Practical Steps to Liberation

Created on Saturday, 26 June 2010 02:51 Written by Gnostic Instructor A wise person is one who, having accurately analyzed all actions of body, speech, and mind, always acts for the benefit of self and others. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:7 This is a quote from a very important scripture in Buddhism called Ratnavali, or The Precious Garland. The full Sanskrit title is Rajaparikatharatnamala. and it comes from the Madhyamaka ( ) School, which was founded many centuries ago by Nagarjuna in India, although he said it was actually founded by the Buddha Shakyamuni. Nagarjuna was a great master in Indian Buddhism, primarily known for his mastery explaining the doctrine of the Buddha, specifically related to the most profound aspect of Buddhism, which is Sunyata, or the emptiness, what we inGnosis call the Absolute. His school was called Madhyamaka, which means "middle way," because his philosophy focuses on conscious comprehension of the Absolute or Emptiness, the primordial state of everything, which is neither existence nor nonexistence, it is, rather, "in the middle." Conscious comprehension of the Absolute does not fall into extreme views to one side or the other, that is, that there is existence (eternalism) or there is no existence (nihilism); thus, Nagarjuna's philosophy is the "middle way." The name Nagarjuna is very interesting. It means, King of Nagas. A naga is a serpent. All the great masters from all traditions have always called themselves serpents, such as Quetzalcoatl, Wotan. Even Jesus said, ...be ye therefore wise as serpents... - Matthew 10:16 Nagarjuna was a "king of serpents." This famous scripture was written as a letter to a student, who happened to be a king. A wise person is one who, having accurately analyzed all actions of body, speech, and mind, always acts for the benefit of self and others. This passage summarizes Buddhism, Gnosis, and any genuine religion, any true path to the Divine. To return back to our divine root, we have to embody that divinity; we have to become a perfect vessel of that divine force, which in different religions is known by different names. The Christians call it Christ. The Aztecs called it Quetzalcoatl. The Buddhists have many names for that essential force of divinity that lies at the basis of all existence. The most fundamental name that they have is Sunyata, or the emptiness. All of these names refer to a very deep and profound energy of nature, whose manifested element, or active force, in Sanskrit is called Bodhichitta(Tibetan jang chub sem). Bodhichitta can be translated many ways. Usually it is translated as Awakened Mind, but equally accurate would be cognizant heart, intelligent heart, or awakened heart. Bodhichitta is a very profound word. Bodhichitta is the central tenant of Mahayana and Tantrayana Buddhismthe highest aspects of Buddhismand without understanding Bodhichitta you cannot understand those aspects of Buddhism. In fact, without understanding Bodhichitta, you cannot understand Gnosis. The Gnostic tradition is a Mahayana and Tantrayana tradition, and you have to have a clear, comprehensive understanding of Bodhichitta in order to understand why Gnosisexists, and what it is for, otherwise you will not understand it and you will waste your time. Gnosis the root of all true religions and mystical traditionsis the elaboration of wisdom, the embodiment of wisdom, the way for us to embody wisdom, to incarnate wisdomnot wisdom as a concept, or wisdom as a theory, or as a nice attribute, but wisdom as a living, vibrating, radiating energy that in Sanskrit is called Bodhichitta. In Hebrew , wisdom is Chokmah. Chokmah is the second Sephirah on the Tree of Life. Chokmah is the radiation of Kether (the Being of the Being, the Ancient of Days). Chokmah is the perfect light, the wisdom of God. It is a kind of divine intelligence that is beyond intellect. It is a divine intelligence that is abstract, beyond conception, and its central, chief characteristic is love as sacrifice. We see this virtuelove as sacrificevery rarely on this planet. We can see a glimmer of it in the sacrifices

that a parent makes for a child. This is a terrestrial reflection of love as sacrificethe vibration or the force of Chokmah. Chokmah, wisdom, is Bodhichitta. Bodhichitta, that type of knowledge, that type of compassion, is not blind. It is not indifferent. It is not foolish. It is the love of God. It is a demanding love. It is a rigorous expression of a divine energy, a divine force, a divine intelligence. Gnosis, Mahayana Buddhism, Tantrayana, have as their very purpose of existence to guide the soul to become a perfect vessel of that Light. Now, to be a vessel, one must first be empty. In order to receive something, there has to be a space for that something to enter. When we look inside of ourselves, do we have room? Do we have space in our mind and heart to bring that energy and to transmit that energy to others? This is the central question that we have to ask ourselves. Are we a fit vessel for Christ, for Bodhichitta? Are we prepared? The answer is, very clearly, a resounding, No, we are not. The reason is because we have filled our vessel with I, me, myself. We, as a vessel, at this moment, exist to sustain and feed our desires. This is why we are not yet fit vessels for Christ. Gnosis, which is a Mahayana tradition, provides a science, a method, to become a fit vessel, to become empty, so that we can be filled with light to help others. I know many of us like to think that we have light, and that we are good people, and we like to adorn ourselves with virtues and dress ourselves and show ourselves to others as being spiritual people, but we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to be sincere. We have to be extremely clear. What do we see when we look into our mind? We seeego: pride, envy, jealousy, resentment, fear. A true vessel of God looks within and sees the Light, sees God. So until we reach that stage, we have to work very hard to remove all the obscurations that are in our mind. Refraining from violence and from theft, not engaging in adultery, restraining from lying, divisive speech, harsh words, and idle talk, abandoning miserliness, maliciousness, and nihilistic views These are the ten bright paths of action. The ten dark ones are the opposite. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:8-10 Nagarjuna states unequivocally that a wise person is someone who has accurately analyzed all their actions. Speaking for myself, I would say that I am not such a person, because I see in myself many actions of my body, my speech, and my mind that do not benefit myself, truly speaking, and do not benefit others. And thus, it is beholden upon me to comprehend this statement well and to actualize it in my daily life, to do my best to fulfill it. That is a long and difficult work. So, in todays lecture, in order to prepare the students who are attending the retreat, and in order to help all of us put our feet on the ground and know how to walk in this tradition, we will talk about how we actually eliminate the ego. How do we actually do it? Not just to talk about it and theorize it, not just to have the good intentions, but to actually do it. If you have read the books of Samael Aun Weor, if you have studied the Gnostic lectures and teachings, if you have attended anyschool, you have heard again and again that we have to eliminate the ego, the I." you have heard that the defects that we have in our psyche have to be removed so that our Consciousness can be free and awakened. We know this. If you have not heard these concepts and teachings before, this might seem odd, this idea of eliminating the I. And the question often arises, if you eliminate the I, what is left? Isnt it just emptiness, nothingness, death, non-existence? Well, the answer is actually yes and no. But the answer comes in levels, because we have levels of understanding. If we were going to speak from the highest philosophical level of Mahayana and Tantrayana, we would say that there is no self such as we see it. This concept of self is a lie; it is false. There is neither self nor non-self. This is basically what Nagarjuna taught, brilliantly. Just as when a banana tree With all its parts is torn apart, there is nothing, 2

So when a person having the [six] constituents [skandhas] Is divided, it is the same. Therefore the Conquerors said, "All phenomena are selfless." Since this is so, all six constituents Have been delineated as selfless for you. Thus neither self nor non-self Are perceived just as they are. Therefore the Great Subduer rejected Both the belief in self and in non-self. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 2:1-3 This is the whole basis of Madhyamaka Buddhism. It is the doctrine of the Buddha, anatman, the doctrine of no-self, which teaches that there is no-self, but there is a self. The intellect cannot comprehend this. The intellect wants a definitive answer, a concrete result, but reality is not like that. To get into the details of how that philosophy works and what it means truly requires many years of Meditation. Reading books will never explain it to you. Listening to lectures and discourses will never help you understand it, fully. You may be able to get the concept to some degree, but to really understand the doctrine of emptiness and what it means, you have to meditate, you have to experience the Void, the Emptiness, Sunyata. This is the only way you can fully grasp what it means when the Buddha says, There is no soul; there is no Atman; this is no self. But then he is saying that you (self) have to work on your self. This contradiction, to our intellect, and to our very lowlevel mind, makes no sense. Nonetheless it is a reality. It is a reality that only the Consciousnesscan grasp, and this is the essential point. On a more basic level, the answer to the question of what remains after we eliminate the "I" is: the Being, the Buddha, Allah, God, or whatever name you want to use. This quote says, accurately analyzed all actions of body, speech, and mind. That is relatively easy to understand, intellectually. Many people have read quotes like this and said, Okay, I understand he is talking about analyzing body, speech, and mind. But have you thought about: if you are analyzing body, speech, and mind, who is analyzing them? Have you thought about that? Can your mind really analyze your mind? Can your body analyze your body? Can your speech analyze your speech? I dare say not. This is the essential point. We are not body. We are not speech. We are not mind. We are something else, and we never realize it. We read quotes like this, we study mysticism, we study spirituality, we study the soul and the spirit and the body, we study the three brains, we study the astral body and the mental body, and we never realize that we are not any of those things. Right here, right now, in this instant, you are not the body, you are not the mind. You are the capacity to perceive, pure perception. That is the root of being. That pure perception is not I. Look into that. How do you see? Not through your eyes, but further back. Not through your ears. Further back than that. Not through sensations in your body; not through taste, not through touch. Further back. Not through thought, not through emotion. What in you is perceiving? Have you ever once turned that perception back into itself? There is a great secret hidden here. Look back into that which is looking. This is the greatest clue of Meditation you will ever hear. It is the core secret of Mahamudra, of Dzogchen, of all the highest teachings of Meditation. It is the methodless method. It is extremely difficult, and also the most simple. Look back into that which is looking. Can you find a self? When you extract Consciousness from every sense, what remains? When you extract attention from the flow of thought, from the flow of emotion, from the flow of sensation, what remains? Perception is still occurring, but what perceives, and how? What I am pointing at for you is our Consciousness, what in Gnosis we call the Essence. It takes a lot of willpower for us to develop awareness of our Consciousness, because our Consciousness is asleep, and it may feel exhausting to bring the Consciousness to present awareness and to direct it, to consciously observe. In the beginning, it is a very rigorous, strong, 3

tiring effort, and it should be such. If your spirituality is very flaccid, very weak, very ephemeral, you just sort of float along, then you are working in the wrong way. Real spiritual development does not occur by just being on autopilot. Awakening theConsciousness requires enormous effort. It takes all of your energy, because the Consciousness that we have is trapped; it is asleep. That is why all the myths that describe this path emphasize the unbelievable heroic efforts that the heroes have to make to save the maiden, to dominate the monsterso much sacrifice, so much work, so much danger, so much risk. Those are not just pretty fairy tales; they reflect a living, vibrating truth: our essence, our Consciousness, is asleep, and to awaken it requires every ounce of strength we have. That awakening does not come through the mind. It does not come through the body. It does not come through speech. It does not come through intentions, or the way we dress, or the way we talk, or the books we read. It comes through, right now, paying attention, but most of all being awake and aware of the Consciousness itself. It is one thing to pay attention to what is going on outside of us. This is good. We need that. We have to pay attention to our environment. It is another thing to pay attention to what is happening in the mind. This is also importantto watch our thoughts, to watch our feelings, to observe sensation and how we react to them. But really, we need to be aware of the Consciousnesshow we perceive. Hownot just the fact of perception, but how we are perceiving. This is a super-critical fact for us to observe, and this is because every action of body, speech, and mind requires Consciousness. But is our Consciousness modified or is it free? This is what we usually do not know, because we are not paying attention. We are usually so overwhelmed with the surging chaos of thoughts, worries, concerns, fears, and desires that we have no self-cognizance in the midst of it. We are like a log tossed on a stormy sea. That stormy sea is our mind, and we are tossed about by all the surging wills in our mind: I have to get to work on time, I have to turn this paper in, I have to make this phone call, I have to send these e-mails, What about this person, what is he saying about me, a surging chaos. To just go along with that, to just be tossed around by that, is to allow oneself to go down the drain, because really, everything on this planetall of the energy, all of the forcesare going down the drain. It is not hard to see it. To go against that current, you cannot just sit back and relax. You cannot just lie back on your log and let the current take you. If you want to do that, it is your will, but are you sure of where the current is going, this current of life, this current of humanity? To incarnate wisdom, to become truly wise, we have to change, and change does not come by sitting back. Change comes through work, and not merely a little bit of effort, not just a few minutes a day, but a continual effort. Think about this example: you are shipwrecked, holding on to your log your life, your circumstances in life, that which keeps you afloat, your family, your job, your situation. All of us, at any instant, right now, could lose everything, because nothing is stable right now. At any instant, everything we have could be taken away. If you do not believe me, ask somebody in the Gulf of Mexico; ask somebody in Israel; ask somebody in Palestine; ask somebody in Tibet; El Salvador; Guatemala. They will you. It happens like that. (Snaps fingers). Everything is gone. None of us have any assurance that what we have now will be here tomorrow. Thus, we need to be serious. We are on the little raft of our life, and the current is taking us; how are you going to swim out of the whirlpool that is sucking the world into chaos? With all of that energy that is pulling all of us, how will you get out of it? Are you really going to sit on your log and read a book and think that you are going to get out? Or sit on your log and put on a religious t-shirt that says, I believe in this and that? Or, because you see someone on another log nearby that believes the same thing and you guys feel good that you have found each other, you think that will save you? It will not. None of these actions will save you. You have to swim with all of your might, with every ounce of energy that you have. You have to fight the current of life. That current is outside and it is inside. The way to fight it is to analyze yourself, to analyze your mind, to analyze your heart, to change. It sounds desperate because it is. Our situation truly is desperate. 4

As painful as it is to look at our life and feel the uncertainty and fear of losing what we have, it really is not a Mahayana perspective. It really is not a Gnostic point of view, because it is very selfish. Let us all open our eyes. Instead of looking at the little log that we are clutching onto with so much attachment and fear, open your eyes and look around, and you will see that you are surrounded by millions upon millions of people in the same situation. This is what is truly terrifying, horrifying. If you are really sincere, you will burst into tears, because all of those other people are the people you have loved, and who have loved you. They are your mothers and fathers, your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, your wives and husbands. They are all dying. They are all dying. This is what Gnosisexists for: as a way to change that. We put it into stark terms because that is our reality. We put it into stark terms not to encourage fear, not to make us feel desperate and afraid and worried, but because it is the facts, and we need to see the facts to have a chance to change them. One of the most fundamentals facts of the Law of Cause and Effect is that any effect is greater than the cause that produced it. This is an extremely profound law. When we take an action, any action, the effect of that action will be greater than the cause. If you speak a word into someones ear, if you speak a word in a room, the energy that it took to say that word is very small, but the ripple of that vibration through all of those who hear it is immeasurable. The same is true when we seriously take the reins of our spiritual life and work seriously in our spiritual life. It seems as though all that energy that is cascading down into the whirlpool, sucking the entire planet into the underworld, is too much. There are many who give up, precisely because they become identified with fear, shame, terror. They become overwhelmed; they defeat themselves; they feel, It is too much for me; I cant handle it. Its too hard; I cant do it. This is all the ego, convincing them to give up, taking them out of the work. That does not need to happen. When you really understand the Law of Karma, then you should have great faith. The Law of Karma is a law. It is not a belief. It is a law you can demonstrate at any time. Test it. Work with it. When you seriously work in your spiritual life, you will prove to yourself that it is possible to reach complete liberation. It is possible. It can be done, but you have to invest energy into it. It cannot be a temporary or part-time job. It has to be full time. That is how much it takes. Each little investment of energy we make is greater than that energy. Each time that we meditate, each time that we restrain a harmful action and we turn it into something beneficial, we create a huge impact, not just for ourselves, but for others. If we do not realize it, it is because we have not observed it. Do it. Just try one thing: give sincerely, something needed. The power of giving is one of the greatest powers in the universe, the power of generosity. That power is unimaginable, how much it can do. And that is why all the great masters exemplify thatthe power of sacrifice. That is the power of Chokmah: love as sacrifice, the power of giving, the power of generosity. It is a generosity of spirit, a generosity of heart. That generosity is most accurately summarized in thinking of others before yourself. That is the essence of Bodhichitta. That is why generosity is the first paramita, the first perfection. It is the most fundamental basis of real spiritualityto think of others. That is to have a generous spirit. Just as you pay attention to whatever you think will benefit you, so too pay attention to what you think will benefit others. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 3:56 Because the "I" is alive in us, we only think of ourselves, and when it is convenient to us, we might think of somebody elseif it is convenient to us. That is not sacrifice. The true spirit of generosity is to constantly think of others first, especially in regard to our psychological work, our spiritual work. We talk a lot about eliminating the ego, but we usually think about eliminating the ego in an egotistical way. We think I want to eliminate my egos so I can reach liberation for me. It is very egotistical. That is why it is part of the Shravakayana (foundational) path. That way of thinking is 5

transcended in Mahayana and Tantrayana. It is not compatible with the higher schools. You cannot get into those teachings in the internal worlds until that way of thinking is gone from you. To receive the higher teachings, you spontaneously have to be at that stage where you think of others first, where you start to realize: You know what, I really need to eliminate my pride because it is hurting other people; I really need to eliminate my lust because it is hurting other people; this anger in me is hurting other people. When that is your first, spontaneous impulse, you are entering into the Mahayana level. That is the true Mahayana attitude. Mahayana means greater vehicle. It is a higher level of spiritual training. The one that thinks that way is Essence. Your mind cannot think like that, because your mind is selfish. Even when the mind does charity and is generous, it is always, in the end, acting for itself. We give donations and we do volunteer work, and on the outside we look like we are great saints and helping humanity, but really we are fattening up our pride. That is not real generosity. It is ego. True generosity does not concern itself with itself. True generosity is love as sacrifice, giving because it must be given, at any costthat is generosity, that is true compassion. The Gnostic method, the Gnostic teaching, helps us to take this quote and put it into action. The way we do that is quite simple in concept. It has three aspects. We usually talk about them as birth, death, and sacrifice. These are the three factors you find in any religion. But I want to expand on those to make them more experienceable, make them something that we can taste and touch in our day to day life, because that is how they must be understood: through continual moment to moment action. Avoid any act of negativity; Develop pure and perfect virtue; Completely transform your mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha. The first step, the most important, is to stop any action of negativity. That is the first. When we are intending to accurately analyze our actions of body, speech, and mind, to act for the benefit of self and others, the first, most important way for us to do that is to stop performing negative actions. That means negative actions towards ourselves or other people. To understand what negative actions are, we have to study the teachings; we have to study our religion. You can really study any religion to grasp this concept. This is the fundamental basis of any religion. It is that first, foundational level the Buddhists call Shravakayana. It is the level where we learn ethicswhat we should do, what we should not do. In general, they are pretty simple: do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not abuse your sexual energy, eliminate pride, eliminate anger, stop these behaviors that are selfish. In brief, Dharma consists of not ingesting intoxicants, maintaining a proper occupation, abandoning harm, being respectfully generous, honoring the worthy, and [cultivating] love. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:10 We have the Ten Commandments in the western traditions. We have the Vinaya and Pratimoksha in the eastern traditions. There are many lists and analyses of the different actions that are harmful or beneficial. You can study any of those, and they will all help. Most importantly, you have to study your heart. We all have our own idiosyncrasies. We all have qualities that we think are virtues, that we think are our good qualities, that are actually completely egotistical, and no book is going to teach you that. You will only see that in yourself, in action, in your daily life. If you take this teaching seriously, you will see it, you will learn about it, because your Innermost will show you. If you think you are in situations in your life that are painful, that are hard for you, it is because your Innermost is putting you there to teach you about yourself. We train a puppy dog to not go to the bathroom in the wrong place, and we put its nose and say, Dont go here. Well, your Being is doing that with youputting you in situations and saying, You made this mess. You made this mess on the floor. Do not do that. See how unpleasant it is? See how painful it is? See how much you suffer? Do not do that. 6

