pessimism, our despair, such feelings destroy the consciousness, enmesh oneself in suffering until eventually people abandon meditation because they don't see results.

States and Stations: Levels of Being

And this is the beauty of Sufism, is that we learn about the virtues of the soul, the higher levels of Being, the states of God. Which if we practice diligently, we learn to experience little by little, through gifts of divinity. Mystical states inspire us. They guide us in the work and help us to be consistent, to push ourselves, to be disciplined.

There are many different levels of being, as we stated in our previous lecture. Mystical states are dynamic. They are infinite. A mystical state does not necessarily have to focus on just some internal samadhi, ecstasy from the East, an experience out of the body, but can occur physically, when we understand something profoundly, when we feel joy, happiness, inspiration.

It is important to cultivate the virtues of the soul as we work on the ego. This is what creates balance. If we focus only on our hatred, on how dense the mind is, without comprehending the light, we will become very pessimistic, and such people eventually leave gnosis. They abandon meditation. They abandon what is best. So this is why in Sufism we study. In Gnosticism we study the stations and states of the path.

We explain that stations are levels of being which we acquire through work, initiation, degrees. The states of the soul are given to us from divinity in the moment as flashes of inspiration to help us continue in the path. States are gifts. Divinity provides us with light, but stations or initiations are earned. We need both. Without states of contentment, of magnanimity, of joy, of the power of the Being, we will not be motivated to work further.

Divinity seeks us. This is important to remember. The Being longs for realization of its own nature. We are part of the being and as Samael Aun Weor in The Revolution of the Dialectic stated, "The Being is the Being and the reason for the Being to be is to be the Being itself."

Our divinity wants to know itself and we are part of divinity. The soul is a mirror. It can reflect the images of hell, the infra-consciousness, or if it is polished, to give remembrance. We learn to reflect the heavens, which is something that Ibn ‘Arabi, a great Sufi master, taught in his Kitab al-Ahadiyyah, Treatise on the One Alone. Or as Bayazid Bastami stated, "For thirty years I sought God, but when I looked carefully, I found that in reality God was the seeker and I am the sought."

Inquietudes, yearnings of the soul—these are psychological pressures given to us in the heart from our inner Being to push us to return to Him, to Her. Without that we cannot rise up from our state of suffering.

In this way, we study the levels of being. There are infinite levels of being, but for the sake of clarity and organization, for the purposes of study, the Sufis referred to these mystical states in many ways. As we stated, they sometimes refer to seven states or stations. Forty. A hundred levels. A thousand levels. Really its infinite, but we refer to different systems of different Sufi schools to understand more about ourselves, the dynamism of the soul, the great breadth and profundity of the heart.

So these are degrees or initiations. The stations of the path., initiations that we earn. So the Sufi manuals of great Persian masters, especially, are very wonderful for knowing, contemplating the levels of being, the mystical ecstasies of the heart and the soul, which is why Samael Aun Weor in The Aquarian Message stated:

“The seven degrees of ecstasy through which the mystic reaches the perfect state of the soul are described in the school of Sufism. The school of Sufism teaches about ecstasy. The state and secret of our level [of Being] is revealed in Sufism, because this is the interior state of life in God." —Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message

Ecstasy and Being

What is ecstasy? From the Latin exstatuo, “to stand outside oneself.” This means that we go beyond the mind, our current, everyday, mundane perception. We learn to stand on our own feet spiritually. We remove the conditions in mind so that the genie from Aladdin's lamp may be liberated, even if but temporarily.

The word ecstasy in Arabic is wajd, and ecstasy simply means spiritual experience free of the ego. In the East, they refer to these states as Samadhis. The same definition. Meditations and experiences free of limited physical conditions. They are internal perceptions. The Sufis sometimes refer to these as lights, as inspirations that shine within the heart.

So all these states come to us when we meditate. And as we are proving our consistency, our diligence, our commitment to the Being, we receive help. We receive guidance, because there are certain experiences and qualities that we cannot obtain on our own without help. And we'll talk more about what this involves within the schools of Sufism, especially.

In Gnosis, we refer to this as borrowed light. Sometimes masters of the White Lodge may provide us with experiences to help us, to push us. The Sufis call this barakah, blessings from a master that temporarily awaken the student in a very intense or heightened, clarified state of internal perception, such as in dream yoga, astral experiences, jinn states.

But in order to even receive that help, we have to be working. We have to develop ethical discipline as we explain about Sharia in our first lecture.

“Ecstasy (wajd), befalls the heart suddenly and unexpectedly, coming upon it without design or artificial prompting. Of this the shaykhs have said, ‘Ecstasies are sudden events, but they are the fruits of assigned devotions.’ God increases His kindnesses toward all who increase their spiritual practice.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

The ultimate spiritual practice is meditation, which is fueled by our work with energy. Such as through mantras, pranayama, transmutation. It is important to combine our exercises of Gnosis with meditation because as Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Spiritual Power of Sound:

“We can experience the Being, the Innermost, only through profound meditation. The experience of the Being, the Innermost, transforms us radically…

“It is completely impossible to experience the Being—the Innermost, the Reality—without becoming true technical and scientific masters of that mysterious science called meditation. It is completely impossible to experience the Being—the Innermost, the Reality—without having reached a true mastery of the quietude and silence of the mind.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Spiritual Power of Sound

So the Sufis and our teacher Samael Aun Weor state the same thing. We must work with our assigned devotions, meaning our meditations, our prayers, because divinity provides us with light for all those who increase their discipline, which is why the following quote continues.

“I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say that inner events arise out of systematic private devotions. He who has no assigned litany, in his outer being, has no spiritual influx in his inner being. An ecstasy that owes anything to the one who experiences it is not true ecstasy.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So what does it mean to have no assigned litany? It means to have no prayers or practice. Our tradition is replete with innumerable exercises: mantras, prayers, runes, pranayama, alchemy, sacred rites of rejuvenation, meditation. These exercises help to develop quietude of mind, serenity of thought, so that in the stillness of our consciousness, we can experience the truth.

These exercises are fundamental. However, we practice whatever we need in accordance with our level of being and our disposition. Obviously, some people will not be married and cannot practice alchemy until they do so. However, we work with energy: pranayama, runes, and most especially, meditation. Whether we are single or married, we must work with where we are at, so that through accumulating energy, saving our emotional energy, our mental energy, our sexual energy, we have the fuel necessary by which to discipline the mind. Because without energy, we cannot act.

This is why ethics, Shari’ah, is the beginning of religion. Save your energy. Do not waste it through the ego through explosions of anger, of resentment, of pride. It is inevitable that if we are fulfilling the necessary laws and requisites of the path, Shari’ah and Tariqah, we learn to experience the truth, Haqiqah. Through working with the influx of energy available to us when we meditate, we learn through rituals, exercises, practices, to focus our attention.

All of those exercises that work with energy help us with concentration and silence of mind. Without that we cannot have any experiences.

So it's important to establish that foundation First. That is the groundwork by which we enter samadhi, ecstasy, wajd.

“An ecstasy that owes anything to the one who experiences it is not true ecstasy,” said the Sufis, Abu Ali al-Daqqaq, the teacher of Qushayri in his Principles of Sufism.

This is a very subtle meaning. It means that certain experiences that are super normal, very elevated, are given to us as gifts, not because we have earned it, not because we have mastered it, or entered initiation, but because we are sincere and need help. We are yearning to know divinity and because we are practicing, the White Lodge looks upon us and says, “Let us help this disciple and provide an experience, an ecstasy so that it can validate the teaching for him or her.”

So it is very common in the beginning of Gnosis that as we save energy, we start to have experiences. Some people have very intense samadhis or astral projections that they cannot explain. They receive blessings and help which is known as “borrowed light” in our tradition. It is not light that we generate on our own, but we receive from God, from the prophets, because they want to show us something valuable. They want to show us that this teaching is real.

The Sufis call it barakah, blessings, and it is very common within the Muslim tradition to think of the saints, to worship the saints, to venerate them and to ask for their barakah, their blessings from holy shrines, temples, sacred spaces that have been the physical conduit where those masters lived and provided their divine force.

In a more profound level we can receive borrowed light, barakah, internally, when we are out of the physical body. When we stand outside of ourselves, literally, that is an astral projection, an ecstasy in which we are conscious of that dimension.

But all this is founded on our practice.

“Just as, in outward life, it is the ordinary daily transactions in which the servant engages that produce for him the sweetness of acts of worship, so, in inward life, the guidelines the servant confronts are what bring on his ecstasies. The sweetnesses of worship are the fruits of outer dealings, ecstasies are the results of inner efforts.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So, what is that sweetness of worship? When you are profoundly meditating, deeply enmeshed in your conversation with your Being, and you feel the elevation of your heart, the sweetness of the soul.

Outward worship at a temple is beautiful. It can be necessary for many people. Attending groups, Gnostic schools, can aid the disciple to feel that sweetness of worship through group practice. We also feel worship in the sweetness of the soul at our daily job, if we are conscious. We deal with people outwardly. We work to follow our own compassionate nature of the soul, raising our level of being in our work physically, and internally. And as we are working on our own negative states of mind, we are performing inner effort.

The internal is a reflection of the external. When your outward life reflects the beauty of your inward life, when you let virtue be your guide, your conscience, your motivation, we naturally develop the sweetness of the work. The joy of the work. We feel ecstasy when we comprehend anger and understand that a discovered defect is a dead defect.

We learn to stand outside of ourselves physically, at our jobs, at our work, in the bedroom. That means that you are observing yourself. The soul is observing the observed, which is the ego. We are standing outside of ourselves so that we can gather data, to comprehend the “I.” As we comprehend what the ego is, we feel joy.

This is what Samael Aun Weor stated, "The greatest joy of a gnostic is the discovery of one of his or her defects,” because when we separate from the mind, we see it for what it is and in that that way we can change. That gives us true ecstasy, joy.

I know people like to think that ecstasy is some samadhi in the clouds. While that is true, we get to that point when we stand outside of our ego as we work in self-observation, or as the Sufis refer to as inner-accounting, muhassabah. We have to take an account of our virtues and our defects. This is the result of inner effort, which develops the sweetness of the soul, and in that way we learn to access supra-conscious states.

There are states of being which everybody reads about and everybody craves. These are states of soul or Being that are at the top of the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah, which we studied previously in our lecture on stations. These are qualities of the Being that are very high, which we can only experience after annihilating the ego.

The Light, Unity, and Knowledge of the Being

Being in Arabic is known as wujud, and on the right of this slide we see Arabic calligraphy of the words Al-Nur, meaning “the light,” which is a very famous Surah in the Qur’an, of which we will relate some excerpts.

Al-Nur is the Being, the lights and purity of our own inner divine nature, which the Sufis and Muslims referred to as Allah. This is supraconsciousness, states of understanding that are omniscient, beyond the physical universe. They know how to see and travel throughout all the dimensions of the Tree of Life. So to reach that point, we have to meditate. The Sufis state:

“As for being or finding,” meaning to find God, “it follows on advancement out of wajd. There is no finding the Truth save after the extinction of the ordinary human condition, because when the power of reality manifests, the perception of material things cannot endure.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So these are samadhis or ecstasies, which happen outside the physical body, in which people commonly denominate as experiences. As a consciousness, we are in different dimensions of the Tree of Life as our physical body sleeps. To reach those very high experiences, we have to learn meditation. Suspend the physical senses. Relax the body. Calm the heart. Circulate the vital forces. Relax the mind and concentrate on the Being.

In the quietude the divinity within our very core nature manifests. This is how we learn to find our true nature, the Being, wujud, which is etymologically related to wajd, because the Being is ecstasy. It is a state of happiness that is so vast and limitless that it defies reasoning and bewilders the mind.

To reach that point, we have to lose our common everyday perception of what we think or who we think we are. This is the meaning of the saying by Abu-l Husayn al-Nuri, “For twenty years I have been finding and losing. When I found my Lord, I have lost my heart. And when I found my heart, I have lost my Lord."

There are many Sufis who write and talk about this principle, that to know God you have to lose yourself, but that tradition has not really explained any practical experiences or examples. You find those types of experiences very well explicated in the writings of Samael Aun Weor. For the purposes of this lecture, I will relate to you a samadhi that I experience as a consciousness many years ago.

I was practicing meditation, deeply concentrated, and I let my physical body fall asleep. I was undergoing an ordeal in the astral plane, which I conquered. And I was instructed and taught to project my soul through my crown chakra, the Church of Laodicea, which is the chakra relating to omniscience, polyvoyance, intuitive perception, intuitive clairvoyance. It is our link to the very heavens. And I remember pushing out through that chakra and I entered as a soul, divested of any bodies or vehicles, and returned to my own Ain Soph, which Samael Aun Weor relates to in his writings of Kabbalah.

It is our supra-atomic star, the synthesis of who we are, the real Being, which is a light that shines with glory and happiness in the absolute abstract space. And I as a soul had lost my identity as an individual, to what I thought I was, but was united with That. Pure ecstasy. Being. Wujud. However, I identified again with my mind. I lost the ecstasy and I fell back within the astral plane.

That was a beautiful moment of such joy that I don't forget or cease to think about every day of my life, because that is the real Being. The true identity. Our supra-individuality.

And I remember the saying of this Sufi initiate Abu-l Husayn al-Nuri, "When I found my Lord, I lost my heart, and when I found my heart, I lost my Lord." So in that moment, I was in samadhi, but then I thought about my mind back below and my consciousness got sucked back into existence. I identified with my own sense of self and became forgetful of that light.

It is interesting that even the name of Abu-l Husayn Al-Nuri, his name literally means "beautiful light" in Arabic. So many of the Sufi masters took on names, very symbolic and Kabbalistic, profound. Hassan, Hussein, relates to Ihsan, beautiful action—the beauty or light of the soul, or in Kabbalah, Tiphereth, the human consciousness.

Al-Nuri is the light. The light of Ain Soph, as we see in this calligraphy. It is the beauty of the light. It is supra-consciousness. Happiness without limitations. The limitless. It is the unity of perfect expression of the divine.

This is why the Sufis also state:

“It is also the meaning of the saying of Junayd, ‘The knowledge of Unity is contrary to its existence, and its existence is contrary to the knowledge of it.’” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So I'm relating to you this experience with my intellect, with words, but intellectual knowledge of that unity, Ain Soph, is contrary to its existence, because words fail to describe or to attribute anything relating to the Being. Its existence is contrary to Its knowledge or our knowledge of It.

The Shahadah: Declaring the Unity of God

So what is the unity in Islam? They pronounce the Shahadah, the Muslim declaration of faith:

“There is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet.”
lā ʾilāha ʾillā Llāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu Llāh (in Arabic).

There are many Muslims who pronounce this prayer, but knowing this phrase in the intellect is one thing, knowing it from experience is something else. Shahadah means “witnessing, to bear witness,” to experience the truth.

And what does it mean to submit to God in Arabic? Islam. Many people follow the tradition, physically thinking that through certain adaptation or adoption of prayers, rituals, behaviors, that one somehow is now following God. But it is important to remember that Shahadah, to witness the divine, comes from mushahadah, contemplation, meditation.

The Ain Soph is Allah in Arabic. The limitless. It is a point in space that is our own true light that wants to have cognizance of Its own happiness, Its own true nature. Allah in Arabic comes from أل Al and the syllable لا La, which literally means “The No,” “The Nothing,” “The emptiness,” which is the Buddhist Shunyata, the abstract light of perfect Seity, devoid of common individuality, that is a form of light, our true nature, Al-Nur. That beautiful light is our own star that guides our interior, which calls us back with longing, which seeks us so that we can return with knowledge to It.

There's a Surah in the Qur’an that relates this principle. From Surah Al-Nur (24:35):

“Allah is the light of the heavens (the nine sephiroth) and the Earth (Malkuth, the kingdom or bottom of the Tree of Life). The example whose light is like a [niche] within a lamp (a niche is a supra-atomic point, the synthesis, the Being). The lamp is within a glass, (which reminds us of hermetic science, the science of alchemy), the glass as if it were a pearly white star lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree…” ―Surah Al-Nur 35

That pearly white star is the light of our true nature in the heavens, Allah, Ain Soph, which we learn to experience by working with the oil of the blessed olive tree, known in Middle Eastern science as alchemy, Allah Khemia: the work with energy. That light, that oil, is:

“…neither from the east or the west.” ―Surah Al-Nur 35

That tree is neither of the east or the west. On the Tree of Life relating to the sphere of Tiphereth, the East, and Malkuth, the West. The sunrise rises in Tiphereth, the East, which is the goal of our path. To rise up the Tree of Life with light. But if we fall down from Malkuth into the West when the sun sets, we die spiritually. We lose inspiration, allegorically speaking, Kabbalistically speaking.

“Whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire.”  ―Surah Al-Nur 35

We speak abundantly in our studies of the work with the oil, which is a symbol of our sexual matter and energy, which we learn to transform with chastity and purity so that that energy, elevated, is used by the soul, untouched by fire or lust.

“Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills and Allah presents parables (symbols, experiences) for the people and Allah is knowing of all things.”  ―Surah Al-Nur 35

So we know in Kabbalah that Ain Soph, the Being, is beyond the Tree of Life. It is the negation of all that is existent. It is our true existence, which is non-existence. It is the negation of the self, the complete annihilation of individuality as we conceive it, of grasping at "me, myself, I."

It is only when we fully die, even if only for a moment, that we can enter samadhi, ecstasy. Ibn ‘Arabi speaks abundantly about the unity of God. He says that only divinity can comprehend Himself. So it is a very beautiful teaching, very subtle. While I am telling you that, conventionally-speaking, that my soul united with my own Ain Soph with that experience, it wasn't me knowing myself, but the Being through my soul.

It is a very thorny issue in theology. Very confusing for people who don't meditate. We can think of divinity as light, even as a person who can only know himself by looking in a mirror. That mirror is our soul, is our heart. If we purify the heart, we can reflect the light and therefore divinity gains consciousness of Its own true nature. He witnesses himself through the mirror of the soul.

“With this sense they recite: I find my true existence in vanishing from existence. And from all apparent evidence I see.”  ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So true existence is the Being. It means vanishing from everything that is not that source. We know from our studies of initiation and the Tree of Life that we work in successive degrees, ascending to higher states of consciousness until finally at the very end of the path, we abandon everything that is manifested in this universe to return to that light. The yogis of India refer to this perfect bliss, knowledge, and Being absolute in Sanskrit terms: Sat Chit Ananda.

Sivananda writes about this very beautifully in his books. We can think of it as object, subject, union. These terms or principles describe the perfect state of ecstasy, in which the Being is the object. The soul is the subject and the union is completed. So in that experience the soul that is my true nature was united with That. The light was the light and one could see oneself as both the Being and the soul in union.

This is the meaning of religion, from the Latin religare. Reunion. In Sufism, they refer to this type of experience as Madkhur, the Invoked, which is the Being; Dhakr, the Invoker, who is the dervish or the soul; Dhikr, the Invocation: the call upon the divine, the consciousness of the divine.

In other terms, we say it is the Remembered, the Rememberer, and the Remembrance. It is in that state that the Being has cognizance of Its own happiness. This is the purpose of our spiritual work. To return to that abstract joy. That perfect Being. It is for our own Ain Soph, our own true star, light, and ecstasy of divinity, to have cognizance of That known as Paranishpanna in the writings of Samael Aun Weor.

This is known in Sufism and Islam as the Day of Alast: the covenant made between the soul and Allah, that the soul will return to divinity through the path. This is scripturally validated in the following verses from the Qur’an, Surah 7, verse 172 (Surah Al-Ar’af):

"And mention when your Lord took you from the children of Adam, from their loins—their descendants, and made them testify of themselves saying to them, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said ‘Yes, we have testified.’ This less you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘Indeed we were of this unaware.’” ―Ar’af 172

So there is a very famous verse within Islam. Many people think it refers to the literal people of Adam and his descendants making a covenant with God. That they will return to their upright ways of living. Some people say this took place physically at Nu’man a valley near Arafat. There are other interpretations of the Qur’an known as tafsir, exegeses, or commentaries on that scripture, that this occurred when Adam descended to the Earth metaphysically. Some say before that or even after. Other Sufis and other initiates comment that it happened in heaven.

This is actually a metaphysical experience. Meaning, we all originated from our own Ain Soph, who is our true nature, our light, which sends its light down the Tree of Life into different matters, energy, into consciousness, forms of expression, so that it can return inward and upward, back to the source with knowledge. “Happiness is not true happiness without cognizance of That.” It is a very Kabbalistic statement by Samael Aun Weor, which you can read about in Tarot and Kabbalah, especially.

So the Being says, “Am I not your Lord? Am I not your true identity?” And that is our covenant. To return to the source, the synthesis of who we are. This is the voice of the silence. It is the source of our own longings and inquietudes. Our deep yearnings for studying this type of doctrine is to know That. To know the unity.

Mythomania and Mystical Experiences

So while many people think that these kinds of mystical states or experiences are indicators of progress, what happens with many people is that while having those types of experiences, many students and even instructors, followers of different traditions or teachings, become confused. They have those experiences and then they return to their body saying “I am a master. I am a great Being. I am liberated!”

What they don't understand is that those kind of experiences are merely states given to us by divinity as a gift. They do not signify that we have entered and subsisted in that state through initiation. We can have those experiences, states of liberation temporarily, but to really be permanently united in That, is a very lofty goal. Very difficult.

As Samael Aun Weor stated:

"Some hermits who isolated themselves within caves, based on rigorous disciplines, attained the ecstasy of the saints and were taken up to heaven. There they saw and heard things that are not easily comprehended by human beings. Nevertheless, their “I’s” continued to exist within their interior.

"Unquestionably, the Essence [consciousness or soul], through rigorous discipline, can escape from within the “I”; thus, it enjoys ecstasy. However, after such bliss, the Essence returns into the interior of the “myself.”

"Those who have become accustomed to ecstasy without having dissolved the ego believe that they have already reached liberation. They fool themselves by believing themselves to be Masters. They even enter into the submerged devolution [descent and destruction within the hell realms of nature, the inferior planes of Klipoth].

"Nonetheless, we are not pronouncing ourselves against mystical ecstasy, against the ecstasy and happiness of the soul while in the absence of the ego. We only want to place emphasis on the necessity of dissolving “I’s” [achieving fana: annihilation] in order to achieve the final liberation.

"The Essence of any disciplined hermit, accustomed to escaping from within the “I,” repeats such a feat after the death of his physical body. Then, his Essence enjoys the ecstasy for some time. Yet, after such time, his Essence returns as the Genie of Aladdin’s lamp, back into the interior of the lamp, the ego, the myself.

"Thereupon, he has no other choice but to return into a new physical body with the purpose of repeating his life on the stage of existence.

"Many mystics who lived and died in the caverns of the Himalayas in central Asia reincarnated again and are now vulgar, common and current people in this world, in spite of the fact that their followers still adore and venerate them.

"Therefore, any attempt at liberation, no matter how great it might be, if it does not take into consideration the necessity of dissolving the ego, it is condemned to failure." ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

This is why in our tradition we speak abundantly about mythomania. There are people who have genuine experiences of God in different levels and because they don't study the doctrine, they get confused. They think they are gods. Mythomania comes from myth of manas, the Sanskrit term for mind. It means “to make a myth of the mind.” The mind thinks it is great, that it is God, but the mind is just the devil. As I explained that experience I had, I left behind my mind, my devil. However, when I identified with my mind again, I lost the experience, falling down into the astral plane, losing the ecstasy.

While that was a beautiful experience, I would never dare make the mistake to think that that is my permanent level. It was a gift. People get confused because they have those experiences but don't really evaluate the quality of their mind. They are not stations: permanent, established, levels of Being. They are states that come and go as blessings from God.

The Definition of States

So let us define what a state is according to the Sufi manuals of the great masters, especially Al-Qushayri from his Principles of Sufism.

“According to the Sufis, a state is a spiritual influence that arrives in the heart without their intending, contriving or earning it, such as joy or sorrow or expansion and contraction or desire or agitation, or awe, or need.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So these are experiences that we receive without intending it, without earning it. And that samadhi that I related to you, that was given to me without my intention and definitely without my earning it. However, I had been disciplined in my practices and was given the gift in order to relate it to this type of knowledge, to clarify things.

So other states such as experiences of that nature can sometimes be even more or less intense, but still very beautiful and profound, like joy or expanding our consciousness. Sometimes there are states that are contracted. We become focused on one thing. Expansion is a type of diffusion into space with a clarified awareness. Contraction is more concentrated, as if we are focusing only on one thing. A very disciplined contracted will. Very strong attention, which also can be as state, a gift, or a desire, or longing, to be agitated in a spiritual sense, to be filled with awe, yearning, or longing for God.

“While stations are earned, the states (ahwal) are gifts. The stations are attained through the expenditure of effort, but the states appear from the fount of generosity. The possessor of a station is confirmed in it…” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

…or has reached that level of being, has achieved The Major Mysteries according to Samael Aun Weor.

“The possessor of a state is transported beyond it.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So I claim that that experience I had was a gift. I am still in the process of working on myself. Hopefully that I will return to That, to be transported to That. But in order for that to happen, we have to work from the ground up.

“Dhul-Nun al-Misri was asked about the gnostic and said, ‘He was here, and he left.’” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So what is the true gnostic? A true Sufi, one who is perfected marif’ah, knowledge of God. Knowledge of the truth, and therefore, his or her states and stations are beyond our comprehension. So while that person can be physically present with us, consciously-speaking, they are aware of all the dimensions of nature. Here and now. “He was here and then he left.”

Such beings are very difficult to comprehend at our level because they can access all dimensions of the Tree of Life with will, with intentionality. They are not limited to one sphere. But for us, we find that states are temporary. They come and go. We can be meditating, introspecting, contemplating a verse from a scripture, concentrating on an image of divinity, whether a holy figure, or something as simple as a mandala, a stone, a picture. We can be reflecting on the virtues of our own consciousness, of our Being. And, states suddenly emerge in the screen of our awareness. You suddenly see a landscape, a place, a group of people, a conversation, a symbol, a form of life, images, sounds. These appear directly before us and we are both witnesses and participants. These are flashes of understanding or inspiration. Imagination. If we understand the import of those experiences, we develop intuition, understanding of what those states are communicating.

The Momentariness of States

“Some of the shaykhs have said, ‘The states are like lightning flashes.’” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

Meaning, these experiences come upon the heart suddenly, without expectation. When we cease thinking.

“If one seems to continue, it is self-deception." ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

Many times in our practices, especially in the beginning, we are meditating and we have an experience. We see an image, a sound, a symbol with the type of clarity that is very expensive or clear, and suddenly when we realize what is happening, we return to our body, back to our asana (posture). Those experiences are very temporary. They come in flashes, and then we are stuck in the mind again, seeing all sorts of contents, memories, anxieties, fears, worries that continue on and on. This is the meaning of how if these states seem to continue, it is self-deception.

We have states of the soul that are very clear, very profound, and have a particular taste that is distinct. Therefore we have to learn to sift through the mind and understand that genuine states of the soul appear like lightning. They appear, then they vanish. So we should question our mind. Be very diligent to understand that not everything we see in ourselves is going to be objective. If it seems to continue onward, like all the chain of associative thinking we know of, that is self-deception. That is the ego.

“And they have said, “The states are as their name,” [the verb hala means ‘to change’ or ‘to pass’], meaning that immediately as they come upon the heart, they vanish. They recite: Did it not change, it would not be called a state And everything that changes vanishes. Look at the shadow whenever it draws to an end. It begins its diminution when it has grown long.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

Validating Internal Experiences

So it is important that we understand something very essential. Having experiences is not enough. Having mystical states is not sufficient. We have to learn to verify what we see.

Scriptures allow us and show us understanding of what these types of ecstasies are. We have to both have experiences, but also read, study, reflect. When we see that our own experiences are reflected within the writings of the great prophets, we develop faith. We don't get confused. We understand precisely what God was telling us, and therefore we have no doubt as to what we know.

Personally, I have had many experiences that I witnessed firsthand, internally, and only later found evidence physically of what that meant. In the case of that experience I related to you, there are other symbols relating to that vision, that ecstasy, that I confirmed in many writings in order to evaluate its objectivity. And in that way I have faith. I know what that experience was communicating and so there is no confusion or doubt.

So many times we can read the writings of Samael Aun Weor, the Qur’an, the scriptures, any of the experiences that, before we read about them, we have.

I believe I related in our previous lectures knowing about the Tree of Life before reading about it. The ten spheres. the ten sephiroth. It is actually very beautiful to have that experience and then later confirm it. It shows us that we are progressing and that we are on strong ground.

We have to learn that we must not only be practical meditators, but studious disciples. We have to read and know the knowledge in depth. This is known as intellectual spiritual culture. Our knowledge, our studies, help us to clarify and decipher our internal experiences.

So we can have those types of experiences, but if we don't know the Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, the nature of the path, we will be very lost. We will be receiving messages from divinity, but not having the knowledge to interpret.

Samael Aun Weor mentions that Kabbalah is the language of the internal worlds. We need to have intellectual spiritual culture. This means: have a very good knowledge of every tradition, especially the Gnostic tradition, so that we learn to be balanced, because many people can have experiences and think that they are objective. But if those experiences go against our ethics, the writings of the prophets, then we are deluded, we are confused. So experiences have to coincide with the writings. Otherwise, we will be in error. We will make false judgments and can make mistakes.

Which is why Abu Sulayman stated in Principles of Sufism (by Al-Qushayri):

“Sometimes one of the subtle sayings of the Sufis stays in my heart for days, but I will not accept it save on [the testimony of] two just witnesses: the Qur’an and the Sunnah.” ―Abu Sulayman al-Darani in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So we have to rely on the teachings of the prophets, those who walked the path before. That is because these initiates have very high levels of attainment. They have a lot of awakened consciousness and can explain things for us that are very difficult. We have to learn to study from masters of Major Mysteries, the prophets, people who really established themselves in accordance with hierarchy, meaning their level being is very high, such as Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna, Moses, Khidr in the Qur’an, Samael Aun Weor.

We have to study from masters whom we have validated, whom we know are objective. This is important because many people in our studies have committed crimes and even lost their sanity because they lacked culture. They had experiences that told them that such and such person is a black magician, a sorcerer, a demon. Or, experiences that are contrary to our fundamental ethics of how to behave in life, and therefore they literally committed crimes. You can read about this type of dynamic in Samael Aun Weor's book Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology, where he communicates the link between spiritual perception and the criminal code.

Internal States and Spiritual Facts

The foundational of reason why people make mistakes is because they have internal states that do not coincide with facts. They don't know how to interpret what they see. This is why study and practice is essential. Study the true sources of meditative knowledge, because:

“Being and knowing must be balanced to establish a sudden blaze of comprehension within our psyche. When knowing is greater than being, it causes all kinds of intellectual confusion. If being is greater than knowing, it can produce cases as serious as that of a stupid saint.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

Study is knowledge and practice is being.Together we produce comprehension. People who study a lot but don't experience become pessimistic, morbid, defeatist, confused. It is because they read about experiences that they don't have and wish that they can have that kind of knowledge for themselves, and feel covetous of those who do. They become dark, pessimistic, morbid, angry, envious.

