In this course, we have been discussing how to achieve a psychological transformation of one’s mind, of one’s heart, of one’s body, so that by learning to overcome our own internal obstacles, we can learn to experience divinity in a very concrete, direct, and practical manner. That knowledge of experience, of God, of the Being, is known in Greek as gnosis, self-knowledge. We do not like to use the term God so much, but we use it as a type of reference point. Instead, we like to refer to Being, presence, a type of consciousness that is inside, not external. And we have been discussing the fact that if we wish to know divinity, the Being, our own inner spirit, we have to learn to see in ourselves all that which afflicts us, so that by comprehending our own errors, our own conditions of mind, we can experience the truth. We can free ourselves from suffering.
So this is the fifth lecture in the course Beginning Self-Transformation. In our first lecture, we mentioned a true human being, a true spiritually enlightened one, is a Jesus, is a Buddha, is a Krishna, is a Moses, beings that exemplified the highest ideals of humanity, the highest truths possible for anyone to attain. And if we look at the word hum-man, we can see something very profound etymologically. 
Hum in Sanskrit means spirit, and the spirit is divinity, the Being, the truth that never mixes with impurity. It is totally free. It is omniscient. It is universal. And that intelligence is inside, within ourselves, within our true nature, and man, like the Rune Man, with the Nordic letters, symbolizes us in potentiality. We can receive that energy in us if we learn to cease being machines.
It is an unpleasant fact to recognize in our daily experience that we tend to be very mechanical, habitual creatures, mechanical beings, constantly reacting to the influences of life, but never really comprehending the sources of our sorrows. We tend to like to externalize, to blame the government, to blame one’s spouse, one’s friends, one’s boss, one’s job for all of our sorrows that we experience. But if we fail to comprehend how we contribute to our own suffering, how our own states of anger, of pride, of fear, of vanity, really traps our true potential of who we are and what we can become. So a human machine is like anyone of us. Our body is a means of transferring energy within the universe, within the cosmos, within our psyche, and as we began this lecture with a series of runic postures, the runic yoga, we are learning to circulate divine energy within our human machine, because the body is a machine. It is very easy to see that we process certain elements in our body in order to achieve homeostasis, a type of equilibrium, a type of balance, physically-speaking, but in a spiritual sense, it is also possible to use our body in order to transmit divine energy, divine force, so that our physical body is a temple that can incarnate the Being, the truth, the divine, can fully manifest those qualities like compassion, divine love, patience, virtue, in which beings like Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, fully embodied themselves. They were true human beings who had Hum, the spirit, the Being, fully present in them. And this is why, in instances of great trial, in which they were sacrificed, crucified, victimized, they only responded with love towards their enemies. That is a type of compassion that is very profound, that is very universal, in which we can access in ourselves if we transform who we are, so that light can permeate throughout our spinal column, seven chakras, our mind, our heart, our body. And in that way as we learn to work with that force which the Gnostics, the Greeks called Christos, Christ, we cease suffering, because the conditions of mind, like fear, laziness, pride, hatred, gluttony, that which we call ego, is fully dead, so that only the resurrected soul is present in our very thoughts, our very words, our very deeds. So to be a mechanical being is like anyone of us, going through life, reacting towards our circumstances, perhaps some days better than others. But the fact that we continue to react in the same manner towards the same circumstances indicates that we are habitual creatures. When we are criticized, we return with resentment, with anger, with pride. Those circumstances can help us if we engage in this type of self-transformation, this type of work that we have been studying in this course. We spoke previously about the need to observe ourselves, observe our psychological states, our ways of thinking, our ways of feeling, and our ways of acting, so that we can comprehend those negative qualities which afflict us and unfortunately make us harm others, psychologically-speaking, because anger is an emotion that only knows how to destroy. Fear is debilitating. Pride, instead of exalting itself, only brings about the suffering of others. So that is ego egotism, defects, vices, desire. These types of mechanical reactions make us mechanical beings, because when slandered, we slander in return. We are never free. We are always victims of circumstances, but that can change, by learning to observe who we are, psychologically-speaking, because genuine spirituality is knowing how to cease reacting mechanically to “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to quote Hamlet, Shakespeare. But by “taking arms against a sea of troubles,” psychologically-speaking, learning to work on our own faults, we can “oppose and end” all sorrow. Real spirituality is learning to circulate divine force, divine energy, so that we can empower our consciousness. So we cease being puppets of life, where we are cursed, we return with curses. We are laughed at, ridiculed, but we can respond with genuine serenity and peace, remembrance of our own divinity. So in this lecture, we will talk about what does it mean to be a machine, but also what does it mean to be a genuine human being, a real spiritual illuminated one. We will talk about the physical and internal constitution of the intellectual humanoid. We spoke previously that because of our egotistical conditioning of mind, we do not know the spirit from experience, from meditation, from internal visions, such as when physically we go to sleep, and we enter the dream world, because in that state, we can learn to awaken consciousness, to perceive divinity directly, just as we are speaking face to face, through types of visions, prophetic experiences, which any enlightened one can access in themselves if they cease being machines [see Dream Yoga and Astral Travel]. But learning to work with exercises like runes, charging energy in our temple, our mind, our heart, our body, so that the consciousness is awake, even when the physical body is asleep, we therefore can learn to access the internal dimensions and have that face to face contact and receive wisdom from our own inner divinity, our own inner Being. 
The Heavenly Human Being
So we will talk about this image in the Kabbalist tradition; it is Adam Kadmon, the heavenly man, the heavenly, spiritual, enlightened being, a symbol of our own inner divinity. And he has around his chest and genitalia the solar system and the zodiac, representing that our true identity is universal, is cosmic, and that our terrestrial identity only constitutes a very small portion of who we genuinely are, of what we are. This image is the Being, and that perfect Being, that perfect archetype, is divine love, is selflessness, is compassion. And he knows how to govern all the forces of the universe, in himself, for others.
