We will be discussing, in the esoteric sense, the nature of psychology, particularly in relation to mind, its definition and its relationship to our interior psychology, and what exactly mind is and why it is important for us to study mind within these type of teachings. There are many misconceptions about mind that need to be addressed if we wish to advance and to experience the real teachings found within religion.
Samael Aun Weor states in The Revolution of the Dialectic, his formidable psychological work: In Mental Dynamics, it is urgent to know how and why the mind functions. We can make of the mind a useful instrument only by resolving that how and why.
We often state in these teachings that mind is the obstacle to genuine spiritual realization and actualization of divine principles. Our definition of mind is specific in these studies. When many people in modern psychology hear the term “mind,” they think of the physical brain. But we know from esoterism as well as direct experience, such as out of the body within dreams and by awakening our psychic faculties, we realized that the mind is something else, and that the physical brain is merely an instrument. It is merely a vehicle through which mind can express.
So in this in this lecture, we are going to talk deeply in relation with the book known as The Revolution of the Dialectic by Samael Aun Weor, as well as The Revolution of Beelzebub, in which he discusses the nature of mind and intuition, but also the teachings of the Venerable Master Morya, who is a great resurrected initiate, author of The Dayspring of Youth, from whom we also quote in this lecture. The Mind, Energy, Brain, and Nervous Systems
The brain is merely a machine that processes energies. It is not mind. We have our physicality, our physical organism, which is a marvelous machine. It is merely a transmitter of forces and spiritual principles. We find this primarily within our nervous systems and the health of the nervous system is essential to esoteric practice, which Master Morya covers very beautifully in his book.
We find here in this image a picture of the cerebral spinal nervous system, which is the physical brain and its spinal medulla. Master Samael explains that the spinal medulla is the throne of the spirit, meaning the throne in which the energies of the Being manifest. Therefore, those who have a healthy nervous system, a healthy physical brain, likewise have a healthy psychological interior, because our nature is psychosomatic, meaning, it is psychological and spiritual. Likewise, it is somatic, since in Greek soma means “body.” Our nervous system is literally the transmitter of forces from our physical to our internal worlds. These energies manifest in many ways which we are going to be discussing. This nervous system circulates energies and forces which are necessary to comprehend if we truly want to achieve dominion of the mind within ourselves and to achieve the awakening of the consciousness, the experience of divinity. From science, we know the physical brain relates to many chemical, biochemical, and subtle processes. In esoterism, we know that we circulate atomic forces in relation to our nervous system. These atomic forces are spiritual and psychological at the same time. 
We find in this image the nervous system which Master Morya explains is the central system. It is the center of our body. In Kabbalah, the spinal medulla is literally the Tree of Life. It is what holds up our body and unites us with God. We have to understand that the nerves, being sensitive organisms within themselves, transmit vital forces which are essential to yoga and which we actualize through our many practices of mantra and pranayama, and especially in the science of sexual magic.
In this excerpt from The Dayspring of Youth, Master Morya states the following: In our central system we observe a thin membrane covering the organs that intermittently registers the finer currents of Nature that pass through them during day and night. These organs are sounding boards held together by their atomic structures. Each one registers a different wave-length and their vibrations emit an audible sound. Our different physical nerve cells are similar to these and are also attuned to receive certain vibrations. To evoke the activity of our latent atomic centres we use the seven vowels of Nature, called mantras. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
We know that in our spinal medulla and from esoteric teachings of yoga that we have seven chakras, seven vital centers which we activate through the seven vowels, sacred vibrations and words.
The vowel “I” [pronounced as “ee” within “tree”] vibrates in the pineal gland in between the eyebrows, which is essential to the nature of perception both physical and psychological. The vowel I also relates to the crown chakra and the peak of the skull. We also have E [“eh” as in “bet”] in the throat, the chakra of the larynx, which relates to clairaudience. Clairaudience is the capacity to hear psychic sounds within meditation or even out of the body within the dream state. The vowel I and the pineal gland relates to our clairvoyance, our perception. The vowel I also vibrates the pituitary gland between the eyebrows, which is the chakra of clairvoyance. The vowel O [as in “boat”] in the heart, the cardiac chakra, awakens the faculty of intuition. The vowel U [as in “you”] in the solar plexus relates to telepathy, the science known as transience, the interchange of messages of a psychic nature between sentient beings. The vowel A [as in “ah”], the pulmonary chakras in the lungs, gives one the capacity to remember past lives. The first sound that child makes is “Ahhh!” when it is born. In those moments that child remembers how he or she got there and it is unpleasant to remember that fact. The vowel M [as in “Mmm”] is related to the prostate or the uterus. It sounds like the noise of a bull. The vowel S [as in “hiss”], which is the sacred fire, is related to our coccyx at the base of our spine.
These mantras help the aspirant to activate these latent centers and those energies charge our nervous systems. This is why mantra every day is essential in order to fully control and comprehend the mind.
The Tree of Life and the Upanishads
In these studies, we talk about mind and how it is an obstacle for us. Again, we make the distinction that it is not the physical brain. In order to explain what mind is and how to work with those powerful energies through mantra, we discuss the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah.
In this diagram you have ten Sephiroth, ten spheres of consciousness. These are different modalities of being relating to the most elevated energies of the cosmos. At the top is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We also have the most condensed forces and energies present within our physical body. We are at the bottom of the Tree of Life. Our consciousness ranges in depth and complexity in terms of energy in relation to these Sephiroth. We talk about the need to control the mind and that the mind is really our worst enemy. The mind in itself in Hebrew is Netzach on the right pillar. To the left we have Hod, which is emotions, the astral body, or better said, the lunar astral vehicle, an animal body of desire. These are vehicles, or better said, Sephiroth representing different vehicles of consciousness. When in different realms of matter and energy, we subsist in those types of bodies, material vehicles. The mind, Netzach, Hod, emotions are really the habitats of desire, the animal ego, whether we call those egos hatred, pride, vanity, lust, etc. Below these we have Yesod, which means “Foundation.” It is our vital energies, those forces which give life to our physical body and govern our biochemical, neurological, metabolic and catabolic processes in our body, and our body is Malkuth, “the Kingdom,” at the bottom of the tree. So, notice we have this lower quaternary, the lower four spheres: Netzach the mind, Hod the emotions, Yesod our vitality, and Malkuth our physicality. We call these the four bodies of sin because they are the expression of our ego. Our ego, animal desire, uses these vehicles represented by the Tree in order to act, whether physically or in the dream state. We call these lunar bodies, meaning, they belong to nature. We received these vehicles as a gift of nature in order to be able to subsist and to act within the internal planes. We do not call these bodies the genuine solar bodies of the Being, which is something separate. Animals have lunar vehicles, and we have these vehicles as well. But the truth is that we do not have solar bodies, typically. We are not conscious of this fact specifically. Now it is important to note that above this quaternary, we have what is known as the middle triad. We have Chesed, the spirit, which is God, our real Being, what we call the Innermost. We have Geburah on the left, which is the divine soul or consciousness. Geburah never mixes with ego nor is it contaminated by desire. We have below, Tiphereth, which is willpower. It is the human soul, which is really in our Essence. It is what we are. We are an extract or a fraction of that soul which emanated down to these different levels of dimensionality until reaching our physical plane. Now our willpower can either serve God or the devil. The problem is we choose the devil, meaning our own animal pride, vanity, hatred, gluttony, etc. This fraction of Tiphereth, the soul, has emanated into this lower quaternary and it has entered into or has developed desire, ego. Our mind is a vehicle of nature, the process is thought, the experience of thought. In relation to this lecture, Tiphereth relates to what grants us access to intuition. Tiphereth, our will, typically follows animal desire, animal ego. We have to remember that these are vehicles that can express either the Being or our animality. Since we have lunar vehicles belonging to nature, they only know how to fulfill the will of desire. We need to create what we call the solar vehicles. This is the process of alchemy, described in The Perfect Matrimony and The Mystery of the Golden Flower. Our goal is not so much to speak about the solar bodies, but to help us comprehend the nature of our mind as it is. We have the spirit, Atman. This term is from Hinduism, the Self who needs to control the mind. We have a very famous scripture called the Katha Upanishad, which teaches us how the mind is merely an instrument which can either serve God or the devil. Know the Self, Atman, as one sitting in the chariot, the body as the chariot, the intellect (in Sanskrit is called Buddhi, which is consciousness, the divine soul) the charioteer, and the mind the reins. 
Victory in Hebrew is Netzach, which is the mind. The Chariot in Arcanum 7, of the gnostic tarot (The Eternal Tarot), is how the spirit controls the mind through the four horses, or the four horses literally are four bodies. We can say four horses because we have Netzach, the mind; Hod, the heart; Yesod, our vitality; and we have our physicality (Malkuth).
This explains to us that the mind is merely an instrument. If we know how to control ourselves, through meditation, through self-observation and restraint of our desires, we can march on the path that leads to the Being. Now it is important to understand that, again, these are vehicles. They are not our legitimate identity. When we drive a car, we do not say, “This is me.” We say, “It is my car. It is my vehicle. It is something I operate in.” The same thing with our internal bodies. The problem, in our condition, is that we have so much ego and we have developed so much desire that our lunar vehicles are integrated with the ego. Therefore, it has a very dark appearance when we awaken in the dream state to perceive the lunar bodies as they are. What is important to grasp in this lecture is how, in order to understand the mind, we need to understand occult anatomy, and especially occult physiology. So, when we talked about the physical brain, the spinal medulla, it is merely the transmitter of forces from the Tree of Life into our body. Those nerve filaments, the axons and neurons of the brain, transmit electrical forces. Scientists know this as a fact. What many ignore is that there are psychospiritual forces that are active and present, which we need to harmonize and to actualize in our practice if we want to regenerate our brain, to acquire health in our internal bodies. 
The Mental Body
We are going to talk about the mental body specifically. In this next image we find a very famous glyph or a graphic available in The Dayspring of Youth. This is the image published originally with that text. This is drawn by an initiate, who was very clairvoyant, demonstrating the ultra-physiology and ultra-biology of the mental body.
When we talk about internal vehicles, we have to understand that these are not vague things. These are not concepts. These are living, breathing, material organisms, just as much as the physical body. In this image we find that the mental body is a material vehicle. It has its own organs, its spinal medulla, its own brain, its own methods of acquiring energy, of consumption, of metabolism, of eating. It is not like the physical body, but it has its own physiology, which is demonstrated by the fact that with a healthy brain, we have a healthy mental body. Those who have an unhealthy mental body eventually crystallize those illnesses into the physical brain and develop dementia or schizophrenia, many severe illnesses relating to this physical body. In this image we find the aura of the mental body and the specific senses of this vehicle are depicted in this image. What is most notable is the aura, as I mentioned. In this image, we have the mental body of an initiate. This is an image of a student who is developing him or herself on the path. We have around the initiate what is known as the Silver Shield in esoterism. When we begin to work with divine spiritual forces, by channeling them through our physical brain and our spinal medulla, we in turn attract these types of atomic forces into our aura. The mental body begins to develop what is called the Silver Shield. It is like a sounding board or a barrier that protects one's mind from negative forces from the exterior. If we seek to harmonize ourself with the divine and to reject the negative impulses or energies present in our society and our cities, we need to work with our Silver Shield. The Silver Shield is built on atomic energies relating to our seminal tract, which we’re going to be explaining. What is not really visible in this image are the senses of the mental body, which are developed by truncated cones. These are called modules, which transmit and receive thoughts. Thought is a substance. It is an energy. It is something very material, and has already been measured by, I believe, Russian scientists many decades ago, but this doesn’t really readily get publicized because it is disturbing to many. The truth is, the mind is a type of matter and energy, and that thought is a substance. Therefore, if we are negative in our thoughts, we attract those type of atoms to our mind and they pollute our atmosphere, as Morya describes in his book. Atmospheres are auras or psychological predispositions. These cones attract atoms and forces which, if we direct our own mind, we can attract the solar, divine, Christic forces, which are most prevalent in our seminal energy. What is also notable is that this figure is surrounded by what seems to be clouds, which look like sperm. These are the seminal currents of the body, born from the physical body which are transmuted forces which, when we harness them, can strengthen the mental body, heal it and guard it from negative influences. We talk a lot about atoms and energy in the science, which Morya again explains in this text. The atmosphere of the mental body is controlled by the atmosphere of this world, but by breathing in the energy manifesting in the new age through Yoga we can throw off this control. By aspiring when breathing we attract atoms of this new energy into us and slowly conform to their wave-length. These atoms bring us a sensation of joy similar to a morning in Spring… ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
We talk a lot about in this teachings about pranayama, of mantra, and exercises with breath. This is what Morya means by aspiration. Through the breath, to inspire the life force in the air, the prana, we attract those atoms, those forces which are pure. They enter our lungs, our blood, through our circulatory system and are eventually condensed into what is known as our semen, our seminal energies, our seminal matter.
We are literally assimilating the atoms of Christ in the air, and when they enter in our organism, they activate our seminal forces. This is represented in the book of Genesis when the Rauch Elohim, the Spirit, floats above the surface of the waters, and then then the rest of that chapter explains the creation of the human being. This is symbolic. The way that we create the real human being made into God’s image, the image of the Spirit, the Innermost, is by working with these atomic forces specifically. Aspiration is the science of breath, to inspire and to elevate through aspiration, and Morya explains this more in depth. …Within and about us are highly developed atoms, and in our breathing exercises we attract them into our bodies. They then supply our nervous systems with their energies, and as man is the result of his own type of atoms and atmosphere, he is judged by the quality of atoms he attracts, just as he is judged by the kind of people with whom he associates. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
Our atoms determine how we are judged. Our aura is very readily seen by clairvoyance, or angels more specifically. Therefore, we seek to clean our mind, our mental atmosphere, our mental body. We do that through the science of aspiration or the science of Mercury.
Mercury in alchemical science is sexual energy. The symbol of Mercury is even found in this image, where the man is holding in his left hand that Caduceus of Mercury. It represents the spinal medulla, the central system with two cords that ascend upward and inward to the brain. Through aspiration, those forces from the seminal tract rise up our spinal medulla and saturate our mind with Christic forces, Christic atoms.
We also find in this image that the mind relates to Mercury. There are occultists who made the mistake of attributing the mind, Netzach, with Venus, but we find as taught by Morya, Samael Aun Weor, and other initiates who were very awakened, the mind, Netzach, relates to Mercury. The health of our mind depends on the health of our energies specifically, which Morya explains very beautifully and clearly. Every person is different in their range of passion and desire, and the seminal system responds to them. If we are animal in our passions, we collect such atoms. Therefore, we should aspire for purity and seek the greatest intelligence within our central system. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
Our seminal track attracts either pure energies, pure forces, or animal, lustful elements. Those pure, divine, Christic atoms we assimilate through pranayama, through breath work, through mantra, are called transformation atoms as well as aspiring atoms. These atoms elevate our level of being, our way of consciousness. These atoms saturate our aura in the mental body and form the Silver Shield, which become a protective sounding board between our own mental atmosphere as well as the atmosphere of the world, and it allows us to read many mysteries in nature. Netzach relates to elemental magic in which we work with the souls of plants, minerals, etc. A healthy mind helps us to be in greater communion with those intelligences.
Self-Mastery: Conserving the Sexual Energy
This is why, as the foundation of all genuine esoteric discipline, we state that our sexual behavior completely determines the state of our mind. Those who are lustful, who engage in acts of prostitution, masturbation, fornication, or any abuse of that vital divine force which we have in sexuality, will disturb the mind. It pollutes the mind with negative substances. As the foundation of all religion, it is really the beginning of the path, learning how to restrain our animal impulse while taking the energies of sexuality, our seminal tract, and aspiring with purity, with divine forces, pure forces. It is important never to indulge in the lower animal nature of our mind, which is expresses through pornography as well as any abuse of the sexual force, which is fornication.
The word fortification relates to furnace, to burn with that passion which is never satiated and which is culminated in the orgasm. That sexual pleasure is strictly prohibited within occult science because the expulsion of the sexual fluid, the expulsion of our seminal forces, literally takes billions of Christic atoms that we have in our body, and in our seminal track, and expels them, wastes them. This is why in the Book of Leviticus it says that “any man who shall have an emission of seamen, shall bathe in water and be unclean (until evening).” This has a physical component, but more importantly it is psychological, because the psychological atmosphere of the mental body becomes charged with atoms of a lower nature. Just as there are divine forces in the cosmos, there are also lunar animal forces relating to the inverted diagram of the Tree of Life, known as Klipoth, which is hell, the world of the shells. Morya teaches us if we wish to enter into occult science, we must work with that sexual energy, which he calls determinative energy. Why does he call it determinative? Because this energy determines our very way of being. If we use it for a selfish will, we then destroy ourselves, but if we use that energy with the determination to change, then we can strengthen our spiritual being with these forces. Many occultists are told to conserve their creative energy: to master their lower sex nature. Atoms always find their own level. It is the vapour that rises from the surface of our seminal fluid that gives us this determinative energy in Nature. The demand for personal power will not bring these higher forces into operation. But we can evoke a force that binds us to our lower animal nature, and this gives the black magician his power. ―M, The Dayspring of Youth
He is talking here that selfish will does not achieve aspiration, but that is acquired by silencing the mind and remembering the Being. The demand for personal power will not bring these higher forces into operation, but we can evoke a force that binds us to our lower animal nature, and this gives the black magician his power.
We talked about white magic and black magic. White magic is to follow the will of God, Christ. Black magic is to follow one’s selfish will, animal desire, ego. The primary demarcation is in sexuality and how we use sexual force, because this determines our life, whether for suffering or for genuine elevation into to the realms of God. This is why Morya taught us that spiritual discipline and ethics is mandatory and that this relates to the sixth commandment of Moses, “Thou shall not fornicate,” not to expel that force, but to conserve it, to retain it, to transform it, to take those atoms and to raise them into our interior being through aspiration. Morya says in The Dayspring of Youth: It is also imperative that the moral character should be above suspicion; for the student has to demand the use of the Solar force in his work, and if he is immoral or sexually weak he will soon befoul himself with the lower substances of the world’s atmosphere. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth 
We may not be familiar with this image, but this is Merlin and Nivien in Arthurian legend. The downfall of Merlin and his eventual death was because he gave in to his lust. He followed his desire for this woman. I believe her name is Nivien. Some traditions say Vivien.
Merlin was someone who practiced this teaching. As a symbol, he represents any disciple that is developing their mental body, that is developing these atomic forces. It can be interpreted that he did create the mental body (being a magician, a priest), but he gave into his lust for this woman and that led to his destruction, or he was buried in a tomb, which has other meanings. We find that the nature of the sexual force is fundamental, especially in relation to the study of mind. Our nervous system, our physical brain, known as the central system, is nourished by seminal transmutation. There’s a study I believe by Dr. Kellogg. We had the article available on one of our websites, where he explained that individuals who are continent, meaning, they did not ejaculate their energies, had tremendously seminally-nourished brains. There is a direct relationship, physically, with the semen to the physical brain, and that the semen has many nourishing vital principles which are essential to the health of the pineal gland. The pineal gland relates to our perception. When we observe with our consciousness, we activate our pineal gland as well as the pituitary gland in between the eyebrows. The gonads, whether in the man or woman, the testicles or ovaries, channel those forces up the two energetic channels of the Caduceus of Mercury to our brain. The health of the brain, our nervous system, depends on that conservation. Individuals who are overly sexed, who expel their semen―whether from men or women, since the seminal fluid or energies are either masculine or feminine―they degenerate their brain. It was long held as a notion that schizophrenia was the result of masturbation (or at least exacerbated or contributive towards it). We need to understand that the mind in its physical component, as well as the energetic component, the mental body, is fortified by these seminal currents. Black Magic and the Intellect
It is also important to note that in these studies we make the demarcation between white magic and black magic. Both white magicians and black magicians use the mind, but for very different purposes and results. The white magician submits his mind to his Innermost. This is the meaning of Islam, to submit to Allah, to God. The black magician fortifies his mind, or her mind, in order to acquire power over the elements in nature. But if it is not followed under the direction of God, there is an imbalance, because Christ, God, only respects the balance of nature and does not violate karma, which is a fundamental law, cause and effect.
When we study and we enter these teachings we hear a lot about black magicians and sorcerers and demons and the need to protect ourselves from these influences. It is important to explain what is the fundamental method that any sorcerer or magician black magician uses in order to divert students from the path. Morya explains the following in relation to entering to the lower regions of the Tree of Life or better said, the tree of death, the shadow of the Tree of Life known as Klipoth: When we enter these spheres of intensified intellect we are told that we shall be given great power and their highest secret wisdom if we will but surrender our souls to them. The student is probably aware that there are schools of mental Yoga on earth teaching systems of logic that will eventually impress and direct minds as they wish, and such schools are like the schools of these magicians whose processes of logic will prove that black is white. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
Any type of hypnotism, suggestion, manipulation of the mind, mind control, trying to control the mind of other people―that is sorcery. We have and we will explain how we also have certain atomic forces which cannot be manipulated by negative forces. We are emphasizing that the schools of sorcery use the intellect in order to manipulate others.
Morya continues: We never discuss or argue over spiritual things on the higher planes, but the lower spheres bring us in touch with scintillating intellect―not intelligence―that is almost overpowering, and we feel drawn to this magnetism which these sadistic and brilliant schoolmen possess. By argument they will show how beautiful evil is, that the world is ruled by evil, and that eventually we must succumb to their master’s direction. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth 
Notice in this image we have a vampire which is painted very beautifully and depicts this type of diabolic psychology. We have to understand that the intellect can be a useful instrument for the Being. But if it is directed by the animal will, ego, then the intellect is really our worst enemy. We do not pronounce ourselves against study, profound intellectual spiritual culture, scientific analysis, nor profound comprehension of the mind. Instead, what we reject is intellect devoid of spirituality, as evidenced by the atomic bomb.
Many times, whether in our dreams, or even physically, we may encounter people who attempt to divert us from really what we know is best, and they do it through the intellect. They try to convince us that what we are doing is wrong, that this practice of sexual transmutation, sexual magic, pranayama, that these things are harmful for us. They have many reasons and intellectual speculations for why it is good to orgasm. They have many justifications and use the intellect to try to convince and to mislead. An Experience of Black Magic in the Mental World
Personally, I am going to explain an experience of one of my students where he woke in the mental world in the internal dimensions. He had a mental projection from his physical body, and he was immediately confronted by a demon in the mental world. Samael Aun Weor explains that the worst demons are not in the astral plane where they openly attack and then we have to fight and defend ourselves, to conjure with prayer. The worst are in the mental plane where they come to you friendly, complimenting you, saying “You have such spiritual values, but you’re going the wrong way and you need to change.” They use the intellect, supposedly in a kind way, in order to divert the student.
So, this student who was in the mental plane, he didn’t object. This demon had a sign with him, which intuitively he recognized that this was a very hypnotic suggestion, telling him that he should use his intellect and that this is the right path. He didn't put up an affront. He didn’t try to conjure, which was a mistake. Afterwards he awoke in Klipoth, where this magician awoke his consciousness within the ego, fortified his desire, and he had an experience, but in hell. Fortunately, the student was being guided because his Innermost came to him and warned him to not associate with these types of individuals. This is an example of how demons use the intellect. They will say that you are going the wrong way: “You shouldn’t be doing this,” or “this is not good for you.” The sign that the demon showed the student―the way my student explained it to me―was like a billboard sign. The demon was holding it up and it was very convoluted, very intellectual, with complicated and convicted arrows pointing in many directions towards the center. But it was devoid of any spiritual meaning. He knew right off the bat it was wrong, because he listened to his intuition, which is what we need to develop. 
Intuition vs. the Intellect
The intellect is balanced precisely by our connection with God. Intuition is the direct cognizance of divinity without the need to arbitrate or deliberate, without the need to think. It is direct perception of the divine without theorizing, debating, accepting, rejecting. It simply is comprehension. It is a type of cognizance which knows God and does not need to theorize or debate.
This is represented in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. We have in this image, the Master Aberamentho, the sacred name of the Lord Jesus, representing Christ. Christ is a type of cognizance, the consciousness that needs to control the mind. His own mind is Satan. It is the mental body with the ego pointing down with the intellect, saying, “I will give you all the kingdoms of this world if you will bow to me.” As Morya said, they try to hypnotize through suggestion, saying, “If you just surrender yourself to me, you will have everything you want. You will have everything you need.” Christ doesn’t even contradict him, but just points up, “I only follow the will of my Being.” This is intuition. Samael Aun Weor differentiates between abstract mind and concrete mind. Going back to the Kabbalah, Netzach represents concrete mind, whereas abstract mind represents Tiphereth. It is abstract mind, sometimes known as superior manas, superior mind, which needs to follow the will of the Being. Christ represents that in this image, as he is Tiphereth, Christ-Will. Samael Aun Weor, in his book Tarot and Kabbalah, emphasizes what Morya taught: We must warn the Gnostic students that the most dangerous potion that the tenebrous ones use in order to take the student out of the path of the razor’s edge is the intellect. They use it in order to invite us to ejaculate the seminal liquid, or in order to shift the direction of our path by showing us other schools, theories, sex, etc., etc. ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah
Many times, people come to us to tempt us, whether internal or external, whether in the physical plane or the internal planes, always with the intellect, never from intuition. They justify their theories and beliefs, saying, “What you are practicing is wrong and this is why my system is better.” They are always comparing and rationalizing and analyzing with the intellect. Meanwhile, the intellect cannot know God. Christ, the Being, can only be known through the awakening of the consciousness, which is not mind.
As we mentioned in the beginning, consciousness is Geburah, Buddhi. The consciousness is the divine soul, the daughter of the innermost Being. That is the type of intelligence we need to activate, pure perception that does not rely on the intellect, the mind. It simply knows. The intellect is an instrument that can be used for good, but we must not depend on it as our foundation. If we take this type of science as a theory, saying, “This is very interesting. Maybe I will practice it,” comparing it to other traditions with the intellect―we will discover that these things are transient. The mind only knows how to store information and to compare. That’s it, whereas intuition directly perceives the fundamental nature of Christ and knows God directly. The Mind Divorced from Divinity
It is important to understand that the mind, or the mental body, is a vehicle of thought, the vehicle of the ego, and that really, when we talk about mind and ego, we usually talk synonymously, that our mental body is the expression of our ego. That mind is ego and ego is mind. I would like to quote for you Samael Aun Weor from Tarot and Kabbalah, where he explains the difference between reasoning and intuition:
The process of reasoning divorces the mind from the Innermost. A mind which is divorced from the Innermost falls into the abyss of black magic. ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah
I would like to interject and say that black magic refers to how certain individuals use the mind to impress themselves on nature. They use the intellect, desire, in order to influence others. Desire has the power to influence others, through the ego of others, and this is a violation. This is a negative act because God respects everybody’s will and does not force others to conform with His plan. He helps others as an act of grace and benefaction and blessing. When the mind is infected with reasoning, constant churning of the mind, he divorces himself from God. That is what we call a demon, a being that is divorced from their own spiritual divinity. Samael explains the nature of intuition here:
Many times the Innermost gives an order and the mind reveals itself with its reasoning. The Innermost speaks by hunches, or thoughts, but the mind reveals by reasoning and comparison. ―Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah 
You see in this graphic Christ riding on a donkey. The donkey represents the mind. In order to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem, our inner Christ must dominate our mind so that we can enter the heavenly city.
Also, in Pinocchio, the main character becomes a donkey, an ass, an animal that represents a fortification of intellect. Notice when Pinocchio goes to the Land of Play and doesn’t work on himself (he doesn’t meditate), he becomes a mule. He becomes a victim of the forces of nature, the atmosphere of the negative mental influences of this world.
The Dynamics of Thought
We talk about the nature of thought. It is important to realize that not all thinking is negative. Not all thought is bad. However, the great majority is due to the conditioning and abuse of our mind. Samael Aun Weor explained that 97% of human thoughts are negative and harmful, and that correlates with another number relating to how much ego we have, which is 97%.
We are like an iceberg of the depths of which we do not comprehend. This is verifiable by the fact that if we close our eyes in meditation and observe ourselves, that we see darkness. We don’t have connection with God. We do not communicate directly with God. We do not know the Being, neither when we physically go to sleep do we have astral experiences, when we’re awake out of the physical body. Eight hours go by and we do not remember anything, even if we had dreams. This shows us that we really are asleep, that we’re ignorant, without knowledge, Gnosis. To be ignorant doesn’t mean to not have book knowledge. It means to not know God. Therefore we are all ignorant. Out of that 97%, we have the capacity to receive messages from the Being which can come in the form of thoughts. This is a form of intuition. It is not a result of the churning and mechanicity of the mind, but it is a shock of lightning which strikes the mind and illuminates our understanding in the immediate instant. I would like to quote for you Sufi doctrine, who are the mystics of Islam, from a book called Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by a master named Al-Qushayri. He explains the Sufi doctrine and the nature of thought: Thoughts (khawatir) are declarations that arrive in one’s awareness. This may result from the dictation of an angel or from the dictation of the devil, or from the operations of the ego or may come from the Truth, glory to Him. If thoughts come from an angel, they are called inspired suggestions, ilham. If they are from one’s ego, they are called notions, hawajis. If they are from satan, they are called imaginations and anxieties, waswas. If they are from the Truth, glory to Him, and His dictation to the heart, they are called true thought, khatir haqq. And all of these are a kind of talking. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
The word Al-Haqq in Arabic is “the Truth,” one of the names of Allah. God is the Truthful, the Real, the Omnipresent. It is our Innermost. The Hebrew word for Innermost is El and in Arabic it is Allah, the same teaching, same meaning.
We have to understand that if we are in meditation, if we have a silence of our mental experience, we can receive the messages of the Being, the superior influences, which can come as khatir al-haqq, “thoughts of truth.” This is a type of understanding or concept in the mind which is superior. Again, this is very different from our negative common churning of mentation throughout the day. The mind needs to adopt a receptive state in order to reflect the images of God as well as the message of God. Al-Qushayri elaborates on this teaching about the different types of thought: When a thought comes from an angel, its reliability can only be known through corroboration to be found in religious knowledge. Because of this the Sufis have said, “Every thought unattested by a point of outward practice is in vain.” When a thought is from the Devil, the greater part of it will be a summons to disobedience. When it is from the ego, for the most part it will be a call to the satisfaction of a desire or the indulgence of a feeling of vanity, or some other characteristic particular to the ego. The shaykhs (masters of Islam) agree that whoever eats what is forbidden will not be able to distinguish between angelic and demonic suggestion. I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say that when someone receives his food from a worldly source rather than depending directly on God, he will see no difference between inspiration and fantasy. But when true effort silences the ego’s notions, the testimony of one’s heart grows articulate by virtue of one’s suffering. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
This is exactly what Samael Aun Weor taught, that knowledge must be balanced with being. Although the Being must be harmonized through study, we need to study and to practice. We need to cultivate the mind but also to comprehend the mind in meditation. We always have to confirm our internal experiences with external facts. This is the only way to arrive at reliability of our experiences. If we have an experience that doesn’t coincide with scripture, if It is just gibberish or has no real symbolism or connection, we have to disregard it. But if it is in line with the scriptural teachings of whatever religion, then we can be sure and certain that we have arrived at direct knowledge.
When a thought is from the Devil, the greater part of it will be a summons to disobedience. When it is from the ego, for the most part it will be a call to the satisfaction of a desire or the indulgence of a feeling of vanity, or some other characteristic particular to the ego. The shaykhs (Masters of Islam) agree that whoever eats what is forbidden will not be able to distinguish between angelic and demonic suggestion. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
What does it mean to eat what is not lawful? We typically think it means to not eat pork or drink alcohol. We have what is called the transformation of impressions.
There is more than one way to eat. The physical body needs its nourishment, so we feed it. Also, the heart feeds, whether on good music, classical music, the great composers, mantra, prayer. Or it could feed on garbage like heavy metal, rap, a lot of just negative garbage in terms of what kind of food one can eat in one’s heart. The mind also consumes information. We can read a telenovela or watch a soap opera and destroy our mind by ingesting those type of impressions. This is what the Sufi initiates are talking about when we eat something that is unlawful. To eat what is lawful means to take the written impressions of life and we use it for our benefit. We nourish our mind, our heart and our body with pure substances, good influences, without any negative type of influence. They continue: I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say that when someone receives his food from a worldly source rather than depending directly on God, he will see no difference between inspiration and fantasy. But when true effort silences the ego’s notions, the testimony of one’s heart grows articulate by virtue of one’s suffering. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
This means that if we are really obeying God, we will experience the type of suffering which is the recognition that we have distanced ourselves from God or that we have separated ourselves from our Being. To realize this fact is heart wrenching, and it is this type of recognition that grants us the courage and the will to aspire. Once we recognize our own interior nothingness, we recognize that we are really ignorant and that we do not know God. Then, we make the effort to study and to practice.
Discernment vs. Reasoning
Therefore, as Samael Aun Weor stated, this work is accomplished through conscious works and voluntary sufferings. It does not mean we go look for trouble. It means that we accept our karma, our everyday life, and we transform it willingly. We do not object. We do not negate it. We do not complain. We accept our sufferings, and we transform them through comprehension.
This is synthesized in this image of Virgin Miriam holding the Christ child. This child represents the Christ within the initiate or an individual who has incarnated the Lord. We teach that Christ is not a person, but a force. The mind needs to become like a child if we really want to incarnate Christ. In order to dominate the mind, we need to develop intuition. Going back to the beginning of this lecture, we talked about atomic forces. We possess in our physiology atomic intelligences that connect us to our Being. We have what is known as the Atom Nous, which is a particle that is our direct connection and communication with the Innermost. We have this in the left ventricle of our heart. This atom receives the impulses as well as teachings from our Being. We receive intuition through this atomic force, this atom. This atom also has many characteristics which are very well explained in The Dayspring of Youth. We have the necessity to follow intuition, the cognizance of the heart, and not to obey the mind. Samael Aun Weor states in Tarot and Kabbalah: One has to change the process of reasoning for the quality of discernment. Discernment is the direct perception of the truth without the process of reasoning.
The mind is the Holy Grail which can receive the blood of the Lord. It is a chalice which needs to learn to receive the influences of the Being, of Christ. The way that we develop this intuition is precisely through meditation. Only in the silence of the mind can we receive the messages of God, whether they are khatir al-haqq, meaning the thoughts of truth. They are impulses, insights, ideas, concepts, profound understanding. We may be meditating on a scripture and then we immediately know the meaning. That only arises when we are silent in our mind, and then we receive that knowledge from God. A mind that is serene can reflect the Being. A mind that is distraught with the battle of the antitheses, belief and disbelief, faith and doubt, one idea and another idea, thesis and antithesis, pro and con, cannot comprehend. The constant churning and conflict of the mind in argument against itself produces confusion. Reasoning cannot take one to the meeting with God. The mind has to be serene and innocent like a child if we are to know God.
Comprehension vs. Exertion
It is important to note that we should not repress the mind. Comprehension replaces exertion. When you comprehend the mind, there is no need to repress. We have to allow the mind to let it speak. Let it talk, but do not identify with it. Do not invest your energy into it. It is going to talk no matter what. In order for it to be silent, you have to observe it and realize that you were not these thoughts. When you comprehend these thoughts, they start to slow down. They have less force. They have less influence. Following our heart and comprehending our mind, moment by moment, we develop a genuine sense of intuition.
Comprehension is intuition. It is how the mind is equilibrated. If we are constantly thinking and we are full of lustful thoughts, angry thoughts, violent thoughts, it is good not to shun it away and say, “I don’t want to look at this.” Neither should we feed it, but see it as it is, to comprehend where it is coming from, what it is doing. The more that we observe and stop feeding it, it shuts up. If we force the mind to be silent, we create more antagonism in deeper levels of mind. We know in these studies there are 49 levels of the mind. Comprehension replaces exertion. Exertion is the mind fighting against the mind and that produces more antagonism. Comprehension silences the mind. Samael Aun Weor states in The Revolution of Beelzebub: The reasoning person believes that he can attain the truth through the struggle of antitheses, but this struggle only divides the mind and incapacitates its ability to comprehend truth. The intuitive person knows how to listen only to the voice of the silence. Thus, within his serene mind, the eternal truths of life are reflected with splendid beauty. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of Beelzebub 
Notice this image of the stars. Our Being emanates from the Milky Way and is a reflection of that beauty. The physical galaxy in which we live is the manifestation of Christ. If we are serene in our mind, we will reflect and have the images of the Being through His teachings, and we will experience the real glory that is Christ, the Being, only if the mind is serene. We cannot force the mind to be silent.
This is a further elaborated by a Sufi initiate. He states the same thing: The key to success and worship lies in meditative reflection (fikrat)... whoever persists in such reflection in the heart will behold the invisible realm in the spirit.
Intuition is precisely that immediate flash or hunch that we’ve grasped something different. It is an alert state, an alert and novel perception. It will strike our mind and the mind silences. It is literally a vibration from the Innermost which shocks the consciousness and the mind silences. This is accomplished through following the intuition or the hunches that come from our heart, which relate to the Atom Nous. As we demonstrated in this image with the stars, the wisdom of all the galaxies resides in our heart. That atom, the Atom Nous, can teach us about the many mysteries.
There is also another atom, relating to the mental body, which I did not mention. It is called the Master Atom. This atom resides in our seminal tract. When practicing sexual alchemy, which we will not go further into depth, that atom rises in our spinal column and enters our mind. This atom can teach us about the wisdom of the stars. So, our mental body has the capacity to teach us many things when it is illuminated. Insight: The Flash of Comprehension
Intuition is a spark, a flash which is very sudden.
Insight is the first flash of intuition that comes to you, not accompanied by an opposing notion. If an opposing notion comes to counter it, then know that [the first notion] is only a stray thought and the chattering of the mind. ―Abu Ja’far al-Haddad in Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
The mind starts a debate about what we have experienced. Typically, we can be assured that what we thought was something genuine is probably subjective, because the mind is constantly churning and reacting. Intuition is a shock, as I keep mentioning. It is a lightning strike. It amazes the consciousness and it is distinguished by the fact that the mind cannot comprehend it. It is a different type of understanding.
The Mind of God
This type of understanding synthesized in this graphic. We have been talking about the mental body, the mind, the nature of thought, as well as intuition. Here we are going to explain a little bit about the mind of the Innermost.
We have our own mind, our mental body, but there’s another type of mind, to put it loosely, a type of consciousness relating to Christ, which is developed in the highest stages of initiation. It is important to note that gods have mind, but not animal mind. They have what is called Brahma-Vidya. Brahma-Vidya means “knowledge of Brahma,” or highest knowledge of God. In that first scripture I mentioned to you the Katha Upanishad. It is from the Brahma-Vidya, the ultimate teachings on the nature of Brahma, the Self. Samael Aun Weor explains the following in The Revolution of Beelzebub: The Brahma-Vidya is the mind of the Innermost.
This is an image of the Innermost represented by the seven wicks of the menorah, and again, what’s interesting to note is that the menorah is a compound Hebrew word. Minah is sex. Orah is light. The light of our mental body, the creation or the elaboration of the Brahma-Vidya, the Christ mind of the Innermost, is a result of working with the energies of sex to create that light. We mentioned that there are seven Sephiroth, seven spheres, represented by this menorah, the seven wicks. Sometimes it is nine, relating to Yesod in Kabbalah, which is the foundational energies we base ourselves on. This is precisely the determinative energy or the sexual force.
What is this “aureole body of victory”? Victory is Netzach, mind. We have here this image of Christ crowned with glory, representing the mind of the great masters. Morya states the following about this type of mind: The Great Illuminate Crown of Victory is that consciousness that we are to reach when we have evolved beyond the instruction of the Master Atom. It is a directing force of the mind about which we know little, as it is beyond our comprehension. Yet we know that it guides and governs our Innermost, and is a universal body of substance, and that the Great Initiates are of its nature, who, though seldom heard of, can suddenly appear in a material body when needed; for they can clothe themselves when they wish. They sometimes speak through the Silver Shield to the student if necessary. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
This refers to the mind of resurrected masters such as Morya, who wrote The Dayspring of Youth when he was already resurrected. A powerful book, everything we’re teaching here comes from that text. That mind is a what defines a resurrected master when it has conquered death, through initiation. It is a very elevated mind. We mentioned this in brief to emphasize that we need to transcend our current level of being. We need to aspire to the height and we do that precisely through our practices of aspiration, working with mantra, silencing our mind, and meditation. The way we develop our mental body is by nourishing it with transformative atoms, aspiration atoms, Christic forces, which are performed through mantra, vocalizing the sacred vowels, the seven vowels of nature.
How to Be a Master Mind
To conclude or to emphasize the main points of this lecture, I would like to quote for you again from The Dayspring of Youth. This is a section from the text called “Masters.” Morya describes the requisites for developing a mastermind: a mind that is in control of one’s internal universe, or a psyche that has controlled the mind. This encompasses everything we have been discussing in terms of atoms, forces, the mental body, our relationship to the atmosphere of this world, how we relate to others, how we relate to ourselves.
The following are some of the principles needed for a master mind:
Meaning, do not identify with the thoughts or energies of other people, but be observant. Do not let your mind be controlled by other influences.
(2) Be above the mastering thoughts of evil and master the composite bodies of your own evil thought-creation. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
Meaning if there are sorcerers and witches working against us, we control our mind so that we do not identify or feed into those attacks specifically.
(3) Be always master of your own mind. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
Dominate the mind. Do not let the mind be the ruler of our kingdom. Christ needs to ride the donkey, not the donkey on us. We need to control the mind, be its master, through comprehension.
(4) Be above the minds of the masters who create mastering thoughts of evil, and make your mind master of them; for above the minds of evil thoughts your master’s stand ready to aid you. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
If we are afflicted because we were attacked in the internal planes by black magicians, we control our mind and we do not let ourselves identify with those type of encounters. Neither do we let ourselves be influenced by negative forces outside of us because our inner master, our Innermost, is always ready to help us.
(5) Be walled about by the good minds of the master’s spheres. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
These spheres are the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. To be walled about by those influences means to work with our prayers, to invoke those forces, to assimilate them.
(6) Attract about you men with master minds; their forces will protect you. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
How do we do that? This means we invoke the angels to receive their help. We do that through many prayers, such as in the Gnostic Prayer Book, but also on our website, such as the Invocation of Solomon (See Basics of Spiritual Defense).
(7) Command the forces of your master’s higher spheres, for they are able to master the minds of the men of evil who are ever near a master of magic; for these can dominate the minds above and below the spheres of man. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
We need to manifest and be guided by our Innermost so He can express His force. In that way we will never be manipulated or diverge from the path of our Being. The Innermost has power over heaven and hell. Black magicians only control hell. They do not know anything about heaven.
(8) Be master of your soul; for the soul has power over matter.
Again, when we work with the determinative energy, our thoughts become fortified. Meaning, if we know how to direct our mental body, we can direct those energies through the benefit of others.
(10) Be alert for your master’s voice as he is alert for yours. ―M., The Dayspring of Youth
That is the most important of them all. As it says in Islam, “If you turn to Allah He comes walking. If you go to Him walking, He comes to you running.” He said, “If you remember Me, I will remember you.”
A way that we can remember God is precisely through this mantra, the mantra of intuition:
Pronounced Om Masi Padme Hum.
Om can also be pronounced as Aum.
It literally means “Oh my internal God.”
If we vocalize this mantra even for just for 10 minutes a day, we will awaken our intuition. If you wish to develop intuition, we can work with this mantra. Focus on the heart. Visualize a brilliant white light or blue light saturating your heart and your body. Pray to your Innermost to guide you. It helps to silence the mind and helps to transmute the energies of our seminal system. As we work with these forces, they nourish our nervous systems, specifically the grand sympathetic nervous system relating to the heart. These are the nerve filaments related to our emotional center, which Morya called the secondary system. In conclusion, if we want to control our mind, we need to develop intuition. Whoever follows the intellect only, goes to the abyss. Whoever follows their heart, God will guide. As Dhu’l-Nun Misri said in the scripture I mentioned: “He who observes his thoughts, God will reward in all his outward deeds." Questions and Answers
Question: This is pertaining to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were kicked out because they spilled the sacred semen? You are talking about the sexual energies. So, are they literally not having sex? Or they are literally having sex but they were not spilling the seed?