But we always curse God. We blame everything on others. We are unwilling to ourselves. Why is this always happening to me? Why do I have to suffer? Why these problems? Why is he doing that? Why is she doing that? We do not realize the reason why is because we made it. We do not want to see our own culpability. To be a serious spiritual practitioner, that is the first thing you look for in any situation: How did I make this? How did I get myself in this position? What in me is suffering? That is the best question of all. Turn your perspective back. Instead of looking out"he is making me suffer; work is making me suffer; my wife is making me suffer"look back and say, What in me is suffering? Because really, it is not your spouse that is making you suffer. It is your anger that is making you suffer; it is your pride that is making you suffer. If you did not have that pride, if you did not have that anger, their words would not have meant anything; they would not have affected you. Their actions would not have bothered you. But because you have pride and envy and anger, you get bothered a lot. So that is the shift that has to happen in us. You see, it is continual: to look back at ourselves. Due to committing murder, one has a short life. due to committing violence, one has much suffering. due to stealing, one becomes impoverished. Poor resources, through stealing. due to committing adultery, one has enemies. By telling lies, one becomes reviled by others. From speaking divisively, one loses friends. From speaking harshly, one hears the unpleasant. From gossip and senseless speech, one's words are not respected. Covetousness destroys one's wishes, Harmful intent brings fear, Wrong views lead to bad views, And intoxicants to confusion of the mind. Through not giving comes poverty, Through wrong livelihood, one is deceived, Through arrogance, a bad station in life, Through jealousy, homeliness. A bad complexion comes through anger, Stupidity, from not questioning the wise. These are effects for humans, But prior to all is a bad rebirth. Opposite to the well-known Fruits of these non-virtues Is the arising of effects Caused by all the virtues. Desire, hatred, ignorance, and The actions they generate are non-virtues. Non-desire, non-hatred, non-ignorance, And the actions they generate are virtues. From non-virtues come all sufferings And likewise all bad transmigrations, From virtues, all happy transmigrations And the pleasures of all lives. Desisting from all non-virtues And always engaging in virtues With body, speech, and mindThese are called the three forms of practice. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:14-22 We have to stop harmful action, to restrain ourselves from any act of negativity. This alone can take many years, many years. I know a lot of people like to think as soon as they enter into a religion and they read the list, Number one, two, three, four, five. Okay. I can do all these. Cool. Im done. I 7

dont drink. I dont smoke. I dont sleep around. So I must be on my way to heaven. It does not work like that. Even if you are not doing something physically, you are probably doing it in your mind. That is the hardest part. Jesus said, ...whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. - Matthew 5:28 In the state we are in, we break the commandments, we break the Vinaya, we break the rules. In other words, we produce causes that create harmful effects, continually, because that ego in us is acting. So as part of this accurate analysis, we have to continually watch our behaviors and stop ourselves from doing harmful things, not just physically, but in the mind, in the heart, through our words, through our thoughts. This requires continual observance. We call it self-observation. Self-observation is absolutely essential, criticalnot just for a few minutes, but all the time. Some traditions call it mindfulness or watchfulness. There are many names, but the basic idea is: never stop paying attention to your psychology. Do not get sucked into daydreaming, into being distracted by the outside world, by fantasizing on the inside world. Watch your mind, because at any instant, something in you is contemplating something negative. Ninety-seven percent of human thoughts are negative and harmful. - Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic So, are we watching ourselves ninety percent of the time, or one hundred percent of the time? No. We are watching ourselvesif we have heard of Gnosismaybe two percent. If we are honest, how much do we really watch our mind during the day? Very small. What about all those other thoughts and feelings that have been surging throughout the day that we did not pay attention to? Those are all streams of energy that are creating effects. That should scare us into acting. That should be of great concern to us. The instant we realize we have lost our mindfulness of our action, we should feel as if we have just discovered a serpent in our lap. We should be that astonished. (Gasp!) I am not paying attention! Because truly, to lose attention is a life or death matter. When we cease paying attention, when we lose our cognizant awareness of the moment, we slip into sleep, and then all those psychological stimuli that are processing in our subconscious, unconscious, and infraconscious levels are creating effects. That is why our life is going down. That is why our society is sinking: because nobody is paying attention to themselves. Instead of being cognizant of ourselves, we act mechanically, we react and respond automatically, without Consciousness of how or why. We are always dreaming about what someone meant, and what they "really" said. We project all kinds of interpretations of our daily lives. When he looked at me like that, he must have felt that I was doing something bad. When he looked at me like that, he must have been lusting after me, so maybe he likes me. We project so much garbage, continually, replaying events and scenes in our minds, trying to interpret them, trying to analyze them, trying to change them. It is all garbage, and we let it happen, and it has consequences. That is why we are asleep. To awaken is to watch that, to stop that, to be here and now, to be in conscious dominion of our kingdom, to control our mind, to be awake. That is the prerequisite. So we have to stop harmful action, not just physically, but psychologically. The second step is to develop full and perfect virtue. To us, this sounds easy. To understand virtue, we have to study our religion, we have to study our tradition. If we come from a Christian background, we should study the teachings of Jesus. What does virtue mean, from His words? If we come from a Buddhist background, we should study the teachings of the Buddha; we should study what Buddhist virtue means. There are many ways of studying virtue in each tradition, many scriptures, many references that talk about the different virtues. And there are a lot of similarities: patience, tolerance, conscious love, humility, Chastity, charity. These are all virtues; we have heard all the names. But what does it mean to develop full and perfect virtue? It is not just to have a concept. It is not just to respect virtues, to say, Yeah. Ive heard patience is a virtue, and I respect that, but get out of my way. Im in a hurry. To really develop full and perfect virtue is to be it, to actualize it. This is not to force it on yourself; it is not to force yourself into a rigid behavior because you have to do it. It is to do it spontaneously, without force, because you realize you need 8

to, that it is important, that it is beneficial for you and for others. That is the way to cultivate and develop virtue. True virtue is natural and spontaneous. It cannot be imitated, faked, or forced. If you are angry with someone, and they are angry with you, and you are thinking I have to be loving and forgiving, and you go to them and say, Humph. I forgive you. That does not work; that is not honest. It is good as an action. That takes courage. You know, I respect that. That does take courage. I give you credit for having courage. But to apologize sincerely, to be honest, to say, You know, I was wrong, sincerelythat is to develop and perfect virtue. You can only reach that when you have comprehended your anger. So let us talk about that. I know I am putting a lot of elements on the table, but it really is not that complicated. What I am talking about now is comprehension, but I am talking about comprehension in two ways: stopping negative action, and adopting virtuous action. Comprehension You see, liberation from suffering has three stages. The first stage is comprehension. The second stage is judgment. The third stage is elimination. All the Gnostics love to talk about elimination, and they all love to do different practices to eliminate their egos. Some even say that at any moment you can pray, Please, Divine Mother, eliminate this ego for me. But you rarely hear them talk about judgment and comprehension, which have to happen first, before you can reach elimination. You cannot eliminate something that still has your Consciousness in it, so comprehension is first. In this quote from Nagarjuna, that is what he is talking about. A wise person is one who has accurately analyzed all their actions and always acts for the benefit of self and others. Comprehension comes from analysis of oneself. Studying the scriptures, studying religion, is very important because it gives us a foundation, but comprehension, wisdom, comes from inside. That is why the Oracle of Delphi said, Man, know thyself. This is the prerequisite. That is Gnosisselfknowledge. Self-knowledge is comprehension. Comprehension is not making a list of your defects. It would be great if the work to self-realize were that easy. It might take us a while to write them all down, but that is not comprehension. Comprehension is very simple: it is when you know something, not in your intellect, but in your heartwhen you know it. If you have ever said something and seen the person who heard it react with pain, and then you felt pain and regret for saying it, that is comprehension. If you have ever given a gift, and saw how much gratitude that person had who received it, and you felt in your heart so much gratitude for the opportunity to give, that is comprehension. Comprehension is not intellectual; it is emotional; it is intuitive; it is in your heart. Comprehension is not something that you develop by making lists and by making complicated explanations of, Well, pride has this and that aspect, and these attributes, and it can manifest here and here. That is fine; we need to understand it in the intellect, but that is not comprehension. Comprehension is spontaneous and it is in the heart. It is when you feel it, know it. Most of us here comprehendit is a silly exampleif we put our hand in fire, we will get burned, and it will hurt. That is a silly example, but that is comprehension. A child does not know that yet. A child goes and puts their hand in it. (Gasp!) And then they get burned, and they cry, and they are upset, but then they understand. That is comprehension. But the same thing has to happen with all of our emotions, with our thoughts, with our actions. We have to realize, You know what, when I do that, it hurts me, and it hurts other people. I should stop doing that. That is comprehension. Our teacher Samael told us, Every day we have to comprehend lust. What does that mean? Well, first it means we have to be observing ourselves, watching for how lust manifests in our three brains: in our thoughts, in our feelings, and in our impulses in our body. It is good if we catch ourselves at the moment we are looking at someone or thinking about someone, remembering something or imagining something lustful, sexual. It is good to be aware in that moment, and realize what we are doing. That is the first thing. We have to observe it; we have to see it in order to understand it. 9

Many people say, I cannot understand my lust, and that is probably because they are not looking at it. If you really look deeply at lusthow it emerges, what it does, what it wants, and the consequences of thatcomprehension is not hard. Comprehension is spontaneous, when the Consciousness is awake, aware, and connected to our conscience, our sense of what is right and what is wrong. All it requires is that look you deeply at what you are experiencing. When you have seen how your lust has brought you into a relationship, and you felt so much desire for that person, and you got involved in a relationship with that persondriven by all that desire but then that relationship becomes a complete hell, and you suffer in every way that you can. We all have had that experience, but none of us have comprehended it, because we keep repeating it again and again. Look sincerely at that lustat that quality, that vice that drew you into itthat desire, how it stimulates your senses, how it inflames your heart, how it spins your mind around so that you are driven, as if by another will. And then you get in that situation, and you get into a big mess where everybody is suffering. If you are very sincere, if you are very observant, and you look carefully at those qualities in your body, speech, and mind, you will comprehend the danger of lust, the harm that is causes for yourself and others. You will comprehend it, and you will not repeat that mistake, because it will be conscious knowledge. Be aware that I am talking about lust, not love. We always confuse them. Love is something else. What about pride? Any moment that we feel better than another personwe like thatthat is pride. It hurts us and it hurts the other person, but we have not comprehended it. What about envy? When we want something that someone else has, we see that guy with the really nice car, and we want that. We see that girl with the rich husband, really handsome guy, and we want that. Or we see that billionaire that everybody loves and respects, and we want that respect. We have all seen those envious qualities in ourselves, but we have not comprehended them, because we continue to let them control our lives, harming ourselves and those around us. If we sincerely analyze these egos, we will understand those are harmful desires. They are harmful because they push us to want something that is not rightfully ours. They are harmful because they cause us to act in ways that are not in accordance with what our Innermost wants for us. So if we want that husband, we go and try to get him. If we want the money or the car, we go and try to get it. We are not listening to what God wants for us, what our Innermost needs us to do; we are listening to desire. Or if we want that social status, that job or that title or that position, we start to pursue that; we spend our lifes blood to get that thing that we envy. Comprehension is to observe and analyze and to spontaneously and intuitively understand: This is harmful, not only to me, but to others! That is all comprehension is. It is not complicated; it is not hard. All it takes is sincerity and the effort to look. That effort is not always easy, because there is somebody who really does not want us to acquire comprehension, and that somebody is the I, the Me, the Myself. It will do everything it can to prevent you from comprehending it. Really, in comprehension, we are comprehending the I. All "beings" arise from fixation on self such that they thereby are fixated on "mine"; this is what has been stated by the one who speaks solely for the sake of beings. Ultimately, the notions "I exist" and "What is mine exists" are false, because from the persepective of knowing [things] as they truly are, there is neither ["I" nor "mine"]. The aggregates arise from fixation on "I"; the fixation on "I" is ultimately unreal. - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:27-29 Nagarjuna says we have to accurately analyze actions of body, speech, and mind. But who does the analysis? Most of the time we do not make the differentiation psychologically in ourselves. So when we try to comprehend, when we start to analyze our pride, we are observing our pride with pride. Usually when we are doing our Gnostic work, we are still enmeshed in the ego. We start to look at that situation and feel like, You know what, I was justified. I should have done that. I was 10

right. That is pride; that is pride with anger. Or maybe we look at that situation and feel like, I am such a terrible person. I am so bad. How could I do that? And we start to punish ourselves. That is also pride, but the inverse polarity; it is shame, defeatism, self-deprecation. That is pride. You see Nagarjuna said, accurately analyze. The ego cannot be accurate, because the ego is only interested in preserving itself. If you want accurate comprehension, you have to get out of the ego that is not easy or automatic. This is the biggest mistake students make; they do not recognize the presence of the ego. We are ninety-seven percent trapped in ego. Most of our soul, most of ourConsciousness, is trapped in the ego. So then, when we hear this or see the truth of it, once again we feel hopeless. How do I get out of this situation? A lot of students who try to meditate and learn these practices reach this stage and feel like, I cant do it. It is hopeless. I try, and try to observe myself, and I feel worse. And I try to meditate on my ego, and I see worse. And Im getting worse and worse. Im not getting better. This is good. You should feel like that, because it shows, firstly, that are you are actually starting to see the reality of your situation. People come and they say, Well Im trying this Meditation technique, and Im watching my mind, and my mind is getting worse. It is getting more and more out of control. Im losing hope. This is good. You are seeing the actual state of your mind. But do not lose hope. Get back in touch with that which sees. Without depending on the mirror, the reflection of one's face is not seen. Likewise, without depending upon the aggregates, there is no [notion of an] "I." - Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:33 To accurately analyze, you have to make a discrimination, a distinction in yourself. Observe yourself, not through your eyes, not through your ears, not through your touch, not through taste, not though thoughts, not through feelingsbut through pure perception, unmodified. That pure perception does not have your name. It does not have your family. It does not even have this body. It is beyond all of that. That pure perception is Essence, Consciousness, our true nature. In Sanskrit it is called Buddha-dhatu or Tathagatagarbha. It is pure perception, Buddha nature. There is no I there. Again, to experience that, to understand that, it cannot happen with the intellect; it has to happen through experience. It happens when you make it happen through your efforts. It sounds contradictory, but it happens without effort; it arises on its own, just like comprehensionit arises on its own, but you have to put yourself in the right position. If you are in your mind, thinking, thinking, thinking, you are doing it the wrong way. If you are analyzing your ego, and you are thinking and thinking and thinking about it, you are doing it the wrong way. If you are in your heart, and you are feeling it, and feeling it, and feeling it, and trying to reach out with your feelings, you are doing it the wrong way. If you are in your body, centered in sensation, and thinking that you will comprehend when you reach a certain kind of sensationlike a Samadhi, or like a complete absence of sensationyou are in the wrong position; you are thinking about it, you are doing it, in the wrong way. These are just habits in the three brains. Some people try to comprehend the ego only through the intellect, through analyzing and thinking. Some try through the heart, by reaching out with their feelings and saying, Does this feel right, or does it feel wrong? some try to comprehend through the body, by feeling like, If I reach a certain kind of sensationthey call them Samadhis, or Jhanas, or concentrative states. They think, If I reach this concentrative state, then I will enter Samadhi and I can comprehend my ego. Each of these approaches is wrong. They are basing their efforts on sensations. Comprehension occurs in levels. Observation can bring basic comprehension. But to get at the roots of our suffering, we have to comprehend the causes which lie very deep in the mind, far beyond the reach of our terrestrial senses. For this, we need to enter into the depths of Consciousness, through Meditation. The state of pure, awakened Consciousness, free if all ego and impure psychological elements, is called Samadhi. Samadhi is beyond sensations; it has nothing to do with sensations, feelings, or thoughts. Samadhi is a state of bright, active, awakeConsciousness, that sees clearly and vibrantly, that which is beyond the five senses. 11

We train in Meditation in order to enter Samadhi at will. Usually, this is out of the body. It is possible to have a Samadhi in your body, while you are walking around, if you are trained to do it; generally, this is only possible for a Master. Samadhi does not have anything to do with a particular posture, a particular mantra; it has to do with a state of Consciousness. Real masters are in a continual state of awakened Consciousness, and can be talking to you and doing a few things at a time, and be in a state of Samadhi. Samadhi simply means an active, awake state of Consciousness, free of ego. That is all it is. We have all experienced Samadhi, but we have forgotten how to access it. Most of the time when we experience Samadhi, we are babies. Babies are pretty much in a continual state of Samadhi, until the ego starts to come and the personality starts to be developed. Then they start suffering. But that beauty of their smile, that beautiful expression that they have of wonderment, that is Samadhi at the level of a baby. We have all tasted that. But that is only a kindergarten level of Samadhi. There are many levels. Nonetheless, comprehension does not come through the three brains in the ways I mentioned. Comprehension comes when the Essence is freed from the three brains. Having said that, you can comprehend your ego right now. If your Consciousness is awake, active, and then you see in yourself the emergence of a desire, and you see that desire, and you know that that desire is harmful and wrong, that is comprehension. That is all. It is simple. When you have a moment of being fully aware of yourself, and you realize, You know what, I shouldnt do that; I shouldnt think that. That is comprehension. To go deeper in comprehension, we have to meditate. The comprehensions we can reach while we are in the physical body are limited to what we can perceive in that state. We cannot perceive the depths of the ego while we are here in the physical body, unless we are a very great master and have a lot of Consciousness awakened. But none of us are like that; we are all beginners. That is why we learn to meditate. We learn to meditate to comprehend. We do not learn to meditate to make ourselves look spiritual, or to develop powers, or for people to respect us. We do not meditate because it is fun, or because it makes us seem cool or mystical or mysterious. We meditate to get information. Meditation is not spacing out. It is not daydreaming. It is not just sitting there and watching the paint dry. It is not sitting there and watching the dust particles float around the room. It is, truly, to get information, to acquire knowledge, to comprehend. That is what realMeditation is. Real Meditation is not concentration practices or mantras. It is not any particular posture. It is not a breathing exercise. Those are all preliminary. All of those are preparation for Meditation. Real Meditation is a state of Consciousness in which we comprehend, we understand, we get itintuitively, emotionally, consciously. That is what Meditation is for, and that is why we have to learn and practice every day. Becausebe honestevery day we are a surging chaos of conflicting desires that are making a mess out of our lives and other lives. You are not going to change that meditating once a week. It will not happen. You are not going to change that if you just observe yourself a few minutes a week or a few minutes a day. It will not happen. There is a lot of energy at play in your mindstream, and to change the course of that mindstream takes incredible effort and a lot of discipline, but it can be done. It does not take years and years and years and years to start seeing the benefits of this effort. You can start getting the benefits today, because the instant you stop harmful actions, you stop those flows of negative energy. The instant you adopt a virtuous action, you start setting in motion new energy. The consequences of those actions are greater than the cause. The course of your life can change dramatically if you are serious, if you work hard. Working hard does not mean going to a school or obeying a teacher, it means working every day on yourself. Comprehension is the prerequisite for anything else spiritually. If you want to unite with God, you have to become like God; you have to be a fit vessel for God. If you want powers, God will give it to the one that deserves it. If you want to get out of your body and go to other planets, if you want to go talk to the angels and masters, if you want to go and have an interview with your own Innermost, if you want to speak with Jesus, with Buddha, with Krishna, you can, but you have to earn it. You 12