We all have that potential, to create something so divine that it can govern worlds, planets, suns, galaxies, but in order to reach that point, we have to learn what in us is mechanical, is habitual, is negative, is demonic. So this symbol represents, with one foot on the earth and one foot in the waters, a being that has conquered himself or herself, where the physical body is the earth, is in full control by the Being, by divinity. Likewise, the waters are the energies of the body; the mind, the heart fully circulate, perfectly, purely, divinely. And then likewise the fire and light of creation, the powers of the heart and the air of the mind, are in full subservience to that divine truth, representing how our mind, our heart, our feeling, our thinking, our ways of acting, are in full reflection of our own inner God, the Being, the truth. So the human being, the human machine, can channel all the divine energy of the cosmos in order to help others, out of selflessness, out of compassion. So the following quote is from a book called The Narrow Way by Samael Aun Weor, where he explains how the heavenly human being is inside of us, and that he reflects all of the divine principles of the cosmos. If we vividly imagine in a clear and precise manner the resplendent and elongated body of the Solar System, we will see all of its beautiful coverings and intertwined threads that were formed by the marvelous traces of the planets. Then, from such a receptive state, the living image of the human organism (with its skeletal, lymphatic, arterial, nervous, etc., systems) will come into our minds. Without a doubt the constitution of the human organism is also constituted and reunited in a similar manner.
So we learn through meditation, runes, yoga, how to work with energy, how to work with that force known as Christ, so as to liberate the soul from its conditions, from its suffering. And in that way, it reflects the universe, as the Gnostics reiterate the statement from the oracle of the temple of Delphi, “Man know thyself, and you will know the universe and the Gods.”
We have to know ourselves, know our limitations, and transform them. So these energies of the cosmos are within the human machine, all the energies of the galaxies, the stars, the planets, circulate through us. But typically, we do not have any awareness of it. And so by learning to accustom our body to mantras, sacred sounds, prayer, meditation, we can learn to channel that directly and become conscious of that force―we transform our life, our daily experience. We cease going to work for jobs we hate, suffering the afflictions of life, by learning to face the greatest adversities and circumstances with patience, with serenity and with love for others, without fear or uncertainty, without egotism, without pain. The Three Brains
But to reach that point, we must work with these distinct forms of energy in us, in which we find are presented in what we call (in Gnostic psychology) as the three brains.
So typically, we know from science that we have a physical brain in the cranium, a very superficial understanding. Esoterically-speaking, a brain is a machine that processes energies within the physical brain itself, but also within our nervous systems, such as our heart. Our brain is a form of intelligence, a form of knowing, or a means by which we can process cosmic, intelligent forces that permeate space. The physical brain is the physical manifestation of the psychic apparatus known as the intellectual brain. It’s a machine. The physical brain processes thought, but it is not the originator of thought, because mind, thought, exists in other dimensions, which are internal, which we can verify by learning to awaken our consciousness. Such as in dreams, as I stated, where physically, your body is asleep, but you are thinking and doing other things outside the body, in the astral dimension, the mental dimension, or in other planes of experience, which are not vague or amorphous states, but concrete realities. So the brain is merely a machine. It processes thought. It expresses thought, that which is internal, into the physical plane. But we also have an emotional brain, because the emotions are a profound form of intelligence, which is not necessarily material. We live in our world of emotions more than anything, typically, although we cannot necessarily point physically anywhere except for the heart. We feel something emotional, profound, strong, whether it be love or anger, or our pride is hurt. We say, “I am hurt,” and we point towards our chest, because that is the physical location of where we experience emotion. But that emotion is not limited to physical matter. We find it in the internal dimensions, where in the dream state, the astral plane is the world of emotions. We learn to perceive in those worlds with cognizance, lucidity, with direct perception, but the emotional brain processes profound energies relating to the heart, which can express the most divine sentiments, the most pure love, the most profound understanding. The last brain is known as the motor-instinctive-sexual brain. It is a combination of movement, instinct, and sexual drive, which, those elements in us tend to be very mechanical, habitual, egotistical, and that brain itself is located throughout our spine. The motor brain or the aspect of movement relates to the top of our spine. We also have the sexual glands, which is where we process sexual desire, which in us tends to be very lustful and conditioned, but even that energy can be used for divinity, if done with purity and love, cognizance. And then instinct, relating to the base of the spine, our most instinctual nature, that is where we find instinct, such as reactions. A boxer who is in a ring, who gets into a fight, he is moving instinctually. He is using the motor brain, and he is using instincts to react or to respond to the opponent. So if we put our hand on a hot stove and we get burned, we place our hand off the stove, and then we think later how the pain of that experience emerged. First came instinct. It was quick, spontaneous, and thought came after the emotional pain of saying, “I was hurt.” But these different brains have different forms of energy and speed by which those forces manifest and act in us. 
The Three Nervous Systems and Cosmic Laws
We also find that these three brains with their nervous systems help to process what we call the law of seven and the law of three within our interior. We spoke briefly about the law of seven, which is how the universe is organized in creation: seven planets within alchemy, alchemical traditions; seven archangels; seven virtues; seven defects or vices; the seven capital sins. It is a way of organizing and understanding nature. And we find that law of seven manifest in us through the seven chakras of our spine.
