The Level of Being

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Humanity is in a very profound state of suffering. It is enough to look at the news to witness firsthand the affliction that our humanity is overwhelmed with, whether it be through violence, school shootings, police officers being murdered, terrorism, war. Our humanity, which boasts so much of its superiority, of its advancements, of its intelligence, has demonstrated through facts, that really compared to the barbarians of the middle ages, we have not changed.

To look at the world and its great chaos should really provoke a very profound question about ourselves. We usually like to externalize and state that the sufferings of humanity, the bloodshed, the destruction, the perversity, is somehow external from me, outside. But those who learn to meditate, to observe oneself, begins to understand from personal experience that those same qualities that we condemn in others, we carry in abundance.

Observation of the facts produces comprehension, understanding, but human beings or humanity does not understand the causes of suffering and what perpetuates such chaos on our planet. The internal is really a reflection of the external, and vise versa. External humanity is a reflection of ourselves, if we are honest; it takes a lot of courage to take responsibility for one’s own mind. To understand that psychologically, because of our negative states of anger, of fear, of pride, resentment, deception, we can not blame the world for what it is.

We should not place so much emphasizes on other people, but look within ourselves to understand, “How do I suffer? Why do I, as a consciousness, have so many problems or pains?”

Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher, had stated that the exterior is the reflection of the interior. It is enough to observe our daily state, moment by moment, when we go to work, when we are with family or friends, or especially people we do not like. We find that, psychologically, we possess many elements, states which, even on a very conventional level, we could say is harmful and that we understand is negative. We may know this intellectually, but to comprehend the psychological causes of suffering is a very distinct matter.

An alcoholic knows that to consume that substance is to perpetuate suffering, and yet he or she may continue to indulge in those habits, those desires, those qualities.

So we possess in our mind-stream the elements of hatred, resentment, anger, frustration, anxiety, uncertainty, disillusionment, but it is rare for someone to really question this sense of “I,” this questioning of “who I am, where I am going. Who am I as a person and why do I suffer? Who is this sense of self, in the internal experience that we denominate “I”? Because who we are psychologically shapes our existence. What we are mentally and emotionally psychologically determines the fate of our interactions with all other sentient beings.

And as I said, we like to externalize. We do not like to look inside at what psychological states cause friction, anxiety, conflict. It is easy to see in our own experience that we have many problems, difficulties, problems that we face day by day that do not get any better. They do not get resolved. And the struggle of someone who enters meditation is to precisely not accuse the external world itself, or our boss, our friends, our neighbors, the government, humanity, murderers, etc., but to take ownership of our own states.

How do we become impatient? How do we become proud? How do we belittle another person, whether it be through sarcasm, even through a jest?

Our psychological state determines our life. What we are mentally will determine what we become, how we will act, how we will respond to life. And someone who meditates understands and sees that in daily experience.

We all have qualities that we condemn so much in others. It takes a lot of courage to recognize this fact, to be responsible and not to blame so and so, that this planet is a mess. Because how do we contribute to the sufferings of humanity, at our job, with our friends, with our families? How do we produce suffering? That is the question we have to resolve, in which meditation helps to unlock, in order to show us the doorway, the path that leads out of suffering and into the awakening of our full divine potential.

As we see in this image of the stars, the heavens, because the human being, human beings themselves, if they are capable of great evil, are capable of all the glories of the cosmos, the beauty of the heavens, which are states of being, ways of acting, ways of understanding, exemplified by all the great messengers that come to humanity to teach the way that leads out of suffering into the unification of divinity—a state of contentment, a state of being. So we will talk about what the Being is in this lecture. 

​The Beginning of Self-Knowledge

What is divinity? Who are we, who is our inner divine presence, that we can access in a state of alert attention, and more specifically, by leaving the darkness of our own psychological ignorance, our suffering, in order to enter higher ways of being, of knowing, of contentment?

Samael Aun Weor, the founder of the modern Gnostic tradition of which we study, wrote in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology some very profound questions in the opening of this text, which are worthy to study and to apply to ourselves.

“Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What are we living for? Why are we living?” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

Who are we? We like to think that we feel, and we know ourselves, but if we reflect on our experience, we may find that in certain instances in life, during great crises, we are presented with a problem that is seemingly insurmountable. We do not know what to do, and yet our true character, our psychology emerges, such as anger that speaks harmful words, that causes conflict, whether it be in a matrimony, or with friends, or whomever, and yet after the moment of fire, of hatred, has passed, we retrospect and think to ourselves, “How did I possibly act in that way? How could I have thought or said that?” And then we go to that person and apologize. So we see there is a disconnect in this relationship.

We think we know who we are, our language, our customs, our culture, our name, our job, our diplomas. We think these are constitutive of who we are, what our real identity is. And yet we find that in moments of great trial, our true character is presented, emerges, in which we find that we have to define ourselves for good or for ill. And that we make mistakes, and we feel remorse and sense. “How did I possibly act in this way?” We say, “I feel true remorse for that action,” but if we really knew ourselves in a full consciousness sense, we would know how to act with compassion, with serenity, with insight, in any circumstance.

We would know the psychological causes of suffering, which, if we have studied Buddhism or any religion, state that suffering originates from within oneself. And there are many names and idioms and terminologies people can use, that become very complicated and very fancy, but specifically, a very simple way to look at it is just ego, self, “I,” “what I want, what I crave, what I desire.” We like to feed these desires, whether it be for a cup of coffee in a very superficial sense, or even habits that are destructive.

In the case of an alcoholic, they have a desire to consume that element, even though it will destroy them, and yet that desire is so overpowering, so heavy, so strong, that person simply invests their energy, goes with the flow, with that habit. And so we have to ask ourselves, “Who are we, really, psychologically?”

There are many beautiful sayings within different traditions, such as the Sufis. If you are familiar with the poetry of Rumi, Middle Eastern literature, they talk about that “He who knows himself knows his Lord.” And who is that Lord? Not some old man in the clouds with a beard, who sits on a throne of tyranny dispensing lightning bolts to this anthill of a humanity.

Divinity is not a person, but is a force, a way of being, a state of consciousness, a way of acting that is so selfless and so pure, that it sacrifices itself for the well-being of others without regard for itself, and yet it does not lose anything, because from that giving is an abundance that is divine, that is immortal, that comes from the very heights, metaphorically speaking, of the truth. And we all have that inside.

We have the Being, our own Inner God, to use Western terminology, but in these studies, we like to say Being, because the word God has a lot of baggage. People have a lot of traumas psychologically associated with religion, because they have been taught wrong and have been abused.

And that brings us to the question of “Where do we come from?” Religion and science like to fight and argue about our origins and have many intellectual concepts about having evolved from apes or having been created in seven days—many ideas that really are just contradictory and conflicting amongst themselves. And people follow one belief over another: religion, science. And they are battling each other. But neither of these ideas, these concepts, these beliefs, have resolved any of the problems we face on a day to day basis.

Therefore from the perspective of meditation, those type of arguments are useless. They do not benefit anyone. They do not teach us how to change, how to transform our agony, whether it be at work, we have a job we do not like, and yet we need the money to pay the bills, dealing with people who are negative, and yet believing in evolution or in science, in the Big Bang, does not change the problem of how I am going to react today in relation to my daily interactions with people. Instead, if I am attached to this concept, filled with a lot of arrogance, people in that type of mindset like to violate the minds of others, by arguing, by fighting.

So, where do we come from? These are questions that we answer from experience, from understanding, from spiritual comprehension, from perception. So whether one believes in reincarnation or one has one life in this existence, really, those types of theories are useless in comparison to where do we come from psychologically.

Where did our sense of desire or egotism originate? Where does pain come from? And how do we emerge from that? How do we saturate ourselves in suffering? And how do we continue to indulge in behaviors that produce conflict? That is really what should concern us.

And where are we going? Look at humanity. Where are people going? And also we ask ourselves, where are we going with a life of perhaps materialism, bank accounts marriage papers, drugs, alcohol, anger, violence, resentment? With all these desires that we possess that are contradictory in nature, that conflict, what is our course?