It is important to really balance the two, because there are those who even have a lot of experiences, but don't have knowledge. They become stupid saints. They can receive knowledge from God, but because they can't interpret, they are stupid in a very blunt sense. They don't know how to relate their experiences to physical life. They don't know how to make their inner experiences practical for themselves, what those messages mean, because initiation is our own life lived intensely with rectitude and love.

So balance the two. Read the doctrine, study the books, but meditate. Meditate on what you read. We have to learn to digest all the beautiful symbols and concepts and understandings we get from our teachers, the prophets, the scriptures. And if you have experiences, learn to find books and teachings that explain what those are.

In my case, I remember having that one experience long ago before I even knew certain aspects of Kabbalah. I united with Ain Soph, but I was bewildered because I didn't understand the real depth of that experience. I knew it was my Being, but I didn't know how that related to the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah. Now, studying that aspect of this teaching, it has become very clear. Therefore I am no longer confused about what it meant.

Over the years of even studying more and more, I’m seeing that arch an experience is not particular to me, but it is mentioned in many cosmogonies and writings of great authors. Great yogis, great prophets. So I don't claim that this is something only special to a few people, because we all have that inside. We all can experience that. But it takes a type of work and blessings from divinity.

But learning to decipher what we see, what states we experiences, we have to learn to combine knowledge and being, as I said. That statement by Samael Aun Weor is corroborated by the Sufis:

“The best of states is that which goes together with knowledge.” ―Nahrajuri in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

Or:

“Any mystical state that is not the fruit of formal religious knowledge brings more trouble than benefit to the one who experiences it.” ―Abu Amr bin Nujayd in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

This is all based on ethics. We can have an experience internally that we are told we are a great God and that we should do such and such a thing, even when that action contradicts divine law, the ethics of the soul, upright behavior, upright thinking, upright feeling. There are many people in Gnosis who have committed crimes, made terrible mistakes because they did not study the doctrine. They were confused by a negative, subjective, egotistical state, thinking that they were in samadhi, that they were in ecstasy, when the truth is that they were just confused, by the ego, by Shaitan, the adversary, our ego, al-nafs, nafas, the soul or the lower soul.

So any mystical state must be corroborated by the doctrine, otherwise it brings trouble. So if you have those experiences that are confusing or dark, that don't coincide with the knowledge, then you have to discriminate, meditate, interpret, look for the source. And if that type of state is contrary to the law, then disregard it.

We have to be very exact with our concepts. Logical thought and exact concept are necessary in order to develop spiritual perception, says Samael Aun Weor, I believe in the book on Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology.

This is why we study the lives of the prophets. The Sunnah, the scriptures. This is so we know how to live ethically. Ethics empowers our actions and our actions influence our spiritual states. Our spiritual devotions physically is what determines what states we will experience.

There is a famous Hadith in the Muslim oral tradition which emphasizes this point: how our actions permeate everything we are mentally, physically, emotionally, instinctually, sexually. Prophet Muhammad was known to have stated:

“The outer law (shari'ah) is my word, the spiritual path (tariqah) my actions, and the inner reality (haqiqah) my inner states.” ―Prophet Muhammad

So these three levels of instruction: Shari’ah, Tariqah, and Haqiqah, are essential when we study mystical states.

Everything is based upon our ethics or code of conduct, which is the path of the heart. Without that foundation we cannot have true inner states or knowledge, Haqiqah: the experience of the Being, which is embodied in the life of any prophet.

So of course we emphasize again, develop your ethics. Question what you see in your mind stream. Without that we cannot discriminate with objectivity.

Progressive States

When we work effectively in the path, we progress into higher states of consciousness. This is always occurs in accordance with the death of the ego. There are masters prophets who, due to hierarchy, they enter incredibly vast, beautiful states that for average persons is inaccessible, incomprehensible. There is a particular beauty to studying what is known as progressive states (ahwal) because there are prophets who were so elevated in their level of being, that it is very difficult to understand. But, they can inspire us to change, to reach those heights. We have to learn to remove the covers of our perceptions. Remove the veil, the egos, through vigilance.

I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq speak about the saying of the Prophet, “Something covers my heart so that I ask forgiveness of God Most High seventy times a day.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So this has to do with our work of self-observation. We see things many times, in our mind, that are very negative. And so we learn to ask forgiveness for our faults. We don't have to have any prayer formula, but remorse. This is what this quote from the Prophet means. We are taking account of our own internal states, our egotistical states, so that we can enter superior spiritual states, experiences.

“He said that the states of the Prophet were always in progressive development. When he moved from one condition to a higher one, it would sometimes happen that his attention returned to what he had advanced beyond. He used to count this ‘a covering’ compared to what he was attaining in the immediate condition, for his states were always in increase.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

So while this may not apply to us, this is something important to acknowledge. Advanced initiates enter states progressively higher and higher, in accordance with the death of desire, by descending into the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, the infra-consciousness.

So a prophet that has moved very far beyond the ego, still needs to go even higher and higher, because they are refining their consciousness very much. So a profound mystical state which to us can be very high, could be a barrier for a prophet. Because they are developing so much that they are always entering higher states of infinitude, which of course is very difficult to comprehend where we are at, but with practice and meditation we understand more.

These are the levels of being which as Abdul Karim al-Jili stated "The path to God is short. The path in God is infinite. " So even upon attaining union with divinity, there are levels of knowledge of God which go higher. States that go even deeper into that source.

"The Truth’s capacities for depth and subtlety are without end. And since honor is due to the Truth. It is impossible to fully attain this; the servant is always involved in the refinement of his states. No spiritual significance is conveyed to anyone unless there is in his destiny something beyond it, to which it may transport him. This is the point of the saying, “What is good in the righteous is bad in those brought closer to God.” Junayd was asked about this, and recited: Explosions of light glitter when they appear Making a secret visible and giving news of unification.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri

These explosions of light are samadhis, experiences, states. And they are a brief allusion to what true unification is, true religion, unity, the Being.

We will conclude with a quote from Samael Aun Weor. The basis of our meditation is silence and perception. Concentration and imagination produce comprehension. Concentration and imagination produce ecstasy, illumination, understanding. When our mind is calm like a lake, it can reflect the heavens. We can reflect superior states.

“Illumination and ecstasy come when the mind is silent, when the mind is quiet. Drowsiness in combination with meditation produces ecstasy. God searches the nothingness in order to fill it.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message

So if we wish to have those types of experiences, we must become empty. Empty of ego. Annihilate the ego. Abandon the ego, because in that nothingness, we can experience the true plenitude in beauty of God, who is a state of consciousness beyond all evidence and materiality. So it's good that we learn to study these states and even comprehend that there are levels and levels to that type of experience. And that is possible for us. Without that context, it is difficult to motivate ourselves, to know that there is a goal and that we can obtain it with patience and tenacity.

Questions and Answers

Question: I like to ask whether or not you know, besides just the telling us to okay meditate and quietude and things like that: did the Sufis have any specific practices that are, you know, that is known, that we can learn about?

Instructor: Yes, they speak abundantly about invocation and very commonly within the Sufi schools, they practice what's known as Dhikr, which means “remembrance” in Arabic. It can also mean invocation. In simple terms, this means mantra. Many Sufis will spend decades in their schools, in their masjid, under the jurisdiction or guidance of a Sheikh, a guru, a teacher, utilizing certain mantras.

So a very common one is Allah Hu Allah. They say these mantras out loud, repeatedly and in groups together, in unison, and many times they even encompass these mantras with dance, which is a very sacred form of religion. There has been a lot of controversy especially within the Muslim orthodoxy towards the Sufi schools, especially the Mevlevis, those who practice with the school of Rumi, the whirling dervishes in which those types of dances have been criticized.

But the purpose of any of those exercises like dance, sacred songs, and mantra, is in order to invoke energy. So they want to make sure that they unify song, mantra, movement in order to invoke divinity, and in that way, they bring in good energy. That energy helps to silence the mind, to concentrate the mind, to obtain serenity. Primarily because serenity is developed by working with sacred sounds.

The Sufis place emphasis on this. The mantra Allah Hu Allah relates to divinity on the Tree of Life, which is Ain Soph, Kether, Chokmah, Binah. As well as “Hu,” which means Spirit, Chesed: the Compassionate, the Merciful, which is why in the Qur’an it teaches Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim: “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.”

The Sufis would recite this mantra Allah Hu Allah. Those mantras help the Sufis to obtain union with God. So in that experience I related, I was experiencing my own inner Allah or experiencing the Absolute. Through 'Hu,’ which relates to the breath, the Spirit. So the breath is deeply related, the mantras are deeply related with energy, with the divine.

They also perform exercises of dream yoga, but especially by working with mantra. A lot of the exercises that the Sufis practice in the most esoteric sense are very well hidden, which is why you won't find many aspects of that doctrine publicized. However, from the writings of Samael Aun Weor, it is easy to see that there are exercises that they do in secret, especially alchemy. Transmutation. Meditation. I remember even being on YouTube and looking at a video clip of Sufi group. They were performing Ham-Sah. They were spinning performing the dervishes and breathing Ham Sah in unison, with music, in harmony. So the Sufis know this doctrine, but they don't publicize many hidden roots that we study openly. But there is that relationship there.

Question: Thank you for the explanation and I'm guessing that you know, the Sufis practice, even though not very publicized or published, that the the practices from Master Samael, like you said Ham-Sah, they are probably pretty much include a lot of what Sufis do, right?

Instructor: Yes. Remember that Sufism is still a very Piscean tradition. They are very well known for their conservative nature, keeping their most esoteric practices hidden. That tradition is especially very occluded, meaning: they don't give their practices openly, but the truth is that they do practice the whirling dervishes, such as the sacred rites [of rejuvenation], which we have many similarities to. But their knowledge is not given openly.

The Aquarian knowledge is very different. With the Aquarian doctrine these practices are available to everybody. We don't need to attend a [physical] teacher, a Sheikh, a Guru, a master, to receive these practices. They are available to anybody [Editor’s Note: However, the true master is not to be found in the physical world, but within our own consciousness]. The Age of Pisces was known for its system of instruction in which a Sheikh or master would have to individually pick a student and teach them directly from mouth to ear. Without that, they would not provide their knowledge openly and so they still maintain that system very diligently.

So it would be very difficult to find any of those schools explaining some of the things we are doing here, because with the Aquarian knowledge, in the Age of Aquarius, the exercises for transformation are given openly. The only one who had authority to really do so with the accordance with the White Lodge was Samael Aun Weor, specifically.

Question: I have a question regarding something you said in the beginning about discipline of practice. In the book study ,that one of the first chapters in the book [Fundamentals of Gnostic Education] talks about discipline and the need to not have discipline. Now. I am guessing that you mean something else than what Samael Aun Weor is talking about by discipline and I'm wondering what it is that you mean when you say talk about discipline and practice.

Instructor: Sure, so the statement that the Master Samael Aun Weor makes in Fundamentals of Gnostic Education is a reference to the kind of rigid systems that people adopt intellectually in the mind, especially in relation to certain studies, such as at schools or academies. That type of discipline of intellectual study and eclectic approaches to any kind of field of knowledge, without a practical dimension, is useless.

It is useless to study any discipline of any field, whether in astronomy, science, anything—if it's not grounded in some type of practical work. So in the context of that book, he is referring a lot to the tendency in people to want to merely leave everything in the intellect through rigorous intellectual discipline, like getting a doctorate or PhD or being very obtuse in one's knowledge, specific to one thing that really doesn't address the heart, or the soul.

Real spiritual discipline is when we work on the mind. Samael Aun Weor speaks abundantly in other books, like Igneous Rose, that we must submit ourselves to profound esoteric discipline, which means meditate. Restrain the mind. Conquer the mind. But the danger is, especially with analysis or any religion, that we just study things intellectually and leave it there. The problem with that is that we may have a lot of knowledge intellectually, a lot of discipline intellectually, taking a lot of time in our schedule to read a lot, but not having any practice. It makes people unbalanced.

The essence of real spiritual discipline is combining our meditation with some type of study. One without the other is useless. But combining the two, we produce comprehension. Hope that answers your question.

Question: I think so. It reminds me of, I read about like lunar celibacy versus solar celibacy, and it seems like it's the difference between, I guess intellectually, deciding I'm going to do something or maintaining a rigid form of how something's going to go versus a preparation for which means an open-mindedness. So you're still involved. It's still very involved but it's how you're involved. Is that the way you participate differentiates discipline versus discipline?

Instructor: Real esoteric discipline involves both knowledge and being. We have to combine our studies with meditation. If we don't meditate on what we study, our understanding will be very shallow. But when you combine the two, spiritual experiences, with study of the doctrine, then it's very easy to remove any errors. We don't get confused.

In relation to lunar and solar celibacy, that is a little bit of a different practice. But yes, people who are commonly practicing what's called celibacy, they may read a lot of Christian writings or any other religion or teaching, but they don't really understand the practice of transmutation, working with the body and the energies, and so that's an incomplete discipline, which can relate to this dynamic. People can study that aspect of yoga and religion, but because they lack a practical dimension of what those traditions teach, they are confused and they suffer a lot. But real discipline is when we combine esoterically meditation, transmutation, service for others. Knowledge and being have to be united. Without that we don't comprehend anything.

Question: My question is about the stages of meditation and Master Samael Aun Weor talks about in Igneous Rose that appearing in the vision of the meditator, in a daily basis of the meditator. Like not particularly in the meditation session. I don't know if you are familiar with that quote.

Instructor: So you are saying that to have that experience is some kind of vision even when not in meditation?

Question: Yes. I think he called it color yellow, color red and I believe the third one is blue, and it's sort of like a stage. I believe he explains them as a stages of concentration you are maintaining throughout the day. How should we, if we receive that, how should you look? Is that like a phenomena? An experience? Is it something earned? It seems like it's coming and going and coming again. How should you look upon those things?

Instructor: Samael Aun Weor mentions in Igneous Rose that as we develop our meditative practice we learn to start seeing visions and images, even when being physically active. He refers to this as clairvoyance, spiritual perception, which can form as a type of psychic imagery in the mind, the consciousness, the third eye between our eyebrows. He explains how if we're really diligent about meditation, we will start to understand more things relating to our daily life.

You can be physically active involved in other activities, at work, being with people, and he explains how suddenly we may start to perceive psychic imagery—understanding of the thoughts, emotions, and motives of other people. He refers to this as clairvoyance. It is a profound form of concentration, our attention, of where we are focused, on what we are doing. In that way we start to become inspired by what we see in other people and ourselves.

He also explains in other books that inspirational knowledge pertains to our understanding of interrelations, interdependence, how our thoughts and the thoughts and emotions of others, interrelate—to see that in a conscious way. It can occur with imagery, understanding other people based on that kind of perception, which doesn't have to just occur when we are sitting in our posture, in a silent room in the dark with eyes closed.

It is good to see more and more things, more internal states in relation to external events in the process of meditating. The Sufis speak a lot about this too. We have to learn to match our internal state with the external event, and that comes about by understanding what we perceive. So questioning our internal states, which can be positive or negative, we can learn how to judge, to comprehend, and images can occur as we are interacting with people. It happens quite often and it will happen more with greater clarity as we are refining our meditative practice too.

Question: In the same line, I would say, how can we understand that at the same moment without letting the mind doing the judgment? You know, if you feel something from someone, let's say the mind labels it as a negative, but you know that it isn't actually negative. Everything is a lesson and every everybody has their own Being. So how can we have all the situation's going into the positive or constructive way, even though they appear at the surface as a gossip or it's something that we don't want, you know, to happen?

Instructor: Comprehension occurs as a result of following our inner judgment. That voice of conscience that says this is right and this is wrong. In most cases we tend to follow our mind, which can be clouded, if confused and burdened with a lot of negative emotion. In order to understand what we experience and what is objective, we have to follow our heart. Your heart will tell you that this situation is negative or positive, or this internal state is wrong or good. The only issue is that as you've mentioned, or you’ve implied, we have a lot of ego. It is difficult to discern what is positive and what is negative, what is objective.

So the solution is, because our senses are very deceiving, our mind is very deceiving, even our emotions can be very deceiving, we have to learn how to clarify our attention. This is really the value of meditative practice, is that after a day of self-observation, in which you have seen or witnessed certain things, we have acted our best in the different circumstances of our jobs or family life, we go home, we sit, we relax, we suspend our senses. We work with energy. Circulate the vital force, through pranayama, mantras, or even sexual alchemy if one is married.

When meditating and looking deep within, visualizing that event that we have questions about, put that scene in the screen of our imagination and try to picture everything that happened. But without adding to or taking away.

Be honest. So learning to be honest is a combination of two things. Sincerity is developed in the moment when we see a state or action in us that is negative. Or we sense a negative thing. We may not act perfectly in the moment. In many cases, we tend to follow what our ego wants and we feel the consequences, the suffering resulting from that. So that internal state influenced the external events of our job or our daily activities. And if we feel that pain and suffering and remorse, and even if we acted rightly in the situation, meaning, we felt that we followed our heart and produced a situation beneficial for everybody, still we go home, we meditate, we close our eyes, visualize the scene, and imagine everything that happened relating to that moment.

What was the event? Who is involved? Where did it take place? What time of the day? And going even deeper, what was our mood? What were the thoughts associated with that moment? What were the feelings, the actions that we took, whether for good or for ill? And to ask our Divine Being our Divine Mother, al-Baqarah in Islam, the sacred cow, the divine feminine, to show us what in us needs to be understood.

In many cases, we have too many Impressions entering our mind stream in a moment, which can be very intense and difficult to control and to decipher. So if we get overloaded by that event and may have acted wrongly, we should learn to say, “Well, I made a mistake or I think I did well in this situation, but let me go home later and meditate and examine that situation deeply,” because there may be certain behavior subconsciously that we are not aware of yet.

And this is really the importance of meditation. Real profound change, elimination of our internal states in our daily life, can only occur when we meditate. It is a combination of our daily work, being physically active in the day, learning the sweetness of worship by fulfilling our obligations, as the Sufis state.

So remember that quote that states that we learn to feel sweetness of worship in our outward deeds. This is the first step. We gather data about our ego. Moment by moment, instant by instant. Following our heart to the best of our ability. There are occasions where we may feel that joy, that sweetness in the heart that says, “I know I did the right thing,” or perhaps remorse, “I felt that I did a bad thing.”

Ecstasy occurs, understanding occurs, comprehension evolves, unfolds when we make inner effort. Meaning: go home, retrospect your day, visualize the scene as it happened and ask divinity to help you understand what was going on there and how you could have acted if the situation was wrong, or if one behave badly. That is the only way to really gain clarity, because it's difficult to trust what we see.

We tend to be very clouded people, but it is inevitable that if we are saving our energies meditating daily, reviewing our day, imagining those scenes and asking for understanding and comprehension of the ego, that naturally as we go back to work the next day or repeat the same situation, we will start to see things more and more. If we are changing more profoundly, psychologically, it means that we will act in better and better ways and that conscience in our heart gets stronger.

Question: I wanted to ask you at the beginning, when I first started studying, I only focused on you know, just the intellectual part, like just reading and reading and reading until I can build my practices little by little, but I'm still not... like sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough. Obviously. I am not doing enough, but I wanted to know what is the significance of the difference between, I guess, the [Church of] Laodicea and the Church of Philadelphia! because I was meditating and I went to a place and it was very beautiful, and I asked them what that place was and there was an older man. He said this was Philadelphia, so I'm not sure. Then later I see, well, you know, there's the two glands but maybe I'm not doing enough or I don't know. I don't know what that meant.

Instructor: Those two chakras, our churches, between the eyebrows, Philadelphia, and the Church of Laodicea at the crown, those chakras are known as the Chakra Ajna and the Chakra Sahasrara according to Eastern mysticism. According to the Book of Revelation they are known as churches, and the Sufis refer to these centers as Lataif, the seven world centers [seven organs of perception] in which the powers of the initiate are developed through the help of a master according to Sufi tradition.

Philadelphia literally means “brotherly love.” Philos, delphia: love of humanity, and that has to do with perceptions relating to astral projection, clairvoyance, understanding thought, understanding our own selves, self-observation, awareness. A lot of people like to think that this term clairvoyance only applies to a few people who have a special gift. It is a French term that means “clear vision.” It was invented by a group of people to confuse humanity to make them think that only a few people could have that knowledge, which is a mistake. It was an effort to deflect people from studying their knowledge.

But the reality is that clairvoyance or perception means “imagination.” It's the ability to perceive spiritual images. That clarity of vision occurs in the astral plane, especially, when we awaken in the dream state, or when we are meditating and we start to see images. They can be experiences or landscapes, as I said. Lights, illumination, internal states of the soul. Those visions greatly vary and apply to what we experience in meditation in terms of imagery, psychic experiences, visuals, sounds, even.

Sounds can also relate to the chakra of the throat which is the Church of Sardis in the Book of Revelation, relating to sound, mystical sounds. Those centers are active when we calm the body, calm the heart, calm the mind.

It gets deeper more and more as we are practicing self-observation, as well as imagination exercises. Meaning, we take an image and visualize it and try to picture it with clarity between our eyebrows. We have to develop that type of perception when we are in our work of self-observation.

It is a profound form of clairvoyance to see the ego objectively. To separate as an observer to the observed. The soul, the consciousness, is observing then the nafas, the ego, the animal "I’s,” the lower soul, desires, according to the Sufis. And learning to separate from that we develop greater clarity of perception.

A lot of factors pertain to that element, but the primary one is, in accordance to the name of Philadelphia, philos-delphia, love of humanity, brotherly love, we develop that chakra profoundly when we eliminate anger, because the opposite of brotherly love is hatred. If you want to develop that type of perception with greater clarity, illumination of the soul, we have to learn to eliminate negative internal states, the ego.

This is why in that excerpt from The Aquarian Message we read, "God searches the nothingness in order to fill it." If we are filled with anger, we cannot reflect God. Anger ripples the mind, the lake of the mind. It makes it agitated, and therefore the images of the superior world cannot reflect in our meditation and likewise in our daily states. If we are not working on that negative emotion in our daily life, we won't see with clarity. It will be difficult to understand right from wrong, to observe our own egos in action. But if we develop serenity, love of humanity, the mind calms, we transform our situation, we see our perception, our situation with clarity.

But even beyond that is the crown chakra, which is much higher. It has to do with very elevated experiences like the one I related to you all tonight, in which you leave behind the universe and enter the states of Being which are beyond thought, feeling, and will. Those are states that we can only understand through experience, but it's good that when you are meditating and studying and practicing, that you learn about these experiences so that when it happens you don't get confused.

We are going back to your comments and your question is, that if you want a greater clarity in your perceptions, if you want to understand what that aspect of your soul is, Philadelphia, the Church of the third eye, that Chakra Ajna, we have to learn how to develop serenity, patience, and love. Without that we don't have any clarity in what we see. Sometimes our perception, that third eye, can be negative if it's charged with pessimism, resentment, negativity. Therefore, everything we see will be clouded from that element, which is why when people are filled with anger, they don't see clearly. They can't rationalize. But it seems that the experience you just related has to do with the beauty of the soul that learns how to see with objectivity.

The Church of Philadelphia internally is very beautiful. All the churches of the Gnostic movement are very beautiful and profound. So there are places that you can visit internally, but also relates to certain qualities, perception. So if it's a beautiful experience that you had, it would seem to be that it's indicating to you the beauty of your own clairvoyance when it is pure. If it's clouded by negative internal states, then it becomes a problem. Hope that answers your question.

Question: Yeah, it does because I think this was like a gift like you were saying so that it would motivate me to work towards that.

Instructor: Yes. That is usually how those experiences unfold.

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Arcanum 20: Resurrection

10/26/2019

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Trauma and Spiritual Healing

10/19/2019

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In the Gnostic teachings, we talk a lot about suffering. In fact, if you are familiar at all with Buddhism, the first of the Four Noble Truths is that life is suffering. That in our existence, in our craving and desiring after different aspects and experiences of life, we are actually suffering intensely, but we are asleep to this. We are not aware of it.

Today, will be talking about trauma, and trauma is unique in that it is an experience that cannot be easily denied and that brings us directly into consciousness of suffering. If you have ever experienced something so traumatic, that the pain stuck with you even after the event had passed, or maybe now that pain has shaped your life in a very impactful way, then you understand that you have some consciousness of what suffering truly is. So you, in your own sense, have awakened some level of gnosis.

Gnosis γνῶσις is a Greek word that means knowledge, but not knowledge from a book. It is knowledge that is experiential. In this tradition, we often talk about striving for gnosis as direct experience of divinity. How do we have awakened experiences internally in the astral plane? How do we see and talk to God face-to-face and receive answers, not just pray but actually have that connection alive and awake within us? So when we talk about cultivating gnosis, it is something that we really deeply know not just intellectually, but with all of our being.

A trauma is interesting, because it is an experience of suffering that often manifests itself in the body. Even rationally we might say, "Well I should be over that, or that shouldn't have impacted me that much, or I don't want to act like this and respond with this much intensity to experiences anymore just because I was traumatized in the past.” Even with that rational resistance to it, we still tense up. We still feel the bodily sensations associated with the pain that we have gone through, and emotionally if you have known anyone who has been traumatized, or if you yourself have experienced trauma, it carries a heavy weight as well.

That is why I say it is a type of knowledge or gnosis that cannot be denied, no matter how much our rational mind tries to deny it and say, “This didn't happen to me! This wasn't a big deal. This shouldn't have affected me this much.” It really is a chance for us to wake up. In many ways, trauma can be a wake-up call: a chance for us to say there is something in life, in my life, that is fundamentally wrong. This suffering needs to be changed and can be a chance for us to explore, to seek more answers, to try to find a way to change.

For many people, they seek more existential roots to solve their problems. They seek to find a spiritual answer for why people have to suffer some horrible things such as rape, sexual assault, child abuse, even things like divorce: things that can be so painful emotionally, physically, etc.

So on the one hand, trauma presents us with an opportunity to radically change our lives, but for many people, it is very difficult to find answers or things that really work to make a change in their life, to really address their suffering. In those cases, trauma often becomes more of a burden, or an obstacle―something that only pushes us deeper into suffering. Perhaps a parent's problems with addiction, when we were a child, now causes us to struggle with addiction, as an example. How do we take the risks associated with trauma and try to transform them through a form of spiritual alchemy, into an opportunity for us to rise above suffering to become stronger, to become more wise, more aware of ourselves and of the mysteries of life?

Medical and Psychological Correlations of Trauma

When we talk about trauma, there are some interesting correlations between a medical or psychological, you know, mainstream definition of trauma, and the more esoteric or spiritual significance of trauma that I am going to discuss today.

Starting with a conventional understanding of trauma, we can look at the causes of trauma. In the field of psychology, it is often referred to as “Big-T” Trauma or “little-t” trauma. We acknowledge that sometimes events that seem not so significant to many people―for example a break up when someone is a teenager and feels very unloved―can often be dismissed as not a big deal by adults who don't really have that same perspective on life at that point. That would probably be considered a “little-t” trauma. It still has an impact on us. It still has an effect and many lasting effects often on the way that we would look for, in this example, at relationships in our future.

But it might not be considered a “Big T” Trauma. “Big T” trauma would be something like going to war and watching your best friend killed beside you, or experiencing a sexual assault, or perhaps being in a terrifying car accident. These types of long-term abuse or very traumatic incidents can be both considered trauma.

Now many times different people can go through the same event and have a different response to it. What this is frequently associated with is the characteristic of resilience. Resilience still remains a bit of a mystery for psychologists, but there is a lot of research pointing to the family structure and the early childhood environment as a major factor in terms of trauma, resilience. So if someone had a very stable and loving family environment, then they might experience traumatic events with more resilience, especially if they had at least one adult figure that was a stable caregiver in their life, versus people who had a lot more instability. Perhaps neglect or abuse in the home can make it much harder for victims to have resilience in a variety of different difficult situations.

Situational and Chronic Trauma

I also want to point out that trauma can be both situational and chronic. Now this impacts the brain in a very different way. Situational trauma is usually when someone is already an adult and they have an experience, that is a situation or maybe a few situations, that produce post-traumatic stress disorder. As given in the example, seeing someone's best friend die right beside them will be an example of situational trauma, and that this actually does damage the brain. It does have a psychological impact on the brain, but it is different from chronic trauma.

Chronic trauma is usually associated with childhood. It happens over a period of years. It could be years of childhood abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, etc. This actually changes the whole structure of the brain and the way that the brain develops, so that that individual's personality now has a new structure, so the way that they even interface with the world will be very heavily impacted by the trauma that they went through over the course of those years.

Much of that has to do with the fight for survival. If you are coming home to an abusive home as a child, there is a feeling of helplessness. There is a feeling of never knowing what to expect, if today is going to be a good day or a bad day. So that puts tremendous stress on the body, on the nervous system. In that case, the brain has to reorient itself to find a way to survive―to find adaptive coping behaviors that, perhaps later on in life, will seem maladaptive to new situations where the threat isn't so real.

Commission versus Omission

Finally, there is trauma that happens via commission or via omission. Often we think of trauma as someone committing an act to me that makes me feel out of control. Being assaulted on the street would be an act of commission that could be traumatic for people. Give people a real sense of helplessness, and “I don't know if I have control over my life. How can I know that it is safe anywhere to go?”

Trauma of omission would be a lack of the needs that a person has. Omission could be childhood neglect or constant blame and that feeling of not being good enough. The absence of what someone needs also gets processed into the brain as a trauma and changes our brain structure.

As I mentioned here on the slide, trauma affects the nervous system and the neural structure. One good thing is that neuroscience now has so much evidence that even past the age of our mid-20s, we are still able to restructure our brain and meditation is a tremendous tool to be able to do so. So even though trauma codes itself and creates neural pathways that are very deeply ingrained through prolonged and continuous work, one is able to redirect and to kind of cut away those negative pathways, and produce new positive pathways that change your whole perception of reality, that also, by changing your outlook on reality, change the way that you respond to it.

Fight, Flight, and Freeze Responses to Reality

So perhaps you will not have one of these fight, flight, or freeze responses to situations. Take for example a woman who was in a domestic abusive partnership, where you know, continually, she had to be on her guard in order to defend herself from potential attacks from her partner. Now later on, she might enter into another relationship where the partner is loving and supportive, but little things may set this woman off to respond in a very aggressive way―that would be the fight response. To become completely withdrawn and cold towards her partner would be the flight response―or to freeze, to just totally dissociate, to become emotionally numb to the situation that she is in. So that is just one clear example of how that might manifest, but depending on the trauma, these responses can look a little bit different as you can imagine.

Given that those types of responses are what are programmed into the lower levels of the brain, the more instinctive levels of the brain, which is what becomes activated, it affects the entire nervous system and produces instinctive reactions without the ability to truly think consciously. To have that higher thinking process where you say “Hmm… maybe I'm overreacting about this situation; I should calm down; I should look at it more objectively”―when the amygdala, or the lower part of the brain gets activated, it is actually very, very difficult to be able to control oneself and to override that response, because it is such a deep primal part of the brain.