The law of three relates to creation. How does one create not only physically, but spiritually, and vise versa? The law of three is simply the law of affirmation, the law of negation, the law of reconciliation, which we find within our three brains. We have affirmation relating to thought. We have negation relating to the heart. We have reconciliation relating to our motor-instinctive-sexual qualities. And these three brains are our spiritual temple, which, if we learn to use this machine well, we can manifest God the Being in us. Affirmation negation, reconciliation is also referenced and referred to by the teachings of Tantra in the east, in Buddhism. And in Buddhism they talk about how husband and wife, man and woman, can work together to transform the sexual energy, the motor-instinctive-sexual brain, and that energy itself, in order to awaken all the full powers of divinity in us through the awakening Kundalini, which we do in sparks, gradually, by working on the vowel S. We did the seven runes, the seven vowels, which for those listening online, you can access on glorian.org a video instructing students how to perform these seven vowels, these seven runes. But again man is affirmation, woman is negation, and when they reunite sexually, spiritually-speaking, they reconcile each other in order for that energy to awaken in them.
And so that power is very profound, very liberatory, but if it is not harnessed well, it can also lead to one’s damnation.
So these three brains channel all the forces of the cosmos and relate to the law of three and the law of seven, because by working with our three brains, with mantra, with prayer, with meditation, we work with the seven chakras of our spine and awaken everything in us that is divine. So this quote is from The Narrow Way by Samael Aun Weor, where he explains about the role of these physical brains themselves: The human organism possesses seven superior glands and three nervous systems. The Law of Seven and the Law of Three intensely work within the human machine.
In our first lecture, we talked about how we are souls with intellect. The word animal comes from the Latin anima, soul, “to animate.” And it is very easy to see that in our life, we may have elements relating to the animal kingdom: pride, anger, vanity, fear, laziness, gluttony, etc., so, therefore, we are animal souls with intellect, with the capacity to rationalize, judge. But there is a higher kingdom available to the spiritual practitioner or meditator, known as a true human being, which is developed in oneself gradually, by learning to work with the three brains.
“The cerebral spinal nervous system produces very seldom conscious functions,” meaning: we may think and rationalize that we are awake, but if we are driving our car, thinking of our fiancé, our friend, our neighbor, and we get into an accident, it means that we are asleep, spiritual-speaking, consciously-speaking. We are not very aware of our body or ourselves throughout any given day, but that brain can learn to help us stay spiritually awake if we charge it with good energy. The sympathetic nervous system marvelously stimulates the unconscious and instinctual functions.
So again, this parasympathetic nervous system relates to the motor-instinctual-sexual brain, the cerebral spinal nervous system with the intellectual brain, and the sympathetic nervous system with the emotional brain.
So the parasympathetic or vagus system helps to reconcile all the forces of the other brains, because by learning to work with creative energies, of life, the sexual energy in oneself, we have the greatest potential for change, for transformation, because that energy can awaken or create a physical child, a human being, a person. So that power which can create can also be used for divinity, if we know how to use it well and with purity. Thus, we are totally accurate when affirming (without fear of being mistaken) that these three nervous systems represent the Law of Three, the Three Primary Forces within the human machine. Likewise, the seven endocrine glands and their secretions represent the Law of Seven with all of their musical scales. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Narrow Way 
The Tree of Life
So we know in numerology that there are seven notes, seven musical scales in relation to this law of organization, and the law of three relates to the three primary forces of any universe, which we find represented by this image known as the Tree of Life.
This image is not the soul patrimony of Judaism, but it does relate to every religious and spiritual tradition. It is a map of consciousness, from the very heights of the divine to the most material; from the most energetic and subtle to the most manifest. We see the top trinity above represents three forces in nature known as, in Christianity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or if we want to use the Nordic mythology: Oden, Baldur, Thor; amongst the Egyptians: Osiris, Horus, Isis, that energy descends throughout creation into more manifest levels of expression, which we find represented in these seven levels of energy, but also matter. We find at the very bottom this physical world, which relates to mechanical energy, simply the energy of being able to move. Above that, we have vital energy, relating to the vital body, which is a form of matter and energy that is not physical, but etheric. Sometimes, if waking up in the morning, we may have more or less energy through our day, which relates to how vital we are, our vital forces, which saturate and permeate throughout the physical body, internally, to give us life. If there were no vital body, there would be no life physically. If you are familiar with the Kirlion camera, you can find images of hands or butterflies or stones that have an aura. That is the vital body or the vital depth of our physical expression. But above that, we have more subtle forms of energy. We have emotional energy relating to the astral dimension, the heart. Likewise, we have mental energy relating to the mind, which is the mental plane, the mental world. Above that, we volitional energy relating to willpower, which is very subtle. We say some people have a certain will to exist and to succeed in life and some who do not. It is easy to see physical energy or physicality, to sense our vital forces, and to be aware more or less of our emotions and our mental states, but it is very difficult and more profound to examine willpower, volition, which is above mind, above thinking, above emotions. Above that, we have conscious energy relating to our soul, and then beyond that, we have spiritual energy relating to our Being, our inner God, our spirit: Hum. So this map shows the universe, but also inside of us, because the human being, the human machine, is a microcosmos, a miniature universe that reflects the macrocosmos, the universe at large. But above that, we have the three primary forces, which is much more subtle and profound and very difficult for people to even conceive of. We can see that if we sit to meditate, usually people do not even get past the physical body, because the body tends to be fidgeting or agitated, ill at ease. If one maintains one’s posture, one’s asana, the practitioner may become more aware of the energies in the body, the vital forces, and as the body and mind settle, we start to sense emotion, mind. But beyond that there is willpower, which is our human potential, our human soul, which if we learn to develop through exercises like runes, prayer, meditation, that willpower becomes fortified, strong, so that it can conquer the afflictions of mind and heart and obey the higher forms of the Tree of Life, the consciousness above, and the spirit. Our will tends to be very egotistical, selfish, inverted, and egotism, ego the “I,” “my anger, my pride, my fear, my laziness, my hatred, my blasphemy, my vengeance, my resentment,” that is selfish will. But we can develop conscious will in our spiritual discipline, to cease being machines, and can learn to obey divinity above, which is symbolized in the Passion of Jesus where he says, “Father, if this is possible, take this cup of bitterness from me, but not my will, but thine be done.” That is a type of willpower known as Christic will, Christ will, which is selfless of egotism, but knows how to act in every circumstance of life for the benefit of others. The Law of Seven and the Musical Scale
We also find the law of seven represented in the musical scale. These notes: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, relate to the dimensions of the Tree of Life and the creation of the full human being, a spiritually enlightened one, a master.