You may believe in, because of religion, some sense of heaven or hell, or some type of afterlife. Even if we want to have that conviction in our mind, it does not mean that we really know where are we going. Instead, knowing where one will go in life is precisely discovered in this moment, introspecting and observing: what is my psychological state? Is it positive, or is it negative?

And if you want to study religion, we study in this tradition many aspects of different teachings. And we understand that in nature there are places where the soul gravitates, but many people think that simply by believing in some doctrine that they are going to go to this higher state of consciousness, ascend to some higher way of being, but beliefs do not change anybody. Action does. So what we are psychologically determines where we go in life, in nature, in the cosmos.

So what are we living for? Do we live for a religion, for a doctrine to believe in, to be firmly convinced in some political party or another, some philosophy or another? What do those beliefs actually produce in us? That is something we have to introspect and ask.

How do my ways of thinking, my ways of feeling, my ideas, shape who I am? Do they really change our behavior?

In some cases that is the case. But someone may adopt a religion, a faith, and may simply go through the motions, not understanding the genuine principles behind that religion, because they simply adopt mannerisms, language, culture, which is related to personality. It is not eternal. It is just habits, which people engage in mechanically and do not really understand. And that type of mechanical, habitual behavior does not lead anyone out of suffering.

Instead, it is questioning what we are living for that does not come from an intellectual concept, but from observation of facts—observing what in me makes me gravitate to, say, these type of words, these type of behaviors, these type of actions to people. How do I interact with others, humanity?

And you find that when one learns to act from a state of consciousness devoid of desire, one does not act for one’s own well-being, but for others, for humanity, out of a state of compassion. But most people, what are they living for is usually money, materialism, fashion, drugs, sensations, because they feel that by accumulating all these things, in the end, one will simply go to the grave.

But that is ignoring the fundamental law of nature: “For every effect there is a cause. Every cause has an effect.”

Your mind is energy. Your heart, your actions, your ways of being, is a form of energy, and when that energy ceases to act in the physical body, it still continues. And this is where the concepts of reincarnation and other theories become very challenging for people, because they do not have consciousness of these things. Instead, it is just an idea, something to either believe in or not believe in. But if you awaken your perception, you will know for yourself that every action produces a consequence. Energy moves, fluctuates, and depending on our level of being, our ways of acting, our virtues, our defects, that determines where we go.

But instead of thinking of the afterlife or some other existence, one should think about or contemplate this present moment, who we are, and that determines what we live for, whether it be for desire, craving for more money or a better job, a better spouse, or whatnot, but instead, resolving this question will aid one in developing the true qualities of consciousness, which is virtue, happiness, contentment, cognizance.

So why are we living is another big question. This is a personal thing we need to ask ourselves. Why are we really living? Is it simply because we have energy, we are born in this life, and we just go with the flow? We want to go along with family, what they believe, what they think, prejudices, biases, whether we agree with or not. The question is, why are we living?

Religion will teach you that you are here because of this, this, and this, or some philosophy will teach you we are living in this world for these reasons. And people have a lot of ideas about why we are living—concepts, but those are just concepts. We have to understand why we are living based on our actions. What produces happiness, not just for ourselves, but for others? For humanity? For from our Being emerges spontaneous harmony with others, with other sentient beings.
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So that question is very important to ask ourselves, and usually people who have really hit rock bottom, who have suffered a lot because of certain ordeals or traumas in life, from childhood, from adulthood, they ask this question, because they experience a great state of pain, an abyss in which they do not know how they will get out. Usually, people who reach that state, who hit rock bottom, ask this question and say “Why am I here? Why am I suffering so much?” Because when you resolve to yourself to not suffer anymore, you will desire to look for the answer, to not be in suffering. 