earn it through comprehension, through change, through setting in motion energy. If you want initiations, if you want to develop the soul, if you want to become a Master, an Angel, a Buddha, you can, but those things are earned. If you want to awaken the Kundalini, you can. It has to be earned. The Kundalini is the pure intelligence of the Divine Mother. You cannot trick it; you cannot fool it; you cannot get it just because you did a hundred thousand mantras, or a million mantras. Kundalini is the very intelligence of God. You cannot fool it. It is not going to come into somebody who is indulging in their lust all the timeforget about it. That energy is the power of God. It is the power to manipulate nature. It has a tremendous effect, not only on yourself, but on others. So if day to day, we are going around acting like a complete fool, with our chest puffed out with pride, and we are flashing with anger and lust all the time, and we are raging with envy, why would God give more energy to that? It is not going to happen. We have to earn Kundalini. That is what the Minor Mysteries are about. The Minor Mysteries are the probationary path where we prove we are serious about changing, we are serious about eliminating our defects, we are serious about helping others. When we go through that process, then the Divinities say, Okay. You passed through these nine arcades. Lets see what you can do. We will give you a little bit. And so they give you a little bit and see what you do with it. So be aware. Be aware. We are always being tested. Real comprehension is not just to say, Okay. Yeah. I saw that I have pride. Yeah, I get it. Pride. Okay. That is not comprehension; that is intellect. Real comprehension is a feeling inside that says, Yeah. Ive really got pride, and thats bad. I need to learn humility, meekness. That is sincere. If we have that, then we can move to the second stage towards liberation, and that stage is called judgment. Judgment Judgment is the second stage on the way to liberation of Consciousness. Judgment is quite simple. When you have consciously and fully understood that a certain aspect of yourself is not only harmful to you, but is harmful to others, you can put it onto the defendants bench in the court, and you can say, This one deserves to die. But that finger is pointing at yourself. Very few of us have that abilityto point at ourselves and say, This one deserves to die. That self is the I, the Me, the Myself. If we want to know the plurality of the I and our perennial contradictions, we must then not deceive ourselves. People deceive themselves so as not to see their internal contradictions. With just reason, everyone who discovers his intimate contradictions feels ashamed of himself. He comprehends that he is a nobody, that he is a wretched person, a miserable worm of the earth. To discover our own intimate contradictions is a success because then our inner judgment is liberated spontaneously, thus permitting us to see with clarity the path of individuality and that of superindividuality. - Samael Aun Weor,The Revolution of the Dialectic We all want to make ourselves feel great. We want to take this self to heaven and be admired. But you do not enter heaven that way. You enter heaven the way John the Baptist entered, the way Jesus entered, the way Joan of Arc entered, the way all the masters enteredthrough death, through decapitation, where that self, that I, that ego that we love so much, is judged. That judgment begins with us. Now this is an interesting phenomenon, because when we talk about the judgment of the I, we usually think about judging others. Well, hes got too much pride, and shes got too much lust. We are very good at judging others. We think we are good at it. Did you see how that guy was behaving? So much gluttony. Can you believe him? This is wrong. That is why the Bible says, Judge not. That judgment should be devoted exclusively to our own mind. Any instant where we catch ourselves judging another person is an instant when we should quickly look back within and say, Wow. Look at my pride. Look at how proud I am to be judging this other person. But how many of us do that? Instead we say, Oh, hes really bad, and Im clearly better than him. Ha ha. That is what we do. It is wrong. It is sad, because unfortunately, we seeespecially in spiritual movementsthat this has become a terrible infection, a disease, with this group of students accusing this other group of students, and 13

this instructor accusing these other instructors. Poison. It is all poison. And they all feel so justified in their behaviors, and it is all wrong. Let me tell you what the true Mahayana practitioner does. The true Mahayana practitioner only utters criticism about themselves, and when discussing others only praises themnever criticizes. That is a true Mahayana practitioner. It is very hard to find such a person. I wish we could find more, truly, but the ego is so alive in us it is hard to find that. And what if we are the person who is receiving the criticism? What if we are the person who is always being judged? We have all faced that situation. People are judging us; they are saying this and that; there is gossip; everybody is talking about us because of something we did or did not do. How do we respond to that? Most of us respond in the same way: Oh yeah, well you did this and that. What about that time when I saw you and we have a list of things which justify ourselves and bring everybody else down. This is also wrong. This is pride. The true response, the right response, is if you have enemies or people are criticizing youyou know the best way to respond to them?perfect your virtues. Speak of your critics with love, because the reality is, your enemies are doing you a great favor. We have a hard time seeing that. We want everybody to love us. But the reality is, when you have an enemy and everybody is gossiping about you and criticizing you, and you feel that pain, they have just given you the most amazing gift, because they have shown you your defects. It may not be in the words they are saying; it is that feeling in your heart. It is that pride that is offended. It is that anger that is inflamed. They have just given you that gift. They have said, Here, brother, look at what I have shown you in your heart. We should have gratitude for that, not return with fire and thunder, blaming them and attacking them. I had an experience recently where someone very close to me for many years, for some reason that is unknown to me, suddenly began calling me terrible names, publicly. And of course I had that first reaction of Arghthe pain in my heart, and anger and pride, and all that. And then I realized, You know what? That person is right. I am all those things. I felt grateful. I do not feel any resentment towards that person, I feel grateful, because really, I had not seen that precise quality in myself before that happened. And when that happened, I saw it, and I was so thankful for something that I had not seen. I would not have seen it otherwise. I needed that to see it. So that person did me a favor. So based on that, we can understand what judgment really is. Judgment is not what a lot of us have in the mind, where we, with our chest puffed out, stroll into the courts of Anubis in the Temple of the Law and we say, This pride deserves to die, because we are doing that in a proud way. The judgment happens in us first. When we feel that emerge in our heart, in our mind, that qualitybe it envy or jealousy or fearand we say, You know what, that thing deserves to die. That thing is no good. That judgment can only come when we have already comprehended that it is harmful. Right? It is obvious. Only then can we move to the third stage, which is elimination. Elimination Elimination is when our energy is freed from that pride, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, or greed that previously was manipulating our energies and forces through our three brains, that previously had such a grip on us. We understood it. We comprehended it. We stopped feeding it. We grasped that it was harmful. We broke its ties over us, its grip. And then we judged it, and we were able to say every time that thing shows its face, No. You are not allowed in my temple. You, pride, you, fear, you, envy, get out. You deserve to die. Then, and only then, when we have complete control over our psyche, when no matter what the test is that comes to us, whether physically or psychologically in the internal worlds, we always reject, we always judge that I and do not allow it to control us, then we can ask for that "I" to be eliminated. Do you see how hard that is, to reach that level of comprehension where judgment actually happens? Physically, we might get tested. If it is an ego of pride, for example, if we are a very boastful, proud person, we may have someone come along and give us a lot of praise, and we feel good, Yeah. Youre right. Im good. I deserve it. We may not think it or say it, but we feel it. That is 14

pride. But if we have comprehended how that works, then the person comes and praises us, and it does not affect us, and we hear the words for what they areempty boastingand we do not feel the pride; it does not bother us. That is a level of comprehension. But then, if we can pass that same ordeal in our dreamseven in our dreams, we do not fall into the trap, into the temptation of that pridethen we have reached the level of judgment. What about lust? Lets say you have a particular person who is drawing your lust. Physically you might cut the ties. You might stop talking to them; you might stop looking at them. That could all just be repression of the lust. But if you have comprehended it, then you can talk to them and you do not feel lust. The lust is not there. That is comprehension on that level. But then if you have a dream with that person and you still do not feel lust, you have gone deeper; you have really comprehended it. Then you can judge it. Then thatego can be completely eliminated because you have taken your Consciousness away from that ego. Egos have power over us because part of our Consciousness is inside of them, and we feel it is us. That is why we feel that. When we feel our anger, we feel it is me. When we feel our pride we feel it is me, because Consciousness is trapped in there. But when full comprehension is active, when that full comprehension is there, then that pride comes and we do not feel ourselves in it. Do you grasp that? That pride is there and we do not feel that it is our identity; it is just garbage. That is the judgment. And then the Divine Mother can eliminate it. That is how elimination happens. She can only eliminate it when her child is not in it. We are her child. The Divine Mother is symbolized by Athena or Durga, with her weapons, who will kill the demon, the Medusa. She cannot kill it when her child is still inside of it. The child is her Consciousness. I had an experience many years ago. I was dealing with a very painful conflict with a close friend, meditating a lot to try to understand why I was in conflict with this person, and suffering a lot from it. And it was my pride, and meditated and meditated and kept trying to understand, and eventually I grasped that it was just my pride, and I needed to just relax and not be so identified with it. A lot ofMeditation over many months, and finally, I was still dealing with this person, and I did not feel the charge that I was feeling beforethe conflict in my heart, the pain. Finally, I felt love for my friend again. It was good. And it was then that I had an experience in the internal worlds. And I saw myself, and I saw my friend in a small room, and he was very agitated and upset. And I felt pain, because I knew his upset feelings and his agitation were partly because of me, because I was involved in this karmic problem. But I did not feel that in my experience. And then I turned and I looked to my right and I saw me, but I was on a pier out into the water. And I was astonished that I saw above that, Athena, the Divine Mother, coming from the sky with a big lance, and she killed that me, and it became nothing. That experience showed me very clearly how the process of comprehension, judgment, and elimination works. That elimination only was able to happen because I reached a state of equanimity and a state of peace, and I was restored once again to feeling the natural feeling, the natural friendship, that should have been there between my friend and myself. He had not reached that stage yet. He was still in conflict, and that is why he was in that little room, which was his mind. He was still trapped in that, but I was outside. And I give thanks for that, because I had a lot of help from my Divine Mother to reach that comprehension. This was a little ego; it was a little thing. It is nothing to boast of. I am not proud of it. I am grateful because it showed me something, so that I can explain how this process works. Quite simply, comprehension, judgment, and elimination all come from sincerity. You cannot fake it. If you are boasting, if you are going about proud of being a student, proud of knowing Gnosis, you are on the wrong feet; you are on the wrong foundation. True advancement, true understanding of yourself, true liberation from suffering, comes from sincerity. And that is being sincere with others, but also being sincere with yourself. The System for the Transformation of the Impressions of the Day 1. Absolute relaxation. 2. Reach the state of Meditation. 15

3. Relive the scene just as it occurred. 4. Seek within oneself the I which caused the problem. 5. By observing serenely, one places the ego in the defendants chair and one then proceeds with the judgment. 6. Ask the Divine Mother Kundalini for the disintegration of the I - problem. [Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic] Questions and Answers Audience: As I observe many of my egos, I find them rooted in fear, or fear being the basis for most of them. And I also see fear as being very instinctual, for survival almost, but survival of what? So could you address that? Instructor: Fear is a very powerful and difficult ego to work on, and in my experience, I put fear next to lust in terms of the difficulty there is to deal with fear. And the reason is that you can experience fear even in states of Consciousness where you have moved beyond the realm of the ego. And that is partly why fear is so difficult to work with, to conquer. As an example: Samael Aun Weor explained his experience in the Illuminating Void. And the only way to enter that experience is if you have accessed a state of Samadhi free of ego. Then you go into that level of experiencing the Void. But once there, he felt fear. So that fear is something beyond ego, something very deep. That is partly why, in my experience, fear is so hard to work on. And I agree with you, I think in every egotistical situation that I have observed and analyzed in myself, I have always found fear as a component. And that is partly why I, in my personal experience, reject the notion of putting labels on egos, like saying, Well that ego is pride. We talk that way, but I think in practical experience, you cannot do that, because every ego is an entity that has various characteristics, and a lot of the time, fear is a component. As an example, you state pride or envy. These egos, clearly, usually have a component of fear, partly because, when we are disconnected from God, we lose that faith, that connection with God. We feel exposed and open, vulnerable. That is fear, and that stimulates the motor-instinctive-sexual brain with preservation of life. We feel afraid and want to preserve our life, but it is through theego. And I think it is also true in lust. I think a lot of lust is driven by fear, and its longing for connection, because we are so afraid we are not connected with God, we want to connect with somebody, and it is fear that is pushing us in lust. I think that is common in men and women. To conquer fear, the surest antidote that I have found is prayer. Prayer is an amazing magical feat. I mean real prayer, not just recitation. Prayer where, with your heart, you call your God, your Being, until that connection is established. And really that connection is up to you, because your Divine Mother, your Being, is always with you. And if you feel disconnected, it is because of you. God is always there, especially when you are serious about your spiritual work, you are serious because God is pushing you with a spiritual inquietude. That impulse to awaken is your Being pushing you. So if you do not feel connected to God, it is because something in you is not connected; it is not God. I know I have heard so many times, Well God doesnt listen to me, or God doesnt talk to me. It is not that God is not talking to you, it is that you are not listening. So prayer, especially the Lords Prayerthere is amazing power in that prayeror the Gayatri mantra, different prayers depending on your background. If you have a relationship with a religion, any religion, there will be a prayer in that religion that will bring you close to that sense, that feeling, of connection. And that can evaporate fear. There is great power in that. So that would be my recommendation when fear is strong. Remember your Being. Pray. And this especially happens out of the body, in the astral plane. Fear is a huge obstacle, and the surest antidote is prayer. As soon as you feel that fear, you pray to God, Please my Mother, my Father, whatever prayer you want to use, even if it is just intuitivebe with me, guide me, help me, show me. And when it is sincere, the fear evaporates. Audience: Well, I realize that I need to meditate on fear Instructor: For sure. Audience: but right now, the way we talk about fear, but then it seems way deeper than that. Instructor: There are egos of fear. 16

Audience: Do the egos bring fear up in order to survive, for their survival? Instructor: Fear, at its baseto my level of comprehension, which is very shallowis a disconnection from the Innermost, from God. And that is partly why the Master Samael felt that fear entering the Absolute, because in that state there is another level of connection that is beyond the connection you get in a regular Samadhi. It is something different. And that fear was that change, because you enter into a state of selflessness, the ultimate level, which is a complete level of Prajna. It is hard to put in words. So any ego has a reflection of that, in the sense that we are disconnected from Being. When we are totally enveloped in our pride, running around with our pride, we are boasting and feeding that pride because, at the base of it, we are disconnected from God, and that is a fear. We have that lack of faith, that lack of connection. So we feel exposed and alone, and the way we want to feel strong and secure is with pride. The real way to do it is to feel God in our heart. Then we do not need pride. When we really have a connection with God, with our Innermost, with our Divine Mother, when that is vibrating and living in our heart, pride is completely useless; in fact, it is harmful. That is why the truest masters are completely humble and absolutely sincere, and they do not care if somebody tries to beef up their pride or tries to bring their pride down. Someone who is really centered in God does not respond at all to criticism or praise, because they have connected with God in their heart. Likewise, they do not respond to envy, or to lust, because all of those are a kind of fear seeking connection, because we do not have a connection with the Innermost. It is sort of logical and makes sense, right? It is simple. But we forget. So that is why in the course of this process of analyzing body, speech, and mind, and acting for the benefit of self and others, we need to remember ourselves; we need to remember our Innermost; we need to pray. That is why we have so many aspects of this science that we have to learn. They are all important. They are all pointing us towards that state of Consciousness in which we are awake, we are observant, we are watching ourselves, but we are connected inside our heart. So then, when any ordeal or temptation comes at us, we are connected with our Innermost. We do not need to fulfill that lust, because we have fulfillment in our heart already. We do not need to fulfill that envy. We do not need to listen to that fear. We do not need to follow along with that shame or that gluttony, because the fulfillment that we need is already their in our heart, with our Innermost. We fall into temptation because we have lost that connection. And that connection can be established quickly in us. It is a matter of our work and sincerity. That connection is built and made very strong through transmutation and through conscious work, through being awake. When we transmute, we are taking those forces, the matter and energy of the sexual matter, and we are creating something. That creation is the connection to God. So if we are not transmuting, if we are not working with our sexual energy, we cannot build a strong connection; we will be very weak, as a weak soul. But someone who has created, inside, the astral bodies, awakened the Kundalinis, that is a very potent, powerful, direct connection to God. And that is why those people are very strong psychologically, and are able to help others in a very strong degree, because they have that connection naturally. It is interesting, right? Audience: When you were talking about the state of pure perception, which has no body, would you say there is a sense of indifference in that? Instructor: I would not say it was necessarily indifference, because indifference could imply lethargy or laziness, right? But I think you are on the right track. I would say indifference is not the right word. I would say it is more like equanimity. Audience: I was wondering how you would then bring the state of compassion or love into it. Instructor: Yeah, because it is not indifference. Some people develop it that way and it is harmful. Specifically in the Shravakayana pathsin the beginning, foundational level paths of some traditionsthey develop a kind of equanimity that is self-enclosed. And you could call it indifference because they develop the abilitywhich is a foundational abilitythat no matter what arises, they are indifferent. 17

The Path of Balance

Created on Tuesday, 15 June 2010 15:40 Written by Gnostic Instructor

But that is not a Mahayana manifestation of that conscious state. The full development of that conscious state would be an active engagement that does not get identified. And the difference is subtle. It is a state of engagement, really. It is an equanimity that is active and observant, but it does not get identified. It is a flowing of love. You could say it like that. It is a force of love, an engagement. I do not really have the words for it, but I would not use the word indifference. I think equanimity is a little more accurate, even though some people could interpret equanimity as also indifference, and it is not that. Like, in some Meditation schools, they talk about developing Meditation in equanimity, but they are really talking about indifference, so that anything that arises, you just do not care. This is wrong. You should care. It is important. Consciousness cares, really. Consciousness itself is a reflection of Chokmah. It is a reflection of God flowing through the Sephiroth. God cares. God is love. So that conscious state should be a state of caring, a state of engagement, a state in which there is an active observation, but no identification. It is hard to put it in words, but I think through practice and Meditation you will get to the point where you say, Oh yeah, I get that. But English does not have the terms to explain all these states of Consciousness, which is one of the sad facts of English.