The lower three notes: Do, Re, Mi, relate to our three brains. We have the instinctual center, the emotional center, and the intellectual center. This represents mechanical humanity, because people tend to engage in life, mechanically-speaking. Usually, some people are more intellectual, and some people are more emotional. Some people are more instinctual; they are always acting; they are always moving; they never sit still.
Instinctual types of people never understand the emotional or intellectual types, because they always need to move to do something. The emotional types never understand the intellectual or the instinctual types of people because they always want to feel through the heart. But the intellectuals never understand the emotional or instinctual types of people because they are always rationalizing everything. So these lower three types of people constitute, in the Bible, the tower of Babel, babble, gibberish, and represents our psychological predisposition to act in life mechanically. These three brains, these three notes, are represented in Alice in Wonderland by the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and the White Rabbit. Those are symbols of psychological truths. The Mad Hatter is crazy, is in love with his theories; intellectually-speaking, he always tries to solve things with the intellect, but spiritually-speaking, it is empty of any meaning; it is gibberish; it is insane. The Queen of Hearts is always angry, saying “Off with her head!” because the emotional type of person is always very violent in the emotional center; the emotional brain is always very negative. And the instinctual type of person, the White Rabbit, is always saying, “I am late, I am late, for a very important date!” and is always running around doing things without any type of cognizance, and that is mostly us. We all have these qualities inside, but we tend to lean towards one brain or the other in a malfunctioning way. And the way that we learn to see that these three brains are imbalanced in us is by learning self-observation and working with energy. But above these lower three notes, we have superior types of beings relating to the notes Fa, Sol, La, Ti. We have the fourth type of human being, a real human being, a balanced person who knows how to use the intellect, the emotions, and the instinctual qualities of the body, for the spirit. 
It is interesting that the note Fa relates to the awakening of consciousness, because there is another rune which we did not perform, in which we face the east. Our left hand above our right, we imagine the energies of the Solar Logos, the solar light, the Christ entering the chakras of our palms, down through our arms in the form of the letter F amongst the Nordics. The first letter of the Nordic alphabet is F, from Futhark, and with that we learn to receive the divine, and we say a prayer:
“Marvelous forces of love, revive my sacred fire, so that my consciousness will awaken!” You do the notes Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fu; you pronounce those prolonged. And we learn to work with the note Fa, the rune of the Fa-ther, in order to cease being machines, so we can transmute that energy consciously and be aware spiritually-speaking.
The note Sol, the sun, relates to a heart or emotional state that is spiritual, that is divine, which we say is solar, is Christic, is eternal. We also have a type of mind that is solar relating to the note La, and a type of willpower, a type of causality relating to the human consciousness, relating to the note Ti―Fa, Sol, La, Ti. Willpower, Conscious Shocks, and Deviation
And notice that there are two shocks relating to the awakening of consciousness, where we cease being mechanical beings, that are intellectual, emotional, or instinctual, but through working with runes and energy, we spark the consciousness and acquire balance of these three brains.
But even there is more work to achieve, in which after attaining equilibrium, psychologically-speaking, through self-observation, through meditation, we learn to create what are known as solar vehicles, relating to the internal dimensions. Some people talk about astral bodies, mental bodies, causal bodies in philosophical literature. These bodies need to be created in oneself. They are never given to us by nature, mechanical forces; they are given to us when we create them in what is known as the perfect matrimony, through a marriage, of which we will be explaining in this course later on. I just want to synthesize that these notes tend to deviate in us; there is a type of willpower needed in order to attain a conscious shock, a spiritual shock, in which we realize that, consciously-speaking, we are not very attentive awake, aware. So we work with the runes, the Rune Fa, the seven vowels, in order to spark consciousness, because if we examine our mind, we find that we tend to be distracted, as I said. These seven notes play a very important part in spiritual development because if there were no type of organization in the cosmos or the seven notes themselves, it means that any type of project we engage in would automatically fulfill itself without our imposition, without our agency, without our will, but instead, because energy is needed, willpower is needed to act in life, to attain any type of goal. We find that things tend to never be completed. I would like to relate to you a quote from P. D. Ouspensky from the Fourth Way, which explains how this law of seven governs everything and why it is important that in these type of spiritual studies, we work with energy to awaken consciousness, because we will never be able to experience divinity mechanically, by hoping for it, by wanting it. There has to be a type of action, spiritual discipline, and practice in ourselves if we wish to have that experience, because if this law of seven did not exist, things would result mechanically naturally. That is why in any spiritual tradition, they always taught that if one wants to know the Being, the truth, they have to practice certain rituals and prayers and exercises so that they have energy to do so, to awaken, otherwise things would just happen through evolution. And we do not accept that people will attain self-realization through evolution, through mechanical hopes. They occur in us through a type of concerted effort inside. The reason why it is necessary to understand the Law of Seven is that it plays a very important part in all events. If there were no Law of Seven everything in the world would go to its final conclusion, but because of this law everything deviates…
So what does it mean that things deviate? We may have the willpower to finish a project related to work, but then we get distracted, we do something else, or we think that we are doing the same thing, but really are thinking of other things. And that all relates to the lower three qualities of the soul: the intellectual, the emotional, and the instinctual types of people who only engage in projects, but always never finish, or think they are doing something else, but really, in reality, the mind changes, thoughts change, emotions change; they are always fluctuating, and nothing is ever completed.
But by learning to work with this musical scale, by working with the seven chakras, the seven notes of the spinal column, we create a shock in ourselves and learn to remember divinity in every moment of our life. 