​The Nature of the True Human Being

And that questioning leads us into discussing the nature of what it means to be a human being. So we use the term human being and humanity for others out of respect, but it is evident by the news and the many trials and afflictions of humanity that people are experiencing the fruits of desire, of anger, of pride, of resentment. A human, Hum-Man being, in Sanskrit, is represented by this mantra: Om Masi Padme Hum, or in the traditional sense, Om Mani Padme Hum.  They have the same meaning, but different levels of application and practice according with the different traditions of Buddhism: one secretive, one public. But a human being made into the image of the divine is something very special, something so profound, that we only have a handful of examples in humanity, like Jesus, Buddha Krishna, Moses, the prophets.

They were true men and women. We have Joan of Arc, a great human being, a great master. There are many people who exemplified the highest ideals that are taught in religion and tradition. And religion would like to have people think that we are already human, and out of respect, we use that term, but if we look at our daily life, and we look at the facts and understand, what does it mean to be human, we can resolve this question.

Hum relates to spirit, unity, integration. Om is the sacred mantra of God, of the Being. Om is the presence of our own true potential. It is interesting that the word Hum means spirit, and in these times, people often conflate spirit with self or spirit with soul. We have a fraction or portion of soul that can be developed, but a spirit is the divine, is the Being. So a Hum-Man is a person who has really incarnated and manifested Hum, the spirit, also represented by Om or Aum.

The word Mani, where we get the word man, designates both man and woman, of both sexes. But Man or Mani in Sanskrit means mind, a mind who has fully expressed Hum, the spirit. Mani also means “stone” or “jewel.” So we could say that a human being is like a precious jewel; it reflects the light of the divine.

And so we have examples in our history of beings like Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, many prophets, angels, masters, whatever names you want to give them, who exemplified and fully manifested the qualities of the spirit inside of them. And so they irradiate virtues like joy, altruism, philanthropy, patience, naturally and spontaneously, without conflict, without artifice. They simply give out of their full conscious potential because they have actualized the very light of their consciousness. And therefore, they have no defect; they do not desire. They do not crave. They do not hate. They do not fear. They simply know the divine within them, and therefore, they are fearless. They are patient in all circumstances, just as in the case with Jesus. He was being crucified, beaten, mocked, humiliated, and he only said, “Father forgive them they know not what they do.”

Buddha likewise faced persecution, poison. Socrates was also given hemlock to drink, another great initiate, a great master, a great prophet.

Humanity does not like these human beings. People like to follow a religion based off these people, but they do not like their teachings, which is why those religions have been castrated, have been sterilized, have been emasculated. Their real teaching has been adulterated. So people now follow religions that really do not emphasize or teach the heart of what these human beings taught.

But it is important to recognize that a real Hum-Man is like a lotus, signified by the word Padme, meaning “flower, wisdom.” And what is a lotus flower? A perfect allegory of us, of our potential. A flower emerges from the mud of a swamp, the impurities of the mind, in order to blossom with perfection, with beauty, with harmony.

That is our potential. We can become like that. We are, right now, like a candle, like a flame, a spark of potentiality, of energy, which can become a great sun—radiant, overpowering, full of virtue, and omniscient to the point that one can make the very stars move around oneself, not out of selfishness, but out of a divine understanding of all things.

So different traditions explain that the human being has to be created, has to be formed. Jesus of Nazareth never said that we have soul, but that we have potential to develop it. “With patience possess ye your souls,” He said.

And we have other stories that allegorize this great struggle in the person to become a genuine Hum-Man, like Pinocchio. Pinocchio was a wooden boy who wanted to become a boy of flesh and blood. And he had many helpers and many ordeals and trials that he experiences. But in the beginning, he is a puppet. He is played with by external forces and internal forces. He is not really human; he is more animal because an animal desires. It wants something it seeks to get it. It fights for its cravings, it’s aversions.

And so without seeking to insult, we state with facts that we are intellectual animals. What is an animal? It comes from the Latin anima, meaning soul, “to animate, to act.” And we have intellect. We have intellect, and we have desire. So we are beings that are impure, like the symbol of the flower that can emerge from the mud of the swamp, which is our own anger, our own resentments, our desires, our hatreds, our fears. Those impurities of the soul have to be removed so that the flower of our genuine consciousness can emerge. And that is how we develop unity, Hum. Spirit is unity.