In the previous lecture, we talked about the myth of Persephone, and how this Greek symbol relates to our psychological scenario. Persephone is a Greek Goddess, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, who becomes entranced by a flower and is captured by Hades and taken into the Underworld. The story has many levels of meaning; it relates to the development of humanity in the ancient past, but right now we are primarily concerned with what it represents in us: the flow of forces and energies in our psychology, within us, within our mind, within our heart. The flower that entranced Persephone is called Narcissus, and represents desire. We are entranced by desire. This story represents a psychological situation that happens in our minds. Persephone is the daughter of the Divine Mother. Symbolically, the child of the Divine Mother is our Soul. Persephone represents our Essence, our consciousness, our true nature. The understanding of the Essence, to know what it is, to experience it, to use it from moment to moment, is the original purpose of every religion. Nowadays, most have lost that purpose. Nonetheless, the original purpose of religion was to teach us how to recognize and then awaken the consciousness, thereby achieving union with our divine source, what some call God, Tao, Brahma, Allah, etc. If you don't know what your Essence is, if you cannot taste it, if you cannot feel it, if you cannot work with it, then you are not accessing, using, or experiencing real religion. The word religion comes from the Latin "religare," which means "to unite, to bond," and that re-union refers to the reunion of Persephone with Demeter, that is, the reunion of our Soul, our consciousness, with its source, its root, which we symbolize as the Divine Mother. In reality, the Divine Mother has no form. She is a force, an intelligence, an energy. In Sanskrit, that energy-wisdom-intelligence is called Prajna: a kind of wisdom and intelligence that is beyond any intellectual concept or form. Prajna is the level of penetrating knowledge that perceives and understands the essential nature of all things. It is God-mind. Our Essence (consciousness) came from that distant root, but we have no cognizance of it. Our Essence is just a seed, an embryo; it is a child, that the Greeks symbolized as Persephone: an undeveloped, innocent, beautiful, virginal maiden. Transmigration and Suffering A long time ago, in an age long forgotten by our civilization, the innocent consciousness of humanity encountered sensations that produced desire, and our Essence, our consciousness, became hypnotized by that desire. This is symbolized in the flower that entranced Persephone. 18

The whole story of that event in our spiritual evolution is very long and full of heartbreak. Instead of going into history, we need to study this story as it affects us today, as it affects our modern lives, our day to day lives. Our Essence (Persephone) is our true nature, and we need to understand what the Essence is and how it becomes entranced by desire, then trapped in hell (suffering). On another level of meaning, the story of Persephone represents how our Essence descends into a physical body so that we can live here in the physical world. We explained this aspect in the previous lecture about Persephone. In Greek mythology, the god Hades (Pluto) rules the lower kingdoms. In Kabbalah, the lower kingdoms include Malkuth (which literally means kingdom), which relates to the physical world and the physical body. The lower kingdoms also include the kingdoms below the physical world, which are called Gehenna, Klipoth, Hell, the infernos, etc. Outer aspect: Malkuth represents the physical world. Klipoth represents the hell realms. Personal aspect: Malkuth represents the physical body. Klipoth represents the subconscious, unconscious, and infraconscious levels of our mind. The physical world and the physical body are the kingdom of Pluto / Hades. The physical world and the physical body are the world of sensations. Because of falling into identification with desire through sensations in the physical body, our consciousness, Persephone, falls into the lower worlds: the consciousness falls asleep, into darkness. Stated simply, we do not have a Heaven in our body, but we can, if we know how to liberate Persephone: our consciousness. So we need to know how to save Persephone. How do we bring Persephone out of the darkness of hell? That is, how do we bring our Essence, our consciousness, out of the prison that it is in now? One level of meaning in the story of Persephone relates to the transmigration of souls. In the myth, Persephone eventually reaches a point at which she can escape the underworld temporarily, but has to return later. She gets a break periodically, so she is able to leave the underworld and go back to Heaven, but she is not free of the lower realms. This is because of karma: cause and effect. Most scholars interpret this as a symbol of the changing seasons, because they are not initiates of the secret teachings hidden in the myths. This symbol represents the situation that our soul is in. Our consciousness descends into a body (the lower worlds) and suffers for a time, until the body dies and the soul is freed for a brief vacation in the superior worlds. At least, it used to be like that. Life and death - the migration of the soul between two worlds - exists because of a cimplicated history of actions and consequences. The history is not our concern now: we want to know how to change our present and our future. For this, first we have to realize that each action we perform has consequences. Even a thought has energetic consequences. Therefore, we are bound here by cause and effect, by laws of nature, not by the tyranny of God, but by the consequences of our own actions. We are here in these bodies suffering because we produced the causes that created our situation. Our consciousness, our Essence, became hypnotized by desire a long time ago, and is still hypnotized by desire, and that is why our suffering persists. So because of that hypnosis, we are bound into the transmigration of souls, where we enter into physical bodies, experience a physical life, then we die. Sometimes, if during life we have produced a lot of good results, our Soul (Essence) gets a vacation, and is able to enjoy a period of bliss in a superior realm, but this is rare nowadays, and becoming more and more rare. In ancient times, it was common because the souls were not so burdened with desires, but now it is very rare. Now, most souls are reborn immediately, or accrued so much karma that they do not get to take a body again; they are taken directly into the lower realms, to be cleaned of their impurities. That is what is happening now. Since the 1950s, many of the souls that die do not come back into physical bodies, because their karma is too heavy, and nature takes them to recycle them; when nature takes a soul to purify it through the infernal worlds, it takes thousands of years of suffering and pain, until at the end it emerges clean, ready to try again. The process of migration is like a great spiral, and our Soul is trapped in that by cause and effect. What we need to understand is the practical method to change our course. I have found a 19

sentence in one of Samael Aun Weor's books that captures the essence of that method. So today were going to talk about that single line, within which the entire teaching is condensed. In his book Fundamental Education, Samael Aun Weor wrote: A perfect equilibrium between personality and Essence, the harmonious development of thought, emotion, and movement, and a revolutionary ethics, are what constitute the basis of a fundamental education. This short sentence condenses the entire Gnostic teaching, but to understand it, to grasp it, you have to study that teaching and know what these terms are. These terms are very specific. They are not vague. They are not open for interpretation. They are extremely specific, and to understand them you have to investigate the meaning of each of these terms in Gnosis. The Essence I already explained that the Essence is our consciousness. Essence is our Soul; it is not the mind, the heart, the body, or the personality: our consciousness is beyond all of them. Our Essence, our consciousness, does not need to think. Our consciousness does not intellectualize. Our consciousness does not have emotions in the way we have emotions right now. Emotions work differently in the Essence, thoughts work differently, cognition is different. The Essence is beyond mere intellect, beyond mere emotion as we know it. Our consciousness is beyond sensation as we know it. Our consciousness can experience any of them, but it is beyond them. The Essence, the consciousness, simply is. It is the state of Being, it is the state of existence, and understanding this will remain elusive to your mind until you have experienced it - and you can, if you learn to meditate. Through real meditation you can have experiences where you taste, know, feel, experience pure Essence. The sanskrit word for that experience is Samadhi. A true Samadhi is an experience beyond the "I," beyond the ego, beyond the body, beyond the mind, beyond feelings or sentiments. In that state, you can experience thought, you can experience emotion, you can experience sensation, but not the thought, sensation, or emotion of the body or the personality of this time or age. They are experiences that are beyond time, that belong to eternity; such an experience is something different. You may have experienced something similar in a dream, a very rich, deep, profound dream, when you were not who you are now. And then when you come back to your physical body, you become confused, and you think, "Wait a minute, I was not this person with this name and this job and this burden; where was I in this dream? Who was I? I was somebody else." You may have been seeing and tasting a past experience, a future experience, or even your real nature. These kinds of experiences illustrate the Maya, the illusion that is woven around us by the consequences of our own past actions. Perfect equilibrium is the point of this sentence that Samael Aun Weor wrote. So let us understand what equilibrium means. The first two elements that he mentions here are personality and Essence. Essence is our consciousness. Personality is a mask that the consciousness uses. Each time we are born into a new body, we develop a new personality. Those of us who took bodies in the Roman Empire built a personality in the Roman Empire. We had a Roman personality that spoke Latin, that had Roman culture, Roman morals, that liked the food of that time, that liked the music of the time, that liked the clothes of that time. In other words, that personality was Roman. It was made in Roman times and could only function in Roman times. The personality is not eternal, it is temporary. A personality lasts only as long as the body lasts, and when we are reborn again, we build a new personality. The personality is just a mask. That mask has a name, a history, tastes, and many unique characteristics related to where and how we grew up. All of us have a personality. Unfortunately, most of us think our personality is our true identity, but it is not. Your name, memories, family, history, culture, tastes, and interests are all personality. The color of your skin, your accent, the language you speak, your politics, your taste in clothing, food, and music, and all cultural things are personality. They are temporal; they belong to time. They are not permanent. They are not eternal. They do not belong to your Soul; they are not your Soul. So, just with this understanding, we can see that the vast majority of what most people think is "myself," is an illusion. What we think is me actually is not real, it is an illusion. What we think is me is something that we build in each lifetime in order to function in a physical body and 20

relate with others, but in reality it is an illusion. The personality dies. The personality is not part of the Soul; it is not part of the Being. We need to make that distinction. Much of what we consider so important is actually completely meaningless. We fight with each other, argue, and struggle over things that will soon cease to exist. We work day after day after day to make money to feed our personality, to get the clothes that make us fashionable and fit in, to make others admire us or envy us, to get the music, to go to the clubs, to go to the shows, to go to the movies, to have the toys and gadgets and house and car and all the things we think we are supposed to have, but which spiritually are really meaningless, empty, pointless, even damaging. Most of our time and energy is invested into pursuits that have no lasting value, but we tend to spend the majority of our lives chasing them: social, political, and religious theories, doctrines, and dogmas are all related to personality. The political and religious views of one hundred years ago do not fit in with those of today - that is, all of them are dependent upon time. In other words, they are not eternal. They are not lasting. How many political, social, scientific, artistic, or other cultural trends, have faded into uselessness? Well, be aware that all of those that we an entranced with today will also fade into uselessness. Every political party and religious trend will also fade into oblivion. Why then become so entranced by them? It is better to root ourselves in the truly eternal. Many of us have been born into a religious household, we adopt that religion as the true religion, but it is personality. We go to church every week, we give our donations, but we do not move spiritually. It is just habit. That is not spiritual, it is personality. It is false. It is a lie. Real spirituality is not a habit or rooted in trends or what is socially acceptable. Real spirituality is rooted in the eternal divine. We need a personality, but it must be in harmony with the essence. Our consciousness must govern our personality. That is, whatever we do, is done through personality. To be in equilibrium, each thing that is done must be done consciously, not mechanically or habitually. To really accomplish this is to break all the chains that the mechanical personality puts upon us. In other words, to really balance consciousness and personality, one has to be completely free from unconscious, subconscious, and infraconscious chains. The Three Brains Next, he says "the harmonious development of thought, emotion, and movement." These are our three brains: Intellectual brain: thought Emotional brain: feelings, sentiments Motor, instinctual, sexual brain: movement, instinct, and sex The three brains are just machines that transform energy. We have an intellectual brain, which is where thoughts process. The intellectual brain is not physical, but uses physical matter to transmit energy. Thoughts are not created in the intellect, they merely process through it. Thoughts are not created in the physical brain; the brain just displays them. Our true identity, our Self, is not the brain. The Self is not thoughts. Thoughts are matter and energy related to the fifth dimension, related to the Mental Body. Our physical brain is a vehicle of our intellectual brain, which is a psychological machine. In other words, you could say that the physical matter of the brain is the hardware, the intellectual brain is the software, and the thoughts are the data that is handled by them both. The intellectual brain is a psychological machine that merely transmits the contents of our Mental Body, which is in the fifth dimension. Thoughts are matter and energy in the fifth dimension, which reflect into our physical brain. Our intellect is not a Self. Our intellect is not the Soul, or an identity, it is merely a machine. We have had a intellect and a physical brain in every one of our physical bodies, and in every one of our physical bodies, our intellect has been different. The intellect changes from life to life, because it is rooted in our physical and vital bodies, which change from life to life. The intellect is just a device; all it does is compare and recall. The intellect has a certain capacity of memory, and it has a certain capacity to compare different elements (usually not very many at the same time). 21

Our intellectual brain does not work at its full capacity. We have not learned how to use it properly. Instead, we abuse it continually, and usually ruin it in different ways, either by over or under use, or by destroying it with alcohol, drugs, or other chemicals, or by filling it with garbage that causes it to malfunction or fail. Emotions, feelings, are related with our emotional brain. The emotional brain is just a psychological transformer, a machine that transmits the contents of our Astral Body, also known as the emotional body. In our physical body, the emotional brain operates in the region of the heart, solar plexus, and other organs and glands in this region. The emotional brain is not physical but it uses physical matter to transmit its energy. The emotional brain receives and transmits emotional energies - love, joy, hate, anger, happiness, sadness, all the different types of feelings that we experience, sentiment, attachment, resentment. All of those are emotional energies, psychological energies, in our Astral Body, that are transmitted through our emotional brain. It is very important to understand what these two brains are they are and what they are not. Let's illustrate this with a quick example. Right now, there are many energies flowing in you. You feel some kind of emotional quality, and thoughts are emerging, and your personality is functioning, and your physical body is functioning, but can you discriminate between all those different components in yourself? Can you see the differences between each part? Most of the time we do not. Most of the time our consciousness is so weak and distracted that we just go along with the flow of all the different forces that are inside of us and outside of us, without really paying attention to them. Yet, this is a fatal mistake. Without cognizant awareness of all of these energies, we are without real awareness of what energies are acting and therefore what consequences will emerge from them. We are trapped in suffering, ignorance, and spiritual darkness precisely because we ignore what is going on inside of us. We need to learn to see the differences between thought, emotion, and motor-instinct-sex. Even between emotion and thought, many of us get very confused. We try to use the psychological tools we have inside of us in the wrong ways. Our psychological world is completely out of balance. As the many energies are flowing in and out of our three brains, they are modified by our personality, and we become hypnotized; that is, our consciousness is asleep. This is where the Narcissus flower emerges. The Narcissus flower is not a literal, physical flower, it is a psychological symbol. Do you know the symbol of Narcissus? In Greek mythology, Narcissus became entranced by his own reflection. The flower that entranced Persephone is called Narcissus because it is related with ourself, our mind. The flower represents the illusion of self-identity that hypnotizes our consciousness. The flower hypnotizes us through sensation: through personality and our three brains. Thus, it represent how our Essence, Persephone, becomes entranced and then trapped in hell, but how does that work in us, here and now? Don't let your mind take you into extremes and think it only happens when you are trying to lose weight and then you are suddenly offered your favorite meal. Yes, it happens then, but that is not the only time it happens. And likewise, do not think it only happens when suddenly you have an extra thousand dollars and can afford to buy whatever it is you have been desperate to buy, and you feel that temptation. Yes, it happens then as well, but that is not the only time it happens. It also happens when someone merely looks at you. What happens when someone looks at you? Do you see the psychological phenomena that emerges in your mind? It is subtle, but there is a whole series of reactions that occur that you are not aware of. When someone looks at you, there is an evaluation that happens in you. This is not intellectual, it is much too fast for the intellect. In the split second of your eyes connecting with another persons eyes, a whole series of evaluations occurs, similar to these types of questions, What do they want? What are they thinking of me? Is this person judging me? Do they like me? Do they not like me? Am I in danger? Do they lust for me? Do I lust for them? Do they respect me or not? And much more. This does not happen as a series of thoughts, so it is not intellectual. Eventually, such questions may emerge in the intellect, but generally these process is far to rapid for the intellect. Very quickly, a powerful evaluation of sensations occurs. Everything we see, 22

hear, feel, and sense is processed and evaluated without our conscious awareness. A reaction emerges automatically from our subconscious mind. A reaction emerges from our ego. If the person we see is beautiful, that reaction is interpreted by our lust, our envy, our pride, even fear, or some other aggregate. Each time we notice that someone else is looking at us, a very complicated and very rapid evaluation happens that we are totally unaware of. Moreover, this is happening thousands of times a day, and this is only one example of a single instance. We are also processing enormous amounts of data related to everything else that happens to us, both from sensations that come from outside, and those that come from inside. The psychological processing that is happening in us is what creates our suffering. You see, when someone looks at us, and our consciousness is asleep, for example, if that moment is interpreted by our pride, then were going to take that experience of the person looking at us and transform it in accordance with pride. So the pride says, "Do I look good? Do they think I look good? Am I handsome or pretty? Do they think that I'm handsome or pretty? Do they like me or not?" And again this is not intellectual, in the form of thoughts. Sometimes the thought comes, but usually it is not; there is a rapid transformation of impressions that we have no awareness of. This is how significant this sentence by Samael Aun Weor is. It is pointing towards a radical reevaluation of our psychological habits: radical. We talk a lot in these lectures about selfobservation, self-remembering, meditation, chastity - we have to have all of those factors engaged in our psychological environment. But the reason we must have them engaged is so we can learn about our three brains: so we can observe and watch the energies that are flowing in us constantly. You see, when that person looks at us in that instant, there's a huge transformation of energy that happens, below our awareness. So when someone looks at us, and we quickly read their glance, posture, or attitude, and then we assume that we know what they are thinking or feeling. I was recently talking with a young girl who has a little crush on a boy, and she said "He wouldn't talk to me. He doesn't like me," and she felt terrible. I am an adult so I know a little better; I know that the boy does like her and that is why he does not talk to her: because he is terrified of her. All of us are making the same kinds of assumption all the time: we listen only to what our ego is saying. Her pride was feeling threatened because she was feeling an attraction towards him, a little crush, and she felt doubt, "Maybe he does not like me," so her pride continued with "Maybe I am not good enough. Maybe he does not like me. Maybe I am not pretty." Then when he did not talk to her, she felt devastated, not because of him, because of herself. Her feelings emerged because of her interpretation of the event. Of course, as a child she does not see that, but adults do not see this either. All of us are proceeding from moment to moment in an environment of self-created interpretations that actually have no valid basis. Do you see how you are constantly generating thoughts and feelings in your mind, imagining events, replaying memories, interpreting impressions? Do you ever question the content of that psychological stream? You should. We create an illusion about our lives, and we believe it is real. Yet, it is not. It is just a stream of egotistical fortifications. Thought is related to the intellectual brain. Emotion is related with the emotional brain. Movement is related with the body. Movement is further sub-divided into three aspects: a motor center, an instinctual center, and a sexual center.

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So if we look at these centers in the body, we see: our intellect is related to our physical brain, in the head. our emotional center is related to the chest or solar plexus area, around the heart. the movement brain has the motor center at the top of the spine, the instinctual center at the base of the spine, and the sexual center related with our sexual glands and sexual organ. The center of movement is where we process our physical habits: instinct, such as the sexual instinct, the preservation of life, digestion, the way our nerves function, the way our bodies function, all of this is related with this third brain. In each center, we transform and process energy, so each center is like a little machine. Each one has a certain amount of energy available to it, and it can only process certain kinds of energy. So if we were to assign scientific values to them, we could see that the intellectual brain only processes energy related with the intellect, at a certain vibration, at a certain speed. Likewise, the emotional brain only processes energies related with emotion, and so on with the other centers. Problems emerge for us when we try to use these centers in the wrong way, when we try to communicate with each other without using the right centers, without having equilibrium in our three brains. Simple examples can be very obvious sometimes. You may have a close relationship with a person and yet never be able to get your point across, and get so frustrated because you think you are making yourself so clear and the other person just does not understand; thus, you get more and more irritated. Can anyone here can relate to this example? [laughter] Everybody? Ok, observe yourself when that happens, and also put yourself in the shoes of the other person and pay attention, because I can tell you what you will find is this: one of you is using one brain, and the other one is using a different brain. This is very common in romantic relationships. Let me give you a stereotypical example: some men tend to be too intellectual, and some woman too emotional. This is obviously not always case, but it is a common occurrence. So, as an example, during a problem in their relationship, the man is trying to solve the problem with intellectual reasoning, saying "It is logical that A and B equals C." The woman is trying to solve the problem emotionally, saying "But it feels wrong! I 24

do not like it, it does not feel right!" They cannot understand each other at all, because neither one has their three brains in balance. The man is seeing only through his intellect, while the woman is seeing only through her feelings, thus they cannot communicate, and the result is that they fight. Everybody can relate to that. This type of situation is happening with us all the time, because we do not use all three brains in balance. Gradually, over the course of our existences, as we become more and more entranced with our pride, lust, envy, we build habits and tendencies psychologically, as ego. Likewise, in each lifetime we build habits and tendencies in the personality. So over the centuries, in some cultures, the focus may have been very intellectual, and in another culture the focus can be very emotional. Right now, in North America and Europe for example, the focus is extremely intellectual. In some countries, the focus is emotional; they are attached to the feeling of their country, or their culture, etc. Yet, it is very rare to find any culture that truly develops the powers of the heart; you can find this in a few remote places, or in traditional cultures that still emphasize a strong presence of compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and other values. The modern countries and culture only value these as words or ideas (intellectually), but not in practice (emotionally and in action in the body). It is extremely common to find people that over-develop the intellect. We can see this in our schools now; how are our children educated? They are merely forced to stuff their brains with a lot of data, and they regurgitate that data a couple times a year for tests, and that is all. They do not really learn things through their emotional brain (as comprehension) or through their motor brain through practical use. Modern schools do not require comprehension, only repetition. Our educational system just wants kids to be able to repeat facts. Do you know who repeats facts? The intellect, not the Soul. The intellectual brain can store facts and repeat them. It is a machine. Now we have game shows and contests where people who can repeat totally useless facts are considered geniuses. They are not geniuses, they just have an intellectual brain that is sharp. That is nice; that is a great quality to have, but at what cost? Equilibrium implies many things. When you over-develop the intellect, you deplete your other centers. We only have a given quantity of energy to use. If, let us say, today I give you a hundred units of energy, observe your day: how do you use that quantity of energy? Do not assume that you use it smartly; watch yourself. Watch what you do with it, watch your behavior. How much of it is spent in repeated habits? Habits are related with the motor brain. For example, we always put our pants on the same leg first. We always hold the cup the same way. We always open the door the same way. When we come home, we do the same procedure. When we leave in the morning, we do the same procedure. These are the superficial habits, but we also have mental habits, and we have emotional habits. We have habits in relationships with others, and with ourselves. Habits are not conscious. Habits are mechanical. Many of our habits are a waste of energy. Some of us have the habit of spending hours wandering around the internet or through television channels. Many of us have the habit of chatting endlessly about completely useless topics. Some have the habit of playing video games for hours and hours. Some have the habit of shopping all the time for things we really do not need. All of us waste enormous amounts of energy in useless habits. Moreover, what is our job? Let us say we work in a factory, and we do the same job everyday. Do we do our job consciously? Do we consciously take this widget and this watcha-ma-call-it and assemble them and move on down the line? No. We might do it consciously the first five or ten times, but after that it becomes routine, habit. So we can do it and not even think about it, right? In other words, while our body performs the motion, our mind is somewhere else. This is a state of psychological sleep. Our mind is off thinking about some T.V. show, or a memory, or a craving or desire, while our motor brain is doing our job. So, how do we use our energy? What is our wisdom in the use of energy? We need to analyze that, we need to know that, because really, we should be using these three brains in balance, in equilibrium, each day. The problem is we have tendencies, we have habits that develop over time, psychologically speaking. Some of us are not what we would call "intellectual." Maybe our memory is not so good, and we do not really like to study, and we tend to be attracted to things because of how they make us 25