However, we do know that through meditation, as I mentioned before, we are able to gradually develop pathways and strengthen pathways that do allow us a bit of separation in those moments, and to repair the damaged parts of our brains so that we can respond in better ways.

For many people, trauma leads to what seemed to other people as irrational reactions. In that person's shoes, perhaps they don't even realize that they are traumatized. Perhaps they feel genuinely in this situation, “It is life or death for me. I need to defend myself. I need to survive,” and so they respond with an extreme reaction to the situation. But for someone else who standing around, who doesn't have that same experience of trauma, they may not understand why this person is freaking out about a certain situation.

The Spiritual Impact of Trauma

Now if we step into a more esoteric understanding drawing upon teachings from the Gnostic tradition―which we have many lectures about as well, if you'd like to learn more about these―we understand trauma and the way that trauma happens in a different way. So yes, it is true all the stuff that I just talked about―the biological impact of trauma―but more importantly for our concerns is the spiritual impact of trauma.

When we experience life as a consciousness, as a soul that is perceiving different aspects in nature, we experience a variety of sensations as impressions. Now you can live for certain amount of time without food, without water, and even without air, but you can't exist without impressions. Even if you go off to one of the sensory deprivation tanks, still in your mind, there are impressions. There is an impression of darkness where there are thoughts.

Impressions both come to us from our environment externally and are impressing upon our consciousness and our perception, but they also come internally. So it may be that we almost step into the road and a bus coming by scares us, and that is an impression that strikes the consciousness, but the result that is produced within us, the fear, the instinctive pull of the body back, you know, the thought of “Oh my gosh, I could have just died right there!”―all of those things are also impressions.

This shows us that the consciousness, that which perceives within us, is separate from the body, separate from the heart, and separate from the mind. It perceives these aspects of ourselves: thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, experiences in our external world, but it is separate from them. This is very important, because when we try to meditate, meditation is not just to sit on a cushion and to zone out, but to activate the consciousness that is beyond thought, feeling, and body.

We have to have that fundamental understanding that we are not our thoughts. We are not our emotions. We are not our bodies. We are perceiving them, but they are impressions, and we do have the conscious ability to take a step back from them and perceive them without being so identified with, “I am angry. This anger is me. I must act on it!” I have no other choice but to separate a little bit and to realize, “I am feeling anger. I am experiencing anger and right now I have the choice if I want to believe that this anger is worth doing these acts and maybe later on I'll regret, or if this anger is something I can let go of and choose a different path―using my free will.”

When we talk about the human machine, we understand that for most people, probably all of us here, we are much more mechanical than we are conscious. Like in the example I gave of the bus driving by―that happens in a split second and you react to it. There is no conscious choice in, “Am I going to jump back from that bus? Am I going to feel afraid? Am I going to think these thoughts afterwards?” It just happens. The impression comes in.

The brain, which we would call the intellectual center or the intellectual brain, is one part of us. We also have emotions, the heart, the emotional brain, emotional center in the body, and the motor-instinctive-sexual center of our body related with the spine. With those instincts in the lower brain, those three centers respond immediately, instantaneously to those reactions.

In most cases, the motor-instinctive-sexual center is the fastest brain, and we know that the nervous system is throughout the entire body and responds instinctively before your brain can even think or send a message. You touch a hot stove. Your hand pulls off before you can even think about it. That is the fastest brain.

The emotional brain is the second fastest. Emotions often come before we have time to process what is really happening to us and think about it rationally, and you know, there is a lot of research on how the heart is actually sending many more messages to the brain, and can actually have a bit of precognition. It can actually respond to something before it even happens.

Then finally, the intellectual center of the brain. So, most of us think, “Well, I am a rational person. I respond to life from logic and I am not going to act irrationally. I am not going to respond emotionally or instinctively, you know. I am an educated person” or whatever the case may be. But the truth is, given a certain experience, you will see that we are designed to survive―that we are designed like machines.

A stimulus comes in and we respond to it without thought. Why this is important is because the part of us, the consciousness, the part of us that is our soul, that is eternal, is the part we want to activate, because with the consciousness we can achieve that separation and we can respond to life with free will, with choice―not just according to our conditioning―not just “this happened to me when I was kid and this is the way I was raised and so I have no other choice but to respond in this pre-programmed way.”

We actually have a choice about “who do I want to be” and “how do I actually do that in the moment.” The consciousness, when it is awakened, is much, much faster than any of these three centers, but awakening the consciousness requires certain conditions that we are going to talk about in a few minutes.

The Transformation of Impressions and Psychological Disequilibrium

Now, when we receive impressions in the consciousness and it is not awake, this produces a disequilibrium in us, and especially over time, since most of us are running on autopilot much of the time. We are not even aware of this deep disequilibrium. We think, “Well, that's just the way that I am. If I perceive somebody to be disrespecting me, I am just going to respond like that because that's my character.”

But truly, it may be that throughout our life, we have received impressions and never transformed them. We have never looked within ourselves to say, “What is happening in me when I perceive that somebody is disrespecting me and what is causing me to respond? Do I have a choice to perhaps sink to their level and respond in kind, or to rise above it and be the type of person that maybe I'd prefer to be?”

That is why I say here, and we teach in our tradition, that untransformed impressions lead to conditioned behavior and thoughts. If we want to live as a free-willed individual, we cannot be living according to the program that has been conditioned into us. If we want to have the choice to pursue a path of enlightenment, just like Buddha or Krishna, Moses, Jesus, any of these great spiritual figures who at one point were just like us, then we need to begin to radically take control over our situation. We need to stop being who we are and open up the pathways of action that allow us to become someone new.

That is why meditation is essential spiritual practice.

Now, if you are not from an eastern religious tradition, meditation may take the form as contemplation or prayer, but regardless, we say that meditation is not about necessarily your posture, although posture, incense, those types of things of course can be helpful. Meditation is really about your state of consciousness. You may be walking about through the world and have the consciousness awake, and this can be meditation. If you have experienced a very intense situation where you suddenly felt extremely awake, that may be spontaneous experience of meditation, but we want to, of course, work with the science of meditation to learn the conditions to be able to produce it regularly.

So here, our problem of trauma is that we have we have impressions coming in all the time that aren't transformed and they are conditioning us to feel certain ways, to think certain thoughts, and to respond and behave in certain ways. If we don't want to spend our lives on repeat, feeling the same emotions day after day, thinking the same thoughts day after day, repeating the same reactions and behaviors day after day; if we really want to create a new life for ourselves, then we need to be able to wake up our consciousness.

The founder of our Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, makes a very powerful and simple statement about all of this. About receiving impressions in our life.

"To change one's life is really to change one's own reactions towards it." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

A lot of us have the mentality that life is just happening to me―and yes, it is true that our environment, our situation, the different systems in our world, do have an impact on our life, absolutely. But, what really determines the quality of our life is our response to it.

So if one impression strikes us in a certain way and produces negativity, then we are having a negative experience of life. If we can take that same impression and experience something more positive, like gratitude or understanding, then we have changed our experience of life. Fundamentally, life is not about what objectively happens to us out in the physical world. It is about the way that we experience it.

We see individuals who have been through intense hardship―war zones, like I said, trauma, childhood abuse―who have been able to transcend that and really have gratitude and experienced a lot of positive emotions in their lives.

Then we have individuals who have been, you know, born into wealth, and you can see that they are really miserable people. They can complain about a lot of things. Now, of course, there is every gray area in between. Not everybody who is rich is miserable. Of course, I am not going to say that, but we see that it really depends on the quality of the person in that experience, more than it depends on the situation. So, we have a habit of thinking, “Well, I am only going to be happy if this and this and this situation happens to me,” which is most of the time, out of our control.

The Gnostic Esoteric Work

In our spiritual work, we are trying very hard to flip that mentality into, “I am going to be happy if I can really come to understand my situation in life and consciously choose how I am going to respond to it.” This is a process. This is not just wishful thinking of, “Oh, okay I have been traumatized and I am just going to be happy about it.” It is not about belief. It is something much deeper.

So, to get into that, we are going to talk about: what is this work? I say it is a work because it requires a lot of effort, especially deep traumas that happened over the course of years. This is not something that is going to be erased overnight. Even, you know, from a materialistic psychological standpoint, to reverse the effects of trauma in the brain as you create new neural pathways takes a long time and a lot of work.

If we have experienced trauma and have a genuine longing to be free, we are willing to do the work. We want to be free from the suffering and we genuinely say, “This is a point in my life where I am turning it around. I am going to radically try to take control of my life and try something new.” Then we can begin to work with these methods.

The methods themselves are quite simple in theory, but to truly put our conscious effort into it is what depends on us. It is not about whether the method will work as much as it is about our willingness to continuously apply it and to give it, you know, give it the time it takes to work.

The Magic of the Roses

In Samael Aun Weor's book, Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic―as you can see we have copies of the books over there―he teaches one remedy that is called the magic of the roses.

This is what I give as a precursor, because many people who are experiencing trauma, if they even begin to think about that trauma, or if some situation in their life comes and triggers the pain from the past, they are overwhelmed with emotion and pain. From that state, it is very difficult to cultivate the stability needed to be able to truly meditate and try to go deeper into changing ourselves.

So, this remedy is a natural remedy for us to heal spiritual and emotional pain and trauma: you know the loss of a loved one, a painful breakup, or even dealing with the after-effects of abuse, self-hatred, etc.

To work with the magic of the roses, one takes three glasses or water, pure water, of course, being better if you're able to, and then places one rose in each glass.

Position one glass facing the north, one glass facing the east, one glass facing the west.

Ideally if you have an altar or a spiritual place where you like to meditate or pray in your home, you would place these glasses there and you would sit and you would genuinely pray―reaching out to your inner divinity, whatever form that may take for you that is most powerful: Jesus or Buddha or the Divine Mother, Divine Father, whatever that may be, and pray for healing. Pray to bless these roses and to give you the healing.

Then, drink in the morning before breakfast the glass facing the east, and in the afternoon before lunch, the glass facing the north, and before dinner the glass facing the west.

You can refill the glasses and repeat the process for as many days as needed, until you feel like you are feeling better.

Now, what is important to point out here is that this is the magic of the roses. So, if we are seriously trying to work with magic or a mystical practice, an esoteric practice, we need a certain type of energy. This is not just based on belief, but it is based on our own quality of consciousness. For one thing, it matters how much you are really conscious and sincere in your prayer to be healed. For another thing, you also will need to utilize a very powerful force.

Sexual Energy: The Most Powerful Force for Healing

When we think about the most powerful energy within our bodies, it is the sexual energy. What can move people to chase after a desire so passionately, with so much energy over such a prolonged period of time, as much as sexual desire, right?

Sexual energy is the synthesis of everything that we are physically, emotionally, mentally. The things that we have experienced, the things that we have seen and thought, all get coded genetically into the DNA of our sexual cells. This sexual energy is not just the synthesis of who we are in a physical level, but holds a very special spiritual power.

The spiritual power of our sexual energy is the power of God, the power to create life. And yes, we understand this on a basic level, physically. What many people are not aware of is the sexual energy's power to transform and give birth within the psyche to new states of consciousness, the ability to awaken in higher state of consciousness, or if used in a negative way, the sexual energy can be used to awaken in lower realms of consciousness.

That is why I put here in the slide about transmutation that we want to transmute the sexual energy with purity―not with lust, but with love. Sexual attraction for most of us is always associated with lust. "If I feel desire for someone, it's in a very lustful way and that's just the only way I can think about that person." But what we are trying to do is take lust, start where we are at―you know, we all have lust―and to transform it through different practices. These are called pranayama in yogic traditions, breathing practices where you consciously take that energy and raise it up the spine into the brain to awaken our consciousness.

To use that energy helps us to move from being a lustful person to a truly loving person. Lust is “all about me and what I want in this relationship” or in this exchange with another person. Love is about the concern that “I feel for my partner” or this other individual. Love is being willing to sacrifice “what I want in order to support the happiness of both of us.”

Being able to move from that is not an automatic process. It requires a lot of consciousness, and being able to do the work of really changing ourselves into a new type of being is not an automatic process and requires a lot of work. This type of energy gives us the ability to have the equivalent of rocket fuel in our spiritual practice and to awaken in that way.

These practices are talked about at length in the book The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. He talks a lot about sexual alchemy, sexual transmutation, sexual purity, and being able to be with one's partner in a way that is loving instead of a way that is lustful. I don't have time today to really dive into it, but we do have the book, or you can read it for free online at gnosticteachings.org. I'm just going to take one quote from this book. He says:

“Here, we are not dealing with a matter of believing or disbelieving, of considering oneself chosen, or of belonging to such-and-such sect. The question of salvation is very serious. One must work with the grain, with the sexual seed. […] Only from the sexual grain is the Inner Angel born.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

We look at masters like Jesus, Buddha, Moses, people who had power over nature. This was not an accident. They worked to cultivate it, and from their sexual force was born a tremendous power.

All of us have this capacity within ourselves, and it is not a matter of whether or not we believe it's true. It's a matter of if we do the practice and we really work with it, we see the results. We see the changes in our physicality, in our emotional center, in our mind. We see the changes in our conscious experiences: being awakened in the astral plane or in dreams, etc.

And so, it is not a matter of belonging to any group. You can be in any type of religion that you want, but it is a matter of really working sincerely with this science.

I begin with this practice, transmutation, as the basis, because although much of the work is in the next two practices I am going to talk about when we are trying to resolve our trauma. Without this basis, we can only go so far. Meditation will be helpful, magic of the roses might be helpful, but in order to create a truly permanent change in our consciousness, not just in our mind, or in our mental pathways within our consciousness, in the part of us that will move on to another lifetime, we need something much more powerful. Sexual energy is the root of who we are spiritually and physically.

Meditation as Therapy

The real intense work of trying to overcome trauma is in meditation. It is only through meditation that we can deeply comprehend the causes of our suffering. If we have experienced any impression in life, and it seems to be stuck and we are going around and around and around in circles over it, maybe we are thinking about it or we can't stop feeling or reacting to it. Being in meditation―calming the three brains, the mind, the heart, and the body, sitting in relaxation, and achieving the awakening of that consciousness and separating enough from the experiences that we are having emotionally, mentally, or physically―allows us to see what is truly happening to us in a more objective way, to experience it with more consciousness.

There is a whole book about this as well, The Revolution of the Dialectic by Samael Aun Weor. He points out many different techniques for being able to meditate, because if you have ever tried to look at your mind, it is a very complex place, and for most of us when we begin meditating, it is a very chaotic experience.

It is like, “I can't pay attention for 5 seconds, how am I supposed to go deeply into comprehending the causes of suffering in my mind?” It takes time to develop relaxation, to find a posture, and you know, an ability to create relaxation within yourself in those three centers.

It also takes time to develop concentration, to be able to concentrate on our mind and our experience with such vividness and alertness that we can stay awake even as the body relaxes into sleepiness.

Countertransference: The Resistance of the Mind

But in addition to that, we have other challenges, and when it comes to trauma there are a lot of these challenges. The mind has infinite defense mechanisms to protect itself. If you are trying to work on trauma or something that is very painful for you―a wound that you have carried for a very long time―the mind will try to guard itself so that you can't go there.

There is a reason that many traumatic memories get repressed, or that we don't like to think about the past and the bad things that happened. It is because the mind is trying to protect itself from pain, you know, this instinct in us, to go automatically towards pleasure and to go away from pain.

Unfortunately, just by ignoring something, we don't resolve it. We don't fix it. Meditation, like I said, is really diving in to do the deep work, to create a lasting change in ourselves because our unconscious mind will respond and react to situations before we have time to think about it. So we go deep and we remove those unconscious structures and mechanisms within our consciousness, our psyche. Then we can respond with free will instead of as machines.

Samael Aun Weor writes in The Revolution of the Dialectic:

"The difficulty of profound introspective analysis (of our mind) lies in counter-transference."

Countertransference, when we think about this in a therapeutic setting, a clinical setting, is about reflecting a past trauma on to someone or something outside of us. Let's say that that in that situation of the woman who was in an abusive partnership, in that case she might try to repress that and move on, but when she enters into a new relationship, even if it's a healthy partnership, that will transfer all of that trauma, will transfer onto the new person or transfer onto different traumatic situations and produce the same reactions.

So even though objectively, these are two very different people and these situations may be very different, subjectively, within that person's experience of life, it is the same experience.

They are not conscious of this. They say, "No, no,” that “it's this guy. He's treating me bad, just like my ex-husband,” or whatever, but really, it is within ourselves that is projected onto life. I want to go back again to that earlier statement about “to change one's life is really to change one's own reaction towards it.” That is the flip side. Even if we have been victimized―which many of us in life have been… there are bad people out there right?―it is to take responsibility for our life and how we are going to react to it anyway.

To say, “Even though these terrible things happen to me and these people did this to me, I am not going to sit around and blame other people and persist in my pain. I really want to be free. I really want to say that no matter what happened to me, I want to be free from this and I want to choose how I respond and not be conditioned.” That is why the difficulty is countertransference. Countertransference tries to look everywhere else, but at “me and my experience and how I am responding to this.” It does not want to look at the paint.

Samael Aun Weor goes on to say that:

“This difficulty of countertransference is eliminated through structural and transactional analysis.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

It sounds very technical, but if we are sitting in meditation and we have achieved enough relaxation, concentration and stability to separate consciously from our experience, from our thoughts, to observe our thoughts―this is not to have a completely silent mind, but to have a silence that observes the mind, observes those thoughts, and observes those emotions in the bodily sensations―then we are able to see that the mind has a certain structure. It has its defenses. It has its walls.

In an example, if a man experienced a break up and his partner did something to really hurt him, and then he responded by shutting this person out, trying to put it all in the past, then in that case, one of the structures is, “I don't think about that. That is over. That is in the past. I am over it―all right.” This is one defense. There is a certain structure, and if this person sits in meditation and he tries to look at that and he says, “Well, maybe there still is some pain there; maybe I am not as over it as I thought, because something reminded me today about it and maybe there is some pain there”―the mind will have a transaction.

It will move on to some other defense. It will say, “Uh oh! He's getting through this wall.” So what is this other wall? Anger might come up and say, “Well, really I didn't do anything wrong in this situation. She did everything wrong and she was the bad person.” Again, we see the countertransference and the repression, or the ignorance gets transferred over to anger. We think, “Okay, well, I don't want to be this anger. I don't want to blame the other person. I want to be the better person,” then that transaction can move over to pride: “But really, I am a good person and I was so good to her,” and you know, whatever the case may be for any variety of situations.

We have to sit there and have gnosis of our own experience: to become deeply conscious of our experience of what happened, not by analyzing in the mind, but observing the structure of the mind and observing the transactions and the movements of the mind, until finally the mind has to stop deflecting and has to just let you look at the thing that you, perhaps, for a long time had not looked at.

That is why Samael Aun Weor goes on to say:

“It is important to segregate and to dissolve certain undesirable psychic aggregates that are fixed in our mind in a traumatic matter.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic

The aggregates in our mind would be something like that structure of anger, or that structure of repression, or that structure of pride, and they work together like friends. That's the transaction. So we want to set segregate them, to say, “Ah! Okay, well it just deflects it over here, but I am going to go back and I am going to focus on that until I have been able to dissolve it,” to say “I see this for what it is. I recognize and understand why this is here and I can consciously choose to eliminate it; to let it go; to say it's just not true and it has no power over me anymore.”

So as I mentioned before, belief, and just pushing it down and thinking positive thoughts, is not enough. We need comprehension. We need to go deeply in meditation and really see it for what it is in order to achieve lasting change. That is why this is a work of months or years, because continually, in our daily life, trauma resurfaces, and continually we have to make that choice: that our work to change ourselves is a priority, and that we are willing, again and again, to go and eliminate the different unconscious mechanisms within ourselves―things that have been fixed there as part of “who I am” in a traumatic matter. We want to make a change to them.

Self-Observation and Comprehension of Trauma

Going hand-in-hand with meditation is self-observation, because as I just mentioned, traumas resurface in our daily life. It said in the psychological community that trauma forces someone to live, permanently, stuck in the past. So even if they are somewhat present to their daily life, a part of them is trapped in the past and still responding to the past, trying to prevent from happening what has already happened.

If I have already been assaulted, I live constantly trying to prevent getting assaulted rather than being able to go back and look at the pain that is there and heal it, and let the wound heal. Comprehend it for what it is. Truly grieve for “what I have been through” and be able to let it go, rather than living as if it is still a threat currently “happening to me.” And so when we go in meditation, this is based on our self-observation: on the things that we see come up in ourselves every day.

The Traumatic Causes of Karma in Past Lives

In Tarot and Kabbalah, Samael Aun Weor writes:

“We need to make ourselves conscious of our own karma. This is only possible through the state of alert novelty.”

Alert novelty is being conscious and being awake to “what is happening to me,” not just externally, but “what am I feeling? What am I thinking? How is my body responding?” Becoming aware of your body in the chair and how you are feeling emotionally? And what thoughts are popping into your mind? Not just now, but in every moment. That takes tremendous energy, which again, is another reason why sexual transmutation gives us the fuel that we really need to be able to stay awake consciously throughout the day.

Now when he is talking about karma here, karma comes from the root karman, which means: “action and consequence, cause and effect.” So maybe our mainstream idea of karma is just, "Oh, you did something bad to somebody; something bad is going to happen to you!” But a much more scientific understanding of karma, for our terms, is that there is no action that does not produce a consequence.

You can't throw a rock into a pool of water without producing ripples. Now the shape of that consequence may take, or the time it may take for that consequence to fully bloom, that can be variable. But everything you do, everything you think, everything you feel has an effect. If you feel anger and you think angry thoughts, even if you don't act on it, it will change the way that you interact with the person you are angry with. At some point it might even bubble up and express itself fully, may be in a worse way for being repressed. Everything in our life produces some consequence, and that is why it is even more critical to be able to become conscious of our response to life, because we might not be able to change what we have done in this life up to now, or even in past lives, but we can change what we are doing now that will alter the future of this lifetime and future lifetimes.

He goes on to say that:

“Every effect in life, every event, has its cause in a previous life; but we need to become conscious of this.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

If you are really working with meditation, and I say this from my own experience, and you meditate on a trauma, and you go deep enough, you will see causes in previous lifetimes. I can give an example of a painful relationship that I was in where, again and again, no matter how much I tried to change this person, this man and I would continually repeat the same types of behaviors towards each other. As much as we might have cared for each other, it continually remained a toxic relationship.

And so, you know, years after the fact when I am trying to go on and live my life, this keeps resurfacing for me. I am studying the Gnostic teachings. I am working with these practices, transmutation, meditations, etc., and I say “Okay, well, here is a perfect example. This is something I definitely want to change” by going deeply in meditation and understanding, on a regular basis, you know, really working on this day to day until I could get deeper and deeper.

First getting through the defense mechanisms, then getting into “Well, how am I really feeling?” Because I have pushed it down and denied it for so long, I haven't even objectively seen my experience, until finally going deeper into what caused this. Why would something like this happen? Why did I have to be stuck in so much pain for so long? And being able to see through astral experiences the exact actions that I had done in multiple previous lives, and that this person had done in multiple previous lives, that caught us in that pattern.

Now this was something that I didn't necessarily believe in or expect to happen. I totally felt like, “Well, this just happened to me, whether or not I believe in past lives. This happened because he was a bad person and I was young” or whatever. But to truly go and have an experience so vividly where I saw, instantaneously, those multiple past lives―with those multiple transgressions in different bodies and different times, but seeing the same energetic cycle―was shocking for me.

It produced a type of comprehension that really was so deep, I was able to fundamentally alter the way that I looked at myself, because I never saw myself really, deeply, as the aggressor. As much as I might have said, “Well, yeah, I did bad things… I really felt victimized,” it hurt. But when I saw “Oh my gosh! I did that in past lives” and I knew from the experience and how vivid it was, how true it was that I was really there, I wept with remorse, because I would have done anything I could to have changed that and to not have hurt this other person that I cared for.

But you know, we have to work from where we are at now.

So when we become deeply conscious through self-observation, through what is coming up in our current life, and also through meditation, through going deeply, day after day, into deeper states of meditation, deeper states of consciousness and comprehension, it can produce a fundamental shift. I say that, and I probably still have more work to do on that particular one, but I have profoundly changed, and in a permanent way, which wouldn't be possible for me to react in some of the ways that I had before.

He goes on in Tarot and Kabbalah, saying:

“The law of action and consequence governs the course of our varied existences, and each life is the result of the previous one.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

Now we see repetition on a daily basis. We see that, “Yeah, you know, when I get in these types of situations, I tend to act the same way. Even if I am trying to change.” We see this in our current life, but even more fundamentally, in past lives, we followed very similar trajectories, because the same energy propelled us. The same desires, the same fears, the same vices, and even the same virtues, in some cases, provoked us to repeat the same patterns.

What we want to do is become conscious of what is propelling us in this lifetime, in this moment, and to have a conscious choice over “which direction do I want to go? Do I want to continue to get stuck in deeper and deeper suffering, to keep doing things that hurt others and hurt myself? Or do I want to change the trajectory of that energy so that the rest of my lifetime or future lifetimes is much improved from this one?”

Samael Aun Weor writes:

“Karma is the law of compensation, not of vengeance.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

It is cause and effect. It is not some evil old man in the clouds trying to shoot down lightning bolts at you because he is mad at you, because you are a terrible sinner. It is cause and effect. You send an energy into motion to be angry at someone and to hurt someone, and that energy produced effects in that person, produce effects in the environment, and at some point in time, those effects come back. Because when you are angry at somebody and you hurt them, unless they are very awake and they can transform them, that unconscious effect on them produces effects that they want to respond to you with anger, with pain, to make you feel what they feel. This happens in all actions.

“There are some who confuse this cosmic law with detriment and even with fatality, believing that everything that happens to the human being in life is inexorably determined beforehand. It is true that the acts of the human being are determined by inheritance, education, and the environment. Yet, it is also true that the human being has free will and can modify his actions to educate his character, to form superior habits, to fight against weaknesses, to fertilize virtues, etc. Karma is a medicine that is applied unto us for our own good.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

Karma is an opportunity that comes with risks. Karma provides us with the opportunity to see ourselves in a new way―to wake up to our suffering and to change. What did I do to produce this? Maybe not in this lifetime, but in previous lifetimes, and what can I do to change it, if I awake consciousness and respond in a new way? But it also comes with the risk of just getting more identified with that intense pain and going deeper and deeper into suffering, continuing the downward spiral.

And he concludes with quite a bit of severity:

Disgracefully, instead of bowing with reverence before the internal living God, people protest, blaspheme, they justify themselves, they stubbornly excuse themselves and wash their hands like Pilate. Karma is not modified with such protests; on the contrary, it becomes harder and more severe.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

No matter how much we might resist karma or be mad about our situation or say, “Well, I was a good person and I didn't deserve this,” and “Why is this happening?” and yell at our inner God―it won't change cause and effect. It is not going to change the energies in nature that are coming to manifest for us. We will reap what we sow. If we do good deeds that produce harmony in our environment, that produces happiness and other people, they will respond to us with that happiness.

Now, maybe not immediately, but it is a given that any energy you put into motion has an effect. A lot of times, it takes months or years for the good effects to manifest. So, we have to really stick with it and be tenacious because, we have done, you know, all of us have done bad things in our life; thought bad things about bad things; acted in harmful ways; hurt people. So, you know, unfortunately, I said, we can't undo the past, but we can choose right now to respond to our present life in a new way to change our future.

Selfless Service and Sacrifice: The Transformation of Suffering

Finally, the last force that we work with, to truly transform our trauma, is sacrifice for others, particularly those who suffer similarly to us.

We have talked about how we need transmutation to have the energy and the spiritual power to become someone new, to become conscious in new ways.

We need meditation to go deeply to get rid of the conditioning that makes us the same old person, on repeat, all the time.

And finally, we need the power of sacrifice, because these are the actions that help us to create those new energies in motion, so that we don't encounter those same negative experiences that re-traumatize us, but so that we can get the healing that we want.

As you sow you will also reap. So, if we want to heal from our trauma, we need to begin by healing others.

I want to preface this with a bit of caution, in that if you are in a very traumatized state and you are feeling overwhelmed, be careful what types of situations you put yourself into until you have some healing. If you have healthy and stable relationships in your life, you can begin to really do this work and go deeply in yourself, but if not, it can be unsettling especially early on.

It is very difficult to manage unless we have a real strength of consciousness in our meditation practice. If you don't have anyone you feel is a stable and healthy support in your life, it can be helpful to see a therapist, or to see someone that specializes in trauma, who understands the process and can be there to support you. You have to do the work, and every therapist will agree that you only get out of therapy the amount of effort you are willing to put into it.

But it is really necessary to have some source of stability, because as a consciousness, most of us, are very weak, and there are a lot of Impressions coming in our lives, so we want to keep our ourselves, in the beginning, in situations that are positive impressions: healthy places to go; good people to be around; healthy types of music or activities or yoga, things like that, that bring us stability, rather than, you know, going into bars, or places where you know it is dangerous, if you are able to.

Not all of us have that luxury, I understand, so doing what we can to produce stability before we really deeply dive into working on our trauma, sacrificing for others, it depends on us and our situation and our willingness. What am I willing to really do to serve other people ? If we have the strength and we start to work on ourselves and we get to a good place, what am I really willing to do to not just serve other people, but to sacrifice for other people? To go above and beyond what is expected of me as a good citizen and to really expend something of my heart, or my time, or my talents, in the benefit of other people―this is what is the true power that produces great change.

However, as stated in Tarot and Kabbalah:

“Many people who suffer only remember their bitterness and wish to find a remedy. But, they do not remember the suffering of others; neither do they remotely think of remedying the needs of their neighbors.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

When we are in intense pain, that is usually all we can think about: how much I am suffering as a self. Now, if you get into some of the more esoteric teachings of Buddhism and Eastern teachings, you come to understand that there is no such thing as a self, and yet we deeply believe ourselves to be an individual who has such and such experiences, who reacts in such and such a way.

The psyche itself is egotistical. It maintains an illusion of “This is who I am” and “this is how I feel” and “this is what I think.” The consciousness is beyond that, but when the consciousness is asleep, it is fused with the psyche in such a way that it feels very strongly that “This is who I am. That is my existence.” And again, that is why it's important to be able to separate the consciousness a little bit in meditation, to observe the self, not as me, but as a structure or as an entity that can be separated from me. That can be observed as its own individual person with its own feelings and wills, and to be able to do that requires a good deal of stability, concentration, relaxation, and meditation.

So when we are trapped in that egotistical prison, a feeling like, “Oh my gosh, everything bad is happening to me! This happened and then years later this happened, and this keeps happening!”―that pain is so intense it is nearly impossible to think about anybody else and anybody else who is suffering. Yet, we should take the time to really think about how much other people are suffering, not as a way of comparing: “Oh, well, I have got it worse than those people or they are worse than me” and making ourselves feel guilty, but to just truly comprehend it and feel it deeply in ourselves. This is to feel the pain of other people, empathize with that, and wish, “I wish things on this planet were better and not so many people were suffering.” We see that we have the power in our limited free time or with our limited gifts to be able to go and help someone else, to say, “Man, if all of us have to suffer this much, I at least want to produce something good for someone else!” Then we are able to break out of our prison of egotism a little bit, and it actually lessens our sorrow. It actually lessens our experience of being so enmeshed and ingrained in our in our own individual pain.