There are many religions from the Middle East that teach that divinity is one, whether it be Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, even some aspects of Christianity, which teach that divinity is an integrity, a unification of the soul with the spirit to create a new being, a radiant one, a prophet. But we have to ask ourselves: do we possess unity in our life?
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If we are honest, we tend to find that we have a lot of conflict, a lot of struggle. We think one way in the morning and then we act another way in the evening. We have a lot of contradictions, and many people point this out to us, which we do not like. We tend to fight for this sense of self whom we identify with, but a human being a spirit, a spiritual one only respects others and is unitary. And so that unity is expressed within many beings which have been known in religion as angels, masters, prophets, buddhas, enlightened ones. 

In this image we have a Christian symbol of those illuminated ones ascending towards the height, represented by Christ, by Jesus, and it is important to recognize that divinity has the name Christ. It is not a person, but is an energy, a force which is within all of the cosmos, and Jesus came to represent that highest aspect of divinity within oneself, within the mind, within the heart, within the soul. And so that prophet physically lived a drama with his flesh and bones to teach something that is psychological, of which we will be explaining in these courses.

But this is a perfect beautiful description of states of being, higher ways of being. And we see these great illuminated ones ascending higher and higher and higher towards, really, the infinitude of the divine. There was a Sufi master by the name of Abdul Karim al-Jili, I think. He stated that “The journey to God is short. The journey in God is infinite,” which corroborates with a statement given by the 14th Dalai Lama that we have to “develop the conviction that consciousness has the potential to increase to an infinite degree.”

So a lot of people become concerned that when they work on their negativity, their desires, their faults, they feel that “If I eliminate these things , who will I be? Who am I? What will be left?” And the truth is that when you eliminate, comprehend and remove the impurities of the soul, the conditions of the consciousness, you become the natural, radiant, pristine light of cognizance of the universe, of the divine. And so those levels of being ascend higher and higher and higher to the infinitude. By understanding that the consciousness can develop more and more, we then seek to comprehend the obstacles in this present moment, who we are, what conditions us, why do we suffer.

I am pretty sure many of us can consider and think in our own experience of a moment in life in which we sensed or experienced a greater state of perception. Perhaps we did not think about it. It could be something simple like washing dishes, in which we realized that, as we are fully present in the moment, we become serene, at peace, with a state of alert attention that is supranormal, expansive, profound. Our childhood tends to have many of these moments, which become lost as we condition ourselves, whether it be through the education system or our parents, our friends.

These type of expanded states of consciousness have also been referenced to by the world of dreams. Dreams for most people tend to be very subjective, but there are rare cases in which individuals become awake in the dream state, in which they are aware that they are not in their physical body, but they are in a totally different dimension. And this is represented here. We see that the heavens in the top two-thirds of this graphic represent again those levels of consciousness which are accessed, such as through death. Notice that we have a grave here with flowers, representing the resurrection of Christ, which is also a very beautiful symbol, something also very esoteric and profound: how the soul resurrects when it is dead to desire. And also, in life, we can experience heightened states of perception that are not physical, but in the world of dreams, which we will be teaching in our courses on dream yoga.
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But it is important to recognize that consciousness can expand, and as Mr. Leadbeater from an esoteric school from the past stated, “It is the gravest of mistakes to believe that the limit of our perception is the limit of all that there is to perceive.” 

​The Tree of Life

Which is why we reference the following graphic. This image has been known in Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam, as the tree of life. It is a symbol. It is not a literal tree that existed in Mesopotamia, in which Adam and Eve and some, better said allegorical, garden could enjoy the fruits thereof. This is a map of consciousness, a map of being, which we will be explaining didactically throughout this course and other courses as well that we have given on our website: chicagognosis.org.

In synthesis, this is a map of who we are, a map of our perception, our levels of being, our ways of being. It may seem very complicated, but in synthesis, it is very simple, and it is something that we explore many times again and again in greater detail as we learn to become meditators, because any experience in meditation can be mapped to this glyph.