feel. Perhaps certain types of art, or jobs, or types of people, make us feel good, so we like that, and that is what were attracted towards. As for the intellectual part, we do not really want to think about that, we do not really want to use our intellect. That type of person will tend to overemphasize the emotional aspect and deplete the intellectual. There are other types of people that like to get in situations where they repeat themselves, because it gives them security. Some people love factory jobs, and they love religions where all they have to do is repeat a certain practice ten or fifteen times a day and that is it, that is all they have to do; they love that: it givens them security, it gives them a sense of safety. That type of person is very much in the motor brain. Each of us has a tendency to be over-reliant on one brain or another, while under-using or even ignoring the others. Why does this matter? Gnosis is about developing the complete the human being, not a machine. Our whole society is only interested in creating machines. Big corporations only want us to be consumers; they just want our money and our energy. Governments are the same; they only want us to be cogs in the wheels of the great machine of society. They do not want us to be cognizant of what is really going on, to be conscious, self-aware, self-reliant. The religions are the same; religions just want followers, believers, people who will not question authority, people who will just go along. We see that everywhere, and we all have the tendency that we want security, we want to be loved, to be liked, to be respected, to be noticed, to be appreciated, and for that, we want to fit in. So, we all develop a tendency or psychological habit related to one brain over the others, that emerges in us gradually over time, but we are unaware of it. Then, when we take that into our religion. Yes, our psychological habit influences our religion. Thus, in the world we find three primary types of spiritual groups. There are three primary types of religions - not in the core sense of where the religion came from, but rather, what we have made the religions into. There are three paths that we are attracted to, based on our own idiosyncrasy. Three Common Spiritual Paths or Ways The first we can call the path of the fakir. Fakir is a Middle Eastern term that refers to people who perform seemingly magical feats or feats of great endurance. For example, we have all heard about the Swami lying on a bed of nails; he is a fakir. We have seen the Sadhu who had his arm raised towards God for thirty-five years without lowering it; he is a fakir. We have heard about the monk who has been sitting in silent meditation without eating or drinking for months or years; he is a fakir. A fakir is a person who is developing willpower through the center of movement. This applies to any religion, theory, belief, doctrine, or person who believes they can reach God solely through willpower. In yoga traditions, this includes those who only practice Karma Yoga: they believe that only through service to others they can reach God. They do not bother to develop their intellectual culture or emotional center. Yet, there are people on this path is in every religion. Personally, I have encountered many such people. Many of those who are devotees of Hatha Yoga are really following the path of the fakir, because they think that through physical exercises they can reach spiritual enlightenment. I have met many people who believe that by sitting in a meditation posture for extended periods of time, forcing themselves to stay in that posture, that they will reach spiritual development. I have also met many people who believe that by repeating certain mantras or phrases, or by performing certain actions or spiritual practices, that they will awaken consciousness. Some say, If you do this mantra in this posture one hundred thousand times, you will awaken a certain chakra. Or if you do it a hundred million times you will be merged with God. Yet, these beliefs are not true. What they do develop is willpower, which is good and useful. They develop the brain of movement. They develop a lot of will over sensation, will over the body, but they totally neglect the powers of the heart, and the powers of the mind. People on the path of the fakir in any religion focus primarily on developing willpower; they have intellectual theories and emotional beliefs, but their primary focus is related to the motor-instinctual-sexual brain, and they neglect the development of their other centers. Moreover, they do not work with the consciousness. So then they become a person with a lot of willpower, but with no understanding of their emotion or how to use it, no understanding of their intellect and how to use it. 26

The second path we can call the path of the monk, and this is just a term used for it; it does not mean that all monks are like this. We call it the path of the monk because many monks practice a devotional path, a path of belief, of devotion to God. This path of the monk would include devotees of Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti Yoga is popular in India and is the path of the devotion to God. In their spiritual practice, a Bhakti Yogi only sings praises of God, always remembers God and sings the praises of their deity, who may be the Divine Mother, Krishna, or Shiva. They sing a lot of songs, mantras, bhajans and aratis (devotional religious songs). We find this same path in Christianity (Pentecostals are an example), in Judaism, and in any religion. These types of people just want to feel emotional ecstasy. This type of person has a great deal of what they call faith, but it is really just belief. They believe fervently, which is good, but unfortunately they neglect the intellect and the center of movement. This type of person will typically say, "I do not need to study the scripture; I have my faith, my belief, and that is enough." They say, "I do not need to do complicated practices. God accepts me because I merge with him in my heart. I love God." These beliefs are in every religion. So, the monk is a believer. Such persons have ideas and theories in the intellect, and may read a little scripture, and they may do some practices related to the motor-instinctual-sexual brain, but ultimately they do not develop the three brains in balance. They focus almost exclusively on emotion. The third we can call the path of the yogi or the scribe. Of course, this person studies intensely, memorizes scriptures, can quote perfectly from the sacred books, is an expert at debate and applying logic to spiritual concepts, but they abandon the development of the heart. In yoga, this is Jnana Yoga: the path of the intellect. Intellectual types can be very cold and cruel. They do not develop the fires of the heart. They only care for intellectual concepts and structures. They also generally ignore the center of movement, so they have little willpower or self-control. They just have a lot of theories and ideas. Samael Aun Weor called them "walking libraries." This type of person studies a lot and builds very beautiful models of God in their mind, but has no experience of God. This is because to experience God, to experience the Divine, to experience religion, is impossible through the intellect. It is possible to have experiences of God through the path of the monk, which is through the heart, or the path of the fakir through willpower. That is why we can find fakirs or monks who have had experiences, who have tasted something of a superior realm, who have experienced a Buddha or an Angel. But you will never find an intellectual with those experiences. The scribes have a lot of ideas, and they can explain all those experiences to you and quote scriptures, but they have never had the experience themselves. So here is our challenge: every one of us is one of these three types of people. Yes, every single one of us Gnostics is on one of these three paths. We all call ourselves "Gnostics," but you only become a true Gnostic when you have balanced these three paths as one path in your everyday life. That is: you use your intellect for religion, you use your heart for religion, and your center of movement for religion. You see, Gnosis is the fourth path. In the staged arts of long ago, the individual would receive information in his three brains: motor, emotional, and intellectual. In the schools of today however, only the intellectual brain receives information. Neurosis and the sick states of the mind are due to this. Mental disequilibrium is avoided by balancing the three brains. - Samael Aun Weor,Tarot and Kabbalah The Fourth Way Through many years of working with students, we have observed thousands of intellectual Gnostics, thousands of emotional Gnostics, and thousands of habitual Gnostics. It is very rare to find a student who balances all three brains. It is very rare, because it is not easy to do since our consciousness is asleep and we have centuries of psychological habits already built inside of us. We come to Gnosis with all of our habits. That is, over centuries we developed our psychological habits, and then when we come into Gnosis, we continue with the same habits. So, most Gnostic students are one of the three types: intellectual, emotional, or action-driven. And of course, they cannot understand each other, and disagree with each other. This is also why it is easy to find Gnostic instructors who disagree with each other, because some instructors are intellectual, 27

some are emotional, and others just want to do a lot practices and do not want to study (intellect) or believe (emotion). All three types are wrong. It is especially wrong among instructors, because their students learn to imitate them, and to think that the behaviors that they mimic are the real way to practice Gnosis. That is, students of intellectual instructors think that real Gnosis is intellectual. Students of emotionally-habitual instructors believe that real Gnosis is mere belief (what they call faith). To be a true Gnostic, you have to unite the paths in yourself into the Fourth Path. This is a Fourth Way school. This is the path of the balance: intellect, emotion, and action, equal and conscious. Gnosis is a path of equilibrium, but to enter that path is only possible when you have created that equilibrium in yourself. Otherwise, you will never enter it. You cannot enter the path of the balanced way if your own inner house is out of balance. If your psychological state is out of balance, it is impossible to enter into real Gnosis. You find Gnosis within: "Know thyself." So then our task is to discover, How am I out of balance? We have to observe ourselves: how do we practice? How do we use our energy? What are our tendencies? What are our habits? And once we see our habits, we have to break them. Most of us do not want to break our habits. When we find this teaching, we see "Wow, there is a lot of information that I can study with my intellect. There is a lot that I can believe in my heart and many mantras and practices that I can use to really connect with God emotionally. There are hundreds of practices I can do to develop willpower and unite with God." Do you see those three aspects? Intellect, emotion, and movement. So the person who has the tendency of the fakir comes into Gnosis and starts doing a lot of practices, but they do not like to study the books or to develop their heart, so they do a lot of practices - they may meditate for 8-10 hours a day, do mantras, runes, all kinds of esoteric exercises, but if you ask them "What are the three brains? Or, What are the three minds?" They say, "I'm not there yet! I'm not studying that yet. I'm not ready for that." They do not know even basic things. And when they practice, they look to have physical results, like sensations or experiences defined by sensations. They tend to expect that samadhi is ecstatic sensations in the body, and that awakening consciousness, kundalini, or chakras is measurable through physical sensations. The emotional types believe in Gnosis strongly. They may focus on mantras, prayers, and group events. They want to be part of a big movement and feel connected with the Gnostics. They believe in Gnosis and want to help humanity very sincerely from their heart, but they do not want to study (because they say the teachings are too complicated), and they do not really practice very much. That is, when they practice, they look to feel a certain way. They do not go beyond feelings. They may believe and have good intentions, but they do not know the doctrine in their intellect, and they do not know the doctrine in their conscious experience, because they do not practice consciously with the three brains in balance. Then we have the yogis or scribes, the ones who really, even deeply, understand the concepts of Gnosis. They may memorize the books and teachings, they can quote at length, and they grasp concepts and can explain them very beautifully, but emotionally they are cold. Emotionally, they are empty. They suffer from a lot of doubt: doubt in themselves, doubt in the Masters, doubt in the teaching, doubt in the instructors, doubt in the movement. Doubt is why the intellect gets so out of hand. The intellectual, suffering from doubt (a lack of faith), try to find faith through the intellect. Yet, the intellect cannot have faith. It is a machine that compares; that is all it can do. The intellectuals are disconnected from their heart, and are searching for emotional connection through intellectual pursuit, but they will never find it there. This is a personal sadness for me because people I have known and loved went too far trying to find faith and belief by studying intellectually, and never developed their hearts. In the end, they became great cynics, very critical, and became enemies of Christ, because they never developed emotionally. They never brought the teaching into their heart, they never brought the teaching into their body, and therefore they could never make the teaching conscious in themselves. You see, that is the goal on the balanced path: you study intellectually to to learn the concepts and the doctrine 28

you work with the powers of the heart through ritual, mantra, practice, prayer, meditation, you open your heart, you develop compassion and love, patience, true virtues - all these virtues are in the heart, not the mind. you develop the powers of movement, by perfecting all the exercises and practices, through sexual alchemy, meditation, transmutation, mantric practices, runic practices, many techniques that harmonize the body, that activate the chakras. Only when these three aspects are all in balance with each other IN YOU can you enter the Fourth Way. Why is this so important? Because if you do not achieve this, you can never enter the Major Mysteries. Psychological Equilibrium This is the domain of Persephone, as we explained in the previous lecture. Persephone as a Goddess, as a symbol, represents the Divine Mother who tests us in the Minor Mysteries. The Minor Mysteries are about establishing psychological equilibrium. This type of equilibrium does not mean we have perfected our three brains, and it does not mean that we have united with God through the Minor Mysteries. It means that we have proven that we comprehend how to balance our psyche. To fully balance your psyche, you have to resurrect. You have to die, and resurrect. Only a Resurrected Master is a fully equilibrated human being. Until you have become a Resurrected Master, you are not fully equilibrated, because the ego is still alive. Any ego is disequilibrium in nature. A single ego is enough to create disequilibrium. Every ego has three brains. When we observe ourselves, we watch our three brains. Why? To learn about the ego, to see how our ego works through our three brains, to learn about our tendencies. I hope this illustrates for you that we have tendencies that we ignore. Even when we come into Gnosis and become very admirable Gnostic students, we still have our habits and tendencies. So let me give you a little bit of advice, take it as you will: if you are a person who is very intellectual, then stop reading so much. Slow down on the intellectualizing. If previously you would read for an hour to two hours, cut that in half, and then meditate and use mantras for an hour to two hours. If you are a person who does not like to practice, then begin: you need to practice in order to balance your three brains. If you are a person who only likes to practice, you do not like study or believe, you just want to do practices all the time, then slow down your practicing, pick up a book, and try to study a little every day. We have to put all three brains in balance. It is necessary, and let us explain a little bit about why. Let us say that you are a person who is attracted towards the emotional aspect of the teachings, which is very beautiful: all about sacrifice for others, about the love of God, about the Divine Mother, about the sacrifices of Christ, and this really inspires your heart, and you love the groups, when the groups come together and everybody's in harmony and it feels so nice to see all the people relating with each other and helping each other, and you love that, but you don't like studying, and practicing is o.k., doing mantras is o.k., or prayer is o.k., but studying Kabbalah? No way, too complicated, you don't like that stuff, too complicated, right? "I don't get it," is what you say. So what is going to be the result? Let us look at that. Let us say that you spend five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years doing your mantras, doing your prayers, and not studying. What is going to be the result? Well, you will start to awaken some consciousness, you will start to have experiences in the internal worlds, but you will not understand any of them. You will misinterpret everything you see, because you will not have any understanding of how the superior worlds work. By avoiding studying Kabbalah, you fail to learn the language of the internal worlds. The objective of studying the Kabbalah is to be skilled for work in the Internal Worlds... One who does not comprehend remains confused in the Internal Worlds. Kabbalah is the basis in order to understand the language of these worlds. - Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah If you do not study the teachings, then you will very easily become really confused and misled. This is why we find many people with a very beautiful aura, a presence of so much love, but who do and say stupid things, because they do not know anything. They do not have an intellectual 29

culture. There are many Gnostics like that, many Christians, many Hindus, many Buddhists. They say dumb things without realizing that they are dumb, because they have not studied. They have not worked on the intellectual aspect, moreover they halt their own development, they misinterpret. Let me give you a simple example. I had an experience many years ago, when I first came into Gnosis. I had an experience in the Astral Plane in which I saw Al Pacino threatening me, very violently, and I was scared, because he was like a terrifying gangster. I was really scared from that. So after I had this experience, I was thinking to myself, "I have karma with Al Pacino, and he hates me!" I was really worried because I lived in a place where I could potentially run into him. I was thinking, "Oh man, I am going see that guy and he is gonna hurt me," so I was really worried about that for a while. But luckily, my Gnostic instructor was teaching me Kabbalah. Eventually, after having more experiences and study of the language of Kabbalah, I started to realize, "That dream was symbolic. That was not literally Al Pacino. That was a symbol." Then later, when analyzing other experiences I had, I realized that symbol of Al Pacino was pointing to a person I was dealing with in my physical life, who was acting like that. This person was acting like a gangster and was very angry with me, but hiding it. Physically, I could not see it, but my Being was showing me in the internal worlds, "Watch out for that guy, he is really angry and dangerous." Luckily, I understood before things got really out of hand. I was able to get out of that situation before he hurt me psychologically or spiritually. What that example illustrates was: if I had not been studying the Kabbalah, if I had not been studying Gnosis, I would have continued to interpret the experience literally, and ended up in a bad situation. I would still be thinking that I have a karma with Al Pacino. I would probably be telling people stupid things like, Al Pacino and I are connected from past lives, as if I knew him. I would have started talking like an idiot and saying stupid things like a lot of people say nowadays. We have all heard it. We have all heard that such and such a person is a great Master, or I have karma with this guy and this guy and that guy, and this and that. In every spiritual group there is a lot of nonsense, because people do not study the teachings, and they misinterpret everything, and they do not understand their own experiences, much less their physical lives. Thus, it is very important that we balance the three brains in ourselves. Otherwise we will get stuck. It is easy to misinterpret our experiences. We have given many examples in these lectures of how easy it is to misinterpret. You may be a great meditator, you may have great abilities through your heart to project in your Astral Body, and this is one of the benefits of developing the heart. We have met many emotionally-habituated students who, for them, astral projection is easy, because they have emotional energy to do it. Their energy is accumulated around their heart; that is the energy that lets you use your Astral Body, the emotional body. So for them, it is easy to have astral experiences. The problem is, when they have experiences, they do not understand them. They do not know how to interpret them, because they have not developed their intellectual culture through study. They do not study Kabbalah, they do not know the symbols, structures and laws, so they are confused easily. Usually, they go to others for help interpreting their experiences, and the ones they ask are usually intellectual, who have memorized a lot of symbols, but because they have no emotional development they have no intuition at all, so their interpretations are wrong. Conversely, a person who is very intellectual may read all the astral projection books and memorized their contents, but cannot get out of their body to have an astral experience. They may have memorized Kabbalah, or can tell you the meanings of every single Tarot card. Or they can quote scriptures, and they have a lot of conceptual understanding, but have zero power in the heart, because they have put all of their energy and effort into their intellect. Do not become such a person. That is a dead end, and very painful. Sadly, there are many people in that position who will not admit it. There are even spiritual instructors like that, but they will not admit that they cannot get out of the body, they cannot have experiences, they have not tasted Samadhi, they have not experienced God, so they suffer privately. On the surface, they look like great instructors of any religion, but inside they have nothing, no experiences at all. This is very sad. Do not walk that way. Develop your heart and mind in balance every day, not just once a week, 30