The Cessation of Karmic Suffering

I will conclude with a final point from the same book Tarot and Kabbalah:

“If those people would think of others, serve their neighbors, feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, dress the naked, teach those who are ignorant, etc., then it would be clear, they are putting good deeds on the plate of the cosmic scale [of karma]. The scale would incline toward their favor. Thus, they would alter their destiny, and good luck would come in their favor. In other words, all of their necessities would be remedied. But people are very selfish; this is the reason for their suffering. No one remembers God nor their fellowmen except when they are in desperation.” ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah

Again, I want to emphasize that this is not a matter of belief and believing, “Oh well, if I just superficially do a couple nice things and superficially wish good things for others, then all of a sudden my life is going to be perfect and great things are going to happen.”

It is a matter of action. You don't have to believe in this cosmic law of karma and cause and effect for it to have an impact on you. You don't have to believe that you are going to get wet when it is raining in order for you to step outside and get wet. This is the same way. We have a big obstacle in American society and that is cynicism. People genuinely don't believe that if you do good things, then good things are going to happen to you. They think “Well, the only people it works out for are the ones who get ahead and step on everybody else.”

This is an obstacle. This is a belief that changes the way we perceive reality, that changes the way we respond to reality. If we are deeply a cynic, we respond to reality with that conditioning and with that negativity and we act in negative ways as a response to it: hopelessness―you know―nihilism. So for us to really change that, we need to be open to trying new things, open to genuinely saying, “Okay, for the next month, I'll go volunteer someplace and I'll do something good in my free time that otherwise I wouldn't do.”

We have the free will to choose that, but do we have enough conscious will power to actually do it and stick with it even when it gets ugly, and we are really seeing the suffering, the intense suffering of other people? Are we really willing to stick with it and to see the impact it makes on us? Because that action will not be without consequence. It will change you. It will change your emotional state, your thoughts. You will see the world in a new way if you go into that type of environment, if you do that type of work, if you give of yourself, even when you are tired, or you don't feel like it, etc.

As I mentioned, it is a way that we can change things, but to have true faith in karma doesn't come from belief. That faith in karma comes from being awake: observing our life; observing the effects of our actions; the effects of our thoughts, emotions, etc. And that is how we produce a lasting change. It is by deeply knowing that. If I do this, it will produce this result. Then we won't want to produce negative results for ourselves, not just because we believe and we are scared it is going to produce something negative, but because we have seen it happen multiple times in our lives we have experienced it. We have gnosis of those consequences, and so we are not going to do it. You are not going to stick your hand in the fire if you know that the fire burns.

Questions and Answers

Question: I found it interesting when you were talking about the cycles that we repeat in as far as our defense mechanisms or past lives. So how does that, in this tradition, rectify with attachment theory? The big thing in psychology now is attachment theory: that a lot of your personality, all these defense mechanisms that you are talking about come from age zero to seven, things that have happened to you: how your parents dealt with you, whatever happened. How much of that is what you are dealing with now as an adult, compared to all the past lives and stuff, or is that an aggregation of all that?

Instructor: Attachment theory, for those who are unfamiliar, is that if we have stable attachment, a healthy safe environment in which we grow up, we experience relationships in a different way, and are much more easily able to have healthy relationships later on in life. If we have an unhealthy or unstable, dysfunctional family or environment as a child, it changes the way our brain is wired, and we have much more anxiety and fear and withdrawal and relationships later in life.

Those formative years, not just for attachment, but for all kinds of things in our personality, have a tremendous effect on us, and science has shown us this. How much of those formative years is causing the problems we have now in life versus past lives? And yes, you kind of answered your question. The formative years are the compressed aggregate of many previous lifetimes. So, the formative years is where we see not just lifetimes, you know, like, “Okay, my past ten lifetimes,” but very ancient lifetimes, things that go back to previous civilizations.

Things that happened not just as an individual, but as people, as a collective, are encoded into even the way that a fetus forms. If you have ever looked at a human fetus, you know, it goes through phases of evolution, almost looking like a lizard at certain points, and then becoming more human.

All of our biology, our DNA, our physical existence, is a code based on our spiritual existence. It is the physical manifestation of the internal existence. So, when we see early childhood traumas and pain like that, it is often from an ancient past of being caught in a cycle with that person's family, with those other souls or individuals that are in that family of harming one another. It is very sad.

But you bring up a good point. We shouldn't get too caught up with past lives right off the bat. It is actually more important in the beginning to look at your life and to look at previous experiences in this current lifetime: to just look at what you can observe. You don't want to get caught up in a fantasy of trying to imagine your past lives and then producing more delusion for yourselves. Really, focus in the beginning on just observing this lifetime and what I can remember from this lifetime, and sitting in meditation and allowing those memories to naturally come up spontaneously.

You may be sitting, meditating on something, and some seemingly unrelated memory pops up from when you were six years old in kindergarten, and then you are like, “How is that related? That doesn't make any sense.!” So then you can choose: “Okay, maybe I take a break and I'll meditate on that experience in kindergarten and try to comprehend what that was all about.” Then as you meditate on that, you may have an inspiration of, “Oh, now I see, it's not in the mind. It's in the consciousness!” This understanding. This comprehension is much deeper than an intellectual, “Oh, A plus B equals C.” It is a very deep knowledge, like I gave in my example of knowing, vividly, in the experience of seeing my past lives that they were real and that that had been me.

Even though I was in different bodies, I knew exactly which one was me, and that is something that is not an intellectual, “Oh, that must be me because she looks like such and such.” It is knowing. In the same way when a memory comes up and you sit with it, and you sink into it, you are praying for guidance from your inner divinity, that can come through. It might not happen in the meditation session. It might happen three hours later when you are washing the dishes. It suddenly clicks. This is the way it is. When our mind takes a break, consciousness can bring us results.

Other questions?

Question: You mentioned a tradition that correlates with the Buddhist tradition... What tradition was that?

Instructor: Vajrayana tradition: the most esoteric levels Buddhism. If you go into the essence of those scriptures, you see they are very similar to ours.

Buddhism, in general, has many sects, but in general, it has three levels of traditions. Shravakayana would be the lowest level, the most fundamental based on just the literal teachings of the Buddha. That is a very introductory level for people who are just coming into Buddhism. It is where they usually start.

Mahayana, known as the greater vehicle, has more of these mystical elements into it, and at the heart of Mahayana is the service, the sacrifice for others―trying to strive for a lifetime of becoming an enlightened being in order to help humanity, which is suffering so much. So we builds on that route of: life is suffering, and I want to escape my suffering by transcending that and going into, “I want to transcend my suffering because I want to help other beings transcend their suffering.”

Then Vajrayana, or sometimes called Tantrayana, from Tantra, is the highest level of the teaching, the most esoteric. It has traditionally been the most hidden, although in recent years, a lot of this has come to life because of the internet. It is about expedient methods in which to achieve that enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. So, it builds on the other two, and Tantrayana talks a lot about working with sexual energy and transmitting sexual energy. So that is the direct correlation with our tradition.

Another Instructor: The Dalai Lama, in relation to this topic of trauma, related an experience in which he interviewed a Buddhist monk, who was exiled from Tibet after the Chinese had invaded. He was put into prison for 18 years. He was abused and experienced many of the traumas and difficulties of that particular region. And to tie into this discussion of trauma, there was an interesting comment the man made to the Dalai Lama, who asked him, “What was your greatest danger when being in prison?” And the monk said, “Losing my compassion for the Chinese.” So a question we can reflect upon is: how does the force of compassion help to overcome trauma? (especially tying into this need to serve, to sacrifice for humanity and what that does for the individual psyche). As you said, if we are focusing on trauma, if we are focused on our pain, you don't really think about other people, but how is it that compassion unlocks, unties that Gordian knot of suffering?

Instructor: You remind me of another quote that is quite popular: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to realize that the prisoner is you.”

When we let go of our grudges against other people, even if we feel totally justified in them, and even if those people did very evil things, we free ourselves in a very deep way. It can't be expressed in words. It can only be experienced. If you have ever had a time where you were so angry at somebody and you held on to it for so long, and then finally, somehow, you were able to forgive them, the weight was lifted and you were able to perceive life, even that person, without so much pain. Then you have experienced it and you know it's true.

Compassion for others is a way of liberating ourselves from suffering. It works with this principle: sacrifice for others. When we do good things for others, we forgive others, so we can be forgiven. It puts into effect powerful causes that transcend previous causes.

But when we hold on to anger, when we hold onto pain, we are poisoning our ourselves. It is not pleasant to feel anger. As justified as we may be in being angry, it is suffering to feel that anger and it is freedom to feel good will towards other people, no matter what they have done to you, to keep your distance from people if you need to, absolutely.

Keep yourself safe. Don't stay in a situation where you are being abused, but with that prudence, to also be able to not let not let that pain linger with you―to do this type of work and go deep into healing the pain.

It doesn't happen overnight, but through that process we say that the law of karma, of action and consequence, is the second law. It is the law of nature, and there is a first law, a superior law which can transcend karma. So, all these bad actions we may have done, which we may be freaking out of like, “Oh man, I know I did bad things in this lifetime, who can imagine past lifetimes!” There is a much more powerful law that we can work with in order to create effects and causes that are even more powerful than those that can, in many cases, overcome the effects of those laws. They can't erase it, but they can be more powerful than the effects of those other actions. It is the law of sacrifice.

To do good things for others is a law. It is an intelligent law, is that divine law. It is a law that works with superior principles. The laws of nature are mechanical, karma. Karma has an intelligence, or I should say, it is managed intelligently, but it is like physics. It happens. You can believe whatever you want, and it is still going to happen to you, but sacrifice is a very special divine law.

Again, it is something that you can only truly experience the effects if you have done it, if you have given it a try. Like I said, going for a month and really sacrificing, then you experience for yourself, when you sit at the end of that month and you reflect back on it, you know from your experience the effects of that. You don't have to believe in it. Many times, we have in our imagination or in our fantasies, “Well, if I go do that, it's just going to be like this.” And we never actually do something. We just have our projection of the future, a projection of what a situation will be like.

Without having experienced it, we think we already know. We need to question our mind because the mind and the imagination are very powerful and condition us, producing the effects it wants us to do, but an action, actually, is much more powerful.

Question: So trauma, not properly addressed and not transformed, would you say that it would carry over into another life?

Instructor: Absolutely. Yeah, because trauma itself, even if it's something good that happens to us, can carry over to future lives. So good things that happen to us that we become very attached to, like having a loving relationship with a child, you know, even in a future lifetime again, we are going to find that same individual and whatever new relationship and have a strong attachment. So even good things, good attachments, which carry over to lifetime to lifetime, are still unconscious and mechanical.

We want free will, both from the traumas and the pains that have conditioned us to respond to people or certain people or certain situations, and in the same way, we want to separate from that and free ourselves and also from any kind of unconsciousness. It doesn't mean we stop doing good things or loving people or having kind relationships, but it means we have a conscious choice about it.

So trauma, as I mentioned before, is just a really powerful experience of gnosis that prevents us from denying suffering. But other experiences, good experiences, can have that same kind of un-transformed or un-digested impressions, that same effect on our structure of our psyche.

And even though the physical body doesn't carry on from lifetime to lifetime, what we call the astral body, which is made up of our emotions, or the mental body which is made up of, you know, more finer mental substances, they carry on from lifetime to lifetime in the form of the ego. It is a type of matter that is more protoplasmic, that is more malleable than physical matter, and it can exist outside of the physical world. That is why with astral projection, you can go outside of your physical body and you can still have experiences. You can still walk around and talk, but it's not with your physicality.

After death, those different aggregates of ourselves can move on lifetime to lifetime. What is important is that if we wake up, we can become very conscious of that experience, not just when we go to sleep, but also after death. We can have more power and more choice in our future lifetimes.

Also, we can become a different type of being in higher planes of reality, planes that are more ethereal or subtler planes of nature. They are just as real as the physical plane; in fact, in some way, very much more real, but we are not conscious of them because we are so asleep and so hypnotized by our physical nature.

We want to be aware of our physical nature, but also aware of these other aspects of ourselves. So this can be both higher aspects of our emotional and mental nature, but also lower aspects, because we have a lot of unconsciousness, subconsciousness, infraconsciousness trapped in negativity. And that, for us, is hell. If we are trapped in the negative states: anger, pride, greed, lust, etc., we are continually tortured by those desires and pulled in different ways from one minute to the next. It can be completely contradictory desires. This is a state of confusion and suffering.

Until we become conscious of it and liberate the consciousness out of that, then we can't really move fully up. We might have parts of ourselves that are up in higher states of consciousness and parts of ourselves trapped in lower states of consciousness, but generally speaking, for most of us, the majority of us are trapped in negativity and lower states of consciousness.

That is the work of meditation, not just with trauma, but with everything. It is to enter in meditation into the lower states of our mind, to perceive them not as real and “that is who I am,” but to perceive them as structures in our mind that project images, that project emotions, or fantasies, or plans for the future, and to just perceive it without becoming hypnotized and identified with it. We must comprehend it for what it is, to turn and look at what is the source of this fantasy that is playing, or this fear that is playing, and to be able to comprehend that source and eliminate it through the power of transmutation, which can give birth to something new.

Question: Based on the answer it sounds like as far as trauma goes… does the work to transform that energy, that experience prior to death so that you are not going into the next life with that baggage, so to speak. What would be the complete set of things that you need to be looking to do by death so that you are in the best space for the next life?

Instructor: Great work, that is, a truly deep work. We do as much as we can, as much as we have the willpower to do. But, it's these three things:

Transmutation (which we actually call birth)
Death (which is meditation)
Sacrifice

These are the three factors for the revolution of the consciousness.

So on a daily basis, doing good deeds, performing good actions, meditating on the unconscious parts of ourselves, whether seemingly positive, negative, or neutral, meditating on them and comprehending them―becoming awake and aware of what is controlling us beneath the surface.

Birth is working in transmutation to give birth to new elements in your consciousness and to eliminate those negative structures. Primarily, if we are not working with transmutation, we do not have very much of the substance which can destroy the roots of trauma and of karma. When I act in a certain way, I fuel energy into it, and a lot of times, even if this isn't a lustful situation, even if it's for example, pride or anger, that takes my creative energy, that takes my life force, the essence of who I am, and invests my energy into that.

That is being born in me as a living type of substance, a living entity, almost of itself, and that entity is anger, and that anger has a will of its own―a will to speak a certain way, to think a certain way, to act a certain way. And so, until I take that same force, draw it out of the anger―through comprehension and use my own life force to say, “I am eliminating this”―then nothing can be changed on a permanent level.

We might be able to do some superficial change, but to really achieve a deep and lasting change, we can't do that. And if you read the book, you'll see that that work with the sexual energy is the work with the Divine Mother.

I didn't want to get too much into it today, but we are working with the power of the Divine Mother, or the power of the Holy Spirit. The Third Logos is that power of creation and destruction, of birth and death. And so, that is the power we work with when we utilize that energy. Doing as much as we can before death will radically change us.

It is like an exponential curve. The more that you are able to do, then the more that you will be able to do. “If I do this much, then exponentially I'll be able to do that much more, and from that point, I'll be able to do so much more.” Karma really restricts us, and the more unconscious we are and the more karma we have weighing us down that hasn't been transformed, our actions become very limited by our circumstances, by the types of people around us, by our environment, etc. The more that we work with the little three percent of free will that we have to break that karma, to transform that karma, to work with sacrifice and conscious actions, then we get five percent free will. Then ten percent free will, and you know, exponentially the more free will you have, suddenly you have a lot more control over your situation.

We see people in the world who have way more freedom than many of us. We also see people in this world who have very difficult situations. You know, to have mental illness, for example, is a type of karma. It is a structure that conditions your ability to act and feel, and you know, there are medications and things we can do that can help, but the very conditioning of our psychology is a part of our matter, a part of our experience of life, and is formed by previous actions and karma.

Another Instructor: I would also say that the more we awaken our consciousness, physically and in the internal planes, the more prepared for death we are. In Buddhism, they teach to prepare for death by meditating daily on that inevitability, and by becoming more conscious and working on our traumas, those negative states of anger or pride, the more we will remember and be awake. Because for most people, especially in the West, who have never had any type of training, they don't remember where they came from―their past lives. So, as we were talking about the theory, or what people think is a theory, is not a theory for people who can experience that for themselves. The more we awaken, as we were saying, and the more freedom of perception, and then if we take another body, we will remember where we came from or the level of work we obtained, and in that way we have more opportunities to continue to go deeper and to resolve those traumas that trap us.

Instructor: The capacities of our consciousness are practically infinite, but we are not aware of that because we utilize the consciousness so very little, as compared to our intellect, or our physical body.

Question: There are so many versions of meditation and different physical ways of experiencing meditation or practicing meditation. Would you say that they are all innately trying to achieve the same thing or are they based on different types of practices that you do or trying to awaken a certain level of consciousness or area?

Instructor: That is a good question. Do all different forms and techniques of meditation produce the same results, or strive for the same results? No. I do believe that there are a variety of genuine meditation techniques that can, regardless of which one you work with, if you work with a diligently enough, it can help you along the way to achieve the awakening of consciousness, but much of that is determined upon your own conscious effort.

Even if you use the genuine meditation technique from a given tradition, that has helped lots of people to awaken, to become enlightened, if you are not active in consciousness, it is not going to work for you.

As the internet proliferates all kinds of things, there are some meditation techniques which could be harmful from a psychological perspective. Meditation techniques that say, “Okay, go and fantasize about your ideal life and really invest in that,” is not going to awaken your consciousness, but it is going to further hypnotize your consciousness, and could even inhibit your ability to see reality, or make you more dissatisfied with reality. We should be careful.

Also, different techniques produce different effects. So when I talked about pranayamas as an example, we have a variety of different pranayama techniques from different traditions. Many of which are genuine pranayama techniques, and each of which would achieve this transmutation of sexual energy, but also with slight variations. I believe that meditation is much the same way, you know. When I work with different mantras or different meditation techniques, I can achieve different results, but all of which if they are a good technique, awaken my consciousness. But perhaps one awakens my consciousness so that I am more aware of my heart and activate my heart and feel more compassion, whereas another awakens my consciousness and helps me to astral project. Or, another awakens, you know my ability to try to perceive a past life.

So we have hundreds or thousands of techniques in our tradition that you know, many of which also come from other traditions, religions around the world, all in the books. So, we are happy to refer you to books that have those practices if it's helpful.

Another Instructor: Another point too is that, as we are mentioning, in Buddhism, there are three schools, and every religion has its systems. In Buddhism, Shravakayana, the introductory level; Mahayana, the greater vehicle; and the most expedient Tantrayana.

So meditation, as taught within the introductory levels, are geared with a specific focus. They teach the beginning practitioner how to concentrate, work with ethics, upright action, upright thoughts, and feelings and deeds so that the mind becomes stable. If you think of the mind like a lake, if we keep throwing stones, negative thinking, impressions into the lake, it is going to be churning, unstable.

From that point of view, we can't address any trauma, because in order to see clearly, your mind has to be perfectly still. So in the introductory levels of Buddhism or any tradition, we teach ethics, karma, serenity. To develop a serene mind, the meditative practices of that tradition, or any introductory level, will teach you how to develop stability. As it was explained in the lecture, we have to balance our three brains and a brain in esoterism has to do with any type of machine that processes matter, energy, and consciousness.

Our intellect is not just the only brain, because we have many forms of intelligence in the heart and in sex. In fact our entire physiology is a marvelous machine that can transform energy, but if we don't use or balance those centers through ethics, upright thought, feeling, action, we can't really enter a state of meditation. We need to really go to the heart of our problems.

Once we have that type of serenity developed, then you can start to develop more compassion for others, because you see that other people, who don't have that training, are in tremendous suffering and affliction. That is the Mahayana level, the middle ground, the greater vehicle, and the meditations taught in that tradition are more profound and demand a type of diligence and foundation.

So in all the meditations, they lead towards the highest stages, in which we are meditating not just for ourselves, but for humanity. That is when we can do practices like Tantra, or as we say in this tradition, the perfect matrimony: to utilize energy in the highest way, to transform not only yourself, but others, and that is what we are leaning towards.

It is important that when we approached meditation, we, in our tradition, have many practices. Work with where we are at and, in most case,s we have to start at the very bottom. Because if you sit to reflect on your mind, you can see that it is difficult to concentrate, or we have no serenity in the beginning. So in our school, we teach all three levels of Buddhism at once, because students are at different levels and have different needs. If you look at other traditions, you may find some schools will only focus on the basics. Some very high, but the problem becomes not having a practical foundation in the steps, because they help to build off one another.

Instructor: A great explanation, because everybody wants to jump right to Tantra, and right to the most advanced practices, like “Oh, I want to get out of my body and speak to the Lord of Karma, Anubis or whatever the case may be,” but if we don't have the ability to relax physically, emotionally, and mentally, to separate our consciousness from it, to awaken our consciousness from those three brains, and to have concentration, to maintain our attention and our awareness on the object of our meditation, then we're not able to even work with those more advanced techniques. We are going to try them, and they are not going to work, or if they do work by chance, it could end up being a harmful situation.

So really establishing ourselves in the basics allows us to then gradually work our way up to those more advanced practices. Like the example I gave about going deeper and deeper and deeper in meditation, and finally into, you know, a past life experience―that was built on months and years of really working with meditation and basics, working with concentration and relaxation. If you stay for the optional meditation after this lecture, you will be able to try out a basic technique with us in which we're going to meditate exactly on balancing those three brains and working with relaxation and concentration.

Another Instructor: Maybe to finish on how the magic of the roses work, because I know especially in North America and the West, when we hear of magic, we think of right circus tricks, or all sorts of people who perform illusions. But how do roses or the magic, the soul of the plant, go with the practice?

With that practice, in our tradition, we use a lot of exercises that work with nature. Magic, in its true sense, is how we as a consciousness can communicate with divinity and interact with the soul of nature. All the vegetable kingdom, the mineral kingdom, the animal kingdom, has this type of soul, in different gradations of complexity. So, minerals are obviously very simple. Plants more involved. They process and channel energy in nature. Animals, of course, are more developed. They are collectively developing a type of will, which is different than plants, until finally we have humanoids, or the intellectual animal. The human being, the soul, anima, with intellect.

We work with plants primarily because the souls of those types of creatures have power. We learn to work and communicate to command the souls of plants to help, because every plant and nature has its type of properties, which can heal. It can perform medicine. We know this very extensively from indigenous cultures, which still retain a type of wisdom that our modern orthodoxy and medicine does not support.

The rose is a very elevated plant. It is the queen of flowers. If you know astrology, each plant relates to different planets, because each plant channels the forces of the cosmos. It transmits. So, as you see that the human being is a machine that transmits forces, likewise, minerals, plants, animals. That is why you have such diversity in nature, because each living entity channels force.

It is interesting that the rose is especially powerful for healing the heart. Even conventionally, we may give roses to our loved ones in order to show love, especially, romantic love, because the rose, we know instinctually, has a marvelous presence. Even within the internal planes, the soul of that plant is very elevated. We can command the soul of the rose to work with the divided hierarchies of the angels, related to the planet Venus, the star of love, to invoke that intelligence, bring it to our home and deposit medicine within the glasses.

So you notice that you have a glass facing the East; you drink this before breakfast; the glass towards the North, before lunch; then the glass towards the West, before dinner. That sequence parallels the trajectory of the Sun, and we know that Venus is the star of the dawn. It channels the forces of the divinity we call Christ, which is a force, particularized in any person who is prepared.

So, you pray to your inner Being, “My God, my Divine Mother, command the elemental of the rose to work and deposit healing within these glasses,” by invoking the angels of that force, that bring the particular influence of love, so that we can heal trauma―to at least gain stability to the point that we can meditate further. And you drink in that sequence. Very simple. Healing is very simple. Prayer, relaxation, concentration, faith. Not belief.

We have experiences we know, if you awaken in the dream state, you can personally converse with the elementals of nature. Personally, I have been in the habit over the years to meditate on certain elementals, the plants that I have in my home, in which I have been able to communicate with those entities, those beings who are still in Eden. They are innocent. They haven't entered into all the complex problems that we have in the humanoid kingdom through the process of evolution. So they are very simple. They are like angels, but in a very small degree.

You can pray and with faith, you have the experience. You know that these elements exist and that the rose can heal pain. Personally, I have used the roses when I have had traumas, in certain betrayals and conflicts that I could not reconcile, and by working with the glasses, you drink, over a sequence of a few days. When the roses wither, you can remove them. Then your pain is alleviated, at least at the surface, to the point that we have enough stability where we can meditate and then look at the problem, because in the moment when we are afflicted, we can't think. You can't concentrate.

Those elementals or souls of nature are very powerful. They work and obey divinity. The rose is, of course, held in very high regard in certain traditions, such as the Rosicrucians, the first Gnostics, the Rosicrucian Gnostic Church. The rose is a symbol of the transformation of the soul into the beauty of God. Of course, the rose is very effective for that. You can work with it however much you need.

It’s simple. Pray, relax, and concentrate. You drink it like medicine. The good thing is that there are no side effects. Of course, some people in this day and age have traumas and illnesses in the mind, of the heart, that, because that karma is crystallized in the body, some people need to take a drug to be able to find balance. But the wonderful property of this practice is that there are no side effects. Water. Roses. Magic. Because those substances that divinity places are not physical. They are etheric, astral, mental, spiritual, internal.

In conjunction with whatever people may have to do to find balance, whether it be medication and therapy, the roses are exceptional. Simple, but profound. That ritual is as effective as your prayer. Prayer is something simple. You don't need formulas when you talk to your inner divinity. You say, “My Father, my God, help me!” Use your words and just ask for that healing and experiment. That practice is of course effective when we are working in transmutation. Work with your creative energy, because your prayer will be empowered when you use that force, and that way it opens the doorway into the internal planes.

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Mental Dynamics

9/23/2019

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(Manjushri cutting through illusion with
the sword of Prajna: wisdom or insight)

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So when we meditate, what we always seek is information. This type of information always carries with itself a psychological flavor of the new. So every time we sit to practice, we should really have the sensation, or the experience, that we are seeing things in a new way. If when we sit to practice and observe the contents of our mind, we perceive everything in a dull way, then we are not awakening the consciousness, the Buddhata, or the Essence. This clear observation of oneself is what Samael Aun Weor referred to as Mo Chao. Mo signifies "serenity," Chao indicates "reflection."

We find Mo Chao expressed in the writings of Samael Aun Weor multiple times when he refers to it as concentration and imagination. Concentration in itself is a serene state. It is a state of awareness or equanimity in which the mind is in silence. This can only be achieved by learning to pay attention, to direct attention. We do this through a moment to moment effort—to be aware of ourselves in whatever circumstance. We have to examine whatever impressions of life enter our mind and psyche in order to stimulate reactions within ourselves.

We can say, in synthesis, that the master work of esotericism, of meditation and these types of esoteric studies, is learning how to control and understand the mind and its relationships with impressions. It is a moment to moment effort. It is a moment to moment work. When we truly understand the nature of the mind itself and its hypnotism, the many ways in which thoughts, desires, and impulses really control us, we begin to take life as type of work. Concentration is really the key to understanding the vast breadth and depth of the science of meditation.

So while we study kabbalah, alchemy, tantra, astrology, tarot, the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, chakras, and many others subjects, when we don't know how to meditate, all of this esoteric knowledge is really quite useless. If we don't know how to pay attention from moment to moment, they are useless. If we have a psychology that's complacent with sloth, inaction, and lack of attention, if our consciousness is asleep by indiscriminately taking in impressions, when the mind constantly reacts without our comprehension, knowing kabbalah and alchemy will not help us. In fact, what we will have is a lot of indigestion. To really benefit from the science of the tree of life, in general, we need meditation.

It is learning how to discipline the mind itself that will allow us to make it an instrument in which our Inner Divinity can act through us. It's by learning how to concentrate, to achieve a serene mind, like a lake which can reflect the Being itself, that opens to door to self-knowledge. This spark of intuition and comprehension doesn't have to be just when we sit to meditate, when we close our eyes to the world and enter into our own internal worlds. In every moment we can and must learn to let the Being act within our three brains, here and now.

So when we talk about concentration and learning to pay attention, we're talking about the psyche, the soul itself. This is very distinct and different from what we term personality and what we term ego. If we're honest with ourselves and observe our actions and habits and thoughts, really we can see that the mind is in control of us, and not the other way around. The personality, which takes in the impressions of life, misinterprets everything—it receives impressions and sends them to the wrong centers. Therefore, the personality does not comprehend the nature of those impressions. When we talk about impressions we're talking about the very experience of life itself. As I was saying, the work is learning how to transform impressions.

This is the basis of Gnosis. Gnosis is about transformation. We refer to this work as a revolution. It is really a spiritual war, but not against anyone outside of us. As much as we like to point and blame other people for our problems, this is a war against ourselves. This is what the Prophet Muhammad called jihad—or better said jihad al-akbar, meaning, the Greater Striving or Holy War. When he was asked by his disciples, as documented in the Hadith or Muslim oral tradition, the Companions of the Prophet asked him what is greater: war against the infidels outside of us, or against ourselves. Prophet Muhammad said that war against yourself is by far most important. The Greater Holy War or Striving really takes precedence and priority.

In relation to concentration, the transformation of impressions is about learning how to transform what we perceive. The senses and the mind are like a great battlefield because we are constantly receiving the many impressions of life, whether tactile, sensory, auditory, visual, olfactory, etc., yet we do not comprehend the nature of what it is we perceive. It is enough to try to sit in meditation for an hour and remember everything you did in the day. If you do not remember certain events, if there are tremendous gaps in your memory, it's because you were asleep as a psyche, as a consciousness or soul.

This is especially true if we live in the cities where we are constantly bombarded by information. This is especially difficult. We rarely comprehend the intrinsic nature of what we perceive, since what we know how to do is react towards life, without comprehending and responding with cognizance, peace, and love. We don't really see the depth of the phenomenon that reach us. In synthesis, it's a misinterpretation of impressions that creates problems for ourselves, such as in our interrelationships with people.

Generally, what we disagree with in another person is our impressions of that person, not their soul. We can't really say that in this state of mind that we have, we perceive the inherent nature of a person. In the level in which we currently exist on the tree of life (Malkuth, the physical plane), what we exclusively perceive are images and phenomena, impressions or semblances of things. This is well documented in Plato's Allegory of the Cave in The Republic. Now, it's completely different thing to see the noumena of a person (noumena relates with Nous, Spirit, the very essence of a human being, the divinity within a person). Generally, what we see is body, hair, personality, habits, customs, attitudes, etc., and we characterize that as a person that we know.

However, we make a very clear distinction: it's a very different thing to know a person and to observe a person. We think we know people, but we don't, because we have never made the attempt to observe another human being with clairvoyance.