The Laconic Action of the Being
So that type of development relates to what we call the laconic action of the Being. We included an image of the galaxy in order to refer to our true nature, the spirit, the Being.
The Being, the divine, is pure action without conditions, without limitations, and is the force that governs all of the cosmos in us, because of our egotism, our egos, our mistaken sense of self, again, we tend to react mechanically to life, mistakenly, unconsciously, asleep. And therefore, this is why we state that in strict esoteric language, because of the ego, we are mechanical beings. We do not know how to do things; life simply happens to us. Circumstances are difficult. We react. We do not respond with consciousness, with intentionality. We tend to respond with anger, fear, violence, resentment, etc., the whole conglomeration of defects we possess. But if we learn to remember divinity, to self-observe ourselves, and to awaken our consciousness, then we can learn to have the Being expressed through us, perfectly, so that He transforms any situation for the benefit of everyone. Personally, I work in a job that is very difficult. I work with clients who are very challenging, who are very troubled, who suffer a lot and make other people suffer. And personally, I have had to work with this law of the scale, working with runes to charge my temple with energy, so that consciously-speaking, I could learn to respond to my enemies, who are my own clients, with love. And in that way, learn to change and transform the situation so that they are no longer responding to me with resentment, or pride, or anger, or even violence, but in that way develop their compassion, their harmony, their religion, because the word religion means “to reunite,” to reunite people. It is not easy to help other people who are very afflicted with negativity when we ourselves are so burdened by so much garbage, but if we transform that within ourselves, we can learn to respond with kindness, with perfection, in which the Being, our inner truth speaks through us and guides those people who are afflicted. It could be any job, whatever our circumstances may be, and in that way, we become a vehicle that can express the perfect, laconic action of the divine. And what does it mean to be laconic? Meaning, to be relaxed; there is no effort involved in expressing divinity. We have to do our part, to work with willpower, to settle the mind, to settle the body, settle the heart, the three brains, so that divinity can express within our centers themselves. So what is this laconic action of the Being? The Laconic Action of the Being is the concise manifestation, the brief action, which in synthesis the Real Being of each one of us executes. This action is mathematical and exact, like a Pythagorean Table.
Those qualities are more manifest in us as we learn to comprehend the ego and eliminate it, and get rid of pride, fear, vanity, laziness, lust, desire, anger, frustration, resentment, which religion has called demons, and which we all possess, but by learning to eliminate those qualities, divinity can express through us with perfection, with love, and in that way the Being manifests and organizes our three brains, functions and manifests those energies in us, because without that energy, we cannot express divinity perfectly.
Pinocchio: The Human Machine
Otherwise, we will be a marionette, a puppet, which we find reflected in this story of Pinocchio, which is a beautiful esoteric teaching masked as a children’s story. In order to escape persecution, Carlo Collodi, who wrote that text, wrote a children’s fable in order to convey very profound esoteric truths, because all of us are like Pinocchio, a puppet.
We are influenced by cosmic radiation or influences, and more importantly, our own egotistical drives, our ego, the self, that which is: “I am, I want, I crave, I need, I desire; me, myself, and I,” which is a pluralization of self. It is not unitary, but is multiple. Every fear, every thought, every transgression, every resentment, every sentiment, every element of fear and pride, all constitute a conglomeration of errors, defects, “I’s,” a multiplicity. And it is easy to see this in ourselves if we are observing, because in one moment, we may want to wash our dishes and then we change our mind, “I am going to go drive my car, and go to the store.” And then, “No, I think I am going to go read a book.” There is always this constant fluctuation and change of thinking, feeling and acting, which is never unitary, never the same. And people like to attribute all this to one sense of self, but through the sense of psychological self-observation, we begin to see that we are not unitary; we are multiple. That is a very disturbing fact to realize. Pinocchio in the story recognizes this fact, and he gets very upset. He wants to become a real boy, a real man made into the flesh and blood of divinity, a true human being, a God. And the way he does it is explained very beautifully in that myth. I mean, even the Disney depiction, the film, did a decent job. It is a very long, profound tale, which we could give a whole lecture on, but I just want to mention that we are like puppets. People can say what they want, think what they want, do what they want, and we will usually react mechanically. We are never free of slander, circumstances. Things happen to us: the weather can be bad; we wake up grumpy, our mood is altered; we feel negative. We tend to be very afflicted and victimized by circumstances. So Samael Aun Weor in The Narrow Way explains that: The human machine (as any other machine) moves under the impulses of the subtle forces of Nature. The secret agents that move the human machines are first the cosmic radiations and second the pluralized "I.” ―Samael Aun Weor, The Narrow Way
So it is very painful to realize in oneself, but there is the possibility for change. Pinocchio literally in Tuscan means “pine seed.” It is the seed that can become a Tree of Life, perfected, a fully illuminated Christmas tree, a master of meditation, a profound Being, but as we are now, we tend to be very mechanical.
The intellectual animal is a wretched marionette, a loud speaker with memory and vitality, a living puppet entranced with the silly illusion that it can do, when indeed it cannot do anything… ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
How do we recognize this fact in ourselves? It is by observing, watching. Do not assume that we know ourselves, because every religion teaches that. If we wish to know divinity, we have to conquer ourselves, according to the origins of those traditions, not as they are taught today―by learning to observe ourselves and seeing our own contradictions that we constantly engage with day by day.
It is a terrible reality of our existence and a painful one. But you got to remember that, “With patience, ye possess your souls,” said Jesus of Nazareth. So only the Being can do, can act, can manifest perfectly in any circumstance of life, to transform it. …The human machine does not have any individuality; he does not have the Being. Only the true Being has the power to do. ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So learning to differentiate between the ego and the essence, the ego and the soul, is what leads us to understanding and helps us to cease being mechanical creatures, suffering beings.