every day: use all three brains in balance with each other. But to do this, you have to observe yourself, and correct yourself continually. There are mantras to aid the harmony of mind and heart: OM MANI PADME YUM OM MASI PADME YUM This mantra - in either variation - is very powerful for developing balance in heart and mind. Then there are the fakirs. Another example comes to my mind of a man that I knew, who could meditate in a perfect posture for hours, but would confuse the most basic Kabbalistic concepts in his discourses, and had no experiences in the internal worlds because all he did was develop a lot of willpower. He ignored his heart and did not develop his intellect. He meant well, and tried to balance his three brains, but stubbornly refused to recognize that the primary obstacle he faced was his own attachment to practicing like a fakir. It is very important to see our self-deception. ...a perfect equilibrium between personality and Essence, the harmonious development of thought, emotion, and movement, and a revolutionary ethics. We have been talking about ethics a lot in recent lectures. Ethics are not morals. Ethics are not platitudes that we memorize, or rigid norms that we imitate. Real ethics are conscious, cognizant, they come from the conscience. To have real ethics is to know what is right from wrong, and to do what is right. Nobody can tell you that. Nobody can tell you what you should do, who you should marry and who you should not, what job you should have and what job you should not have. The only place you can get that knowledge is from your Innermost, not from anyone else. No one can tell you how to live your life, but your Innermost. This revolutionary ethic is to awaken your consciousness. It is to learn to listen to God. This is the crux of the whole passage. If we understand our personality and we can keep it subdued that is, our name, our image, our appearance, our language, our culture, all of that stuff - if we start saying "This stuff is really pointless, and I'm sick of trying to live up to the standards of my family or my society; I need to live to the standard of my Innermost." If you can do that, you can start working with your Essence directly, putting the personality in a passive state. Then, you start to work with your three brains. If you do not get your personality under control, you cannot work with your three brains; it is impossible. If you are so concerned about your outward appearance, about what your family is going to think about you, about what your friends are going to think you, about what your spiritual group will think about you, and all that kind of stuff, or trying to live up to certain standards, real Gnosis will remain an illusion, it will remain vague, you won't understand anything, because your personality will keep interfering. Essence has to control personality. Consciousness has to control personality. That is: you have to be authentic, not to this time, not to this day and age, not to your family, your heritage, your culture, your city, your country: but to God, to your Innermost, to your Buddha, to your Divine Mother. You see, you are Persephone, and Demeter is waiting for you. When that psychological domination is present, when personality is subdued and becomes passive, allowing consciousness to use it instead of the ego, then your three brains are made visible. This is a problem that a lot of people have, even Gnostic students: they do not see their three brains clearly because their personality is always interfering. Make your personality passive. Let og of worrying about all those so called "requirements" of your society, of your environment, of your family, and your spiritual group. This does not mean that you should abandon your family; it means re-prioritize, put your Innermost first, put your spiritual well-being first. And then, when your three brains become more visible to you, you start to see your three brains more easily. So when problems emerge in life, you can see "I am really being too intellectual about this," you can see were starting to try and make decisions and we start over-thinking it, or we don't want to think about, we just want to feel our answer, right? What feels right, this is just emotional brain. Or then we try to solve things instinctively, but that's just instinct, animal instinct. You cannot solve your problems through the three brains unless the Essence is active and using them. This is the issue: if the Essence is asleep, who is using the three brains? If you are not paying attention, if you are not cognizant, if you are not awake, who is using your three brains? Your ego. How often are we awake? I mean awake, cognizant. How often are you fully aware of 31

your body? How are often are you aware of your eyes that see? of your heart that is beating? of the sensations of your environment, of the air, the atmosphere, of your digestion, of your breathing, of the electrical impulses in your brain, of the pumping of your blood, of the rise and fall of emotion, and the trickle of thought? Are you aware of that? ever? That is Self-observation, and admist that, do you remember God? Do you feel the presences of your Innermost, of your Divine Mother? Right now? That is Self-remembering. If those qualities are not present, you are asleep, and if you are asleep, then your ego rules your house: habits, desires, laziness, pride, shame, all of those discursive elements that constitute "the myself." Gnosis not easy. It is not automatic. It is not mechanical. It has to be provoked, continually, by will, conscious, cognizant will, a will of awareness, a will of openness. A will that is relaxed, and vibrant. Here is how you do it: in each moment, remember your Being. This is so fundamental, but so easy to forget. It is not just to think in your intellect, to have the thought in your mind: God. That is not remembering God, that is a thought. It is not have a feeling in your heart: God. That is just a feeling. It is also not to forcibly produce a chill in your spine, or little goosebumps "gasp, God is here." That is just sensation. Self-remembering is not in the three brains, it is beyond them. To remember God is conscious. It is the action of the Essence, which is beyond the three brains. As beginners we all struggle with this part, trying to learn self-observation and selfremembering, but we tend to do it from our old mechanical habits. Intellectuals try to do it in the intellect, their always thinking, "I have to observe myself, I have to observe myself, I have to observe myself." That is not self-observation, that is repetition, that is just the intellect. Self-observation is not intellectual. The emotional ones are trying to feel self-observation, "I feel like I am observing myself, it feels o.k.," emotionally, "or it feels weird," emotionally. That is just emotion. Self-observation is not emotional. The ones in the center of movement try to manipulate the body and position the body to somehow remember itself. I knew a guy who when he was trying to observe himself, you could tell, because he would get this look on his face, a very sort of tense look, and all the students around him knew, "Oh, he's observing himself now." [laughter] In fact, other students were imitating him, thinking that was how to observe oneself. In reality, it does not work like that. That is just a fakir habit. Self-observation is not physical or dependent on positions or sensations. How do you really observe yourself? You activate your consciousness. It does not mean you change your behavior, or your thoughts, or your mind, you simply look at them, equally. To be observant is to just observe. It is to just observe, but to do it being aware that you are observing. So right now, become aware of how you are sitting. Feel everything there is to feel about sitting. Feel your whole body, and just observe it. Do not change anything about yourself. Do not modify anything. Just become aware. Self-observation is an act of observation. You do not have to think about your body, or feel an emotion about sitting, "Do I like it or not like it? or does it feel good or bad, or do I love this, or hate this?" It is not emotional; you are just sitting. Neither is it dependent on any sensation, good or bad, you are just sitting, and you are observing how you sit. Now, also, observe the thoughts that trickle, any emotions that might be trickling, and retain that awareness, and underneath all of it, do not forget what gives you the ability to be this and do this and experience this, is your Innermost, your Inner Being, who is ALWAYS there. Feel that. It is not emotional feeling, an intellectual thing, or a sensation in the body, it is something that you are cognizant of. You see, to do this takes effort, right? You have to work at it, and you are just sitting still. Later, try to do this in every moment, such as when you are in conversation with someone; it is a lot harder. The instant you get out of this lecture, all your habits are going to re-emerge. You will resume worrying about what people think, how they see you, how you look, etc. We are always worried about so many things, trying to impress, and we get into a conversation we totally forget ourselves, we totally forget our Innermost, we totally forget our Divine Mother, and are just in the thread of the conversation, maybe it's an intellectual conversation, maybe it's an emotional conversation, maybe it's instinctive. What is an instinctive conversation? Something that is 32

indulging in instinctual behavior: sarcasm, lust, anger, pride. We all have friends that we start talking, maybe we talk in very intellectual way, debating a little bit or comparing ideas, and enjoying that discussion of ideas. Some of us talk emotionally, "I felt this and he felt that." The rest of the time, we wallow in very instinctive, bestial topics. The same happens with the television that we watch, the movies, the books, the magazines, all that psychological food: we forget ourselves, we do not pay attention to what we are doing with our three brains. So all of our energy is being utilized in negative ways. Conservation and Transformation of Energy When you start to really learn to sustain your self-remembering and self-awareness, and observe you three brains, you start to save a lot of energy. Where in the past you may have engaged in habitual intellectual behaviors, such as conversing with others, talking, being on the internet, researching things, look up things, comparing. Or emotional: indulging in watching sports for example is a very emotional and instinctive activity. People who love those romantic movies, very sentimental stories, abuse the emotional center. We have these habits, what happens is we waste that energy, because we are asleep, not really aware of ourselves, or we don't care, and all that energy gets wasted. Why do we do it? Because when all that energy is wasted, we feel that we relax. What do you feel like at the end of the day? When you spent that hundred units of energy I gave you a little while ago, you are exhausted, right? You go home and you just want to space out, sit in front of the T.V. and click channels, or the internet and click around, spaced out. Why? You have no energy, you wasted it all it, through your intellect, through your heart, through your motor center, wasted. Then you get home and think, "now I need to meditate," but with what energy? Where is your energy, your fuel for meditation? Or for transmutation, or for mantras? That is one of the reasons why morning is a great time to do your spiritual practices. You wake up fresh, you have all your energy, and then you direct your energy in that way, first thing. This is an excellent, excellent way to start every day. At the end of the day, your energy is gone because you did not observe yourself, your did not remember yourself, and you engaged in mechanical habits in your three brains, so all the energy is gone. So with what energy are you going to reach Self-realization? If each day you are coming home exhausted mentally, emotionally, physically, where is the energy to practice Dream Yoga overnight? Where is the energy to meditate and comprehend your ego? (which you should be doing every night). Where is the energy to unite with God? There is none, so where is your progress? Where is your spiritual life? We have to be practical. We have to be hard on ourselves, and really see our mistakes. If we do not have any energy at the end of the day to do our practice, we are fooling ourselves. It means that we are wasting it all day long. When you start to observe yourself, to manage your three brains, and to develop equilibrium, you start saving energy. You start to realize when that friend comes around that loves to get into those intellectual conversations with you, you say "You know what, I can talk to my friend, but let me do it consciously, let me not waste my energy." Or when that friend comes around who loves to gossip, "Oh you know what I heard? Let me tell you what I heard, you are not going to believe it," and your heart says "oh I want to know! tell me," and then you observe yourself and you say "I am not going to waste my energy on this." But here's the hard one, when that show is coming on, T.V., that show you love to watch (you know the one, I am not going to name it, because you will be embarrassed). What do you do when you watch that show? You waste energy, because you get involved in the characters or in the story, or the events of the show, and all your heart energy and all your intellectual energy is spent on the feelings and thoughts you identified with. After the show you feel depleted, and think, "That was good!" All the energy is gone, what did you do with it? You splurged it, you squandered it. Naturally, we have the same behaviors in the whole range of our activities: we get identified, we forget ourselves, and we expend all of our energy. To walk on the Fourth Way is to do everything consciously, using our energy wisely. In this way, each action is a conscious transformation of energy. The result is wisdom and elevation. What we are talking about here is conservation of energy. Transmutation is to take energy and to transform it into something else. We always talk about sexual transmutation, but what were 33

really trying to perform is a work of Alchemy, which is a transmutation of the mind, a transmutation of the Soul. How will you do that if there is no energy? The fourth type of person has learned to balance their three brains to save energy and transform it, to harness all their forces and utilize them in a conscious way for spiritual benefit. To put it in another way: if you are wasting all your emotional energy in sentimentality, attachments, watching violent sports, violent movies, romantic soap operas, and all that kind of stuff, with what energy are you going to build an Astral Body? The Astral Body is built from the energy of the heart. If you are wasting all your intellectual energy in theories, conversations, debates, and concepts, how are you going to build a Mental Body? If you are wasting your physical energy by being stressed out all the time, by running around and doing dumb things like shopping all the time and working 26 hours out of the 24-hour day, constantly running, never sitting still so that your body is completely depleted every day, how are you going to raise the energies of the physical body and the vital body to conquer those two serpents of the Major Mysteries? Persephone, related to the Minor Mysteries, says "You have to dominate the beast," your body, your three brains. Only when you have managed to prove that you know how to control your three brains, to save energy, to put them all in balance, and have cognizant control, can you move on to the Major Mysteries. That does not mean that you have to be conscious 24-hours a day (although that would be great). To pass the Minor Mysteries, you have to show that you know how to balance your three brains. The more you do it, the better. When you have demonstrated that ability, then your Divine Mother says "Let us take you to the next step," because you are saving enough energy to enter the Major Mysteries. If you do not have any energy, then there is no point, there is nothing to transform, there is nothing to transmute. In this process, you face a lot of ordeals, a lot of tests. It is difficult, very challenging, and everyone is tested according to their own idiosyncrasy. We do not receive the same tests in the same ways. We get the tests according to our psychological habits. The intellectuals are tested intellectually, to see if they can work with that aspect and save energy in that aspect. The intellectuals are tested emotionally, to see if they can use their heart, and they are tested in the center of movement, to see if they know how to properly use their body. We are tested in all three brains, but according to our idiosyncrasy. An emotional person is tested in different ways, an instinctual or motor-type person is tested in their own ways, but all of us are tested. So it is our responsibility to learn about our three brains and learn how to balance them. Look into yourself and see, what are your habits, and break them. I am not talking about the habit of always putting the towel on a certain side of the towel rack. You want to break that one, fine, but it is not going to bring you closer to God. The habits you need to break are psychological habits: the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act. You have to go against yourself. This is the hardest part. We feel that our habits our good, that our habits are who we are, and let me tell you a little secret: that thing that you think is your greatest virtue, it is the reason you are suffering. That is a painful thing to see. That quality in yourself that you think makes you so special and such a good person, such an upright person, is your worst defect. We cannot see it, and we do not want to see it. I will give you a second clue, equally distasteful. Samael Aun Weor said in The Great Rebellion, this beautiful statement, which really can help you a lot in this, listen carefully, he said this: A general Gnostic rule in the Gnostic esoteric work is that when we do have a point of contention with another person, we can be certain that this is the very thing against which we must work on within ourselves. Whatever it is that we criticize so much in others is something which lies on the dark side of ourselves, and which we neither know nor want to recognize. What we do not like to see in others is what they show us about ourselves. So if you know somebody at work that really irritates you and you say, "That guy is so arrogant, he drives me crazy," you know why? Because YOU are arrogant, and you do not want to see it, and he is like a mirror to you. When you feel a strong repulsion towards somebody or a certain quality, look at yourself, and keep looking; you won't see it the first time. But if you keep looking, you will see it, 34

and when you do, you will be devastated, you will feel horrible. But then, if you persist, if you do not run away from the facts of your what is in your mind, you will come to discover the greatest joy of the real Gnostic: the single greatest joy is when you discover a defect. Yes, we have joy when we see God, when we talk to God, and we have joy when we have experiences in the internal worlds, these are beautiful things, and we have joy when more people come to the teachings, and when new schools open and new instructors teach, these are all joyful occurrences, but they are nothing compared to finding a defect that you have never seen before in yourself. It sounds strange, right? It doesn't sound joyful to us right now, because we only know our pride, we do not know our Essence, but when you are centered in your Essence, in other words, when you have psychological equilibrium, you have a center of gravity in your Essence, and when you see that defect, you feel an unimaginable joy, because that is an aspect of your cage of suffering. Now that you see it, you can kill it - not overnight, but now that you see the enemy, you can vanquish him. If you do not see your cage, you are just trapped, suffering. So this is the work. I love this little passage because it embraces all of that. Everything is in this. What is the fundamental education? It is the education of the consciousness. The consciousness can only be educated as to what is right and wrong if we control our personality, if we awaken our Essence, and if we cognizantly balance thought, emotion, and movement, and we act from revolutionary ethics (conscience). When that phrase is actualized in our day to day life, we become different, very different, life changes. Questions and Answers Audience: [unintelligible] Instructor: That is a big challenge, to remember yourself when you go to work, to live your daily life. It doesn't mean that you quit your job and go find an easier job, because you will the same person, whether in that job or a new job, you will have the same habits, the same tendencies. You will be the same, even if your circumstances are a little different, so you have to learn to modify yourself, to modify what is inside, instead of what is outside. So, what can you do to help yourself to remember yourself? You can use tricks like an alarm clock. I have known people who have like written little notes to themselves and hidden them around their office, so they will open their a drawer and see a note, "Remember yourself." That might work once, and it might work when you look in the drawer again a year later, but it is not going to work everyday. Those little tricks are just ok, but they are just modifying the external circumstances, not the internal cause of forgetfulness. To modify the internal cause of forgetfulness is very hard. It is not easy to do it, and it will not happen overnight. The only way to remember yourself is to remember to do it. There is no trick or shortcut. You have to make effort, and make consistent effort; keep trying. This is very similar to when we learn to meditate. When start our meditation, we have a great intention, "I am going to meditate now for ten minutes." We get about five or ten seconds into it and then we begin dreaming. The ten minutes go by, when we suddenly realize, "Gasp! I totally forgot I was supposed to be meditating!" We feel bad, but keep trying. Eventually you reach the ability to retain mindfulness of what you are doing for two or three minutes before slipping away into distraction; then you remember "Oh, I'm supposed to be meditating, so let me concentrate again. Then a few seconds go by and you fall asleep again, and then another two or three minutes go by and "I should be meditating!" Everyone goes through this when making effort to learn meditation: you catch yourself repeatedly getting distracted and losing attention. This is also what happens during the day when trying to observe yourself. The effort is the same: to pay attention consciously: to not be distracted by our mind. The more effort you make, the more often you catch yourself wandering away. Do not feel defeated when you realize you have been distracted. It is wonderful to catch yourself being distracted. That is a triumph! The Buddha said that if you meditate and become distracted a thousand times, and catch yourself a thousand times, that was a perfect meditation, a beautiful meditation, because you realized you were distracted. You restored your consciousness to being present and attentive. If you didn't remember it at all, then you need to work harder. Eventually, gradually, the stronger your consciousness becomes, the more attentive it becomes. Then you are able to remain more 35

cognizant for longer periods, but the challenges change, they become something different, more subtle, still hard,but more subtle. We can talk about that in another lecture. For now, keep trying. It takes a lot of willpower. There is a chart used in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, often in the antechamber, of the steps of concentration, called the nine stages of tranquil abiding. It illustrates the stages of developing conscious attention. The very first step shows a monk with a rope and an axe, and next to him is a huge blazing fire. Those two implements, the rope and the axe, represent the tools of mindfulness and observation. The fire represents how much intensity you have to put into your willpower, to be cognizant, to be aware of yourself. It takes A LOT of energy, a lot of willpower. An enormous blaze is next to him, but if you look at the painting, as it winds up towards higher states of concentration, the flame gets smaller, until at he top there is no flame. The reason is, as he ascends that path, developing more cognizance, it takes less effort; the consciousness becomes trained, the mind becomes trained, the three brains become trained, it becomes easier to remain self-aware, then the challenges are different after that. So that's basically the point: keep making the effort to be mindful, A LOT of effort. You will have to sacrifice other things. Earlier I used the example of us having a hundred units of energy. In the morning, most of us probably only have ten units, because we wake up tired, because our mind is wasting energy all night long. So, let us say you have those ten units of energy. Well, to awaken, you need a lot of energy, so if you are serious about your spiritual work, you should stop engaging in activities where you waste energy, actions that do not help you spiritually, and that may even harm you spiritually. Some examples are to stop listening to negative music, stop watching negative television or movies, stop reading harmful materials, books, the internet, websites, etc. Stop any behaviors where you waste energy. Sometimes it means you have to take a break from friends, from social events, from family. It may mean you need to change habits that you have had for your whole life. Do it: your very Soul is at stake. This is not a game. You need energy to awaken your consciousness. You need energy to manage your three brains. You need energy to be cognizant. If you are wasting your energy, that is your choice. So, evaluate your life. Look to see what you can change. Find areas where you can save energy. No matter which tendency we happen to have, whether we are more intellectual, emotional, or a motor type, we each waste energy in all three brains, we just tend to do it one way more than another. Part of it also is restraining our senses. When you see a billboard or an advertisement, or you see a person dressed in skimpy clothes, you have a choice of whether to look or not; when you look, you expend energy in the transformation of those impressions. If those impressions stimulate your lust or envy, then you have invested energy into those egos. When that show is coming on tv that has questionable content, turn off the tv, spend time with your kids, do something useful with your time; don't waste your time. These actions that seem insignificant add up rapidly. One of the sutras says: Never underestimate the significance of any act. It is very important, because each little act has an impact greater then the original action. That little act of looking at that webpage or looking at that magazine cover, or looking at that woman or man, has an impact; a lot of energy is spent there, and it creates something, but what? Is it creating your Soul, or is creating an ego? This is the kind of radical ethics we need. Samael Aun Weor emphasized "a revolutionary ethic." The revolution is not against the outside world, it is against your mind, your habits, your tendencies. You have to revolt against yourself, and let your Being guide you. All of us want guidance from God. We are all praying, "God, please guide me." But how can God guide you when - first of all - your three brains are filled with garbage, things that you have accumulated all day long that should not be in your mind and heart? And second of all, your three brains are depleted of energy. It is as if you have a radio that is not plugged in, how can you listen to the radio if there is no energy to power it? If there is no energy in your intellect, emotion, or body, or there is no energy in your consciousness, what can God do? God respects the Law. If you have an open mind that has energy and is active, you have an open heart that has 36