Instructor: Yes, sexual alchemy is to connect with one’s partner with chaste intentions: pure mind, pure heart, and to never expel that seminal fluid. We need the erotic element. One thing is eroticism, another thing is lust. Eros is love, is Christ. Christ in man and women, when they unite, they form the cross, which is present in every religion. When that sexuality is pure, it is divine, but if we fill it with our lust for sensation, then it pollutes the sexual act. We could say we need to steal fire from the devil. That is the saying we have in this tradition. When we work in alchemy in that way, we saturate our mental body with tremendous forces. When the fire of sex illuminates the mind, the mental body, up the 33 vertebrae, relating to the higher paths of initiation, the Silver Shield of the mind becomes illuminated, gold. Those who have a solar mental body, meaning, the vehicle of Christ, in that level, they emanate a lot of light in the mind. There is a lot of power there. So, alchemy is the method by which we take those energies, conserve them, never waste them. It doesn’t just mean sex without orgasm. It means control―not too much movement, not lustful, not too much indulgence in sensation―but a conscious harnessing of those forces which can only be learned through practice. Samael Aun Weor stated that the descent into the ninth sphere is the greatest ordeal and maximum trial of the hierophant. So it is to be or not to be, to spill or not to spill, to control that energy or be dominated by that energy. We return the Eden precisely through working with those forces. In relation to this lecture, we can re-enter Eden when we only have the mind of an infant. If our mind is full of desire, if we are literally like a library of books that are without understanding, that creates a lot of congestion and constipation, spiritually speaking. So, we need a mind that’s childlike in order to really take advantage of working in the matrimony. Question: You mentioned before the idea of a particular individual that had an encounter with a demon like force in the individual? Isn’t it possible they are mutually repellent? I mean I think that all of us here have probably been around something like this… Instructor: What is ironic is that demons are attracted to the light, but they are repulsed by it, like a moth to a flame. I remember Morya explaining in his book that white magicians and black magicians revel in that struggle between good and bad because it fortifies their own intentions. But we seek not so much to struggle against other people, but really control our own mind. Naturally that helps us to radiate greater communion and happiness and relationships to others. Even though Morya’s talking about the need to dominate our own mind and to be above the minds of others, it doesn't mean we control other people's minds. It means we control our mind, and that we elevate ourselves above the clouds. Typically, there is always this battle between angels and demons, and it is eternal throughout the cosmos. There is constant repulsion between both sides… Question: Don’t black magicians, or any of these negative angels, don’t they realize that this is the pit? They’re going the wrong way! Has it never entered their minds among any of these highly intellectual lecturers and black magicians and groups, is there no light in them that says, “This is the wrong way”? There’s a train coming at them and they’re not raising red flags. They’re on a one way track looking at them. What is it that keeps them in that group? Instructor: Acquisition of power, and particularly the lust for power and intellect, fortification of the intellect. They don’t think they are doing wrong. The only way for us to know the difference is to develop our intuition, because then we see clearly that “this is negative; this is harmful.” There are cases of certain demons who repented like Beelzebub. There is a book I was quoting from called The Revolution of Beelzebub by Samael Aun Weor. He explains this difference between white magic and black magic, intuition and intellect. He explains through experiences how he saved a prince of demons, someone who was very far down in hell, and helped this individual rise, to change. So, it is possible. When I encounter people who are particularly negative, I have faith that the Being can change them, but not to force my way upon them. However, if they choose to follow, that is their path. If they do not, hopefully they will not spend too much time there. Question: So, you can, you can fall to the lowest depths and you can still come rise back up? Instructor: Yes, if God forgives that soul and if there’s still a spark left, meaning, the Being hasn’t completely divorced him or herself from the soul. For all of us who are here, we were following our intuition and we have an opportunity. If we have a physical body, it means we have an opportunity to practice. If we continue to behave in mistaken ways, then we will pay the consequences. The difference lies in whether we develop intuition or intellect. Comment: There are millions of people who say they are religious. They are in these conventional religions. But they can only go so far there and feel, “I am on the right track.” “Well I did things but I will get the last rites,” or what do they call them in church… absolution or something like that. When we study these metaphysical philosophies, that’s not enough! It never dawned on them to open their minds and take an eclectic approach. Every time they pass a cemetery they should reflect. But between every now and then, they should ask, “Have I done enough?” There must be something more there than what they tell me from the pulpit, or some of the things that are going on in the Vatican, you know? Instructor: The development of those beliefs are precisely intellect, mind, not the cognizance of divinity. We make a stark differentiation in terms of esoteric studies. We choose to experience, not to store information in the intellect. Comment: But in other words people… we try anyway… through soul-searching! But they say, “This is enough!” They really believe that “you too can be saved.” You know, they really want the soothing syrup of instant salvation. Another Comment: They want the easy way. Comment: The easy way! Instructor: Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. But wide is the gate and broad is the way unto to Gehenna, destruction, and many go in there at (Matthew 7:14, 13). The way that one falls into destruction is precisely by following intellect, not intuition. Comment: But these are well intentioned people too. But they just felt, “This is enough!” You know what I am saying. No light came to them and said, “Wait a minute… there has to be more than this.” Rudolf Steiner said it, I’ll never forget, in one of his books, “There’s much more to this universe than organized religion will tell you.” You read those words and you say, “Yeah…” It really makes an impression. He was a past adept. No question. Steiner, the Waldorf School, organic farming, he had a PhD in agriculture, which they say helps a lot. You mentioned that a lot of those people educated in the ways of the world, material science , wake up and say, “Wait! There’s forces behind the material.” Steiner said that Emmanuel Swedenborg, I’m sure you’ve heard of him, he was a scientist, but at least they say there’s more to it. Some of these people get really fanatic in those groups, “Why don’t you go to church on Sunday?” Instructor: So the main difference in our studies in relation to the study of mind pertains to comprehending the function of the mind and not being hypnotized by it, because people are hypnotized by the intellect, theories and beliefs. But we choose to walk a different path, which is developing that intuition. Only the mind that is young like an infant will truly comprehend the mysteries of God, because “Be ye as little children if you wish to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Comment: Yep! It makes sense. Another Comment: That’s what it means! Comment: Before you would think that before when I was a kid… but the more you look at it, “Become ye as a little child,” there’s a reason why Christ said that. Instructor: So if there are no more questions, we will conclude. I thank you for coming!
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Today we are going to discuss more in depth the nature of energy in relation with the Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, and how the energies of our psychology, of our mentality, of our spirit, in different gradations, how they affect and influence conscious perception. So we are going to discuss what consciousness is. We discussed the science of consciousness, meaning: the methodology for awakening spiritual perception. Today we are going to talk about how energy plays a role, in its different levels, to spiritual awakening.
In this image we have Ptah, who is an Egyptian god. His body is made of gold. We have transposed the image of the Tree of Life in this graphic over this great figure. Ptah relates to Patar, which is the “Father.” We chose this image precisely because, to emphasize a certain point, that the purpose of these studies is to develop the solar human being, made into the image of the Christ, the Christ energy, the Christ force. So, a real Hu-Man being, is a manas, a mind, a man (whether man or woman) united with Hum, which is wind, which is the spirit, which is רוּחַ Ruach, which is the breath, which is God. So a human being that is solar in nature, has fully developed the ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life, which is the map of our consciousness and different gradations of energy. A solar human being is one who has incarnated the Christ energy, and has manifested that force within the different sephiroth. Sephiroth means "sphere" or better said, "emanations,” emanations of consciousness, expressions of God, a map of our cosmos but also our inner constitution. Ptah, the Father, is the ten sephiroth fully realized within us. The Father is an energy, is a force, and if we wish to understand what consciousness is, we need to deeply understand the nature of energy. Many people conflate energy with consciousness, and do not understand that there is a distinction. Also, in relation to this topic of the energies of the consciousness, we are going to explain the different paths that have existed in tradition, in order to develop specific types of energy. We are going to discuss specifically the paths of the fakir, the monk, the yogi, and the Gnostic. We explained that the consciousness is a type of energy. It is a type of force, and when we discuss this energy we talk about the Tree of Life. This is a map of the human being. We have placed this graphic, in the next slide, to discuss the different gradations of matter, energy and perception. Consciousness is a force. It is a spiritual intelligence that is markedly different from the common and current everyday perception that we have. Specifically, it is not mind. Consciousness is not thought, although thought is a type of energy. Consciousness is not emotion. It is not desire, craving, aversion: these relate to the heart. The consciousness is not emotional energy. The consciousness is neither sensation in the body, meaning it is not related to our mechanical or vital energy. To explain in clarity, we are going to talk about seven types of energy, and how they relate to consciousness, and how we need to use these forces in order to awaken our consciousness within the Being, within the Christ force. 
Consciousness and the Sephiroth
Above in this tree, we have the top triangle. You notice in this image of the Tree of Life of the Kabbalists that we have three triangles. Above is the triangle of the Logos, which in the center-top of the pillar, we have Kether, which is the Father, or Patar. We have on the right Chokmah, the Christ, the Son. To the left we have on the top of the left pillar of the Tree of Life, we have Binah, which is the Holy Spirit.
Christ is a force, is an energy we need to develop. In order to understand what Christ is, we need to understand the lower seven sephiroth. Without a knowledge of how we function in this physical plane, which is Malkuth, at the bottom of the tree, we cannot even begin to understand how vital energy works, how emotional energy works, how the mind, our willpower, our consciousness and our spirit work. To understand Christ, we need to understand how Christ acts in us through different forces, different energies. So Kether means "Crown.” It is the supreme energy of the lord. As we have mentioned in other lectures, Christ comes from the Greek Khrestos, which means "fire," the Greek god of flames. On the right we have Chokmah, the Son. Chokmah means "Wisdom," and it is interesting in relation to this topic, on the nature of perception, wisdom means “the power to perceive.” This is also the meaning of the Hindu name Vishnu, which means “he who penetrates” within every atom of the cosmos. Then Binah means "Understanding," the Holy Spirit, or we could say Jehovah Elohim, in the Bible. We have on the right, the seven sephiroth counting from the bottom of the tree. So sephiroth is plural for "emanations," sephirah is singular―a sphere of consciousness and of energy. On the right we have the Spirit, which is our Inner Being, our Inner Buddha, and when we perform the prayer of the Lord, the Pater Noster, we are also praying to our Spirit, which is the spiritual energy of the Being within. To his left we have the consciousness, which is the sixth sphere counting from the bottom of the tree. It is a conscious energy, and this is an energy that most deeply concerns us, because it is the consciousness we seek to awaken and to develop fully within ourselves. Now, beneath the consciousness we have willpower, relating to Tiphereth, the human soul, the human mind, the superior manas, superior mind. The Hebrew terms for this are Chesed for the Spirit, Geburah for the consciousness, Tiphereth for the human soul, or willpower. Willpower is in the center of the Tree of Life because our will can either follow the consciousness, from the Being above, or can descend down and follow the animal mind, the ego, desire. We refer to the next four sephiroth below as the lower quaternary, or the four bodies of sin. So in our previous lecture we discussed the nature of mind and solar bodies, and how each of these spheres is not only a type of energy, but a type of matter, and we talked about the different bodies related to the Tree of Life. We could say with Chesed is the spiritual body, or spiritual energy. With the consciousness there is the body of consciousness, or conscious energy. In the middle we have the body of willpower, the causal body, or the energy of volition. Beneath that we have four lower bodies, four lower vehicles through which our consciousness can express. In the physical plane we have to understand that typically these four bodies express through our anatomy, which we are going to be discussing. In the bottom right we have, in Hebrew it is Netzach, which means "Victory," and this is the mental body, or the energy of the mind, mental force. To the left we have Hod, the third sphere from the bottom, which is "Glory," and as you remember from the Prayer of the Lord, "Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory." Glory is Hod. The power of God is the vital energy, which is the second sphere from the bottom. Again, the bottom left is Hod, which is emotional energy, psychic energy, the energy of the psyche. Beneath that in the very center of the tree near the bottom is the foundation, Yesod, the vital energy, which as we are going to explain is essential to actualizing the power of Christ within our interior. Beneath that is Malkuth, the physical body. Malkuth in Hebrew means "Kingdom," and again Yesod is "Foundation." When we say in the Prayer of the Lord, "Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory," we are referring to Malkuth, the “Kingdom,” the "Power" of Yesod, the sexual force, and the "Glory" which is the astral vehicle, or better said the solar astral body, which we need to develop in sexual magic. These are gradations of different bodies in which the soul can act, in which the energies of the Lord can manifest. Specifically, in the same way that a vehicle drives with fuel, so to do these vehicles function in accordance with the appropriate energies within them. Therefore, if we want to know these vehicles within our interior, we need to know about these energies, and we need to know about what consciousness is. 
As you can see from this glyph, the consciousness, the sixth sphere from the bottom, is neither willpower, volition. Neither is it mental energy. Nor is it emotional force, desire, craving, aversion within the heart. Neither is it vital force. Neither is it our physicality, mechanical energy. Consciousness is the ability to perceive, and extends beyond mind, emotions and sensation, relating to, we can say, the mental body, which correlates to our physical brain. Neither is the consciousness limited to the emotional body, relating to our heart. Neither does sensation, relating to our physicality, our motor center, relating to sex―that is also not consciousness.
Question: Can you give me an example of consciousness? Instructor: Consciousness is what occurs before we even think, before we even feel, before we experience sensation. For instance, if you are examining your mind, you will find there is a constant fluctuation of thought, of emotions and sensations. The very fact that you are observing this fact in yourself, is demonstrating a type of consciousness, to a minor degree. It needs to develop. What will deepen that perception is by working precisely with the energies we are going to be explaining. Consciousness is the ability to perceive. An example is, if you are observing yourself, different thoughts emerge, different emotions, and we experience different sensations. We are not those elements. We are not those phenomena that we experience. We are neither mind. We are neither emotion. We are neither sensation, but the ability to perceive is something very distinct. It extends far beyond what we commonly experience. Usually in our day we are identified with our thoughts, our preoccupations, our projects in the mind. Also, we have certain expectations. We feel happiness, joy or pain in our heart, and we experience sensations when we eat, when we follow our everyday activities. Question: So with the fifth sphere, which is will, correct? Instructor: Yes Question: As you live your life, and utilize that willpower, it helps with your perception as you observe your defects and the different things about you? Instructor: Good question, we are going to be explaining that, precisely. Consciousness needs to control the lower sephiroth, so we cannot have our mind independent from consciousness, doing its own thing. That is typically what is our common experience. Our mind is always thinking, projecting, theorizing, debating, arguing, even if towards ourselves and our mind. It never follows a discipline. What we need is the consciousness to control the mind, precisely through our own willpower. Again, our will is our intention, whether we want to follow our being, the consciousness above, or if we follow animal will, which is ego, the animal intellect, or our emotions, or identifying with sensation in the body. Consciousness, as I said, is the ability to perceive, and we need to, as a consciousness, control the lower sephiroth, the mind, the emotions, our vital energies precisely through willpower. Question: So could consciousness also be when you know that you are doing something wrong, you are perceiving and knowing that you are doing something wrong, you are observing yourself doing something wrong, but you are still doing it, but that consciousness knows when you are doing something wrong as opposed to when you are doing something right? Instructor: Yes, and that is exactly symbolized by Jiminy Cricket, in Pinocchio, where the cricket is telling him "Don't do that!" Pinocchio's mind, his mental body, is telling him "No, you should follow your desires and do whatever you want." Question: So the cricket is the consciousness? Instructor: It is the consciousness, and also it is very small. It needs to be developed. Pinocchio again is from the Tuscan language, Pinocchio, "pine tree" or "pine seed," a seed that can become a Tree of Life, which is the Kabbalah, עֵץ הַחַיִּים Otz Chayim [literally: Tree of Lives]. We need to follow our consciousness, our own Jiminy Cricket, in order to enter the path. We need to understand that consciousness, again, is not these lower energies. These are energies that can be used by consciousness, if we are disciplined, if we use our willpower. Question: Going back to that question that he just asked, let us just say your will tells you, "You shouldn't do this," you decide not to, but deep down inside you wanted to. How do you go, what is happening to you as an individual, where I decide not to do the action, but I wanted to? Instructor: That is what Paul of Tarsus referred to in the Epistles. He said, "That which I want to do, I do not, and that which I do, I should not" (Romans 7:15). I cannot paraphrase it word for word, but he is explaining that if we do not follow the will of our consciousness, we suffer the consequences. We experience the negative effects of our actions. Our willpower, every time it follows the consciousness, if we act according to the will of the Being and not our own self will, we can start to develop consciousness. Question: Doesn't it get a little confusing though, because can't you also have egos that tell you something is wrong? You know what I mean? Can't guilt also come from an ego that is dressed up as if it were... Instructor: The only way to know is to observe. The only way to know is to awaken, to know the difference between what is good, meaning an ego that wants to do good things, but is selfish, and a mind that only wants to do evil. So, we need to awaken the psyche, the consciousness, in order to differentiate. Question: Through meditation? Instructor: Through meditation. Samael Aun Weor explains how consciousness cannot be awakened exclusively by developing the energies below. What we mean by exclusively is, with specific focus and intention to develop these forces through certain practices, which we are going to explain in relation to the paths of the fakir, the monk and the yogi. Samael Aun Weor explains in The Great Rebellion, the requisite for developing consciousness, in relation to these energies: No matter how much we might increase our strictly mechanical energy, we will never awaken consciousness.
No matter how much we may control our physical body, choosing what we eat in our diet, that will never awaken our perception. Even if we perform a lot of mantra and pranayama, conserving our energies, if we do not know how to work with our own perception, by working with our consciousness, then that vital energy cannot be used for the awakening of the consciousness. Even if we are very devoted in our heart, we pray, we go to church, we develop the emotional energies of our emotional center, that will not awaken the consciousness, exclusively. Even if we have studied many books, read vast amounts of literature, and have tremendous discipline with our mind, the way we study, that will never awaken the consciousness. Even if our will, if we develop willpower by dominating our body, which we are going to explain in relation to the path of the fakir, that willpower alone cannot awaken consciousness. Only conscious perception, work within itself by the pressure of the Spirit, can the consciousness awaken.
Do not mistake that, by this quote, the consciousness can awaken without these energies below. That is not the meaning of the statement. Conscious works implies controlling and developing all the energies of our psyche below, in harmony, in union. If we just develop our mechanical energy alone, we cannot awaken; the same thing with vital force, emotional energy or psychic energy related with the astral body, mental force, willpower. These things alone do not awaken the consciousness. Only the consciousness that is disciplined through meditation, by learning to perceive through self-observation, can control the lower energies below, and thereby use them for the awakening of the consciousness. 
Energy and the Three Brains
So these energies of the Tree of Life relate to what we call three brains. Some people might be surprised to think that the human being is actually three-brained, instead of one-brained. We have to understand that a brain is a center for physiological and psychological activity. It is a center for action, in which we can process different elements of our psyche, but also our body.
We talk about three brains in relation to the Tree of Life, and this Tree of Life you can see, can be transposed upon the human being in this image. The image of the Kabbalah, the three sephiroth above, relate to the head, relate to what we call the intellectual brain, which is where we process thought: thesis, antithesis, ideas, concepts, projects. The triangle beneath in the center, which is the triangle of the Spirit, relates to the heart, or the emotional brain, which is where we process desire, craving, aversion, sentiments of the heart, attachment of an emotional nature. Then the third triangle, near the bottom of the tree, relates to the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. That is a brain that processes all of our movement within our body, our instinct and sexuality. So a brain, again, is a center for activity, like a machine. As a machine, they process energies, that we need to understand in relation to our body. The way to overcome attachment and to understand how to overcome craving, aversion, relating to our three brains, we need to study our three brains. This is the art of self-observation. All of our likes and dislikes are processed through these brains. We like certain foods; we dislike certain foods. We like certain people; we dislike certain people. We like certain concepts; we dislike others. The three brains are caught within this duality: like, dislike; craving, aversion; and they process this in accordance with energy. We say mental energy relates to the intellectual brain, emotional energy relates to the emotional brain and vital energy relates to the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. The vital force pertains to how our physicality functions. Without the vital energy we physically cannot exist. We would not have biochemistry within our organism. We would not have metabolism, catabolism, digestion, the breaking down of fats, and all the chemical processes in our body. The physical body operates precisely due to the vital energy, the vital force. You will also notice that this image has three Hebrew letters, and pertain to the different energies of the Tree of Life, which are very important to understand in relation to the energies of our psyche. Question: What letter is that in the motor? Instructor: The motor center is מ Mem. Above in the brain we have א Aleph, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. ש Shin, which is the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, relates to the heart. מ Mem is the thirteenth letter, and relates to the waters. So א Aleph literally means "wind, breath." Question: Does the letter ש Shin have any relation to the trident? Instructor: Yes, the ש Shin is fire, the three primary forces of God. ש Shin is the flames of the heart, the emotional energy, which comes down from the Tree of Life. Notice that we can transpose the top three spheres of the Tree of Life, as well as the three triangles of the Tree of Life to our three brains. א Aleph relates to the Father, related to our intellectual brain. The energies of God, when they enter our physical organism, they are channeled in specific ways, in order to grant us the ability to exist in this physical plane. The power or the energies of the Father, enter into the intellectual brain in order to grant us the capacity to do the spiritual work. It encompasses the processes of mental energy. Unfortunately, in us our mental energy is used in an egotistical way, whether through the projection of negative habits, like even pornography or filthiness in the mind. That mental energy is abused. The power of ש Shin relates to Chokmah, the Christ. That sphere, that sephirah relates to the heart, because we have Christ, the Son, in the heart. It relates to the fires of the emotional center, which unfortunately in us is abused through hatred, through pride, through vanity, and instead, we need to develop the energy of the heart with the purity of Christ within, the purity of the Being. מ Mem relates to the Holy Spirit, which is precisely the sexual energy, the waters of life. We get the word מים mayim, which begins and ends with מם Mem, related to the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. מ Mem, the waters, is precisely the vital energy we can use to balance the other centers, when we transmute that force, when we work with that energy precisely through either a matrimony, or through the sexual transmutation we teach. As I mentioned that these energies relate to the three brains, we state this with the emphasis that in order to awaken spiritually, we need to conserve these forces. We need to use these energies in accordance with the will of the Being. So the mind, the primordial energy of א Aleph, the Father, needs to be used for the Being. Typically in us, we abuse it, and those who squander the energy of the mind, the intellectual brain, and who do not develop spiritually, using their mind for spiritual purposes, they end up insane. Individuals who abuse the mind either develop dementia, schizophrenia, delusional disorders, many types of psychological or mental ailments. When those energies are exhausted, those people become mentally sick. Likewise with the different brains: if there is no energy in those brains, the car cannot run. So if the emotional energy is exhausted, such as with many actors or actresses, who abuse the emotional brain, they in turn develop many emotional sicknesses, sometimes manic depressive disorder, bipolar, diseases related to the heart. Then related to the sexual brain, the motor-instinctive centers, those who fornicate, meaning: ejaculate the waters of life, develop many illnesses like cancer, which are incurable, because these are crimes against the Holy Spirit. You remember from the Gospel, "the sins against the Son may be forgiven," relating to the emotional brain, "but the sins against the Holy Ghost are not forgivable," meaning they have to be paid with pain. All of us have, we could say, killed the white swan of Wagner's opera Parsifal. The beautiful swan that is the Holy Ghost, the energy of the Lord, which manifests in the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, within our sexual center as מים mayim, as water. It is important to know that we study these energies so that we can develop consciousness. The consciousness cannot manifest within the three brains if we are exhausting our energies everyday. If we use our mental, intellectual brain, our mental center too often, we incapacitate our ability to express God through superior concepts, superior understanding related to the Being. Likewise if we abuse the heart we then in turn destroy our ability to experience positive spiritual emotion, related to Christ, the Son. If we abuse our sexual center through fornication, meaning the ejaculation of the waters of life, then we develop many sicknesses. Those also who abuse the motor brain, such as through too many sports, they end up paraplegic, unable to walk, they destroy their capacity to move physically. So that also relates to the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. Or even boxers, they abuse their instinctual center, because they are always fighting. Question: So we are supposed to keep a nice balance of the three? Instructor: Exactly. Question: So take for instance, someone who, the emotional state is worried about something. You could go ahead and balance it out with the motor by going to work out... Instructor: Yes. Question: Which will in turn help out the consciousness, correct? Instructor: Yes, so we want to balance these three brains. If we are using one brain too much, we need to balance those centers by performing other activities, as you mentioned. If we have no energy, we cannot perceive, meaning, if we fail to conserve the forces of our three brains, then we cannot control those elements within us. If we have energy, we can control it with our perception. That entails working with self-observation, self-remembering. The Four Spiritual Paths
As I explained, there are certain illnesses related to the three brains, but also there are certain paths which exclusively develop one of these three brains at the exclusion of the others. These are the paths that I am going to explain to you, related to the fakir, the monk, the yogi and the last, which is the Gnostic. It is important to understand the energies of the three brains, the energies of our mind, of our perception, because without understanding how these energies work in us, we cannot fully develop our potential as a consciousness.
There are those in this world who only develop, we could say, their willpower, who develop their ability to control the sensations and instincts of the body, the impulses of pain and pleasure. Individuals who dominate their physical body in a very extreme way, we call them fakirs. Individuals who, like in this image in the next graphic, sleep on a bed of nails, or like certain Sufi sects which have degenerated, they impale themselves with swords to show their ability to heal, and supposedly the power of God. This is a type of extremism which we do not recommend. Fakir literally means "poor person." I am going to explain to you these three paths in accordance with the wisdom of a certain German initiate, a man who at one point was not an initiate [because he fell]. His name was Friedrich Nietzsche. He explained in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, about the Persian prophet, or Iranian prophet, how these three paths have existed in the world, and how we need to be educated about these paths, so that we understand: how do we function in our three brains? How do we develop our three brains? How do we develop these energies within us, so that we can walk the path of the Gnostic? You are going to find that his style is very, you could say, condemnatory towards these practices, and he is justified because these three paths do not fully develop the potential of God within. 
The Path of the Fakir
So the path of the fakir only develops the motor-instinctive brain, we can say, the motor center, the ability to control pain and pleasure. Unfortunately this path, as Nietzsche is going to explain, does not create the soul. We talked about previously in a lecture called The Solar Bodies and Bodhichitta, how the solar vehicles, as expressions of the Lord, the Being, can only be created through sexual magic, through the perfect matrimony. Fakirs seek to develop their willpower thinking it is going to take them to God, but they are ignorant, because even though one develops willpower infinitely, if one does not work with the consciousness, and also the vital sexual energy, one cannot create the solar body of causal will.
Nietzsche says the following to these fanatics of Fakirism: I want to speak to the despisers of the body. It is their respect that begets their contempt. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
So when he is talking about respect, he means these fakirs they have a respect for tradition, and their respect for spiritual things does beget their contempt of their own body.
What is it that created respect and contempt and worth and will? The creative self created respect and contempt; it created pleasure and pain. The creative body created the spirit as a hand for its will. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
What is this creative self? It is our Inner Buddha, the Being who creates within us, if we know the science. The Being created our longings and respect for these type of teachings, and our own contempt, we could say, of that which is filthy and degenerate. It also created pleasure and pain, because those energies manifest in our physical body and we experience sensation through the vital force, as an emanation of the Spirit down the Tree of Life.
“The creative body created the spirit as a hand for its will.” So what is this creative body? It is our physical body. We know we have the Kundalini force within our coccyx, and the body needs to create spiritually. We need to create the spirit within us, if we know the science; if we know the method. So he is telling these fakirs, "You want to develop your willpower and create your solar body of will, but you do not work with sexual magic. You do not know how to create with your own body, because you disrespect your body, your temple, for God [the Superhuman]." Even in your folly and contempt, you despisers of the body, you serve your self. I say unto you: your self wants to die and turns away from life. It is no longer capable of what it would do above all else: to create beyond itself. That is what it would do above all else, that is its fervent wish. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
The Being wants to create the solar bodies, but that individual needs to work in alchemy. So these fakirs, because they do not want to get married, they think that the physical body, by dominating with their own willpower, is going to create the soul. They fail in their development. In fact, they do not get anywhere. So he is saying that “your Being wants you to do this above all else,” to die in your defects in meditation, through comprehension, and “it wants to create beyond itself,” create the solar vehicles, which are bodies in which the energies of Christ can manifest, as we have mentioned in the previous lecture.
But now it is too late for it to do this: so your self wants to go under, O despisers of the body. Your self wants to go under, and that is why you have become despisers of the body! For you are no longer able to create beyond yourselves. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
So he is saying, their Inner Being wants them to go under, meaning, as he mentions elsewhere in this text, the Being wants the soul to die in those egos that we all carry within, so that the Being can create within. Because they are no longer able to create through sexual alchemy, they do not want to get married, the Being is not able to create in them. They develop willpower over their body, but they do not awaken anything.
And that is why you are angry with life and the earth. An unconscious envy speaks out of the squint-eyed glance of your contempt. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
What is the Earth that he repeatedly mentions? It is Malkuth, in Kabbalah, the physical body. He says they despise the physical body. They do not use the physical body as it should be used, through purity, through sexual magic.
I shall not go your way, O despisers of the body! You are no bridge to the Superman! ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Despisers of the Body”
What is the Superman? It is Nietzsche's term for the Christ-man. Nietzsche never used the term Christ, but he talked about the Superman, or we could say―as we mentioned in the beginning of the lecture―Ptah, the solar man, in the image of the solar bodies created from the work with alchemy.
The Path of the Monk
He not only condemns the fakirs, but he also condemns many of the monks. This also deserves analysis.
Here he talks about the path of the monk. We have an image of a somber, solemn individual in black, in the next slide. You could say that Nietzsche had the most antagonism for the priests of his time, and justifiably so, because these priests are devoted with their heart to God, but sadly they do not know God. The God they believe in is dead―to quote Nietzsche, this is why he says very famously "God is dead," and many atheists say, "Oh Nietzsche is a prophet for us, because he does not believe in God." He did not say that. He said "God is dead," meaning the Judeo-Christian God that most people worship in their heart, is false, does not exist. He says elsewhere, "God is dead, now we want the Superman to live." In a lecture by Samael Aun Weor, someone asked him, "Do you believe in the Christ that people worship in these times?" and he said "No," because people worship an effeminate, castrated, weak Christ―an effeminate figure that is stripped of any sexuality. The teachings of his work in alchemy were stripped from the Bible. So Samael said, "We do not believe in that Christ. We follow the rebel Christ, the Red Christ, the Warrior of Mars, who works in alchemy." Nietzsche even said in one of his books that he is the anti-Christ. Samael Aun Weor said nearly the same thing: how the Gnostics follow the Superman, not the dead statue of Christ that is so adored by the fanatics of religion. Question: So they are taking his words in their own view? Instructor: Yes, because in this book, it is a very esoteric book, and we are going to show you especially towards the end... Question: What is the name of the book? Instructor: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and you are going to see in the end one of the slides that I have, you will see exactly what he knew, and how irrefutable it is. So he talks about the path of the monk, and how devotion by itself does not take one to God, or towards the Being, or the Superman: Behold these huts which these priests built! Churches they call their sweet-smelling caves. Oh, that falsified light! That musty air! Here the soul is not allowed to soar to its height. For thus their faith commands, "Crawl up the stairs on your knees, ye sinners!"
What is that pure sky? That pure sky is the Being, because if you awaken in the internal worlds, and any master shows you your level of Being, they show the Being through the sky. If you see a cloudy sky in the internal worlds, it means that you are asleep, that there is darkness in your mind. But when the clouds are clear and the sky is reflecting the heavens, the galaxies, the stars, that means that you are awakening. The Being relates to the stars. So the pure sky is relating to God, the purity of the psyche, the purity of א Aleph―again the air, the wind, the breath―relating to the Father, Patar.
And only when the pure sky again looks through broken ceilings and down upon grass and red poppies near broken walls, will I again turn my heart to the abodes of this god. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
So meaning, when all the broken remnants of their doctrines which are empty of any spiritual meaning, when they are finally exposed by the Spirit, maybe I will look at their teachings again.
They have called "God" what was contrary to them and gave them pain; and verily, there was much of the heroic in their adoration. And they did not know how to love their god except by crucifying man. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
Just look at the crusades, their devotion―they are developing the heart and they are praying and meanwhile they are killing other human beings, supposedly in the name of God.
As corpses they meant to live; in black they decked out their corpses; out of their speech, too, I still smell the bad odor of death chambers. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
So why are they dead? They are the living dead that the Bible talks about. They are corpses because they do not work in transmutation. They do not work with the power of חַיָה Chaiah, the life of the body.
And whoever lives near them lives near black ponds out of which an ominous frog sings its song with sweet melancholy. They would have to sing better songs for me to learn to have faith in their Redeemer: and his disciples would have to look more redeemed! ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
The redeemer that people believe in does not exist. They believe in, as I said, a "castrated Christ," without any of the sexual teachings manifested in them. So truly, the disciples would have to look more redeemed, like they are actually making any progress, but they are not.
Naked would I see them: for only beauty should preach repentance. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
So notice that Nietzsche did not reject repentance outright. He says, "Naked would I see them," meaning without their false beliefs of the heart. Naked and innocent, like in the Garden of Eden, “for only beauty should preach repentance." “Beauty” in Kabbalah is תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiphereth, which is the human soul, which is willpower, united with God. So only that type of will that follows the Being should preach repentance.
But who would be persuaded by this muffled melancholy? Verily, their redeemers themselves did not come out of freedom and the seventh heaven of freedom. Verily, they themselves have never walked on the carpets of knowledge. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
What does it mean to walk on the carpets of knowledge? To walk the path of Gnosis, the Gnostic path.
Question: Consciousness? Instructor: Yes. Of gaps was the spirit of these redeemers made up; but into every gap they put their delusion, their stopgap, which they called God. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Priests”
What does this mean? "Of gaps of knowledge was the spirit of these redeemers made up." Meaning: the parts of the Bible they can’t explain, they put their delusion in it, and they call that God, meanwhile they have no experience. They develop a lot of devotion, the energies of the heart through prayer, but they do not walk on the path of knowledge, Gnosis. In Hebrew it is דעת Daath: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Path of the Yogi
Lastly Nietzsche talks about the path of the yogi. Here we have in the next slide, an individual performing austerities in the wilderness. We see him covered in soot and he is dirty, with a thick beard and a holy appearance.
The path of the yogi is the development of the mind. The fakir develops the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, or the motor brain specifically, by developing willpower, to control mechanical forces within the body. The path of the monk only develops the heart, the emotional energies through prayer. The path of the yogi exclusively develops the mind, but also the vital energy. But understand that vital energy and mental energy by themselves do not awaken consciousness. Only conscious work does, by being disciplined in our consciousness, by following the impulses of our Being. Nietzsche makes fun of and really criticizes the yogis too, who think they are very holy, living in the woods, eating grapes and berries, seeds and thistles, but they do not get anywhere. Nietzsche says the following about the yogis: One who was sublime I saw today, one who was solemn, an ascetic of the spirit; oh, how my soul laughed at his ugliness! With a swelled chest and like one who holds in his breath (meaning: performing pranayama), he stood there, the sublime one, silent, decked out with ugly truths, the spoil of his hunting, and rich in torn garments; many thorns too adorned him― yet I saw no rose. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Those Who Are Sublime”
What is the sublime one? Somebody who practices sublimation, who even by practicing pranayama, working with vital energy, tries to control the mind. But to live in the woods, abandoned from society is, we say, a mistaken way [we now live in the Age of Aquarius, an era of confraternity and cooperation, not isolation from humanity]. So we see this individual, he is covered with soot and dirt thinking he is attaining great realizations, studying the Vedas, the scriptures, studying very diligently, and trying to control his mind.
But we have to understand that only the consciousness can control the mind. Only the consciousness can understand the mind. The vital force by itself, pranayama, is not enough. Working with energy is not enough. We need to awaken consciousness by developing our perception through self-observation. So he says, "many thorns to adorned him―yet I saw no rose." This is also a Kabbalistic teaching. In the Tree of Life, according to Dion Fortune, we have different symbols related to the sephiroth. Relating to Netzach, the mind, is the rose [Samael Aun Weor also wrote a book dedicated to the Fourth Initiation of Major Mysteries, related to the fires of the solar mind: Igneous Rose]. So, Nietzsche is saying, “I see these yogis trying to control their mind, yet I do not see any rose in them. I do not see any real development or beauty in them.” All they have are thorns―they just suffer a lot with their mind, not able to control their mind, because they do not work with the consciousness. They have not been taught better. As yet he has not learned laughter of beauty. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Those Who Are Sublime”
So again, he says "beauty." So first he talked to the monks: “Only beauty should preach repentance," and now he is saying of the yogis, "As yet he has not learned laughter of beauty." Meaning: that joy that emerges in the human consciousness, our willpower, when it is following God.
Gloomy this hunter returned from the woods of knowledge (or we could say Jnana yoga, which is the path of the yogi). He came home from a fight with savage beasts; but out of his seriousness there also peers a savage beast―one not overcome. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Those Who Are Sublime
Meaning he lived in the woods with animals, but he cannot control his own ego, because he is not awakening his consciousness. He is not overcoming himself
He still stands there like a tiger who wants to leap; but I do not like these tense souls, and my taste does not favor all these who withdraw (meaning: into the woods). ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Those Who Are Sublime” 
The Gnostic Path of the Balanced Human Being
So again, the yogi only develops the mind and vital energy. The monk only develops the heart, and the fakir only develops willpower. We have to understand these three paths in order to explain the Gnostic path. So, we have what is known as the path of the Tao, or the path of Gnosis, which is known as the path or the way of the balanced human being. Notice that the three paths work with the different brains at the exclusion of the others. The Gnostic path is one that encompasses the development of all three brains, in harmony, in unison.
We have an interesting graphic on the right, which is known as the law of the scale. We use this scale to explain the different types of human beings, or different types of humanoids that exist. We have the seven notes, starting from the bottom, "Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si.” This is very well discussed in the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. They were the teachers of the Fourth Way School. The Fourth Way is the path of the Gnostic. Notice in the bottom we have, for number one, the note "Do," the instinctive human being, meaning fakirs, who only work to control their instincts, their physicality. Above that we have the note "Re," the emotional energy, the monks who only develop the heart. Above that we have the intellectuals or the yogis, who only develop the mind according with the musical note "Mi." Above that we have the note "Fa," which is known as the fourth type of human being, the path of the Gnostic. The path of the Gnostic equilibrates the three brains. Notice that in this diagram we have a shock in between these notes, leading from "Mi" to "Fa," because that shock is a sparking of consciousness. That shock only occurs in us when we are developing our perception, when we are learning to pay attention. That shock is the alert state of novelty in which we see life in a way we have never seen before, and every moment of our existence should be like that. That is the teachings of self-observation and self-remembering. Above that we have other types of human beings, which relate to the lecture we previously gave called The Solar Bodies and Bodhichitta, in which, above, the balanced human being, there are superior types of human beings: individuals who possess the solar bodies. Above the note "Fa" we have the creation of the solar astral body, relating to the note "Sol" or sun. The note "La" above relates to the creation of the solar mental body, a Christ mind. Above that we have what is known as the solar causal body, relating to the note "Si." Again there is another shock associated with reaching that type of development, because it is a very different type of perception to awaken within Nirvana, so to speak, the causal world, to develop the causal body. This is a superior work. It would take another lecture to explain that. But here we are talking in synthesis in relation to the Gnostic path. We need to balance our three brains, work with the energies of our three brains, and use them for the consciousness. In the Gnostic path we take what is the best from all of these traditions and we discard what is useless. This is why it is known as the path of balance, the path of harmony. So Samael Aun Weor explains in The Perfect Matrimony: The Universal Christian Gnostic Movement has a school and a religion. We experience the first path (meaning the path of the fakir) in practical matters, learning to live with rectitude. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So this means that instead of lying on a bed of nails to develop our willpower, we simply go to our job, take care of our family, do our daily activities―that is how we develop willpower, by fulfilling our obligations with rectitude, with love and ethical discipline.
The second path lies within our church (the path of the monk). Our Gnostic Church has its sacraments, rituals, and its convent life. The third path has to do with occult practices (or the path of the yogi). We have our esoteric practices, special exercises for the development of the latent powers in the human being. Within the fourth path, which is ‘the Path of the Astute Man,’ we live practically in the most complete equilibrium. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So why is it called the "Path of the Astute Man"? Sometimes Master Ouspensky said, "It was the path of the sly man”―sly or clever―because the fourth type of human being takes what is good from these other paths, discards what is useless, in order to attain very quick development, without having to renounce one's lifestyle and live in the woods or live in a convent.
We study Alchemy and Kabbalah (in the Gnostic path). We work on the disintegration of the psychological "I." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
Again, the path of alchemy is the path of sexual magic. Here we are also explaining the Kabbalah, the Tree of Life―in synthesis, the Gnostic path. So within the fourth path, again as I said, we take what is best for our development.
The Disharmony of the Three Brains
We have the next graphic, which also explains, according to P. D. Ouspensky, the nature of the three other paths that we just discussed, in relation to the fourth. You might be familiar with some of these images of Alice in Wonderland, in which we have the Mad Hatter in the top left, the white rabbit on the right, and the Queen of Hearts below. These figures in Alice in Wonderland represent the three brains, in disharmony.
The motor-instinctive man, the instinctual human being is the White Rabbit, he is always looking at his watch, "I'm late, I'm late for an important date!" He is always running off and doing things. Never thinks about what he does. He is always impelled by mechanical and instinctive forces, meaning: a very brutish and unconscious type of individual. So we find individuals who are obsessed with work, who do not have any emotional interests or intellectual pursuits, people who just have their job and they live their life making money, thinking life is about having a job, a career, having kids and then dying. This is an instinctive type of person. This is the White Rabbit. Beneath we have the Queen of Hearts. This is a person who is very emotional. It is always cursing and condemning others with the heart, abusing the emotional energies of the emotional brain. I believe in the Disney cartoon she is always saying "Off with her head! Off with his head!" because in our emotional brain we are always trying to kill others with our emotions. We may not say criticism, but we feel in our heart a type of negativity in which we want to condemn others. Then we have the Mad Hatter, which is the abuse of the intellectual brain, somebody who makes no sense. These are all of the scholars and college professors in the world, because they read so much and they know so much intellectually, but even in some practical matters they have no sense, and Nietzsche, really condemns these individuals. He calls them "the scholars," who have taken every knowledge; they take any knowledge and they grind it to whiteness, to adopt it to their super-intellect. These types of people are really, you could say, crazy in the head. They have a lot of ideas but their intellectual brain is totally imbalanced, because they use the intellect too much. The fakir relates to the White Rabbit, always developing, is always controlled by instinct, or trying to control instinct. The monk is the Queen of Hearts, relating to the abuse of the emotional brain, developing the heart at the exclusion of the other centers. The Mad Hatter is the yogi, taken to the extreme, trying to develop the mind at the exclusion of the other centers. So Ouspensky gave a very interesting analysis of these paths, and explains them in relation to the fourth: Although in many respects these ways are very efficient, the characteristic thing about them is that the first step is the most difficult. From the very first moment you have to give up everything and do what you are told. If you keep one little thing, you cannot follow any of these ways. So, although the three ways are good in many other respects” (because they do develop, and to a certain extent they can develop certain capacities within us) they are not sufficiently elastic (they are not broad; they are not eclectic). For instance, they do not suit our present mode of life. The Fakir is an exaggerated No. 1 man (meaning an instinctive individual) with a heavy predominance of instinctive-moving centre. The Monk is an exaggerated No. 2 man (the emotional center) with the emotional center developed and the others underdeveloped. The Yogi is an exaggerated No. 3 man with the intellectual centre developed and the others not sufficiently developed. If only these three traditional ways existed, there would be nothing for us, for we are too overeducated for these ways. ―P. D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way
So it is important to understand these paths because it tells us how we work with energy, and the fourth path balances these energies, through conscious attention, conscious work. When Samael Aun Weor talks about conscious efforts and conscious works and upright efforts, he means the consciousness needs to control the different energies in our three brains.
The one that squanders the energies of the three brains is the ego. We as a consciousness need to control our three brains. We need to be in control of our machine, because the human body is a machine. The psyche is a machine, that channels forces and we need to be aware of these energies, so that we can drive our car, to lead us to, we could say, the land of Oz, as we have discussed many times, following the yellow brick road that leads to the heavenly city. Ouspensky continues in his book called The Fourth Way, someone asked him a question: Q. Does the Fourth Way embrace the three other ways? 
We find here in this image a man who is praying, he is meditating, and he is studying, and he is sitting in a firm posture like a fakir. We picked this image because we see an individual performing the three paths. He is meditating as a yogi, studying; he is praying up to heaven; and he is controlling his body. That is the essence of the Gnostic path. We need to understand the Fourth Way because it is different from the others, as Ouspensky taught.
With the other paths one would have to discard their family life, live in the woods, live as a monk in a convent, or sleep on a bed of nails. As Ouspensky said, we are over-educated for these paths, because we know better. We need to develop all three brains in balance. 
The Fourth Way: The Path of the Cross
The Fourth Way was taught by Jesus, as we see in the next graphic: the path of the cross. Remember that Samael said, "In the Gnostic path we study Alchemy and Kabbalah. We also disintegrate the psychological 'I,' the ego." These are the three sciences of Alchemy, Kabbalah and Psychology.
The Fourth Way, as taught by Master Aberamentho, the Christ, as his name is given in The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled. He taught that we do not necessarily have to abandon our life as it is, but to quote Shakespeare, "Take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them." Meaning, face our current everyday problems, and work with them, not to abandon them. So what makes the Fourth Way different is that we do not need to abandon our current way of life. Instead we need to take on our present conditions, and use them for our benefit, because these are precisely the best scenarios we need for our spiritual development. Ouspensky continues: But there is a Fourth Way which is a special way, not a combination of the other three. It is different from others first of all in that there is no external giving up of things, for all the work is inner. A man must begin work in the same conditions in which he finds himself when he meets it, because these conditions are the best for him. If he begins to work and study in these conditions, he can attain something, and later, if it is necessary, he will be able to change them, but not before he sees the necessity for it. So at first one continues to live the same life as before, in the same circumstances as before (meaning we keep our job, our family, our career, everything). In many respects this way proves more difficult than the others, for nothing is harder than to change oneself internally without changing externally. ―P. D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way
By far, it is a thousand times more difficult to live in this current society we are in, than to abandon everything and live as a yogi, despite what the yogis, fakirs and monks think. It is more difficult to take on one's circumstances, to change oneself psychologically, so that we can develop the consciousness.
Jesus taught this in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, verses 37 to 39: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. ―Matthew 10:37-3
What does this mean to not love father and mother? It does not mean that we abandon father and mother. It means we overcome our attachments to family, to career, to everything, and we follow Christ. It means to follow the path of the cross, which, as the cross is an image of four points, it is the union of the four paths.
The Kabbalistic Symbolism of the Rose Cross
So again, we are going to talk about the cross, the path of Tao. We did not mention, but the word Tao is very interesting, and has a lot of Kabbalistic symbolism. The "T" is the cross, which is the union of man and woman united sexually: the vertical phallus with the horizontal uterus. Then we have, or better said the letter "T" the cross is fire, we could say Ignis, combined with the vowels "A-O.” “I-A-O" the Lord, or יהוה Iod-Havah, י Iod ה Hei ו Vau, in Hebrew.