This is a map of being and a map of our human consciousness. In synthesis, we can state that, above, we have the highest potential of consciousness. Some traditions call this the trinity, such as in Christianity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, which are not people, but energies. In Hebrew, we call them Kether, Chokmah, Binah: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence.

Beneath that, we have Hum, the spirit, our inner God, our Being, better said. This is known as Chesed meaning “Mercy.” So when the Qur’an speaks about “In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” it is talking about this sphere, this aspect of divinity.

We also have Geburah, meaning “Justice.” This is the divine consciousness, which greatly interests us in these studies.

Below that, we have Tiphereth, meaning “Beauty,” our will, which can fully express the qualities of the divine above or follow the whims of egotistical desire below. So this is really the essence of who we are, Tiphereth, soul that is related to will, action.

Netzach is “Victory” in Hebrew, meaning the mind, the intellect.

We have Hod, meaning “Splendor,” the emotions.

Yesod means “Foundation,” as our vital energies, which give us life to our physical body.

Malkuth means “Kingdom.”

These are not spheres that exist vertically in space, but are qualities of being in ourselves, here and now. This is the nature of the Being, the divine.

So a Hum-Man being is one whose will has controlled the mind, the emotions, the energies and the physical body, to serve the spirit, these higher spheres above and also towards the beyond. And you can see that these three circles above represent the light of the divine, which is where all those angels ascend in that previous image.

So “The Being is the Being,” says Samael Aun Weor in The Revolution of the Dialectic. And the question is: “What is the Being?” Most people do not know, but by working with exercises like that mantra, we worked with “Aum Masi Padme Hum,” that mantra activates the energies of the heart relating to Tiphereth, our will, and develops the beauty of the soul. It can manifest the energies that come from above in this graphic, so that we learn to be, to be present, to be aware, because the divine, divinity, exists in this present moment, here and now. All we need is to learn to become attentive, to comprehend and to access that state.

And what is the reason for the Being to be? Is to be the Being itself. So divinity only longs for one purpose. And going back to our question of why are we here—why do we live? It is because we have an inner divinity within us who wants the soul to reunite and return with understanding, but saying this is only theoretical until you experience it and understand it through your own work, for your own path. So the Being is very significant.

We can speak to the divine in the world of dreams. And I will relate to you an experience I had years ago when I first started these studies, to help provide a concrete example of what this image represents.

So this tree of life is used to explain different traditions, whether Judeo-Christian, but also Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim. And I remember many years ago while practicing meditation, I fell asleep. I let my body relax to the point that I forgot it, let it go, and I went inside my mind into the state known as Hod, the world of emotions. This is the dream world where we experience dreams. And in that state, I was shown an image or a series of images from my Being, my Inner God, to teach me about this image. At the time, I had never studied Kabbalah, which is what this graphic is. Kabbalah, in Hebrew, means “to receive,” kabbel. It is experiences that we receive directly from our inner divinity, our inner Being. And I remember seeing a series of ten images, ten faces, ten portraits, and my own was at the very bottom, the very end. And I remember being very startled. I woke up.

I knew it was from my iner spirit, and I wondered what the meaning was until someone introduced to me what is known as the Kabbalah, with ten spheres—ten faces; ten aspects of the divine, because we are part of divinity. And my face was at the bottom because I am in this physical body. I am at the bottom who wants to go up and experience all the different aspects of the Being.
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So this is a very beautiful map that we study and teach, practice and understand didactically, but this is just the synthesis, an introduction. 

​Life, Transformation, and the Level of Being

So when we ask what is Being, we also discuss what are levels of Being.

In these studies, we like to be practical. We study psychology, the nature of the mind from the practical perspective that we seek to understand the causes of suffering, as I have mentioned.

We see in this image a riot. I do not remember where this image was taken, but these are becoming more common. It is evident by the ways of being of humanity, of individuals, people who are filled with resentment and anger. They obviously gravitate towards other people who possess the same psychological qualities. So what our mind is determines our life. As Buddha taught, “Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think.”