energy and is active, and if your body is relaxed and has energy, God can give you a lot. But we have to put ourselves in that position; we have to create those circumstances. Audience: [unintelligible] Instructor: That is right. I gave a very simplified presentation of these three paths just to make the distinctions clear, that they are related with the three brains. But the fact is, in any of these three paths: fakir, monk, or yogi, they have all the practices. The fakir has intellectual theory and his doctrine; it is not as if he does not have an idea of what he is trying to do. He also has beliefs, related to his heart. If you talk to a fakir-type of person, he can give you a whole exposition of why he is practicing that way, and it sounds reasonable; nonetheless, he is not developing the full use of his intellect or his heart. The same is true of the monk and yogi. They use all three brains, but not in balance. Yogis who are developing just in the intellect might do mantras, meditation, and practice, and they have beliefs in their heart, but not in balance. Audience: [unintelligible] Instructor: That is right; perfect equilibrium is when the personality is under the control of the Essence. The personality is necessary. It is the tool that allows us to relate to each other. It is where we have our skills of language, culture. If the personality was not there, we would not be able to relate with each other. It would be confusing; we would not have language skills, body language, all the ways that we use to relate, to be with each other. The difference is that, the ego uses the personality and makes the personality big and fat; personality becomes this grotesque thing. We all worship big personalities; rock stars, movie stars, leaders, politicians, celebrities. They all have BIG personalities, very dominating personalities. But when we deal with somebody who does not have that, whose personality is passive and under control of Essence, they have a completely different feeling. For example, Samael Aun Weor has a strong solar personality, which is something else; we have lunar personality. Or another Master, such as the Dalai Lama, for example, he has very powerful, conscious presence. So, personality is always there, even the highest Masters have personality, but it is a solar personality being controlled by the Spirit. Audience: [unintelligible] Instructor: Equilibrium is when our moment to moment activities are managed by the consciousness; that is to have equilibrium. In The Revolution of the Dialectic, Samael Aun Weor talks about a Permanent Center of Gravity or Permanent Center of Consciousness; that is equilibrium. Instead of being centered in our intellect or centered or in our heart or centered in the motor-instinctive or sexual centers, the person in equilibrium is centered in the Essence. And so when that person faces challenges, situations, they are centered in the Essence, managing the three brains consciously, and do not get swept away by emotion, or swept away by conceptual things, or swept away by instinct; they are conscious, cognizant. That is the platform from which you can transform impressions; that's another level. But without that center of gravity, you cannot do the work Audience: [unintelligible] Instructor: Not necessarily, it depends. We talked about five centers today: three related to the body, and then the emotional and intellectual, but there are two more: superior intellect and superior emotion. These centers are related with the heart and the brain, but they transmit a superior type of force, a superior type of energy related with the Being. Any one of us can receive influences or impressions from those superior centers; for example, you might have a vision or an awakened, conscious experience out of your body; you might have some kind of powerful, spiritual experience with your Innermost, even while in your physical body. Those are related to the superior centers. But, because we tend to waste so much energy and we do not have control over our three brains, such experiences are generally accidents or something provoked by the Being to push us. The two superior centers become fully active when we have created the Soul; when we have the Solar Astral Body and Solar Mental Body. When we meditate, we are looking to have experiences or get information from those centers. We can have it, but it is not easy for us; we do not have the energy, we do not have the equilibrium, and may not have those bodies internally. Audience: [unintelligible] 37

Instructor: Well, this is the whole challenge, it is exactly that. Samael gave a great lecture that partly explains it. He gave a lecture called "The Taste of Life, and the Taste of the Work," to illustrate that we have to get to know the flavor of our psychological experiences and our spiritual experiences, and this is something that takes a long process of study. Not merely study in the intellect, but study in the heart, and study in the body. It is part of the reason we need to be in a balanced form in our practice. I was talking about yogis or monks who may have experiences of Samadhi; because they do so much practice, they easily have Samadhi and they go out and talk with the Gods and have experiences with elemental forces of nature, and so they think that they are enlightened. They interpret those experiences as if they are liberated. Then they come back to the body and they say, "Hey everybody, I am a Master!" But they are wrong. They are lacking study of the higher aspects, the metaphysics (Kabbalah) of those experiences. So the short answer is: in order for you to accurately interpret your experiences, you need a lot of study, a lot of patience, and you need a lot of self-criticism; you cannot take any experience at face value. Kabbalah is essential on this point. The whole purpose of Kabbalah is to be able to interpret our experiences; that is why we study it. It is not just to have a theory, it is to be able to interpret accurately what we see and experience internally and physically. We have the example of the other instructor, who, someone came to him in the internal worlds and said, "You are Moses; we know you are Moses." Of course, from studying, he knows that he is not Moses. Moses is symbolic. But if he had not studied Kabbalah, he would be now claiming that he is Moses. So when we get information through the superior intellect or superior emotional center, we have to know how to discriminate and understand in context; we have to understand the symbol. Everything in those experiences is Kabbalistic,. Audience: When we live in society, real world... the real world is what were talking about here... to find that balance between equilibrium... putting your life together... very, very fine line... talk about the balance so... Instructor: It is a challenge, but that is part of the beauty of the Gnostic teaching: it does not demand that you change your physical circumstances to go to the woods or a monastery. Gnosis is a path of the Fourth Way, which any person, in any circumstance, can utilize and change their circumstances for the better. So the simple answer is: do what you are doing, but do it consciously. Do what you are doing, but do it from your heart, consciously. We all need jobs. We all work. We all have responsibilities with family, kids, with our different activities we are involved in. The practice Gnosis does not mean we have to stop all those things, by no means; we need all that. Our life is our karma; that is where were going to learn about ourselves. Our life is our mirror in which we can see who we really are. So we do what we have to do, we eliminate what we do not have to do, and we learn how to do our activities better. Be a better person in your day to day life. If you have a job, do your job from your heart. Turn your job into a spiritual practice. Turn your family life into a spiritual exercise. When you go to work, take it as your Gnostic path, instead of taking it just as a way to get money. Your daily life is a way for you to learn about yourself. It is a way to contribute to your community, your family, your environment, and to the people around you. A job is necessary in this day and age; we need it. We need to be able to survive, and it is the only way we can survive right now. So, do your job, but do it as a spiritual practice. If in every interaction with others, in every moment, we seek to extract what is useful, to make it conscious, to make it of benefit to others, and we get rid of what is not useful, discard it, your life then has incredible meaning and value. This is not easy, but it can be done; I give you my personal testimony of that. I have had jobs that are very difficult, and I suffered, and I still suffer, but thanks to Samael and the help I get from the Gnostic teachings, I have learned how to transform, whether easy tasks or difficult tasks. I do not do it perfectly, but I am learning. It can be done, that's what I can tell you: it can be done. Whether you are a janitor or a president, it doesn't matter; what matters is to be conscious. Do what you do consciously; act from your conscience. If you have a conflict with your job, if it bothers your conscience, then change it, but if you can do your job in good conscience, then do it, and do it to benefit your coworkers and the clients you serve. Do it as a service to humanity, then it becomes a beautiful sacrifice. Instead of just doing it to get money, you are doing it because you can sincerely do something to benefit other people, to help them. Then your job becomes a great vehicle for transformation. The same 38

Nature and the Divine Mother

Created on Friday, 25 March 2011 20:08 Written by Gnostic Instructor

opportunity exists with your family. We all have challenging family karma, but if we can take that as an opportunity to serve, instead of just as a source of suffering, if we can turn our job and our family and our community responsibilities into opportunities to serve each other, then each one becomes a very powerful tool to transform our mind and to help transform the lives of people around us. It is just a matter of shifting our attitude. It is not easy to do, but we can do it, and that's by training. That is why this tradition is called mind training. In Tibetan it is called lo jong. We train ourselves to be better people. The fruits of that training do not come overnight, but through patience, persistence, and learning a little bit more each day.

Greek mythology tells us about many Gods and Goddesses. In the Gnostic tradition, we know that the Gods and Goddesses are symbolic, and represent forces and intelligences that operate in nature. All of these myths and stories encode symbolic truths. There truly are Gods and Goddesses, but at the same time, each hero, God, and Goddess represents something inside of us. Goddess, Divine Mother Nature In the Greek mysteries, Gaia or Gaea is a name of the Divine Mother. Gaia is Mother Nature, or the planet Earth. This symbol has a deep spiritual significance, with many levels of meaning. Gaia does not merely represent the literal, physical planet. Gaia represents forces of nature: laws and intelligences that function on every level of the cosmos. For those of us who have a serious interest in spiritual development, this symbol holds particular importance, because Gaia is the one who aids us, helps us, guides us, and provides us with everything that we need in order to achieve our goal of spiritual development. Gaia is our Divine Mother. Unfortunately, humanity has forgotten its Mother. We in this so-called modern age have the point of view that we are self-originated. We have this characteristic now in our culture that we feel that we are above nature, beyond nature. We live our daily lives as though we do not need nature. Somehow we have come to this point of our history, of our civilization, where we trample nature. In fact, we tend to avoid it. When we study our day-to-day existence, we can see that humankind on this planet has steadily been distancing itself from its Mother. When we see our so-called advanced civilization, with our socalled advanced technology, the further we go, the more we supposedly increase our advancement, we are also increasing our distance from our Mother. Nowadays, it is rare for us to touch the earth, to touch the dirt, to be conscious of the air that we breathe. Nowadays, we are surrounded at all times by synthetic things. We never touch nature. What we wear, what we clothe ourselves with, what we sit oneverything is manufactured in factories. When do we touch the earth, the soil, the plants, the grass? All across this planet, in every country, increasingly humanity no longer can survive in nature as we once did. Nowadays, in order for what we call a human being to exist, they cannot farm, cannot nourish the earth, cannot raise animals, and live. Now, it is increasingly impossible to support oneself in nature. Society and the increasing complications of life are making it impossible to survive. Nowadays, for a human being to support themselves and their family, they have to leave nature and live in the city. That is why we see across the entire planet that the cities expanding, and the expanses of nature emptying of people. The smaller towns, the rural areas, the populations are steadily emptying, dying. In the cities, the populations are going up. In the cities, every surface being covered with concrete and metal and glassthings that are hard, synthetic, manufactured. We do not touch the earth. People in cities even become afraid of stepping on dirt or sitting on grass, and fear the water of lakes and rivers and oceans. 39

We clothe ourselves with synthetic things. We always ride in cars and spend our time in shopping malls and offices with nothing living around us, surrounded by dead things, clothed with dead things. Our homes are filled with dead thingsplastics and metals, synthetic chemicals. We think this is progress; we think this is normal, but the consequences of it are becoming visible everywhere. Gaia, the Mother Goddess, represents the forces of nature that give rise to all life. Everything that is alive comes from Her. In the ancient Orphic hymns, we find a beautiful hymn, written to Gaia. This hymn is about 2300 years old. "Oh mother Gaia, of Gods and men the source, endowed with fertile, all-destroying force; all-parent, bounding, whose prolific powers produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers. "All-various maid, the immortal worlds strong base, eternal, blessed, crowned with every grace; from whose wide womb as from an endless root, fruits many-formed, mature, and grateful shoot. "Deep-bosomed, blessed, pleased with grassy plains, sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. "All-flowery Daimon, centre of the world, around thy orb the beauteous stars are hurled with rapid whirl, eternal and divine, whose frames with matchless skill and wisdom shine. "Come, blessed Goddess, listen to my prayer, and make increase of fruits thy constant care; with fertile seasons in thy train draw near, and with propitious mind thy suppliants hear." - Orphic Hymn 26 to Ge, C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D. Gaia represents naturenot a person, but nature as a whole. So you see, nature is an intelligence. Nature is not stupid. Nature is extremely complicated, and very beautiful and terrifying. Nature is a force that is far beyond our comprehension. As proud as we are of our civilization and our accomplishments, we scarcely understand nature. We dont even understand the nature of our bodies. We barely understand what it means to be alive. The very first section of that scripture says that Gaia is the source of men and Gods. That is because everything living, on every level of nature, comes from the Divine Mother, without exceptioneven the Gods. Every living creature, from the smallest particle, to the biggest universe, is all merely a part of her body. This is part of what we need to grasp: the incredible complexity of the Divine Mother. We talk about Gaia as the planet Earth, and this is true and relevant. But Gaia is also Prakriti, which is the womb of space. It is existence itself. The Divine Mother is matter, energy. In fact, her name in Latin is Mater, which is where we get the word matter. The most ancient word in almost every language is also the first word that we say when we are children: Ma. In languages around the world, children call their mother Ma or Ama. This is Mater, Mother, Mary, Maria, Ma. In the Asian cultures, Hinduism, and India, and China, and Tibet, Ma is Amma. So this word is universal. The mother is the presence of this divine creative force in all things. Just as we have a physical, humanoid mother, the planet is our mother; the solar system is our mother; this galaxy is our mother; the universe is our mother. The Mother, the Cosmic Mother, has many levels. Moreover, and probably most importantly, we have our own individual Divine Mother. Within us is a confluence of forces in nature, a condensation of the Cosmic Mother, related to our specific ray. In other words, our Innermost Being as Goddess. She is our Mother, our own Gaia. She is the one who, from lifetime, to lifetime, to lifetime, to lifetime, for uncountable ages, has given us lifenot only in this humanoid form, but in every form we have had. We have a Divine Mother who is the same for eternity. Yet, who among us remembers her face? Knows her name? Has smelled her scent? Has heard her laugh? Heard her cry? We all have, but we have forgotten, because we have our consciousness asleep. Our own individual Divine Mother is a particularized aspect of the Cosmic Mother, in the same way that our Ray, our Innermost Being, is a particularized aspect of the Cosmic Being. The drop of water is but part of the ocean. In the same way, our Being, our Divine Mother, is a portion of the universal aspect. There is a relationship. There is unity and multiplicity. There is identity, and there is the communal aspect. We need to understand these distinctions, so we dont get confused. Dimensions of Nature 40

Ages ago, when life particularized itself into this planet we call Earth, Gaia, the Divine Mother, organized nature in her womb, and this planet was born. This planet is also a Divine Mother, born from its own Mother. On this planet Earth, we find abundant life, hugely complex, far beyond our comprehension, with many, many levels of lifenot only physical levels, but multi-dimensional levels. All of that existence is a vast system that is highly organized. It has a specific purpose and goal, about which we have no idea. We have come to the stage of our civilization where we think nature exists just to please us, that nature is just our sandbox, here for us to use or destroy as we will. Again, the evidence for this is everywhere. But as a fact, nature has a purpose, it has a function. It is not just a random accident in nature. The planet has a purpose, a function, and so does every creature on it. Everything is organized, but beyond our vision, beyond our sight. The physical aspect of the Earth is only one aspect. What we see in the physical aspect is the third dimension. The physical aspect is the newest part. The physical planet, that which exists in the third dimension, has not been here very long relative to cosmic time. It is relatively new. That is millions of years to you and me, which seems like a long time, but in the time scale of the Divine Mother, it is not much. Previous to the planet being in the third dimension, it was in the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and beyond, successively. When we study the Tree of Life, the Kabbalah, we see that the Sephiroth descend in a scale of increasing density. Those Sephiroth represent how energy descends and crystallizes into matter, and gradually becomes denser. So as the energy descends from the womb of the Divine Mother, it becomes more and more dense, and more and more complex. In past ages, this Earth was only in the fifth dimension, it was not physical yet. Then it moved into the fourth dimension (ethereal), which is called Eden. From Eden, it crystallized into the physical world. This is over unthinkable measures of timemeasures of time that we can scarcely comprehend. That crystallization of matter and energy all served as a vehicle to channel forces. You see, when we study how energy descends down the tree of life, down through multi-dimensionality, we see that the purpose is so that the descending ray of consciousness can know itself. That ray descends into greater degrees of complexity in order to manage more and more complicated laws, in order to gain wisdom. So, having reached that limit, it returns back upwards wiser, developed, having accomplished something. The purpose of that descent and ascent is for that primordial, virginal spark of consciousness, which emerges from the Ain Sophthe Absolute, or the Prakritito descend into nature to perfect itself, and to become an angel, to become a God. This means that that ray of light descends from above into the abyss, is born as a God, and rises back up. This is the universal cosmic drama in every religion. This is the story of Christmas, of Christ, Baldur, Odin, Heracles, Apollo. All the great Gods, in all their unique ways, represent this myth: how a spark of consciousness descends into a cell, into an embryo, to be born, to die, to resurrect, to ascend and become another sun, another star, another universe, according to its level. So what we see then, in nature, are waves and waves of sparks of light emerging out of the Absolute, like the waves of a great ocean. Those waves are coming out of the womb of the Divine Mother. They are waves of life, spontaneously bursting forth from Gaias cosmic body. Those life sparks first crystallize into physical matter to emerge as minerals. Scientists have not yet admitted that there is life away from this planet, but they have admitted minerals. They have not yet brought together the different avenues of their modern science: the quantum and the physical. Physical scientists, or astrophysicists who study extraterrestrial planets and cosmic bodies, readily admit that there is an abundance of mineral life in the universe, that in fact, the universe teems with itminerals, all types of elements, everywhere. But those materialistic physicists or scientists have not yet understood what quantum physics reveals, and what spiritual physicists have been saying for centuries, which is that every particle is alive. Every particle has life. Every existing thing has matter, energy, and consciousnesseverything, in its level. Kingdoms of Nature 41

All minerals throughout space have inside them a spark of living substance. It is not the same substance as a plant, or an animal, or a human being, but it is nonetheless a fire that gives that element energy, power. That energy inside any element is its life force; it is consciousnessin every single particle. Now, if we look at our planet, to us it seems quite big, a huge mass, and by far most of it is minerals. Only a very thin skin on its surface has other kinds of life. All of those minerals are life forms bursting out of the Cosmic Mother, that are developing in hierarchies or organized patterns. Now grasp this: the physical element is just a shell. Iron, sulfur, any kind of rock, any kind of crystal, gold, silver, all the metals, are just physical shells through which consciousness enters and leaves, just like us. Our bodies are born and die. Minerals are born and die, but in a different time scale from usvery different. Minerals are alive. They host the consciousness of very new souls: they are extremely simple, without mind as we think of mind. In ancient times, a long time ago, when humanity was not so dense, we could see them. We called them dwarves, gnomes, pygmies, leprechaunsdifferent names for these little creatures that would inhabit certain types of elements. Little by little, over many, many ages, and many, many stages of development, those souls learn. They grow; they develop; they advanceI am not referring to the body, the material element, but the soul, the consciousness, the energy that is in that body. Little by little, they advance. That is why there are hierarchies in metals. Many elements we have already begun to map in science, from very simple elements to very heavy elements, represent the range by which those sparks of consciousness are elevating themselves and their intelligence. The most valuable metalsin terms of natures valueare the ones that are the most advanced. A diamond, for example, is relatively rare, but is an advanced mineral. Gold, as well. Silver. There are different metals, different elements, that represent an ascension through the hierarchies of that level of nature. They have power, they have energy, and that is why we harvest them and use thembecause of the energy that is inside of them. Certain elements have more energy than others. We know this. In fact, we cant live without them. We drink water, we eat food, to get those minerals, the elements, in our bodies. This is the basis of life. This is why the minerals, the earth, is called the body of the Mother. The milk that nourishes us comes from thatthe Mothers milk. It is the oceans. It is the gases. It is all the elements in nature that sustain our very existence. All of those elements, all of those atoms, are alive. They are living. Yet we treat them as though they are nothing. This is a demonstration of our profound ignorance. You see, our ancient ancestors, and some modern natives, still remember the Earth is sacred; the Earth is our Mother; the Earth should be treated with respect. We do not have the right to rape our Mother. Yet we do it. All of us have witnessed what happened in the Gulf of Mexico: a terrible crime against the planet. What is the extraction of oil? It is sucking the life blood out of the planet. That blood is oil. We have punctured a hole in the body of the earth, and the earth is bleeding. Why have we done that? We like to blame the big corporations and governments for it, but the only reason they are doing it is because we want to drive our cars, we want to buy more plastic, and we want the things that the oil makes; even our clothes depend on oil production. So, the rape and pollution of the Earth is our fault. The companies and governments are only doing it because we are paying them to do it. We, as a humanity, are raping the earth. Not them, not those other people; it is us. We need to take that seriously and recognize the facts of it. All the minerals on the planet contain the essence of the Divine Mother, the life force. In that life force we see the evolution of conscious sparks that are moving through the kingdoms of all the different types of minerals. When any essence, a consciousness, that spark of intelligence, gains enough knowledge in that kingdom, it is granted the right to graduate, to be initiated into a new kingdom: the plant kingdom. What emerges out of the soil? A superior life, a more complex life, a life that needs that soil, the minerals, to sustain itself, but it goes on to build something even greater. Plants are superior to minerals, but depend on minerals. The spiritual essence in a plant is more evolved than the one in a mineral. 42