So Tao, as in Taoism, refers to , י Iod ה Hei ו Vau: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or Ignis, Aqua, Origo. Ignis is fire, Aqua is water, Origo is spirit. What is interesting if you look at this diagram of the Rosicrucian cross, we have the twenty-two Hebrew letters in the center. In the very middle we have the three primary mother Hebrew letters of Kabbalah. א Aleph, ש Shin, מ Mem. א Aleph again is water, air, Origo, wind. מ Mem is water, Aqua. Fire is ש Shin, Ignis. So we have it synthesized as "I-A-O," or the Tao path. The path of the Tao is working with the three brains in union, in harmony. Now we look at this graphic, we find there is principally five sections of the cross, relating to the four elements and the ether. The ether is the sexual power of God, or Akash, plus the four elements, represented by these different colors: the earth, the air, the fire and the water. So the cross, the blossoming of the rose of spirituality, is the direct result―as we see in the Rosicross, in the center―of working with all three brains. So remember that Nietzsche said, "I saw on this yogi many thorns, but no rose." The rose can only develop, the igneous rose of God, the solar Christic mind, is only developed through alchemy, through the cross. Samael Aun Weor explains the following in The Perfect Matrimony: The Tao Path includes three paths, and Tao itself is the fourth. Much has been said about the four paths. We Gnostics travel along the fourth path in full Consciousness. During the sexual act, we transmute the brutal instincts of our physical body into willpower (so that is the path of the fakir, controlling the physical body, transmuting instinct into consciousness, into will, solar conscious will) the passionate emotions of the Astral Body into love (the path of the monk, controlling emotional desire and uniting it with God) and the mental impulses into comprehension (which is the path of the yogi. So we need to control all of these energies with consciousness. We cannot just develop all of these energies by themselves; we need to have conscious, cognizance of how these forces function, and to use them for our Being). As Spirit, we perform the Great Work (so again he says, in alchemy we work with the three brains, and then lastly we work as Spirit). We do not need to become fakirs for the first path, neither monks for the second, nor scholars for the third. The path of the Perfect Matrimony permits us to travel the four paths during the sexual act itself. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony 
Sexual Magic in Thus Spoke Zarathustra
I mentioned that I was going to quote again Nietzsche for you, and this is just to demonstrate that Samael Aun Weor was not the only one who talked about sexual magic. Master Samael was the only one to explain it explicitly, clear for everybody, but we find many initiates in history were talking about the nature of sex, and how it is the Gnostic path of controlling the three brains.
This is probably my favorite quote by Nietzsche. Here we have in this image, in the next slide, where he talks about the Gnostic path of Alchemy, we have the lion, which is a great symbol in his book for the Superman. The lion is the Lion of the tribe of יהודה Iehudah, Judah. Judah is י Iod ה Hei ו Vav ד Daleth ה Hei. We have the name יהוה Iod-Havah, Jehovah, the Lord, with ד Daleth. ד Daleth in Hebrew signifies the Kabbalah; it represents דעת Daath, which is qlchemy. So to realize the lion or the Superman within us, we need to perform the work of qlchemy in a matrimony. He even emphasizes the other paths that we just explained. He uses the word "sex.” This is in one translation, some translations translate it as "voluptuousness," which is another word for Eden, and Eden is the garden of sexuality, the garden of knowledge: Sex: to all hair-shirted despisers of the body (meaning the fakirs), their thorn and stake, and cursed as "world" among all the afterworldly because it mocks and fools all teachers of error and confusion. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
Who are these "afterworldly"? These are the monks who believe in another world, a vague incipient and nonsensical afterlife. Nietzsche calls them the "afterworldly." So all those monks that say, "Oh sex is bad, you should not have sex. It is filthy” because they are filthy in their mind. That is all they see in it. Like Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi stated, "When you look at the cup of water, you thirst for Allah, but if you only have your own desires, you only see your own reflection in it." So that water is מ Mem, the sexual energy.
The priests they cursed it as "world”, worldly, filthy. “You should not have sex," and the fakirs they absolutely despise alchemy. Sex: for the rabble, the slow fire on which they are burned; for all worm-eaten wood and all stinking rags, the ever-ready rut and oven. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
Who are "the rabble"? These are the fornicators, people who are common everyday people, they think the orgasm is good and they degenerate themselves.
"It is the slow fire in which they are burned.” Their mind is "worm eaten-wood," filthiness, filled with fornication, "and all stinking rags," meaning their lunar bodies―they do not have the solar vehicles of God. They have never worked in Alchemy. Instead, they have lunar bodies: kama rupa, the lunar astral body; they have the manas, the lunar mind―that is how they travel in the internal planes, and when they sleep. Their rags stink, because their ego is so penetrated in their lunar bodies that they are filthy, and when we see them in the internal planes, they are very filthy people, filled with a lot of lust, and they smell [with animal desire]. On the contrary: Sex: for free hearts, innocent and free, the garden happiness of the earth, the future's exuberant gratitude to the present. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
What are these "free hearts"? These are the alchemists, who look at sex and they see that it can be used for purity, for God. So if one is innocent like a child, one can look at sex for what it is, as a pure communion with Christ, the energy of God. It is "the garden happiness of the earth," the Garden, Eden, resides in our physical body, Malkuth, the earth. Sex is "the future's exuberant gratitude to the present," meaning the future, meaning: when we fully develop Christ one day in us, is gracious, is grateful for the initiate to be working, "the future's gratitude to the present."
Question: So when you are talking about sex, are you referring to Tantric sex, because obviously that is different than, I guess you could say a lustful type of sex? Instructor: Yes, we are talking about sexual magic here. Sex to the common people is just filthy, "stinking rags," is for "the rabble," "the slow fire on which they are burned." That is the fornicative sex that everybody knows, but now we are talking about what Nietzsche is talking about: sexual alchemy, in which we conserve our semen. We do not spill it. We preserve that Garden of Eden within, so that we do not lose our forces. Sex: only for the wilted, a sweet poison... ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
What is this "wilted," like a flower that is dying, decaying? The virtues of the soul in the internal planes are represented as flowers, and when one is losing one's virtues, they wither. Also, "sex is a sweet poison, for the wilted," meaning the orgasm is very sweet, but it is poison to the mind. It destroys the soul. Sex:
…for the lion-willed, however, the great invigoration of the heart and the reverently reserved wine of wines. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
What does it mean: "invigoration of the heart"? When we transmute, we are bringing the energy up the spinal column to the brain and to the heart. This is what we explained in The Solar Bodies and Bodhichitta. What is this "reverently reserved wine of wines"? Meaning the wine, the waters that can be transmuted into wine by Christ in the marriage of Canaan. We have to reserve our wine. We cannot spill it. You spill your wine, you are a wilted flower, and a part of the rabble in which the slow fire burns oneself.
Sex: the happiness that is the great parable of a higher happiness and the highest hope. For to many is marriage promised, and more than marriage... ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On the Three Evils”
So many people, when they grow up, "you need to get married, get a partner," but "for to many, marriage is promised, and more than marriage," meaning more than the marriage that people commonly experience, a marriage in which the couple does not waste the energy, does not orgasm. That is rare. So that is what it means for it to be promised more than a marriage, more than a typical wedding that people commonly support.
…to many who are stranger to each other than man and woman. And who can wholly comprehend how strange man and woman are to each other?
Who are these "swine"? Meaning the intellectual fornicators. So they are reading Nietzsche's book and they say "yes, he is an atheist," and they see what they want in his text. Meanwhile Nietzsche is saying "I am putting fences around my words. I cannot explain this openly," because it is sacred. The only one who explained it openly was Samael Aun Weor, in these times. So, Nietzsche is saying, "I do not want the fornicators to read this, because they are just going to mock it."
So the lion-willed, again, as he mentioned "for the free hearts," the image of a lion, represents Christ. We need to have the will of Christ, a will that only obeys the Being, a type of willpower that follows the consciousness. Question: When people talk about the higher self, is the Inner Being the higher self? Is this just semantics? Instructor: Yes the Being is the inner self, we could say Atman, we could say Christ. Question: He is the higher self, right? Since that is a term that is used so often… Instructor: Especially by Theosophists, and they talk about Atman, the Innermost, the Being. Question: Is that the Inner Being, Atman? Instructor: Yes the Inner Self, we could say. Comment: It is the higher self... Instructor: And Christ is even beyond the Innermost, as we mention in the Kabbalah. 
In the next graphic we are going to explain a little more about the Gnostic path. We have an image of Moses, Moshe, where he explains in Leviticus, precisely the requisites of alchemy. This is important to understanding the Gnostic path, because in order to equilibrate our three brains, to conserve our mental energy, our emotional energy, our physical energy, we need to conserve our vital forces, and we need to sublimate them, whether in alchemy as a married couple, or pranayama or mantra as a bachelor.
But exclusively, in order to develop as a Gnostic, to develop that type of self-knowledge from God, is to conserve the semen. For it says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4: Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." ―Hebrews 13:4
What does it mean "undefiled"? A bed that does not have semen all over it. So, a marriage is honorable, but when one fornicates, there is no honor in it. One spills and wastes the energy. These are the "swine and swooners" that Nietzsche was against, and if you even read the chapter on "The Rabble" you see he talks exclusively about that, and very beautifully how we need to ascend up the mountain of initiation in order to escape all of the fornication in this physical world, to breathe the pure air of the Spirit, the pure sky, the א Aleph, the breath of God.
Question: As man and wife practice, and it continues after a long period of time, do they in some ways become one? Thoughts… emotions? Instructor: Yes, when you unite sexually, you become one being, because man is אל El, woman is אלה Eloah, man and woman together is אלהים Elohim: Gods and Goddesses. So sexually connected, the husband and wife are one flesh, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave into his wife, and they shall be one flesh," as mentioned in the Bible. So Adam unites with הוהHavah (חַוָה Chavah), man and woman, to make יהוה Iod-Havah, the power of Christ. The Lion of Judah, because Iod-Havah is the same letters as יהודה Iehudah, except with the Hebrew letter, the ד D, which is the science of ד Daath, alchemy. So that is what it means when Nietzsche is saying to have a "lion will," to practice alchemy with the will of a lion, to not ever waste that wine, to reserve it, and to revere it. It says in Leviticus, chapter 15, verses 16 through 18, what happens if one has an orgasm: And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him (or even the woman's as well), then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
The Jews typically interpret this as being something physical, but they ignore that the waters are symbolic. If one has an emission of semen, one needs to first clean up, and then transmute the energy that was lost, meaning: after a loss of that force, one needs to work with the waters again to regenerate, because depending on the magnitude of the fault, we need to recuperate, if we have an accident.
What does it mean to be "unclean"? To be psychologically filthy, to be "worm-eaten wood and all stinking rags," mentioned by Nietzsche. So what are these "stinking rags," well, any of the lunar bodies fortified with ego, meaning: "And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed," meaning our inner bodies have become filthy―have become "stinking rags" that need to be purified. The only way we purify those bodies, annihilating the ego, is through the Gnostic path. What does it mean to be "unclean until the even"? "Evening" is hell, so one will be unclean until one descends into hell and annihilates the ego, otherwise one will always remain impure. So the Gnostic path again is to work with these energies in a matrimony. 
On Child and Marriage
The last graphic, we are going to finish with another quote from Nietzsche, where he synthesizes pretty much everything we have discussed. This is an image of a famous painting of Nietzsche on the mountain, as the wanderer, so often cited from Zarathustra.
Again, marriage is honorable and all, but the marriage of the many is superficial and filthy. So, if we want to have the energy in order to awaken consciousness, we cannot be fornicating. We say that explicitly. I know some people do not like to say it openly, but really, Samael Aun Weor was very clear. He expressed it very publicly in his books. The very first thing is to not fornicate. We need to save the energies of our three brains so that we can awaken our psyche. The Gnostic path as the path of balance, working with energy, is the direct result of conserving these forces. If we want to create the solar bodies, we need to have the energies related to those bodies. So even if we are conserving our energies, we are transmuting through mantra and prayer, if we waste our emotional energies, we cannot create the solar astral body. The solar astral body is created through sex, but we need to work with emotional energy as well. Likewise, the solar mental body is only created when we have mental energy. If we are constantly exhausting our mind, even we transmute, then we are disbalanced. The path of Gnosis, the path of Tao, is the path of balance. Question: So overworking your mental energy, could that just be doing too much of something? Instructor: Yes exactly, and that tends to be it. Or it could just be a very bad habit. Some people, they look at pornography, and that takes the energies of sex and destroys the mind, because the mind is fantasizing these sexual images, and Samael Aun Weor explained that the result of watching pornography is impotence, because when those individuals, those men who are watching so much pornography, they are in the moment when they are going to have sex, they cannot get an erection because they lose all of their energy through masturbation. They destroy their mind as well, because now they have all of these images in the intellect associated with filthiness. These are the "stinking rags" that we mentioned, by Nietzsche. So if you want to create the solar bodies we need energy, that is the Gnostic path. Question: What about some people who are just devoted to, nothing say, sexual, but, I have met people where just about every thought in their mind was to find a new way or creative way to make money? Instructor: That is the path of the fakir. Question: That is the fakir? Instructor: Because they just want to control material means, mechanicity. I know many people who, they have no spiritual emotions, no emotions, they are not even interested in reading; they just want to make money. They only do anything to make a living, and so these instinctive types of people are very unconscious. They go nowhere. Question: So they are wasting... Instructor: They are wasting their time. Same thing with the fakirs, and also the monks develop the heart, but they have no cognizance of God. Therefore, they have all of these beliefs and that is their stopgap, like Nietzsche said. They impregnate the religious teachings with their beliefs, and they just have a lot of emotional energy, but they also, unfortunately, they fornicate. They squander their energies. They cannot create anything. And the yogis, they try to control the mind, but if there is no comprehension, then they are just wasting their time as well. Question: I also know people who think and theorize a lot and love conspiracy theories. They seem to love God but they just think so much. Is that an imbalance of the mental brain? Instructor: Yes, the mental body, when there is too much thinking, the mental body gets disfigured. Meaning: the anatomy of the mental body, the aura gets impregnated with a lot of filthiness, especially the individuals that are masturbating, that are abusing the sexual force. So too much reading, too much theorizing, intellectualizing, that destroys the mind. Too much negative emotion destroys the heart, and fornication totally destroys everything, because the different energies of the three brains are different modifications of sexual energy, different manifestations of the energies of God. I would like to conclude with a quote from Nietzsche, where he emphasizes the main points we discussed. This is on a chapter called "On Child and Marriage": You are young and wish for a child and marriage. But I ask you: Are you a man entitled to wish for a child? Are you the victorious one, the self-conqueror, the commander of your senses, the master of your virtues? This I ask you. Or is it the animal and need that speak out of your wish? Or loneliness? Or lack of peace with yourself? ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Child and Marriage”
So he is saying, "you want to be married," those who are single, but one should be more concerned with being a conqueror of one's own mind, a conqueror of one's own emotions, and a conqueror of instinct. Control the three brains, and therefore be a "master of your own virtues," and the "commander of your senses." So, these are the three paths, synthesized.
Let your victory and your freedom long for a child. You shall build living monuments to your victory and your liberation. You shall build over and beyond yourself, but first you must be built yourself, perpendicular in body and soul. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Child and Marriage”
So what does this mean, "build living monuments of victory and liberation"? These are the solar bodies, because that is the step we need to take in order to be liberated. Victory in Hebrew is Netzach, which is the solar Christ Mind. "Let these be living monuments to your victory,” dominating your mind “and your liberation."
If you wish to "build over and beyond yourself," create the solar bodies, first you need to be built yourself, "perpendicular in body and soul." Meaning: we need to follow the path of the cross, the path of Tao, balancing our three brains. If we want to create the soul, we need the energies in order to create them. Therefore, you need to be "built perpendicular," meaning you need to have the balance established, the path of the Gnostic. You shall not only reproduce yourself, but produce something higher. May the garden of marriage help you in that!
So literally it says "higher body," solar bodies. What is the "first movement"? It is to initiate. So what does it always mean to be in the first movement? It is to be an initiate, constantly moving, constantly flowing.
The Hebrew word for, we could say, the Spirit, the wind, the breath, is אהיה אשר אהיה Eheieh Asher Eheieh, which is the sacred name of God and Kether in the Kabbalah. "I Am He Who Becomes,” “I Am He Who Initiates”―so a first movement. You should create a higher body in a first movement. You shall initiate. You shall walk on this Gnostic path. "A self-propelled wheel," meaning the chakras are active, spinning positively left to right, like we are viewing a clock, the same direction on our body, transposed on us, rotating in that direction―that is the proper rotation of the chakras. "You shall create a self-propelled wheel," meaning you have the sexual energy active and your chakras are awakened. Those who fornicate, those who masturbate, who ejaculate the semen, they have no development, and so they have development in hell. "You shall create a creator," meaning the solar bodies, they generate power in you, solar force. Marriage: thus I name the will of two to create the one that is more than those who created it (because the solar bodies, the golden child of alchemy, is greater than the two who created it). Reverence for each other, as for those willing with such a will (meaning the will of a lion, will of Tiphereth, following Christ; will with obedience to the consciousness) that is what I name marriage. Let this be the meaning and the truth of your marriage. But that which the all-too-many, the superfluous, call marriage―alas, what shall I name that? Alas, this poverty of the soul in pair! Alas, this filth of the soul in pair! Alas, this wretched contentment in pair! Marriage they call this; and they say that their marriages are made in heaven. Well, I do not like it, this heaven of the superfluous. No, I do not like them―these animals entangled in the heavenly net. And let the god who limps near to bless what he never joined keep his distance from me! Do not laugh at such marriages! What child would not have cause to weep over its parents? ―Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “On Child and Marriage” 
So this is kind of a reference to the Roman myth, when Vulcan the god of fire, smithing, forging, catches his wife Venus having an affair with Mars. So Vulcan represents, like Samael Aun Weor mentions many times, sexual magic is the flaming forge of Vulcan, in which the solar bodies, the armor of the heroes is built. Like Aeneas in The Aeneid, like Achilles, his armor is created by the gods so that he can wage war and destroy the ego.
So in this myth Vulcan catches his wife Venus having an affair, so he develops a bronze net, puts it on the bed in which they are going to be copulating, and it drops in the right moment when they are together. Vulcan gets all of the gods, and they point towards the couple and they are laughing, they are mocking them. This is a symbol for how, for instance, bronze is an alchemical symbol. Bronze is the union of copper, which is Venus, the woman, and tin, which is Jupiter, the man. So it is an alchemical symbol of how man and woman should unite sexually. Now when the net drops and the gods are laughing at this couple, this represents how Mars, the man, is having sex with his wife in the wrong way, meaning: they are fornicating, they are abusing the fires of the forge of Vulcan, of sexuality, for perverse purposes. So the gods, they mock that, they mock those people, the fornicators. It is tremendous the disgust they have for that type of activity. Comment: I just want to add, Dion Fortune wrote that if man and woman get together, copulation, their state of mind, the state of spirituality has a lot to do with that―assuming another soul, another partner I guess, resulted in copulation―she mentions drunkards, people on drugs, it definitely effects the child, they give birth in a very negative way. Instructor: Yes, it destroys the energies of our psyche, and destroys the three brains. Not only for the couple but for the child. So to conclude, the Gnostic path is the path of balance, balancing the three brains, being a master of our own senses, and master of our virtues. If we do not have control over our intellectual brain, our emotional brain, our motor-instinctive-sexual brain, we will have no energy to create spiritually. So the consciousness, again, is awakened through upright efforts, but again, in order for the consciousness to manifest in our three brains, we need energy, specifically the vital force. If we abuse that energy, if we do not walk the Gnostic path, then well, we are swallowed by nature, so to speak. Questions and Answers
Do you have any questions?
Question: What if you are single? You are sort of screwed! Instructor: There are many single yogis and initiates who develop tremendous capacities, even while being single. It comes to my mind Yogananda. Yogananda is a great yogi. This is not to say he did not understand this teaching. Now one thing I would like to clarify is, typically the paths we see today as the fakir, the monk and the yogi, these are exaggerations. These were divergent. There is demarcation between these paths today, but in the past they were integrated, because they were Gnostic paths at one point. But they diverged and became very extreme in their own ways, only developing one brain at one time. Now, Yogananda as a yogi, he knew the Gnostic teachings. He knew about sexual magic, but he thought he could self-realize without it. But even so, he was developing a lot of power as an individual, so he comprehended a lot of egos and annihilated many defects, and acquired tremendous power. Samael Aun Weor says he is a very beautiful elemental. His soul is very pure, but they told him, Samael reprimanded him and said, "Okay now that you have a lot of power here," talking to him in the internal planes, in Limbo, he said "If you want to go higher you need to reincarnate and get married." So Yogananda was reprimanded by the Master of the temple in which they were in [see The Narrow Way, “Limbo” by Samael Aun Weor]. So who knows where he is now. But many individuals, they acquire great power and progress, even while being single. Matrimony is just another―it really just accelerates many processes, so one walks faster. It does not mean that one is damned because one is not married, no. In fact there are many people who are married in the Gnostic teachings or in different religions, and they make their life a true hell. So what matters is one's individual effort. So remember, when we work with energy, we need to balance our three brains. We need to understand these paths, so that we can understand the Gnostic path. So again, you know, learning to live with rectitude every day in our life, with comprehension, is the path of the fakir. The path of the monk is when we develop our heart through prayer and supplication or mantra. Then we have the path of the yogi in our meditations, controlling the mind and by studying, and the Gnostic path synthesizes that by working with alchemy. Comment: The one that really, I did not even know that was one of the pathways, but how you, practice and study, that is how I have seen major results. Instructor: We need to balance. Gnosis is the path of balance, balancing our energies. So to walk the path we need to study, we need to read, but we also need to meditate. We need to balance the two. Question: Yeah because if I just meditate, I did not see the same results as if I would meditate and study. Instructor: Exactly, so knowledge, we say Knowledge and Being need to be united in harmony in order to establish comprehension, as stated in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology. Because personally, and, people who do not study, who do not really study the path of the yoga, even if they have a lot of experiences, they are not going to understand what their experiences are telling them. Personally, I remember having experiences in the internal planes related to the Kabbalah, before I knew anything about Kabbalah. So, I saw the Tree of Life. I saw many things related to the Being, that I could not explain until I read the books by Samael Aun Weor, which explained, "This is the Tree of Life." So I studied and I improved my comprehension. So the way that we develop deeper understanding is by studying and meditating at the same time. 
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 the 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:
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. 
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). 
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. ―Song of Songs 4:9
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 4:10
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 enclosed 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).
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, 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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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?
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. Questions and Answers
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. 
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:
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:
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:
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.
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?
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. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries 
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."
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.
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…
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. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled
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?
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.
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. ―M., The Dayspring of Yout
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 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? ―Friedrich 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. 
(Manjushri cutting through illusion with
the sword of Prajna: wisdom or insight)
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. ―Buddha, Dhammapada
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?
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.” 
Whether we've studied a spiritual teaching for some number of years, or if it's something new, regardless of the tradition, we always go back towards the very root, which is the direct experience of the truths contained within religion. This is why we say that Gnosis is a heart doctrine; it is a doctrine of the heart. It is not exclusively intellectual, for while we study and accumulate knowledge, a robust spiritual culture, of different scriptures and different writings, really what we look for is the practice. What we seek is the experience. And this is why we say that Gnosis is a Dharma of the heart.
When we say that it relates with the heart, it has to do with certainty, the fact that we know from experience, for its one thing to read about spirituality, about the different realms of the universe called the Sephiroth in Kabbalah, different modalities of consciousness, out of body experiences, experiences in which one may find oneself conversing with the Gods. It's one thing to read about it; it's a completely different thing to experience it. And this is why we say Gnosis relates with the heart; it is what we live palpably within ourselves. So whether we've be studying for a long time, or if we are new to this teaching, this is what we always come back to—the fundamentals, to question what it is we truly know from experience, that which we have lived within our flesh and our bones, within the very atoms of our consciousness. And it is this type of experience which really shows us that all religions are unanimous, that there really is no distinction or conflict between them. This knowledge is about activating the very latent potential to become something superior, to become a being that is a living incarnation of God, and we do this through practical efforts, practical work. This knowledge has been given many names, and in this lecture, in speaking about the Heart Doctrine or the secret path of the heart, we're going to delve into the many different schools, the foundations and structure of religion, how the heart develops in accordance with initiation and stages of the path, and really that it is a practical science; it is very practical. Regardless of the profundity, the vastness, and the complexity of this type of teaching, really it is actually quite simple: it relates with how we use consciousness. As we were talking in one of our previous lectures, we were talking about Pinocchio, which means, "pine seed." In Buddhist terms we refer to this as the Buddhadhatu, which means, "the seed of the Buddha." It is the potential to become a being that is fully awakened. The root word budh means "cognizance," and the Buddha is one who has fully awakened that. This is really our goal; this is what we want to become, and this doesn't come about by theories. It comes about by work through spiritual discipline, through practice. And this is why you see, particularly in this tradition, we have so many tools, to activate that, from different prayers, conjurations and invocations, practices of magic in which we invoke the superior forces of the Tree of Life, known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Christian terms; the First Logos, Second Logos and Third Logos in Gnostic Greek terms, and many names. These tools and exercises are meant to develop the pine seed, so that this pine seed may become a Christmas tree, completely illuminated and developed. This all is based upon our actions. It's based upon what we work upon in our heart; how we develop the heart, because Gnosis, if we examine the term (in Greek it's a silent "g") relates to the Sanskrit word Jnana, meaning "knowledge," and Prajna, which is the wisdom of the heart, such as with the Heart Sutra or Prajna-paramita Sutra. So we find that cognate, "Jna," "Gno-sis," "Jna-na," "Pra-nja." We find this even in Hebrew names such as Eliana, which is commonly translated as "God has answered me," but can literally mean "my Goddess of Knowledge," and if you know Kabbalah, that's one of the sacred names of God, "My Goddess of Knowledge: Iod-Chavah" or אלוה ודעת יהוה Eloah va Da'ath Iod-Hei-Vau-Hei in Tiphereth (the world of the heart) which is equivalent to the aforementioned name. Eliana relates with that: Pranja, Jnana, Gnosis, knowledge within the human being, since when we know the divine through the conscious awareness, Tiphereth, it has to do with the certainty of the truth experienced in one's heart. What we emphasize always is practice, not theories. If we want God to answer us, indicated through the name Eliana, we have to develop self-knowledge. We study the theory in the beginning, so that when we have the practical experience, we can orient ourselves appropriately. This is why we have so many different books; we have over seventy books from astrology to Tarot to Kabbalah, Alchemy, Tantra, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, many writings. But all of that is useless if we do not know how to work the consciousness, if we do not know how to develop the seed, so that it may sprout into a Buddha, an awakened being. The person who initiates this type of effort, who works in a practical way, in Greek is known as μυστικός mystikos, which means "initiate." It comes from the Greek root myein, which means "to close the eyes." This is also the root word of "mystery," and in a very famous scripture known as The Voice of the Silence, transcribed by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, it says this: Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all illusion. ―The Voice of the Silence
So it means to close the eyes to the misconceptions or the theories, the beliefs of many traditions and religions, and to really seek to experience what is internal, because this knowledge is completely internal. We have to really become blind to a lot of the concepts and misconceptions made about religion and spiritual practice, because generally humanity is focused on the external and ignores the treasures that we carry within our interior, that pine seed that can really blossom into something rare and beautiful.
It's necessary to learn how to close the eyes in a figurative sense. It doesn't mean we become naive or stupid; it just means we know how to live in this world with wisdom, to take advantage of it for our spiritual work, to use that so that we can really be of benefit, not only to ourselves, but to others in a genuine way. The mistake of many traditions, or the misconceptions about traditions, is that it is solely related with the external. This is what we call the Eye Doctrine in the scripture that I've quoted from, the doctrine of the physical eye, meaning we always look towards the physical world for answers and explanations, of phenomena or, better said, noumena, which is completely mystical and is not based on physical experience. It's something internal, more profound. And unfortunately, many schools of philosophy, many religions, they interpret the scriptures in a very literal way in accordance with theories, in accordance with the eye, with what is most easily seen, but it is very rare for a person to develop that internal sight in order to see within the scripture itself from living experience. And the Master Jesus explained this very beautifully in the book of Matthew, Chapter 13: And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
So he makes a very strong distinction between the exoteric and the esoteric, that which is readily perceived on the outside by external perception, meaning what we term in Gnosticism as the Sensual Mind, and then there one's inward perception through mystical exaltation of the consciousness. In Gnostic Psychology we refer to three types of mind:
The Sensual Mind is a type of psychology which is solely fascinated with physical phenomena, meaning it is a type of reasoning based on what we can readily see, a type of "common sense" so to speak. It is exclusively founded upon the information gathered from the five senses. Since it is limited to physical perception, or phenomena, such a mind cannot know anything of spiritual realities, denominated by Immanuel Kant as noumena. But the Intermediate Mind is much different; it has to do with beliefs and theories. It has to do with concepts, things that, while we have not experienced them, we still think they are true; we do not know if they're true, but we may have a faith in a religion, and say, "Well, we should believe in Jesus and I feel like I'm saved because I have accepted Christ as my savior, and I'm done." And that's the Intermediate Mind, it relates with a type of mysticism which is not based in direct experience in the consciousness. It is a belief in the heart or a concept in the mind that is not backed by experiential evidence within the awakening of the psyche. But then we have the Inner Mind, the Inner Mind which is the faculty of the consciousness. It is what can directly perceive in complete mystical experience the truths contained in religion, sometimes known as, perhaps, awakening in dreams, such as is described in the Book of Daniel, which relates with dreams; or the ladder of Jacob, in which he perceived the angels ascending and descending, from the superior to the inferior worlds. It's the Inner Mind we seek to awaken and to develop. We say that when the Buddhata, the seed of the Buddha, is fully developed, then the Inner Mind is one hundred percent awakened. This is what we call faith. Belief is to think something is true, but we don't practically know. Real faith, a term that is so abused in this day, really means what we know. When Jesus said, "With faith the size of a mustard seed (like a pine seed), you can move mountains," he's not talking about belief. He's talking about experience, because when you know something is true, your conviction is very determined and solid. It's unshakeable, and even if many people think you're crazy for studying a type of teaching like this, a type of mysticism of wanting to experience the divine in a personal way, you know its true, and really, that won't bother you because when you "know the truth, the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). 
It really has nothing to do with concepts, theories, beliefs, but we have to open the heart as Jesus says, to close the eyes to the physical world, close the eyes to the Sensual Mind, in order to perceive with the vision of the heart. Many masters are unanimous on this point. I'll quote for you probably the greatest Sufi Master that's lived. His name is Ibn 'Arabi, and this is from his book called Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom.
May God open the eyes of your heart, shedding His divine light. The angelic realm, which contains the potential of future creation, incorporeal existences, the meaning of all and everything to come, and divine power, is the element from which the visible world is created and, therefore the material world is under the influence and domination of the angelic realm. The movement, the sound, the voice, the ability to speak, to eat and to drink is not from the existences themselves in the visible, material world. They all pass through the invisible world of the angelic realm. We think that we see with our eyes. The information, the influences of perception, are due to our senses—while the real influence, the meaning of things, the power behind what sees and what is seen, can be reached neither by the senses, nor by deduction and analysis, comparison, contrasts, and associations made through intellectual theories. The invisible world can only be penetrated by the eye and the mind of the heart. Indeed, the reality of this visible also can only be seen by the mind and eye of the heart. ―Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
He's really talking about a superior type of perception, in which the divine nature that we have can see with clarity the very essence and nature of this phenomenal world, and it is through mystical experience that we see, particularly in meditation, or out of the body, that we see that this physical world is really quite crude and is not accurate. It doesn't convey the actual essence of what occurs on a psychological level, on an energetic level. This is why in Hinduism this world is Maya, is illusion; in order to delve past the illusions of the world (really, it's internal), we have to develop the heart through the experience and perception of the divine. Ibn 'Arabi continues:
What we think we see is but veils which hide the reality of things; things whose truth, whose meaning may not be revealed until these veils are lifted. ―Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
(If you're familiar with Freemasonry or Egyptian mysticism, we know about the veil of Isis. It's that covering or the illusions of the senses which prevents us from perceiving Divine Mother Nature, or the divinity that we carry within).
It is only when the dark veils of imagination and preconception are raised that the divine light will penetrate the heart, enabling the inner eye to see. Then either the sunlight or the light of a candle will become a metaphor for the divine light. ―Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
Gnosis is direct experience, and the very obstacle that prevents us from accessing those superior states, not just when we physically go to sleep and enter into those dream states, but on a moment to moment basis, is a lack of conscious attention. It is only by learning to direct our attention from second to second, from instant to instant, that we can really lift the veil of Isis, to penetrate with our comprehension into the very nature of the divine, which subsists on a moment to moment basis.
As Samael Aun Weor wrote, "The truth is the unknowable from moment to moment." When we think we know, that's usually a sure indicator that we probably are very asleep, because the state of awakened perception, or Self-remembering or Self-observation, to be in the now, everything is new, and we recognize, "I don't know anything!" Like a child who is fascinated with the experience of life, and everything is fresh and new. This is really the psychological attitude that we need in every second, and we always have to go back and cultivate that. It is the foundation. It is the foundation of mystical experience. It is the means by which, through the practice of meditation, we cultivate, facilitate and activate those experiences. Really, it comes to my mind, the story of a Tibetan Buddhist master, who was asked by a student of his, "So when do you meditate?" And he replied, "But I am always meditating!" In every second. It's by using that clarity of perception, which we call consciousness, Buddhata, Tathagarthagarba, the psyche, the soul. The Body, Soul and Spirit of the Heart Doctrine
This is the very key that opens the door to religion, to true reunion with the divine. It is a moment to moment awareness, a moment to moment effort, and it is this key that is so lacking in many traditions today, which have really died and lost the Heart Doctrine contained within them, or we could say that their esoteric heart stopped beating. And this is why we see many scriptures interpreted so literally. And the great masters, the Rabbis of The Zohar warned about this many centuries ago, even in their own time. The Zohar is probably the most advanced scripture given by the Kabbalists of Israel. The ספר הזהר Sepher ha Zohar means "The Book of Splendors." Splendor is a reference to the Sephirah Tiphereth on the Tree of Life, for as we say in the Invocation of Solomon, "Mercy (Chesed חסד) and Justice (Geburah גבורה), be ye the equilibrium and splendor (Tiphereth תפארת) of my life!" It is from Judaism where we derive a certain structure or dynamic in religion, which we actually find in all traditions and we're going to talk about this in relation with the Heart Doctrine. The Kabbalists say that there is a body, a soul, and a spirit to every doctrine. In Judaism, the Torah, the Books of Moses, along with the complete writings in the Tanakh, is known as the body of the doctrine. The Talmud, by the Kabbalists, is known as the soul of the doctrine. And then you have the spirit of the doctrine, which is The Zohar. You can see that these are varying levels of instruction. Moses wrote the Torah, the body of law and instruction. Some people confuse the Talmud with the Torah. The Talmud is more of the philosophical discourse regarding Jewish mysticism and way of life. It's really more of the soul of the doctrine. Whereas the body of a doctrine is just the narrative, and you'll see from this quotation of this illustrates this fact. This is about "The Real Torah" from the Sepher ha Zohar: Rabbi Simeon says: "Woe to the man who says that the Torah came to relate stories, simply and plainly, and simpleton tales about Esau and Laban and the like. If it was so, even at the present day we could produce a Torah from simplistic matters, and perhaps even nicer ones than those. If the Torah came to exemplify worldly matters, even the rulers of the world have among them things that are superior. If so, let us follow them and produce from them a Torah in the same manner. It must be that all items in the Torah are of a superior nature and are uppermost secrets.
It's because this type of teaching is too direct, and why all the great scriptures are really symbolic. So we see that from the angelic realm, the superior regions, the messengers and prophets, from which we get from the word angeloi or angels, come down in order to express this type of teaching, which is very abstract. So to explain it in completely abstract terms, people would not understand it, since those indoctrinated by the Sensual Mind and the five senses are less capable of grasping it. The fact that it's written in stories and parables is in order to convey a message, but if we interpret literally, in accordance with the Eye Doctrine, and not the heart, we fall into many absurdities, many mistakes.
So we say that the Torah, which interestingly enough means "instruction," "law," etc., is the same meaning as Dharma. The Torah and the Dharma are really the law, the instruction, the foundation of spiritual practice. The problem is that, due to the hypnosis of the senses, people are not capable of experiencing the truths that are contained in the scriptures in a symbolic form, because if we read just the literal meaning, it's really quite useless. It might feed a person's pride to read about the history of Israel; it is very literal to them. They think that there is no symbolism, and meanwhile the whole scripture is symbolic. It is a vestment, a dress: Therefore, this story of the Torah is the mantle of the Torah. He who thinks that this mantle is the actual essence of the Torah and that nothing else is in there, let his spirit deflate and let him have no part in the world to come. Therefore, David said, "open my (spiritual) eyes (through myein, meditation), that I may behold wondrous things out of your Torah (your law and instruction)" (Psalms 119:18); that is, look what lies under that garment of the Torah.
It's like what Polonius says in Hamlet, "For the apparel oft proclaims the man" (Act III.iii. 72). This is now taken in a more spiritual sense. We can even draw an interestingly parallel to Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, wherein his fictional prophet discusses the torpidity of the common man in relation with the things of the divine, as well as those "famous wise men" who say they follow the Heart Doctrine, but are in turn hypocrites and literal interpreters of the Torah, individuals we may otherwise denominate "tarantulas," to use the author's terminology:
But even in your virtues you remain for me part of the people, the dumb-eyed people—the people, who do not know what spirit is. ―Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Famous Wise Men, Book II
We continue now with The Zohar:
Similar to this is the Torah. It has a body, which is composed of the commandments of the Torah that are called the 'body of the Torah'. This body is clothed with garments, which are stories of this world. The ignorant of the world look only at that dress, which is the story in the Torah, and are not aware of anything more. They do not look at what lies beneath that dress. Those who know more do not look at the dress, but rather at the body beneath that dress. The wise, the sages, the servants of the loftiest king (which is Christ, that divine intelligence known by many different names in religion), those that stood at mount Sinai, look only at the soul of the Torah, which is the essence of everything, the real Torah. In the destiny to come, they are destined to look at the soul, the soul of the Torah. ―Zohar
We find this structure and dynamic in all religions, and I'm going to draw this parallel amongst all religions, or some of the major ones that we know of that express this type of dynamic: a body, a soul and a spirit of a doctrine.
In the Buddhist sense, we have the following schools:
Yana means vehicle, and indicates a vehicle of instruction, a vehicle of giving forth the Torah, the law, the Dharma, whatever name or label you want to give it. Shravaka means "someone who listens," so in the beginning of any spiritual instruction, we have to listen first. The beginner always listens to receive that type of teaching, and therefore its the vehicle by which we take in that instruction for the first time. Mahayana means "Greater Vehicle" and it relates more to how we work practically to help other people. You may be familiar with the term Bodhichitta, which we're going to talk about in relation with the soul of the doctrine. And then you have the spirit which is Tantrayana, the very essence, root or core of a doctrine, which is very advanced. Vajra means "lightning" or "diamond." So this indicates the most pure teaching we know of. 
We find this even in Sufism.
Shari'ah is the written law or code of Islam, Al-Qur'an and Al-Hadith. This is the code of conduct any spiritual aspirant must fulfill. Such ethical discipline is the foundation of all religious practice and spiritual achievement. Tariqah is the soul of the teachings, the practical techniques for achieving spiritual change. These practices have never been given openly by the Muslim initiates, but were transmitted by mouth to ear. However, we now have such techniques available in the writings of Samael Aun Weor. Tariqah also represents the philosophical teachings that explain Al-Qur'an and Al-Hadith, which we find in the Sufi writings of Rumi, Ibn 'Arabi, Al-Qushayri, and others. Haqiqah is the truth, the realization of divine spiritual truths within the many explications of the great Sufi Masters. One example is the poetry of Mansur al-Hallaj, the Muslim Christ, who was tortured and killed for pronouncing أنا الحق Anā l-Ḥaqq (I am the Truth!). Truly, this master completely embodied the Heart Doctrine, since he had no psychological impurities in his mind; he had completely awakened his Inner Mind and embodied the truth. With this explanation about the body, soul and spirit of any doctrine, we can now understand the following words from the Prophet Muhammad: The outer law (shari'ah) is my word,
In relation with the Heart Doctrine, the very heart of a teaching is Tantrayana; it is the secret teachings, in relation with alchemy, Tantra, the very highest yoga practices, which were not given to any student unless they proved themselves worthy.
Right now we live in a very different age of accessibility and information, and the fact that people need this teaching, that we need the tools and techniques, such knowledge is given openly. It's given more readily so people can practice. But in the past this was conserved. If you're familiar with astrology, the age of Pisces, during the times of Jesus, things were very conservative in relation with the dissemination of the esoteric knowledge. The Kabbalists of Israel were very selective and they did not want to give the teachings openly, but you see that Jesus went forth and started publicly these sorts of things, and they reacted very violently, because they were very conservative. Tantra and alchemy was not given so openly. It was given to those who proved their worth, first of all, by fulfilling the very foundations of spiritual practice, by demonstrating that they could enter into the Heart Doctrine through practical experience. Truly, the Shravakayana, the Dharma, the Torah, in the very foundations of practice, is given very beautifully and simplistically in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha, because a Shravakayana practitioner, someone who is working the very foundations of ethics and practice so that they can experience these types of things, has to understand the nature of Karma 
Ethics, Renunciation and Karma
Karma is simply a law of cause and effect, but it is not so simple, because we have many internal processes that occur even without us knowing about it, physical, emotional and psychological. Karma is a topic of its own, but we'll introduce this in relation with the body of the doctrine.
So the First Noble Truth states that, "In life, there is suffering." The person has to acknowledge that there is suffering in this life in order to want to change. If we're attached to our way of life we will not seek to improve it. It's the recognition that suffering exists where we inquire into their causes, the Second Noble Truth, and when we see that there are specific causes to suffering, that certain actions are being produced which inevitably bring negative results to us, we realize that there is an antidote called "cessation." Cessation refers to the end of the causes of suffering, the Third Noble Truth. By the very fact that we discover cessation, we discover that there is a path, the Fourth Noble Truth towards the cessation of suffering. Really we are delivering this knowledge of the Heart Doctrine in the Kabbalistic and Buddhist way, particularly in relation with the mantra Om Masi Padme Hum that we performed prior to this discussion, because it tends to be more readily familiar than, say, the Sufi tradition. However, we felt it important to explain this aspect of the Heart Doctrine since many are not familiar with it. We also emphasize Buddhism by the fact that the Buddha synthesized the Heart Doctrine very beautifully. However, we find the Four Noble Truths in all religions. There is suffering. Obviously suffering has causes which we produce. There exists the cessation of the causes of suffering, and there is a path, just as Jesus taught, "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). As I was saying that the foundation of the body of a doctrine is understanding the nature of cause and effect, the nature of Karma, how Karma actually functions, how we actually produce results. That's an enigma in itself, since often times we will try to present something and perform a certain action, only to not produce the result that we want. Such as in interrelations. We may think that we said something funny or something good, and it produces a bad result. But we all do this, we all have certain ways of being ignorant, of causing suffering, and it is this type of ignorance which prevents us from accessing the more deeper levels of spiritual practice, the Heart Doctrine, of going further into the experience of the divine. We find certain foundations or descriptions within each stage. Shravakayana is in relation with ethics and renunciation. It means that the very foundation to know what is right and know what is wrong; do what is right and don't do what is wrong. We find this in the ten commandments of Judaism. We find this in the ten virtuous and non-virtuous actions of Tibetan Buddhism, which we synthesize into body, speech and mind. It's a very interesting parallel in relation with the levels of instruction of these teachings: the body, soul and spirit of a doctrine. We categorize it in this way because there are sins of the body, sins of speech, relating with the heart, with emotions, and sins of the mind. So these are the three brains of Gnostic psychology: intellect, emotions, and movement or the motor brain. Body:
Speech:
Mind:
We have a presentation of certain literal vows that we need physically; however, the real work is to fulfill them psychologically. That's really where the Heart Doctrine starts to enter in relation with the Shravakayana path, the very foundation, because it's one thing not to physically kill a person, steal from them; it's one thing not to hurt someone physically through violence, but if we observe ourselves psychologically, we can be doing all those things and worse in our mind, since we feel that no one can perceive what exactly is going on. We feel, "Well I am isolated. I can think all the negative things I want; I can feel all the negative things I want." Meanwhile that brings consequences, because thoughts and feelings relate with matter and energy. It's not physical. It relates with the subtle dimensions, such as with the Astral Plane, Hod, in Kabbalah; Netzach, the mind, on the Tree of Life. Even if we may not express anger with words, we can kill with a bad glance, a bad look. Energy travels great distances, even if we are not perceptive of this fact. This is why we can sense if a person is upset even if they make no outward indications of such; this is known as the science of telepathy or transience: the transference of psychological and mental energies within interpersonal relations. Without unjust reason, then, Samael Aun Weor stated within The Major Mysteries: It is as bad to talk when one must be silent as to be silent when one must talk. There exist criminal silences as well as indignant words. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries
Stealing does not only include material things, but taking credit for another person's ideas, concepts, or spiritual teachings. The latter type of theft is the worst and is most common. Many fanatics of spirituality steal the teachings of the great prophets and adulterate them, claiming them for their own. We find this all throughout spiritual movements, whether of Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Hermetic philosophy, eastern yoga, and even Gnosis. Those who steal the teachings of others and claim them for their own, without paying due respect to the Guru, are those who indefinitely follow the Eye Doctrine. For as H. P. Blavatsky transcribed in the aforementioned scripture, The Voice of the Silence:
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 have garnered, low confess, "thus have I heard.' ―The Voice of the Silence
Sexual misconduct is any negative action that abuses the sexual energy, principally through fornication, the loss of seminal energy through the orgasm, and adultery, which is not only physical, but psychological. There is adultery in the mind whenever someone feels lust in his mind and heart towards another person. This was indicated by Jesus in the Gospels, but also the Lord Buddha two thousand five hundred years ago.
Lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, and senseless speech are abuses of the Verb, the Word, which is Christ. Whenever a person utilizes the verb in these manners, the mind and soul suffer the consequences, which is again the adulteration of forces within the psyche. God is the Truth, and to lie is to sin against the Father. We have to remember that Christ is not a person, but a cosmic energy. Therefore, to sin is not some moral burden upon our shoulders, but a misappropriation of energies. Hurtful speech, divisive words, or senseless speech as with many who claim to "speak in tongues," abuse the Verb and disturb their minds tremendously, making them greater candidates for suffering, simply because they take the harmonious energies of Christ and use them in negative ways. Covetousness does not only involve desire towards material objects, but even psychic powers. Many students enter esotericism wanting spiritual powers, to accomplish mind control, which is one hundred percent negative. Christ respects free will, and to dominate another person in this way is very bad. To covet powers is also useless and eventually converts one into a magician of darkness, since the only true power belongs to the Lord. The great initiates always renounce power, fame and glory and surrender everything to God. This is hidden within the Arabic word Islam, which means "submission to the will of God." Oftentimes such sentiments are fueled by malice, wanting to gain power in order to harm. It is not my purpose in this lecture to go so much into the consequences, but to help us reflect on how we commit these types of errors within ourselves on a daily basis. This is in order to awaken the comprehension of the heart, to enter into the Heart Doctrine. Wrong views entails ignorance of Karma, a lack of perception of reality which makes us act in wrong ways. This is the root of our suffering: our lack of comprehension of the causes of suffering within our psyche. So our thoughts produce consequences. In the very exoteric level, we must stop; we should not do those things physically, because it's going to create bad energy, and if we try to meditate with a mind that's so disturbed, we will not be able to comprehend anything; it will be too chaotic. What we want is to go into how it applies to our mind, how it applies to our hearts, because that is really where the work is. There's also many types of behaviors are generally so condoned in this society that we accept them, such as idle chatter; just talking, something we think is really innocent. The great master Swami Sivananda said that "Idle chatter is the diarrhea of the tongue." Truly it is, because people are something like volcanoes, just belching out words without comprehending where it's coming from or the effect they have. This type of behavior disturbs the mind. If we try to sit and meditate after a very chaotic day, where we don't have enough restraint on our mind or actions, meditation becomes very difficult; Self-observation becomes very difficult. Trying to see the roots of our problems becomes very difficult. This is why renunciation alongside ethics is the foundation. We have to renounce these types of habits on a moment to moment basis, not just saying "Well, I'm not going to do that again," and we get into the same situation and repeat the same thing. The real effort is finding yourself running towards the cliff and finding yourself at the ledge, refraining and saying, "I'm not going to do that," and then stopping before the fall. It could be a moment of restraint. The Buddha said this is a wonderful moment; that really shows we are working to change and are changing, if we can stop ourselves from acting in habitually negative ways. If we find ourselves beginning to act a certain way that is contrary to the teachings, or thinking negative thoughts, but stopping ourselves through comprehension, renouncing them and letting ourselves relax, not identifying, that is a strong indication that we are developing our ethics. Ethics is really the foundation of concentration. It is impossible to concentrate in meditation if our mind is disturbed, if we do not have enough restraint. This is what the Buddha said in the Dhammapada, the very first lines: "Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think." So if our thoughts are garbage, if our thoughts are very negative, then that is what our life is going to be externally. It's how we are going to react and relate to others, or how we're going to affect other people. Sivananda gave some beautiful quotes in relation with this: "Students fail in meditation because they lack ethics" and "Concentration without purity is useless." Pretty strong coming from a man who is generally considered to be laid back and happy, but he had a very strong Martian side to him, very disciplined nature, and we really have to be like that. We need to be focused; to be disciplined, but not militant; to be strong and firm, but flexible; because it's one thing to adopt this type of conduct, "I can't do harmful things; I can't think harmful thoughts," but to do it in a repressive way is wrong; it will get us nowhere. And I have seen that happen with many people, who have been so effected trying to adopt a spiritual practice when doing so in a very cloistered way, helping them become very negative and morbid people. They perceived how much negativity they have within and they don't know how to deal with it. The thing is just to relax. If we catch ourselves doing negative things, thinking negative thoughts, then just relax. Be firm. Observe, be concentrated, but don't be paranoid, because the truth is we carry a lot of degeneration, a lot of negative habits, negative qualities, but it's by renouncing those habits, in a calm way, that we grow spiritually. You know that in an argument you can be forceful without being offensive. "You know, I agree with you, but this is my space." You can assert yourself without being overbearing. The same with spiritual discipline, except the one we are up against is our own mind. This is the type of gentle and affirming attitude that we need in relation with ethics, how to control the mind, without storming and thundering like Zeus, "This is not how I want things to be!" But really, true strength and force is relaxed, firm but gentle. 
Bodhichitta and the Heart Doctrine
This is just the foundation of the Heart Doctrine The Heart Doctrine is founded upon these principles of ethics and spirituality, but we find through investigation and practice that this is just the groundwork for the path itself, the Heart Doctrine itself:
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. ―H. P. Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence
Bodhi means wisdom. As I mentioned to you before, the term Bodhichitta, which is essential to Mahayana Buddhism and is essential in Gnosis, since these traditions are unanimous. Bodhichitta literally means "wisdom-mind," "wisdom-heart," or "wisdom-consciousness," and we know from Kabbalah that wisdom in Hebrew is חכמה Chokmah, which is Christ, so really we can say that this is "Christ-mind."
As I said, Christ is not anthropomorphic. Christ is an intelligence, is a force, which we find in all of nature and can become personalized in any individuals that have developed themselves to incarnate that, and Jesus is probably the most beautiful example of this fact, because he is a very elevated master. For example, we look at light bulbs, which are just the vehicles for the expression of light, and the light itself is that energy, Christ. Any terrestrial person is just the vehicle through which the light of the Lord can express Himself. This brings us to another important term, if you're familiar with the Mahayana term in Buddhism: Bodhisattva. As I said, bodhi is light or wisdom, sattva means incarnation. So an incarnation of wisdom is somebody that has developed him or herself to the point where they actually have that intelligence within themselves, that they are working in a very superior way; symbolized by the birth of Jesus in the stable, and how he grows up into a complete and full human being, fulfilling the life, passion, crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. We use the term Bodhisattva in relation with individuals who have achieved what we call mastery. This is a very high level of development, but it is, we can say, the beginning of a much greater spiritual evolution, or better said: revolution. Upon achieving mastery, these initiates may incarnate that intelligence if, on the sole condition, they worked to help others. So it's one thing to reach that type of height in spiritual development, it's another thing to incarnate Christ, because in Mahayana Buddhism we understand that alongside the Bodhisattvas are what we call the Pratyeka Buddhas or Shravakas. Bodhisattvas and Pratyeka Buddhas are initiates, meaning that they worked in teachings of alchemy, teachings of spiritual development, working with the force we call Kundalini, the fire of the Holy Spirit, raising that fire from the coccyx to the pineal gland and into the heart within successive dimensions, which relate with the lower five spheres of the Tree of Life. And when reaching the sphere of Tiphereth, one attains mastery, as a beginner. It is highly significant that when you imagine a person transposed upon this Hebraic glyph, Tiphereth aligns and relates with the heart. It's the human soul, the human consciousness developed into a master. Yet remember that even upon reaching those heights known as Nirvana, very blissful states, not all of them become Bodhisattvas. There are really two paths that open up when you reach those heights of what's called mastery. The Pratyeka Buddhas follow the spiral path. But the Bodhisattvas follow something very different and very radical, called the direct path. Both paths eventually lead to the original source of the divine, what we call the Absolute. Some know It as Parabrahma, Allah; we use the term Christ as a type of impersonal force and intelligence within creation. But really is that uncreated source, which both the spiral and direct paths lead to, but in very different ways, with very different results. This is really the very Heart Doctrine, because Tiphereth, the human soul, relates with the heart, and if we are fortunate enough to reach those stages of development some day, it's a very major decision: to choose between the spiral path of the Pratyeka Buddhas and the direct path of the Bodhisattvas who incarnate Christ, is something very significant. You can read about it in The Three Mountains by Samael Aun Weor. But really, the spiral path is a very long trajectory which takes many cosmic days, known as Mahamanvantaras, periods of activity in which entire universes are born, and pass away with cosmic nights or Mahapralayas. It takes many cosmic days on the spiral path, very slow, because those individuals choose not to renounce the happiness of Nirvana, and if you experience Nirvana, you can see why, because it is blissful. Some people wonder if a person took the spiral path, if they would return. It depends upon their karma, because we know that Nirvana is governed by laws. The Tree of Life, whether in the very heights or the bottom of this physical world, is governed by karmic laws. Nirvana is governed by periods of activity and repose. When Nirvana enters into activity, the Nirvanis or initiates of that realm will have to physically incarnate because of cause and effect, because of past karma that they owe. We know, given through the writings of Samael Aun Weor, that Nirvana is in a period of activity, and many Pratyeka Buddhas have physical bodies. The problem in general is that it's very easy to fall again. You reach those heights, and then you come back to the physical world and are tempted to make mistakes again. So they lose the doctrine of the heart in their level, right? But a Bodhisattva is someone who renounces everything, is a being that is very revolutionary, which is considered very scandalous. It comes into my mind the Prophet Muhammad. Very radical. Jesus. Very radical. Buddha. Very radical. They created many enemies cause they go against everything that is wrong and unfortunately, pretty much everything about this planet is wrong. With the direct path, it's very straight; it's short, but its very difficult, because the initiate pays his karma entirely in one life. That is really the essence of the Heart Doctrine. For one thing we have ethics and renunciation; this is the foundation in the beginning. But with Bodhichitta, with Christ-mind, with altruism and inspiration to help others, we take on everything: all the suffering of this planet on our shoulders, the cross of Jesus, in order to help humanity, to transform it. That is really the beauty of the great initiates. When I think that I have problems and difficulties, I look at the life of Jesus, and see how much he was despised and hated by everybody, but he just returned that type of negativity with love, sincere gratitude for those people. Bodhichitta is really that. Bodhichitta is composed to two principles:
Emptiness, Prajna, in Buddhism, is the very primordial root of nature and existence. It's a type of emptiness or space, which if you recall from the Book of Genesis, "And the world was formless and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep." It's what we call the Abstract Absolute Space. It is the Nothingness or space, which does not indicate nihilism like many people think when they study Buddhism and react with horror. It is emptiness, but the genuine type of existence beyond our concepts. That is the Heart Doctrine, the realization of That, even if it's just in a minor Samadhi, which in truth is not that minor. If you find yourself entering the Illuminating Void, that is really where we can say that Bodhichitta is strengthened. Let us remember that Bodhichitta is comprehension of Karma, cause and effect, inter-causal relations, in relation with ethics. It is the understanding of the impermanence of phenomena, coupled with conscious love. Many schools of Buddhism, and I've even heard many Gnostic instructors saying "Well, it's either one or the other." But it's not—it's both. If you really have love for a person, conscious love, it's because you understand that they are suffering from Karma, that they are afflicted by causes and conditions. When you see that this is impermanent, that nothing is really stable in life, that everything is inherently empty of intrinsic existence and depends upon specific causes—we do not fall into nihilism, which is due to the fact that we understand we have existence and comprehend the nature of cause and effect. When we see how impermanent psychological states are, we can truly forgive a person very easily, such as if he or she is angry at us for one moment, and nice to us in the next. There's really nothing to get angry about. Usually, we think, "Oh, he's angry at me!" Or "She's angry at me!" Or "Oh, he's being nice to me!" "She's being nice to me!" However, none of that is permanent. None of that is. It's really on this basis of the impermanence of nature that we can develop real understanding and compassion, the Heart Doctrine, to develop Tiphereth and Bodhichitta. In the beginning of our spiritual practice we always try to develop ethics and change ourselves in certain ways through renunciation. But what we want also is to develop Bodhichitta, that altruistic love for other beings through comprehension of emptiness, Karma and impermanence, which is the essence of the heart, the Heart Doctrine; it's real wisdom. Understanding that there is karma, that things are interdependent, that nothing is separated or isolated, and that we affect others, we develop genuine concern for others to the point that we don't even exist in an egotistical sense, but are always giving out as much as we can to the best of our ability. That is really what Bodhichitta is. 
Tantrayana / Vajrayana: The Diamond Vehicle
However, this is really not the end. There is the Vajrayana or Tantrayana path, which is the most revolutionary and difficult to understand. As I said, vajra can mean "diamond" or "lightning," and a vajra is a symbol of power utilized within ceremonies of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, the meaning of which will be clarified shortly. The real essence or the spirit of a doctrine, the heights of spirituality, is the understanding of Prajna or emptiness, and it is precisely through the vajra that we can come to know the truth. First we need to develop ourselves in our practice through ethics, renunciation and comprehension of Karma, followed with the generation and strengthening of Bodhichitta, wherein we work to make changes within ourselves and ascend higher.
Despite the beauty of this level of teaching, the real heights of the Vajrayana path is really the experience of the Absolute in meditation, where we fall asleep, and our soul goes to the Void, the space, which is so amazingly symbolized in the beginning of one of Wagner's operas, Das Rheingold from Der Ring Des Nibelungen or The Ring of the Nibelungen, which is literally about one hundred and thirty eight bars of music in the same key, which is symbolizing that ocean, the space that keeps on going, and going, and going. It is very overwhelming; that is really the nature of the emptiness, the Void. Understand that this is not something we will immediately come to understand, since first we learn through the intellect through concepts. To experience it as a Heart Doctrine is another thing. But that's why we study first, so that when we find ourselves in a samadhi having that experience, we will have more courage because we will understand what's going on. So it won't be as terrifying, although to the ego it is very terrifying, because every sense of self, security that we have in the egotistical self, really becomes annihilated before That, to become one and merge with that universal soul, universal compassion, without shackles or limitations, truly beyond this universe of relativity and Karma, cause and effect. The wisdom of Prajna or emptiness has been known by different names, and so while I am teaching this in the Buddhist flavor, you can see how this applies to all religions irregardless. In the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, this philosophy of emptiness is known as Dzogchen, founded by Padmasambhava, who was an Indian Master of the eighth century, considered the second Buddha in comparison to Gautama Sakyamuni due to his knowledge and level of attainment. We also have Mahamudra, which is practiced by the other three schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Gelug, Sakya and Kagyu. Really these two philosophies are synonymous, they really have the same meaning. Dzogchen translates into "Great Perfection" and Mahamudra means "Truth Seal." This is going to be very significant in relation with other traditions besides Buddhism. I will read for you what Samael Aun Weor wrote in Zodiacal Course: The Doctrine of the Heart is called the seal of the truth, or the Truth Seal. ―Samael Aun Weor, Practical Astrology: The Zodiacal Cours 
In Islam, we know that the Prophet Muhammad is known as "the Seal of the Prophets." And what does a prophet teach? He teaches the truth. He is the seal of the truth. That is Mahamudra, even given as the identity of a great initiate. For example, if you're familiar with Al-Miraj, which is the ascent of the Prophet into the superior worlds or seven heavens, he rides on a mystical animal called Al-Buraq. The word "b-r-q" means "lightning." Lightning is a vajra. Vajra relates with Dzogchen, Mahamudra, the Truth Seal, the Seal of the Prophets.
So we see that Muhammad is a master of tantra, or Vajrayana. That's how he ascended to the superior worlds. Padmasambhava said this about Dzogchen: It 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
This is the straight path, the direct path of the Bodhisattva, and as it says in the very opening of Al-Qur'an, Al-Fatihah:
In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
So we really find the essence of alchemy in the Vajrayana path, the very heights in all religions. It's very interesting that Dzogchen is the "Great Perfection" or that Mahamudra is the "Truth Seal." Muhammad was the seal of the truth, seal of the prophets, and if you know Kabbalah, the sphere of תפארת Tiphereth, relating with the heart, begins and ends with the Hebrew letter ת Tav. The letter ת Tav is literally the "seal." It means "covenant," and really this is the seal of covenant of the heart, about developing Bodhichitta.
Now Bodhichitta in Tantra has more connotations. It is synonymous with sexual energy, which is the very power of the Holy Spirit in the body, the psyche. Bodhichitta can be represented by the masons as the Cubic Stone, the stone has to be chiseled. This relates with the stone that the builders rejected and is really the foundation stone of the temple. In relation with Muhammad, he was meditating in the Mosque of Mecca (Al-Masjid-al-Haram), near the cubic stone, and its from that stone of Bodhichitta, the vajra, the lightning bolt, the fire of Kundalini, which rises from the spinal column to the heavens, took him all the way to the very heights. And it's described in Al-Hadith, which is the Muslim oral tradition, that he was before Allah and it's impossible to give attributes to that. Really the scriptures are saying Allah is emptiness, the space, the primordial root nature of our consciousness, which is pure happiness and divine nature, without form. Although we have not mentioned this earlier, there is a powerful scripture by the name of the Heart Sutra, or Prajna-paramita Sutra, which elaborates on the nature of the emptiness and ultimate wisdom of the awakened consciousness. To discuss the implications of this work would take many lectures, but here we are referencing it for further study. Really, the emptiness or void is the spirit of a doctrine. That is really the Heart Doctrine. This is why we say in the Shravakayana level we don't fully grasp this, because it really takes a lot of heart in order to renounce our egotism, to develop spiritually, to really develop ethics. The problem is that many exoteric traditions do not have the Heart Doctrine. There really is no Heart Doctrine there, it's just theories; many discussions and polemics, arguments over terms. All of that has to do with the loss of the heart in many people, where there isn't even that genuine longing to change. That genuinely longing for that seed, Pinocchio, to develop into a true human being. The Master Jesus explains it in this way in Matthew 13:19-23: Therefore hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
The Christian Gospels relates with a much more ancient scripture, The Voice of the Silence as we have been discussing:
The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it towards the Diamond Soul. ―The Voice of the Silence
Diamond soul refers to vajra, or Vajrasattva, or Vajrayana. So really the seed can become that if we develop it progressively through the different stages of practice.
"Great Sifter" is the name of the "Heart Doctrine," O disciple.
While this is just an explanation of the structures of religious practice, these are the degrees and stages by which the heart develops. These are levels of development, levels of practice. Generally when we work in meditation, the foundation is concentration. We learn to control the mind, so we can concentrate in order to really meditate. In relation with practice, we see that these three schools are synthesized again. Samael Aun Weor categorized this very simply and beautifully in one of his books of astrology, specifically the chapter on Leo:
This is a much more simplified didactic of some of the more Hindu or Raja Yoga models. So we learn to concentrate. When we learn how to concentrate our mind on one thing, really the heart will open up to the experience of the divine. Meditation is really a state in which you receive new information, where as a lake on a mountain top, you reflect the starry heavens of the Being. And when you have enough stillness and concentration of mind, where you mind is focused, your heart opens up spontaneously. Then Prajna, the spirit, wisdom, will enter into you in a moment of comprehension. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to find yourself flying out of your body. That can happen, and if you practice diligently, it will happen. Those types of experiences will unfold, cause naturally if you're setting forth the causes and conditions for Dharma, fruit will naturally grow as a result of that. So the Heart Doctrine is hidden within the body, the soul and the spirit, but more so in the spirit. We say that the body is exoteric, the soul is mesoteric, and the spirit is esoteric, coming from the Greek esoterikos, mesoterikos and esoterikos. And really, an intiate, a mystikos, who closes the eyes to the exterior senses, awakens the heart and experiences those things for him or herself. Questions and Answers
Audience: You touched more in the beginning on the nature of belief and how we should have preference toward experience rather than theories. If I remember right, from what I've read, I guess belief, such as when the Bible tells you to believe, it's not just telling you to accept theory. It's, when traced back to the Latin root, it has a context that people are not even aware of in the present day, and it's been ruined and gutted out by the Catholic Church.
Instructor: The word belief comes from "be" and lieve, or "love," which is where we get the word libido. As I mentioned in Tantric practice, Bodhichitta is synonymous with sexual energy, how we use that force. The first commandment of Moses, as was given by Jesus of Nazareth, explains this. Someone asked him, "What is the highest commandment that exists?" Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ―Matthew 22:3
This relates with the three brains of Gnostic esoteric psychology, the heart, the mind, and the soul, or waters of sex. This is what it means to be a "believer," one who knows how to "be" through the power of love, the science of alchemy. Alchemy, as we have studied in a previous lecture, is Allah Khemia, "to fuse with God," to reunite with that. A real believer is someone who knows this type of alchemical science and you find this in the Qur'an too. This really was the original intention in the word "belief." Many people, however, would think that the way we're expressing it is in the literal sense, to just think that a concept is true with one's mind. But it's much more deeper than that.
Audience: That would only be using one of the three brains? But then the real meaning of belief is to have action, or performing religion within all three brains. Instructor: Yes. It is not just an intellectual concept. It's not just a feeling in the heart. Or sensations. It has to do with our actions. Like when someone says they believe in the cross. What does that really mean? Well the cross is alchemical, because the vertical beam is the phallus and the horizontal beam is the uterus. Together they form the symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is Father, masculine, יה Jah, and Mother, feminine, Eve, חוה Chavah. 
Even the symbol of Islam is alchemical too, because you have the crescent moon and the star of Venus. The moon relates with Yesod, the sexual energy or Bodhichitta. The star of Venus is the Divine Mother. So this indicates how you work with that energy through the power or love, to be a believer. That is what a believer is in the true sense of the word. But when I'm talking about what people term belief, it's in the completely exoteric sense.
Audience: You made a very interesting point about the symbol of Islam with the star and the moon. I tended to think that that's a lot like the cross too because you said that there are masculine and feminine components. Isn't that what you're seeing with the moon? The star and the moon would be like the sun, masculine and the moon would be feminine? Instructor: The Divine Mother, the Virgin Mary dressed in a blue mantle in the Assumption, standing over the moon, has to convert it into a sun, a star. And that is really what the symbol of Islam signifies. It gets even more alchemical in relation with yoga, because generally you find crosses on the tops of churches, and the symbol of the crescent moon and the star on the top of a mosque. Really the body is a temple, and the very top is the chakra Sahasrara, which is the very highest chakra in relation with omniscience, Samadhi, Mahasamadhi, experiences with the most elevated aspects of the Tree of Life. So we see that the cross has to be carried from the bottom of the spinal column and raise it to the very heights. When we see the cross at the very height, it's referring to alchemy, how we raise that energy to the very top of the pineal gland. In the mosque too we find the same thing. The moon is related with the angel Gabriel, and Gabriel, or Jibril in the Qur'an, is often referred to by Muslims as the Holy Spirit. So it's the same thing. The Holy Spirit is really found by raising the moon in our sexual glands to the brain, transforming it into a sun, from a feminine lunar force to a solar masculine force, to the very heights of realization. This is what a church or a mosque indicates in their architecture. Audience: The church is the body itself? Instructor: It also relates with the Tree of Life, because the cross has four points, related with Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the very root of existence, God, Ain Soph, otherwise known as the Star of Bethlehem, the root of our Being. The Holy Spirit, in relation with Gabriel, is the same thing, the very heights of realization that we find in the pineal gland, and the cross relates with the four elements: earth (the physical body), water (sexuality), fire (heart), and air (mind). And this also relates with the Hebrew letters: א Aleph - Air ש Shin - Fire מ Mem - Water These constitute the three mother letters of Kabbalah. With ה Hei, the Earth, we can spell השם Hashem, literally translating as "The Name," and is used as a term of respect in the place of יהוה Iod-Chavah, the sacred name of God. Such as in the saying, אדני ברוך השם Baruch Hashem Adonai, "Blessed be the name of the Lord." We see that just as our inner Being is a Tetragrammaton: Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Ain Soph, even our physical body is a Tetragram, in relation with alchemy and the cross. In synthesis, a believer uses the cross of their body in order to practice transmutation or alchemy, to fuse oneself with God. Audience: Am I remembering this right? The I, the A, and the O represent the superior elements? Instructor: This is the Latin version of the same thing. IAO among the Gnostics is considered one of the most powerful mantras of the Lord. I - Ignis, Fire, ש A - Aqua, Water מ O - Origo, Air א We demonstrate that we are true believers by how we use our sexual force for God, our Bodhichitta, which is the root of all creation as symbolized in the Book of Genesis, the Garden of Eden, because we have a physical body, the earth, and the three other elements, which relate with God. So really we are a miniature cosmos, a human being that needs to be standing upright before God. That is what a believer is, to use all three letters, the fire (heart), the air (mind) and the water (sex). Usually most people are just using their air, thinking "Well, I think God is real," when they don't really know. They do not follow the Heart Doctrine at all, because they really have no experience. Spiritual creation is a combination of the three; the four elements. Audience: You're talking in relation with the cross those three, if I remember correctly in relation with those three top points of the cross itself, and then the one element that is not talked about, which is the bottom point. So that there is earth, air, fire and water. Instructor: Yes, the earth can relate with the bottom point, since that is where one is grounded. That is if the cross is stable. However, we also talk about the cross in motion, the swastika, which is a very sacred symbol amongst many religions, but was unfortunately abused and misappropriated by a mistaken group of people who exclusively considered themselves "Aryan." We have to remember that the zodiacal sign of Aries relates with fire and that all of humanity is governed by that force, sign the God of Aries, Samael, is working intensely through our current zodiac, Aquarius. When we see the swastika in motion, like in Tibetan Buddhism or Hinduism, it's really all the elements in motion; they're mixing. All the forces of the swastika mingle together, such as with the chakras. When all of the chakras are activated, it's not like one activates over the other: they work harmoniously, in unison. So if you have experiences of clairvoyance or clairaudience, usually it's in combination with many things. These psychic phenomena don't tend to remain so isolated. Just like any normal experience: you have thought, feeling and sensation. They usually happen all mixed together. This makes it hard to isolate specific phenomena, whether in the external or our internal worlds, our psychology. This is what makes access to the Heart Doctrine so difficult, because we tend to be very confused in our three brains and how they function. 
Audience: I've read some articles on the swastika where they say it's not even supposed to be pointed in a particular direction, since one represents the wheel of life and the other the wheel of death.
Instructor: There is that connotation. One of the directions represents the actualization of the Mahamanvantara, which means the creation of the Tree of Life, the expansion of existence out of the Absolute, that primordial root nature of consciousness, into manifestation, into this creation that we have. Then we have the other direction, the Mahapralaya, the cosmic night, where the universe gets absorbed back into the Absolute, symbolized by the days and nights of Brahma. When Brahma exhales, we have creation. When he inhales, all of that returns to the source. So we always have periods of activity and repose, intimately related with the breath of God, and it is the wind, the spirit, א Aleph, that rotates the swastika in motion. As I mentioned, Nirvana has periods of activity and repose. What we're talking about now is a much grander cosmic scale, represented in the swastika or Gnostic Cross. Originally, the counter-clockwise swastika used to represented how manifested creation, the Tree of Life, unfolded from the Absolute, the emptiness, the Prajna. However, since we have entered into Malkuth, the physical world, that swastika needs to return back to the divine origin, the emptiness. This is symbolized by the clockwise swastika which we find depicted in Buddhist art. The swastika should rotate now to the right, clockwise, towards the Absolute, for the left, counter-clockwise, indicates a fall into even more dense states of matter and energy. We are in Malkuth, as I said, and we do not need to descend further into the infernal worlds, which is signified by the counter-clockwise Nazi Swastika, a symbol of degeneration and black magic. The essence of a true believer, a follower of the Heart Doctrine, Bodhichitta, is the work with the cross: they use everything they have, but most importantly the heart, following the superior emotional center. The path of the heart, as Samael Aun Weor indicated, is Mahamudra, the realization of emptiness, Tantrayana, Vajrayana. "To love thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength." Everything. Those are really the four elements relating with the psyche, the Hebrew letters, relating with the Cross or Vajrayana, the Heart Doctrine. Audience: Is there a succession of the chakras, such as a list to work on? Instructor: It is particular to you. This is why Samael Aun Weor gave so many different practices, because our needs are different. I might need to work more with my heart. Maybe you need to develop more clairvoyance. It depends on you. You need to meditate and really analyze, "What do I want to know and what do I really need to know?" And sometimes, just meditating and not even intending it, you can have certain experiences in which the heart opens up, whereby clairaudience, psychic sounds appear in your psyche; you hear sounds in the astral plane; or clairvoyance emerges where you start seeing images. So while you're physically meditating you gain access to the internal worlds. This can spark your interest, such as "Since I experienced that I need to develop that more." So there's no determined checklist, such as starting first with the Muladhara chakra and moving up to Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, etc., although that can be effective. Audience: I've heard in particular with Glorian Publishing that they tend to emphasize the heart, because that is probably the most default and the most needed. Instructor: That also relates with the emotional brain and the Heart Doctrine, to really develop Bodhicitta, real love for other human beings, genuine compassion originating from comprehension of emptiness of phenomena. We see that human beings are predominantly intellectual, especially in the West. Really, our heads are libraries. You go to university and see many different instructors and that their hearts are dead. If you look more intimately through clairvoyance you see they are just intellectual. Really, they just regurgitate information. I like what one German philosopher said, Friedrich Nietzsche, that university professors are like clocks; just make sure you wind them correctly so that they'll tell you the time. They'll repeat facts like this and that, being that they are just intellectual. People tend to be way too intellectual. That is why we teach the Heart Doctrine, to experience, because it entails a superior emotional quality. While we refer to the three brains: intellect, emotions and motor-instinct-sexual impulses, we also relate to superior centers relating with the psyche, which are our direct connection with the divine. We have a superior intellectual center, which receives concepts and abstract principles from God. This is the divine Nous of Plato in The Republic, the objective spiritual reasoning of the philosopher kings, real human beings in the true sense of the word. Then you have the superior emotional center, which becomes activated by listening to the great classical compositions of the masters of music, such as Beethoven. Profound and Kabbalistic works given through music and art. That's really food for the heart, since in works such as the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, we experience the Heart Doctrine, the emptiness of Prajna, the Logos or Word of Christ within the magnanimous choral movement, along with the Vajrayana path that leads out of suffering. It's very explicit, but to understand it you need to experience it internally in order to recognize the message physically, since Beethoven was an initiate who wrote for other initiates of the Heart Doctrine. The Chorus teaches about Bodhichitta, the mysteries of the heart, and represent the Elohim, the Gods singing in unison. Many voices, but one universal harmony, Prajna, ever flowing, the swastika in motion, the power of God in movement, the emptiness, the real wisdom or happiness of the Lord. Beethoven's greatness is unveiled to the spiritual sight when we see that he wrote from having experienced many Mahasamadhis. It's really unbelievable how anyone could convey such experiences through music, which is a living scripture. In relation with the heart, yes, listening to music like that develops our emotional center through conscious superior sentiment, not to be confused with sentimentality, like Hallmark cards. Therefore, we always emphasize the heart, since it is the heart that is always going to lead us to liberation, represented by Jiminy Cricket, giving us, represented by Pinocchio, inquietudes: pushing us to study, pushing us to practice, pushing us to want to change. He's really in the heart, the consciousness or Buddhata, the cricket who is like a little Verb, a little IAO we can say. IAO is Christ, for in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is a small voice, a little representation of that principle that guides us in our actions and tells us what to do. We must always follow him within the heart. 
If we struggle with that, there are many practices we can use. Many prayers, such as the Pater Noster, which is very powerful and beautiful. The Bodhisattva, Francis of Assisi, gave another tremendous prayer to develop the heart, the Heart Doctrine within:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
This is the Bodhisattva path. Even Mother Teresa had some beautiful teachings too. I do not know of her development, but she really embodied in a profound way the principle of sacrifice without self-consideration.
The heart comes first. It is really the instrument that will take you to the very heights. As Muhammad said in Al-Hadith: There is an organ in the body that, if it is righteous, ensures that the whole system will be righteous; and if it is corrupt, the whole body will become corrupt. This organ is the heart.
This is Self-remembrance, remembrance of our Inner God. When the heart is polished like a mirror, it can reflect God within, in every action. Then we will become a better instrument for the Lord to act in our life, guiding us.
Audience: You were talking about purity with concentration, where your concentration practice can be put askew if we are not keeping purity of mind and heart. This was profound for me because I've been studying for a long time, but have never heard this or overlooked it, or had it said like that. You can be sitting there meditating, concentrating, and can be less distracted if you actually kept more purity in your thoughts, speech, and all that. So really, ethics is the catalyst for your concentration, whereby concentration is the root catalyst for what becomes meditation, where you can actually concentrate very well? Then meditation is a potential catalyst for Samadhi, and things of that sort? Instructor: The foundation is concentration, ethics, renunciation. Without concentration we can't meditate. And this is the failure of many practitioners and schools: they try to meditate for twenty years but have no experiences, because they do not maintain purity in their mind, heart and actions; the sins of body, speech and mind. Audience: They're meditating but haven't established concentration practice, whereby they could focus completely? Instructor: Basically what we want in meditation is to sit for however long and to not forget that we're meditating. This is described in the diagram of the Nine Stages of Meditative Concentration in Tibetan Buddhism, or Calm Abiding: the Stages of Serenity. We find this diagram throughout the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. It has been used and taught by all the great Tibetan Buddhist masters. Therefore this really emphasizes its importance. Here we see a monk chasing after a wild elephant. The elephant is the mind. In the beginning it is chaotic, running all over the place, without control, but eventually through his tools, a rope and a hook, representing mindfulness, restraint, concentration, he is able to calm it down, until reaching the stage where the elephant is becoming more white instead of gray, indicating he is becoming more pure and docile. The monk finally reaches the point where the mind is subdued, and then Samadhi or mystical experience occurs, he is flying. These stages are not like plateaus, or a checklist to fulfill one by one. These are principles, and one can fluctuate greatly within the diagram. It depends on our effort. But generally when we meditate, we at least want to develop the degree of concentration where we don't forget that we're meditating, which are the middle stages of concentration, the fourth or fifth stages. This is a very profound diagram for comprehending and developing concentration. It is a guide or map for our practice in developing the Heart Doctrine within.
There are many forms of intelligence. It is an inherent aspect of any living thing, down from the smallest microbe, to the atom, to any living thing: animals, plants, human beings.
Unfortunately in this humanity, people like to assume and believe that the human being as we are now is the height of intelligence, the height of wisdom. While certainly we have many advancements in technology, many marvels, the reality is that we continue to suffer and to be afflicted by many problems that our greatest scientists, philosophers, teachers, cannot provide for. All religions have taught in their heart that there is the possibility for something more and that that development is internal. We have the potential to become something beyond comprehension at this level, of what a human being can be. Our humanity has received many messengers, many prophets, whether we call them angels, buddhas, masters, Gods: people who were once like us, and yet learned to change themselves, to comprehend their own inner conditioning, so that by transforming their negativity, they became what we emulate: Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, the great prophets—those who exemplified the highest ideals possible in a human being, compassion that is selfless, unrelenting, divine. When Jesus was crucified, he only said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He didn't have any malice in him, because all those defects were destroyed in him through a long process of meditation, of purification, of practice. So contrary to popular belief, a figure like Jesus or Buddha was once like us, afflicted. And yet, they learned by developing their intelligence, their understanding, how to become great beings, great messengers. We can become like them. It is possible to overcome suffering on a grand scale within ourselves. And all those teachers emphasize that this path is meditation, because it is an introspection, a method of looking, of gaining information, of developing our own understanding of who we are and not assuming that we know. Oftentimes we say that we know a person. We mention their manners, their words, their language, their behaviors. How often in our lives have we known someone who we assume to be a certain image and yet in the next moment we learn of a great tragedy, a terrible action? We can look at the news to see people like this. Individuals who seem like great saints and then the next moment it's unveiled that they were into very degenerated behaviors, which is contrary to that popular image that people had. While this is very common in our society, on a more psychological level we do this with ourselves: our own self-image, who we assume to be, what we like to project to the world, to present to others, to show. We like to think that we know who we are: our language, our name, our culture, the food we eat, the people we associate with, the music we listen to, the friends we have. But, those things are temporary. They are not eternal. They are not our true divine nature. Divinity is not a person, an anthropomorphic figure in the clouds that sits on a throne of tyranny, dispensing lightning bolts to a poor humanity, like an ant hill. That anthropomorphic figure does not exist, which is why even Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of Thus Spoke Zarathustra said "God is dead," because that image does not exist. Instead, what exists is a type of intelligence which is beyond good and evil, which is terribly divine and sacred. And of course, it is beyond our conceptions of what is good or bad, but is our true nature, our divine being, which is a state of consciousness, a state perception, a state of intelligence. But in order to understand what that is, we have to learn to strip away that which is superfluous, which we think is us: our sentiments, our sense of pride, our fears, our anger, our laziness, gluttony, greed, lust, passion—these things that we like to assume is us, who we are, but which at the heart of every religion teaches that it is negative, because those elements produce suffering. When we say something negative to someone with anger, we produce pain. That is not our divine nature and it is not our true nature, because a certain condition brought up that sense of self, in which we said something negative, and it created a lot of problems. But unfortunately, we like to hold onto a sense of image of ourselves. What we think we are. What we want other people to believe that we are. Many times we fight and even kill, or people even kill in the name of this sense of self that is so hurt. When one has betrayed. When one is slandered. When one is gossiped about. When one is lied to. It is sad, because even people who are filled with great defects have the potential to become something great, but in order to do so, they must use their genuine intelligence, their understanding of what divinity is. To learn to discriminate within the mind that which is positive from that which is negative. That which produces happiness for oneself and others, or pain. Everyone wants happiness, but not all people are willing to work on their own methods of how to acquire it, because everyone wants to enjoy life, not to suffer, to not be in pain. Yet, our behaviors in many cases are the very means by which we suffer, though we don't see it. In a spiritual sense, we are not very awake, aware of our full potential, because if we knew divinity in us, moment by moment, without thinking of other things, without being distracted by life, naturally, in any moments of great crisis, when presented with great traumas, sufferings, which affect us, we then learn to engage in life with intelligence, understanding—knowing how to negotiate our spiritual nature with this chaotic world, which does not know any order, which is falling apart. So real intelligence is divinity. It is spiritual, and in this lecture we will talk about how to develop that potential in us, how to change and how to make others happy, but not in the Hallmark sense. If we sacrifice our own needs, there is a type of negotiation there. How do we help other people without compromising our spiritual nature? Not ego nature, not pride, laziness, fear, defects, those things need to be eliminated so that our true potential can emerge spontaneously in a beautiful way. In a profound way. 
Our True Nature and the Four Noble Truths
So our consciousness is in a potential state. It is not very active. Although in this level, we have a certain amount of intelligence and understanding, but that is not the full gamut of what we can become. We can become like a Jesus, a Buddha.
The word Buddha simply means “awakened one,” to be aware, to be attentive. From the prefix budh, which means “cognition,” which can mean intelligence. That is the type of intelligence that knows how to respond to any circumstance without identifying, without provoking the anger of others, or achieving this retaliation of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. It is a compassionate state that can cut through illusion, through ignorance, and in that way help others, but also help oneself. On a basic level we say that we are awake. We understand, we learn, we speak, we communicate, we interact with the world; but most people do not ever question the manner and method by which one does so, or even think that it is possible to change one's psychological states in relation to problems, ordeals, the sufferings of existence. Fortunately, there have been teachers who have taught a method and means by which to understand the process, the path. That path is beautifully taught by many messengers, such as the Buddha, who explained that through understanding Four Noble Truths, one can reach the cessation of suffering and the complete development of the human being. Other teachers knew the Four Noble Truths, whether from other religions, but the Buddha emphasized these four truths in a very didactic way, in a very profound way. Dukkha: Dissatisfaction
He said that in life there is suffering, which is from the word dukkha. That word can mean many things—displeasure, dissatisfaction, sorrow, pain. It could also mean disgust, and this is a very interesting term because for someone to really understand meditation, and to really access the divine, one needs to be very tired of suffering—to not want to suffer anymore, to reach that rock bottom when one realizes that if one does not change, then one will enter even greater states of suffering.
But it is a type of realization, a type of displeasure with the facts of life—to want to question, "Is there more? Is there something else in this life that will produce happiness rather than a job, marriage, money, bank accounts?” Things that in the end will leave us. But, where will our consciousness go? Unfortunately for most people, they don't know or we don't know because we haven't awakened our perception. Most people have not. If you are familiar with teachings of astral projection, lucid dreams, out of body experiences, there have been people who by accident, have awakened consciousness in a state in which they were out of the body, physically. When the physical body goes to sleep, the soul goes out and usually projects its dreams within the screen of that dimension, which we'll talk about in relation to the Kabbalah, the Jewish mysticism, the Tree of Life. For most of us, we go into that state every night when we go to sleep, but not aware. We may have some dreams, we project things, and then we wake up in the morning, possibly remembering some kind of event that one experienced and was very unclear. Usually very vague. But, when we learn meditation, we can learn to be awake in that dream state and no longer be dreaming, but become aware of that world, which is a whole other way of being. We have many methods you can use to experience that, and in that way we realize that there is something more to life than just going through our grind. But, when we learn to remove the causes of suffering in us, we awaken consciousness. Most people are not aware of what those causes are, which we explained in our courses of gnostic psychology. The word gnosis in Greek means “knowledge, experiential knowledge.” That which we know for fact. What we perceive from experience, like a lucid dream or astral projection. These things are very real for those who awaken their perception, who learn to meditate. Those kinds of experiences can help to inspire us, to want to know more, to want to change; and in this tradition we study practices to develop that potential, that intelligence, that wisdom. Samudaya: The Internal Causes of Suffering
So suffering has causes: samudaya. This is where many people become hung up. The causes of suffering are internal. It is the hypnosis of the soul that we commonly experience, where we usually like to blame external life, the external world for our suffering. Material needs, food, clothing, shelter, struggles at jobs, marriage difficulties. We usually just like to project our dreams onto the external world, not realizing that we are not very conscious, we are not very awake, because somebody who is awake will not respond with anger to one's loved ones, in a spiritual sense.
The causes of suffering are psychological, are conditions of mind, negative states that we created. But of course, it takes tremendous courage to want to recognize that in ourselves. That we are responsible for the pains we go through. That our psychological state attracts our life. This is what happens to us in many cases, not all. But those causes of suffering we call ego. The word ego in Latin means "I." The sense of “me, myself, who I am; my job, my race, my language, my habits, my friends.” The way that we feel about ourselves, which is usually very egotistical, selfish, negative. Unfortunately, most people never question that self. They like to feed it. They like to indulge in desire, which is a craving for something that once it is given, once it is satiated, wants more. Contrary to popular psychology, when we feed anger, we don't remove it. It isn't annihilated. It doesn't cease to exist. In fact, it gets stronger and bigger, and more monstrous. So, these are things in ourselves that we can see. Nirvana: The Cessation of the Ego
Fortunately, those egotistical qualities can cease to be, and that is the third truth: nirvana. In Sanskrit the word nirvana means “cessation. To cease suffering.” If we study Jewish mysticism and astral projection, those types of things, we know that nirvana is also a state of consciousness in different dimensions, which we can access when the physical body is asleep. When we go out in the dream world and learn to be awake in that state in order to ascend those heavens, mentioned so many times by Dante in his Divine Comedy, the Greek mythology, Islam, Sufism, Judaism, the Bible. They are all talking about the same thing.
But if we want to access those states, we have to remove all the luggage from our subconsciousness, that which we are not aware of, because this is a type of baggage that we carry with us wherever we go. Anger is a profound lead of the soul. It is heavy. It brings us down and brings other people down. Unfortunately, we become victim to it many times, if we are honest, but by learning to meditate and to observe ourselves, we become aware of those qualities in us that need to change. We can change, so that the lead of the ego, according to the alchemists of medieval science, can be transformed and transmuted into the gold of the spirit—because part of our soul is trapped in anger, fear, pride, and all that conglomeration of defects we carry. Like the genie from Aladdin's lamp, we can extract the genie, the intelligence, our divine nature, and then break the lamp. That is a beautiful Arabian myth about how our soul has so much potential. It can grant any wish, but we have to remove the causes of suffering, which are psychological. We do that through meditation, specifically, and in that way, we learn to vibrate at higher levels of being, ways of consciousness, so that naturally we learn to that astral project every night, have experiences of a spiritual type, learn to meditate, speak face to face in that world, that dimension with Jesus or Buddha or Muhammed or Christ or whatever prophets we have an affinity for. They are very awake, but we can talk to them like we are talking here or seeing each other here. It is a very real thing, but one has to work for it. It is not easy to renounce anger, when we are criticized and suddenly, we feel that desire to say something very negative. And then we do. That of course provokes the other person and causes conflict. But, if we learn to be patient, no matter how wrong that person is or whatever crimes they have committed, we can create distance, or a sense of non-identification with them. Not judging them, because we tend to carry many elements in us that we blame in others. But seeing that is difficult. Marga: The Gnostic Path of Meditation
There is a path that teaches us this process which is marga: the path of cessation. It means “path, a way, a method,” and that method is very specific. It has been in all religions, all traditions before. Of course, those teachings degenerate with time, because when exposed to humanity, obviously people's own psychological corruption adulterates, impedes, breaks apart that message.
That knowledge is known as gnosis in Greek, which is something we study in this school. It is a Greek word meaning “experiential knowledge”—what we verify through facts, and not what we assume to be. So, as I said, we tend to assume many things about ourselves—if we are honest—but this doesn't mean this type of questioning of oneself should produce pessimism or negativity, but more of a type of inquiry, a type of investigation. 
Buddha Nature: Consciousness and the Tree of Life
A lot of people that hear “my anger, my pride, my negativity, my ego… that myself must die,” and people become terrified. “What will I be when that is gone? My language, my name, my personality, my customs, my race?” But, at the same time we have something that is genuine in us, which is pure. The Buddhists call it buddhadatu, buddha nature: the possibility to be awake, to be intelligent, to be spiritual, because we all have that capacity. It is just not developed. It can easily be developed, and it takes a certain method and discipline with oneself. That path is in all religions, especially the Jewish Kabbalah.