To say that I know a person is to say something along these lines: "Oh, I can see every atom that so-and-so has in his body." Such a Noetic type of perception is related with very elevated aspects of consciousness, related with the tree of life—superior states of consciousness where you can perceive the atoms and molecules of a person. It's conventionalism, but funny when we say "I know a person," because the truth is we really don't comprehend others in the objective sense, let alone our own selves! It's another thing to observe the fact that our friend or neighbor has a lot of anger, that such an ego is strong in him or her, to really see this person for who or what they are, and not by our mistranslation of their impressions. This is really where we get into a lot of conflict—every person sees life in a completely different way from everybody else. In the true sense of the word, every person is a world in himself, with his own concepts, beliefs, theories, prejudices, enemies, hatreds, defects, and what not. The mind is always projecting these self-delusions, this self-hypnosis onto the screen of our experience.

In general, we have not developed concentration in order to have a mind that receives the impressions of life without becoming disturbed, projecting reactions outwards. This is where a lot of conflicts arise. Our interrelations with other people falls in the sphere of what Prophet Muhammad called jihad al-asgar, the lesser holy war. This refers to how you try to help others by teaching the truth, by being a good example, by transforming your mind in order to be of benefit to humanity. We do not wage war through violence, but with compassion. We do not conquer injustice with evil, but by performing good. However, these ideas are meaningless if we don't understand ourselves in practice.

It's enough to sit in meditation and to really observe the contents of our mind to see that we really don't have any control. This is a truly necessary step to realize in ourselves, that we don't have control. This lack of organization, coherence, and order in our psyche is what Gurdjieff referred to as the Tower of Babel, relating with three lower types of individuals in psychological hierarchy, persons who gravitate more or less towards one of the three brains. In gnosis when referring to a brain, we are not referring to physical matter alone, but a psychological aspect of ourselves, a machine that processes psychological, spiritual, and bodily energies. A brain transforms energies, interprets information, and allows us to function in life. So when speaking about the three brains of Gnostic esoteric psychology, we have people who are very instinctive, relating with the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. Then we have an emotional type of individual who is always reacting, who is always sentimental, responding with emotions and gravitating to the heart. Then we have the intellectual type individual who interprets the impressions of life in a very intellectual way and always rationalizes.

We say that the consciousness is not prohibited or limited to any of these three aspects of ourselves. We can consider the three brains as three floors of a factory. The intellect is where we have thesis and antithesis, the heart is where we have like and dislike, and the motor brain is related with action: to do or not to do. This is really the basic machinery of our psyche and physiology. We find that by learning concentration through meditative practice, we see that our impulses, whether predominately intellectual, emotional or instinctual, are constantly arising in ourselves moment by moment. We don't have much control over that. This is really the source of our problems, for as Socrates taught us, "Ignorance is the greatest sin."

Every problem that we face in life is a result of our own minds. It is not the result of what other people say, do, think, feel, or act. Really, the reason we suffer is because of ourselves. We can't blame anyone for the diverse unpleasant circumstances of life, but generally our tendency is to absolve our own culpability and mark others as responsible for our sufferings. The more we learn to meditate to develop serenity of mind, the more we begin to perceive all of this. If we're really honest with ourselves, we will see that this is not pleasant. To see that we are responsible for all the problems that we face takes tremendous courage. We really can't judge other people. This is why Jesus said, "Judge not that you be not judged," because when you take in the impressions of a person and you interpret and make judgments about those impressions, you create suffering for yourself and your neighbor. We are always filled with justifications, "Well I know this person," and therefore we criticize and cause problems. Our critics and enemies are going to do the same to us as we do to them. It's the Law of the Talion, reciprocal violence. This doesn't mean physical violence—it could be of an emotional nature. It could be a battle and argument of ideas, polemics, philosophies, etc., in the mind. We are always misusing our three brains, here and now.

Generally, when there's a conflict of this type between people it's because they’re not aware of their own psychology. Like Prophet Muhammad said, people want to fight other people without wanting to take responsibility for their own crimes. Few people ever fight against themselves and their own defects. This is what a Master or a Buddha is: someone who has conquered their very inferior nature—a warrior like Arjuna in the Mahabharata who fought against the multitude of his family members, a conglomerate representing his own egos, defects, vices and errors. As the Prophet Muhammad said, "Happy is he who finds fault with himself rather than faults with others." Really we shouldn't be looking at the mote in the other person's eye. We have to develop awareness of ourselves. This awareness is the beginning and the ending. It is our goal and our purpose. Everything else comes second.

The practice of meditation is what facilitates this understanding. It is learning how to pay attention, and as I said, this doesn't just come about when we sit to practice. It is a moment to moment effort to be vigilant. Many traditions have used different terms like vigilance, mindfulness, awareness, self-observation and self-remembering, or dhikr (remembrance), muhasabah (self-accounting) and muhadarah (awareness) within Sufism. Many traditions refer to this. The important thing is that we do it. And this always comes about through struggle. I'm not referring to the exertion of the mind, when the mind struggles with itself and when we seek to repress our defects, because that does not produce harmony. It is the Buddha-nature, the divine principle that we have within, that has to discipline the mind. So the efforts that were talking about are conscious efforts, not forced exertion of the intellect upon the different centers of our human machine.

In relations with the field of impressions and understanding the very experience of life itself, we refer to the observation of mind itself. Generally if we've been in these studies for a while, we will be very familiar with these terms: repression, justification and comprehension. So in the field of observation and the field of concentration, when we face the impressions of life and try to understand them in a very integral way, we will come across a common problem (which is really an inevitable problem). It relates with repression and justification, and both of these constitute an identification with phenomenon.

It's one thing when we receive a pleasant impression and we like to justify our craving for something. It might be of a lustful nature. We see someone of the opposite sex and that lustful defect emerges within our perception and tries to justify taking in that impression of the opposite sex in order to feed itself, so that it grows stronger. While this is a big difficulty for the disciple of genuine religion, we have another problem—the complete opposite, called repression. This is where we begin to see the many defects of our psychology that arise within us from moment to moment and we, as the mind, don't like to see that. Therefore we push it away from our mind and understanding without comprehending the defect in question. This is called repression. Neither of these constitute what is called real discrimination, comprehension, real awareness.

What we seek is third force, a third factor. In other terms we can refer to the three forces as affirmation, negation, and reconciliation. Gurdjieff, who was the founder of the Fourth Way school, taught that humanity is third force blind. Generally in relation to the three brains of our anatomy, our psychology, we are always acting "either/or," and generally, we don't learn to see from a comprehensive, synthetic perspective. For instance, you see this in a lot of political debate, in which things are very two sided: "either you are with our part or you are against us." There generally isn't a middle ground—there isn’t comprehension of another path between the two. There is no synthesis in which there would exist a type of unanimity between two contrasting parties.

In philosophy, one movement emerges from another one in order to negate the former, and then another branch of thought comes to negate what was negated in the previous one. This, really, is important in relation to our psychology, because we are doing this on a moment to moment basis with the very contents of our mind. We might have a thought and we might justify it in a given instant. We're affirming something very adamantly about a certain issue, concern, or problem. We feel that "this is an essential part of myself," like "my pride." If someone congratulates me, we say to ourselves, "I like to justify that because it makes me feel good." And then there may be another moment, maybe within five minutes, when someone says something really critical or negative. Shame emerges and we say, "Oh, I'm such a terrible person." Therefore, we constantly swing between justification and repression.

We are constantly filled with these types of contradictions, and yet the illusion, the hypnotism, of the mind is so terrible that we really feel we are individuals, that we possess an individual will. We believe we are uniform and we are not. When we talk about self-hood or ego, which in Latin means "I," we're talking about a multiplicity. We're talking about the multifarious nature of the mind that is always contradicting itself. There really is no consistency. In one moment, anger emerges. Someone says something to hurt us and then another element comes up, "Oh, I forgive that person," and then another element cries, "Oh, I'm very happy!" or "Oh I want to go ride my bike." We are the riddle of the sphinx, composed of multiple elements, yet without understanding of who we are. We are merely a conglomerate of conflicting animal impulses and desires.

In mental dynamics and the comprehension of the mind itself, these first two principles are known as affirmation and negation. In relation with the field of practical life, we either find agreeable or disagreeable impressions. We tend to either affirm or we reject impressions. Our mind will react in either two ways: favorable or unfavorable. Very rarely do we see that sometimes both answers to a problem in life are correct at the same time. This relates with comprehension, with synthesis, with intuitive understanding of the impressions we receive. The very work of gnosis, self-knowledge, is learning how to comprehend these factors in every moment. It is really not enough to do it once in a while, because that will not produce lasting results. It takes a lot of effort, willpower, and discipline. This self-discipline, the understanding of these factors, occurs by walking the path of the Middle Way, the path of the Buddha. This topic is so important that Master Nagarjuna wrote a book within Tibetan Buddhism called Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

Neither by affirming nor rejecting the impressions we receive will we know ourselves. Concentration and meditation, serene reflection, is the path of the middle—we learn to receive good or bad impressions. We accept them without bias. We see life for what it is. We don't psychologically seek a way to affirm or negate things at all when we develop in the middle way, because those prior types of attitudes reveal that we are asleep as a consciousness. We rarely see or understand that life is constantly changing. It is a constant flux. Impressions arrive, they sustain themselves, then pass away, and yet the mind, the stubborn donkey that it is, always attaches itself to such impressions as if saying, "In this moment, this is real and my sense of self is real. This 'I,' this 'me' is real." However, we really do not comprehend that it is false!

If we do a simple analysis, we can see that nothing is permanent but the Being. Someone tells you a joke and you find it funny—if that were eternally existing, you would always be laughing. There would never be change whatsoever: things would always be permanent. We know from the Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism, particularly from Tibet, that the impressions of life are empty of intrinsic existence. That phenomena are empty of inherent or independent existence means they are dependent upon other factors beyond themselves, and therefore are not eternal. Therefore, we should not grasp at what is ephemeral, like cloud, smoke, and vapors.

This is what we call Dependent Origination. It means there is no independently existing thing in this whole universe. There is no eternally existing thing that is not reliant on other factors. This goes from the most grand cosmological scale of Kabbalah, the tree of life, to this very existence. It's what we call karma—cause and effect. And the very nature of existence and the very nature of the impressions of what we perceive is dependent on this. Suffering exists because we don't understand karma. We don't understand the nature of impression themselves: what appears, sustains itself, and passes away. So if no phenomena in life is stable or reliable, why do we hold on to them with our mentality? Why do we always crave certain things and run away from other, when, truly, all phenomena are of equal value? Why do we crave something so badly when it will not bring us eternal happiness? Why do we affirm that our life is real and lasting, taking in a sense of enjoyment and identity in that experience when it will only disappear, bringing us pain? Even in repression, the negation of things, we have a sense of self that is dependent on external factors that are completely empty of themselves.

Nothing is going to last except the Being, so why do we always have this attitude that things should always be in one way and permanent when we do not remember the Being? And when we are contradicted by friends, family, society, and our own mind, our whole world falls apart. We like the path of least resistance, whether in social, academic, employment, or personal endeavors, etc. We have the prevailing attitude that we just want things to go well. And when they don't go well, we get very upset. This type of disillusionment is very particular to each us. We have our own idiosyncrasy in relation to the three brains. Some of us will be more intellectual, some more emotional, and some more active—we always want to do things according to our predisposition to one of our three brains, but this is generally in a very dysfunctional way.

It comes into my mind Alice in Wonderland, which explains this type of psychological teaching. You have the Mad Hatter, the intellect that is always taking in impressions and coming up with gibberish. The Queen of Hearts is always angry with people, crying, "Off with her head!" This is our emotional state or center if we observe ourselves. And there's the instinctive type of character, the White Rabbit, who's always late and always worrying about activities and time. This is an instinctive type of person. These three characters represent the three inferior types of humanoids: the Tower of Babel.

So generally, we will have one predisposition over another. The fact is that in our relations to the impressions of life, our dysfunction generally gravitates to one of these three brains. We use all three brains, of course, but some of us have strong habits that are intellectual, like using the computer, or more emotional, listening to sentimental music. Some of us are more instinctive, always playing sports, practicing martial arts, or training in boxing.

The very basis of our psychological dysfunction is because we don't understand the nature of impressions. We don't understand karma. I'm explaining this because these principles are essential to meditation. It's essential to really understand what concentration is, because if we think concentration is identification with life, with certain elements within our three brains, or with the repression of certain elements, there will be no genuine insight. Going with the flow of life is not the nature of insight, the latter which is sharp, clear, and pristine, a shock or bolt of lightning that illuminates, if but for a moment, the dark cloud of our mind. The state of concentration is what leads us to the advent of comprehension. It, in itself, is the path of the middle—neither justifying nor pushing away impression from our psychological sight, but just seeing phenomena as they are. Whether the impressions are intellectual, emotional, or instinctive in relation to our psychology, we simply observe and comprehend where all our different wills come from. It is in this way that we can integrate our consciousness and develop the will of a Master, a God, a Buddha.

This is the basis of psychology or mental dynamics, Jnana Yoga. Jnana means "knowledge," relating with how we understand and control the mind. When we talk about impressions and the nature of psychology, I was mentioning some principles given in the Vajrayana school, which is the doctrine of emptiness in relation to karma and impressions—how life is always changing, always fluctuating. If we are astute in our efforts to self-observe, we cannot pinpoint something that is eternal within our psyche except the Being. So we talk about not understanding the nature of emptiness, in relation with affirmation and negation, as the foundation of Gnostic psychology. There are two misconceptions that arise with not understanding the nature of emptiness. This teaching was given by Nagarjuna in Four Hundred Verses of the Middle Way. He discussed two fundamentally mistaken views: eternalism and nihilism. Eternalism is the belief that there is an independently existing self that is never changing. This was first adopted by some of the Hindu schools of philosophy in relation to Atman the Inner Self. The Buddhists came to clarify those teachings when Hinduism degenerated. According to the Hindus, Atman was mistaken for the ego, the personality, our negative self-hood. The Buddhist masters who came after knew that Atman referred to one's internal divinity, but in order to clarify the misconceptions about Atman, Buddha taught the doctrine of Anatman, "No self." When Buddhists schools say that there is no self, they're talking about the ego, the "I," our defects—the three traitors of Christianity: Judas, Pilate, and Caiaphas. Pilate relates with the intellect, who always washes his hands clean, justifying and excusing himself for committing crimes. Caiaphas relates with the heart, because he hates Christ, and Judas represents instincts or desires because he sells the lord for thirty pieces of silver, representing fornication and lunar values.

In relation to affirmation and negation, misconceptions regarding their nature arise by not understanding the nature of impressions, by not understanding the very laws and dynamics of practical experiences and their relationship to the mind. Eternalism says there is an absolutely, dependently existing self. Nihilism says nothing matters, since there is no true existence. Both of these views are false. Emptiness is neither of these mistaken views. Really, such misunderstandings emerge from the inability to comprehend karma in action.

Karma comes from the Sanskrit, karman. It means "to act." What is cause and effect? To act. In life, we constantly find many types of actions involving the three brains. Karma teaches that every cause has an effect. Every effect has a cause. Nothing is separate. Nothing is independent, existing outside of ourselves. Everything is interdependent and related. Our current psychological state, the sleep of our consciousness, hypnotizes us into thinking that, "I exist in my own sphere and everything else is existing outside," as if there is no direct relationship between our mind and phenomena. For instance, you see a married person leering lustfully towards the opposite sex walking by, and says, "Well, I'm not really committing adultery, because I am just looking." They think that there is no relationship between mind and phenomena. However, Master Jesus said,

"Verily you have heard of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you whosoever has looked at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." ―Matthew 5:28

We also find the following textually stated by the Buddha in his Dhammapada:

Preceded by mind are phenomena, led by mind, formed by mind. If with mind polluted one speaks or acts, then pain follows, as a wheel follows the draft ox’s foot. Preceded by mind are phenomena, led by mind, formed by mind. If with mind pure one speaks or acts, then ease follows, as an ever-present shadow.

Karma, cause and effect, occurs in every level of existence, even when there is no physical action. Even if we physically do not commit adultery, we commit adultery with our mind by indulging in lust. We have all of these impulses that arise within us without our control and which keep us hypnotized, identifying with the states of existence. Karma applies not just instinctively to the physicality of the person, but to emotions and to intellect. It applies to every aspect of ourselves, in every level of the universe. Perhaps until you self realize and go into the Absolute, you will always be a slave of Karma. Until then, we are subject of the laws of karma, cause and effect, in this universe. The path of self-knowledge is about understanding the law within ourselves. When we do not know how karma functions, we fall into mistaken views of eternalism or nihilism, either that our ego is objective or that nothing matters, so we can do whatever we want without consequences. This is very dangerous.

I like to enjoy certain things in life. For me, I enjoy a hot cup of coffee. I can see how certain egos of gluttony like to enjoy those things, believing that such impressions are permanent. However, simple analysis shows that this isn't the case. The impressions of the coffee arise, sustain, and pass away. The problem is not the coffee, but my consciousness for not making a correct transformation of that impression, for not seeing the drink for what it is. The mistake is letting the impression enter the psyche and the mind becoming attached to the sensation of enjoying the coffee. This attachment, this crystallization of desire in the mind, is what we call ego. It is by not understanding karma that we create egos. The impression of the coffee is going to enter my psyche, sustain itself, and pass away, but if I am unaware of this fact, something hardens in my mind, like a mold, crystallizing and trapping the consciousness. This is identification, a wrong transformation of impressions, which crystallizes desire by trapping our consciousness. It is the misdirection of consciousness towards sensation—it is misguided attention, fortification of one's psychological attachment to impermanent sensations, for as Samael Aun Weor wrote, "Wherever we direct attention, we expend creative energy." The ego itself is really a prison, a cage, for the divine nature within, that we ourselves created by misdirecting our will and perception.

The root of all of this is ignorance. This is an essential teaching that the Buddha gave in relation to these three factors. The mind is always caught between craving and aversion. We produce our suffering through a lack of cognizance of the third factor—which is synthesis, comprehension, intuition, understanding, the Innermost Being. It is by not understanding the nature of what we perceive that produces suffering, because if we don't understand the very nature of mental dynamics, we continue with wrong perspectives, resulting in the creation of different psychic aggregates or egos.

Aggregate is word for compound, heap, or pile, and we can say that the human being is a conglomerate of multiple aggregates or egos. Really all of that is a result of ignorance, a lack of cognizance or relationship with God. The Buddha taught that there are three doorways into hell, into suffering, and they are: craving, aversion, and ignorance. Anger relates with aversion, because when we feel anger it is frustrated desire, wanting situations or people to be different than what they are. When someone is not giving us what we want, we become angry at that person. Craving, lust, or desire is another door into hell. Feeling compulsively attracted to something, always impelled to seek our those sensations that will satisfy us, is a tremendous form of suffering, since such impressions, like the orgasm, are fleeting and momentary. Meanwhile they have disastrous consequences for the mind, since the mind will only crave a greater orgasm, or more powerful experience, which it will never have. Therefore, lust is the original sin, because by wasting the energies of God, we fall into suffering, into craving, into the insatiable appetite of satyrs. Momentary pleasures emerge and pass away. The mind's habit is to be attached to those impressions, as if such impressions are permanent.

While craving and aversion are bad, ignorance is truly the greatest sin. What is sin? I'm not sure if your familiar with that term. It comes from archery. It means when you draw your bow and you fire at the target, you go off to the side, to the left. That term was taken into Judea-Christianity to denote these types of principles. When your concentrated in archery and you draw your bow, you can't fire to the right or the left, neither indulging in craving or aversion, but focusing on the center. This is an analogy for the middle path of comprehension within meditation.

This is why The Odyssey by Homer, who was an initiate, depicts this great Greek hero defeating his enemies, his egos, with a bow and arrow. The story narrates how he battled the Trojans and afterward sought his way home, sailing to many islands, losing his companions, and finally arriving to his own kingdom, Ithaca. He finds out that his wife has maintained her marriage vows to him by not marrying and seeking another husband. However, despite her fidelity to him, there are many suitors who think that he's dead and try to convince her to marry them. These suitors are degenerated, trying to take his wife from him. They represent the egos that we have who are trying to steal our moral purity, our own divinity that we have still free, represented by Penelope, Odysseus' wife; so they're always tempting her. Odysseus is disguised a hermit and goes into his kingdom, drawing them all into a throne room. Meanwhile he is guided by his Divine Mother, Athena, who provides him the bow and arrow so as to mercilessly slay his enemies who are attempting to steal his kingdom, his spirituality. It is a very chilling scene if you read it. The egos are so terrified! They're green with fear and they realize that they're going to die. Truly it is a bloody battle.

Odysseus' power comes from the bow and arrow, knowing how to balance the external world with the internal. This is really the relationship with self-observation. We have to look at what's outside of us in relation to what's inside and that’s what concentration and discrimination are. This is how you go to battle like Odysseus. This is how you fight the illusions of the mind, and this is really the anecdote to how to comprehend states of suffering, because the mind will generally ignore what's inside and always pay attention to what's outside. The spiritual warrior, the samurai with his bow and arrow, observes both the external and internal and understands the relationship between them. So you see these three factors here: affirmation, which is outside. Then you have the mind that is always negating things. That's really the force of negation, always reacting to the impressions of life. And then you have comprehension, which is the consciousness that reconciles the two.

So we can say that the impressions life are always affirming themselves by entering into our psychology, and we have the mind that is always reacting or negating, either intellectually, emotionally, or instinctively with greater predominance in one of the three brains. That's really the force of negation, when our mind reacts to impressions. In order to reconcile both impressions and our reactions, we need discrimination, seeing that the external is dependent upon the internal and the internal dependent on the external. This is known as states and events in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, and that to live uprightly, one must know how to combine the appropriate internal state with its corresponding external event. Due to this relationship, how the internal really relates with the external, we realize that many of the perspectives that we carry within our self are unfounded, illusory, and ignorant, without real gnosis or cognizance of the truth. Therefore, real awareness, fully-concentrated consciousness, is like a shock. It only takes a moment to take an impression of life and to immediately, intuitively comprehend the relationship of that impression to our mind. This occurs only with awakening the consciousness, so as to cancel out negative reactions.

For example, someone insults you, or says something very hurtful, and then your pride is starting to react. Fire is bubbling out of you. If you pay attention in that moment and genuinely perceive that this person is suffering too, instantaneous comprehension helps to renounce such a negative emotion and guides you in the work meditation and elimination. It also develops compassion. In that instant, we understand that this person is subjected to karma, cause and effect, and that there are many factors that are provoking a state of suffering for that person. Achieving this understanding, peace, and harmony between ourselves and our neighbors is not easy, precisely due to the fact that we have rarely disciplined our mind in a conscious way. This is why Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, "The narrowest cleft is the hardest to bridge." This is in relation to our interactions with our fellow man. To cross the abyss between ourselves and others, we need to establish the bridge of compassion, by comprehending our neighbor and transforming negative impressions, so that love can blossom from our hearts.

This is not an intellectual exercise—it is cognizant, practical mysticism, genuine occult science, and true religion. In the beginning we study this teaching intellectually. The work is to perform religion in every second—cultivating a state of comprehension in every instant.

The impression arrives and the mind wants to react. Comprehension helps you look at the two and ask: what is the nature of that impression? What is the nature of my interpretation of those impressions? Cognizance produces a type of canceling. When someone insults us and we comprehend that the insult bears no value, that the individual providing the insult is imprisoned in suffering and needs compassion, and that we ourselves are like dust on the side of the road when compared to the beauty of divinity and the cosmos, we immediately cancel the impression and do not invest any value into those words, which are as intransient as vapor. Samael Aun Weor explained that when we transform the impressions of aggression directed towards us by developing comprehension of such impressions, it is like trying to draw funds with a check from an empty bank account. The check will bounce, and the aggressor will have nothing to retaliate with further. We therefore can irradiate genuine love and peace, which will help our enemies to change and become better persons.

Comprehension is like a lightening bolt; it’s a superior type of information. This is what is going to fuel meditation. Meditation is about discovering new information. We do that through our moment to moment effort to observe ourselves. As I was mentioning in another lecture, Swami Sivanada wrote, “The reason why students fail in meditation is that they lack ethics.” They don't know how to discipline their mind from moment to moment. It’s really a lack of discipline that produces inconsistency and failure within meditative practice. That is the explanation for why, although many practice meditation and adopt the austerities of monastic life, they languish within a dull state of existence, of not BEING, when really self-observation, meditation, and serene reflection should be like a crystal, very sharp and pure.

Meditation is not spacing out or falling asleep. Eventually as you progress, you let yourself fall asleep so you can go out of your body in order to travel throughout the tree of life. But generally when we fall asleep in meditation, maybe a couple of hours pass and we don't realize what happened. That's why in the beginning we emphasize not falling asleep. Maintain your drowsiness, maintain your clarity of mind while keeping your body in very relaxed state, and with consistency you will learn to astral project during your meditations. As we were stating, Mo Chao, serene reflection, is precisely this clarity of reflection, accompanied serenity.

Samael Aun Weor made a point in The Revolution of the Dialectic to explain these terms. How most people define "serenity" and "reflection" are incorrect. Serenity is not a dull state of mind, very lax or lazy, where impressions just emerge in the mind and there is no understanding. This is generally the state that we experience when we go to bed. If we pay attention even for a little bit before we go to sleep, the mind becomes very dull and a lot of images and impressions chaotically emerge. This in itself is not a true state of serenity, because serenity should be very firm, very strong. It’s also very supple, but it isn't just a dull state where we just accept things as they are. Dullness is a lack of conscious observation. Genuine spiritual reflection or insight, in itself, is known as the faculty of imagination.

In many different writings Samael Aun Weor made a point to explain Mo Chao. I've been referring to it in the Chinese way. But you find this also in Kabbalah, the teachings of the Hebrews, and many other forms of mysticism. Mo Chao, serene reflection, serenity of mind, is a result of concentration. Reflection is visualization or imagination. If you are familiar with the Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah, you find this in the very first two cards of the twenty-two arcana or sacred laws. The first is the Magician. He's very active. In one of his hands he's holding a staff and he's pointing in one direction. But he's very active in the card, strong, affirming himself. This represents the Father, or as we say in the Hebraic Kabbalah, Kether, the First Logos amongst the Gnostics. He's really the warrior magician who gave power to Moses. Moses received power from his Inner Divinity, from Kether, for the mantra related with Kether is אהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh, which translates as “I Am that I Am” and when Moses was before the burning bush, he asked “Who shall I say sent me?” And Christ said “אהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh: I Am the One Who I Am.”

That's the Magician. He needs to fight for His Self-realization. This is the source of willpower, concentration. Then we have the second card of the tarot, the Priestess, who is sitting in a temple, with two columns: Jachin and Boaz, which we find in the temples of Freemasonry and Solomon. She is receptive, for She is the Divine Mother. She's really that force that gives us the faculty to perceive; it relates with clairvoyance. When we talk about imagination and clairvoyance, really, these are synonymous terms. Generally people think that clairvoyance is a faculty that only a few have, which is for people who are very elite, but really this term in itself was instituted by French initiates a couple of centuries ago in order for people to not disturb the study of their science, meaning: they intentionally sought to confuse people in order to protect their teaching, making people think that this is a gift for the few.

Clairvoyance and imagination are the same thing—clear perception and imagination is to receive images. But in gnosis we make the distinction that there are different types of clairvoyance. There's the objective perception of the Truth or the subjective perception of the mind, a falsity of ego. It’s a type of imagination that we perceive through wrong perception. This is exemplified when we have really disturbing dreams, or dreams consisting of nonsense, gibberish. That's a type of clairvoyance, but it’s subjective. The type of imagination we seek to cultivate in our practice, through concentrated reflection, Mo Chao, is lucid and objective. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to explain this science in this way because to understand what objective clairvoyance is, true states of comprehension, you have to really experiment with yourself. You have to become like a taste tester to really evaluate what comprehension, concentration and imagination really mean. We must become connoisseurs of spiritual experience, like you’re drinking different kinds of wine to evaluate their quality and purity. What in me is subjective? What is objective in me? That only comes about through practice, through effort. We need to really sit in meditation, remembering our Innermost Self, concentrated on God. Through persistence and consistency with our discipline, perhaps in your practice a new image arises—something very foreign, clear, lucid and powerful. Maybe you see people from far away, from a different part of the globe, or cities, activities, etc.  It could be many things. Flashes of imagery, scenes, sounds, tastes, and smells are good signs that imagination starting to awaken—it’s sparkling as a result of our work with sexual transmutation.

A new way of life emerges when we dedicate ourselves to meditation, sexual transmutation, and charity, but of course our efforts are always fueled by the science of the Divine Mother: Alchemy for couples, but pranayama for individuals. When we perform exercises of pranayama, we are utilizing the energies of our bodies in relation with the sexual glands and raising it with our breath in the etheric level, in our subtle energetic physiology, and using that energy to fuel the brain.  For example, one exercise is Ham-Sah. You perform a prolonged and relaxed inhalation, mentally pronouncing the mantra Ham, bringing that energy to the brain and subsequently to the heart. Then you exhale softly and quickly, Sah and that energy goes to the heart.

Since the divine Mother, מרים Miriam, relates with מ Mem, the waters, it relates with the sexual energy, like in the story Pinocchio. He becomes a real man through his Divine Mother, cited as the Blue Fairy in the story. By using that energy through yogic exercises, pranayama, and moreover, through alchemy, Pinocchio becomes a boy of flesh and blood, an Adam Kadmon, a fully enlightened spiritual being. So while we're talking more about the principles of this practice, it’s generally fueled by how you use your energies through the science of breath. That energy is going to fuel your imagination incredibly, because that energy relating with מ Mem, with the waters of the sexual organs, rises up to the מ Mem of the brain, because we know from occidental science that the physical brain is surrounded by a fluid—it’s really a type of water, the cerebral spinal fluid, known as the מ Mem of the brain within Kabbalah. The Kabbalists knew this very well.  So when they refer to the Divine Mother they call her Miriam: מ Mem, ר Resh, י Iod and ם Final Mem. מ Mem is water. ר Rosh literally means head. י Iod can also mean head and ם Final Mem again is water.

So the Divine Mother relates with energies from our sexual waters in our brain and sexuality, and it is this power that's going to fuel our imagination, our visualization practice. There's many types of pranayama exercises: Egyptian Christic Pranayama as given in The Yellow Book, Ham-Sah as given in The Perfect Matrimony and other lectures. Swami Sivananda gave an extensive variety. There are many different types of pranayama. Basically we use this energy to fuel our imagination practice. However, it's not all to develop perception—it is not enough. Imagination by itself is not enough—it has to be balanced with concentration.

This brings us to the third Arcanum of the Tarot. After the Magician and the Priestess, you have the Empress. It’s also a feminine card, relating to the third Sephirah, the third sphere of the Kabbalistic tree of life, Binah, which is the Holy Spirit. Binah in Hebrew literally translates as “Understanding,” so as we see in the unfoldment of the arcana (arcana means laws, principles), we see from concentration, the Magician, the Father and imagination, the Priestess, emerges the third force: synthesis, comprehension, or reconciliation.