To Be or Not to Be: The Esoterism of Hamlet
So even Hamlet, in the play of his name, depicts this struggle and dilemma of “to be or not to be,” to be a human being or to be a machine. William Shakespeare, with the pen name of a certain master, explained this problem.
In the play, you find that Hamlet is seeking to avenge the death of his father, the King who was slain by his brother Claudius. It is a symbol of how our own ego had killed our inner God, meaning in us, because of our mistakes and conditions of mind. We destroyed the potential divinity in us, and as a ghost, that being comes to us haunting in the night, with inquietudes, longings, uncertainties, and the desire to study this type of spirituality, so that we can change. But in the play, Hamlet discovers that his uncle Claudius killed his father. If you are familiar with the myths of freemasonry, Hiram Abiff was killed by three traitors. Osiris was killed by Seth in the Egyptian myth, and Horus needs to avenge him. So it is a very profound drama represented in many mythologies, many cosmogonies, many traditions. And I will read for you and explain some of these quotes from his famous soliloquy: To be, or not to be? That is the question―
So to be a being a true human being or to be a machine, that is the question. Either we can face our circumstances consciously, with hope, with diligence, with faith and our inner divinity, or we can suffer through life mechanically, and degenerate and suffer.
To die, to sleep―
So people always contemplate death, so much suffering. Suffering as a machine, but there is also a form of esoteric death, death of the ego, death of pride, death of fear. And people always wonder: if I annihilate my ego, what will I be? Who will I be? What am I? Who am I? What is my identity? And the reality is that the true identity is the Being, the cosmic human, the Christ.
To die, to sleep.
People are always afraid of the afterlife, of some conception, of some other world, in which they will go to if they lead a good life or a bad life. It is a very superficial understanding. It is true that in nature, we gravitate to places based on our level of being. If we are negative, we will return or will result in negative experiences, entering into states of suffering, whether it may be another body, in relation to transmigration or devolution, destruction within negative states, negative dimensions known as hell hell realms.
People always contemplate death, but do not really know what will happen when they die, where they will go, what they will be, and likewise, people fear the death of desire, the mind, the ego. They fear, “What will I be if I do not exist, my name, my language, my culture, my race, my beliefs, my religion?” But people who identify with the mind, the ego, feed it, strengthen it. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
So what is the point, he is asking, of going through this life as an animal, as a machine, as a puppet, if one does not strive to become the Being, to manifest the Being in oneself, perfectly, otherwise it is vanity.
Who would fardels bear,
So again, the afterlife scares people: they do not know where they will be, where they will go, what they will become, but if people awaken their consciousness, they will know. We can know. We can experience it.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
So this is a reference to the law of the scale, the law of the seven, of organization, and how actions deviate when there is no consistency, consciousness, or awakening. So we must learn to cease being mechanical beings, and that means by learning to transform our psychological states, here and now, who we are, moment by moment.
Internal States and External Events
Those who know how to consciously combine the external event with the appropriate interior state are very rare. When one wants to separate external events from the internal states of consciousness, one demonstrates concretely his incapacity of existing in a dignified manner.
…to act with the essence, the consciousness, the soul, and not with the ego. The best weapon is a correct state because, with that, we can transform difficult circumstances.
We are being criticized, being gossiped about, and lied to; we do not respond with anger, but with kindness, by knowing how to establish boundaries with people, firmly, for the benefit of them and ourselves. And we cease being victims of life. It is possible to transform mechanical reactions through logical confrontation and the intimate Auto-reflection of the Being. ―Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology
The self-reflection of the Being―with meditation, confronting ourselves logically, and examining our daily states, reflecting on them seeing them, understanding them. So that through understanding, we can eliminate that which is impure, in order to let the Being shine in us.
So the Sufis also talk about this teaching very beautifully. They are the mystics of Islam. I found a beautiful quote from a scripture called Principles of Sufism by Al-Qushayri, where he explains how the gnostic, the true spiritual human being, is a person who knows how to adapt to life, instant by instant, moment by moment. When al-Junayd was asked about the gnostic, he replied, "The color of the water is the color of its container." That is, the nature of the gnostic is always determined by the nature of his state at a given moment. ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism
So psychologically-speaking, we are always changing. Thoughts change, emotions change, moods change, the body changes, everything is in fluctuation; nothing is static; nothing is in repose. And by learning to observe ourselves, consciously-speaking, as an essence, as a soul, we learn to comprehend how to annihilate desire, the ego.
As we see in this image of Mary Magdalene praying before a candle in a mirror. That light is the soul in which she contemplates the elimination of her own desires, her defects, her vices, a beautiful symbol of transformation.
The Five Centers of the Human Machine
So we talk about the three brains. We could also break down these three brains as five centers: the intellectual, the emotional, and the motor-instinctive-sexual, the latter three constituting one brain: the brain of action, as compared to the brain of thought and the brain of feeling.
So the ego, the “I,” the self, manifests in our thoughts, our emotions, our movements, our instincts, and our sexuality. From The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor, he explains what this work entails, this work of self-transformation. The "I" exercises control over the five inferior centers of the human machine. [...] Whosoever wants to dissolve the "I" must study its functionalism within the five inferior centers. We must not condemn the defects; we must not justify them either. What is important is to comprehend them. It is urgent to comprehend the actions and reactions of the human machine. Each one of these five inferior centers has a whole set of extremely complicated actions and reactions. The "I" works with each one of these five inferior centers. Therefore, by deeply comprehending the whole mechanism of each one of these centers, we are on our way to dissolving the "I." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Perfect Matrimony
So these centers operate in different speeds, I mentioned briefly. Some people like to think that the intellect is a very fast machine, that thought is the definition of what one is, but the intellect is a very slow mechanism compared to some of the other centers of our constitution. So the intellect, which always processes thesis and antithesis, idea / argument or idea / counter idea, it is the slowest of the human machine.