You can see here an image of ten spheres, which are known in Hebrew as a sephiroth. This is a map of consciousness. A map of the soul, from the very heights of the divine, to the most basic, most material, most physical. This is a map of our intelligence, our whole spiritual nature. At the top if you notice you'll see a trinity. There are three trinities here. An upright triangle, two lower triangles and a bottom sphere. Kabbalah is known as the science of numbers. It is a means by which we can interpret any tradition on the planet. Any scripture, any book, as well as our own experiences in meditation. It is a map of the multi-dimensionality of the soul, from the external to the internal. We have the most divine principles in us, which some traditions have called Christ, which in Hebrew are known as Kether, Chokmah, Binah: Father, Son, Holy Spirit amongst the Christians. Or amongst the Egyptians it is Osiris, Horus, Isis. Or for the Nordics it is Wotan, Baldur, Thor. Different names, one reality. This is an expression of what we really are in our most fundamental depth. In Hebrew those terms Kether, Chokmah, Binah mean “Crown, Wisdom, and Intelligence.” These are three forces in nature, within us, in the cosmos. This top trinity—these three forces are one but three. They express as three. They create every living thing in this universe. They spread as three points and then become one. Then they concentrate. On a very basic level we can see that there is a father: a masculine principle, a woman: a feminine principle, and then the third which is the child: the synthesis of the man and woman on a sexual level. So, these three forces relate to creation and especially to what we call the creative energies in us, which, through meditative discipline, we can harness and use for spirituality. But below that there is more. This divine force in the cosmos descends into more concrete levels of experience, of dimensionality, which again we can experience when we meditate, or when we have a astral projection, or in a waking experience. 
We have Chesed in Hebrew and which means “Mercy.” That is our inner spirit. Our own particular Buddha nature, our inner God, which emanates from the top trinity, from the cosmos. That spirit is unique to us, individual in us, but also is a conduit by which we can be one with all things, all beings. The quality of that sephiroth or sphere is love, compassion
On the left, we have a sphere called Geburah, which in Hebrew means “Justice.” That is a type of conscious state that is very pure. It is the spiritual soul, spiritual consciousness, which never mixes with any type of impurity, any defect. It is Justice because our consciousness knows how to judge between right and wrong. We usually call this voice conscience, like in the story of Pinocchio. He has a cricket on his shoulder name Jiminy who always tells him “this is good, this is bad.” It is a symbol of this: Pinocchio was a wooden boy, a puppet influenced by the strings of life, his own defects, but he wants to become a real human being, a divine being. Even the word Pinocchio in Tuscan is “pine seed.” The seed that could become a pine tree. This is known as the Tree of Life in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible. It is a map, not a literal plant in the Middle East many ages ago. It is not a literal story, only a symbolical one. So Jiminy Cricket is always warning Pinocchio, “You needed to do this and this,” but of course Jiminy cricket gets killed at one point, at least in the in the book by Carlos Collodi. In the film, it does a good job of depicting the same truths by Disney, but some things they left out. But of course, Jiminy Cricket comes back because the consciousness is eternal. It always comes back to warn us in our heart, that sense of judgment that knows that a certain action is wrong, but usually the mind interferes. It says, “I have many excuses. I should do this because it's the right thing,” and we rationalize later on, but in the heart we feel the consequences. That is judgment. Beneath that we have a sphere called Tiphereth, which in Hebrew means “Beauty,” splendor. It is the beauty of the soul. Out true, we could say, Buddha nature. So again, there are unfoldments and levels and levels of divinity in us. But this is really what we call human soul, our will. When we will something, we do it. It could be either conscious, or for most people, it tends to be unconscious. Even in popular psychology taught by Freud, he often spoke about competing wills, competing desires, subliminal impulses in the mind. So Tiphereth can either reflect the beauty of God or the negative beauty of our own defects, our own hell realms we could say, our own states of suffering. Beneath that we have Netzach which means “Victory.” That is our mind, our thoughts, our concepts. We can see then that this is becoming more concrete. You can notice here that as we are descending down this Tree of Life, we can start to grasp certain things in ourselves. The mind is more concrete. We are more aware of that because we tend to be influenced or dominated by Netzach. To the left of that is Hod, which in Hebrew means “Glory.” That is our emotions. What some people call the astral body. When we go to dream at night, we enter the world of Hod, which is known as the fifth dimension. That is a world in which we dream typically, but usually without awareness. It is an emotional plane, emotional dimension, because many people, they have dreams, they start to sense and feel strong emotional reactions and many times we tend to dream about things that happen at work or in our day; the reason being is the life we live here physically is repeated in the dream state. We just don't have any cognition of it. We are usually not aware of it. So we repeat things, but without knowing where we are about recognizing where we are. But, we have techniques in this tradition that teach us how, when in that state, we can awaken. We will teach that in our courses of astral projection and dream yoga: the science of dreams. Beneath that is Yesod, which means “Foundation.” This is our creative energy. As I said, the creative energy is divine. We can learn to use our energies and our body and our glands, especially the sexual glands, to learn to take those forces and use them for divinity. That can serve as a foundation by which we can access with consciousness, these higher spheres, these higher sephiroth. We see that Yesod is the foundation. Our energy is the foundation, because without vital energy we would not have life, even physically. So Malkuth, if you look below, means “Kingdom.” It is our physical body. Our physicality. That is what we typically only know. But Malkuth, the physical body would not exist if we didn't have vitality, enough energy to get through our day, or to live. Some people feel depleted, they say "I need to sleep," because the vital body needs to recharge. That vital energy needs to work in us. So I am mentioning different bodies, different vehicles by which we express ourselves in different dimensions. It is unfortunate that we tend to only believe that this physical plane is all there is, but when we learn to awaken in dreams, we find that even our vital energies form a vehicle, a kind of body that penetrates this physical body. It gives it life. It gives it the ability to act and move. There's also an emotional body known as Hod: a vehicle we usually work with in dreams, but unconsciously. There is also a mind or mental body, a mental vehicle. Above that we have more subtle aspects of divinity, which are difficult to comprehend at this level, but we can access those in us through practice. We will see more and more how this glyph represents who we are and our potential. The Etymology of Intelligence and Understanding
So I mentioned the Tree of Life and a lecture about intelligence. The word intelligence comes from Latin, meaning: “realizing, understanding, perceiving, discerning. It refers to “intelligō”: inter, meaning: “between” and “legō,” meaning “collect,” or “recite,” from the verb.
Real intelligence is knowing the relationship of ourselves to other things, and even within us. It is a profound state of intelligence to know the relationship between mind and heart, mind and body, will and spirit, spirit and the highest divinity. Intelligence is represented in the Kabbalah, this third sephiroth or sphere Binah. Remember that this top trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Kether, Chokmah, and Binah. Binah is known as “intelligence, understanding.” It is a part of us, an energy that makes it possible to experience the whole Tree of Life and to learn how to work in this physical world with wisdom, so that we may be crowned by divinity through our actions. Rewarded for performing good things, good deeds. What is interesting is that the word קבלה Kabbalah in Hebrew comes from לקבל la’kabbel, which means “to receive.” It is what we receive from divinity. It is a word that refers to the Greek gnosis. Knowledge we experience. Things that we see for ourselves, that we witness directly. And in that way, in meditation we calm the body, relax our energies, relax our heart, relax our mind. In that way we can start to learn to direct our will power, our concentration, which if you are familiar with meditation, we often speak about concentration exercises. These are means by which we learn to focus on one thing without thinking. In that simple synopsis we find the lower five sephiroth of the Tree of Life represented. Our physical body Malkuth needs to relax. We need to understand our relationship to our body, so that we could be healthy and be strong. That is one form of intelligence. Also, we need to learn to work with our vital forces, our vital energies, which we can do so through breathing exercises or mantras, that help to circulate energy by vocalizing throughout our vital depth, our vital body. That helps to stabilize everything, because if you notice that Yesod is the center of the Tree of Life at the very bottom, it's the foundation of all practice. We have to learn how to conserve energy. Most of the time in our day, we expel energy: physically, emotionally, mentally. That is why many people who begin meditation usually leave, because they are not seeing results. The problem is that they are not working with the foundation. It is important to work with energies, so that it can empower our consciousness, our soul, so that it can be awake, spontaneously, natural, happy. Likewise in meditation, we calm heart, the emotional center, Hod. We need to understand our relationship with our emotions and not be a victim of them. I believe it was the founder of the Muslim tradition said something very interesting. The Prophet Muhammad said, "The strongest among you is he who controls his anger." Very interesting, because when we learn to control the heart and conserve our emotional energies, we learn to awaken in that dimension. We naturally experience that state for ourselves. We learn to understand and discern with intelligence, to perceive that which is objective from that which is subjective. Real from false. Awake from dreaming. So, we want to stop dreaming in that state. You want to be awake, to be intelligent, to know our relationship with those things directly. Likewise, we have to relax the mind, and this is very difficult for many people. It is common that when we sit to practice, we find that the mind is thinking. We are always thinking of other things, being distracted, filled with memories or daydreams, concepts, comparisons, contrasts, disagreements, agreements. The mind is always churning. It's a big ocean. It is always in a storm or flux, and when people see this in themselves, usually they get frightened. They see that the mind is so chaotic in the beginning, they get scared and they say, “This practice is harming me, because this is what I see in myself.” The reality is that one is coming to see for oneself what is already there. It is subconscious. Our mind, as Freud taught, is very subconscious. Likewise, with our emotions and our impulses, our drives. But, if one is persistent, by working with concentration exercises, by using one's willpower, one's focus to take an object of practice and not let the mind wander, just focus on one thing like a stone or a statue or a painting, then the mind calms. It settles. If you fight the mind, it will churn. It will be in chaos. But if you just observe the mind and relax, everything settles. So meditation is, or preparation for meditation involves that: relax your body, your energies, your heart, your mind, and then direct your will on one thing. It could be many things you want to meditate on. Maybe a problem. Asking a question to divinity where you want to receive an answer. Maybe a personal challenge or difficulty. Looking for guidance for something in your daily life that you can't resolve. It's funny that people think that the mind is going to answer that question. It is a common assumption even in business meetings. There are people who spend hours and hours debating, using their intellect to argue the solution for a problem. Then when they take a break for fifteen minutes, they walk away and they stop thinking of the problem, suddenly the answer comes: the intuition, the insight. And in that way they come back to the meeting recharged, understanding what they need to do. That is a basic example, but when we learn meditation, the first preliminary concentration exercise is relaxing the mind, the heart, the energies in the body. Then everything settles, so that we can learn to perceive these higher five sephiroth, up these higher spheres with our consciousness, which is Geburah, the sphere on the left. It is also in that way that we can even have astral experiences, in which we speak face-to-face with our own inner spirit, our own inner God, our Buddha—even higher spheres above that which are very difficult to conceptualize at our level, but they exist in us nonetheless. So this is a map of intelligence, our relationship to different things in us, and in the multi-dimensionality of nature. It is a process of discernment. Questioning in us what is real. What is factual? Then discarding what is useless so that we can learn to have that communication, that understanding of what divinity is. Even the word understandan, from old English, to understand, we know is very basic. That is, to grasp the idea, to comprehend. To perceive the significance, meaning, explanation, or cause of something. Meditation is about comprehension, understanding, so that when our mind and heart and body are settled, we can concentrate and even reflect on our day where we are observing ourselves, becoming aware of what situations in life provokes certain defects, certain problems that we want to change, and then we can concentrate on those moments. Reflect and imagine them, visualize them, see them with our consciousness so that we can get knowledge, understanding. What is the appropriate way to behave in this situation? For example at work I have been reflecting on conflict with some clients of mine who are very aggressive and very disrespectful. I have noticed they have been provoking with their behavior certain qualities in me that are negative or egotistical. Frustration. I want them to be a certain way, to behave in a certain way, because it's the right thing. Or that is the logic that is associated with that thought. You can see that you have the mind there, but also the negative emotion, Hod, which feels that “I am being wronged.” Also the will to act, but negatively. To say the wrong things, to do the wrong things that make the situation worse. So, I have been meditating on certain circumstances of my job, and by learning to relax, to concentrate and to ask for help from my inner divinity, my inner spirit, a beginning experience is about what I need to do at my job. Understanding the right way to act, the right way to think, to feel and to do. According to the Buddha: upright thought, upright feeling, upright action. In that way, I have been able to transform many problems. Now, my clients who in the beginning were very rough, they can still be pretty antagonistic, but they respect me. There isn't that type of distrust anymore from the beginning. Concentration and Imagination
So things can change, but gradually. Then when we work with our concentration, again, we are working with our consciousness too. The ability to imagine or perceive. This word imagination is often denigrated today as something fake or fantastical, but if I ask you to imagine an apple, you can see it. Not with physical senses, but psychological ones. That is a quality of our consciousness.
When you combine your will, your concentration, your focus on one thing, and imagining your scene in a day where you want to understand something, suddenly the comprehension emerges, relating to the spirit, Chesed. That helps us to become spiritual beings, because a spiritual being has intelligence, understands how to resolve problems, but without thinking. Not rationalizing, but knowing intuitively and acting immediately in the moment, so that it's very profound, divine. Understanding can also refer to “interpreting or view something in a particular way.” To view ourselves in a new way. To understand something about ourselves that we never thought we had. It can be negative, but it can also can be very positive, because we have qualities in us that are divine that we have no idea that exist. But, when you meditate you find that true divine heroic nature in you, which knows how to conquer affliction and all suffering. So, understanding also refers to “perceiving the significance, explanation, or cause of something.” In this Buddhist sense, or in a religious or spiritual sense, it can refer to understanding the causes of our own suffering, our own egotistical drives, which manifests in our thoughts, our feeling, our body and energies, but also our will, depending on how we use it. If you remember the prayer of Jesus of Nazareth in the garden of Gethsemane, he says, "Father, if it be possible, take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but thine be done." That refers to Tiphereth, the heart. That is a symbol and his Passion is that he lived physically—it was a means of teaching something psychological, because every person needs to face their own types of ordeals and struggles in life, their own crucifixion, in a manner of speaking. If we learn to meditate and remove the causes of suffering, we can, according to the myth of Jesus, resurrect. The soul is absorbed in the divinity, and then one is self-realized, realizing all the spheres of the Tree of Life. They are integrated. They are one, because right now our thoughts, our feelings, and our wills, tend to be very disparate. In a moment, we may be washing our dishes and thinking of one thing, feeling another. We have the desire to go out and work out, followed by the desire for eating. “Now I want to read something else.” “Now I want to do something else.” We are always changing, in flux. We are constantly thinking and doing other things, never aware of where we are at or what we are doing. We call that ego, and the ego is not singular as we like to think, or popular culture likes to think. Ego is egos. Anger, pride, fear, lust, laziness, gluttony—all those faults we carry inside—are multiple. They have their own agendas, ways of thinking, feeling, and doing. But, it's because we are not attentive, we don't really discriminate or distinguish between the differences, between those states. Meditation will teach one how to discern with intelligence, what is going on psychologically. Of course, it is unpleasant in the beginning to realize that this anger, or this fear, this sense of self is not singular. It is a big chaos. Multiple. But, as taught by many myths and as taught by the Tree of Life and through meditation, we can unify the soul. Achieve the realization of divinity in us. So “to interpret something in a particular way, to be thoroughly familiar with, apprehend clearly the character, nature, or subtleties of something.” Again, to interpret or view something in a particular way, how do we view ourselves? It's good to ask this question, not from a skeptical, pessimistic, standpoint. Nor a morbid sense of self-flagellation and shame. "Oh, I am a bad person." But just to ask the question and look what is going on in me. “Who am I?” To question and to examine oneself with a psychological sense. We call it self-observation. To be aware of oneself. To not want to judge or praise or condemn what we see. Just to be aware, awake. And in that way, we gather data about our own faults, so that we can change. Therefore, our understanding of ourselves will be on a true foundation, because the word understand literally implies that we are standing on something. We all tend to stand on some sense of identity. Our assumptions of ourselves, which other people may criticize and point out are wrong, but usually we feel very hurt. We don't want to be criticized or questioned. It is good to ask the question when that experience unfolds, “Well, maybe they are right to ask that question. What if they are right that they see something in me that I don't see?” Other people tend to see things in ourselves that we don't see ourselves. Not to be afraid, but just examine. To be aware. This is the foundational method of meditation so that we can stand on strong ground, because when you stand on fact, we are not hurt. I believe there is a saying in the book Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva where he explains how, if somebody says something to us and it is hurtful, if it is a lie, why get mad? If it is true, why get mad? If one confronts oneself and is working, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't matter. And in this way, by asking that type of question, we learn to transform our situation. 
The Impressions of Life and Internal Reactions
In these studies, we talk about the transformation of impressions. We say that life exists as it does in the form of impressions. We see through our senses, we hear, we feel, we taste, we touch, we smell. We can say that all of life exists in the form of energies or impressions. Whether we are looking outside, we see the rain, people walking. We can say that those people are outside of us, but at the same time, the impressions of those experiences always enter into the psyche, moment by moment.
There is never a moment in which we don't perceive perceptions, or perceive something, even at death, or in sleep, usually. Because, the consciousness is eternal. It always will exist, but in different modalities or formations, depending on how we use it. How we use our mind, our energies, our heart, our will, our consciousness. So, everything always exists in the form of impressions. You are here listening to me, receiving the impressions of my words. It may enter your psyche, emotionally, maybe feeling or ascertaining something, or thinking of something related to it. The mind is always reacting to impressions. It is a dynamic thing, and if we learn to be aware as meditators, we realize that the sense that, there is an external world, is illusory. Everything is within us, if we are attentive. I am sure all of us have experienced, especially in youth, moments in which we are very clear and awake, just seeing life and movement without thinking, without rationalizing. Especially in childhood, we might have had many of those experiences in which we just see the impressions of life without judging, without labeling, without conceptualizing, “This is good. This is bad.” That tends to be the psychological dynamic of our experience. We are caught in duality. Back and forth. Good, bad. Yes, no. Pleasure, pain. Happiness, sadness. Excitement, fear. Duality. That is a pendulum of the consciousness that puts us to sleep. We are always running away from unpleasant impressions in life and running towards pleasant ones. But the thing is: why get attached to either a coffee cake or one's family? And want to run away from one's boss when he's angry? The reality is that all that is temporary. Nothing is permanent. Everything is in flux. Impressions emerge and enter our consciousness, our psyche. But the problem is that we tend to receive life in a very mechanical way. We don't really question what we are seeing, or better said, how we are perceiving those experiences. So physically we may know that we are seated here, but the question is, are we actively observing where we are? Are we aware of the ceiling, the murals, or the decorations, the plants, the equipment around ourselves, the art, the street? Are we really looking at those impressions with a fresh look? Are we seeing it with new eyes, moment by moment? Or, do we just look at things and get lost in our thoughts? Sometimes we may be walking on the street, such as in Chicago or any city, and then we are thinking and thinking and thinking of a problem. We don't see where we are at or where we are going. It means that we are not awake. We are dreaming. It is that type of psychology that goes with us wherever we go. So, if we are not training ourselves, our moment by moment, or day by day, then when we physically go to sleep or when we die, we are going to repeat the same mechanical habits and go through that delicate transition point without attention, without understanding. 
So, I know I mentioned a lot about death in dreams. It is interesting that in the Greek mythology, Thanatos and Hypnos, death and sleep, are brothers. If we are awake in our dreams, we will be awake when we die.
Meditation is a means of preparing for that and the way that we prepare for that is learning to look at life with awareness. To see impressions of life, but attentive, and not reacting all the time, mentally. The mind tends to chatter. We are always commenting on what we see, what we hear, what we feel, what we do. Someone says something negative, we have the reaction of anger or pride. Impressions enter us and we are reacting. The way that you enter into comprehension or meditation is learning to receive those impressions of life, whether good or bad, but with neutrality. Neither favoring nor rejecting, but it doesn't mean that one is going to be bland. Neutrality, we think means neither hot or cold, or just lukewarm, dispassionate, unconcerned. There is a connotation in the english language, but it's better that we say that this type of sentiment or neutrality is very clear, very pristine, very divine. In which one enjoys the flow of life, free in its movement, here and now. It doesn't get caught up with the repetitions of life, the duality, “I must be successful in my job. I must run away from painful circumstances,” but confront every situation with consciousness. So when we have a problem at work, with our mind training, we are not affected by what happens. We can respond with understanding, intelligence: negotiating our sense of self with the exterior world, and in that way we transform our situations. We tend to react to life with ego, defects, but in those critical moments at work or in a certain challenging circumstances of life, someone says something negative, but with our mind training, we question the insulters words. They say something bad about us. I remember at my work I had one client [sarcastically] say to me, "Yeah, he thinks he's really good." About me. I looked at him and I was starting to sense in myself a reaction of negativity, like I was being insulted or hurt, but then I realized that the words of this person didn’t really matter so much as my investment in those words. I thought about what he said. In that moment I comprehended that, well, he has his understanding of what I am and he could be right, or he could be wrong. Then I had a sense of peace in order to respond to him more appropriately. I said, "No, you are wrong. I am not good, I am great!" And being funny about it and joking around dissipated the tension. So comprehension can work like that. We learn to negotiate ourselves with other people. We don't respond with negativity. But even when people are very bad around us, we don't have to go along with it. But, that sense of self, which is neutral, that attention, our conscious state in which we are no longer thinking, we learn to act with love, with serenity, with insight. The Nature of Impressions and Inner Transformation
Some people think or get worried that if “I annihilate the ego, my defects, what will I be?” Well, you'll be charismatic or compassionate or happy or patient or loving or funny or humorous and divine—knowing how to respond to any circumstance appropriately.
So, this is what we call a transformation of impressions. It is interesting if we look at some of the etymology of this word. Impressio: “to impress,” meaning “pressed in,” from the verb, impremere: “to imprint; an effect produced upon someone; a mark impressed on a surface by something.” It is interesting that we find the word “imprint.” You know when people say things that are bad, if we just identify and invest all of our energy into that comment, those words imprint something in our psyche, that conditions us. We feed our anger and feel resentful, proud, hurt. It is a type of imprinting on the soul, on the mind, and that creates more problems, more defects, because we are investing our energy in a sense of self, which is in the spiritual sense, not real, not objective. Real intelligence is knowing that the relationship between self and other is illusory, and Buddhism talks about this a lot. That everything exists upon other things. There is nothing intrinsically existing in and of itself. Impressions emerge, we react, and there is always a dynamic interchange of relationships, of problems. But if we learn to see that those words no longer have any meaning, someone criticizes us, we don't invest ourselves in those words. We don't feel hurt. Maybe psychologically there is something deep down that we need to see, so we go home, we meditate on what we saw, so that we could remove all those latent subtle frustrations or desires which are lingering. Then more and more, we learn to transform our psyche day by day. On another level, the transformation Impressions exist when we develop our intelligence. Again, intelligence is: “How do we discriminate between phenomena of what we see, of what we sense?” Another example of this is a person may walk down the street and sees images of a lustful type, of a degenerate type, which is making certain desires emerge in the psyche and which are negative. If one comprehends that this person, which one is attracted to so much, this woman or this figure, if we imagine that well in twenty, thirty, fifty, sixty, seventy years, this person may be dust and bones. So what is the nature of this lustful intention that I feel in myself? What is it? What is this desire? What does it want? How does it exist? Because our defects, our desires, our egotism, our egos, always feed upon the impressions of life. Always want certain stimuli. Anger wants to hurt the other person because it is hurt. Pride wants to belittle because it wants praise. Greed wants to accumulate material things or even spiritual things, ideas, fame, attention, energy. Fear wants security. It wants things to be what it wants. So those defects are always wanting certain impressions of life and the reason why we suffer so much is because we are attached to that sense of self, which wants something that doesn't exist. It is not there. We are always fighting against the reality of our situation. We want things to be a different way. But if we learn to accept our situation with gladness, things will change, as we are changing our negative states. Transforming the impressions of our psyche that we didn't transform in the past. This is where traumas emerge. Something happened, an impression emerged and came into our psyche and we weren't aware and it affected us. We can think of something like 9/11. People on the site who witnessed those buildings come crashing down and people dying, were traumatized. They weren't aware of what was going on and obviously that kind of violence is very destructive, even psychologically. Some people are still grappling with the pains of that incident, even from across the world who just watched it on television. But imagine someone who actually was in that situation, where they receive those impressions, and because they were not aware, they didn't know how to transform it. So that type of experience replays in the mind again and again and again. Those impressions are in the psyche. They form new defects, new desires, new traumas, new problems. The way to resolve that is to develop attention, awareness, and in that way we learn to see suffering and go to the root of our problems. [Editor: Listen to the lecture Trauma and Spiritual Healing for advice].
Meditation in the Gnostic Tarot
In this last slide we are looking at, it is the summation of meditative discipline, according to what we call the Egyptian Tarot. We have a course that is presently ongoing about these cards. These are images that reflect spiritual principles, spiritual truths. We have the first three arcana, or laws of the divine. These cards represent qualities of consciousness, qualities of being. It also can teach us about meditation, more importantly.
In the first image we have the Magician, a representation of what we call the Divine Father, our spirit, our true Buddha nature, our Being, our inner God. I won't explain all the symbolism of these images in depth. If you are interested in learning more about this, you can study our course, The Eternal Tarot of Alchemy and Kabbalah online. But you notice that he is a standing figure. He is masculine. He has a staff in his hand representing his willpower, his assertiveness, his masculinity. Likewise, we have his opposite, the second arcanum, the second law, which is the High Priestess. She is sitting. She is the Divine Feminine, the Divine Mother of any religion, whether it be Mary amongst the Christians, Maya, Miriam, Adonia amongst the Kabbalists, Shekinah, Diana, Hera, or the wife of Jupiter. So all those religions can be explained through these principles, but more importantly, what is interesting is that she is sitting. She represents a feminine aspect of our consciousness, a feminine quality, which is more perceptive, more intuitive, more emotional. The first aspect of ourselves is will, assertiveness, which we call willpower. In the last image we find a woman seated with a beautiful ibis bird. She is the Empress of the Tarot. She has stars above her head, meaning that she is illuminated. She has comprehension. She has understanding. So these three cards are interesting because they summarize the path of meditation and death. In order to really meditate on a problem or issue, or to gain understanding, or intelligence of something, we concentrate, we use our willpower. We focus on one thing at the exclusion of everything. If we sit to practice, if we want to understand a scripture, a book, we read a verse and we concentrate on it. We can also visualize in our consciousness and imagine what the words are representing. We concentrate, we relax. Some people think concentration is something over-exertive, like if one is lifting weights. Concentration is a profound state of relaxation. It knows how to act but without exerting the mind, without agitation, without disturbance. It is calm, serene. Notice that even although he is standing very firmly, he is also very calm. On his right, The High Priestess, the Divine Feminine, is seated and reading a book. It is a symbol of how we learn to read the book of our life, the chapters of our existence. Our mornings, our afternoons, our days, our evenings, and then really reflect with our imagination and see how those circumstances need to be studied. Through the combination of will and imagination, we gain understanding, intelligence. We learn to discern right from wrong, good from bad, positive from negative. That state of understanding is what gives us real peace. We are no longer afflicted, even if we have problems that can't get resolved. Sufferings we can't change. At least we are not identified with those circumstances, then we are at peace and very strong, because we know that eventually, this body will go and the soul will move on. If we are awake, we will take advantage of those circumstances. If we are not, that is another issue. The Path of Comprehension
Willpower and imagination make comprehension. So, in the example I gave you, you can concentrate and develop your concentration by focusing on one thing. Some people begin with a stone or a pebble or something basic that doesn't take much effort to focus on.
I like to use a candle when I first started. I would take a candle, light the flame and look at it. Observe the fire. You'll find that the mind will start to drift and start thinking of other things, but the purpose of the practice is: don't think, just look. That is the state of consciousness of attention. When we are no longer thinking of other things, that concentration becomes very profound, so that you can learn to direct it at more elevated things like a scripture, or book, the meaning thereof. Comprehending a certain defect that emerged in the day, you focus and concentrate on remembering those events. Then imagine, visualize those scenes. Also, visualization can be developed through that candle practice. Sometimes in the beginning, it is difficult to see things mentally. We don't see much clarity or color or depth, but if you learn to take that candle and observe it for a few moments, then close your eyes and try to imagine that candle in your mind, without vacillating, or letting the mind change it. If you find the mind starts doing that, then just relax, look again at the candle and gently reinitiate the practice. In that way we learn to develop more clarity and depth in our visualization practices. Conclusion
The combination of concentration and imagination allows us to access any knowledge we want. We can fall asleep while concentrating and imagining a certain thing. Then when we go to sleep physically, the soul awakens in the internal dimensions and we see those states of being with clarity.
In the beginning people will see very vague things and amorphous things. With practice such as with these two exercises, we gain more clarity and understanding. In that way we learn to develop more understanding in our own life: how to navigate this world we live in with patience and serenity, because if we have understanding, we are no longer so troubled or conflicted. We learn to negotiate ourselves with intelligence with this world, with clarity. If you are interested, I invite you to study the writings we have available. You can view them online and they are full publications of gnostic teachings.org. If there is a particular topic that you listened or hear today in relation to our synopsis or synthesis, you can go online and look at the books we have available. We do have some available in print here, but you can always go online and read them if you are interested and purchase them from online. There is a lot we covered but the synthesis is this: Be aware. Be attentive. These practices can help to elevate our level of being, our way of being so that we learn to find more happiness in our life, find joy, even when circumstances are very painful. Because one who has divinity inside active, doesn't despair. Doesn't fear. Doesn't worry. Questions and Answers
Question: What is your favorite book?
Instructor: Oh, my favorite book! I do like a lot of classical mythology, especially because those myths teach us Kabbalah. I remember taking a course on classical mythology, classical literature, specifically, which of course the professor didn't know the real esoteric depth of these stories. Some of my favorites are like The Odyssey, which relates to the principles we talked about today. In the poem by Homer, Odysseus is stranded from place to place after he is victorious in the Trojan War. He was the mastermind that created the Trojan Horse and invaded the city in order to sack it. Then he goes home having angered Poseidon, and Poseidon is a representation in the Kabbalah of Binah, the Holy Spirit amongst the Christians. He angered Poseidon because he took credit for the works that divinity did for him. That symbolism of war and all that is not literal. It is about the war of the soul against desire, but he has to journey from island to island, again and again, facing death, starvation, assault, and all sorts of terrible things which are symbolic of the spiritual path one has to face. Of course, he gets to the end and his whole crew has been annihilated, basically. They all died, and he was the only one who survived, swam to shore, to Ithaca, his home. He gets there and Athena warns him, "your wife is under assault here. There are many suitors trying to marry your wife Penelope because it's been twenty years since you've been here. They think you are dead." It is very interesting. All these men are trying to marry his wife, and Penelope is a beautiful symbol of the soul. She is the soul that is being afflicted by many suitors, many lustful elements, egos, defects, and Athena the Divine Feminine, which we can call the Divine Mother, Kundalini amongst the Hindus, She disguises him as a beggar and then he has to gain “intel” about all the suitors who are trying to marry his wife. He can't show who he is. If he gets mad and shows himself that he is Odysseus, they are going to kill him. But it is interesting that if you look at the word intelligence, even the word “intel” is government slang, finding data about your enemies. So, he is finding all this intelligence, information about how these suitors are working. Who are they aligned to? Who are they? What are they doing? What is their methods? It is a symbol of how one in meditation is working against certain defects, gaining understanding of them. Of course, they humiliate him, they beat him, they call him a beggar, they mock him for many chapters towards the end of the book, in the poem. But, the crowning moment is when he is in the throne room facing a challenge that Penelope places. She will only marry the suitor or man who can fire an arrow through, I don't remember the number of rings of an ax, lodged in the floor there, but can fire an arrow through all of them. All the suitors are trying to take Odysseus's bow and pull the string, but it is so heavy and strong that they can't. Here is this beggar Odysseus, or disguised as the beggar and who comes up and says, "I'll take the challenge." Of course, all the suitors become enraged because they have been mocking him the whole time. They don't know who he is. 
He pulls the bow, puts the string on easily, and then he takes the arrow and fires it through the rings. All of them are shocked that he accomplished it. Then he takes an arrow and fires it at one of the suitors and kills him. They become terrified in rage and say, "What are you doing old man?" Athena unveils who he is. He says, "I am Odysseus whom you thought was dead. Now I will kill every single one of you for having tried to take my home and squander my property."
It is a symbol of how the soul, our consciousness, goes to war against our defects, and it is very strong at that level, especially. Even the bow is a symbol of negotiating the external with the internal. You pull the bow, you are focusing on what's outside of you, your target, with your concentration. With your willpower, you take the arrow, your perception, see the target, and fire. Concentration and imagination. Then in that way, when we comprehend our defects, we kill them. Then you can extract the soul that has been trapped in there and develop virtue. It is a symbol of what some people call Buddhist annihilation, which is a term that frightens people, but you know when the ego is annihilated, the soul is born. It is pure. I love that poem a lot. You know, it's a very beautiful symbol, but people read it and they are very entertained. Yeah, Odysseus gets revenge, they think it is a literal story. Yeah, I mean you can read it that way, but there are a lot of esoteric truths in these fables or stories which are very beautiful. So, with the bow and arrow, your concentration, your perception, your imagination, you focus on each defect you want to work on. When the moment comes, when the comprehension is full, you can kill that element and be free of it. I remember The Odyssey is a very beautiful story about that, but there are many more stories that are very profound. But, a lot of the stories that we have been able to study and explain in our courses come from the writings of Samael Aun Weor, specifically. He is a writer on many esoteric topics, whose works are just becoming more familiar in the West, in North America, especially. He was from Latin America. Some of my favorite books of his when I first started was Treaties of Revolutionary Psychology. He explains many of the principles we talked about: Self-observation, remembering the presence of divinity, learning to gather data about one's faults. It is a very good book to begin with. I know I began many years ago with that book especially. It is one of my favorites. Something you revisit again and because you are always learning. A very deep text and very direct. It has a lot of knowledge there and very rich too. When you understand that type of teaching, you can look at any scripture, any book, any mythology and you can interpret what is going on. You can use your intelligence to understand the relationship between characters and ideas. It ceases to be some kind of academic, literary thing, but you are seeing things in the book that people don't really understand or know about. They are very profound. Question: I stopped seeing violent stuff like the media. How do you look at? Is sports demonic? Can one do the work and watch football? Instructor: It's your business. I know some sports are much more vulgar, like UFC fighting championship, boxing, those that are very violent. Those things are obviously very negative. I mean, I know many people, even instructors in our tradition, who may still watch sports and games. I don't know many who watch UFC, where guys are pounding each other into hamburger. But you know the kind of thing is very negative especially. I believe Samael Aun Weor was writing in some of his books how certain sports were the degeneration of ancient traditions from long ago. From history that many people don't even know about. Like for example, the bullfighting rings. He talks about how bullfighting was an art that was practiced by a different humanity on this planet before our race emerged, very long ago, which not many people are familiar with, but he stated that those people would not kill the bull in a vulgar way like we see today. It is a symbol of how the toreador would use a lasso, a rope, and a sword symbolically to subdue the bull. It is a symbol of conquering the mind, controlling the mind. But they wouldn't kill the bull because the bull has a beautiful soul. An elemental soul which is pure. Today you find in Spain, you know the running of the bull, or people killing those animals in the ring. It is very vulgar and degenerated. That tradition came from a long ago. It was a symbolic thing, but over time people corrupted it. So, sports, if you are interested, if you like football, it is your business. It is a violent sport, but when I have seen football games in the past, I don't find that they left any super lasting mark on me in a negative way. [But you know, if you enjoy it, then enjoy it. It is better, though, to take in good impressions that uplift the soul, not just to entertain the mind.]
In this course of meditation, we have been exploring what it means to communicate with divinity, with the divine, which as we have been emphasizing is not some anthropomorphic figure of an old man or a dignified lady in the clouds. Those are symbols, and religions teach us something psychological. Something conscious. And we in the science of meditation seek to communicate directly with the presence; the intelligence that has been represented within those traditions, within statues, or forms.
So we began this practice by invoking the energy of what is known as the Divine Mother, the divine feminine, who is the feminine aspect of our inner divinity, our Inner Being. So when we say that God is Being, we don't wish to point towards anthropomorphism, but instead to principles, energies, forces we find in nature and within our own body, which we seek to actualize, to activate, to stimulate. In our process of giving these lectures we have been talking a lot about working with the divine feminine, being able to communicate directly with that intelligence in a very concrete and specific manner. When the different traditions of Judaism, Buddhism, or Islam speak about communicating face to face with the buddhas, with the angels, with the gods, those are symbols of how we can speak face to face in our meditations with that divine presence―but also in the science of dream yoga, in which our physical body goes to sleep and we as a consciousness enter the superior dimensions of nature, the dream world. By working in meditation, we awaken from dreams, so that as a consciousness we can communicate with the divine and those dimensions, which people typically theorize and believe is just a projection of the brain, but really, when someone awakens consciousness profoundly and ceases to dream in that state, one really gets to understand that there is a whole other world available to us, which meditation teaches us how to access. Because we as a consciousness, as a soul, must learn to receive that guidance, that wisdom from our inner divinity. Most people who approach religion, meditation, yoga, and when I say yoga, I mean real yoga, not just physical postures, but yug which in Sanskrit means “to unite” as a consciousness with the truth; when people approach religion, they typically want to have some type of experience, to know divinity directly for oneself―not based on any belief or theory, but on practice. We all have issues and problems that we suffer with, that we struggle with, and we look for some type of guidance in our politicians, our media, our religious figures, our temple, our church, our synagogue, our mosque, and yet we find that people cannot really show us or give us answers to the real profound root of our sufferings in a fundamental way, because we may believe in one doctrine or not, and yet what we think doesn't matter, because how we behave, how we act consciously, determines our mind stream, our life. So neither by believing in some religion is how one is going to find the solutions to one's deepest sufferings, but though meditation. So to pray, according to the founder of the Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, is to speak with divinity. To have that connection. To interact as we are interacting here and now. Prayer for most people tends to be a very blind thing, where we repeat a certain prayer in a mechanical way; some Hail Mary, or Our Father, thinking that by repeating mechanically, repetitiously, that somehow we are going to receive some insight. But the truth is that that type of prayer doesn't work. It is superficial. If we want to really talk with divinity, we have to be very specific in our methods, in how we concentrate our mind as we've been discussing in this course. To focus on one thing: a mantra, a secret sound, an image, a sculpture; visualizing it's details in our mind. Focusing on that one specific thing without letting the mind wander and get distracted, because if we sit to practice, we typically find that the mind wanders constantly. It thinks about other things. We daydream about what we are going to do later, where we have been, who we talked with. And yet we may return into our practice thirty minutes later realizing, "I am supposed to be meditating. I'am supposed to be present." So that state of distraction shows us what we are psychologically moment by moment. Not when we just sit to close our eyes for half an hour or so, but in our daily life, we are constantly thinking and being distracted by what we are going to do, where we have been, and where we are going. That distraction of the consciousness indicates that we are, as a psyche, asleep. We are not present. We are not mindful. We are not aware of what we are doing, what we are saying, what we are thinking, because if we are driving our car and thinking of our friends, our fiancé, our spouse; if we are at a lecture and if we are thinking of other things, we are not really listening to what's going on. We are not really seeing where we are at. It means that we as a consciousness are asleep. The mind wanders. As we said in our previous lecture on the path of Conscious Judgment, the mind is a labyrinth, a maze, which the great hero Theseus goes into, in order to find the beast known as the minotaur, a symbol of our own egotism, which by learning to concentrate ourselves in meditation, we go into the mind. We cease being distracted and we learn to get to the core root of our suffering, which is psychological. It is a conditioning, as we have been explaining. So the process of meditation is about, again, going into the mind, focusing the mind, being specific with our practice, being aware of what we are doing at all times, and when we learn to discipline our intellect, concentrate ourselves to be focused, moment by moment, day by day in every circumstance of life, we find that the practice of meditation opens up spontaneously. So if you find that you are distracted, you may have a certain longing to know God, the Being, the divine, and we go through certain prayers or rituals or practices. But if we are not mindful of what we are doing, it means that we are not going to have the results we want. Because, to receive that insight from the divine means the mind has to be calm. We have to be concentrated on what we are doing. So the very beginning of meditative practice, the path of prayer, of communicating with the divine, occurs when the mind is in silence. When it is focused. When we command our attention to do one thing at the exclusion of everything else. That we don't let our mind wander. We don't waver. We don't begin a prayer in our practice and then forget what we are doing, and then realize "I should have been reciting this prayer with this practice," and then we remember. So that is the beginning of any person who starts in meditation, because we see that the mind needs to be controlled, it needs to be harnessed. But, when we find that when the mind is calm and serene, we can start to receive knowledge, insight and this usually comes in the form of some type of spiritual experience. As I said, you can awaken in dreams by learning to meditate in which you, as a consciousness, with a mind that is calm, can say and invoke your Inner God, your Inner Goddess, and say "My God, help me, teach me!" Because prayer, when it is focused with intention, and then we wait, that is when we receive insight. That is when the communication happens, because most people think that by reciting a hundred Hail Mary's, or Hari Krishna’s, or whatever a thousand times, that you are going to get some kind of result. The truth is that you can't if your mind is mechanical, if we just repeat things; we think things, we feel things, without any real knowledge or observance. No attention. And so this lecture we called “Conscious Prayer” because in order to have that communication with your Being, you have to be conscious of what you are doing. And as I said earlier the path of meditation begins when we learn to concentrate. So in this exercise, we were invoking the energy of the Divine Mother with a mantra Ram-IO. We learn to focus on that mantra to pronounce it. To immerse ourselves in the vibrations of that sound so that this energy saturates the consciousness, awakens it, develops our hidden potential. In that way, when you have energy, as we have been talking in this course and the Light of Consciousness lecture, when you have energy applied to action, then you can get results. When the mind is not calm, if the lake of the intellect is churning with negativity, with anguish, with preoccupations about our job, not really focusing on what we need to focus on in our practice, it means that the images of the heavens cannot reflect in that lake. Your mind is a lake, but we typically tend to throw things into it. Stones, garbage, or whatever metaphor we want to use. Negativity. And that mind that is agitated, churning, can't help us to focus. We sit to practice, we look into the mind and we see that we are filled with a lot of memories, and anguish, and suffering. When people realize this at the beginning of meditation, they typically tend to run away because they realize how monstrous the mind is. It's so chaotic and you realize, or think, “this practice is harming me.” The truth is we are just becoming aware of what is going on moment by moment and day by day. We are just not conscious of it. And to help us with this process of learning to become conscious of our daily life, we learn to pray. It means to be focused and to be sincere. To be concentrated. If we, again, pronounce Hari Krishna multiple times, but we are not really invested with our heart, our longing to know the divine, and our concentration, there won't be any results. We can speak all we want but the answer won't come directly. So calm the mind is the beginning. The mind needs to be stable. We need to be concentrated and in that way the truth emerges spontaneously within our consciousness. 
Durga, the Divine Mother, and Astral Forms
So we pictured here the Hindu representation of the Divine Mother known as Durga. There are many other forms of the divine feminine, such as Kali and, as we mentioned earlier, this divine feminine has been represented by Athena, amongst the Greeks, Miriam and Mary amongst the Hebrews and the Christians. It is interesting that you look at the word מִרְיָם Miriam in Hebrew, which means “to raise, to elevate” because the Divine Mother, your Inner Goddess is the one who can elevate you from psychological conditions and sufferings into the heights of the divine, the spiritual. And personally, if I am teaching you this, it is because this is something I have been working with for many years, where I have had experiences in the dream world, where I have been receiving insight from my Inner Goddess, who has been helping me so that I can be of help to others.
In dreams, this divine feminine can take form. So I said that the divine is formless, but is an energy, is a principle, is a force. That energy can materialize in the dream world in any symbol, any form, in order to teach you something psychologically about yourself. And then that way, when you are presented with this symbol, when you are asking your Inner Goddess, "My God or my Being, help me, teach me what I need to know"―you are meditating, you are focusing on that one question, you fall asleep. You wait. And then spontaneously, your consciousness can awaken in that state in which you ask that question again, “My God, help me, show me what I need to know about myself. About this problem that I am going through. What I need to do. What I need to change!” And then the answer will come in a symbol. It will come in a some type of living drama, because the world of dreams, the astral plane, is a symbolic language. A symbolic world. Your Divine Mother will come to you in any form that is going to be concrete and conducive for teaching you something. I remember one instance, I invoked my Divine Mother in the world of dreams and I asked her the question, "Please help me to understand what I need to work on. What I need to do!” She appeared. I was outside my house in the dream world, because in the astral plane, in that dimension, we see everything that we see physically, but with differences. It is a different dimension. A different type of materiality that is not physical. She came to me in a figure of a bear and in spiritual studies, we know that the bear is a symbol of egotism, of animalism, of desire, of defects, and of the secret psychological enemies we carry within that are fighting against this type of work―as we have been talking about with the many other myths in this course. So she came to me with a radar in her hands that was showing a laser beam, or that beam that goes in a circle, so that you can find some kind of blip or dot of some type of aircraft that is present, and it was blank. And she said to me, “I can't find you!” And I woke up. I was really filled with a lot of remorse because she was showing me, "I am trying to awaken your consciousness and you keep forgetting me. You keep forgetting My presence." Because your Divine Mother is with you, here and now. You don't need to have some type of samadhi or mystical experience out of the body, to really actualize the presence of your Inner Goddess within you. So she came to me, fortunately in a dream to show me: "I'm looking on my radar and I don't see you." Meaning, you are not paying attention. You are not awake. You are not concentrated in me in your daily life. So in my daily life, I had been getting too distracted. Forgetting my own consciousness. Getting caught up in daydreaming, and worries, and thoughts, and not being focused about where I am at. So that is an example of conscious prayer, where by silencing the mind, you meditate, you go out of the body in the dream state, and then you ask the question, "Show me what I need to know." And often times through discipline, your Divine Mother will come to you in a way that is unexpected, where you may not even be able to get the question out of your mouth and suddenly the answer will show up and come to you. That is why Dante in his Divine Comedy stated that the Divine Mother or Virgin Mary, often provides the answer before we even ask it, because she is the power of love, of compassion within the depths of our psyche. The Four Yogas
And so we in these studies learn to actualize that presence in different ways, specifically through what we call four types of yoga. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit yug, “to reunite.” So when you learn to communicate with your inner God, your inner Goddess, face-to-face, you are performing union, because you receiving the direct Insight you longed for.