It’s by learning how to balance our concentration with our perception that we attain insight, meaning: we don't forget we’re meditating, focused on our practice while allowing ourselves to become drowsy enough to perceive new images from the dream world. It’s really the combination of the two that will allow us to perceive something new in our experience, to access the genuine state of meditation. This not only applies when we sit to meditate, but in every moment, every instant. When we transform impressions, we have to be concentrated. We have to pay attention, such as in this moment. You must be aware of the fact that you are sitting and receiving words and information, to not let your mind wander or daydream during the lecture. You need imagination, the ability to perceive those impressions from the instructor. It’s the balance of those two, being attentive and perceiving images, that comprehension starts to emerge. This is essentially important with interrelations with people. Sometimes we may be very concentrated, but we are not clearly perceiving or understanding the nature of impressions. In that sense we need to pay attention to the clarity, quality, and nature of our perception.

This a Kabbalistic and alchemical teaching given in the manner and tradition of the Hebrews, but we find this synthesis even in Chan Buddhism: Mo Chao, serene reflection. This is how understanding will emerge in our practice. Understanding the nature of impressions and karma is a direct result of our serenity of mind and how we perceive, because the word reflection reminds us of the reflection of a lake. When you truly reflect on something, what you want is to see the image of something, but in order to reflect an image in your mind, you need to have the waters calm. If the lake is chaotic and the impressions of life are entering the waters like stones, it’s going to create a lot of friction—the waves will expand and the image which should be reflecting God within gets muddled. Establishing and maintaining serene reflection is is a moment to moment effort. This is the work in relation to transformation, understanding the nature of mind itself, and the impressions that we receive.

If our meditation practice is muddled, if there isn't much clarity, we need to work on our imagination, our visualization. If we forget that we are meditating when we sit to meditate, that's when we need more concentration. You will find at different times you need more of one than the other, but generally it’s finding balance which will result in new experiences in meditation and comprehension. We have to understand this on a moment to moment basis, because without serene reflection, meditation itself becomes very dry—we won't have the fuel and the energy needed in order to perform meditation properly. Our meditation will become stagnant. All of that fluctuation of impressions, how they sustain and how they pass away on the screen of our mind, will remain confusing and disordered. Achieving clarity only comes about by awakening the consciousness here and now, in every instant of our lives. There are stories of people who have tried meditating for twenty of thirty years, but they don't understand that in order to meditate you have to meditate in every second.

Every state of awareness that you have, in whatever activity you are doing, is essential for developing true esoteric discipline. Some activities might be more conducive for that. For instance, I take martial arts. That's a very profound form of meditation if you know how to take advantage of it. On the one hand you may think it’s merely a physical calisthenics, exclusively dealing with the physicality of the person. The real purpose of martial arts, the real struggle, is with your own mind. You have an attacker and your mind wants to react—you have reconcile that. You have to work around that. I take Aikido, which is very geared towards this type of philosophy, Chan and Zen Buddhism. If you have the opportunity to take martial arts like that... it could be very helpful to your practice—understanding the nature of impressions through the motor-instinctive brain. It’s a great way to train the mind. Psychological discipline and spiritual training is the origin of all martial arts.

Bodhidharma founded Kung Fu and people just think it was only instituted so that the monks could defend themselves from attackers, but really it was so they can defend themselves against their own minds. This is what the work of transforming impressions is—comprehending life from moment to moment. Really, you have to be like a martial artist—calm, relaxed, and serene, in this moment—meanwhile you could have twelve guys chasing after you with axes. Despite great dangers, you must be composed and in control. It doesn't mean you’re not worried about the situation. Something would be wrong if you weren’t. But what’s important is to be observant, relaxed—then you deal with a given problem, whether it is being attacked or paying your bills in practical life. That's the essence of Zen—that’s the effortless effort. Serenity deals with much more elevated states of concentration, as it's illustrated by the graphic called the Nine Stages of Meditative Concentration, or Calm Abiding: the Stages of Serenity, which we should study and work with. We've definitely talked a little bit about this topic.

Questions and Answers

Audience: You mentioned that the magician, the priestess, and empress in succession reflect the three primary foundations of meditation (dynamics). My question regarding the rest of the tarot is: Do they continue to reflect the different aspects of the dynamics of meditation?

Instructor: In relation to the mind itself, you have the three principles of affirmation, negation, synthesis. This is what Samael wrote in this book in relation to the transformation of impressions. In understanding the mind itself, those are the most important factors. As to whether the rest of the tree of life correlates, it does, but not in a strict or rigid way. With affirmation, you have a thought that appears, you have negation when you want to react to that, then the synthesis is the actual moment of comprehending and understanding the relationship—if you are paying attention and remembering your Being. That's really the most important thing in relation to meditation practice... because the trinity is the force that creates.

Relating the tree of life to meditation and the holy trinity, you have three triangles in the tree of life. You have three trinities, the logoic triangle (Kether, Chokmah, Binah), the triangle of ethics (Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth), and the triangle of priesthood (Netzach, Hod, Yesod)—and seven levels for the first seven sephiroth.  But in relation to the three trinities, you have Kether, the Father, in the head, Chokmah, the Son, in the heart, and the Holy Spirit in sex. You can also say that you have Chesed in the mind, a superior type of reasoning, the spiritual Nous. This is what Plato talked about in The Republic, that the philosopher king should have Nous—the illumination of Chesed, the Inner Being within. So you can say that Chesed relates with the head, Geburah with the heart, and Tiphereth in relation to instincts and sexuality. The sixth commandment, “Thou shall not fornicate,” relates with Tiphereth. The sixth arcana of the tarot is related with the choice between chastity, inner purity, and fornication. So Tiphereth is in relation to sexuality according to the sixth card of the Tarot, Indecision. And then you also have the other trinity at the very bottom.

The first triangle is the logoic triangle, the second is the ethical triangle, and the third is the magical triangle. The magical triangle consists of Netzach, which is the mind, Hod which is the heart, and then you have Yesod which is the etheric body related with sexuality. My emphasis is much more on the first three principles because everything comes from Christ—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but that trinity is reflected in all of the Sephiroth. Generally we say that the mind is affirmation, because it is always affirming thoughts, a constant churning of concepts, memories, and ideas. The heart is negation, going back to Alice in Wonderland—always reacting with negative emotions, such as the Queen of Hearts, “Off with his head!”  And you have synthesis related with sexuality, because as you see in the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, it’s really a synthesis of three principles. It encompasses movements, instincts and sexuality, so it’s a synthesis.

Now to go even deeper, this relates with the three mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet―א Aleph, the Magician relates with the head, ש Shin, fire, Christ, relates to the heart, and מ Mem, Maya, Miriam, the Holy Spirit relates to the waters. They all derive their source from the Trinity. So in relation with the dynamics of meditation, it’s always in threes, really, because everything comes from the divine source. The law of three was mentioned by Master Gurdjieff as the Holy Triamatzikamno. All originate with the Divine Source—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, you have those correlations definitely.

Audience: I notice for myself, and I make, in as much as I remember, an effort to be awake and aware of myself. I will notice certain points in time that I’ll be doing a job that requires almost more of my attention just on that… almost more than my own intention just on that and I have to be aware of myself too, but it’s very difficult.

Instructor: That's good that you recognize this fact. It’s very difficult. It’s difficult to spark that comprehension in the first place.  It’s difficult to maintain it―that's really what jihad is about. It’s difficult to even realize in the first place, and it’s even more difficult to maintain awareness throughout the entire day. As indicated by the term "mindfulness" in Buddhism, we make a distinction that it doesn't just relate to self-observation. Self-observation is the first step, to be watchful of this moment, and mindfulness is maintaining self-observation through the entire day. So first you observe and then you maintain that vigilance throughout the entire day. If you recognize that its hard, that's a good sign. It is hard. That's really the battle and struggle of the mind. The mind can't do it. So when your mind says, “I can't do it,” comprehension will show you, “This is the only thing right the mind has stated. However, for making this postulation, the mind is wrong. Mind, you are only a vehicle, a machine! You are not my true identity!" The mind really can’t resolve anything—only the consciousness can. Life is really the psychological gymnasium.

It’s a work in progress. Even if you self-realize you have work to do. Generally there can be two types of comprehension: hindsight and foresight. Hindsight hurts a lot because your mind stabs you in the back with shame for having made a mistake. Generally, you want to develop a type of comprehension that is instantaneous and helps you to act appropriately in the moment. You know it’s wrong in the instant a defect appears in your three brains and you say “Ah-ha! I'm not going to do that!” And there's real control there, real discipline. That's the type of insight that we need. You can only get that if you’re mind is serene and your consciousness is paying attention. You must let your mind reflect and perceive those images for what they are in a given moment. You’re only going to develop that by working very hard. Remember that if you’re practicing these types of teachings, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. That's in the case of every Buddha—every initiate has to face that.

There's one German initiate, by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra a speech that conveys a very inspiring, comforting, and revelatory message. In the text, we have Nietzsche's fictional Zarathustra preaching to his disciples within the solitude of a mountain cave, saying:

The higher its type, the more rarely a thing succeeds.  You higher men (initiates) here, have you not all failed?

Be of good cheer, what does it matter?  How much is still possible!  Learn to laugh at yourselves as one must laugh!

Is it any wonder that you have failed and only half succeeded, being half-broken (meaning, being weak with ego)? Is not something thronging and pushing in you—man’s future (the promise and birth of the Intimate Christ within, the Superman)?  Man’s greatest distance and depth and what in him is lofty to the stars, his tremendous strength (of the Inner Being)—are not all these frothing against each other in your pot (your mind)?  Is it any wonder that many a pot breaks?  Learn to laugh at yourselves as one must laugh!  You higher men, how much is still possible!

And verily, how much has already succeeded (meaning: through psycho-analytical meditation and comprehension of mental dynamics)!  How rich is the earth in little good perfect things, in what has turned out well!

Place little good perfect things around you, O higher men!  Their golden ripeness heals the heart. What is perfect teaches hope. —The Higher Men, Book IV, Section 15.

Therefore, he was saying, “You higher men (initiates), don't you realize that you’re failures, but is there anything to be upset about that you make mistakes like that? There's still so much, and many rich and beautiful things to accomplish if you fail and realized that you failed.  That's good that you recognized your mistakes—now work on them. That's when you realize you'll be making victories.”

When you make a mistake and you say, “Really I made a big mistake,” and you accept it and you work on it diligently, then the gods, Buddhas and masters look at you and say “He's progressing.” When you have the maturity to realize that “Yeah, I'm really at fault and I'm going to change it,” to have the perseverance to keep working, that's when they really honor you in the internal planes. Ordeals must be experienced again and again until we conquer them. You may read about this subject in The Perfect Matrimony. The disciple will be submitted to ordeals in the astral plane, right? And generally when they do that, they push you to the very edge so that you react in a bad way. If you control yourself through the science of mental dynamics, they will appear to you as children, golden Cherubim, the children of the immortal dawn, very innocent. They were once like us, but now they're innocent like little children and they honor you because even though you made mistakes and you fail ordeals, you continue onward through jihad al-akbar. They keep testing you, internally. They'll do that when you develop enough Mo Chao, serene reflection, physically, and then internally. They're happy if you succeed after having failed many times.

So it’s a work in progress, but don’t think you're some exception, because everyone has their difficulties. The key to unlocking it all is Mo Chao, Self-remembering and serene reflection, in every moment. Then you’ll learn to transform those ordeals into something positive for you.  So even after you've broken your pot, you may remember all the good and wonderful things you have received from God as a result of mental dynamics. Then afterward, you may say with peace, like Nietzsche did in the quotation, “Learn to laugh at yourselves as one must laugh!  What is perfect teaches hope.”

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Arcanum 19: Inspiration

9/14/2019

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Stations

8/31/2019

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In our studies of meditation, we are deeply concerned with levels of being, degrees of consciousness, which, according to the 14th Dalai Lama, is infinite. A very famous Sufi initiate by the name of Abd al-Karim al-Jili, he wrote a book called The Universal Man, Al-Insan al-Kamil. He stated, “The journey to God is short. The journey in God is infinite.”

While this work teaches us how to reunite with divinity, with the Truth, the reality is that upon entering religion, reunion, there are qualities of knowledge, of understanding, which are within the divine. It is infinite. Consciousness has the capacity to expand to an infinite degree, and different traditions teach and map these levels of consciousness in different ways, in varying levels.

The conservative Piscean traditions, in which the different doctrines and scriptures originated within the past 2,000 years, speak about these levels of being, these levels of consciousness, in a very abstract manner. The writings are not very explicit and require a lot of experience and initiation from a teacher or a sheikh, a guru, a master, but times are different. We now live in an era related to the astrological influence of Aquarius.

Pisces was noted for its conservatism. The knowledge had to be earned, and only when practitioners would meditate for many years, would they be allowed to really understand and be taught the heights of their spiritual tradition, and in Sufism this is no exception.

Sufism pertains to the Era of Pisces, and while many manuals of writings were given in that tradition, a lot of that wisdom is very veiled, and only understood by initiates: people who are awakening their consciousness, not only physically, but in the internal planes―whether through dream yoga, astral projection. But whether or not those abilities are developed in us we can begin to appreciate and understand, to approach these levels of consciousness, which the Sufis call stations.

A station is a place that people travel to, where people arrive, where people leave. The levels of being are described as places or stopping points in ascension towards the Truth. The highest station among the Gnostics is Marif’ah. It is knowledge of divinity. It is permanent self-realization. It is the full incarnation of God in the soul: the path of resurrection which Samael Aun Weor speaks about in his book The Three Mountains. These degrees or stations of the path as taught by the Sufis, were explicitly provided by Samael Aun Weor in The Three Mountains.

So in this lecture we will talk about how meditation applies to the science of the Tree of Life, the Tree of Being, the levels of being, which is a map to understand where we are and where we must go if we truly want to obtain religion, yoga.

The levels of Being or these stations, these degrees of knowledge, of development, are made explicit within the writings of the Aquarian knowledge, and I’ll read for you a quote from the book The Aquarian Message by our teacher Samael Aun Weor. The chapter is from Internal Meditation:

“The seven degrees of ecstasy through which the mystic reaches the perfect state of the soul are described in the school of Sufism. The school of Sufism teaches about ecstasy. The state and secret of our level is revealed in Sufism, because this is the interior state of life in God.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message, “Internal Meditation”

So what is ecstasy? It comes from the Latin ecstatuo [Greek ἔκστασις ekstasis], “to stand outside oneself.” It is our psychological state that we cultivate as we learn to remove the ego and to go beyond our level of being, to become something more, something profound.

Samael Aun Weor writes in Revolutionary Psychology, “What is our level of Being? We must know where we are if we wish to ascend to a higher level.”

Our psychological state determines everything, which is why meditation is so fundamental for change. Meditation is precisely the science, the art, the philosophy, the religion of understanding our own conditions of mind, but also our virtues, our qualities of soul. This is much more important than any outward adherence in a group, or participation in a school. While schools are necessary, they provide clarification of how to practice meditation. They also inspire us to work, to want to change, but a group itself is not a defining factor of whether one will reach the goal.

Our work is our own. In the Piscean era, and even today, the Sufi schools are very conservative. They only taught the most profound doctrine, the most profound sciences, to those who have proven themselves under the jurisdiction of a teacher, but of course in the Aquarian Era “Initiation is our own life intensely lived with rectitude, and with love” (Samael Aun Weor), which is why even Bayazid Bastami, a Sufi initiate, stated the following, “I stood with the pious and I didn’t find any progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause, and I didn't find a single step of progress with them. Then I said, ‘Oh Allah! What is the way to you? And Allah said, ‘leave yourself and come.’”

Meaning: leave behind the ego. Eliminate the ego. Strive and fight in yourself, work on yourself. Abandon our previous level of being, what we are now, to become something new, and transformed

The Levels of Being: Stations of the Sufi Path

These levels of Being are depicted by Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, and it is this image, this map of consciousness, this diagram of divinity that is missing from the teachings of the Sufis, and even many other traditions, because the Tree of Life was not explained openly by the Muslim masters, but it is an essential diagram or graphic that elaborates and explains the stations of the Sufi path.

Ten spheres, ten stations, with all of their multiplicity, their dimensionality, their infinite qualities―this diagram teaches us where we are in our meditation, and therefore those schools that leave aside the Tree of Life do not understand meditation in its heart, because we cannot understand where we are, what our level of being is, where we must go, if we do not understand the Kabbalah.

קבלה Kabbalah comes from the Hebrew, קבל Kabel, meaning “to receive.” It also means “tradition,” the secret teachings of the initiates. When we meditate, we investigate, we analyze, we experience, we then receive new knowledge. We understand the depths and intricacies of the soul, and the path that leads out of suffering.

But in order to do that we have to abandon what we are. As Abu Sa’id, a Sufi initiate, stated,

“Wherever the delusion of your selfhood appears―there’s hell. Wherever you aren’t―that’s heaven.” ―Abū Sa’īd in Ibn Munawwar: Asrār at-tawḥīd, ed. Shafī‘ī-Kadkanī, 299

The ego is the problem. The ego is the obstacle. The sense of “I,” “me,” “what I want,” “what I crave,” “what I desire,” in itself is called the tree of death, in Islam. شجرة الزقوم The tree of Zaqqum, which in Arabia is an actual tree whose leaves are very bitter to taste, became a symbol of the infra-dimensionality of the ego: the subconsciousness, the unconsciousness, the infraconsciousness.

So we have to abandon our own pride, fear, laziness, lust, defects, nafs in Arabic, the lower soul, in order to obtain heaven. But this quote is very interesting. It says that “Wherever you aren’t―that’s heaven.” This does not mean that there is a complete nihilism there, that we cannot experience heaven. It depends upon our level of being. Are we attached to our negativities, our hatreds, our self-esteem? Or do we set that egotism aside, withdraw the senses, and awaken the consciousness, the soul, so that we can experience the Being?

Remember that this map, this Tree of Life, represents us―who we are, who we really are―not our culture, our language, our name, but divinity.

Stations are precisely the degrees of consciousness that we develop in ourselves through work. These are known as initiations. And if you study the writings of Samael Aun Weor, such as The Three Mountains, The Major Mysteries, The Perfect Matrimony, Tarot and Kabbalah, Alchemy and Kabbalah in the Tarot, you understand that this Tree of Life is essential. These are precisely the stations of the path, the degrees of consciousness, which we seek to actualize.

Remember that initiation is our own life. It is not found in a physical group, although those schools help. They instruct. They inspire. Real Initiation occurs when we humble ourselves, when we humiliate our ego. Shame comes before honor. If we wish to return to divinity, we have to strip away the baggage, the delusion of self, which is not real. We have to remember the Being, the Tree of Life, because the Being is heaven. When the ego dies, the soul returns to divinity, our true reality: a profound state of omniscience, cognizance, happiness.

And so this diagram helps us to understand ourselves. It is very intricate, very deep. Here we introduce it in the context of this lecture to frame the discussion of the forthcoming lectures in this course.

Divine Nature in Arabic Kabbalah

So again, initiation is development, qualities of consciousness that we learn to realize here and now. It is obtained through very profound work, but of course the Being, divinity―whom the Sufis and Muslims call الله‎ Allah―is precisely the one who gains the initiation honors, degrees, qualities and experiences, understanding, wisdom. الله‎ Allah in Arabic means “The God.” And if you look at this graphic you find that there is a top trinity that emerges from an abstract Seity, a perfect profound and limitless space known as אין Ain, אין סוף Ain Soph, אין סוף אוֹר Ain Soph Aur. That is the Absolute. That is Allah, because even the term Allah meaning “the God” refers to the most profound heights of the Truth.

In Islam they do not have any images of God. It is considered sacrilegious. That is because it is impossible to anthropomorphize space, and the light that emerges is precisely in this diagram, this top trinity: Kether, Chokmah, Binah: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence. It is light that expresses in three ways, but is one. There is no division of that light. It is perfect, but it manifests in three ways in order to create life, which is why the Qur’an speaks abundantly about how one of the names of divinity is الخليق Al-Khaliq, “The Creator,” referring to Binah, the intelligence of divinity that creates the soul.

Likewise we have الرحمن Al-Rahman, the Compassionate, الرحيم Al-Rahim, the Merciful―Chokmah and Chesed―which refers to the beginning of each Surah of the Qur’an with the exception of Surah 9: بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim, “In the Name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful.”

Kether is also Allah, the Crown, Supremacy, and that light which emerges from the unknown is that perfect expression of God.

Of course, the Christians refer to this trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but that teaching in that tradition degenerated when people mistakenly believe these divinities to be three people and not energy, consciousness. So that is why the Qur’an is explicit and rejects the trinity. But we study all traditions so that we do not end up in fanaticism or confusion.

This light is perfect. It is the Being, and if we wish to know and develop that light as expressed in Surah Al-Nur, the 24th sura of the Qur’an, we learn to enter initiation, to develop that light. We learn to forget our egotism. We put it aside, and remember our true Self, the reality of that light, that great perfection.

Kabbalah, Numerology, and Persian Sufism

So let us define, according to the Sufis what stations are, initiations, levels of progress. The levels of knowing God, the remembrance of God, occurs in accordance with hierarchy, and even amongst the Sufis, they explain these stations in very different ways: sometimes 7, sometimes 40, other times 100, or even 1,000.

These stations refer to the qualities of ourselves, our soul, such as discipline, contentment, awe of divinity.

It is important to remember that these stations are very dynamic. When Samael Aun Weor wrote about these different initiations, he was very specific, and explained something that was never taught publicly. But the Sufis alluded to that teaching in a very abstract way. So as I said, sometimes the Sufis say there are 7 stations, sometimes 40, sometimes 100.

The number 7 is important to Kabbalah. It refers to 7 levels of the soul, the lower 7 levels of the spheres or סְפִירוֹת sephiroth, the Hebrew term for “emanations.” There are also 40 stations referring to the 4 worlds of Kabbalah, the 10 sephiroth in the tree of life in the 4 worlds: Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, Asiah.

40 also relates to the Hebrew letter מ Mem, which refers to words like מים mayim, water, and even the Arabic مائي mayiyn, which has the same significance.

Farid ud-Din Attar wrote a book or a poem called The Conference of the Birds, and he speaks about the 7 stations of the path. Al-Qushayri, who wrote Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism, explained that there are 40 stations, which are very profound, and much of the knowledge we are providing here comes from that text. And lastly there is the 100 stations of the Sufi path by Abdullah Ansari of Herat.

All these initiates were Persian, and I’ll quote for you what Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Perfect Matrimony about Persian Sufi initiates:

“The most ineffable part of Mohammedan mysticism is Persian Sufism. It has the merit of struggling against materialism and fanaticism and against the literal interpretation of the Qur’an. The Sufis interpret the Qur’an from the esoteric point of view as we, the Gnostics, interpret the New Testament.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony

So Sufism teaches us how to interpret the Qur’an, because the language of the Qur’an is Kabbalah, which if you say in Spanish is La Kaba. It is the science of the stone. In the Middle East, Muslims pray towards Mecca, the Kaaba, the stone of the mysteries. That stone is a symbol of the work with Yesod, the vital forces that are essential into entering meditation.

If you say la baca, the same syllables in Spanish, you have “the cow,” and Al -Baqarah is the longest surah of the Qur’an. It is “The Cow,” a reference to the divine mysteries of the eternal feminine, the Divine Mother. There are very profound mysteries here, very deep.

The term baqa actually means “subsistence.” The term fana in Arabic means “elimination, annihilation” of the self, so that one can enter the Truth. Baqa is subsistence within the Truth. So once we have died to the ego, the soul subsists and realizes the Being, baqa. That is the mystery of Al-Baqarah: the sacred cow within Islam, the longest surah of the Qur’an. If you are interested in knowing more about these topics you can study specifically The Eternal Tarot course we have available on chicagognosis.org, where we speak a lot about the Muslim mysteries and the Kabbalistic symbolism contained within those teachings.

Kabbalah is the science of numbers. They represent principles. The law of 7 is very deep, and it can teach us how to meditate, to understand the Tree of Life in its order. 40 can also relate to 40 virtues, relating to מ Mem in Hebrew, or in Arabic م Meem.

The fact that certain Sufis refer to 100 stations can also refer to initiation, because when you add the numbers together, the digits, 1+0+0=1 relates to the first card of the sacred tarot, Arcanum 1: The Magician, which refers to laws of the Being and the soul, the path of development. The tarot and the Kabbalah are one science, and we use these principles when we study meditation. It is a map and it is how we navigate our own internal worlds.

The Definition of Stations: Initiations

Stations refer to initiations. And going back to the first card of the sacred arcana, is referring to the Magician, the one who begins, who initiates, who works. The following is from Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al Qushayri:

“A station consists of certain forms of behavior actualized by the servant through his struggles. He gains access to these through some kind of voluntary effort and makes them a reality through a sort of striving and the endurance of constraints upon his nature.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

So these are the levels of being. We access a higher level of Being by working on our mind, by struggling against mechanical habits, defects. We must gain access to the higher worlds through conscious works and voluntary sufferings. This is a very famous quote by Samael Aun Weor: “We can only awaken through conscious works and voluntary sufferings.” He doesn’t mean that we go out of our way to look for problems. It means that we accept the results of our prior actions, and face the consequences with rectitude, with ethics, with love for humanity.

That is how we constrain the ego. We allow our ego to suffer when we do not get what it wants. This is fundamental if we wish to enter into initiation, understanding of the higher degrees of meditation.

“Everyone’s station is the place that he occupies in this way and with the discipline of which he concerns himself. The necessary condition involved is that no one may proceed from one station to another without fulfilling the requirements of the first station.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

There are very clear levels of development, a progression which the Tree of Life maps very explicitly, very beautifully. The path is very layered. There are levels and degrees, if you have studied The Perfect Matrimony, the Minor Mysteries, the Major Mysteries, the Venustic Initiations, the Three Mountains. While these concepts might seem very far away from us and elevated, they give us a diagram, a map, an understanding of where we are and what we must do.

So Al-Qushayri continues:

“For instance, he who has no contentment cannot properly possess trust. He who has no trust cannot properly possess the quality of surrender. Likewise he who has not turned to God cannot properly know penitence. He who has no vigilance over the morality of his actions cannot properly know renunciation.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

If we wish to enter those higher degrees of initiation, we must work with our level of Being. Certain qualities cannot be developed unless we are very intentional. By eliminating certain defects, we give birth to virtues. By learning to renounce our mind, we in turn are vigilant, watchful over our own morality. If we have not repented of our mistakes and really wept profoundly for our errors, we cannot turn to God. If we have no remorse, we cannot change, we cannot wish to yearn or look for help, and if we do not trust our inner divinity, we will never surrender to him with contentment.

So all these qualities are very interwoven, dynamic, infinite, but it is useful to combine this study with the Tree of Life because it helps to clarify these qualities in ourselves.

Raising One’s Station or Level of Being

Al-Qushayri also continues in his Principles of Sufism, relating how the stations are stepping stones towards the path that leads to divinity,

“The station, place of stay, is the act of staying (iqamah), just as the word madkhal, entry, has the sense of the act of entering (idkhal) and the word makhraj, exit, has the sense of the act of leaving (ikhraj). If his affair is to be firmly constructed upon a sound basis, no one may remain in a given station unless there is evidence that it is the act of God Most High [and not his own act] that causes him to stay in that station.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

So as I mentioned to you, stations are stepping stones, degrees, virtues and qualities that we develop in a progression, qualities of the soul that are perfected in the different initiations mentioned by Samael Aun Weor.

There are virtues that we need to master at certain degrees. In מלכות Malkuth, the First Initiation of Fire, we must have patience, tenacity, endurance in order to awaken the fire of the kundalini, the sacred Shekhinah.

In יְסוֹד Yesod, we must truly repent for our lustful deeds, our desires.

In הוד Hod, the heart, the astral world, we have to work on our emotions very deeply: our anger, our resentment, our pride.

In נצח Netzach, the mental world, we have to be very diligent about how we think, how our thoughts affect others.

While these qualities are not strictly limited to those sephiroth, there are certain idiosyncrasies we need to learn. And that is something you can only know through experience. These stations are places in which one can stay or which one can leave, one can transcend. The goal is never to stay in one place, never to go down, to fall, but to ascend these higher and higher degrees of knowledge.

So we are not allowed to stay stationary, unless that is what our divinity wants. There are some practitioners who get stuck because of certain defects they are working on, or do not understand. Other times the Being keeps us at a certain degree because we need to learn something more, to be firmly established in certain virtues, and the understanding of certain actions, but the goal is never to stay in one place, but to always ascend, to go up, to ascend this Tree of Life.

This map is very intricate. It is very dense. There are many relationships associated with each sphere. There are many names of divinity, many aspects of the soul and the Being that are diagrammed here. It is a lifetime of study, to really traverse this map of consciousness from experience. These stations are known as maqamat in Arabic. These are initiations, degrees, levels of development. And I will quote for you a very famous Persian text which I mentioned by Abdullah Ansari of Herat, The Stations of the Sufi Path, and I will explain a few points about this teaching of the Tree of Life and how it can aid our meditation.

“It has been confirmed that Khidr, peace be with him, said: ‘There are one thousand stations (maqām) between the servant of God and his Lord (mawlā).” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

The Qur’an speaks about this figure known as Khidr, who helped Moses, and Morya in The Lord God of Truth Within refers to this initiate as Melchizedek, the genii of the Earth, a great master.

“And a similar saying has been mentioned from Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri, Abu Yazid al-Bastāmi, al-Junayd, and Abu Bakr al-Kattāni―may God be pleased with them all. Dhu-l-Nun al-Misri said: ‘There are a thousand worlds’ [between the servant of God and his Lord], Abu Yazid and al-Junayd―may God bless their innermost selves, said: one thousand palaces,’ and Abu Bakr al-Kattāni said: ‘a thousand stations.’” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So whether 100 or 1000, these refer to initiations. There are ten spheres in this diagram, from מלכות Malkuth to כֶּתֶר Kether, and if you have read The Major Mysteries, Samael Aun Weor refers to these degrees in terms of esoteric time.

If you are in meditation and you ask a master or your being to tell you where are you at in your work, they will refer to you in your age. To be 99 years or younger refers to the Minor Mysteries. 10 to the first initiation of Minor Mysteries, 20 to the second initiation of Minor Mysteries, 30 to the third initiation of Minor Mysteries, up to the ninth, 90. And beyond that: 100 to a 1000 refer to these ten spheres of the tree of life, the Major Mysteries, and even beyond.

It is a symbol. It is a reference point. We need to know this map so that when we travel to these places in our work and, internally, we do not get lost, we do not get confused, because we cannot interpret our experiences literally. They are symbolic, abstract.

“God the Most High, says, ‘Is the person who follows the good pleasure of God like the person who brings to himself the wrath of God, whose dwelling is Hell?―A woeful refuge! (3:162) [Certainly] they are in varying degrees (darajāt) in the sight of God,’ (3:163) and those ‘ascending degrees’ mentioned in this Qur’anic verse are one thousand stations.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So study this diagram with a lot of patience. I only provide an overview of this to provide context for understanding what the different stations we will talk about, but also the qualities of the soul needed to master those states and to progress in our meditations.