It is easy to see that if we are driving our car, and we think too much about what we are doing, we can lose control or not drive well. Or we put our hand on a hot stove, and we react instinctually, move our hand, and then we think later of the pain of that experience, because the intellect is slower and instinct is quick. It is very fast, as fast as movement. So we state in esoterism that movement and instinct are thirty thousand times faster than the intellect, but even more difficult to control is our emotions, especially when they are very profound and negative, or afflicted with anger or resentment. It is very difficult to overcome that emotion, because that center is very quick. It is more difficult to control emotion than it is the intellect, but even more so, our sexual center is the most profound, the quickest. It moves one hundred twenty thousand times faster than the intellect, as compared to the emotions which is sixty thousand times faster. In movement, we find to do or not to do, our habits. With thoughts, we find thesis and antithesis. With emotion, we find like / dislike; with instinct, we find pleasurable or unpleasurable sensations. And then with sexuality, we find attraction or repulsion. The sexual center is the quickest, because in a moment, a man and a woman can immediately register, just by seeing each other for a fraction of a second, whether they are sexually compatible, which is why certain people feel that immediate attraction upon meeting someone of the opposite sex, feeling that desire, because the sexual center is so quick. It also is the center that could offer us the most power for liberation, because the energy that could create a physical child, if it is conserved and transformed, can give birth to a spiritual human being, a divine being. So the ego manifests within our thoughts, our movements, our instincts, our emotions, and our sexual drives. Each ego possesses its own way of thinking, moving, acting, feeling, doing. 
The Two Worlds of the Human Machine
So this path is about studying oneself in meditation, and by observing these faults, moment by moment, by learning to meditate and comprehend those errors in ourselves, we can destroy them; divinity can destroy them in us, and thereafter we enter the higher dimensions, represented by our higher states, of being represented by this Tree of Life, this last graphic.
This Tree of Lfe is the interior worlds, liberated consciousness, which is selfless love. Pure chastity, or sexual purity, does not mean abstention from sex; it means purity in sex, purity of that energy, purity of the divine, sincere humility, selfless diligence, selfless generosity, conscious temperance, genuine happiness for others. But there are also inverted qualities of the soul known as the ego, which are the inverted spheres of this Tree of Life. This is known as Klipoth in Hebrew, which means the world of shells; this is the hell realms mentioned in every single tradition and religion, which is not necessarily just a place in nature. More importantly, it represents for us our qualities of being, who we are psychologically, because what we are psychologically attracts our life, whether for good or for ill. So that conditioned consciousness, the ego, is constituted by the many “I’s,” greed, laziness, lust, anger, pride, gluttony, envy, self-esteem, etc. We talked previously about the personality, the ego, and the essence. The personality we find here represented in the exterior world, that is our language, our custom, our religion, our traditions, our personality: who we are physically, how we interact with life, with people. A person with a personality from the Roman Empire would not be able to fit in because that type of energetic interface is from a different culture, a different time. So the personality is born with time, dies in time, is not eternal. It goes to the grave whenever we die in the path and process of transmigration of souls. The human machine, therefore, is our intellect, our emotions, our movements, our instincts, and our sexuality, which by learning to understand these qualities in our self, by seeing them in action through self-observation, we can cease being puppets, cease acting on negative qualities of mind, so that we can act for the benefit of others with compassion. Do you have any questions? Questions and Answers
Audience: What are the same systems related to a woman?
Instructor: So, in terms of the five centers, man and woman both have intellect, emotion, movement, instinct, and sexuality. The difference is in terms of the sexual center, which is polarized either as masculine or feminine. And as we were explaining in brief, for husband and wife, or man and woman as a couple, can learn to take the energies of the sexual center and transform themselves through specific procedures―not engaging in the sexual act as everybody knows, but in a different way. This is the meaning of Jesus saying, “you must be born again of water and spirit. That which is born of the flesh” through physical act of sexuality “is flesh, but that which is born of spirit,” the same sexual act, harnessed by husband and wife, with love, with purity, with divine compassion, that can create spirit. So the sexual act can either liberate or destroy, but those centers are the same for either husband or wife, but the sexual energy is obviously going to be polarized differently. And that energy, when it is combined intelligently, in a good match, and also with love, more importantly, that helps to accelerate one’s transformation, which we teach in certain lectures on tantrism, or what we call the perfect matrimony. We have books online that you can read or books here that teach that process. Audience: What about the association of the affirmative versus the negation? Instructor: Sure, so affirmation is masculine, as the man projects, puts forward, does, acts, wills. Woman receives. We find this physically, and we find this even in some temperaments, not always, but in some temperaments. Negation is woman because she receives from the man, you know physically-speaking, but also in a spiritual sense too. Reconciliation is when husband and wife are united together. They reconcile each other. They complement each other. Those energies complement and build and create spiritual force inside the couple, specifically. We also find affirmation is whenever we affirm a certain idea. We want to do something, but then negation is when we face resistance, and that happens in any aspect of life, like at work, at one’s job―any circumstance. And that relates to the law of the musical scale in the human machine, because whenever we want to begin this type of spiritual work, to be in practices, to be inspired, to want to change, we have that enthusiasm in the beginning, very strong, but then there is a resistance of the mind, the ego, the self, the negative qualities of pride and vanity and laziness and all of our defects, which present that type of resistance. And then the way that one overcomes that resistance of the mind is learning to meditate, learning to work with the force of comprehension, observing oneself moment by moment, day by day, so that whenever we face a problem in life or a certain quality in ourselves that we do not like, we learn to see it for what it is and not act on it. But then later we go home and reflect, imagine that scene, visualize it, and then in that way we learn to try to comprehend that condition of self that creates our problems, our sufferings. In that way we learn to destroy, little by little, anger, pride, vanity, all of that. It is eliminated, and