But, let us remember that the term yoga as is used today really has no meaning. People think that yoga is contorting the body, twisting it, or making it thin, so that one can attract the lust of other people. Instead real yoga is fourfold. We have Karma Yoga relating to action, to service. We have Bhakti Yoga, related to devotion, the heart. We have Raja Yoga relating to powers, abilities, psychic capacities. We have Jnana Yoga, relating to knowledge. So this lecture we will talk specifically about bhakti, devotion and what it really means. But you can't explain Bhakti Yoga without talking about the other constituents of spiritual practice. Karma yoga relates to how you use your body, in a more superficial sense. How do we act with our physical body in daily life? Do we do so working at our job to benefit others, or do we use our body in ways that is selfish, where we are concerned more about our own welfare? How do we act? How do we behave? How do we think? How do we feel? And how do we express what is internal? As we've been talking about in these lectures, we talked that psychologically, we carry many egotistical elements we call ego, "I,” me, myself, anger, pride, fear, vanity, lust―a whole conglomeration of defects, which are shells, conditions, which trap our full potential, which trap the consciousness and which in religions, they have been represented as demons―because these senses of self, these desires, are really demonic. They don't want to help others. Anger does not want to help others. It wants to destroy. Likewise with fear. It debilitates. Many elements that drag us down into states of suffering. Those have been represented by monsters and figures in different religions, different traditions, different myths. And so we have to examine our mind, our mind stream. What do we carry within? What is going on psychologically that makes us act in daily life? How do we behave towards others in life? Are we thinking about ourselves or do we really think about the benefit of others? Now it is important that one learns to understand one's psychological state, because our psychological states shape our life. Where we are psychologically determines how we act, what we say; what we think determines how we behave and energetically when we learn to awaken our consciousness, we see that even our thoughts influence others, because it is a form of energy. It is a form of matter and it influences people. There is an interaction that is psychological, that is psychic, that relates to Raja Yoga. But Raja Yoga is actually much more profound than just psychic powers. It involves many things that we are going to talk about. So karma, how do we act? In these studies if we really want to learn how to meditate, we have to learn what shapes and conditions us. What makes us suffer? But more importantly, how do we make others suffer with our egotism, our sense of self? When you learn to understand how anger is a destructive element, is an animal that needs to stop being fed, then you begin to experience what all the Greek myths have taught about the great heroes fighting against the monster, the medusa, the minotaur, the Kraken. Symbols of our own defects. But when you learn to restrain the mind in a moment of anger, we learn to comprehend in ourselves and we look inside and we see that a certain element is a rising in us that wants to act negatively, but we don't feed that element. We restrain ourselves, because we know that this element will harm the other person if we speak what that element wants to speak, that ego, that sense of self. When you restrain the mind, you empower your consciousness, and in those moments of great anger, you can invoke your Divine Mother. You simply pray, "My Goddess, help me to understand this anger that is boiling in me." And sometimes it could require us stepping away from the person. Other times, we may have transformation, where we realize and comprehend that we are not that anger, and then we can learn to respond with love. Instead of responding with anger, we serve the other person. We serve divinity in the other person, because all people have God within. Therefore we shouldn't disrespect anyone psychologically, mentally, physically. When you learn to restrain the mind and act in positive ways, you are performing a form of bhakti, of religion. Because religion come from the Latin religare, which means “to reunite,” to bring people together and also to unite the soul with God, the Being. When you speak words of compassion towards your aggressor, towards someone who dislikes you, who treats you with disrespect, instead of reacting with anger, we see that element arise and we don't act on it. We choose conscious action. We serve the other person, and Samael Aun Weor, the founder of this tradition, states that one must learn to kiss the whip of the executioner, to kindly receive the unpleasant manifestations of our fellow men and women. We understand that those people who are angry are suffering. We should not treat them with disrespect or anger, but with patience. In that way we are performing Karma Yoga. We are also showing devotion, because we are showing that we don't want to harm the other person, even in our thoughts. We show bhakti. We are showing that we want to perform religion, reunite people, not separate. Bhakti Yoga is how we devote ourselves in every action of our life with consciousness, with awareness. Jnana Yoga relates to knowledge of the intellect. To study. To studying and having a certain knowledge of scripture, religion, teachings, psychology, whatever lectures we receive, in order to help Inspire us and also to train the mind to know the path and the steps, the principles of how to change, of how to practice meditation. Bhakti relates to devotion, to the heart, your emotional qualities, your psychological states. 
Notice we have in the lower three frames of yoga: Karma Yoga relating to your body, Bhakti Yoga relating to your heart, Jnana Yoga relating to your intellect.
In gnostic psychology, we call this the three brains. You have a center for intellect, the thought, the mind where thoughts emerge. Where thoughts originated and which is not a physical brain, but a psychological center, which the physical brain channels thought, because the soul is inhabiting the body like a car, like someone is driving it. The mind is a form of a vehicle, a brain, a machine; it processes certain energies which exists physically but also psychologically. We have an emotional brain relating to sentiment, hate, love, passion, desire, which relates to the physical heart and it's nervous systems, but also to the energies of emotion, which is different from the intellect. That is something we learn to distinguish through meditation. The body, represented by the entire spine, is the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, where we process movement, instincts, and our sexual impulses. Karma Yoga relates to the body. Bhakti Yoga relate to the heart. Jnana Yoga relates to the mind. Raja yoga is the balancing of all three. Raja means “royal yoga.” It is regal yoga, meaning, by learning to silence the mind, calm the heart, control the body, calm the body, we activate certain powers of the consciousness that make one into a king or a queen of oneself. So Karma Yoga, we typically see is associated with performing good action, to benefit others so that in some way we benefit ourselves. As the Dalai Lama stated "if one can't really be selfless, at least be wisely selfish," meaning, at least don't harm the other person, but at the same time, you are doing that so that the person doesn't yell back at you, because that perpetuates suffering. It makes us suffer. In a more profound level, we learn to be selfless in our actions when we learn to comprehend our defects and to make conscious choices. To not act upon fear or resentment, or pride. In that way, we radiate naturally spontaneous joy peace, and that benefits humanity. That is a form of service, sacrifice. We sacrifice our desires so that we can benefit others. This is the symbol of Jesus on the cross, where he was crucifying his own animal ego, his mind, and of course that is a very painful process, because we are very attached to our body, our emotions, our intellect. But he showed a profound will and love in those moments of being nailed to the cross. He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," because he was speaking from the consciousness. So Raja Yoga is when you learn to silence the mind, calm the heart, calm the body, so that when you sit to meditate, the heart opens naturally and then we can begin to concentrate on a specific question we have, a practice we want to fulfill so that we can get insight. 
The Elements of Bhakti Yoga
This is Swami Sivananda. A great yogi. A great master. He wrote some easy steps to yoga, some explanations about what devotion really is. It's importance. People who typically read these type of writings, they become inspired, but some people also look at it very superficially and don't really understand that bhakti, devotion, doesn't just occur when we go to Puja, perform japa, mantra recitation, perform certain rituals; but we show bhakti devotion with every interaction of life.
As the Dalai Lama stated or was asked the question, "What inspires you most?" He said, "Every person I come into contact with." Because, other people show him or show us ourselves. Sivananda explains that: Bhakti is the basis of religious life. Bhakti destroys Vasanas and egoism. ―Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga
Vasanas are latent animalistic tendencies in the mind.
So how does bhakti destroy vasanas? As I said, you are at your job, your boss criticizes you, or you have a conflict with a difficult client and they are provoking your anger, and then in that moment, you realize how destructive that element is. Those thoughts of revenge, of resentment, of pain, that its actions will cause harm and perpetuate suffering for us and for others. We restrain from the mind and we learn to speak with love. Not forced. Not veiled. But spontaneously. That is something that comes to us with training and intuitively when the mind is silent, when you are relaxed, when you are paying attention to where you are at. You learn to say the right thing, do the right thing, think the right thing, at the right time. That is inner judgment, as we have been talking about previously. So that is how you destroy egoism. You stop feeding the ego. You perform bhakti, devotion. Worshipping the God of that other person who is criticizing you. Saying, mentally, "I respect the divine within all beings, even within an ant or criminal." All beings have God within. The reason why the criminal acts as he or she does is because they are ignorant. Therefore “they don't deserve my anger; they deserve my compassion.” You don't have to formulate this in your mind when you are having a conflict, instead the insight emerges and you realize the person is suffering. So why feel anger? And then you transform your own mind, and by acting with kindness, we transform the situation. A life without Bhakti, faith, love and devotion is a dreary waste. ―Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga
So what is faith? In our gnostic studies, we state that faith is conscious knowledge, not belief. To believe that something is true or false is irrelevant. To think that something is true or not doesn't mean anything. Instead faith is when you know something from experience, personally. Like having a conversation with your inner Divine Mother in the astral plane. So real bhakti is faith. Your heart becomes inflamed when you are communicating with your inner God and “to not have that is to be a dreary waste.” People who never discover that is a tragedy.
Bhakti softens the heart and removes jealousy, hatred, lust, anger, egoism, pride and arrogance. It infuses joy, Divine ecstasy, Bliss, Peace and Knowledge. ―Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga
So what is ecstasy? Coming from the Latin exstatuo: “to stand outside oneself.” People often think that ecstasy is a spiritual experience, which means to be in some type of out-of-body experience. But you experience moments of standing outside of yourself when you learn to comprehend that you are not fear, that you are not those negative elements that make us suffer. But instead, you are something divine, consciously speaking. You step outside of yourself and you have a moment of perspective in which you see your subjective self and your objective self. And how you choose between the two determines your religious life, your spiritual life.
All cares, worries, anxieties, fears, mental torments and tribulations entirely vanish. The devotee is freed from the Samsaric wheel of births and deaths. ―Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga
In Buddhism and Hinduism, samsara means cyclical existence, which people typically interpret to the multi-dimensionality of nature and its different levels and forms, which we discussed in relation to Kabbalah. But samsara literally means “cycling, repeating, habits.” So we learn to identify our negative habits and change them. We perform cessation of those causes of repetitive behaviors that produce suffering. Cessation in Sanskrit is Nirvana. So it isn't just a place, but a psychological way of being, in which you cease repeating behaviors that are detrimental for oneself. And through bhakti:
He attains the Immortal Abode of everlasting Peace, Bliss and Knowledge. ―Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga
That everlasting abode, that immortal abode is not some other world in which some utopian existence is experienced. It's not by going to the astral plane or the mental plane or Nirvana or the different dimensions that we talked about in the Tree of Life, that one is going to find absolute peace, because all those dimensions are here and now with us. Our center of gravity tends to be in this physical body, but psychologically we have mind, emotion, energy, which are different levels of matter and experience.
Watchfulness is Prayer
All those aspects of the consciousness integrate within us in the here and now. That abode is not something foreign to you, but it's within your Being who is with you.
So how do we experience and know that immortal abode? It is through remembrance of the divine. It Is by being watchful. By learning to pay attention. We have an image of a Sufi in meditation and prayer who has in his right hand what some would call a rosary in the Christian tradition, which traditionally, such as in Hinduism, you would perform japa with the beads. You count the beads while reciting a mantra for each bead in order to train the mind. So as we mentioned in the practice at the beginning of this lecture, we repeat a mantra in order to protect the mind, to train it, to cease being negative. Mantra means “mind protection.” Japa is when you are reciting a prayer in your mind, but not mechanically, instead consciously, with force, with devotion. And we have many mantras in our tradition, but also in many other religions. Amongst the Sufis it is Allah Hu Allah. Amongst the Hindus we have Hari Krishna and many other prayers, which are really effective, but if you repeat them mechanically, they are useless. You have to be conscious of what you are doing. And sometimes in ancient traditions, they would train themselves reciting those prayers by counting beads. Repeating again and again a mantra to remember the presence of divinity within. To invoke energy in the mind, the heart, the body. But the best act of worship, of prayer, is watchfulness. Watchfulness of the moment. It isn't by going to some spiritual place going to Tibet, going to a church or a mosque in which one is going to find communion with the divine. You find divinity by being watchful. The physical place doesn't matter so much. The best act of worship is when you are paying attention, self-observing. We discussed in our previous lectures about the path of self-observation in which you as a consciousness are observing your three brains: your thoughts, your feelings, your body. Observing the impulses of the mind, the instincts, our sexual drives, our thoughts, our emotions. We become mindful. We observe ourselves like we are watching an actor in a film as if we are the director. So this watchfulness, when you are paying attention, is precisely that greatest prayer we can enact, because if you are not aware as a consciousness, you cannot know divinity. You cannot perceive divinity here and now. Like I said in that experience, my Divine Mother said, "You are lost. Where are you?" And I felt panic, because She was showing me that “you are not worshipping Me. You are not remembering Me.” How do you remember divinity? When you are provoked with anger or negative elements, and then you realize what to do. How to act. How to behave. Not only just physically, but mentally you make choices. You have insight. Instead of responding with resentment or revenge, you transform the situation with love. This is the meaning of the following statement: The best act of worship is watchfulness of the moments. That is, that the servant not look beyond his limit, not contemplate anything other than his Lord, and not associate with anything other than his present moment. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
So what does it mean that the servant not look beyond his limit? So when we prefer perform Bhakti Yoga, we are serving divinity. We are also performing Karma Yoga, positive action. When we don't look beyond our limit, it means don't think about other things. Don't worry about other things. Be fully concentrated in what we are doing, because to be distracted in a moment of crisis can produce a tragedy. As Samael Aun Weor stated in Revolutionary Psychology, people who don't know how to transform negative internal psychological states, become victims of circumstances, and even a simple mistake or moment can bring one disgrace."
So don't look behind your limit. Don't think about other things. Don't associate with anything other than the present moment. Don't think about anything other than your Being. Be aware of your Inner God. That is a quality that you learn to become a familiar with practice. So in the beginning we feel we are blind. We lack insight. We want to know divinity. We want to have some type of experience. We feel some longing, some inspiration. People say, “I can't meditate; I can't have an out-of-body experience; I haven't seen these things for myself…” and many people get filled with despair. They write to us. And one thing I always mention to them, is that “Well, what are your longings? What do you feel?” And they say, "I feel in my heart that this knowledge is very true and I have experienced certain things." “Okay, that is the next next step. Follow your longing, that intuition, that judgment, that inner hunch in your heart. The more you feed that, that spark will grow into a flame as you train yourself in meditation.” That is mindfulness. I remember, personally, many years ago, before I found this knowledge, I was looking and looking and looking and not being satisfied with what I was finding. Then I realized what I was looking for was already within me. So mindfulness is the key. That is the greatest form of worship, because your body is a temple of God. The mind, the heart, can become a temple of the Being if we purify it. So in those moments of great crisis, moral and emotional suffering, when we learn not to look beyond our limit, meaning: don't wish for the situation to change, but actually change it. Or if you can't change it, at least be conscious, because some situations we can't change. People are going to be what they are going to be. Sometimes you can't make those changes in them, so instead what you have to do is not harm them, and that of course becomes very difficult. Like Odysseus, in the symbol of The Odyssey, he was tied to a ship mast when he was sailing next to the sirens. It is a symbol that relates to this teaching. Where the sirens were calling him and he was driven mad with passion, with frenzy, or even anger, wanting to jump overboard or sail the ship into the reefs and become shipwrecked. It is a symbol of how in those great moments of suffering and crisis, we have to tie ourselves to our mast. Control our mind. Use our will. Even though we are tempted by those different defects, or egos, or wills, as we have been discussing in this course, we learn to be firm, to be mindful. That is a form of worship. Be mindful of what you are doing. Be awake. Don't daydream. When you learn to be in the present moment, you become conscious of the path itself. 
The Lines of Life and Being
We use this glyph to talk about the intersection of the line of life with the line of being.
The line of life is simply our existence from our birth in the past, to our childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, old age, sickness, death, towards the future. The line of life is mechanical. Everybody experiences this. People go through life typically identified with their name, their language, their culture, their customs, their beliefs, their religion, their concepts, their philosophy, their politics; and yet, when those people go to the grave, those things don't go with them. So that type of mentality that only believes that materialism is the only tangible, experiential thing are really mistaken, because we do have something intersecting with that line of life, which has to do with the line of being. Our level of consciousness. Above we have superior levels of consciousness, which is represented by Jacob's Ladder in the Bible, in which the angels were ascending and descending in this vision that Jacob had in the Book of Genesis. As above there are heavenly states of consciousness inhabited by beings like angels and prophets, you also have inferior states of consciousness, relating to negative ways of being, known as the hell realms, which again are symbols of something psychological. They are places too, but, what's important is to realize our psychological state, because what we are psychologically determines where in nature we gravitate. If we are filled with envy, and lust, and pride, we naturally gravitate towards inferior states of being the hell realms, which is experienced in nightmares and dreams. But there are also heavenly states of being, heavenly states of consciousness. People typically go through life totally not paying attention of where they are at, where they are going, what they are thinking. Most people only relate to external things, which is the mechanical line of life. But someone who learns to awaken consciousness in meditation ascends the vertical path moment by moment, instant by instant. That is the path of remembrance of divinity. When instead of responding with conditions of mind, we react or better said respond with cognizance, with light. Knowledge belongs to the line of life, because intellectual knowledge, knowing how to have a job, a career, a business, is necessary, but it's not everything. Comprehension is something much more profound and is what concerns any person who studies meditation. Knowledge and comprehension are different. Knowledge is of the mind. Comprehension is of the heart. ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology
So what is comprehension? We know in a very basic level when you put your hand on a hot stove, you get burned and then you realize not to repeat that action. It is a very superficial form of comprehension, but real comprehension is when you understand the conditioning of the psyche and then you don't act on those elements. You comprehend how lust, how fear, how hatred, is negative and when you really comprehend how those elements are destructive, you resolve not to go back to them and not to perpetuate your suffering and making other people suffer too.
So comprehension is real prayer, because when you comprehend your situation, whatever circumstances of life present itself and how the mind is the source of suffering, we then dedicate ourselves to changing fundamentally. It is a profound form of prayer. Question: Does the intersection of the line of life and line of being relate to the Christian cross and the cross of the four elements? Instructor: It does relate to the cross, which is the crossing of the four elements, but also the cross of the present moment, because when Christ was crucified, He came to physically represent or symbolize something psychological too. The death of the animal mind, of egotism, is in the present moment, here and now, and also the rebirth, or resurrection, or experience of the divine happens on the cross in the present moment. But also there is more deeper significance as you know. 
The Eightfold Steps of Yoga in the Song of the Lord
We'll talk about a few excerpts from the Bhagavad-Gita [“The Song of the Lord”], which teaches something profound about the nature of Bhakti Yoga, of conscious prayer.
So in the myth or in the scripture the Lord Krishna comes to Arjuna, who is a representation of the Christic energy. Christ is not a person, but a force, symbolized by the Greek Khrestos, meaning fire. That fire manifests within many prophets or masters who come to teach humanity something profound. Krishna was the embodiment of that light and represents that divine energy. Arjuna is, in our fundamental depth, willpower, human soul, human consciousness, and if you remember in the Mahabharata from which the Bhagavad-Gita is taken, Arjuna is in despair, because he is told by Krishna that he has to go to war against his family, his family members, his relatives. This is the same symbol that we talked about in the Book of Judges previously, in the lecture Conscious Judgment, where the people of Israel, symbolizing the forces of the soul, have to go against the ego, the armies of Sisera. So there's a great battle that emerges in the soul when we begin this path, because our animalistic egotistical elements don't want to die, and so they fight for their life. When Arjuna sees the vast armies of his former companions, his relatives who are against them, he feels despair. Who are those relatives? Fear, laziness, lust, pride, everything we are familiar with that we typically associate with ourselves. Then when we go against that, we realize there is a big battle about to happen and, of course, Arjuna feels despair. He's despondent. But that is when Krishna comes and teaches him what he needs to do in order to overcome his own mind. He explains the path of Bhakti Yoga very beautifully in this chapter on the Yoga of Devotion, where he teaches him how to consciously pray, to receive help. 1. Arjuna said: “Those devotees who, ever steadfast, thus worship Thee and those also who worship the Imperishable and the Unmanifested which of them are better versed in Yoga?” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
Again, meaning union of the soul with the divine.
2. The Blessed Lord said: “Those who, fixing their minds on Me, worship Me, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme faith, these are the best in Yoga in My opinion.” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
So what does it mean to fix one's mind on the divine? It means to concentrate. To not think about other things. That is how you worship the divine. You receive insight. To be steadfast means to be consistent, meaning to adopt meditation and to practice it daily for it to have real effect.
3. “Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifested, the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the eternal and the immovable, 4. Having restrained all the senses, even minded everywhere, intent on the welfare of all beings, verily they also come unto Me.” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
We mentioned previously in our lectures in this course about the Eightfold Path of Yoga taught by Patanjali, known as Ashtanga, meaning eight-limbed form of yoga. We have discussed these steps in depth. The first is Yama, meaning “restraint of mind,” and as we have been discussing in this lecture, one learns to restrain negative habits, egotism, desires, that is the first step of yoga. People who give in to their egotism, their desires, their anger, can never meditate, because the mind becomes a chaos and when you invest your energy into the ego, you feed the ego and make it fat. So the first step of yoga is restraint. Restrain the mind.
By restraining the mind we learn to follow Niyama, meaning “precepts.” Precepts have to do with codes of conduct, virtues, whichever religion stipulates in their own way. Don't kill, don't steal, don't lie, don't fornicate, don't commit adultery. These are not rules to repress people, but the teach us psychologically how to save energy, how to awaken consciousness. The next step is Asana, your posture. As we said in our opening practice, your asana, your posture should be firm but relaxed. The body can't relax if the mind and the heart are in chaos, or agitated. If one wants to learn how to calm the body, the mind has to be calm, meaning: don't feed desire. You feed desire, you feed the ego, which is synonymous. The mind can't settle, because in a moment of anger, we lose energy. Or a moment of lust, we lose energy and that energy, which can be used for conscious development, is lost. When the body is calm, you can begin practices of Pranayama, or work with mantra, energy. Pranayama means to “yoke the prana,” the energies of the body, and the mind, and the heart, and our sexuality. When you control your breathing with mantras or with certain interchangeable nostril breathing exercises, you learn to circulate energy so that the mind settles. So the practice we did at the beginning of this lecture, the mantra RAM-IO, helps to channel energy and focus it in the mind and the heart. Then when those energies are present, we learn to restrain our senses. The senses become calm. This is known as Pratyahara. Pratyahara is when you restrain the senses and where you are focused fully within yourself. You begin to settle, you become calm. Pratyahara is like a lever that can produce the other steps of meditation, that are fundamental. So these are things that we can't skip. They are not rules like something dogmatic to follow, but they are principles to apply consciously. With restraining the senses you don't get distracted by what is going on outside in the neighbor's house, the sounds that one hears. The mind becomes calm. That is when one becomes even-minded, concentrated. As stated in the fourth verse of the scripture, "To be even minded is to be concentrated." To be serene, meaning: whatever you are doing, do it with full attention. Don't think about other things. Don't get distracted. With concentration we learn to focus on one object of focus for our practice in order to experience Dhyana, meaning meditation. Dharana is concentration. Dhyana is actual meditation. We state that meditation is not a practice. It is a state of being in which you receive knowledge. So that experience I mentioned to you where I was talking to my Divine Mother, that was a form of meditation, but in the astral plane where I was receiving knowledge from my Inner Goddess, in that moment I understood, comprehended something profound about my dilemma. That is Samadhi, the next step. The eighth and final step which is comprehension, understanding. Samadhi is when you comprehend something profoundly without the influence of the mind, of the intellect, of the ego. So notice that the Bhagavad-Gita teaches these steps of yoga in its verses. If you wish to know and worship the Divine through prayer, one must be steadfast and with discipline, fix one's mind on that presence, which is not a physical entity, but force, a state of consciousness, a way of being. And, by learning to meditate or being concentrated all day, when you sit to practice, your mind is easily focused on one thing. You don't get distracted. You don't think about other things. You don't get lost in daydreams or worries. Because people who sit to practice for ten minutes and who are distracted all day, they don't get anywhere. But if you are concentrated on what you are doing at all moments of life, your life becomes your religion, your discipline, your practice. So notice that we have the two armies presented before Krishna and Arjuna. It is obviously a very difficult thing to know in oneself to confront; that we have many egos and defects that need to be comprehended and eliminated. So in the path of conscious judgment, we talked extensively about comprehension. How to comprehend the mind, how to comprehend the ego. Prayer and Self-Remembrance
The next step is learning to pray. To receive help from a superior force, from our Inner Goddess to aid us in those moments of great crisis and battle, when moment by moment, we are learning to face certain challenges and ordeals―certain situations that provoke elements that we never even suspected that we had, and by learning to be observant, we catch them.
We catch those defects in action. That is discovery, and when we learn to meditate on out faults, we learn to judge them. By comprehending them, we pray to our Divine Mother to eliminate. We will be talking about this process towards the end of this lecture, but of course this produces a great struggle in oneself. Trying to comprehend the mind produces great suffering, because we recognize morally that we are responsible for all of our sufferings and faults, which are very overwhelming to face in the beginning especially. Which is why the Bhagavad-Gita states: 5. “Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the Unmanifested; for the goal―the Unmanifested (the divine)―is very difficult for the embodied to reach. 6. But to those who worship Me (who are mindful, who are awake moment by moment), renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the supreme goal, meditating on me with single-minded yoga (concentration), 7. To those whose minds are set on Me O Arjuna, verily I become ere long the savior out of the ocean of the mortal Samsara!” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
So what does it mean to renounce all actions “in Me,” in the divine? This is known as self-remembrance in our tradition―to remember the presence of your Inner God in those moments, particularly in which one is being challenged, confronted, criticized, lied about, gossiped, even attacked. You renounce all actions in the divine when you don't act egotistically, but remember the light of your presence, your Inner God, who comes to you like a light, an insight, an understanding in your mind and your heart. You learn to act on that impulse when it arrives spontaneously, intuitively.
"Fix thy mind on Me only, thy intellect in Me…” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
The word intellect in Sanskrit is Buddhi, which is a representation of the consciousness. When we think of intellect, we typically think of thought, so this is a bad translation. The original is Buddhi, which we are going to talk about in the next slide. Buddhi is the Divine Consciousness, Geburah (Deborah), judgment.
8. “Fix thy mind on Me only, thy intellect in Me, (then) thou shalt no doubt live in Me alone hereafter. 9. If thou art unable to fix thy mind steadily on Me, then by the Yoga of constant practice do thou seek to reach Me, O Arjuna!” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
Meaning: if your mind is still wandering and you are not able to concentrate, train yourself daily with simple practices. Take a candle or take an object to focus, like on a lit flame, and observe it. And as you are observing, observe your mind. Observe what you are observing, but also be aware of how you are seeing or perceiving. If your mind starts thinking about other things, just gently bring your attention back to the candle, and that will train you how to cease being distracted moment by moment. That can help empower your consciousness. That is part of some preliminary exercises one engages with when one prepares for meditation itself.
So by the yoga of constant practice, one can reach the divine, because consistency is key. 
The Stages of Meditation and Prayer in the Tree of Life
We were talking about the Kabbalistic tree of life in our previous lectures. This image known in the Book of Genesis as the Tree of Life, is a symbol, a map of consciousness. These are different levels of perception, of matter and energy, and we have been talking extensively about these different degrees or sephiroth, modalities of being, in order to understand how to meditate.
In our practice we talked about the body known as Malkuth in Hebrew, represented as the “kingdom.” This is where we are. But, of course, above that are higher levels or modalities of energy and perception, which are not vertically situated in space, but instead, represent levels of being, ways of consciousness, ways of perceiving. We have Yesod, relating to our vital energies, our creative energies, our sexual energy itself, which can give life to spiritual life, or even to a physical child, depending on how we use that energy, which is very well known in Buddhism as Tantra, and Hinduism as well. We have the emotional sphere relating to Hod, meaning “splendor.” This is the emotions or astral body, the world of dreams. Yesod means “Foundation”―the foundation of our spiritual temple, because how we use our creative energy determines our spiritual life―energy that we activate through exercises like pranayama and mantra, which helps to settle the heart as well, Hod, the emotions. To the right we have Netzach, meaning “victory,” the mind. When you conquer the mind, you become a Buddha, a victorious one, a master. Above that though we have a more rarefied form of energy and perception known as Tiphereth, which means “beauty.” This is willpower. Willpower is simply the ability to act, but for most of us this will is conditioned to thought (Netzach), to emotions (Hod), to energy or sensations in the body, related with Yesod and Malkuth. Our will, which is at the very center of this glyph, is the very focal point of all action in our very being, so this is an image of who we are psychologically. And the very center we have willpower, because it is through will is how we can access the higher levels of being or we can condition ourselves further. So when you learn to concentrate, you are using your will. To control thought, feeling, impulse, and the body. Notice that when we practice meditation or when we prepare ourselves, we relax the body. We also relax out energies. We have to relax our heart, relax our mind, and then we concentrate on one thing. So we have the five lower sephiroth represented in our discipline. If we want to access the higher levels of being, we have to use our willpower, and willpower is concentration. Are you able to focus on one thing without thinking, or feeling, or being distracted by the body? Because when your mind is still, your emotions are calm, your energies are balanced―willpower becomes empowered. It allows you to experience the higher sephiroth known as Geburah, “Justice,” of which we spoke extensively in our previous lecture. This is Buddhi in Sanskrit, the divine consciousness. To the right we have Chesed, meaning “Mercy,” our Inner God, our spirit, which in Hebrew is אל El, the Being. Above that we have the trinity of Christianity: Kether, Chokmah, Binah (Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence), which is the highest form of energy in the cosmos, represented by the trinity among the Christians, as Osiris, Isis, and Horus among the Egyptians. Wotan, Baldor, Thor among the Nordics. You have Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya in Buddhism. Our Divine Mother is the feminine aspect of Binah, intelligence. She is Shakti, the wife of Shiva, the Holy Spirit, which is a force, not a person. That energy is within our body. We have the energies of the Father in the brain, Kether. We have the energies of Christ, the son, Horus, in the heart. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in sex, the sexual organs. So that power which can give life to a child, if it's used well and harnessed, can give birth to the soul. Those are very rarefied levels of consciousness, which we can access in meditation if we are concentrated, because if our will is not empowered, is not guided by the spirit and by our consciousness, if we are distracted by our thoughts, and our feelings, and our sensations, we can pray all we want, but we are not going to get the answers we want, because the mind has to be calm, the body has to be calm. The lower sephiroth have to be in control, to be still. We have a quote from Hamlet, in which Claudius is confessing his crime to himself for having murdered his brother, which is a symbol of masonry and many other traditions of the death of the divine potential within us. Claudius is a representation of the ego, and he said something very profound in relation to this lecture that's relevant to state. My words fly up to heaven, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to Heaven go. ―Hamlet, 3.3.100-103
So Shakespeare was an esotericist, a meditator. Your words can fly up to heaven. You can be asking and asking for insight, but if your concentration is down in your body, if you are moving your body, being irritated, if you are identified with thought or feeling, it means that those words will never reach the divine. Words without thoughts, without concentration, never reach the destination. Or better said, we never get the insights we want, because the mind is in chaos.
This is why Prophet Muhammad stated that “An hour of contemplation is better than a year of prayer.” Meaning, an hour of meditation, of experiencing your Inner God is better than going to mosque for a year and praying salat five times a day mechanically. So people can do that if they like, but if it's mechanical, it doesn't serve any purpose, which brings into mind a saying by a Sufi master by the name of Bayazid Bastami, who talked about the real esoteric meaning of prayer. Muslims, when they pray, they pray towards the east, towards the Kaaba, which in alchemical or Kabbalistic teachings relate to the stone of the Freemasons. That stone, the Kaaba, is a symbol of the energies of Yesod, the foundations of our spiritual temple. Notice that this sphere is at the very base of the whole Tree of Life and is at the very bottom. It is the foundation. How we use this energy, the creative energies of our body, determines our spiritual life. People in the Muslim tradition have lost the meaning of this significance. They pray towards the stone in the Middle East but ignore that they have the stone in their own body. They don't use their energies consciously. You can pray all you want to the the East, towards Mecca, but the Sufi Master by Bayazid Bastami pointed out something very beautiful. He said: When you are separate from the Kaaba (Yesod), it is all right to turn toward it. But those who are in it can turn towards any direction that they wish. ―Bayazid Bastami
Meaning, if you are actively using your energies wisely, you can access the whole Tree of Life. You go to any direction, because notice that there are ten spheres, ten sephiroth. These are the ten directions of Buddhism mentioned by the tantric scriptures. Ten modalities of energy. So if you learn to use that energy in yourself, you don't need to pray towards a stone. You can if it brings you reverence, but if you pray, be conscious of what you do, because those who don't learn to work with that energy can access the higher aspects of the Tree of Life, the consciousness.
The Path of Balance
So one must be even balanced in order to perform Raja Yoga, as well as Bhakti Yoga. As we have been stating, one must learn to calm the mind and to learn to be compassionate in all circumstances.
13. He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving, 14. Ever content, steady in meditation, possessed of firm conviction (from having internal experiences), self controlled, with mind and intellect (Buddhi) dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to Me. 15. He by whom the world is not agitated and who cannot be agitated by the world, and who is freed from joy, envy, (or better said, egotistical joy, evil pleasures), fear and anxiety―He is dear to me. ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
So to not be agitated by the world, neither to agitate the world. Like the Christian saying, “Be in the world, but not of it.” Interact with others like as the Buddhist teach: a butterfly going from flower to flower, extracting the pollen, the knowledge, the insight one needs, transforming those situations, and leaving without harming the flower itself, the petals.
16. “He who is free from wants (who is not constantly occupied with one's bills or trying to sustain oneself in this life), pure, expert, unconcerned, and untroubled (meaning: an expert in meditation unconcerned as is stated in the Gospels)…” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
See the lilies of the field and the birds of the sky, how they toil not nor spin. Why worry about what raiment you shall have for yourself? What money, what sustenance, because your inner dvinity knows you need these things, so therefore have faith in your Inner God to give you what you need so long as we do our part.
16. “He who is free from wants, pure, expert (in meditation), unconcerned, and untroubled, renouncing all undertakings or commencements (meaning: to not act egotistically in any circumstance), he who is (thus) devoted to Me, is dear to Me.” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion
And this has to do with the path of balance, not being identified, even with those qualities we think are good, psychologically speaking. We have many bad egos as we have been talking about. There are also many good egos, senses of self that know how to do good, like to give money, or to the be a member of some Church or Mosque or Masjid, or whatnot. But even the ego, the sense of self that thinks it does good, is subjective. Consciousness is something much more transcendental or profound.
17. “He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing good and evil (as philosophical concepts, but learning to act in the present moment consciously), and who is full of devotion, is dear to me. 18. He who is the same to foe and friend, and in honor and dishonor, who is the same as in cold and heat, and in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment (identification, desire), 19. He to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent (in the mind), content with anything, (even) homeless (meaning: not identified with having a house or a home but being not attached to the world even if one has a house or not), of a steady mind and full of devotion, that man is dear to Me (that meditator is dear to Me). 20. They verily who follow this immortal Dharma, (this doctrine or law), as described above, endowed with faith (conscious experience), regarding Me as their supreme goal, they, the devotees, are exceedingly dear to Me.” ―Bhagavad-Gita, The Yoga of Devotion 
The Three Factors for Spiritual Revolution
Let us talk about the teachings of the Divine Mother we have been discussing. We have what is called three factors in order to achieve success in meditation and the spiritual path itself.
We have the path of birth. The path of death. The path of sacrifice. Birth relates to chastity, which does not mean sexual abstention, but by learning to harness the energies of sexuality, the body, Yesod, the vital forces, one learns to take that energy and to empower one's meditation, because that energy which can create a child, if we conserve that force and transform it, it can awaken the soul in its full capacity. We also have what is called the death of desire, sanctity, which is what we have been discussing in the path of judgment. To comprehend the sources of the ego, our defects, and to eliminate them, to annihilate them―so that by breaking those shells, we free consciousness like the genie from Aladdin's lamp―so that the soul can perform miracles, experiences, knowledge, powers in ourselves. Sacrifice, to have charity. It doesn’t mean to just give money to the poor or what not―it can involve that. But you also sacrifice for others when you learn to perform your job with consciousness, with love, so that we don't harm others. These three factors we will be talking more in depth in future courses, but these three we find are synonymous, different aspects of one thing. If you want to awaken consciousness, we have to learn to use energy, to give birth to the soul. We have to learn to comprehend the sources of the ego, to die in those defects, and learn to serve others. 
The Stages of Comprehension
So the stages of comprehension, which are fed by those three factors, involve the following. We discussed in our previous lecture the light of consciousness, the path of discovery, and in the path of conscious judgment, we talked about the second step, judgment. In this lecture. we are talking about execution, prayer.
So we have in this image the Divine Mother slaying a demon. She is the power of the Kundalini that can eliminate our conditions of mind, our defects, our egos, which she does through the creative energies of sexuality, harnessed within a matrimony or between man and woman, who can learn to use those energies as a couple to transform the mind. So we find many interesting symbols in her hands, and the fact that she has multiple hands represented by Durga riding a lion, represents her ability, her omniscience, to act in all circumstances of life without conditions. To act in multiple ways. With discovery, we find our defects―we observe ourselves moment by moment. We save energy. We serve others. We comprehend our faults in meditation through judgment and after we have comprehended our defects, we learn to execute them, or better said, the Divine Mother, the divine feminine, executes them through prayer. We have been discussing how prayer is to speak with divinity, with the divine, face to face. The Divine Mother is the root energy at the base of our spine, but also in our heart. She is the energy that can liberate the soul. So we work with her daily in our gnostic studies in order to remove the obscurations of the mind, to comprehend ourselves, but also to invoke that divine power―to destroy the shells of the ego. So again, we see Her riding a lion, which is very symbolic. That lion is a symbol of the lion of Judah among the Christians. Judea or י Yod, ה Hei, ו Vav, ד Daleth, ה Hei, which has the four sacred letters of the name of God: י Yod ה Hei ו Vav ה Hei, יהוה Jehovah. As we talked about in our previous lectures, יה Ya or י Yod ה Hei is the Father. ה Hei or הוה Havah is Eve, the divine feminine. Male-female. Man-woman. Because we have a Divine Father above and a Divine Mother above within our consciousness. So יהוה Yod-Havah, Jehovah, is the power of male-female. And הוה Havah, or Adam-Eve we can say, and יהוה Ya-Havah is precisely the power of the divine feminine. הוה Havah, hidden within Durga, who is the power that can slay any ego, any defect, where we learn to pray to Her consciously. Samael Aun Weor stated in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology: Prayer in the psychological work is fundamental for the dissolution of the “I” (the ego, the myself). We need a power superior to the mind if indeed we want to disintegrate this or that “I” (whether it be pride, an ego of vanity, of fear, of lust).
Meaning: those who forget after they have begun working on their mind, to continue working with Her.
So again, that experience comes to my mind where She told me, "Where are you? I can't find you on this radar." So, one must not forget one's Divine Mother when you begin this work. She is the power that can liberate the consciousness from the ego, the self. She is the Virgin Mary, Miriam. As I said, the word מרים Miriam means “to raise,” and what else is the power that can raise us to the heights of the heavens except the Kundalini in the spine? She is the power of מרים Miriam, or מים Mayim, which in Hebrew means water. You have מ ם Mem repeated twice. The letter מ ם M in Hebrew and the letter ר R. Miriam. You have the word מים Mayim, which means “water” and the letter ראש Rosh means “head.” So those waters of the creative energy are in the base of your spine, in your sexual organs, which if you raise through certain practices up the spine to the mind, you can illuminate the intellect, produce the halo of the saints. She is the power that can raise us from suffering up the line of being. Practical Advice for Psychological Work
Samael Aun Weor provides some advice about this:
Make yourselves introversive. Direct your prayer within, seeking within your interior your Divine Lady. Thus with sincere supplications you shall be able to talk to Her. Beg Her to disintegrate the "I" that you have previously observed and judged. Comprehension and the discernment are fundamental. ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology
Meaning: you have to see your egos in action. See what arose in your mind, in your heart, in your body at a certain instance of the day. Be specific. Be understanding of what defect you saw in action in each moment of your day. To discern is precisely the capacity to see, to discriminate, to understand.
Nonetheless, something more is necessary if indeed what we want is to disintegrate the “myself” (the ego, the I).
Stella Maris is Virgin of the Sea, the waters. Those waters are precisely your energies in your body and those waters, if we learn to control them through breathing exercises, mantras, circulate those forces up the spine, they help to awaken faculties of the consciousness in their full potential.
She is the power that can liberate the soul, and she is also represented in the Tarot. We have been giving a course on the twenty-two arcana of the tarot and in the eleventh arcanum, which will be our next lecture, we find a virgin holding open the jaws of a lion.
It is interesting that in these images of the tarot, we find many symbols that relate to every religion. Notice that Durga rides upon a lion because that lion is the energy of Christ, Jehovah, whom we work with and dominate through the power of the divine feminine. So that lion, instead of attacking her, is pleasant, is tranquil. She opens the jaws of the lion, meaning, She controls those forces completely in us when we learn to meditate. The transcendental axiom or statement of this arcanum, this law, this teaching, because the word arcanum means “law,” is the following: Joyful in hope, suffering and tribulation, be thou constant in thy prayer. ―Transcendental Axiom of Arcanum 11: Persuasion
So, as you are working and self-observation of your defects, learn to pray to your Inner Goddess. Ask for help, for insight. Ask her to help you control the jaws of the lion, which is your energies, because sometimes we have energy that wants to act in ways that we can't control, and we have to appeal to her deeply, to guide us. We won't talk about this arcanum in depth today, because we are giving whole course on this and this will be our next lecture.
Ways to Develop Devotion
Some ways that you can learn to develop Bhakti Yoga in yourself are through the following ways stipulated by Swami Sivananda in his book Easy Steps to Yoga.
Sravana
We have Sravana, hearing the Lila of God. To hear the Lila of God means you develop devotion by hearing the teachings, by reading scripture and understanding its meaning.
How does it apply to your life practically? You can read any scripture that you have an affinity for and meditate on its meaning. How does it apply to certain circumstances in your life? Otherwise, it's just theory. You may read the Bhagavad-Gita, the Qur’an, the Old Testament; find scriptures that are explained that are meaningful to you. That is a form of devotion. We read scriptures that inspire us, that teach something profound about ourselves. Kirtana
We have Kirtana, singing His praise. Kirtan is very common in schools of yoga where they have small concerts and they play many traditional Hindu songs, but there are many other forms of singing, of prayer, like amongst the Christians you have Cistercian monks and even classical music, we have choral pieces, which are very divine, very profound, that one can learn to be a part of, that inspires you.
Smarana
Smarana, remembering His name. This typically has to do with reciting a mantra. So, you can relate to remember your inner divinity by reciting a prayer or mantra, moment-by-moment, mentally. You know RAM-IO, you can pronounce mentally in your mind and in your mind recite japa, prayer. Repeat that mantra, whatever mantra you resonate with, that gives you power in your consciousness.
Padasevana
Padasevana, worshiping his lotus feet. It literally means “service to the feet.” This has many beautiful meanings that are explained in the Judeo-Christian Bible by Jesus anointing the feet of his disciples before his passion. To wash one's feet with ointment, with oil, is a symbol. It is very profound. To have dreams of washing one's feet, which are filled with mud, with pure water, is a symbol of removing the impurities in the mind, because how you walk in your daily life is how you walk spiritually. You can't separate the two.
Most people think that life in the mosque and life at work are separate. They don't see the connection. But the truth is that your work is your religion. How you behave psychologically is your is your mysticism, your path. To wash the feet in waters of purity is a very beautiful Christian symbol related to baptism and transmutation, as we have been explaining in our courses, which you can find available explanations on our website. By worshiping His lotus feet is to purify the mind because when you purify your mind and your body by working with energy, you develop devotion. The heart becomes inflamed, inspired. Archana
Archana is offerings. This is very well traditionally-understood as providing flowers or some kind of holy relics upon an altar, but a real offering is when you as a consciousness decide to restrain from certain habits, which are negative. Certain defects that you observed. You make an offering to the your Divine Being and say "I will renounce this ego that I have in me and offer my self with sacrifice." To receive those benefits. Then of course divinity always responds because when you work on the ego, you develop light. You illuminate the darkness; you develop light.
Vandana
Vandana, prostration, can mean many forms of prayer, not only in Hinduism but also Buddhism and Islam. To prostrate is to surrender oneself, psychologically-speaking. In so many traditions, they involve prayers and prostrations, which we do too in this tradition, as well certain prayers we do on our knees or certain exercises we do on our knees as a form of reverence for the divine.
Dasya
Dasya is service, as we have explained in great detail today, related to Karma Yoga. What are ways that you can help other human beings to benefit? It doesn't mean by having to give this type of knowledge, but instead refers to how we possess certain skills that can benefit other people. We have qualities that are intrinsic to our dispositions and which we have to offer. So, we have to find what it is that we are good at and that we can really give to others to be of benefit. When we do it with love, we are performing service, yoga, union, karma, Karma Yoga; therefore, we receive certain benefits, blessings from divinity, because in order to receive help, we have to give help according to our level.
Sakya
Sakya is friendship, and has to do with associating with people who are like-minded. Meaning, people who are more elevated or spiritual, because obviously, sometimes we may be associated with certain people who are drunkards, drug addicts, and like attracts like, so to speak. If you want to be around better vibrations, you make friends with or associate with people who help inspire your spirituality. It is always good. That way when you are very confident about your level of being, you can help those who are less fortunate.