“The journey to God is short, the journey in God is infinite”―ascending degrees, more knowledge, limitless wisdom, which is why Prophet Muhammed stated in Surah Ta Ha, verse 114: “My Lord! Increase me in knowledge!”

Way Stations and Abiding Stations

Abdullah Ansari of Herat explains that there are way stations and abiding stations. These stations are stopping places. They are levels, levels of Being, which always ascend higher and higher towards the divine. And even within the divine there are infinite degrees, levels of Being, which we seek to actualize. This quote explains how this is a very dynamic process, and that we must always strive forward in our work, to question in our meditations, “Where are we at? What must we do in our particular level so that we can renounce what is egotistical and ascend towards what is higher?

“And those one thousand stations are ‘stopping places’ which are traveled by those who are journeying toward God (Haqq) until the servant, having passed [and is helped to pass] through those ascending degrees stage by stage, is honored to be received into the proximity (qurb) of God.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So what is this proximity of God? There are levels to God, which is why we study the Tree of Life, because there are levels and levels of that light. As it is stated in the Qur’an, “Light upon light!” in Surah al-Nur: levels and levels of understanding, but always we want to go higher. That is the goal.

“Or the servant himself passes through one stopping place after another until he reaches the final stopping place, which for him is the field of proximity to God. The proximity he leaves behind is only ‘a way-station,’ while that [proximity] where he remains is the [abiding spiritual] ‘station’―like those stations of the angels in the heavens.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So many of us long to be close to God, to have that experience, to have that realization. We have to remember that we must travel, and traveling to a distant country that is foreign unfamiliar, dangerous, requires a lot of courage, a lot of work, striving, effort.

The stages of the path are way stations, and we wish to abide within the highest spiritual station, like the angels. And we have to remember that the Elohim or the angels, the buddhas, the Gods, whatever name we wish to use, were once like us. They did not begin from the heights. They rose from the mud. They polished their hearts with dhikr, remembrance of Allah, through meditating on their true nature.

One practice we can do is to meditate on the Tree of Life, to ask for clarification of what this diagram means to us. And to understand that these are way stations, places of travel that lead higher and higher. The path of divinity, of the gods, is in a much higher octave, degree, than what we can conceptualize here, and even with the Tree of Life.

We know that there are the ten spheres or sephiroth of the tree in which certain masters ascend, but even in the Absolute there are degrees and degrees and degrees, which are incomprehensible for us at our level. But we need to understand this conceptually, so that we know what the goal is―and to meditate on this for ourselves―to know the truth of it from experience.

"[As] God, the Most High, says, ‘And there is none among us but he has a known station, (37:164) (and in His saying) They seek a way of access to their Lord, which of them (might be) closest…’ (17:57).” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So even the gods, the angels, seek to go higher, and this can inspire us, and humble us―to remember that this path is a process. It is a patient work. Rumi, the great Sufi poet and initiate, explained this process in one of his poems. He talks about the process of the soul elevating higher and higher and higher through a process of the death of the ego.

"I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, To Him we shall return." ―Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi

So what is that non-existence? It is referred to in the Kabbalah as the Absolute: Ain, Ain Soph, Ain Soph Aur―the cosmic space, the Truth, the infinite from which every world manifests.

Even the term الله‎ Allah has a negating principle. لا Lah means “no” in Arabic. ال Al is the indefinite article “the.” الله‎ Allah is the negative, “The No,” the negation of all that is not divinity. In order to reach those heights, we have to renounce, renounce, and renounce all that is imperfect in us. We must undergo fana, annihilation of the self so that we can subsist, baqa, within our eternal divine reality.

As Abdullah Ansari of Herat states:

“So each of these thousand stations is a waystation for the spiritual traveler (ravanda’), but a station (maqām) for the discoverer.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

The Six Conditions for Initiation

There are some initiates who are reaching certain heights while others are transcending those―degrees and degrees, a process. We have spoken a lot about Kabbalah and the tarot in synthesis. It is important to remember that the 22 arcana of the Tarot are synthesized in the Tree of Life. And there is one card in particular that can help us to understand what the Sufis wrote about the six conditions for initiation, of aiding our meditation.

If we wish to understand and experience this Tree of Life in its different modalities, expressions, principles, archetypes―we must practice six things according to the stations of the Sufi path.

“In those thousand stations, there is no escape from six things, even for the blink of an eye. These six things [conditions] are: respecting the divine command, fearing God’s tricks and ruse, seeking God’s forgiveness, actively respecting the sunna (the Prophetic Tradition), living in friendship and kindness, and being compassionate toward all creation.” ―Abdullah Ansari of Herat, Stations of the Sufi Path

So the sixth card of the tarot relates to these principles, and is a very wonderful diagram for understanding our situation, and how to really enter initiation, deeply, profoundly.

The sixth arcanum, the sixth law, refers to the lovers of the tarot. It is the soul caught between the ego and the divine. He is looking to his left, his left arm crossed over his right and his feet in the waters of the card, in the bottom third of this diagram, because he has fallen into temptation.

He represents us. We wish to enter the path, to understand the path, to practice it, to work, but we have ego. And the woman on the right of the card, or to the left of this initiate, is precisely naked, referring to her lasciviousness, her lust, which is his mind, his own ego, his nafs, his own lower soul.

To his right, a divine initiate, a woman, referring to the Divine Mother the sacred cow of Islam, Al-Baqarah. Above there is an angel aiming an arrow towards the whore, the prostitute, the naked woman of this arcanum, in order to slay her, and this teaches us the path, the path of meditation.

Meditation is for comprehending our own faults, eliminating our faults, and perfecting our soul. We do this through love, by loving our divinity. But of course, for that we must turn in repentance to our own inner divinity. But we see that the man’s face is towards the prostitute of this card. He is not facing the chaste, divine, beautiful woman on his right. The Qur’an speaks abundantly of turning to God, as having remorse. If we do not have remorse, it means that we do not respect the divine command: the laws of ethics of the soul.

Remember that the basis of meditation is founded on how we use our energy. Lust and love cannot mix. They are opposites. Desire says “me,” “what I want,” “what I crave,” “what I need,” and compassion says “you,” “what you need.” Lust fulfills itself. Love or compassion sacrifices for others.

1. Respecting the Divine Command

So what does it mean to respect the divine command? Since we have been studying the writings of Samael Aun Weor, the most specific command is chastity, sexual purity, renunciation of animal desire, fornication. We cannot enter initiation if we are losing our energies, sexually speaking. It means that we do not respect divinity and we are facing the whore of the sixth arcanum, feeding our animality, our lower soul.

beginning meditators often struggle with the reality of lust. This is precisely the path of Indecision, the name of this card. When we struggle to orient ourselves, we renounce lust, again and again, as we enter the stations of the path. Without an understanding of chastity, we cannot understand meditation, to rise to a new station. So we must learn to comprehend and have remorse: to really understand how our own desires create pain for ourselves, and for others.

2. Fearing God’s Tricks and Ruse

This has to do with the ordeals we receive as we are practicing meditation and chastity. These are struggles we have to face that come from divinity. If we do not receive hardship, we will never change. We will never confront the monster that is underneath the bed. Without these troubles and difficult situations in life, our defects will never spontaneously emerge so that we can see them.

This is a psychological gymnasium, which is why Arcanum 6 teaches us the following axiom: “Thou art giving me labor, oh Lord, and fortitude with it.” If you study the lectures on Lucifer, you will know this teaching very well―the tempter, that part of our psychology and divinity that places ordeals and challenges and temptations so that we can overcome them and grow. So this is what it means to fear God’s tricks and ruse, because we face ordeals, but if we don’t comprehend them and eliminate our defects, we end up in more suffering.

3. Seeking God’s Forgiveness

We also must learn to seek God’s forgiveness. Sincere remorse is essential. In meditation it is the crux of how we change, that feeling in the heart that we have made a mistake, and we wish to know how to work on that fault.

4. Actively Respecting the Sunnah (Prophetic Tradition)

And this is how we actively respect the sunnah, a prophetic tradition, the writings of any master or prophet, the life of the prophets, where we see by their examples and spiritual life, like in The Three Mountains by Samael Aun Weor, how to orient our heart when we are troubled.

5. Living in Friendship and Kindness and 6. Compassion Towards All Beings

But also living in kindness and friendship and being compassionate towards all creation. If we want to neutralize selfishness, desire, egocentrism, we must learn to sacrifice for other people. This is what drives us on the path of initiation, how we initiate, how we meditate on what we must change.

Spiritual Acts and Remembrance of God

Lastly, we will talk about spiritual acts and remembrance. Some people think of initiation and the Tree of Life as something abstract, outside of ourselves. But if we wish to really understand meditation, we have to study Kabbalah. We have to understand the symbols and how they apply to what is going on in our life, otherwise we are confused.

I’ll relate to an experience I had many years ago that can elucidate these concepts. I remember that I was meditating very deeply, sometimes hours a day, and I remember falling asleep in my chair in my bedroom. I awoke in the astral plane in my home where I was shown an instructional video. The words “the Path of the Self-realization of the Being” scrolled from left to right in front of my vision or screen.

I was next shown a diagram, ten spheres, which are aligned in two rows of five columns, different faces. Mine was at the bottom, far right. I saw figures that I can never forget―different qualities, or different expressions of different faces, or people, which at the time I did not understand.

I was never studious about Kabbalah in the beginning, but I was having meditation experiences that I could not explain. I remember seeing, particularly, figures in this diagram, portraits, associated with the Nordic pantheon, such as Wotan, father of the gods, in the far top left, and other faces associated with Germanic mythology. And I remember asking this question of an instructor who directed me to Kabbalah, the Tree of Life. I understood that each portrait or face in that glyph was a symbol of my Being: different faces or aspects of my own inner Truth, levels of initiation.

When I understood this symbol, I was relieved, and I had a lot of faith built from my understanding that I was being helped. I just needed the practical knowledge to interpret, and that is why in Kabbalah is essential to meditation, because I was confused. I knew this was from my inner divinity, because of my heart and what my soul was telling me, but when I verified in writing from the books, this reality, it solidified my faith and has helped me to progress through many years of work―to be patient.

In this process, we must always go higher, revise our understanding, self-reflect, which is why Al-Qushayri said in Principles of Sufism the following anecdote,

“I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, “When al-Wasiti entered Nishapur, he asked the companions of Abu Uthman [al-Hiri], ‘What did your shaykh use to order you to do?’ They replied, ‘He used to order us to realize the necessity of acts of obedience and to see clearly how we fell short in them.’” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

So while this pertains to our ethical discipline, of course, there are levels. We emphasize ethics always, but we must not get caught up in concepts, intellectualism, theories which is why:

Al-Wasiti exclaimed, ‘He ordered you to sheer fire-worship! Why did he not command you to be absent from these acts in the vision of their Originator and Further?’” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

Meaning: why did he not teach you to learn how to act selflessly from the Being, to manifest those higher qualities in the vision and remembrance of the Truth? Levels of knowledge. Remember we spoke about Shariah, Tariqah, Marif’ah―ethical discipline, inner work, and the highest realizations.

Again in that Tree of Life, you can refer to the three trinities of that diagram: above, middle, and below. The top trinity formed by כֶּתֶר Kether, חָכְמָה Chokmah, בִּינָה Binah―the middle trinity: חֶסֶד Chesed, גְּבוּרָה Geburah, תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, and the bottom trinity: נצח Netzach, הוד Hod, and יְסוֹד Yesod. The three levels of Sufism correspond to the three trinities of Kabbalah: the Tree of Life. The top trinity relates to Marif’ah. The middle trinity relates to Tariqah: the path of the heart, and Shariah refers to the lower trinity, how we work with Netzach, our mind, Hod, our emotions, and Yesod, our energy―levels of knowledge and wisdom.

“Al-Wasiti only intended to safeguard these people against complacency (from being satisfied with their level of development), not to turn aside into realms of negligence (to abandon the ethical practices of our tradition) or to authorize infringement of a single one of the usages of religion.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism

So remember that the Tree of Life is very intricate. We will approach this glyph systematically to understand how these principles apply to our meditation. Even the terms used in Hebrew relate to the profound development of the consciousness, and so here we introduce these concepts, but we will open up the floor to any questions you may have.

Questions and Answers

Question: I was curious, you talked about having a map to know where you are right now, could you talk a little bit more about that?

Instructor: Yes. So, the Tree of Life is precisely the map of our consciousness, and where we are and what we must do.

So we know from our meditative practice that the lower five spheres of this diagram teaches about the quality of our soul. Malkuth in Hebrew means “Kingdom,” our body. When we meditate, we must learn to calm Malkuth.

We must also learn to relax and to work with our vital forces relating to Yesod, which in Hebrew means “Foundation,” the vital energies. We work with these vital energies through mantra, through prayer, through transmutation, sacred rites of rejuvenation, runes, many exercises that are provided in the writings of Samael Aun Weor.

We also learn to calm our emotions, withdraw our emotions from negativities, relating to Hod, the astral body, referring to “Splendor” in Hebrew, the splendor of the heart, the compassion of the heart.

As we calm our emotional center, we also let the mind exhaust itself, relating to Netzach, “Victory.” Sometimes Samael Aun Weor mentions how one who conquers his or her mind is victorious, a buddha, and so the mind always wanders from thing to thing, associative thinking.

We must learn to control our mind with willpower. We are referring to Tiphereth, which in Hebrew means “Beauty,” the beauty of the soul: profound, intuitive, beautiful action. It does not mean a will that is enmeshed in desire, because in most cases for us, our will is conditioned. We tend to be very weak willed in our studies, especially in the beginning. But through these exercises of meditation, concentration practice, relaxation, pranayama, we learn to fortify our will with divine force.

And even when we sit to practice meditation, we can look at this glyph. We can meditate on this diagram and question: where are we in our work? What are we stuck in? Most people do not even get past the physical body. They are always moving their Malkuth. The body, the earth, is always moving. Our inner earth, our body, Malkuth, must always be still when we meditate.

Some people work with energy after relaxing the body, work with Yesod. Other times we are caught up with negative emotion relating to Hod, or our mind is too active, chattering, Netzach. And sometimes we need to develop more will, more divine will, action that always serves, submits to divinity, referring to Chesed, the Being, the Innermost in Hebrew, meaning “Mercy.” And the divine soul, Geburah in Hebrew, referring to “Justice,” the mercy and justice of divinity, which always knows how to act in any situation.

Of course, to go higher requires work, but in a simple way, this diagram teaches us where we are. And if we learn to really investigate those spheres in the internal dimensions, we can receive even more profound guidance, and be instructed as to what we have to work on.

Remember that the science of dream yoga is geared to understanding our own experiences in life. Initiation is our own life, lived intensely, with rectitude and with love. So if we awaken consciousness in those higher regions of nature, we can be shown our level of being, our qualities of mind, our defects that we have to work on, so that when we return to our physical body from sleep, we are charged, we are inspired, because we are receiving the inner guidance of our own inner divinity.

So that is a representation of what the stations are, and they can refer to virtues. They can refer to the sephiroth, the Tree of Life. And remember that each sphere of this Kabbalistic glyph refers to qualities of Being and the soul, such as justice and mercy, beauty, victory, splendor, foundations of work relating to energy, and the kingdom that encompasses all of it. So it is a very beautiful diagram that can teach us much. We will go into aspects of this glyph progressively, in this course, in order to relate certain qualities that can help us understand how to work more effectively.

Audience: That is great, very helpful, thank you.

Instructor: You are welcome.

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Sincerity on the Path to Truth

8/29/2019

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The word religion comes from the root religare, which means “to reunite, to bind together.” And real religion is about our own personal journey to reunite with our inner divinity.

The point of this course is to help us to work with our heart when we approach spirituality. So many times, we study a lot of texts and we get caught in the mind and we spend a lot of time accumulating knowledge, but then in our practical life, we are suffering a lot. We are confused. We are having struggles in our relationships or not sure which way we are supposed to go, what direction to take.

When we have a connection in our heart to our inner divinity, we can activate a power of conscience, which can guide us. A lot of students, especially in the West, struggle with that, because here, especially in American culture, we are taught that knowledge is approached with the mind. All of us have been in school where we have been forced to memorize a lot of different facts and figures and learn different strategies and formulas, and all of that is in the mind.

How often is it that something we have learned really touches us in our heart and really changes the core of who we are?

When we talk about cultivating virtue or conquering vice, these are tasks in our spiritual development that we approach with our heart, not just with the mind. In this tradition, we teach that there are three important factors that we use on a daily basis to approach spiritual awakening:

The first is death. We say death of the ego. Ego in this sense is one's own self-importance. One's selfish desires that get in the way of our ability to see the truth. So a lot of students in this tradition know the importance of killing one's ego, letting oneself die so that we can be born into who we would like to be, because unless we let go of who we are, we can never become something better, something new.

Of course the second factor that we talk about is birth, the birth of the soul. Now, this has levels of meaning on the surface, of course. The birth is what comes after death. When we let go of our ego, what happens next? We don't just become a void. We actually embody virtues. Our soul begins to grow, to breathe, to shine through us, because now it has the space and the energy in our life to be able to develop itself―to not be suffocated by pain and suffering.

On a deeper level, which we will discuss a little later in this lecture, birth has to do with sexual regeneration, harnessing one's own creative potential in order to activate their spiritual life. Our creative force is the power of divinity within us, just as divinity has the power to create worlds, you know, all of nature around us. We have the power to create life in our sexual potential, and when we learn to harness that in a divine way, we will be able to awaken our soul―to give birth to the soul within.

The third factor is sacrifice for others. Until we do something good for other people, we don't deserve to have anything given back to us. So on this path, we are constantly trying to develop virtues that have the benefit of others in mind. Of course, a common law that people talk about is karma. If you don't have the merits to receive spiritual blessings, then there is nothing that can be given to you to overcome that. If all you do is you go out and hurt people, you are cultivating an energy around yourself that is attracting negative experiences to you.

So all of us, we come into spiritual teachings in order approach to truth. We are on the path to truth, right? And we need to cultivate the energy around us that will propel us towards truth and not the energy around us that will propel us into more confusion, more falsehood, and more suffering. In order to do that, we have to sacrifice for others and do the right thing, take ethical action. And yes, you know all world religions teach us a path of ethics: a basic code that we could follow. That is a great starting point, but at the end of the day, we have to truly listen to our heart to be able to know what is the right step to move forward.

What is the right thing to do? There are a lot of situations in life that are so particular that we can't just go to the Bible, or go to the Bhagavad-Gita, or go to any scripture and find our exact situation written out there and exactly what we should do. And we feel a lot of pain in those situations, moral pain, because we are not sure what is the right thing to do.

Maybe no matter what action we take, somebody gets hurt. Or whatever action we take, we feel like we are not going to be happy with that. Many times, we turn to friends or teachers or different people that we respect and rely upon to find those answers, but our goal in the Gnostic movement is that each person can cultivate within themselves the substance of sincerity: such profound honesty and wisdom within themselves that the confusion passes and that, when they go and they sit down and they enter deep into meditation, to connect with their inner divinity, they know exactly what is the right action to take. Even if it is a difficult action, they feel in their conscience that they know what to do, and that confusion, which is a form of tremendous suffering for us, can lift.

Sincerity is so important that it is taught as a practice in the Buddhist tradition that can liberate one from the wheel of suffering. In Buddhism is a concept of recurring rebirths into different realms of suffering. This is taught as the wheel of samsara [or Bhavachakra: The Wheel of Becoming]. Even if one lives a life and suffers terribly after they die, they will be reborn again into another body and have to suffer again. In Buddhism, the ultimate goal is to escape the realms of suffering, to become enlightened, awakened, and free from being caught in this wheel.

In a Buddhist scripture called The Questions of the Naga Kings of the Ocean (Sagara-naga-raja-pariprccha), we can find the following passage:

Lord of Nagas, a single practice of the Bodhisattvas correctly stops rebirth in the lower realms. What is this single practice? It is the discernment of what is virtuous. You must think, "Am I being true? How am I spending the day and the night?" ―The Questions of the Naga Kings of the Ocean

A bodhisattva is a person just like us who is on the path to truth―who is seeking to become awakened and enlightened―to not just know the truth and the intellect, but to feel the truth in one's heart, to be one with truth. So, it is a very important question to ask ourselves, “Am I being true?” If we are being true, if we have profound honesty with ourselves, then we have the discernment of what is virtuous. We can know, even in a difficult situation, even in a morally gray situation, what is the virtuous action to take. Then we have the freedom to choose if we want to take that action or not.

That is to be truly free, to be free from the confusion which causes us suffering. In a state of confusion, we continue to take actions that lead us into deeper and deeper suffering, more and more problems. But in a state of awakening, a state of profound wisdom, we know which actions will take us out of suffering, and also help others to come out of suffering as well.

At the end of the night when one reviews one's day, when one thinks about one’s situation in life, we should ask, “Am I being true? How am I spending the day and the night?” If we say that we want to be spiritual people, we want to be a good person, but all throughout the day we observe in our actions that we are really just looking out for “me, myself, and I,” and we are not trying to be the light that we want to see in the world―that is our starting point. And for most of us, that is where we are at. We begin in a state of realizing that a lot of the times we do things that we regret or that we are not proud of, because we are put in a situation where we are not sure what else we can do.

So to be able to be honest with ourselves, that single practice can take us all the way to enlightenment, according to this Buddhist scripture. That single practice of every single day, being continuously honest with ourselves, can help us to find our way out of suffering. But there are two big obstacles in the beginning for people who are really trying to apply the Gnostic methods of birth, death, and sacrifice.

The first is a fear of truly seeing ourselves for what we are.

Observing Our Many Contradictions

An esoteric philosopher was giving these teachings in Russia and his name was Gurdjieff. This was in the early 1900s, and he taught that if a man was to truly see himself for what he is in a given moment, without all the buffers that prevent him from really looking at himself, he would go insane, because of all the contradictions that we carry within. And maybe we realize that in one moment we say we want to do something, and not so long later, another contradicting desire comes out. So how do we know which one is really me? How do we know what is the part of me that I should really follow?

Gurdjieff gives this teaching about being able to observe oneself and also being able to observe reality. He says:

“Many things are necessary for observing. The first is sincerity with oneself. And this is very difficult. It is much easier to be sincere with a friend. Man is afraid to see something bad, and if, by accident, looking deep down, he sees his own bad, he sees his nothingness. We have the habit of driving away thoughts about ourselves because we fear the gnawings of conscience.” ―G.I. Gurdjieff

Many times we are in a situation that is really difficult and we want to focus on the problems with our situation that are blocking us, that are causing us difficulty, that are making us unhappy. We want to focus on the other people that we can blame for our , and it is true that there are many problems with our legal systems, our government, our world, our relationships, and yes, probably everyone has a share in the guilt for the difficulties that we encounter. But at the end of the day, the person that we really have power to change is ourselves, and many times that is the hardest place to look, to place the blame.

It is much easier to say, “Well, I never got anywhere in life because this and this and this,” or “I am unhappy because these people keep doing this to me.” How hard is it to look at ourselves, and see the ways that we are preventing ourselves from having the happiness that we would like, that our own bad actions are producing negative energy in our life, that is affecting everyone around us!

So the first barrier is being able to look at ourselves without fear of what we might see there, and to really rest in the knowledge of who we are.

“Sincerity may be the key which will open the door through which one part can see another part. With sincerity man may look and see something. Sincerity with oneself is very difficult, for a thick crust has grown over essence (which is our soul). Each year a man puts on new clothes, a new mask, again and again. All this should be gradually removed ― one should free oneself, uncover oneself. Until man uncovers himself he cannot see. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.” ―G.I. Gurdjieff

So over the years we have developed a self-concept of who we are and “I am this type of person; I like these types of things; I have this type of temperament; these are my characteristics; these are my interests.” And that is the crust that Gurdjieff is talking about. That is such a thin layer of who we are as a living being, and yet, that is the part that we think is who we really are. Sometimes it takes journeying into a new place to see yourself beyond the idea that you have about yourself. It takes going into a new environment to see how you act when all the comfortable things that you are used to are no longer around you. And that is one way to remove our masks.

The other is through meditation. When we watch ourselves throughout the day and we see things that we do and we are like, “I wonder why I did that?” at the end of the day. We teach that you can use a retrospection meditation. Sit down, calm your body, calm your heart, calm your mind. and observe on the screen of your mind with your imagination, the scenes of your day exactly as you experienced them. And as you observe them, you will begin to, without effort, understand something new.

I once had an experience where I felt very justified in myself that I was doing the right thing in trying to help other people and other people were angry at me. I felt this was really unfair, because obviously I was trying to help them, so I felt that my actions didn't deserve to be repaid with cruelty. And yet when I sat down in meditation and really calmed myself, and then recalled the images of my day, I saw it from their perspective―and it changed me on such a profound level that I had to stop doing the behaviors I was doing, which I was justifying by saying, “Well, I am right!” And instead, I had to realize that I was doing things that were creating suffering for other people.

That is the level of sincerity that we are seeking in our spiritual work. It is not enough for us to just put on a mask and say, “Oh, I am a really nice person!” but then behind the mask we are thinking negative thoughts all the time, having a lot of anger and resentment, a lot of envy―but we are trying our best to be a good friend. We want to really be that genuinely good person―to be so since are in a world which is radically insincere. We want to be the light that can wake people up from a negative state of mind, but it is very hard, and the first step is being able to be sincere. So that is why today we are talking about the barriers to being sincere.

Prayer and the Divine Mother

The first is, many times when we encounter something painful in ourselves, we don't want to look at it. We say, “Okay, well you know, that's enough meditation. I have got to go off and do something else,” and distract ourselves from it. But if we really want to change our state of suffering, we have to look exactly in the place that our heart is telling us is causing our suffering.

One technique that we use in Gnosis is practiced with our Divine Mother, the divine feminine, which is the embodiment of love and virtue. She has a lot of power, a lot of insight. So, many times in prayer, I have gone and have offered myself and my situation to my Divine Mother and said, “I am lost! I don't know what is going on here. I am suffering so much, and I need the clarity to be able to get out of the situation.”

Prayer can be really powerful and have very powerful effects, but we have to approach prayer with sincerity, and remember that our prayer in our spiritual life is not about what other people think about us. It is about our genuine experience, our genuine openness with divinity. In many areas of life, we have to put on a performance, or at least we feel that way. We have to be a certain person. When we go before God in our own heart, whatever that divinity looks like to us, that is where that performance can be put aside, and we can finally be our true selves.

Maybe see a part of our self that we don't let ourselves see when we are out in the world, when we are busy, when other people are watching. And that is the power of honesty with oneself and sincerity. That is why it is so essential that, if we don't have that as our basis, spiritually speaking, we might learn a lot of things, we might learn to act a certain way, but in our heart we are not going to fundamentally change. We are not going to have those results that we really, desperately want.

Revelations and Self-Transformation through Ordeals

The second obstacle to sincerity is not wanting to hear and listen when other people and situations show us who we really are.

In our daily experiences, just as I have described, we have many situations where we blame the situation, we blame other people, and we don't turn our introspection back on ourselves and say, “What is it? What is going on with me in this situation? What have I not ever seen about myself before that this situation can show me?”

People might criticize us. They might really see something about ourselves, but because of our own ego, we want to defend ourselves. We want to say “That person doesn't know anything! Look what they are doing wrong!” and we don't change, because we are not taking a different perspective on situations and on feedback that will actually help us to develop ourselves.

If somebody criticizes you and they are right, they have given you such a great gift because now you have the power to see something that you didn't understand about yourself before, and to change.

Gurdjieff goes on to say:

“People do not understand that sincerity must be learned. They imagine that to be sincere or not to be sincere depends upon their desire or decision. But how can a man be sincere with himself when in actual fact he sincerely does not see what he ought to see in himself? Someone has to show it to him. And his attitude towards the person who shows him must be a right one, that is, such as will help him to see what is shown him and not, as often happens, hinder him if he begins to think that he already knows better.” ―G.I. Gurdjieff

In both of these quotations, Gurdjieff is pointing out to us that the biggest obstacle is that we already think we know who we are. We already think “I have got myself figured out.” And so if other people try to give us feedback that is contrary to our idea about ourselves, we get offended, we get upset, and we want to run away from that revelation.

If situations seem to turn out in such a way that seems unfair to us, we don't want to look at if the situation is actually what we deserve to be experiencing. We don't want to examine it in that way. We have to have a different attitude towards life, to be sincere. We have to have an approach to life that lets us take feedback, take situations that are difficult, and transform them.

In the East, the lotus is the symbol of such self-transformation. The lotus is a beautiful flower that grows from the mud, from muck. For a lot of us, our situation in life feels pretty murky. It feels like we are dealing with a lot of painful, ugly things that are going on, different situations. We see it on the news all the time. So how do we take the muck of our situation and use it to nourish the seat of our soul so that we can grow? We can become something beautiful like this lotus, rather than just letting ourselves die in the midst of that.

The Substance, Energy, and Force of Sincerity

Samael Aun Weor is the founder of the Gnostic tradition, and he taught that:

“We must cultivate sincerity, because the most beautiful flowers of the Spirit germinate within the substance of sincerity." ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose

Sincerity is a substance. It is a living thing. It is something we have to cultivate―by creating that space that I just described, where you actually take off the mask and you go before divinity, and you bare your whole heart. You look at yourself and your life situations as they really are, with all of your courage, without running away. That is how you begin to give your soul the space it needs to really grow―to see itself―to experience new perspectives.

A lot of times we go through our days thinking the same things, feeling the same things, doing the same things―on repeat. We never get a chance to think anything new, experience something new, to see ourselves from a different perspective. So we have to create an environment in our lives, whether that is through our meditation practice, or through sincere relationships with friends or family, or the people closest to us, in which we have the space to grow and see things in new ways. Because it is from that substance that radical honesty, that beautiful virtues of our soul can grow, that our spirit can really shine, and will see potential in ourselves that we never thought possible.

We can talk about prophets or masters, you know, like Buddha, Muhammad, Moses, Jesus―all those people were people just like you and me, physically speaking, but they worked so hard―whether in their current lifetimes or in previous lifetimes, to develop a closeness with divine truth, with a penetrating love and wisdom of the universe―that they were radically changed. They were able to achieve feats that most of us deem miraculous.

All of us have that divine potential within us. In Buddhism it is called the “seed of Buddha-nature” that we can develop, but we have to create a space with which we can do it.

If a person says that they are after enlightenment and after truth, but they spend their days lying to people, deceiving people, keeping a lot of secrets out of a sense of defending oneself, one's own idea of oneself, how can they become one with truth? If we spend our time saying lies to people, we create a disequilibrium in own mind at heart and body that affects the people around us and that affects us. It prevents us from being in harmony with the true nature of reality.

Sexual Energy: The Power of Truth

Now, another esoteric truth, as I mentioned, is the factor of birth. When we really want to get into the deepest mysteries of truth, we have to be working with the practice of sexual transmutation.