then the soul that was trapped in those defects, the virtues of the soul, are extracted like the genie from Aladdin’s lamp, so that the genie, the spirit-soul, can make miracles in our life. So not necessarily miracles like walking on water, but changing circumstances to the point that we no longer react mechanically to situations, with problems, or suffer so much. We have difficulties, but we would not identify so much, or waste energy being invested in what other people think or say or do, but being a law to ourselves for the benefit of others. Audience: Then, negation receives? Instructor: Well, negation is just a law of nature. We have those three forces. We may affirm something and then we face the resistance, and usually people tend to go between these two binaries in life, whether in politics, two political parties fighting one another, people believing a religion or being atheist, and always conflicting with each other―never understanding one another. This is mechanical, machines. This is what puppets do: get identified with the mind, which is thesis and antithesis, good / bad, yes / no. But somebody that is very comprehensive and spiritual can look at those perspectives and say, “Well, both of you are right and both of you are wrong, because there is something more profound here which you can analyze.” There is always a pendulum that people swing between. It puts people to sleep. Consciously-speaking, you find it in political movements; you find it in religions; you find it in schools; you find it in the home, in the bedroom. You find it everywhere―duality. But the way that you overcome the afflictions of the mechanicity of life is learning to comprehend our own conditions of mind, seeing them first. Observe the ego. As the soul, observe the mind, the body, the heart, instinct, movement, everything. Be vigilant. Be awake. Be aware and study yourself, and little by little, you gain comprehension and learn to change things in life that were once very tragic and terrible into something divine. That is the meaning of transformation. Audience: What is the best way to not be reactionary? Instructor: So there is a lot of things you can do. Personally when I am at work, my clients come at me very angry. I deal with very absurd people, but I thank them, because they help me see my own absurdities, because I cannot judge them. I cannot judge my clients. People are very afflicted, with a lot of problems, socially, economically, culturally, physically. They are just in a very bad place. I am there helping them. I was put there by my inner divinity, lead to that situation, that job, so that I could learn to develop things in myself for their benefit, because I have had my clients throw things at me and assault me and try to harm me. Very difficult, but in those moments, I have learned to reflect and I have been successful every time by patiently examining myself: what in me is so offended by what this person is saying to me? Why should I identify with what this person is saying? And then in the moment, I have gained comprehension by reflecting in a very Buddhist way, Mahayana way, the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism of which the Dalai Lama teaches, is that these people are suffering so much. They are trapped in hell. They are burning with passion, afflicted by their own mind, their ego. Why get mad at fire for being hot? They cannot help it. No one has ever taught them how to be human beings. Audience: Do not hate the sinner. Hate the sin. Instructor: Yeah, point out the sin and say, well, you know you could be compassionate to the person. I do this all the time, and I say “Look, I do not judge you. I like who you are, but you cannot be doing this here.” I just point out that I am there to help build themselves, their identity, not reject them and be very firm. You can be firm spiritually, but not overbearing, or not be kind and be a doormat. But the way you learn to transform those situations is by reflecting in yourself and saying, “Well, these people do not know any better.” Like the Qur’an teaches: these are people who do not know. They have no understanding, so why get mad at someone who does not know? They are afflicted, and they cannot help it. They are puppets driven by forces that they have no comprehension of, and therefore I look at myself and say “Well, I have been a puppet most of my life. How could I judge someone and think I am better? In fact, I think I am worse, because I have this knowledge and its difficult to live up to that type of teaching, but it can be done.” It just takes a lot of willpower, working with a lot of energy: runes, exercises, prayer, mantras. And then when you face those situations in yourself that are very challenging, whether people are really testing you, you got to remember that when you are working with yourself, divinity will put you in situations that are hard. Not to punish, but to help train. So that we can train ourselves, and then when those people are very negative, I just try to remember, “Well, I try to comprehend the person, put myself in their shoes,” which is why Samael Aun Weor says in Revolutionary Psychology, “Cruelty will always continue to exist on this earth as long as we refuse to put ourselves into the shoes of others.” Because people have their reasons for why they are mad. I tell my clients, “Yeah, you have a right to be mad.” Audience: It's the extent that there's a physical danger. I guess it could be psychological. How close do you get to that fire, or you get used to it by getting closer every time? Instructor: Well, the ordeals will always manifest in levels and levels and levels of training. They get more intense the further we go along in this type of work, but divinity, like in the Bible says, will only give us challenges that we can handle, so we can change. If everything was too hard and we got everything we deserved in one moment, we would be annihilated. But divinity is very merciful. The Being is very merciful, but little by little, we learn to how to go into the fire without being burned. That is the myth of Nebuchadnezzar and the three figures, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, where they were put into a fire by king Nebuchadnezzar because they did not obey him and they were untouched by the fire. It is a symbol of how you go through ordeals in life that are very traumatizing, but come out clean. It is a matter of patience. Audience: I think about it as a spiritual fire, but I guess my question is that the actual physical aspect of someone wants to fight you or kill you. Instructor: Well, you know you can train yourself to defend yourself. Being kind does not mean being a doormat as I said. I have had people try to come at me before. You know I train in martial arts. Audience: You like a psychiatric aid? Instructor: No, but I will not say over the radio what I do. I do not want people to find me. No, I mean, I work with people who are very difficult, very negative, but I love my job. They are helping me, and when my clients see that I really care for them, that I do not judge them, they flock to me, because they are so used to being judged and condemned. You know we have to learn to understand people. Audience: Even if you could suspend for a short month, stay there a bit longer. Instructor: Well, life is a process, and jobs are temporary, so it is always good to learn to face one’s circumstances with a sense of moral responsibility, meaning: not act on ego, but act from the soul. Any other questions? Thank you for coming.
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