Atmanivedana
Lastly Atmanivedana, complete self-surrender, which has to do with when you recognize your ego and you don't give it what it wants. You surrender your consciousness to your Inner God. It is a psychological state of being to surrender one's mind, one's heart, one's body for one's divinity.
Conclusion
We are going to conclude this lecture with the following quote where Swami Sivananda states:
Study the Gita, Ramayana, and Bhagavata. Have Satsanga. Visit holy places (Teertha-Yatra). Do Japa. Meditate. Sing His Name. You can develop Bhakti and have his Darsana (yogic discipline, such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, by following these steps). ―Swami Sivananda, Easy Steps to Yoga Questions and Answers
Question: Is there any technique that can help with negative emotions?
Instructor: With negative emotions, especially, you could step aside for a minute or five minutes to have a break. Sit, relax, breathe. Inhale for six seconds, hold your breath for six seconds, exhale for six seconds. Then when your mind is calm, if you have even more time, do pranayama. Do transmutation of your energies by working with the breath and circulating that force, because that energy will help calm you, especially when you get overwhelmed by certain egos or defects and you feel like you are going to lose control. Like if you are very upset with someone or someone challenges you or does something very negative, it can be very difficult for transform that, so instead in order to avoid exacerbating the situation, step back for five minutes. Take a break, real quick if you can, somewhere isolated. Just breathe. Focus on your breath. Question: It's something I never really noticed before until I started retrospecting. Instructor: And most people, they had no idea because people who don't self-observe are not going to discover that. But now that you are seeing it, now you seeing, “This is my daily state” as we talked about in the lecture on the “Light of Consciousness.” You must look within to develop light. But of course, when you develop that light, the darkness wants to swallow that light. So it becomes a very painful circumstance. Ways that you can deal with it is to transmute more when you get home. Work with your energies, and pranayama is an is an exercise in which you take the energies of your body and circulate them, such as breathing exercises or mantras. You transform the substance of your bodily energies into energy or force and that will help calm you. Personally if I am at work and I am dealing with, you know, as I mentioned previously, had some very difficult clients that I work with. So, what I do is if I have been overwhelmed at times, at my break, I'll do a mantra in my mind, not aloud. I will be doing other things in my office or my room and I would be doing a mantra, such as: Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gobijana Vallabhaya Swaha.
That mantra we have on the website gnosticteachings.org. You can look under the videos of how to pronounce that. It is a mantra in order to invoke Christ, to remove and reject negativity. Not only just from outside, but from within. So, I found that if I am getting angry, if I was getting angry at certain people, I had to step back and during my break, do this mantra. Totally changes everything.
Question: Where is it located? Instructor: It is in The Perfect Matrimony and the chapter about the Gnostic Pentagram. It's very powerful. You are invoking Klim, Christ. Krishnaya, the Lord Krishna. Govindaya which Govinda relates to “cowherd,” I believe. The shepherd, or the one who leads the souls of the cows to light. Symbol of certain disciples, like sheep in the Bible, where they are led to light. That light enters into you and you can form the pentagram, which is a five-pointed star. When it is upright, it rejects negative forces. And not only just to reject people outside of you who are negative, but more importantly mentally, your internal states. Question: What is the meaning behind Ham-Sah? Instructor: Ham-Sah is a mantra for transmutation. Another exercise of working with the sexual energy, which when you conserve it, you sit in a comfortable place, you imagine your spinal column. We have the famous caduceus of mercury amongst the symbol of medicine, which represents how certain channels of energy rise from the testicles for men or the ovaries for women, up the spine in the form of two snakes, until reaching the head. In the middle you find two wings that open up. It's a symbol of how by working with energy and circulating it, you develop the wings of spirituality and with Ham Sah, you first close your eyes and pray to your Divine Mother. "My Goddess, help me to work with this energy in me because you are that energy. Help me to awaken you within my spine and to calm my mind. Circulate these forces in me!" And then you breathe and inhale through your nostrils, imagine the energy is rising like light up those two energetic channels at the spine, which are called in Hinduism by the name of Ida and Pingala. Masculine and feminine energy. Or in Taoism: Yin and Yang. Or in Hebrew Od and Obd. Adam and Eve. Male and female. A symbol of those forces. When you are inhaling, you imagine these energies rising up the spine to your brain. you pronounce mentally the mantra. "Haaaaaaaaammmmmmm…" You don't verbalize it. You make it mental, and you prolong the inhalation, Ham, [pronounced as with an “Ah” sound] in order to send the energies from your sexual organs to your brain.
That Ham saturates the mind and fills the chalice of the brain and then as you are about to exhale, imagine that energy descending to the third eye through nadis or energetic channels in the face, down into the heart. Then you pronounce externally the mantra "Ssssaah!"
“Ham” is prolonged. We say it is solar, creative. That energy rises, is retained, prolonged because you want to force the energies to circulate up to the mind, or send it in that direction. So, you prolong Ham more profoundly. Samael Aun Weor states you send that energy to the heart with a very relaxed way, “Ssssaah!”
There's nothing to prolong there. I have heard some people pronounce “Sah” very prolonged, but personally, I don't see that in the instructions. Instead “Sah” should be very short and relaxed. “Ham” should be more prolonged because you are teaching your body to circulate those energies inward and upward to the spine, rather than expelling them outward as you know―because for most people that energy is not controlled. It goes out. People don't know how to conserve that energy.
But remember that She is Miriam. She is the waters of your sexuality, which when you conserve, she rises up your spine to your head. ראש Rosh. מרים Miriam. מ Mem means water in Hebrew. מ Mem is the waters in your brain and also ם (Final) Mem is the waters of your sexual organs [since there are two forms of Mem in Hebrew, opening מ Mem and ם Mem Sophit, or final Mem]. You connect the two by working with mantra. Ham-Sah is one way you can do that. To work with Her. That is a very profound form of prayer, when you work with that energy daily, because that way She will really give you a lot of strength and insight. Because without energy we have no light. Without fire there is no light. 
Meditation is the science of knowing oneself completely. It is the method by which we learn to comprehend and to judge ourselves.
Psychologically, as we've been explaining throughout this course, we carry many elements, conditions, many psychological qualities, which trap our potential, our consciousness. As we've explained, the consciousness is simply the capacity to perceive, to know, to understand, and to comprehend. It is a psychological sense of seeing without the need to think, without the need to identify with negative emotion, neither any impulses of our most subconscious, unconscious, and even infraconscious nature―elements that reside within the most profound depths of our psyche, in which religions and different cosmogonies have called hell―which is not just a literal place. It is a symbol, and more importantly for us, it is of a psychological way of being, because whenever we are filled with affliction and suffering, we are in hell. Hell is not a place, specifically in terms of what should really concern us. Instead, what we are psychologically determines where we vibrate within the laws of nature, simply, by cause and effect. Certain actions produce suffering. Certain actions produce harmony. To be able to distinguish within ourselves psychological states that are beneficial from psychological states that are detrimental has been known in different traditions by many names. Some people have called it intuition: to know right from wrong. Not from some moral sense, but from the understanding that certain actions produce harm psychologically, produce suffering, while other actions produce the happiness and genuine contentment of our soul. Intuition is the ability to know how to act in life―to promote actions that are beneficial and promote the happiness of others, as well as our own well-being. Some people have called this intuition by the voice of conscience. Conscience is the whisper in the heart that tells us certain behaviors produce suffering and that certain actions, whether it be at work, with our family, with our loved ones, create conflict. Therefore, meditation is how we resolve conflict, how we silence the mind, not through force, by gagging it or by repressing it, but simply looking at it. Looking at your own mind and observing what qualities condition and shape our experience. This is a psychological sense that typically, in humanity, is very atrophied, because people don't know how to use it. Specifically, people, when they sit in and pursue meditation as a science and as a method, very soon discover the true nature of the mind. We can sit for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, we introspect and then we realize that the body is agitated. It is impulsive. It wants to move. Likewise, the emotions may be surging with a flux of negativity, of suffering, of fear, and of panic. Likewise, the mind carries many memories which seem to surge, fluctuate, and move without any order. The mind is wild and anyone who enters meditation for the first time realizes, with great perplexity, in astonishment, that the mind that we thought we had was unitary, is really fractured. It is fragmented, because every memory, thought, preoccupation and all these things which surge in the mind, really don't have any order. And of course, this is an overwhelming realization, that the mind is really a type of beast, that anger, the negative emotions, that conditioning of the psyche, is animalistic, and when a meditator discovers this, obviously, this is very painful―to discover the true nature of the mind, that it is conditioned within psychological states of suffering, in which all the different mythologies of the ancient traditions depicted in symbols―how the soul, the consciousness, must learn to overcome fear, hatred and pride in oneself. It comes to memory the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. A Greek myth. How Theseus, the soul, must go into a labyrinth in order to discover at the very center what is known as the Minotaur, who is a mythological beast, half man and half bull. In truth, that is a symbol of qualities like hatred, of wrath, fear; which we as a consciousness must go into the maze to fight, to confront with serenity and with insight. We go into the mind to discover the secret conditions which trap our energy, because if you remember in the myth, Theseus goes into the maze and this beast, half man and half bull, is still half human being, because the qualities of our consciousness, who we are in our depth, is truly trapped by animal desire. There is an essence of humanity in that element. But of course as we have been explaining in this course, egotistical qualities like hatred, pride, vanity, these are conditions that trap the energy of our psyche and make us vibrate at a very low level of being. A way of thinking and a way of acting. Our consciousness is trapped in those conditions, in those elements, and the meditator, through the science of introspection, must learn to go into the mind and into the maze of that intellect in order to find the sources of our suffering―the cause of our suffering, of our egotism, and of our negativity. When you sit to meditate you may find that you get distracted very easily and the mind wanders. There isn't much focus, because in the beginning we realize that the mind is a maze. It is a labyrinth. We get easily distracted. But the method by which we go into the mind and discover ourselves for who we really are, how we know what actions are positive and negative, we call in these studies: judgment,―the ability to discriminate, psychologically, what in us is good and what in us is negative. When we learn to discriminate and judge what psychological states produce happiness or sorrow, we learn to live life with greater rectitude and with responsibility, for the happiness of others. Because when we work for the happiness of others and when we eliminate negative emotions, we radiate, naturally, purity and light for humanity, in which they, likewise, people trapped and conditioned with suffering, can learn how to change. Some people call this faculty intuition, that is, to know what is right from wrong. Others call it conscience, the voice that says in our heart that certain qualities in the mind stream are not productive and not helpful. It is a quality that we develop in meditation through daily discipline. Of course, one thing I will mention is that the voice of conscience has been represented in different ways. The story of Pinocchio, written by Carlos Collodi, is a story of a young puppet that wants to become a boy of flesh and blood. A human being. He has a helper by the name of Jiminy Cricket, who is a small figure that sits on his shoulder and tells him, “This is good and this is bad. Don't do this. Don't do that.” Not out of some dogmatic authoritarian sense that one should obey some commandment, some or some ordainment, or some type of law that is man-made. In the story, Jiminy Cricket tends to be ignored and in the story Pinocchio gets into problems, but he genuinely yearns to become a human being. Of course in these studies, we emphasize that a true human being, a master of meditation, an angel, has no egotism and no defect, but rather is pure, someone who, like us, that had learned meditation and learned to go against the Minotaur, to comprehend it, and to understand it; and by the grace of the divine within him, to eliminate, so that condition is broken and the consciousness is freed, is pure and united with divinity. Many myths teach this process of meditation in allegorical form, but here we've only mentioned a few from the Greek tradition, as well as the Italian literature for children. What is masked as a children's story is really something more profound. In this lecture, we will talk about some symbols and some very well-known stories, particularly from the Judeo-Christian Bible, which if read literally, does not detail much except some kind of history, and which is not the point. The language of the Bible and many other teachings is symbolic and allegorical. It is not meant to be read literally, as you'll see from this lecture. We will look at a scripture known as the Book of Judges and talk about its meditative symbolism and also the path of meditation that leads through the maze of the mind and towards understanding, serenity. The Path of Meditation
As we have been indicating:
Internal meditation is a scientific system to receive information.
What information do we seek? What we seek or what any genuine practitioner of meditation seeks in him or herself is to understand the causes of suffering. To understand why we are in pain, why we are afflicted, why we are so filled with grief and seemingly no control over the fate of ourselves and humanity.
The information we seek is how psychological conditions trap the energy of our soul, so that by comprehending them and seeing them in action, we learn to eliminate them. We learn to break those shells. This is the path of self-knowledge. A path of knowing who we really are, and of course, this takes great courage, to confront oneself, but to really take responsibility for our actions, psychologically, as symbolized in the many myths. Of course meditation is a science and it is really effective when it is daily, for meditation to be effective, we have to learn to be consistent. Daily meditation unfolds like a flower, like a rose; something spontaneous, something natural, which really only helps us when we see the fruits and results of that discipline in ourselves and in our daily life. Meditation is how we learn to not only confront ourselves and the negativities of the mind, but better said, to comprehend the beauty of the soul, the beauty of the consciousness, which when it is free of conditions, produces happiness, contentment, genuine faith, and knowledge of the divine―a type of love that is so profound that it overcomes all obstacles, overcomes all sufferings, and overcomes all ordeals. But of course, that sense of knowledge of oneself only develops when we sincerely adopt a daily discipline with this type of exercises, some of which we initiated this lecture, with a mantra, OM. The mantra OM is an effective mantra for providing the soul with energy and with light, so that the consciousness learns to develop or to vibrate with a high level of energy. This helps to silence the mind and to be serene, because in the moments of serenity, of peace, we learn to see ourselves as we are and not as we think, or as we believe, but in actuality. Knowledge and Being
One thing we emphasize in this teaching is the difference between knowledge and comprehension.
Knowledge is of the mind. Comprehension is of the heart. ―Samael Aun Weor
This is from Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology by the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor. Why study knowledge and comprehension when we study meditation? We will seek to know ourselves and to learn to confront the conditioning of the mind.
This is because typically, people confuse knowledge, that is from the intellect, with experience. When you comprehend in yourself how certain actions produce harm and produce pain, we realize with great understanding that to perpetuate those habits and those behaviors will only lead one down a mistaken path. However, many people may know certain knowledge intellectually, in the mind, with reasoning, and yet, that intellectual knowledge will not produce change in a fundamental sense. An alcoholic knows that alcohol is destructive for him or her, but yet continues to indulge in those behaviors. But somebody who comprehends that being alcoholic, to consume that element and to perpetuate that habit, is to be destroyed. To comprehend means to know with your full being and with your full presence, what is helpful and what is not helpful for oneself, for one's psychological well-being. There are many people who read books on meditation and they have a lot of knowledge intellectually, but yet fail to have a sense of genuine contentment, of peace, of serenity, and of insight. Comprehension is when you see in yourself how something is destructive. It is a psychological state, a way of being, a way of perceiving, and a way of thinking. When you comprehend that certain emotions are destructive, you realize with great astonishment and peace that you do not need to invest your energy in those elements which produce pain, not only for ourselves, but for others. You see with great gratitude and serenity that you do not need to suffer anymore because you realize how having created what we call ego or egotism, this negative sense of self, this sense of "I,” of me, of “who I am, what I want, what I crave, what I desire”; when we stop feeding that negative sense of self, we realize that we don't have to engage with suffering. We don't need to be in pain. It is not necessary. Meditation leads us to this understanding. When we realize that by acquiring serenity of mind and no longer giving our energies to negative habits, which produce certain conflicts, we naturally arrive in the intrinsic nature or state of the soul, which is peace. The mind settles like a lake. When the mind is serene, it can reflect through its waters the images of the heavens and the stars. Divinity can manifest and express through you, and through your heart. When you learn to follow your intuition, about the sense of right and wrong, of certain habits that are negative, we then learn to feed the consciousness. We learn to free ourselves from conditions. Intellectual knowledge doesn't change anyone. University, books, and lectures, do not produce any change if we don't learn to apply the techniques of meditation in our daily life―to acquire information about ourselves and to be willing to look in oneself and see, comprehend, and take responsibility for our own actions. Not to blame anyone else for our suffering. There is no one else who created our anger. We created that element. We like to externalize, to blame others, and to judge others, but rarely do we like to judge ourselves. This is the difference between someone who really learns to meditate and somebody who follows some religion, some institution, or some politics. Someone wanting to blame the government, society, a way of thinking, a way of believing, when really the reason why there is so much conflict is because people don't know how to judge themselves. Conscience. To feed the conscience of how we are responsible for our own actions, how we have to take ownership of our own mind, our own psychological states, and to be willing to change them. Contemplation
We study many religions in this tradition because we recognize the universality of meditation among many faiths. We study the essence of every religion. Not the institution, but the practices which produce change.
There is a saying from the oral tradition of Islam from Prophet Muhammad, who gave a very beautiful teaching and which is grossly misunderstood today, he stated, "An hour of contemplation is better than a year of prayer." Adopting a posture or certain prayers and methods in a mechanical sense don't change anybody and doesn’t change anything. People go to mosques, to churches, to synagogues, and they continue to suffer. These people need to analyze and to be willing to reflect. What are we doing? What are our methods? In this tradition we have many methods to teach how to meditate, how to contemplate oneself, and to free oneself from the mind. Prayer by itself, if it's mechanical, if we just say certain words without meaning, without concentration, they will have no effect. They have no impulse, or better said, impact on our psyche. But if we learn to contemplate the presence of divinity and to follow the voice of our inner conscience, inner judgment, then we learn to change. I have been explaining just briefly about some stories which many people read literally and don't know how to interpret with understanding, from the sense of experience or meditative science. We have been talking about judgment. We have talked about some symbols within the Greek myths as well as Pinocchio, but a book that has been greatly misunderstood for millennia are the Judeo-Christian texts. We are just going to explore a couple verses from the Book of Judges because it is a map or teaching of meditation. I will explain some of the symbolism for you to emphasize the struggle that the soul faces with its lower desires, lower defects, and negative qualities, because it is good to recognize and see if we are struggling with meditation itself, to understand that there have been others who have already went through this process. As I said, these beings are known as buddhas, masters, and prophets. Israel, the Soul, in the Book of Judges
The Bible, in the Book of Judges, talks about how the people of Israel are afflicted great suffering. The word ישראל Israel is an acrostic relating to the Egyptian Mysteries. Isis, the goddess of the Egyptian mysteries, the divine feminine and Ra, or Osiris-Ra, the solar entity known as the Father amongst the Christians, which is an energy, a force. אל El in Hebrew means God. If you want to use the Sanskrit equivalent, you say ॐ Om. אל El is ॐ Om and אל El among the Kabbalists, the mystics of Judaism, depict the Hebrew letter אל El within the heart, because your Being, your divinity, is in your heart and can fill your whole consciousness if we learn to connect through practice.
What happened to the people of Israel in this myth is that: …the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of יהוה Jehovah, when Ehud was dead. ―Judges 4:1
Again, who is this Israel?
The people of Israel who need to be freed from the Egyptians and many other people who constantly afflict them, the Philistines and groups of people who are trying to eliminate them. These people (Israelites) are the parts of our consciousness, our soul, which are trapped within anger, hatred, vanity, gluttony, laziness, sloth, fear, and pain, what we call ego, egotism, and desire. These parts of Israel or the people of Israel are the soul that has been fractured and conditioned in all these elements. We need to learn how to free the consciousness from those conditions. We do so through meditation and through the help of our inner divine being, our spirit, our God, ॐ Om or אל El. The word יהוה Jehovah or Iod-Chavah is a representation of the highest form of divinity, which we will be exploring in relation to what is known as the Tree of Life, which is a symbolic map of consciousness and that meditators study in order to understand their experiences in meditation. “The children of Israel did evil in the sight of Jehovah,” meaning: the soul invested its energy within wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong acting. This happened when “Ehud was dead,” and the names in the Bible represents something symbolic, because the Hebrew word אֵהוּד Ehud comes from the Hebrew אֶחָֽד Echad, which means “unity.” The Jews speak abundantly about the unity of God through the Shema: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד “Shema Yisrael Iod-Chavah Eloheinu Iod-Chavah Echad.” Or: “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is One.” The reason why we are in suffering is because we are not in unity. Examine your mind. In one moment, you may be inspired with love, but then the next moment towards the same person, we feel antagonism, hatred, then indifference, perhaps fear, resentment, and jealousy. There is no unity in the mind. The mind is constantly fluctuating. We like to assume that the sense of "I" that we worship is one. That all the thoughts, feelings, and impulses come from one's sense of self. But if you observe the mind, as we've been explaining in this course and in meditation, you see that there are different thoughts, feelings, and impulses which fluctuate. There is no order there. There is no unity there. What we call ego is really a multiplicity: egos. Different "I’s,” myself, and desires which constantly fluctuate and take control of the mind, the heart, and the body to act. When you learn meditation, you begin to see that this dynamic is something very real, but many have not experienced this yet. What we teach and advise is to learn to silence the mind and to look. Observe yourselves. What certain conditions do you think about, ways that you feel, and ways that you act in certain circumstances? Perhaps towards the same people, towards different people, towards strangers and observe. Examine your mind. Is there a sense of unity there or is there contradiction? If we are honest, we see that we are walking contradictions. We are filled with afflictions, sufferings, pains, and ordeals and usually without our knowledge or understanding. This is why in the myth of Carlos Collodi (Pinocchio), he depicted us as a puppet, controlled by strings, and controlled by egos. Of course, this is a very unpleasant fact to realize in oneself, especially when you begin meditation. You see that the mind is in chaos. This is why many people run away from meditation because they realize how overwhelming the mind is and they become filled with fear. “When Ehud was dead,” when the unity of God was dead in us, that was when the soul became conditioned in suffering. 
The Tree of Life: A Map of Meditation
We study this glyph in our tradition. This is known as the Kabbalah and this map has ten spheres, or what is known as ten sephiroth, which are levels of energy, matter, and consciousness, from the most rarefied and pure, divine, to the most material and dense.
This is a map that can explain our experiences in meditation and we will be explaining this graphic, with great detail, throughout our courses. Here I would like to introduce just a few concepts for you in order to understand meditation―also, the Book of Judges, because if you want to interpret what the Bible teaches, you need to know Kabbalah. The word Kabbalah comes from the Hebrew word kabbel, which means “to receive,” to receive knowledge, not with the intellect or from a book, but from meditation. Remember the quote from the beginning of this lecture, "Meditation is a means of acquiring information." It is psychological and spiritual. When you want to understand yourself in meditation and after having certain mystical experiences, you can map your experiences based on this glyph or this dynamic. This Tree of Life is not something literal, vertical in space, as if heavens are above your head or hell is below your feet. It refers to psychological qualities, which integrate, flow, and move within oneself in a very dynamic way. This is a map of our soul or consciousness. Above we have what is known as the higher worlds or higher dimensions; higher levels of being, of perceiving, and of course the forces that come from the divine, from above, descend from this top trinity, to a middle trinity, and finally to what we call in Hebrew, Malkuth, which means “kingdom.” This is our physical body, our Earth. Our physical body is literally an amalgamation of forces which come from above, from the divine. Above this physical body, of which we are all aware of, we have what is known as the vital body or vital energies, which is called Yesod in Hebrew. This is your vital energy. When you wake up in the morning and you go throughout your day, you may sense more or less vitality, an energy in yourself to act, to be, and to do. In the morning, you may have more energy. In the afternoon or in the evening you become tired. That relates to this vital force, which penetrates our physical body. Even though these spheres look like they are separate or static, they really integrate here and now in oneself. Above our vital energies, we have what some traditions call the astral body and our emotions, which are known as Hod in Hebrew. Likewise, we have Netzach, which means “victory” and is related with our mind and our thoughts. Notice that as we ascend this Tree of Life, we begin to sense, experience, and understand greater subtleties in our psychological constitution. The body is dense, but because our consciousness is also limited, this is typically all we sense or become aware of. But if we are more attentive, if we were observing ourselves, we sense that we have certain vital energy flowing in us from morning to evening. Likewise, with emotions and emotional states, moods, thoughts, and the mind. In a more rarefied sense, we have what is called willpower, Tiphereth. Somebody who has a strong will, a strong urge or impulse to do certain occupations, jobs, or things, is working with Tiphereth, or willpower. But most of the time, if we examine ourselves and are honest, we tend to realize that our willpower is usually identified with our thinking, feeling, and our energies. It is simply easy to reflect on our own experience of how most of the time, we go through our day preoccupied with certain day dreams, memories, emotional states, or vital forces that are in our inner constitution, as well as our physical body. Above this willpower we have something more rarefied, which most people have no consciousness of. When we sit to meditate, we may begin to sense our body as we relax it. Also our vital energies, by working with a mantra, as we worked with a mantra OM. We were working with the vital energy to saturate our heart and to send that energy circulating through our nervous system. By working with this energy known as Yesod, which is called the “foundation” of Kabbalah, we learn to ascend up this Tree of Life to higher levels of being. This is why it is good before meditating to do a mantra and work with energy, so that the mind stabilizes. Notice that the heart and the mind become still when we work with that force. Of course, all this is only possible when we work with our willpower, Tiphereth―to have the will to sit still for a few minutes and to pronounce a mantra so that the body settles, the mind settles, and the heart settles. Likewise, the thing to remember is that willpower doesn't mean somebody who is aggressive. Real willpower is serene. Peaceful. There is no effort there. In the beginning of meditation we struggle because the mind is in affliction. It is caught up in memories and daydreams, but when you learn to go deeper in meditation, or better said, when you develop your concentration, you realize that you require less effort to be still, and then naturally you sit with peace in one posture, and that is when the doorway to real meditation can begin. Everything we are doing here is preliminary, but one thing I will mention about this Tree of Life in the relation to this lecture is that we have something divine within us, represented by the top five Sephiroth of this Tree of Life. We have what is known as the consciousness, or Geburah in Hebrew, which means to “justice.” “Judgment.” This consciousness is beyond will; it is simply the ability to perceive, but that quality tends to be very conditioned in us and very limited. Even beyond the consciousness, there is something more divine, known as Chesed, which means “mercy.” This is the Hebrew אל El. This is OM. Your Being. Your Spirit. That spirit is God. The Being is presence, understanding, and happiness without limits. When people say that they are spiritual, what they really should say is that they have God incarnated, because to say that one is spiritual means to say that “I have the spirit within me and active.” Chesed is the spirit. There are many confusions about what spirit is. People confuse spirit with soul. The spirit, God, is, but the soul, our willpower, is created. It has to be developed in meditation because the ability to focus our will on one thing is only developed through daily discipline. Meditation is the daily bread of the wise, and in order to enter meditation, we have to be able to focus on one thing, such as a mantra or a sound and not get distracted. We tend to be distracted by our thinking, our emotions, and sensations of the body. If our body is moving in meditation, it means that we are not meditating. Notice that this glyph is very profound and it's simple. It just takes a little familiarity. But even beyond this spirit, we have something even more divine, which is this top trinity. Our spirit, our Inner God, emanates from what is known as the Christian Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These are not people, but energies or forces within us which need to be incarnated or developed. Some traditions have referred to this Trinity among the Nordics as Odin, or Wotan, Balder, and Thor. The Egyptians referred to it as Osiris, Horus, and Isis. The Buddhists use different names, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. Every tradition uses these different definitions or terms for the same thing. This is the purest energy of the cosmos. This light governs all of existence from the atom, to a galaxy. We have that energy within us, which we can liberate the we use certain practices. The word Jehovah in Hebrew relates to this second sephiroth on the Tree of Life known as Chokmah, which is wisdom. We have Kether, the Father, the “Crown” in Hebrew. Chokmah, meaning “wisdom, insight, and perception.” We then have Binah, meaning “intelligence.” Chokmah, in Hebrew in its sacred name is Jehovah, because each Sephirah has a Hebrew term associated with it. That is the energy known as Christ amongst the gnostics and whom Jesus incarnated. He wasn't the only one who incarnated that light, but any meditator can if they know how. I want to just emphasize that from the highest levels of existence, we have light which descends and slowly conditions itself until reaching this physical body and materializes. That energy, if it's conditioned within our anger, fears, and our resentments, becomes what is known as the hell realms, what is called in Hebrew, Klipoth. Klifah means “shell.” Klipoth means conditions or “shells” in Hebrew. Every ego or sense of "I," whether it be pride, resentment, gluttony, etc., is a shell that traps our consciousness. Every myth of the great hero is about descending from this top trinity, down below to Malkuth and entering the maze, the hell realms, in order to confront one's egotism and desires. Then by eliminating those desires, we learn to free the consciousness that is trapped there and return it back to the light above with knowledge and understanding. One thing I will mention is that in the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur, he went into the maze and killed the beast, but the way that he got out of the maze was by using what it was called Ariadne's thread. In the myth, in order to not get lost in the maze and to find his way back, he had a thread with him, which he unrolled as he moved through the labyrinth until finding the minotaur, killing the animal, and then following the thread back out to the open sunlight. Dante in his myth, The Divine Comedy, explains that the descent into the inferno is easy, but the return is hard. When you are meditating, you may see certain defects and desires, which you want to work on, but you have to follow your conscience to find your way out of the maze. Your judgment. Your consciousness. We will elaborate on how the light returns from these infernal regions back to the higher levels of being, of consciousness, because real yoga or religion, is about taking all that light that is trapped in conditions, and integrating it with the Being, the Divine. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word Yug, that is, to “reunite.” Religion comes from the latin word, religare, which also means means to “reunite.” That light becomes conditioned and more material, more dense and in greater states of suffering, the further it descends down this shadow of the Tree of Life until reaching the very bottom of existence. Again, these are symbols. They are different dimensions that exist that we can access in the dream state through meditation, but more importantly this refers to our daily state of being. 
Kabbalah in the Book of Judges
And יהוה Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of כְּנַעַן Canaan, that reigned in חָצוֹר Hazor… ―Judges 4:2
I have included some Hebrew terms because this meaning is very deep. The word for light is אֹֽור Aur. “Let there be light and there was light.” What is that light? It is the awakened consciousness. Our soul, when it is pure, is light, harmony, peace, and it is contentment.
But that light, the light of Israel, of the divine, is trapped. That light, when it becomes inverted, becomes part of the negative psychological qualities we are familiar with. As a result of having misused our energies in our consciousness, that light is dislocated, disconnected from Jehovah, and then enters into these infernal states of being. What is כְּנַעַן Canaan in the Bible? When the Bible talks about different lands, they were referring to Malkuth, when Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. Egypt is a symbol of the body, within which is contained our desires, because our ego and defects act through the body. What is that inverted light? The Hebrew term for it is חָצוֹר Hazor [Hatzor] because it sounds like אֹֽור Aur, the light, but it is trapped in the lower spectrum of light. The higher spectrum of light is ultraviolet, but the most dense form is infrared. There is a spectrum and the Tree of Life represents this. And יהוה Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of כְּנַעַן Canaan, that reigned in חָצוֹר Hazor… ―Judges 4:2
Meaning: the soul was disconnected and trapped in this body. Trapped within חָצוֹר Hazor or the inverted light that conditions the mind.
The captain of his host was סִיסְרָא Sisera. The sound סִיסְרָא Sisera or the name סִיסְרָא Sisera is a representation of what the Bible calls the serpent. There is a mantra amongst the gnostics, the letter S for "Sssssssss…" which we pronounce in order to work with what is known as the serpentine fire of Kundalini. This is the fire of the divine which is in our coccyx. You can do that mantra S or "Sssssssss" to make the energies rise up the spine to the brain. Of course, there is a duality to that serpent as represented in the Bible. That serpent that healed the Israelites in the wilderness raised by Moses upon a staff, is a symbol of the Kundalini rising up the spine, if you are familiar with Hinduism. Of course, there is a tempting serpent in which that energy descends down and forms what is called the tail of the demons within the astral body of a human being. These are symbols, but also there are certain things that they represent that are psychological truths. Therefore, סִיסְרָא Sisera is that negative crystallization of those energies: ...which dwelt in חֲרֹשֶׁת הַגֹּויִֽם Haroshet-Goyim (the land of the goyim). ―Judges 4:2
What is goyim? It is a Hebrew term, which many Jews believe refers simply to people who don't follow Judaism. If you look at the word goyim, you hear the word ego backwards. What does it mean to be a goyim? It means to be like any one of us, even if we are Jewish, because to have desire and egotism is to be goyim. To be exiled from the heavenly kingdom of God, the Being.
To be a real Jew in an objective sense, is to have this light incarnated. And the children of Israel (the soul) cried unto יהוה Jehovah: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. ―Judges 4:3
Again, these are symbols. If you are interested in learning more about what the numbers mean in the Bible, I recommend you listen to our course we have been giving on the Eternal Tarot which is available on our website. We won't go into too much detail here, but the number nine is very symbolic. It represents again how we use our energies in the ninth sephirah of the Tree of Life.
Of course, that light and energy tends to be conditioned in us. We use our vitality in the wrong way with negative habits. We waste energy in many behaviors, which are not conducive for our spiritual well-being. That twenty years is against symbolic, referring to the Kabbalah as we have been explaining. The one who helps Israel in this process is known as Deborah. 
And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time… ―Judges 4:4
…and she was in the Bible represented as a great warrior and a prophetess who helped the Israelites in that narrative to achieve freedom against סִיסְרָא Sisera and his armies. Or better said the ego, his demons, and is legions.
Who is דְּבֹורָה Deborah? And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. ―Judges 4:5
What is judgment? It is Geburah. Justice. Our conscience. The sense of right and wrong. She dwells underneath a palm tree, represented by this mystical sphere known as Daath in the Kabbalah, and which means knowledge.
Some people have called it alchemy, the science of transmuting the base lead of the personality into the gold of the spirit by the work of energy. She dwells beneath that tree, meaning: works like Buddha did meditating under the Bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment (if you are familiar with the Buddhist mythology). 
Geburah, our soul, our divine consciousness, dwells beneath this palm tree between Ramah and Bethel, because this glyph is represented as three pillars: one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. Ramah is the left pillar of the Tree of Life, Bethel is the right, and the mountain Ephraim is represented by the center of this glyph, Tiphereth.
To have dreams in the internal worlds when you are meditating, if you experience seeing a mountain or climbing a mountain, it means you are entering the higher dimensions with your spiritual work. The mountain represents the path that leads from the valleys of Klipoth, the infernal world, up towards the world of heaven. It is called the "heavens" in the different mythologies. The Israelites, in order to receive help from Deborah, had to climb the mountain, Ephraim and receive judgment. It is a symbol. It means that God doesn't come out of the clouds to give us some kind of magical experience, although that can happen, and it is very beautiful and necessary. However, to obtain comprehension of our faults, God doesn't come out of the clouds to give it to us. Instead we have to work and raise our level of being up within ourselves towards this higher sephiroth, Tiphereth, the mountain. By learning to overcome our body, our energies, our emotions, and our mind with willpower in meditation―that is how you climb Ephraim, the mountain, to receive judgment. It is a symbol. If you want to reach comprehension in yourself, peace, and understanding, you have to raise your level of being. This myth is also very beautiful and explains other things relating to many other mythologies, such as the teachings of the Kundalini in Hinduism. If you are familiar with the force of the Kundalini, it is the serpentine power of the divine feminine which rises up the spine from the base chakra, Muladhara. Then up the spine to the brain. In the Bible a mountain also represents the spinal column which one must climb. The prophets must climb in order to receive the commandments of the divine, like Moses did on Mount Sinai. It is a symbol of how he raised the energies of the divine up his spine through certain practices in order to illuminate his intellect. If you see the halos of the saints in many myths, it is because those heroes, those masters, those prophets, worked with energy and illuminated the mind. They climbed the mountain and when they illuminated their crown chakra like Moses, Muhammed, or whatever prophet you want to refer to, that is when they were able to receive knowledge and understanding. Commandments from the Being. Direct experiences in meditation. The Bible and the Book of Judges refers to that force of the serpent as Barak. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of (קֶּדֶשׁ) Kedesh in Naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not (יהוה) the LORD GOD of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward (בְּהַר תָּבֹור) Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun. ―Judges 4:6
In the story you see that Deborah and Barak go to war against the armies of Sisera, as a symbol of the consciousness going into battle against our desires. How does our consciousness work against desire? By working with the Kundalini.
She says, "Go and draw towards Mount Tabor." Again the mountain refers to the sephirah, the heart, Tiphereth. "Take with yourself ten thousand men," meaning the ten sephiroth and integrate all the parts of your Being within you in meditation in order to have command of yourself, in order to work against desire and against defects. “And I will draw סִיסְרָא Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude, unto thee to the river Kishon; and I will deliver him into thine hand.” ―Judges 4:7
What is that river Kishon? These are your vital energies, because how you use your vitality, your vital forces in meditation, determines whether you will have that inner strength to work against your own defects.
But of course Deborah says, “I will fight against סִיסְרָא Sisera, which is "Sssssssss," the fire of our own divine energies that has been inverted and negative. It is the tempting serpent of Eden. It is a symbol of the misuse of our energies and which, by misusing that force, we were kicked out of bliss, Eden. The word עֵדֶן Eden means “bliss.” It isn't a literal place in the Mesopotamia in the Middle East, but refers to the original state of the consciousness before it's conditioning. 
In the myth סִיסְרָא Sisera is killed by a woman named יָעֵל Yael, and the name is very symbolic, because the word יה Ya, if you know Kabbalah, is י Iod ה Hei, reading it from right to left. Hebrew is written from right to left, representing the Father, known as Kether in the Kabbalah, the height of our Being, of our divinity. אל El is your spirit, your inner God.
This woman is literally the forces of the divine and the spirit within us who works in order to eliminate our defects. She is part of our conscience. In the myth, she takes a hammer and chisel and then pummels his head in order to kill him when he sleeps. But what first happened was that she brought סִיסְרָא Sisera into her tent or into a tent and brought him milk in order to put him to sleep. When he was asleep, she killed him. These are symbols how when you work with vital energy, like with the mantra OM, or sacred sounds, the mind settles and become serene. Then from a state of serenity, you put your defects into an inactive state; your egotism and your desires, so that when the mind settles, you can learn to look inside in meditation and comprehend the causes of suffering. When you then see your own desires or certain defects you want to work on, you take the hammer of willpower and the chisel of understanding, and you slay it. We mentioned in the previous lecture of this course how developing concentration, to focus on one thing, is willpower and is essential. The next step is developing insight, the ability to proceed images in the mind clearly. To see through the sense of observation of ourselves―self-observation and imagination: the ability to perceive psychic imagery. In the Book of Judges (5:24-26), there is a song: Extolled above woman be Yael, extolled above woman in the tent. He asked for water. She gave him milk... ―Judges 5:24-25
...which is the energies of our vital forces, referring to the creative energies of sexuality and which we will be talking about within tantrism and other teachings related to alchemy and the perfect matrimony. The work with the vital forces in you and the creative energies in you can be done by working with mantras such as OM. You circulate that force in you. It is like milk, which is nourishment for the soul.
As I said, silence the mind and then you can work on yourself. She brought him cream in a lordly dish. She stretched forth her hand to the nail, Her right hand to the workman's hammer, And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head, She crashed through and transfixed his temples. ―Judges 5:25-26
The word יָעֵל Yael signifies an “ibex, a goat.” And again, there are many symbols here. The sheep separating from the goats. In the Christian tradition, this is a symbol of how one is either purified as a lamb, following the teachings of the divine or Christ, and the goat, meaning a person with egotism. Of desires. יָעֵל Yael literally means “a goat,” a desert dwelling goat, because any one of us who begins meditation is filled with desires and defects.
Symbolically as in the Christian symbols, we are goats and by purifying the soul one becomes a sheep. Interesting etymology. 
Conscience, Judgment, and the Symbolism of Deborah
How do we work with the force of conscience, of judgment, of Deborah? We work with mantras.
There's a song in the Book of Judges, which says: Awake, עוּר awake, דְּבֹורָה Deborah: עוּר awake, עוּר awake, דָּבַר utter a song: arise, בָּרָק Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. ―Judges 5:1
The word for awake in Hebrew is עוּר Ur, which is similar, etymologically to the word אֹֽור Aur, which means “light.”
“Awake, Deborah, awaken the consciousness, awake our soul” to its true nature, its peaceful nature, its serenity and its compassion. You do so by working with songs, which are mantras. “Utter a song,” it says, דָּבַר Dabar in Hebrew. “To utter, to speak.” The word דְּבֹורָה Deborah has these Hebrew letters, ד Dalet, ב Beth, ר Resh. De-Bur-Ah. If you want to work with your inner judgment, you can work with those sacred sounds to empower your soul and your concentration. "Arise Barak," referring to the Kundalini, which rises in the spine. "Lead thy captivity captive," which means take control of your situations and learn to live with greater rectitude and love. Who is this בָּרָק Barak? The Muslim tradition teaches some interesting symbols. In the Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, he rode on a creature called الْبُرَاق Al-Buraq, which literally means “the lightning.” Where is that lightning? It is in your spine, or better said, it it contained in the Chakra Muladhara and needs to awaken. So, by riding that creature up the spine, the energies, and the forces, we ascend towards the heavens as symbolized in the Muslim myth. Barak is that energy or Al-Buraq, which helped Deborah fight against the afflictions of the mind. We will be giving courses about the mystical teachings of Islam known as Sufism. We gave a course called The Sufi Path of Self-Knowledge, which explains some of these interesting symbols in relation with the path of meditation. Inner Self-Remembrance, Mantras, and Sacred Sounds
We will read a few excerpts from some Sufi scriptures, which are very valuable. In these teachings we study the path of remembrance of the divine. Meditation is about remembering our own inner divinity, by developing serenity and insight so that we learn to connect and strengthen our connection with that presence. We do so by following the voice of our inner judgment, our conscience, our heart, and our intuition, how certain behaviors are negative or harmful. The way that we can empower that remembrance is by working with the sacred sounds, as I have been mentioning.
The Sufis or the mystics of Islam, not to be confused with the orthodoxy, has some very interesting explanations about how to remember the divine. We work with mantras to strengthen that inner judgment and to be aware, mindfully, throughout our day in a state of attention. If we want to learn to meditate, what is necessary is to learn to be observant all day. Meditation, when you sit to close your eyes and relax, is only an extension of your daily practice, your daily life. Learning to be mindful throughout the day and not being distracted in the mind is the beginning. If you are washing your dishes, don't think of other things. If you are driving your car, don't talk on the cellphone. Don't listen to the radio. Just drive. Don't think about what you are going to do later, but be mindful of where you are at. The reason why there are so many accidents is because people are asleep, consciously. They may be driving and physically active, but as a consciousness, they are distracted. Their mind is elsewhere. Their emotions are elsewhere. Their bodies are doing one thing but they are not really present in the body. Remembrance is strengthened when we work with mantras, which is known as Dhikr amongst the Sufis. Remembrance is a powerful support on the path to God [the divine, the Being] (Glorious and Majestic). Indeed, it is the very foundation of this Sufi [or we can say, Gnostic] path. No one reaches God save by continual remembrance of Him. [Our inner OM. Our spirit.] There are two kinds of remembrance: that of the tongue and that of the heart. The servant attains perpetual remembrance of the heart by making vocal remembrance. It is remembrance of the heart, however, that yields true effect. ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
Meaning, to pronounce, verbally, certain mantras, but to do it with concentration, because if you vocalize but are not mindful what you are doing, there is no power there. We are distracted. Therefore:
It is remembrance of the heart that yields true effect. When a person makes remembrance with his tongue and his heart simultaneously (with concentration), he attains perfection in his or her wayfaring. ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
To be focused. Concentration is important. If you want certain mantras to be effective and to produce greater depth of understanding and concentration, you have to invest everything you have into that practice. Don't think about other things. Let your mind be immersed in those vibrations. As I said, be like the bee that is immersed in the flower or the pollen as it is creating honey.
The Sufis also teach that it is good in the beginning to work with a mantra that helps to strengthen our heart, our conscience. However, many practitioners write to us through letters and correspondences; people and many students perform certain mantras, but still they don't feel like they have any results and experiences. The thing to think about with that is to revise what is the psychological state we are in when we engage in a practice. As you start in this meditation, what is your mental states? What are your moods? What are your qualities? What are you feeling? What are you thinking now? Become aware of that, relax, breathe deep, and then begin a sacred mantra so that there is sweetness or genuine genuine power in that practice. As the Sufis teach: A group of wayfarers complained to Abu Uthman, "We make vocal remembrance of God Most High, but we experience no sweetness in our hearts." He advised, ‘Give thanks to God Most High for adorning you at least your limbs with obedience.” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
Meaning: at least you are consistent, because some people begin a mantra one day and and don't finish it. Don't continue it. The thing to remember is, it's good to be diligent with one's practices.
Three Stages of Comprehension
In this course, we have been talking about three stages of comprehension. We talk a lot about discovery, self-observation, to see ourselves, to observe, to be mindful. By learning to observe ourselves like a director watching an actor, we begin to gain information or acquire knowledge of our conditioning of mind, so that by seeing it, we go home, we go to meditate, we go to judge our defects.
In the beginning we learn to gather data. What are the thoughts, feelings, and impulses we experience whenever we engage at work in the morning, with friends, our boss, our co-workers? Analyze, what are the qualities that are go on within us whenever we interact with other human beings? And, in that way you learn to discover your defects in action. I recommend if you haven't heard those lectures yet, to do so. It will give greater context for this lecture, but we've been talking a lot about judgment, following our intuition, which is the path of meditation. As you begin to discover yourself in action, finding defects that you never suspected you had, you take that information, that sense of remorse, that sense of responsibility, and go home, relax, meditate, silence the mind, and learn to ask for help from your inner being. Work with a mantra and power your heart with energy, and then pray and ask, "My divine Being, show me, help me to understand what I observed in myself today." Perhaps it was anger. Perhaps it was fear. Perhaps it was lust. A quality that you notice produces suffering in you and that you want to remove. The next step is execution, which is prayer. When you comprehend a certain condition of mind, fully, then you can ask for its elimination within you by the help of your Divine Mother Kundalini, the divine feminine. Internal Silence
And as we have been discussing also in our courses of meditation, “The first stage of worship is silence” as Prophet Muhammad taught.