In Gnosis, we know that this practice involves taking one's sexual and creative energy, and using it with purity, whether individually or in marriage with one's spouse, to be able to harness that energy without losing it, and transmute it up to the brain. And when we do that, that energy can awaken all of the centers of our body. It can regenerate us and can help us to really perceive something mysterious within ourselves and within the universe.

An old, ancient gospel from the Gnostic tradition is the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, and the author of this gospel wrote something that seems perhaps a little enigmatic on the surface, but I am going to break it apart from the esoteric perspective. It is written in this gospel that:

“The Word says, ‘If you know the truth, the truth will make you free.’” ―Gospel of Phillip

We have heard this in the Bible. Jesus was the one who said that the truth will make us free. Jesus is an incarnation of Christ, a universal force of wisdom, truth, and compassion. And he is saying that if we know the truth, and not just know it on an intellectual level, but really become one with that truth, we are free.

All those situations of confusion and suffering that I talked about: feeling stuck, and “Like we don't really have the power to change our situation and to get out of it,” if we knew the truth, the truth as a principle, a metaphysical principle beyond any one person, then we would know what is the right path to take.

What is important to point out there is that the truth is not something that we can know in one moment and hold in our intellect and then continue to talk about again and again and again. The truth is dynamic. It is deep. It changes in each moment. It changes in each one of us. So, we have to have the openness in the sincerity to say, “Even though I understand this aspect about the truth, there is a lot more that I don't understand. There is a lot more that might be related to this aspect of the truth that I can’t understand”―to keep approaching ourselves, our life, our experience, and divinity with that openness, so that we can truly understand more and more, and not foreclose ourselves early.

The verse from the Gospel of Phillip goes on:

“Ignorance is a slave, knowledge is freedom. If we know the truth, we shall find the fruit of truth within us. If we join with it, it will bring us fulfillment.” ―Gospel of Phillip

When we talk about truth as a substance, the substance of sincerity, this is deeply related with our sexual force, our creative energy. Our creative energy is where we define ourselves.

We all know that in an act of sex, we can create a new life. We can radically change our life forever. And in many other ways, sexual actions have tremendous repercussions, whether they can be traumatic, or whether they can be great. So, we have to use this force with sincerity. We have to use this force to our advantage and not become enslaved by it―because, when we are joining with the purity of our own sexual force, we can find a fulfillment that is beyond anything physical.

The Gospel of Philip goes on:

“At present we encounter the visible things of creation, and we say that they are mighty and worthy and the hidden things are weak and insignificant. It is not so with the visible things of truth. They are weak and insignificant, but the hidden things are mighty and worthy.” ―Gospel of Phillip

We spend a lot of time working on our physical identity, our physical life. We don't spend quite as much time working on our soul, even though this is the part of us that we believe to be eternal, that we believe to go on after death.

So, many times there are students that really work with these practices. They finally reach the point where they say, “My spiritual life is something that I want to take seriously. I want to become one with truth. I want to apply these practices.” A barrier that they encounter is that they become caught up in the physical changes that take place. When we are working with sexual transmutation, for example, whether as a single person using pranayamas, or as a married person practicing sexual alchemy, we are going to experience changes on all levels.

But the physical changes, the energetic feelings that we might have, are the very bottom portion of who we are. The really powerful changes are what are happening on the higher levels of the consciousness and the psyche. Those are what are described here as the hidden things which are mighty and worthy.

A lot of times we'll have students ask us, “What do these feelings mean if I am feeling a sensation in my spine or my third eye? Does this mean that I am awakened?” Physical sensations come and go in this work, and we shouldn't let them become obstacles for us. We shouldn't get scared of them. We should accept them. Let them be and understand that with time, we will see the changes in our lives and in the people around us that are really going to be the mighty fruits of the truth that we will find within us.

Sexual Alchemy: The Path to Truth

Finally, the Gospel of Philip goes on to say, that those of us who are really working with this practice will discover a very powerful force for radical change within ourselves. If we have been working, under the premise that we have been doing sexual transmutation, meditation, sacrificing for others, trying to become more awakened, the Gospel of Philip says:

“Perfect things have opened to us, and hidden things of truth. The Holy of Holies was revealed, and the bedchamber invited us in.” ―Gospel of Phillip

The Holy of Holies being our sexual alchemy, our sexual work, through which we become purified, we become new, we become born again through sexual transmutation, which is talked about in depth in The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. The bedchamber is the way that we can enter into that, not just know about it as a concept, but truly transform ourselves in our deepest substance, through our creative force―to become something new―to transform.

Now, this next part of the Gospel of Philip, which is what I am going to finish with, is talking about many levels of truth. So yes, it has some relevance to our experience on this planet and in relation to other people, but the deepest significance of it that I want to talk about here today, has to do with our psychological change.

We have been talking about ego, being sincere, countering all these things within ourselves. So when we truly see something in ourselves, we finally get that space of sincerity. Maybe we are crying in meditation because we really touched on the point that is hurting us, that is causing our suffering. How do we change it? How do we become something new? How do we kill what is false in us? What is creating pain for us? What is a lie that we have based our life off of and how do we give birth to something new―something that genuinely springs from our center, from the core of who we are, our essence?

He talks about the seed of the Holy Spirit. The seed of the Holy Spirit relates to that creative potential, our seed. And he says that,

“As long as the seed of the Holy Spirit is hidden, wickedness is ineffective, though it is not yet removed from the midst of the seed, and they are still enslaved to evil.” ―Gospel of Phillip

Within ourselves, if the sexual potential is utilized [by the Essence], our wickedness will be ineffective, meaning that there is not a lot of power to drive it.

In fact, we can think about times when our sexual energy, our sexual impulse was triggered by ego, by desire, and the lengths that we went through to try to get what we desired. Sexual energy has a tremendous power, and if we do not unlock this power, then in one sense, we become ineffective. We become unable to produce the changes that we would like to see, whether for good or for evil―whether we would like to see people hurt, or whether we ourselves would like to see the benefit of others, and the benefit of ourselves.

We have to tap into the sexual energy. In this school, we teach only white tantra, which is working in a way that benefits others. We don't teach black tantra, which is working with sexual energy for one's selfish aims at the expense of others, and ultimately causes the suffering even for the one who is using it.

That is why this Gospel of Philip, which was for initiates back in early, early times, they―who knew the secret, who knew about the bedchamber, inviting them into the mysteries of divinity―they would work with this power to change themselves. They would elevate what is good in themselves, and destroy what is false in one's self. That is why the Gospel of Philip goes on to say,

“But when the seed is revealed, then perfect light will shine on everyone, and all who are in the light will receive the chrism.” ―Gospel of Phillip

This means the anointing with the blessed oil, or for our purposes in esoteric significance: the chrism is the sexual energy, the semen, or the sexual fluids of a woman, the chrism, with which we raise to the brain, to the mind, to anoint the head.

The Gospel of Philip says:

“Then slaves will be freed and captives ransomed. ‘Every plant that my father in heaven has not planted will be pulled out.’ What is separated will be united, what is empty will be filled.” ―Gospel of Phillip

As I mentioned, yes, this has some significance to people in the world, but most importantly for our purposes, it has significance for us. Within us, there is a multiplicity of identities. Some of them want what is good for others, other parts of us want to hurt other people, want to make other people suffer, because we are suffering.

When we transmute our sexual energy, when we reveal that light through a revelation in our spiritual practice, practically doing it, not thinking about it, but really doing the practices, then this light emerges in our soul, which shines on all the different parts of ourselves, and we become anointed. We become blessed with the light of the Holy Spirit.

Many religions, especially I think Pentecostalism, is a popular one nowadays, talk about being blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: being able to speak in tongues or heal the sick or perform miracles. But the practical significance for us as beginners in this spiritual work, is that we can heal what is sick in us.

There are parts of our heart, parts of our mind, that are sick, that are diseased, that are dying and suffering terribly, and using the sexual energy can regenerate us. It can awaken us. It can give us access to the light of divinity, the knowledge of divinity, and truly, the power of divinity.

So, what is a slave in us will be freed. What is captive in us will be ransomed. Sometimes we feel compelled by a desire to do something that we know is harmful, that we know hurts others, and as much as we try to overcome our addictions, we don't feel like we have the power, but this power gives us the chance to do that. And that is why whatever is planted in us that is not planted by our inner Father, our inner divinity, can be pulled out, can be taken out of us and we can be purified and born again.

We are separated from our inner divinity. As I said at the beginning of this lecture, that religion is to reunite with the part of ourselves that we are searching for, that we are longing to know the truth, as a principle that exists within us. Through sexual transmutation, through ethics, through purity, through working on our mind, through awakening our heart, we can be reunited to God within ourselves, and we can be filled with the light of our divinity and no longer feel that emptiness.

Questions and Answers

Question: We talk about students who in this type of studies are really struggling with a problem. It could be an addiction or desire, a behavior that they want to seriously change. On the surface, we have this examination of our life, but we feel we don't want to do certain things that are causing suffering, not only for ourselves but for other people. We may find that we know intellectually that doing this and this is wrong, and yet we continue to do it. Okay. So the question is, especially for online students to is, how do you help, with the tools that we teach here, the student to reconcile that conflict?

Instructor: Yeah, because this is a hard path, and especially with the sexual aspect of these teachings, a lot of students say, “Well, I feel that my sexual energy is precious and valuable and I want to use that, I want to conserve that, and I want to work with it through transmutation, but I am struggling because everything in society is telling me other different messages―and how do I overcome that?”

So, it takes a really profound sincerity in oneself. Like I mentioned before, the first step is going into meditation, bearing your heart―whether it is to a divine feminine, divine masculine―it doesn't matter. It can be just a gender-less feeling in your heart of, “this intelligence that loves me and wants what is best for me, that I can put my trust in, that I can give my heart to” and say, “I am suffering. This is really what I want. But I have a lot of other pieces in me, whether it is fear, whether it is desire, whether it is envy that are working against me achieving my goal of becoming free” from whatever this addiction might be.

In that case, with that sincerity, we start at the beginning. Without the sexual energy, without that transmutation, it is going to be very hard to actually make a lasting change, because if we are being honest in our heart, we are being honest in our words and our deeds, and we are trying our best to be sincere about our spiritual work, but then with our creative energy, we are working completely against that. We are dividing ourselves in that way. We are not being integrally whole with all parts of who we are.

Question: Talk too about, even the term virtue etymologically refers to “virile, virility.” How does that virility, that energy, give a practitioner in meditation strength?

Instructor: When we harness our energy, it is the substance of our virtue. Our sexual energy as you mentioned, virtue, has the same etymological root as virile, virgin. “Vir” has to do with sexuality, so by harnessing that, we can begin to give birth to those beautiful flowers of the spirit, the virtues of our soul. And that comes from being honest with ourselves and in our actions and in our deeds sexually, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

Question: I had thought that while you are going through the path of righteousness and truth, of course you might say it's easier if you have a partner, a friend, friends, and a community. Because then you can sit down and identify and talk about the particular struggles you are having, and for a lack of a better way of saying it, you can plan a strategy of how you want to deal with it and support one another. If you are going through it alone, it is very conflicting. Sometimes you may make a bad decision just out of anxiety, so I have thought of that and never really had that but I always thought that if I had a partner or some friends who understood and who also were truth seekers or community, that we could say, ok we know this exists: How are we going to plan to go through this and survive and have the warmth and light out of life? I think that is missing a lot of times.

Instructor: In some cases that can be helpful, definitely. Especially in our physical life, to have people around us who support us in the lifestyle we want to live. If we are trying to, for example, be sober, giving up drinking in a culture where drinking abounds, but then we have a group of people that is like us, trying to be sober, that is going to create an environment that is much more conducive. But, that can also be a barrier, because if I can just go to, you know, my elder and ask him for all the advice, and I myself don't have to develop within a reliance on my own inner divinity, that can become an obstacle. In fact, are you familiar with Tarot at all? Tarot, like tarot readings? [Editor’s Note: see The Eternal Tarot]

Comment: Oh yes.

Instructor: So, they are, esoterically speaking, can represent different principles of reality and the Arcanum Nine of the Tarot is the Hermit, is initiation. It is representing for us, in a symbolic way, that ultimately our spiritual work is done alone, even if we are in an environment with a lot of friends who are into spirituality, and where we can put on the show around our friends. But when it comes down to our heart, we have to do that work inside, and nobody knows and nobody sees that but God, you know?

Why do we as instructors keep our identities private? It is because our true path to truth is lived privately. It is within each one of us. It is not about anybody else, anybody else's opinion. Sometimes people are in spiritual groups, they are saying, “Well, everybody is doing this and saying this is good, so I have to do it” and they themselves, by just going along with the flow, aren't really evaluating, “Is this a good thing?' Put them in a different group and they might do the exact opposite.

Another Instructor: In Buddhism, they talk a lot about the three jewels. The Buddha or the teacher, the Dharma or the teaching, and the Sangha, or the school, community. Community is important. It is good to meet with people and to talk about, especially in our organization, we have retreats and activities that involve people to talk about these kinds of things, which are very contrary to the current of our culture and humanity. So, it is good to meet with people who are sincere. When people are practicing by themselves , and developing themselves with the methods we are providing here, that aura of sincerity, that of sincerity becomes strengthened. But of course, as we were discussing, if a group is based off of fanaticism and fear and cultural norms or group norms, when the practitioners are not being sincere in themselves, that is where you have dogma, institutionalization, problems.

Question: And one thing we could also ask is when we are cultivating this serenity or this sincerity, how does one know that their prayers or their efforts are going to be answered? Because sometimes you feel that we are being very sincere with our efforts of practice, and we pray and meditate, but we don't get the answer immediately, and that often can create a friction in us where, “This is not working. Because I am trying this this and this. I am following formulas in meditation: ‘process a, b, and c.’ I am trying these practices that we are doing as a group or individually, and I am not getting the results that I want.” So this is something that students often ask us is, well, how does one know whether we are really being effective or not? And how do we tie that into sincerity, being honest with where we are at?

Instructor: You know by the fruits. If you notice a change in yourself and a change in your life that is really lasting, and you know that you are approaching it in the right way. If you just feel like you're stuck and you are encountering the same problem again, and again, and as much as you are trying to change yourself and nothing is changing, then you need to go back to the beginning and work on understanding that situation―really putting your all into understanding: why does the situation keep repeating in different ways of my life? What is it that I am doing that is reproducing this situation? You can do that through retrospective meditation and, like I said, you know, working with sincere prayer and meditation to see something new in yourself.

Question: Can we get to talk a little bit about the actual process by which, and the procedure by which, we develop sincerity, because the beginning of meditation we know is, our posture, relaxing our body, relaxing our mind―letting go of the residue of the day: tensions and anxieties―and developing a state of equanimity. But in order to be really sincere, maybe you can comment on this, is, once we have that serenity developed and are no longer pushed around by lying, how does one go into the mind to work on a specific defect so that through comprehension, you can eliminate it?

Instructor: The first obstacle is actually getting relaxed enough physically, emotionally, and mentally, that your mind calms down, that you can focus your attention on one point without becoming distracted. If we have achieved that, then the next point is to be able to go into the place that hurts.

So in the quote that we talked about, people are afraid to look at themselves. If you have achieved that stability of mind and you can actually look at the area of your life that is causing you pain, you have to be able to hold your attention there, and really look at it, and not just one day, but working on it day after day. Sometimes the insight will come not in meditation, but it will come in a dream. It will come later on when you are cooking, and you are not even thinking about it.

So, the approach, if you find a place that really touches in your heart, then you know, this is what I have got to be looking at. It is not something in the mind, “Oh, is this what is important or is that what is important?” and not only weighing it on an intellectual level, but really feeling with our heart. What is it that is hurting me here? What is it that is hurting me most? Why am I suffering and going in that direction?

Question: When meditating, I have seen some people laying on the ground, does it matter which position you take? I like to meditate laying down.

Instructor: Me too. The important thing with meditation postures―we can try all different kinds of asanas or postures―but what is really important is you have a position where one: you are comfortable enough that you can actually relax, and two: you are not so comfortable that you fall asleep. If you have a position, if you are the type of person who can lay down and you can still stay awake and keep your mind concentrated, but that is what helps you to relax, then go for it. Yeah, you don't need to sit up or sit in a chair or lotus posture or anything like that.

Another Instructor: More importantly what is essential for medical practices is having a posture that we can relax fully but without losing the thread or practice, and this is where sincerity becomes so essential, primarily because if we are meditating and for 30 minutes we are daydreaming, remembering what happened in the day, following a chain of associative thinking, memories, being overwhelmed by emotions, and then suddenly you remember, “I was supposed to be meditating!' or we fall asleep and we lose our attention―that means that we weren't meditating for those 30 minutes. This is why it is important to be sincere about practice because, we talk with a lot of students, where people are going through certain problems and are trying to resolve conflicts in their life through meditation, but the way that they approach it is an issue. We focus on an event in the day and try to really visualize and to understand what defects or behaviors we engaged in, in that moment. When students concentrate, when you are meditating in that way, you visualize an event in the day, you recall the thoughts and the feelings and the impulses to act in that specific moment.

Question: How does one work against the mind and comprehend that particular situation, and also be seen in the context of being sincere, not trying to change what happened? They say “Oh well, I think this is what happened…” but instead to really look at the facts. So how does one go about that process of that practice of retrospection?

Instructor: Well that has to do with our stability of mind. Our stability of mind is dependent upon what we are doing throughout the day. So, if somebody is changing things, egotistically going through, then they don't have enough control over their attention.

That is something that we have to be really relaxed, emotionally relaxed. So taking a deep breath if we are feeling overwhelmed, or if our mind is getting distracted with other thoughts, going back to the beginning, working on that again and again, and every meditation is going to help us over time to achieve the technique that we need. But what is really important―a lot of schools might focus on asana, your postures, different mudras, different mantras―those can be great and those can help, but really the focus that we have is much deeper than that.

We are looking to achieve a change on a spiritual level that is within the body, but it is also beyond the body. If we have a posture in which we can sit comfortably, we have a state of mind in which we can concentrate to a fair degree, then we have enough to begin doing a deeper work. As we do that deeper work and we change on a deeper level, we might realize, “Okay, I need to adjust my posture” or we might have better control with our mind, but ultimately if we have just enough to get started on the deeper work, then we shouldn't get fixated on physically, “How am I sitting? What different energies am I feeling in my body?”

Those can be great. Sometimes they are pleasant. Sometimes they are not. Just experience them as they are. Let them be, but the intention at least with the Gnostic path is to become one with truth, and you don't become one with truth by sitting in a certain posture. I mean, we have had people sitting in those postures for thousands of years and yet, our planet is still the way that it is today.

So, what is really important is going deep within yourself. If people are on a path and they want to learn about awakening different energies, there are a lot of techniques you can do. The techniques in our tradition also awaken energies, but it is not for the sole sake of awakening those energies. It is for a deeper purpose.

Question: Talk about comprehension, because once we have that foundation and serenity where we can actually focus on a problem of the day, or a defect we saw in our self-observation that we want to work on: how does one go about comprehending those elements and removing them? Because some people, they go into retrospection and they will reflect on what they saw in the day, but we get caught up in being angry again, or being resentful, being proud, being fearful and not being able to separate from that. So again, we talked about the serenity for being able to see that, but not how we could identify with it. Being serene is one thing. It is the beginning. But the real work is being able to perceive those particular defects or egos, and how do we go about comprehending them?

Instructor: You are saying for someone who already has stability of mind and is able to observe something in themselves without becoming identified with it how do they develop comprehension?

Audience: Yes, on a deeper level. We get that question where they say, “I am seeing that I have anger, that I have lust, that I have fear, that I have all these things; and I know I have these faults, but I am not changing fundamentally.” One thing is to know it intellectually, “I have this” or they will say “I have anger and I shouldn't have done that.”

Instructor: So do we really feel it in the heart? Samael Aun Weor writes, comprehension comes through the heart. When we are observing something, have we meditated on it from the other person's point of view? Maybe we see it more like “Yeah, I shouldn't have done that wrong.” But have we really contemplated how we might have affected or hurt the other person?

Many times, taking the perspective of others, being empathetic, can really trigger our own remorse. Remorse can be a virtue. Guilt is not a virtue. Guilt can just create, you know, more baggage for us. We don't want to be beating ourselves up necessarily, but feeling genuine remorse of “I want to change in our heart” is the beginning of comprehension. Sometimes we don't comprehend it right there in our meditation session. But if we are really, sincerely working, an opportunity, another experience will come that can teach us another deeper level about that defect that we want to work on.

We have to just keep at it with persistence. Consistency is really the key. Tenacity and consistency: to be able to continually work on a defect in different levels. We might understand it on a superficial level, intellectually, “Yeah, that is wrong, that hurt somebody,” but to go deeper into it with our heart, to awaken our heart is really the key to changing, because when somebody really feels it in their heart like, “Oh man, I messed up. I wish I hadn't done that!” That is when we can really change.

We have practices and mantras like the mantra, 'O' that works specifically with awakening the heart, and if we feel like our heart is cold and we are stuck in our mind all the time, we can work with that. If we feel like our heart is suffering too much and we are overwhelmed by emotional pain, we have the practice with the Magic of the Roses to help us heal our emotional pain.

If we are feeling way too overwhelmed by a topic, then maybe we need to take a break from it. You know, there are extremes. We got to be in balance. You don't want to go so much into something where you are overwhelmed and then you can't function in the rest of your life. This balance depends on you knowing yourself well enough to know, “Am I too intellectual? In which case I need to be working more with my heart,” or “Am I too emotional? In which case I really need to work with calming down―you know, getting serene, being able to back off emotionally so that my heart calms down enough that I am not in confusion.”

Sometimes the best thing to do is to be patient and to wait, because as long as we are funneling more energy into the situation, we are probably creating more problems. If we stop funneling our energy into the situation, we relax. We just let it be what it is. People are saying bad things about me, whatever. Whatever the problem is, just let it be what it is. Sometimes people get distracted and they start talking about somebody else instead and it just disappears. But if you keep funneling energy into it, it is going to get worse and so with patience, with stepping back, we can calm down enough that maybe the correct action that we should be taking will emerge for us. But, if we are just throwing more energy into the problem, we are creating disequilibrium in our mind and heart and in our situation.

Question: What about meditating on virtue? As oftentimes, in this work, we can see a lot of things we don't like. Oftentimes, many students and even instructors will face certain conflicts in their daily life that provoke very subconscious tendencies that are very ugly. And what does it mean to meditate on the virtues and how can it help anyone practicing meditation to not become morbid.

Instructor: That is actually going to be another part of this course, is not being overcome by despair.

Question: (paraphrasing) I recently started to realize... getting certain dimensions and being out of the third dimension and into the fifth dimension and being in higher dimensions, but the more that you see into that dimension, the more sad it can get because you see, you start to see people for who they are... You start to feed off people's energy and it can affect you if you are not careful, but you are also stuck like… What do I do or, when you are around your environment and stuff?

Instructor: It is a very real challenge that as you begin to wake up, you are realizing all these beautiful truths and virtues and also look at the reality of, you know, what is inside of people― what is inside of me―which is ugly. What is inside of other people which can be pretty ugly too. Yeah. Absolutely! So I will answer both of these.

So the first question, it can be very beneficial if we see something in ourselves, that is really negative, to meditate on what is the antidote to this, because just as we carry a lot of ugly things within ourselves, we also carry beautiful things within ourselves. The proportion at which we express them might be different, but we can just as easily be generous as we can be greedy. And so, for those of us who think we’re saints, we have got to be aware that we have a dark side that is just as easily activated. And for those who become overwhelmed and become morbid about their negative attributes, they should sit and meditate on what would be the right thing to do in this situation.

To go and do that is liberating in itself―to see that you have the power to do something virtuous that you think is the opposite. So we are trying to work with duality to create a unity. It doesn't have to be either good or bad. In fact, those terms aren't really useful for the purposes of your direct lived experience. Your experience is what it is. So if you see something that you find repulsive, go and apply something that you think is beautiful to it, and create a unity there, create something that is balanced.

In terms of what you are talking about, that as we awaken and we become more aware of what is around us, we see how those energies can affect us, especially if we have a more open kind of psychological state of being. We have a lot of practices to protect ourselves [see The Divine Science by Samael Aun Weor]. These aren't practices that hurt other people. They are just strictly to create a space around myself that is protected, to cultivate a space within which my energy can radiate outwards and help other people, but I don't become drained by them.

So one important thing is, if there is somebody really toxic, as much as you might want to help them, you might need to help them from a distance, because becoming ingrained in a “like best friendship,” with somebody who is really toxic, you are mingling your energy with them on a regular basis, and you know, we take on the color of the people that we are around, and it can really drain us. You might lift them up a little bit, but at what cost to the other people in your life who need you? I mean loving people from a distance.

There are some books too. We can give you a book for free so that you can learn about protecting yourself in those situations and to not be discouraged by the state of the world. It can be really difficult. But we also see really beautiful things in ourselves. We see beautiful things that people are capable of, like you were describing, other places, other parts of the world where there are beautiful things. It doesn't mean any place is free of problems, but every place and every person has some good in them, and we have to be encouraged that if we are doing our part with creating beauty in ourselves, creating that light, that you know, other people are capable of the same. If they choose to do that, they are capable of it.

We have to hold on to the hope that, you know, other people are doing the best that they can to try to live happy lives, and if people are really creating problems for themselves and struggling, you know, that is their free will and we have to respect that. We have to do what we need to do to protect ourselves, but you know, at any point in life, people can change and I know that because, I went in a certain direction in life, and at a certain point, I had had enough with what I was doing, and was able to change. So I have hope for other people because of what I have lived through, and then, when I become overwhelmed with some of the things that I see, people close to me really suffering, I just have hope that if they want to, that opportunity will come for them.

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​Alchemy, Chakras, and Kundalini in the Psalms

​Solomon and Sacred Sexuality

​Soma, Sexual Energy, and the Power of Shiva

​The Śvetāśvatara Upanishad and Sexual Yoga

​The Four States of Consciousness

​The Heavenly and Terrestrial Man of St. Paul

​The Psychic and Spiritual Bodies

​The Manifestation and Contemplation Buddhas

​The Spiral and Direct Paths

​Bodhichitta

The Three Minds

The Limitations and Dualism of the Sensual Mind

The Intermediate or Mystical Mind

The Inner Mind and Direct Experience

The Inner Mind, Force, and Spiritual Realities

The Three Minds in Scripture

Pharisees and Spiritual Communities

Belief and Faith / Phenomena and Noumena

The Inner Mind and Mystical Death

Questions and Answers

The Definition of Initiation

​Contacting and Experiencing Divinity

The Practicality of Aquarian Gnosis

The Conservation of Energy and Spiritual Awakening

The Role of Kundalini, Initiation, and Spiritual Knowledge

​Conscience, Discernment and Internal Judgment of the Soul

Identity, Illusion, and Conflicts with Reality

​Meditation, Introspection, and Inner Discrimination

​Exercise to Awaken Inner Judgment

The Sanctity of Mind and Heart

​Psychological Death: The Initiatic Path of Life

​Kundalini Yoga or Sexual Alchemy

​The Structure of Initiation

​The Guardian of the Threshold

​The Four Ordeals of the Elements

​The Initiations of Minor Mysteries

Conclusion

Questions and Answers

​Annihilation and Subsistence

​States and Stations: Levels of Being

​Ecstasy and Being

The Light, Unity, and Knowledge of the Being

​The Shahadah: Declaring the Unity of God

​Mythomania and Mystical Experiences

​The Definition of States

​The Momentariness of States

​Validating Internal Experiences

​Internal States and Spiritual Facts

​Progressive States

​Questions and Answers

​Medical and Psychological Correlations of Trauma

​Situational and Chronic Trauma

​Commission versus Omission

​Fight, Flight, and Freeze Responses to Reality

​The Spiritual Impact of Trauma

​The Transformation of Impressions and Psychological Disequilibrium

​The Gnostic Esoteric Work

​The Magic of the Roses

​Sexual Energy: The Most Powerful Force for Healing

​Meditation as Therapy

​Countertransference: The Resistance of the Mind

​Self-Observation and Comprehension of Trauma

​The Traumatic Causes of Karma in Past Lives

​Selfless Service and Sacrifice: The Transformation of Suffering

​The Cessation of Karmic Suffering

Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

The Levels of Being: Stations of the Sufi Path

​Divine Nature in Arabic Kabbalah

​Kabbalah, Numerology, and Persian Sufism

​The Definition of Stations: Initiations

​Raising One’s Station or Level of Being

​Way Stations and Abiding Stations

​The Six Conditions for Initiation

1. ​Respecting the Divine Command

2. Fearing God’s Tricks and Ruse

3. ​Seeking God’s Forgiveness

4. Actively Respecting the Sunnah (Prophetic Tradition)

5. Living in Friendship and Kindness and 6. Compassion Towards All Beings

​Spiritual Acts and Remembrance of God

Alchemy, Chakras, and Kundalini in the Psalms

Solomon and Sacred Sexuality

Soma, Sexual Energy, and the Power of Shiva

The Śvetāśvatara Upanishad and Sexual Yoga

The Four States of Consciousness

The Heavenly and Terrestrial Man of St. Paul

The Psychic and Spiritual Bodies

The Manifestation and Contemplation Buddhas

The Spiral and Direct Paths

Bodhichitta

Contacting and Experiencing Divinity

Conscience, Discernment and Internal Judgment of the Soul

Meditation, Introspection, and Inner Discrimination

Exercise to Awaken Inner Judgment

Psychological Death: The Initiatic Path of Life

Kundalini Yoga or Sexual Alchemy

The Structure of Initiation

The Guardian of the Threshold

The Four Ordeals of the Elements

The Initiations of Minor Mysteries

Annihilation and Subsistence

States and Stations: Levels of Being

Ecstasy and Being

The Shahadah: Declaring the Unity of God

Mythomania and Mystical Experiences

The Definition of States

The Momentariness of States

Validating Internal Experiences

Internal States and Spiritual Facts

Progressive States

Questions and Answers

Medical and Psychological Correlations of Trauma

Situational and Chronic Trauma

Commission versus Omission

Fight, Flight, and Freeze Responses to Reality

The Spiritual Impact of Trauma

The Transformation of Impressions and Psychological Disequilibrium

The Gnostic Esoteric Work

The Magic of the Roses

Sexual Energy: The Most Powerful Force for Healing

Meditation as Therapy

Countertransference: The Resistance of the Mind

Self-Observation and Comprehension of Trauma

The Traumatic Causes of Karma in Past Lives

Selfless Service and Sacrifice: The Transformation of Suffering

The Cessation of Karmic Suffering

Divine Nature in Arabic Kabbalah

Kabbalah, Numerology, and Persian Sufism

The Definition of Stations: Initiations

Raising One’s Station or Level of Being

Way Stations and Abiding Stations

The Six Conditions for Initiation

1. Respecting the Divine Command

3. Seeking God’s Forgiveness

Spiritual Acts and Remembrance of God

Questions and Answers

Observing Our Many Contradictions

Prayer and the Divine Mother

Revelations and Self-Transformation through Ordeals

The Substance, Energy, and Force of Sincerity

Sexual Energy: The Power of Truth

Sexual Alchemy: The Path to Truth

Questions and Answers