And likewise, what we are psychologically determines whom we interact with. We like to be with people who are at our level of being, a way of perceiving, a way of knowing. Drunkards are with other drunkards, drug users with other drug users, etc., businessmen with businessmen. People live in society based on their attractions within their psyche, their ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.

And so we have to comprehend and understand: what is our level of being? With what type of people do we associate, and why? Because that determines and explains for us what we have inside. Because if we ignore who we are and the type of people we interact with, we miss out on very profound knowledge about how to ascend to a higher way of a being, to associate with more spiritual people. And when I say this, I do not just mean physically. I mean that when you learn to meditate and ascend up that graphic of the tree of life that we looked at, you learn to naturally speak face to face in those experiences with beings who are more elevated than you are, who are angelic, represented by initiation. In certain traditions like in Egypt, certain masters who are very developed can teach you things and help you go higher and give you more knowledge.

Samael Aun Weor in Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology taught that:

“Nobody can deny the fact that there are different social levels. There are church going people, people in brothels, farmers, businessmen, etc. In a like manner, there are different levels of Being. Whatever we are internally, munificent or mean, generous or miserly, violent or peaceful, chaste or lustful, attracts the various circumstances of life. The lustful person will always attract scenes, dramas, and even lascivious tragedies in which he will become involved. A drunkard will always attract drunkards and will always be seen in bars or taverns; this is obvious…” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

So if we suffer because of certain circumstances in life, it is because we have something inside that we have to face and comprehend, because certain people in our work or job or in life, we meet as a result of our level of being. So by learning to comprehend where we are at, we can learn to ascend towards a higher level.

“So what is our moral level? Or better said, what is our level of Being?” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

The word morality also has a lot of baggage. People think morality has to do with codes of conduct, thinking that such and such is a way to live, a concept, a means, a belief system, but really who we are relates to our level of Being, our ways of acting, our ways of thinking, our ways of feeling.

So as we have initiated this lecture, what is our moral level, what is our level of Being? Because:
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“The repetition of all our miseries, scenes, misfortunes, and mishaps will last as long as the level of our being does not radically change. All things all circumstances that occur outside ourselves on the stage of this world are exclusively the reflection of what we carry within. With good reason, then we can solemnly declare that the exterior is the reflection of the interior. When someone changes internally, and if that change is radical, then circumstances, life, and the external will also change.” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

​The Line of Life and the Line of Being

When we study the level of Being, we look at this graphic. We study this glyph many times in our studies and teachings. We have two lines, one vertical, one horizontal.

The horizontal line is the line of life. This is the path that everybody follows: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, decrepitude, death, beginning to end, involving all the scenes and tragedies and comedies that we experience usually in a very mechanical way. We tend to just go with the flow. Life occurs to us, and we simply are pushed around like a puppet, like Pinocchio, by the different circumstances of life.

Someone says something negative to us; we think or respond with anger or resentment. We lose our job; we become filled with fear. Our spouse argues with us. We feel humiliated and angry. Therefore, where is the autonomy of the human person that we like to claim that we have? We tend to just be reactionary towards life, towards circumstances, but this is where the vertical path becomes very essential, important for these studies.

When someone begins to question themselves in this present moment, in this point where the present meets with the line of Being, we can learn to access higher ways of Being. So neither in the future or in the past do we discover ourselves, our psychological conditions, but here and now.

The line of Being is a vertical path; it is a path traversed by revolutionaries, but not physical revolutionaries—spiritual ones, psychological, in which we learn to go against all the negativity and reactions we carry within.

And so:

“What is our Level of Being? Have we ever reflected upon this?” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

Because here and now is where we discover ourselves, as I said. By learning to become mindful of where we are at and what we are doing, what we are saying, what we are thinking, what we are feeling, and learn to act for the benefit of others, out of compassion, we are learning to ascend to higher states, higher ways of knowing.

“It would be impossible to pass into another level if we ignore the level in which we presently are.” ―​Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

And we will explain in these lectures, in this course, that process. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, you can study two books by Samael Aun Weor, including Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology and The Great Rebellion.