So silence of mind is generated when you learn to relax. Don't identify with your thinking, your feeling, your impulses, negativity, and negative emotions. Those things will sap you of your energy and will make you weak. So to have a mind that is in silence, a mind that is able to be intuitive, it is necessary to observe, relax, be aware. As I mentioned, when you are aware of yourself and you relax throughout the day, your body becomes less tense, your mind is relaxed. If you don't invest your negative qualities with so much energy, when you go home to meditate, you can sit in a minute and immediately enter meditation, easy, because your body is not tense, your mind is not tense. You are not depleted of energy. So silence occurs naturally, spontaneously; when you fulfill the necessary requisites, meaning: follow your conscience. If we are investing our energy into psychological states that are harmful, the mind becomes a churning chaos, overwhelmed, an ocean that is in the middle of a storm, in the flux of tides, overwhelming the mind. But if you naturally observe it like you are in a helicopter viewing from the sky, you can observe the tides and gradually the storm will settle on its own, because you are not churning along with it, going on with the flow. Silence occurs in levels. There are levels of introductory teaching relating to concentration or serenity, and there are more higher levels of serenity obtained by people who have entered meditation very deeply. Abu Bakr al-Farisi mentioned in the scripture called Principles of Sufism, a very beautiful teaching: If one's homeland is not silence, he is talking to excess, even though he is silent with the tongue. Silence is not confined to the tongue but concerns the heart and all the limbs. ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
If we have sat to meditate, we may have found that even though our bodies are quiet, we here in the mind, we feel in the heart a constant commentary, a chatter―the mind wanting to label things, point at things, and explain things. The mind is like a monkey, attached, craving, always wanting to move. It indicates that the mind is not serene.
We are constantly grasping at the external world. The body wants to move. It is an animal that needs to be tamed. So silence doesn't occur just with the physical tongue, but mentally. If you don't want your mind to be overflowing with thoughts, observe. Don't invest your energy with it. Don't identify yourself with that. But serenity naturally occurs when you distance yourself from that internal chatter. Silence for the common people is with their tongues, but silence for the gnostics is with their hearts… ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
Meaning: those who really know the Being, the divine, do so because they even attained some type of internal silence and inner serenity in which they are not influenced by thinking so much, but instead are relaxed, at peace.
Yet there is “silence for lovers,” meaning prophets, “by restraining the stray thoughts that come into their innermost beings.” So that's a stage of serenity or concentration in which one sees a distraction in the mind before it even emerges. This is well discussed in our course on Gnostic Meditation on our website as well as the lecture called Calm Abiding: the Stages of Serenity. But serenity occurs in levels and that inner serenity is natural and spontaneous, it is not forced. People think that concentration has to be something aggressive. That one has to be exerting some type of energy or force in order to meditate. But the reality is that serenity is natural, relaxed, spontaneous, at peace. Judgment occurs naturally when we are at peace; when the mind is silent. Comprehension emerges like a spark, an insight, that emerges in the mind when you are not looking for it. When you are simply concentrated, relaxed, at peace 
Exertion, Comprehension, and the Dialectic of Consciousness
Comprehension replaces exertion when one tries to comprehend the truth intimately hidden in the secret depths of each problem. We do not need any exertion to comprehend each and every defect that we carry hidden within the different levels of the mind. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
In our previous lecture, we talked about the dialectic of consciousness: how the consciousness, represented by Christ in this image, overcomes the mind―how to receive insights, intuition, understanding from the Being, represented by Jesus, and the devil on the right is a representation of our ego, the mind that points towards materialism, egotism, desires. That is the difference between a mind that is distracted and a mind that is concentrated.
And in this myth, Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. It is a symbol of how we, in meditation, learn to overcome the distractions of the mind in order to overcome him. So I mentioned to you that in the Kabbalah, the word wisdom is simply the ability to perceive, to judge, to know. 
Conscious Judgment
We have an image of The Last Judgement, painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. The word judgment relates etymologically to the word “wisdom.” Wisdom is the power of perception, of knowing, of seeing, which occurs spontaneously in us when we learn to look, to observe, and not to anticipate what we may see, but simply engaged in the act of looking, of seeing.
The word wisdom is derived from vid, videre (to see) and from dom (judgment). Thus, wisdom alludes to that which one can see with the senses of the soul and of the Innermost; to the wise judgments which must be based on the ultra-sensorial perceptions and not simply on dogmatic intellectualism or vain professional sufficiency, which are already in declination and decrepitude. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
So again, the intellect cannot know the truth. It can store knowledge, ideas, beliefs, concepts, and memories. Real wisdom is when you learn to see in yourself the causes of your suffering. It is the power of perception, of knowing. So we learn to develop light through meditation. Through seeing. Through observing ourselves. We gain genuine contentment, serenity, and happiness when we learn to experience is what perception is, what light is, the qualities of the Being, the qualities of our Inner God.
Spiritual Insight and Witnessing
The Sufis in the Qur’an also teach that this sense of understanding is represented by light, because light is the power of seeing. With light we know, we understand. So to have light in meditation means to have experiences.
You may have the experience when your mind is silent, in which your body falls asleep, and you as a consciousness enter into the dream state, the dream world, and experience the higher dimensions of that Tree of Life we have been looking at. You climb Mount Tabor or Mount Ephraim. You enter the higher regions of the divine in order to converse face-to-face with your Innermost God. A person who has that experience in meditation is obviously very different from those who haven't, because with that type of experience comes conviction. What we call real faith―real judgment―because then by having that help from your Inner God, you learn to help others and to help yourself, more importantly, so that you can be of benefit. Concerning the saying of God Most High, ‘Or one who was dead―we have brought him to life’ (6:122), a Sufi said, "Someone who was dead of mind, but God Most High brought him to life with the light of insight, and set for him the light of divine manifestation and direct vision―he will not be like someone who walks, unconscious, with the people of unconsciousness.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
It is easy to see that, after having those experiences, we realize that humanity is really dead, spiritually. They lack genuine understanding, but with that understanding comes the determination to help them to experience that for themselves
It is said that when insight becomes sound, its possessor progresses to the level of contemplation (mushahadah) [meditation]. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
The Arabic is mushahadah, which relates to the Arabic saying of the declaration of faith, the Shahadah, "There is no god, but God and Muhammad is His Prophet."
Many people recite that intellectually, but have they meditated and experienced in higher dimensions, talking with their Inner Being, or Allah, or God, their El, their OM, their Spirit? The truth is that they don't, so are they really Muslim in the objective sense? You can say that they are not, because if you experience your divine Being in the higher dimensions, in meditation, then you bear witness. You say, "I see my God face to face.” Therefore, there is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet, or Krishna is His Prophet, or Buddha is His Prophet. Many teachers, one light. 
Ascension to Higher Levels of Being
That process of seeing is inner judgment and the path of inner judgment is like a like a staircase. We discussed in our previous lectures about the levels of being; how the ascension to the path of genuine spirituality is like climbing a staircase and having a dream in the internal worlds, or your dreams themselves in meditation, that you are climbing a staircase, means that you are going to higher levels of being.
You are experiencing higher states of consciousness, and I believe that is from Alice in Wonderland climbing a staircase, or something symbolic of that nature, because the soul, we could say, is feminine, whether in a male body or masculine body, because the soul receives the forces from above. It is receptive and so: Abu Said al-Kharraz said, “One who sees with the light of spiritual insight, sees with the light of the Truth.” ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
…because when you see a problem, when you see a defect for what it is and you don't make excuses for it, or justify it, or repress it, but simply observe, you can comprehend it and that is how you arrive at judgment, conscience.
In the beginning, we follow our hunch, our intuitions that certain psychological states are destructive and by learning to comprehend them deeper and deeper in meditation, we develop light. The very substance of his knowledge comes from God, unmixed with either negligence or forgetfulness. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
The very substance of this knowledge comes from God, because your Being gives you that understanding, unmixed with either negligence or forgetfulness. Meaning: negligence is referring to begin meditation and then to stop, to be negligent and to not work.
This is a spiritual work and is very difficult, but it is rewarding because it provides the beauty of the soul within oneself. And forgetfulness, meaning to not forget what you are doing. You sit to meditate. You have a specific practice. You are going to review your day. What you observed in yourself. Or take an object to meditate on like a candle, a stone, a picture, and you want to understand a certain scripture, or whatever it is you want to meditate on. You have to have the focus to the point that you don't forget what you are doing when you sit. If you forget what you are doing when you sit to meditate, it means that we are distracted, we are forgetful Indeed, it is a judgment of Truth flowing from the tongue of a servant. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufis
…because when you have that knowledge for yourself then it becomes crystallized in you.
We will conclude by stating that the way to develop meditative practice is by following our inner judgment, our inner conscience―again, that sense of right and wrong. The human being who allows that which is called self-judgement or inner-judgment to express itself in a spontaneous manner within, will be guided by the voice of the consciousness. Thus, he will march on the upright path. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
Meaning: by learning to live with attentiveness and consciousness in our daily life, our work, our job, or career, we learn to do our work not only better, but we naturally help humanity and enter deeper states of awareness.
Questions and Answers
Question: How can we experience the divine when meditating?
Instructor: If you want to experience the divine through some type of samadhi in meditation, and the word samadhi means “ecstasy,” where your consciousness is liberated from its conditions so that it perceives without egotism in the higher worlds―to have a samadhi, I like to quote for you Rumi, a great Sufi poet. He said, "Finding love, the divine, is not by seeking it but instead looking for all the obstacles you place to obstruct it." So that love is your inner God, your Spirit, OM, and if you want to know that Being in you, the way to develop that light and have those experiences is by working on your defects. Because remember the Bible says "Let there be light and there was light.” From the darkness, God spoke and said that verse. From the darkness of our ignorance, light emerges. You develop light by working on your egos, comprehending them, because when you eliminate your egos, you are extracting the genie from the bottle, and when you extract the genie from the bottle, like in the myth, you integrate those conscious qualities, and then you naturally are awake in the higher worlds when your body is asleep, physically, and you are traveling in the astral plane, the world of dreams. Your dream states. If you learn to awaken consciousness physically in that way, then you have easier access when you are dreaming or when you are meditating. So samadhi occurs naturally when you remove the conditions that trap your consciousness, which is why even Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, an esoteric text which modeled this philosophy; he stated that "I love he who does not make any excuses for him or herself, but instead doesn’t reach for the stars first, but decides to descend in order to be a sacrifice." So that in being a sacrifice, one can be of service, says the very beginning of that text. So symbolically, what he is talking about is: you want to experience heaven? We all want that. To see the stars of the divinity in the internal worlds. To reflect God in us. We want to go to heaven, but the reality is that we are trapped down here. We are trapped by our egotism, in the valley of Klipoth. But in order to get out to experience those dimensions, those realms, those realities, you have to climb the mountain. You do it by working with where you are at and not worrying about having experiences. Many people read certain books such as by Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition, and get very inspired. You know, people read that, and they say, “I want to talk to my Inner God. I want to know my Being and many have that inspiration,” but in order to actualize the experience of your God, you have to work on what you can see here and now, because your Being will give you experiences as you are working to change yourself. Personally, I remember many years ago before I found the Gnostic tradition, I was studying many schools of meditation and other teachings, and then I was going back and forth with certain places and things and scriptures and books, and what I decided was following my inner judgment, my conscience, about changing certain habits that I was engaging in that was destructive for myself. As I started to renounce those behaviors and not going back, comprehending how that behavior was wrong, I started to have experiences like I did when I was a teenager, in the dream world, and then in that way when of my body was asleep, I was awakened in the astral plane and I received certain teachings about my development. I remember climbing a staircase and being led by a woman up the stairs, and that woman was my Divine Mother, my Being, my Divine Mother Kundalini was showing me, "you are ascending, you are ascending up this path, but be careful." She was warning me about certain things. Question: I had a dream of a torch, and there was a, well, I was not scared though, kind of a grey wolf, and it was watching me in concentration. Instructor: The torch is light. Developing insight. You have an experience of seeing fire or light, it means your consciousness. It is a symbol of that because consciousness is the ability to perceive, to see. A wolf, we have been talking about in Arcanum 5, the fifth card of the tarot in our website. That symbol of the wolf is a symbol of what we call Karma. Karma is a law that is governed by divineb as we have been explaining. I have had experiences of wolves too and the wolf, if it is attacking you, it means the law is against you, the Divine Law, because we committed some kind of wrong and we have to face the consequences. But, if it is calm, it means it is good. It means the law is at bay. I know in the beginning of my path, I had certain situations postponed or withheld from me as a result of changing certain habits. But because I made those changes, they said okay, you know what you prevented this from happening and they showed me what would have happened to me if I had continued along that mistaken path. So dreams are very symbolic. To interpret them literally is a mistake, but you learn how to interpret dreams by studying Kabbalah, which is the symbolic language of the divine. I invite you to study some of the resources we have available and we will be getting more courses on meditation as well as practices you can use to develop your discipline, in order to cease suffering and develop genuine serenity. We gave a course on meditation on our website, which you can study. We will be giving more material of that name of that on Chicagognosis.org, especially, but I invite you to study some of the literature written by Samael Aun Weor, whose writings are the focus of this school, primarily because of their efficacy, their directness, and simplicity. In relation to some other schools, many people tend to get lost in intellectual knowledge. So, I have been explaining a lot of about the Kabbalah lot because it is very rich and complex, but it is very simple when you boil it down. It refers to: how do you meditate? How do you control the mind? How do you learn about yourself? You do so by becoming serene. Observing yourself. So, if you haven't heard the previous lectures in this course, I recommend you study them. We talked about discovery, judgment, execution. Discover your defects. Work on what you can perceive in yourself, that you can change and then when you gather data about yourself, you learn to judge those habits. You ask for guidance insight. You ask my Being, my God, show me what I need to change in myself. Help me to see my errors. Help me to understand this anger that I witness in myself and my work. How can I change that? And if you concentrate on that question, relax, wait. When the mind is serene, suddenly insight comes like an experience. Sometimes insight emerges as a type of "aha!" moment. We certainly understand that condition, and then you realize that you you are liberated from that element, to a degree, and at that moment you ask for help. You ask, “My Divine Mother, my inner Goddess,” as we have explained in this course, “help me to eliminate this desire,” and in many cases that ego doesn't get eliminated right away, but gradually. So, you will see progress day by day and you know that there is change occurring when you reach the same situation in your life, same people, same circumstances, because things repeat mechanically; you don't react like you did. Then you don't have to perpetuate a certain dynamic of "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth," where you get mad at someone or they get mad at you, and there is an aggression that builds up and pain for everyone. I know that in the case of my new job that I have been working at, I had to work with very difficult people, very challenging, and I know that one thing: I have been working on is my inner judgment. Finding the right psychological state to engage with, in order to help the people I am working with. So, what happened was I have been meditating and training day by day asking my Inner God, "show me what I need to do. How do I act with these people, in this situation, in this circumstance." I have been finding and I have been getting insight where working on certain defects of mine where I have been going to work facing the same people, and when I have been treated disrespectfully, respond with love. With patience. Patience and love are much more crushing forces than anger, because when you respond with anger, the other person is going to retaliate in the same way and the cycle repeats. But if you are patient with that person, kind, and naturally appears in you spontaneously, without force, without expectation, suddenly you realize that those people who are your enemies become your friends. And you change everything and then you stop suffering. You stop making the other person suffer. That is judgment. When you see in yourself what needs to change and then you work on it day by day. But that occurs when we comprehend our psychological states. It doesn't occur overnight, and many times we have to struggle and suffer a lot with mistakes, until we get it, and then when you get it right, the situation is transformed. You notice that people always want to change things externally. Change the job, change the work environment, get a new job, do something else. But, we tend to carry the psychological disease with us of suffering―wanting everyone to change but us. I have had people say to me or certain people I worked ask, "How did you manage to change the situation?" I had my boss ask me that. She said, “I don't know what your secret is.” I just kept silent because some things you don't talk about with an employer. I can't tell my employer that I worked on my ego with my Divine Mother [laughter from audience], you know, some people will think I'm nuts but they see it, they see the results and they feel the results and they say, "this is is amazing." They say, "how did you do it this well?" I did mention I teach meditation and yoga, and that is a very easy answer for people to understand and they say, "OK, it's good." But you know, if you make a you make the changes you need to change, then the pieces externally will situate themselves and then you won't have to feel depleted and worried about going to work, or doing certain things, or being with certain people. You don't try to change the other person with force, with coercion, but instead, you change your psychological habits. That is how you walk the path of judgment. As I quoted Samael Aun Weor at the end of this lecture, "Inner judgment is what lead you on the upright path." Meaning: you don't suffer so much, unnecessarily. Meditation will unfold naturally for you when you see how it applies to your life, because if you don't see how it will benefit you, that is why people leave. People stop practicing meditation because they don't see results. The question is not the technique, it is the mind. How effective are the methods if we're using any method? But also, when the method is effective, what is our application of it? What is our daily discipline? How is it applying to our life? Because if our spirituality doesn't apply when we go to work, or talk with friends, or in the bedroom, or whatnot; if our spirituality is divorced from every aspect of our life, it isn't spiritual. It is just an excuse we tell ourselves, because we continue to engage in negative habits. So, if you want to learn how to meditate, I recommend you study some of our other resources we have available on our website. We gave a few courses, one of them, which is very introductory like this is known as The Sufi Path of Self-Knowledge, but also Gnostic Meditation. Thank you for coming.
We have been discussing the nature of consciousness in the past few weeks, specifically how it applies to the science of meditation―the practice of introspection, of knowing oneself. We explained that consciousness is a form of light, of perceiving, of understanding, and of knowing, qualified by the virtues of the soul mentioned in every religion: contentment, peace, understanding, as well as altruism, generosity, and genuine knowledge of the divine mysteries.
We are explaining how consciousness can be developed and can be expanded. Those virtuous qualities that are intrinsic to our true nature could be developed if we work intentionally in a day-to-day discipline and a moment-to-moment effort. The science of meditation is precisely the means by which we learn to comprehend the obstacles within our psyche which create suffering for ourselves. We talked about the conditioning elements of fear, resentment, hatred, pride and that these conditions trap the essence of who we are: our consciousness, our soul. Meditation is precisely how we learned to go in, to our mind, to see our faults, to eliminate resentment, which has made many lives bitter. Envy, greed, fear―those psychological conditions trap the energy of our perception and make us vibrate at a very low level of being. It is easy to analyze and see that we carry many of these psychological conditions inside of us, and which make us vibrate and suffer within low states of consciousness and inferior states of being. We explained how the body, our physicality, needs food. It needs nourishment. It needs water. It needs food. It needs air. Likewise, the consciousness needs a type of nourishment in order for it to grow intentionally. Because consciousness as it is needs to be exercised; it needs to be trained. And, if we are honest, we can see that by a few minutes of reflection and of examining our mind, we find that we are distracted with memories, daydreams, and thoughts―thinking about what we are going to do later in the day or what we did. Never being present within our body and within our mind. Where we are at and what we are doing. Just as the body needs food and nourishment, likewise the consciousness needs its food. That food of the soul is precisely comprehending what produces our pain, our suffering; that which afflicts us most and which makes us miserable. Any person who approaches meditation or religion wants to understand how to see suffering and how to cease being in pain. We talked about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. The first truth is that in life, there is suffering. The second also that there are causes to suffering. But the third truth: that there exists a means to cease suffering, and that path in the fourth truth is meditation. Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern classic tradition stated that meditation is the daily bread of the wise, precisely because the food of our consciousness, that which is going to feed us and give us a genuine sense of peace, is by reflecting within and understanding the cages we have built. That is: the conditions we have put around ourselves. Of course, this is not an easy reflection to make because when we discover that inside of us, we carry many elements which are difficult and painful. When we truly comprehend that anger, fear, desire, and lust, these horrify the psyche. In truth, these elements make us realize very profoundly that we carry many elements that can qualify us as demonic. Because a being that is perfect, that has no fault, no blemish, no sense of "I,” of “what I want, of what I crave,” these beings have been known by the name of masters, Buddhas, angels, and prophets―regardless of what religion or language they spoke. In their heart, they all taught how to meditate, how to understand the conditions that make us suffer, so that by comprehending them, we can break those shells. And by breaking anger, resentment, gluttony, and laziness, we free that part of our consciousness which we put in that place. Just as the genie from Aladdin's lamp, when the shell is broken, we produce the miracles of the soul, the beauty of the consciousness, and the beauty of understanding. Comprehension is precisely when we as a consciousness understand what ego is and what the sense of self is. Me: “what I want, what I crave, and what I desire” from moment to moment and day by day. Comprehension is the understanding that this sense of self, such as my thoughts, my heritage, my language, my race, my beliefs; the sense of self is a form of suffering that grasps at the exterior world wanting to satisfy desire. That is a condition and a cage, because when the consciousness is purified and free of conditions, it is at peace. It doesn't mean that by eliminating desire we are like zombies, or dead people without any feeling, because in truth, the consciousness, when it is freed of anger, it vibrates with love for humanity. With love for divinity. When we eliminate lust and sexual desire, we develop the virtues of chastity. A purity which does not mean abstention from sex, but approaches one's spouse with a sense of beauty, of harmony, of true love, and compassion. It takes great heroism to look in ourselves and to see that we are the only ones responsible for creating our suffering. It takes tremendous courage precisely because we take responsibility for our actions. 
Psychological War in the Myth of Perseus and Medusa
As you see in this image, we have Perseus with the head of Medusa. Perseus is a myth of how the consciousness must go to war against negativity and affliction. He is precisely our soul, like David and Goliath, and many other myths that teach about the battle that is waged in the soul for its redemption. Perseus is holding the head of the Gorgon, the Medusa. She is a representation of our own negativity, our ego, and our sense of self that we feed.
If you remember the myth, Medusa has a head of many snakes. Many vipers, which are a representation of the multiplicity of desire, of our defects. The seven capital sins as well as the legion of defects that we carry within are each represented by a serpent and that head. To look directly into the eyes of the medusa, in the myth, turns men into stone. Many people think about this myth literally, but the real meaning is that when we identify our consciousness with any desire and with any defect, we become petrified. We become conditioned and shelled, because obviously, when we are in a moment of anger with a loved one, a boss, or a co-worker, and we vibrate with anger, resentment, and hatred, then all of our energy is going into that desire which only wants to harm. There is nothing rational about anger, even though many people in our current day and age justify it. It is a negative quality, a demonic quality and that energy that is trapped in anger makes us very poor people, psychologically. Very weak. When we look at that anger, in the moment of observation we can see that we are burning with that fire. However, there is a path that leads out of that type of negativity, and that precisely is represented in the myth of Perseus. Now, he knew that by looking directly into the eyes of Medusa, he would become stone, and that is a representation of our habits. Day by day we have certain habits we indulge in. Some good and some bad. But meditation is a means, self-reflection is a means, by which we learn to comprehend the Medusa and not to identify ourselves with that anger, with that fear, and with that problem. The way he (Perseus) overcomes that animality in himself is by using his shield. He uses the reflection of the shield to see the image of the Gorgon, the beast. Then with his sword, he decapitates it. These are symbols. These are stories that teach a psychological truth, precisely because that shield, the reflection in the mirror of that armor, is precisely the act of observing. To see our ego and our defect without getting carried away by it. Without investing our energy into that element. This is a struggle that we face moment by moment, in which certain defects emerge. We are observing ourselves and becoming aware of certain thoughts, certain emotions, and certain negativities; we are focusing all our energy and power inside to look at what is going on psychologically. As we explained in our previous lecture: “The Light of Consciousness,” that is the path of self-observation. Observing one's psyche, one's mind, one's emotional states, and one's impulses in the body to act. That act of introspection is light and understanding. We experience genuine joy when we realize that we are not anger and that if we don't give that anger what it wants, then we free energy and we can become strong. As Muhammad said in a famous oral tradition of Islam, "The strongest among you is he who controls his anger." The Significance of Dialectics
This is the path of the dialectic of consciousness. This self-reflection is precisely the path of the revolution of our dialectic. You could say it is a way of thinking.
This term has been used in the Greek mysteries founded by Plato and perpetuated by Aristotle. Dialectic means discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method to resolve disagreements and reveal the truth. The word dialectic has many interesting etymological meanings, which can help us understand this topic more deeply. It is from the old French dialectique of the 12th century, or Latin dialectica, from the Greek: dialektike, the art of philosophical discussion or discourse. The word dialectic was usually associated with the word dialogue. The word "dia," the prefix, simply means “thoroughly, from side to side” which intensifies logos, logic, understanding. What is dialogue or dialectic? It is the ability to understand with the reasoning of the consciousness. The understanding of the soul. The word "dia" means “from side to side” and dialogos refers to how we develop the power of divinity inside. Logos. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word (Logos). The Word was with God (Logos). And the Word was God (Logos)” (John 1:1). That mantra we did at the beginning of this exercise, the mantra INRI, is a mantra to invoke the Lord, the divine. The Logoic energy emerges from the cosmos into our mind so that we can develop a type of reasoning that is superior, because our anger has its reasoning, its logic, and its concepts. It thinks a certain way, it feels a certain way, and wants to act in a certain way at the detriment of our neighbor. However, dialogue or dialectic is “to stand; to move side to side” and not be limited by once's thought―to not be identified with those egotistical elements. Also, this is what we are doing with these types of lectures; we are seeking to understand what is consciousness by learning to have a dialogue and to learn. Traditionally, the word dialectic in academia has been associated with presenting a thesis, then presenting an antithesis in order to arrive at a synthesis: the unification or the superior meaning. The ego has a sense of logic, a type of logic such as the feelings of resentment. "He hurt me." "He betrayed me." Or a desire that says "I need to satisfy my desire." "I want to be with that person.” Or fear, the logic of "I need to pay my bills." "I need to please my boss so I don't get fired." "I need to do this this and that to take care of my needs." That is a form of logic. But if we examine and look inside with the consciousness, we see that logic comes from a condition and negativity. And if we give our energy to that thought, that feeling, that impulse, then we are staring into the eyes of Medusa. We become petrified in that element. With self-observation, the work of the spiritual warrior, the meditator uses the shield, the reflection in the mirror, which is self-observation; looking at the psyche in order to use the sword of insight, of wisdom, of spirituality, and of supreme spiritual methods in order to decapitate that element. In this type of dialectic with ourselves, we are expanding our logic. Meaning, our understanding of who we are as a consciousness, precisely by moving “from side to side; thoroughly,” to go thoroughly into the mind. But, also not being limited by any type of ego or any type of self, which is negative. This is how we arrive at a truth, a synthesis, and an understanding which is the nature of consciousness. Now, what is interesting is that certain philosophers talked about the limits of the intellect of logic and of reasoning. In these studies, we do not denounce understanding and intelligence, but instead we denounce the subjective logic of hatred, of pain, and of desire. Emmanuel Kant gave a very interesting understanding about the nature of the logic of the mind, which is the logic of the ego, the intellect. He explained what is known as the antinomies of reason, that you can have, which in terms of philosophical studies are two completely different arguments. One is saying that there is God. The other that there is no God. You can then present your evidence for both reasons and both could be valid according to logic. The reason I bring this up is because Emmanuel Kant pointed out the limitations of the intellect. The limitations of the mind―that the mind can think and theorize and believe what it wants, especially about who we are psychologically, and yet there is no change. Likewise, many schools and movements have many beliefs about what consciousness is. What is not consciousness? What is God? Does God exist? Some say yes and some say no. You have a thesis and antithesis. This is the nature of the mind, the intellect. It does not know the truth, the divine. However, by understanding with our perception who we are psychologically, we can understand whether there is divinity or not. Those who have experiences in meditation and have broken free from the limitations of the mind, develop the dialectic of the consciousness―the logic of the consciousness, which is an understanding that is devoid of desire, of “thinking that I'm thinking, of feeling that I'm feeling.” Of just acting and reacting to life mechanically. By arriving at that synthesis, we have genuine peace. We understand from experience the limitations of the mind and then we understand from meditation how forms of logic perpetuate sarcasm, as we see on TV shows: anger, violence, resentment; all these defects show about that type of reasoning that people worship. You see that in this current age, in this society, we worship Medusa. It is enough to look at the television, news and to see humanity; people's dialectic and reasoning is egotistical and is negative. However, by seeing that and recognizing it, we can do something to change. However, that revolution of our thinking occurs through meditation: by understanding that thinking is not going to resolve anything. Instead, understanding will. Comprehension will. These are qualities of consciousness, of seeing or perceiving, because the intellect can only justify. It can say "I know that I have anger and fear and pain and resentment and all these things," and yet we continue to engage in those habits and behaviors that perpetuate our suffering. This is why we talk about dialectic, reasoning, and logic. We have many excuses and beliefs about who we are. Many ideas. And yet, those are all egotistical. If we look inside and we are observing as a consciousness; what our thinking is, what our ways of behaving are, then we develop a superior type of understanding which is the focus of this lecture. 
The Revolution of the Dialectic and the Present Era
This type of observation of oneself is the type of revolution and we see it here in this image from the Ghent Altarpiece. This is the Virgin Mary reading a book. That book is our own life. We have many chapters, many passages, and many defects that we must study to see, to perceive, and to comprehend so that by comprehending them we can go beyond those limitations.
As I explained, we are living in very degenerate times. I believe on the news this morning, there was a terrorist attack in London and there are many issues that are occurring with our humanity, which are very discouraging. However, by learning to meditate on ourselves and to transform those elements that produce such violence, we can help to be a more effective change for others. This type of work is a revolution of our thinking; it means to go beyond thought. In our practice we began observing ourselves and becoming aware of our thinking; the memories, the daydreams, and the thoughts which tend to surge like clouds. They emerge, they sustain up on the screen of our awareness, and then they pass. This type of work is about deepening that attention in order to take the consciousness that is trapped in ego, defects, and desires, so that the whole consciousness can be integrated. Samael Aun Weor, wrote in The Revolution of the Dialectic: In these decrepit and degenerate times, a revolution of the dialectic, a self-dialectic, and a new education are necessary. ―Samael Aun a Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
We talked about the meaning of dialectics and here we see that a self-dialectic precisely means that knowledge we acquire about ourselves through observation and perception. We do not need to read any book, any scripture, or any other teaching in order to understand who we are fundamentally. However, those types of writings such as the scriptures of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism are helpful or beneficial.
It comes to my mind a very famous philosopher and thinker by the name of Krishnamurti who was a very profound master with a lot of light. He studied Buddhism, but you find that his explanations and his understanding were not based on book knowledge. It was based on what he observed in himself and how he liberated his consciousness. He had self-dialectic, self-understanding, and self-comprehension which he was able to share with others in a very profound way. Therefore, we need a new education; meaning, methods and means that are going to aid us in breaking the shells of our conditions. In the age of the revolution of the dialectic, the art of reasoning must be handled directly by our inner Being in order for it to be methodical and just. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
This type of revolution is not by going to the exterior world and trying to change things through policies, through politics, and all these external matters, which we've seen from history and experience don't do anything. But if we want to cease suffering, we have to look inside and change what we can perceive.
The Being is the Gnostic term we use in this school to refer to our divinity. Our inner God. This is not some anthropomorphic old man in the clouds with a beard and long hair who sits in the cloud of tyranny dispensing lightning bolts to this poor humanity. The Being is not anthropomorphic, but is energy and is light. And, that Being is precisely our true nature and our true self. But, not egotistical or subjective. “…the art of reasoning (the mind) must be (controlled and) handled by our inner Being in order for our mind to be just,” because our mind and our thoughts affect other people. If we are observant, we can see that certain thinking, certain ideas, or certain habits affect other people at work or are at home. Our thinking shapes our life, and therefore, that mind must be controlled and disciplined through meditation so that it can be serene in a natural equanimous state. This is “an art of objective reasoning” that “will provide a pedagogical and integral change.” In this lecture, we are talking about objective reasoning, which means understanding without having to think about something; we simply know. That is the distinction between thoughts and comprehension. Pedagogy has to do with the way we instruct others by our example, through our ethics and our way of being. All the actions of our life must be the outcome of an equation and an exact formula in order for the possibilities of the mind and the functionalism of understanding to surge forth. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
This inner divinity is called the Being.
Comprehension of Reality: The Perfect Expression of the Being
We have been explaining in our recent lectures on the Tarot, which related to divine principles, numbers, and mathematics; which is a topic of another discussion. However, we can see that in a moment of observation, in which we truly let our inner God act through us, His actions are mathematical; Her compassion is precise in all our interactions of life. It is like a formula or formulaic. It is precise and definite. Those qualities are well mentioned in certain schools of meditation which we study.
In this image we have Christ being tempted by the devil, which is a symbol of something psychological. How we as a consciousness, who must unite with the divine energy known as Christ, is opposing the mind represented by the devil. People believe in these figures as something external, but what is more interesting is that they represent something psychological for us. In that exercise (the mantra INRI) we are invoking the Christic energy into the mind precisely so that we can overcome the temptations of our egotism, the logic of hatred, of sarcasm, and of fear. Christ is a form of understanding our mind, which is superior, and in this dialogue between him and the devil in the desert, it represents something we all experience when we genuinely attempt meditation. We face that temptation of the mind wanting to distract us and to give us what we want or desire―filling the mind with certain elements which surge and then churn constantly. But as this parable or this myth teaches us, by working with energy and by being serene, concentrated, and not being identified with the mind, obviously, the devil in the myth is false because I believe the lines from the gospels was "tempt not the Lord thy God." Meaning the soul has been united and identified with the divine so the mind becomes still. The devil falls in the myth down a precipice or down a tower. It represents how the mind is conquered and is serene. This also represents how our concepts of life do not equate with the reality of life. Our concepts, meaning our thinking, tends to be very limited. We can rationalize all we want about meditation and divinity, but what gives us true comfort and knowledge is our own experience, which is the dialectic of consciousness. As Samael Aun Weor wrote in The Great Rebellion: Awakened consciousness allows us to experience reality directly. Unfortunately, the intellectual animal mistakenly called a human being, fascinated by the formulating power of dialectical logic has forgotten about the dialectic of the consciousness. Unquestionably, the power to formulate logical concepts certainly becomes terribly poor. From thesis we go on to antithesis. After discussion to synthesis. But the latter remains in itself an intellectual concept which can never coincide with the reality. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
How does this apply to us? Obviously, this is related to schools, philosophical movements, religions, and ways of thinking. We can think all we want and believe what we want. But does that necessarily change our way of being? How we act? Whether our actions are truly beneficial, limited, or detrimental for humanity?
We can think all we want about who we are. We tend to have many concepts and beliefs. “This is my race, my religion, my family, and my school that I grew up in. My university diploma.” These are concepts and ideas. But what is the reality of our state of being? Do we truly understand the origins of our defects? Of laziness, of despair; and the whole conglomeration of errors? Because by understanding the root, psychologically, of those conditions, we can change them. The dialectic of consciousness is more direct, thereby permitting us to experience the reality of any phenomenon in and of itself. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
Those who learn to meditate obviously learn to have certain mystical experiences which are mentioned in the different religions. Some people refer to this as astral projection or dream yoga in which the consciousness, free of the physical body, experiences the realities of the dream world or the fifth dimension. This is all very beautifully mapped out in what is known in the Kabbalah as the Tree of Life.
We can investigate any phenomena in nature. We put the body at rest. We relax and we silence the mind. We observe ourselves and we concentrate on our inner divinity, begging Him or begging Her, to give us that wisdom we seek. Therefore, we focus on projecting into the astral dimension and with certain disciplines, practices, and exercises that we utilize, the body goes to rest and we enter those dimensions. We can investigate and see things that are beyond the physical senses. Personally, if I am teaching you this, it is because I have been doing this for years. I want to help my students experience the realities of the consciousness. It is not just limited to physical matter. You can experience dimensions that are not material in the physical sense, in which the religions called heavens. Also, you can investigate the infra-dimensions, or what is known as hell or hell realms because one thing we mentioned is that your state of consciousness, your level of being, and your state of mind determines if you vibrate within superior laws or inferior laws. It is simple cause and effect. Therefore, by learning to meditate and eliminate conditions of the mind, we vibrate at higher levels of being and higher laws, so that we can naturally investigate the phenomena of nature. Anything. That is the beauty of the consciousness because it has the capacity to expand to an infinite degree as the 14th Dalai Lama has instructed us. Intellectual delusion is fascinating and we want to force all natural phenomena to coincide with our dialectical logic. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
People believe many things, again intellectually, about the universe, the solar system, and our nature. We want everything to fit into our theories, our ideas, our beliefs, and our habits. More importantly for us, this has to do with our own understanding of who we are. This is the most profound form of delusion. We think we are a certain way and yet the reality is in certain situations, we keep provoking conflicts.
We can all think of examples of this. We think a certain way. We have a certain opinion. We have a disagreement with a friend or a stranger and we want to force everything we are perceiving about our neighbor in our logic. “That person doesn't like me, or that person is resentful,” or that person is this, this, and that. Yet, the very qualities that we attribute to other human beings and other persons are precisely the qualities we carry within. Therefore, we tend to live in delusion. We don't understand the sources of our problems; where our defects come from and where our habits originated. We tend to go through life very hypnotized and identified with external phenomena. Becoming fascinated by a new job, house, car, or whatever it may be. We want to fit everything into our logic about who we think we are. However, real courage occurs when we as the consciousness learn to face the mind and not to be tempted by it. We look at the mind and just see it for what it is. Where do our thoughts come from? Our feelings, our impulses? Simply look at it and don't judge one way or the other, but observe. That is how you gain information about that type of psychological phenomena inside. That is why: The dialectic of consciousness is based on true life experiences and not on mere subjective rationalism. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion
That dialectic of consciousness is when we experience by fact. The reality is that our mind tends to be fractured and is split, but by observing that fact we gain strength because we see that we are not the mind; we are something more profound.
A master by the name of Ibn ‘Arabi, who practiced Sufism, which is the mystical aspect of Islam―he was considered one of the greatest teachers of that tradition. He wrote a very interesting excerpt from a book called Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom. It builds off from what I just mentioned to you about the science of dream yoga or awakening in the internal worlds, when your physical body is asleep, but you use your consciousness or are acting and moving in a different dimension. Typically, people who go to sleep at night are knocked out for eight hours and then wake up in the morning. They may have some memories of dreams that are usually nothing. That's a barometer for how conscious we are. If your consciousness is very awake and is disciplined in meditation, you can converse in those dimensions with the angels and with the Buddhas. With the masters like Jesus, Buddha, etc. In this quote he also talks about the nature of perception and how it is not intellectual. Renee Descartes’ theory that "I think therefore I am" is wrong. To think is not to be. When thinking about our friend, coworkers, or our spouse when we are driving our car, we are not paying attention at what we are doing. We are not being in the present moment and it means we are asleep. The consciousness is not active. It is lost in thinking and daydreams. We think we see with our eyes. The information, the influences of perception are due to our senses, while the real influence, that is, the meaning of things, the power behind what sees and what is seen can be reached neither by the senses nor by deduction, analysis, comparison, contrasts, and associations made through intellectual theories. The invisible world can only be penetrated by the eye or mind of the heart. ―Ibn ‘Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
Knowledge is of the intellect, but Being, divinity, consciousness is more of the heart. Understanding is at the core of our of our Being and of our emotional center, because when you truly intuit and know something profoundly, it is ingrained in you and it is permanent. The mind can wander and think what it wants, but when you know something from fact and from experience, that is unshakable. Such as, having an experience in the astral plane where you are talking face-to-face with a master.
Personally, I have done that many times where I have been speaking with the founder of the Gnostic tradition, Samael Aun Weor, as well as certain initiates who have been helping me. Especially, because I am trying to teach others how to experience that and therefore it is not a theory for me. I don't believe in anything. I don't believe in it. It's something I do as a consciousness, because I'm meditating daily and training my mind so that I can continue to get guidance about how to live my life. 
The invisible world, the higher dimensions are known by the qualities of the heart; your ethics. By eliminating anger, lust, hatred, and fear you expand consciousness. You inflame your heart as represented by the sacred image of Jesus. His heart was constructed by a crown of thorns. This is a very famous icon in Christian thought and the thing is that it is a symbol of how we have to wear our own crown of thorns, which is obviously a symbol of restraining the mind and negative qualities in the heart. It is a type of willpower one needs.
When you sit to meditate, willpower is needed because we find that the mind wanders, and it gets distracted. It won’t stay on one thing for a long time in the beginning, but with practice and by going through a type of conflict in oneself, one learns to inflame the heart with understanding and that occurs by restraining the mind and not giving it what it wants. Again, saving your energies mentally, emotionally, and physically. “The invisible world can only be penetrated by the eye or the mind of the heart” because the consciousness awakens by working with energy. As we emphasized in the beginning of our practice, this mantra INRI helps to fill us with fire and with power. With energy and by saving energy mentally, emotionally, and physically, we expand consciousness. Indeed, the reality of this visible world also can only be seen by the eye and mind of the heart. ―Ibn ‘Arabi, Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom
Again, if we want to understand the source of our problems in our daily existence, meditation is a means and a method to understand ourselves
Spiritual Practice and Experience
Some of you who have been to my lectures previously see that I like to use a lot of different scriptures and writings. This is a tradition that I very much have a lot of respect for compared to the Orthodox extremist beliefs. This is a scripture from a book of Sufism, which is a mystical teaching of Islam. This tradition, of course, is very degenerated today. It has been abused of its original meaning, but if we look at some of the symbols and principles of this tradition, we can extract knowledge for our benefit and we emphasize in our school that all religions have one source, whether they have deviated from that is another thing.
This is a scripture called Principles of Sufism. This is a writing by Al-Qushayri, who is a great Sufi master and who inspired Rumi. If you are familiar with the poet Rumi, his power evidently came from studying this other master. One thing that is mentioned in this scripture is very important about the need for a type of spiritual discipline because true experience and the ability to have those types of experiences in the internal worlds is dependent upon our practice. It is a very practical method. Samael Aun Weor wrote the following: It is completely impossible to experience the Being, the Innermost, the Reality [the Divine], 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 the true mastery of the quietude and silence of the mind. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Spiritual Power of Sound
The Sufis corroborate what he says, meaning that through daily discipline one can experience the divine and can expand awareness. Al-Jurayri said:
Whoever does not establish awe of duty and vigilance in his relationship to the divine will not arrive at disclosure of the unseen or contemplation of the divine. ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri
What is this awe of duty? It has to do with our daily meditative practice―to feel a sense of awe and reverence every time we sit to reflect on ourselves because we understand that through this exercise, we are going to come closer to our inner Being, our true nature. Also, to feel that sense of urgency that we need to change and therefore we need to act.
It signifies to feel that inquietude, that disturbance in the heart that pushes us to want to know what religion teaches―to experience it, because through vigilance, observing ourselves, becoming aware of ourselves, and not letting the consciousness go to sleep, we in turn develop a relationship with our inner divinity, our own innermost God. That is personal for each one of us. It is very profound. Vigilance: meaning that in a vigil you don't sleep. Instead you pray all night. You don't let your body go to rest but perform some types of austerities. This is one public level of meaning, but real vigilance is when you are driving your car, but you are not thinking about other things. You are doing what you are doing and being attentive. By developing vigilance and awe of duty, we obtain real knowledge. By daily discipline is how we truly train our mind to be serene, to be calm, to be peaceful; because those who don't will not arrive at disclosure of the unseen. This has to do with having experiences in meditation, but also in dream yoga. To disclose the unseen also has another translation, which says "to unveil." When you unveil the mysteries, you are meditating and your body is at peace, your mind is calm, and then you receive an experience like a lightning bolt. It can be an image, a sound, a scene in which you are a living spectator and a participant. It could be a dream experience where you are seeing yourself doing certain actions or having certain types of interactions that are symbolic. That is unveiling, or tearing the veil of the mysteries; to see from the internal dimensions certain qualities of consciousness. However, it is not enough just to unveil or to have those experiences. It is important to understand what they are teaching you, because your inner divinity will teach you in meditation through experiences and certain symbols that apply to your life and spiritual work. Many people in this day and age are very fascinated with dream symbology and want to get certain books to teach them. "I had a dream about this and this. I want to read it and look at what it means." In this tradition, we don't rely on those types of books because the real method of understanding our dreams and experiences comes by meditating. When you meditate and you read scriptures and understand certain symbols, it is easy to interpret things. But relying on other people's opinions is not a guarantee that you can read about in certain books. I found more effective for my own practices to not read any book, but just go and meditate on the experience until the understanding surges forth. When we have the experiences, we learn to understand what they mean. As the kabbalists teach, "A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read” (Berachot 55b). Therefore, contemplating the meaning of our experiences is known as Mushahada in Arabic. This is the word “witnessing, to witness.” If you are familiar with Islam, they do the Shahidah, which is the declaration of their faith in the public level: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet.” People recite that many times, but do they really understand what it means is another thing. When you say that you have witnessed God, it means that you have been meditating. Then you as a consciousness have had the experience of uniting with your Being. You are witnessing the ecstasy of your soul united with that truth and that purity. That is to be a witness, to perceive, and to be awake. It doesn't mean just thinking that I believe in this tradition or I believe in Jesus or I believe in Samael Aun Weor, thinking that belief is going to guarantee anything. Instead it is about having the experience. That is witnessing. When you have those experiences your heart becomes inflamed precisely because you have seen the truth for yourself and you know that you are not alone. The Four States of Consciousness
We talk about four states of consciousness in this tradition. From the Greek mysteries and in the spirit of this doctrine, of the dialectic of consciousness, we have been talking a bit about the Greeks in terms of their language and etymology. We can say there are four types of dialectic or four types of being. We have Eikasia, which is profound sleep. We have Pistis which is sleep with dreams. Now we have Dianoia or awakened consciousness, followed by Nous or spiritually illuminated consciousness. Humanity tends to be stuck in the first two forms of consciousness, which is sleep or sleep with dreams. People in these times believe that they are awake. We tend to have this belief that we are conscious. When you practice meditation and if you analyze your eight hours of sleep at night, whether you |