There are not as many plants as there are minerals. There are not as many souls that are advanced into that level. But there are a lot of plants, and forms of life that belong to the plant kingdom. Plants are physical bodies that house sparks of consciousness that are more advanced than minerals. Those sparks of consciousness use their physical bodies in plants to take the minerals and transform them in their bodies. You see, plants take from the mineral kingdomfrom the water, from the air, from the soiland transform them. They create new life, beautiful life. Subsequently, the souls of plants who develop themselves graduate into the animal kingdom. There are even fewer animals than there are plants. The animals depend on the plants to live. There are many levels of animals; many kingdoms, many hierarchies within that animal kingdom. So, do you see a vast triangle growing here? The foundation is all the minerals. The next level up, even smaller, is the plants. The next level, even smaller, are the animals. But these are all interdependent. They need each other. They sustain each other. They cannot live without the other. Minerals are transformed by the plants, to create their bodies. The plants are transformed by the animals, to create their bodies. We see a vast, beautiful cycle that is perfectly balancedwell, at least it used to be. Because then, those animal souls who over millions of years evolved through animal bodies and reached the height of the animal kingdom graduate into the humanoid kingdom. That is us. We are merely animals who have entered a new level, in which we can develop ourselves further. The problem is that we are ignorant of it, and instead are becoming worse than animals. Instead of advancing, we are degenerating, and along the way we are destroying everything around us. The harmony, the interdependence, the beautiful relationship between the three lower kingdoms, is now gone. We in the humanoid kingdom do not respect our younger brothers and sisters. Because of our enslavement to desire and our profound ignorance about the effects of our actions, we destroy them. We trample them. We torture them. We abuse them. We rape them. We are exterminating them. We are polluting them. We are ending life, everywhere on the planet. In every conceivable area of our existence on this planet, we are destroying life. Nowhere are we improving it, not on any level. I wish that was untrue, truly. I wish I could say, I found one place where we are doing something good to help nature. But I do not see it. I hope somebody will find one and can tell me, because I do not see it. We are exterminating the animals, killing the oceans, and spreading our disease into every corner of the world. We are polluting every level of the lower kingdoms. We are modifying genetically all the animals, or exterminating them. Many are gone already. Many more are on the edge of disappearing. Those that remain have become monsters. In the plant kingdom is the same story. Nowadays, in many countries, a farmer cannot grow whatever he wants. He has to get permission from a corporation or a government. Nowadays, none of us can sustain ourselves by farming, because we have created a situation within which we cannot. It is impossible. We would die. We would starve. We are raping and destroying the mineral kingdom. All of that erosion, the changes of the land, the hurricanes, the tornados, the tsunamis, the earthquakesall of that is a result of what we are doing to the Earth. Scientists have not admitted it yet. They have not seen it yet. They will. Everything that is happening on this planet is interdependent. No element is isolated from another. The humanoid needs the three lower kingdoms. Moreover, the humanoid should be guiding them. When we study in the ancient scriptures, we always hear that Adam was created by Iod-Havah and given the command to name and organize the animals and plants, to protect them, to guide them, to help them, because Adam represents, in that context, the most advanced level of mechanical naturethe human organism. There is no more sophisticated physical body on the planet. There is also no more misunderstood body. The Human Body The physical organism that each one of you is sitting in right now is the most fantastical technological advancement in the history of this planet. It isnt the iPad. Its your body.

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The physical body is an incredible machine. Yet, it is not you. That which is "you" is your soul, your Essence, which has been evolving up through these kingdoms for millennia. Every one of us was an animal. Every one of us was a plant. Every one of us was a mineral. And you ask, How come I cant remember? You cannot even remember your dreams last night. You cannot even remember what you were doing last week, or where you were last month. You cannot remember your childhood. How can you remember what happened before that? You can remember if you awaken your consciousness, if you work with the techniques to restore those memoriesbecause the memories are there in your soul. This is why the Buddha Shakyamuni related the Jtaka Tales hundreds of stories about his previous existences, as animals, as plants. And he was not the only one to relate those stories. It didnt only happen to him. It happens to every soul. It is how nature functions. This is a well-known fact in many traditions, called Transmigration, along with other names. Nonetheless, essences evolve up to the humanoid kingdom and receive a body like ours. But the soul, the mind, is still an animal. We receive the humanoid body in order to develop ourselves into human beings, but unfortunately we have maintained the animal mind. So all those instinctive animal behaviors, desires, and automatic mechanical reactions, we just have made them stronger. We have an intellect, true. But the vast majority of the rest of what constitutes our identity is animal: anger, lust, desire, envy, jealousy, pride, greed, gluttony, to kill or be killed. That defines us. We would like to say it is something else, but look at our civilization. What is running it? It is to compete, to conquer, to kill the other guy before he kills me. We take that approach in every way of life: in business, in religion. Those are not human values. Those are animal values. Nonetheless, the humanoid body is the most advanced machine on the planet. It has capacities about which we have scarcely dreamed. And that is because, as we look at these kingdoms, we see that in each level, each of those bodies of minerals is a womb within which a soul has emerged to become a plant. The plant bodies are a womb within which souls emerge to become animals. Those animal bodies are likewise a womb of a Cosmic Mother, within which souls perfect themselves in order to advance into humanoid bodies. Therefore, this is why Samael Aun Weor stated, Humanity is a womb. But what will come from that womb? Humanity, all these physical bodies, are shells within which something is growing. But what is growing in us? Are we behaving like angels? Are we managing this planet the way angels would manage it? The way Masters or Gods would manage it? Are we managing this planet the way the Cosmic Mother would have us manage it? Do the angels, do the Gods, live their moment to moment existence in order to satisfy their desires? In order to feed their lust and their greed and their envy? In order to make others afraid? In order to dominate? In order to conquer? In order to steal? In order to be intoxicated or drunk? Do the angels behave in those ways? Animals do, but not real human beings. A real human being is a Master. A real human being is one who has mastered the human organism, has conquered it for the benefit of everyone, not just himself. A master is an angel, a Buddha. A Buddha is one who is awake, has the consciousness awake, knows their Innermost, knows their Divine Mother, knows the laws of nature, and knows how to command them. This is what a Master is. A Master does not seek to feed their pride, to become a big shot, to be famous, to be recognized, to get money, to get power. This is not what a Master wants. A Master wants to guide others and help them to come where he is, to have serenity and peace, to be in harmony with the laws of nature, to advance the whole, to bring his family to the light. You see, all these kingdoms are our brothers and sisters. They are our family. They are our mothers and fathers, our children. But we treat the plants like they are not even alive. We treat the animals as if they do not feel anything, as if they are just a carcass that walks. We do not understand that an animal, a plant, and a mineral have emotions, consciousness. They perceive. They feel. They think, in their level. They are alive. And the distance between us and them is not as great as we arrogantly believe. So you see, the purpose of all of this, this hugely complex and sophisticated life that is flowing on this planet in this moment, all of it is flowing upwards into the humanoid kingdom, into us. We depend 44

upon the minerals, the plants and the animals. Without them, we would perish. The question is: What do we do with those energies and forces? What are we using them for? To dominate our neighbors? To kill each other? Everyone loves to praise this civilization, but what is it built on? Everyone loves to praise the United States and claim the United States it the greatest country in the history of the world. But no one realizes the United States was built upon the deaths of millions of natives and on the backs of slavery. No one wants to recognize that the modern countries throughout the world are built upon exploitation and corruption. Anyone who has worked a retail job or a minimum wage job knows the truth of it. That is not life. To work and have nothing is not life. It is slavery. The Purpose of Living This whole planet, and all the forms of life on it, is this great pyramid of living things, but we are not the pinnacle. The humanoid organism is only a step. I am sorry to shatter your illusions about humans being the greatest thing in the world. They are not. The humanoid organism is a vessel. That is all it is. It is a vessel. You will not have it long. You might have it for a few more days. You might have it for a few more months or years. No one knows how long they have to live. The humanoid organism is a vessel that channels and transforms forces, in the same way that every other body receives, transforms, and transmits energy. The minerals do that. The plants do that. The animals do that. The humanoid organism is no different. But we scarcely tap its true potential to transform energy. That is because our mind is a complete mess. Psychologically, we are a disaster. To harness the full power of the humanoid organism, we have to use it wisely, but with the mind we have, we do not use it wisely. Instead, we abuse it until it dies, and the result is that our soul, inhabiting that body, receives the consequences of that abuse. This is why, not long ago, a great meeting was held in the internal worlds amongst those divinities that are responsible for guiding humanity, and all the evidence was placed on the table. The judgment was reached that this humanity has failed. So, the times of the end are upon us. This is a simple truth that was predicted in every religion in the world. We are in the beginning of that ending, because this humanity has failed. Just as in the mineral kingdom, a small number of those seed embryos of consciousness have enough strength and wisdom to graduate and become plants, throughout the vast plant kingdom only a small number have the strength and wisdom to graduate into the animal kingdom. Even fewer in the animal kingdom have the strength and wisdom and development to emerge out of being animals and become humanoids, or intellectual animals. But now, in this womb, very few have the strength and the wisdom to stop being animals and become angels, true masters. Very few. Most of the seeds in humanity are already lostthey are too corrupted, too degenerated. So nature, the Divine Mother, in her great love for all living things, will reabsorb them by means of one her faces, which is Kali Ma, Durga, Persephone, Hecate, the Divine Mother Death, who is in charge of the infernal worlds, what we call hell. She will take all of those fallen, failed seeds, and recycle them, purging them of all their impurities so that one day they can try again, many thousands of years from now, when they have become pure again. That is what hell is: natures recycling of energy. This whole planet is already sinking into it. You see, when those forces descend down the Tree of Life, things become more complicated. At the very heights, at the Absolute, at the Ain Soph, at Kether, life is very simple. It is one, united. It is God. Level by level, down the Sephiroth, life becomes more complex. Three laws become six laws, twelve laws, all the way down until we get to the physical world, which should have forty-eight laws modifying existence in the physical world. You can still feel that simplicity of life (of 48 laws) if you get out of the city. If you go to the country, things feel nicer, simpler, not as complicated. But when you come to the city, it is very complex, very confusing, very heavy, very dense. And that is because all of the people with their complicated minds reflect the laws that manage them, and the minds of humanoids all reside in hell, because our minds are filled with anger, lust, greed, gluttony, and more. These are all complicated, mechanical forces that reverbaerate in our psychological environment, and the more we fall victim to them, the more we strengthen them, thereby making life even more complicated. And since we are all gathering in the cities and infecting each other more and more, life 45

is sinking more and more. The laws are sinking lower, below Malkuth, into the abyss, where every level of hell gets worsemore and more dense, more and more complicatedbecause all those pressures are there to purify the souls, to purge them. So everything that we think in our world is so good and wonderful and admirable is actually sinking and will be destroyed by nature, purged. Nothing will remain. Nothing. Out of this huge womb of humanity, a few seeds will be given the granted right to be initiated to a new level of life. Not every seed. It is not a right that is given to every soul automatically, because to go to this next level, one has to escape mechanical nature. One moves into conscious nature, to truly become Adam, a man made into the image of God, who can command the plants and the animals and the minerals, who can create life, who can organize life, who can help others, that is a master, that is Adam, that is a real human being. That is a process by which one reaches perfection, stage by stage. It is not easy. The scientists know we only use a small fraction of what the body actually has inside of it. Scientists differ in their estimates. The brain itself, we only use three or five percent of it. Some say ten percent, but I think it is less, given the behaviors that we can observe. What about all our glands? There are many things in our bodies that we ignore, many powers, many abilities. We have heard stories that some people have learned how to use them, because you can learn how to use them. The Bodies of the Soul Our physical body, in Kabbalah, is called Malkuth. This means the Kingdom. We have a physical body according to the kingdom that we belong to. All of us have humanoid bodies. We are in the humanoid kingdom. Our own Malkuth is humanoid, not human yet. This body has its physiology. It has a spinal column. It has three nervous systems. It has a very sophisticated and beautiful arrangement of organs and systems that receive energy, transform energy, and transmit it. But we have no control over it. Everything within us is happening automatically, mechanically, without any awareness or intervention on our part. We just want to eat and drink, and sleep, and have sex, but we do not know why. But the physical body is only one aspect of what makes a living entity. The physical body exists because it has a vital aspect, what we call the vital body, the body energy. It can be called the ethereal body, or the body of Chi, or Prana. This is the body that the acupuncturists work on, or people who work with Chi kung. They work with this body. It is a body of energy that empowers the physical body. These two cannot be separated in terms of existence. The physical body and the vital body are really one with two parts. And what is interesting here: I told you before that life was descending through dimensions, the vital body is in the fourth dimension. It is not here in the third dimension, directly. It is multi-dimensional, in the sense that this energy is what is empowering our physical body. If you have ever felt your arm or leg fall asleep, you are sensing a separating between the two aspects: vital and physical. When an amputee has an arm or leg removed, and they still feel their arm or leg, they are feeling the vital body, which is still there. The vital body is in the fourth dimension, what we call Eden. This is where all our energy and forces are. Superior to that, in the fifth dimension, we have an astral body and a mental body, related with Hod and Netzach on the Tree of Life. The emotional body, the astral body, is related to our emotions and feelings. It is related to the heart. The mental body is the body of though, related with the brain, the mind. Above this there is what is called a causal body, the body of willpower, the body of consciousness, conscious will. Unfortunately, none of us have these yet in their full form. We have the shadows of them, the embryos of them. Throughout the process of our evolution through the three lower kingdoms, nature was elaborating these internal bodies for us. Our soul, our essence, our spark of consciousness, was an extraction from the Sephiroth of Tiphereth. It is conscious will, but simple. That spark, when it first emerges into nature, is given lunar mental body, astral body, vital body, and physical bodies. These are gifts from nature. The Divine Mother says, Here are the vessels you need, the vehicles you need. This is 46

your mind, your heart, your body. We call them protoplasmic, because they are a modification of forces in nature that are given to us. They do not belong to us. Over the course of millions of years, that essence inhabits its protoplasmic bodies and takes physical bodies, and gradually evolves as a mineral, as a plant, as an animal, until eventually it gains the right to enter the humanoid kingdom. That humanoid, you and me, enters into a humanoid physical body with these ancient protoplasmic bodies, the gifts of nature that carry all of our memories, all of our history, all of our knowledge in them. Well, at least that is how it would be if we were an innocent humanity, the way we were in the Garden of Eden, when we first emerged into humanoid bodies. But we are not an innocent humanity anymore. We discovered desire. We became entranced with power, with lust. And over the course of thousands of years, we created the ego and infected these protoplasmic bodies with all of our karma. You see, these protoplasmic bodies are vessels for our soul. But these bodies are our mind. What we think, the thoughts we feel, are flowing from our protoplasmic lunar mental body. The emotions, the sensations in our heart that we feel, are flowing from our protoplasmic lunar astral body. The energies in our body, the instincts, the drives that we feel are flowing from our lunar vital body into our lunar physical body. All of that driven by all those behaviors, habits, and desires that we developed through the three lower kingdoms. So we are animals inside of a fancy car, driving it around like mad. A Master is one who has conquered all of that; conquered it and learned how to transform into something different. The key is inside the body. Every body has a spinal column. The physical body has a spinal column. The vital body has it. The astral body has it. The mental body has it. The causal body. You see, all these bodies are reflections of one another throughout different dimensions. Nature works in patterns. The Spinal Column and Kundalini The spine is where everything in us is organized. This is our Tree of Life. This is our Tree of Knowledge. It is the spine. Our nervous systems, our brain, our ability to perceive, to see, to touch, to walk, to run, to eat, to do everything, flows in and out of the spine. You cannot be alive without a spine; you cannot function. It is the central pillar of our temple. But we do not really understand what it is, what it can do, what is hidden inside of it. The Divine Mother creates these bodies for us, gives us these vessels. Then we receive instructions on how to use them. Those instructions are encoded in our religions. Those instructions are in our consciousness if we know how to retrieve them. You do not have to get them out of a book. You can get them directly from your Divine Mother. What we see when we examine those kingdoms is that the mineral and the plant kingdoms use all the energy in themselves in a very balanced way, in a very efficient way, in order to advance their development. The animal kingdom, also, in its way, following its course of development, uses its energies according to the laws that apply to the animal kingdom. But there is a great shift that happens in that transition between these kingdoms. In the mineral kingdom, there is always an exchange of forcespositive and negative. Minerals combine and recombine to create new compounds, new elements. And we see that in all the different ways that we measure forces in the mineralselectricity and magnetism, acidity, and those types of forces that always have a positive and negative, a polarity. We see the same in the plant kingdom. In the plant kingdom, we see the emergence of sexuality on many levels, from asexual up to sexual levels. In the plant kingdom we see that also, but it is sexual, to a certain degree. So we see that throughout these kingdoms, sexuality that begins with very simple plus and minus, and advances through more and more sophisticated forms of combinations, until we reach the humanoid kingdom. In the humanoid kingdom on this planet, we have forgotten the cosmic law. The animal kingdom is given the law of instinct, and they follow the instructions of their own Innermost by following that instinct. They only use their sexual forces according to instinct, which in most cases is in spring. They only use it to procreate a child, that is it. They do not use it every day for fun. 47

But then when those souls graduate into the humanoid kingdom, they are given new laws. To become a humanoid, those forces have to be managed and transformed. These are laws related with chastity. The science of those laws is called Tantra or Alchemy. It the method by which a humanoid organism takes all the energies and forces in the sexual organs, transforms them, and raises them up the sexual column of the spine in order to nourish the brain and the endocrine system, in order to fully develop the brain. This is the most ancient, beautiful secret, that was once called the Ark in the Judeo-Christian traditions. The Ark is actually the Aron Kadosh, the sacred chest. That Ark is Tantra, or Alchemy. It is the science of taking those forces and combining a man and a woman, to combine those forces, to restrain them, to transform them, and to send them up the spine. What is that energy? Why is that needed? That energy is the Divine Mother. In every level of life, in every kingdom, she creates through sex. The great power of the Divine Mother is her womb. That is what makes her who she is, from the cosmic level to the atomic level. The power of the mother is her ability to make a child, to create life. But the Cosmic Mother cannot do that in us as long as we remain an animal. If we remain as an animal, she can only create animals through us. That is why in the past a soul who worked seriously in spiritual development was given the clue. Once you had awakened consciousness, once you had mastered a certain degree of any spiritual tradition, you were given the clue, the secret knowledge, the highest Tantra: sexual transmutation, scientific chastity. It is the first commandmentto not fornicate, but to take those forces, use them, but under divine will, not animal will, to take those energies inside and give them to the Divine Mother. With that, she can create something beyond an animal. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. "Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." - John 3 If you want to be born again, we have to take the spirit and the water. That spirit is the Daemon, spirit in Greek. That spirit is creative power of the Divine Mother. The water is sexual, the mayim in Hebrew, the waters of Genesis, creation. Those waters are sexual. The Divine Mother creates minerals through their sexual forces. She creates plants through their sexual forces. She creates animals through their sexual energy. She creates more intellectual animals like us through our animal sexuality. But how is she going to create an angel? How is she going to create a master, a Buddha? Through lust? Obviously not. How will a God come from lust, anger, or pride? If our tradition of lust and fornication is so great, then why are we in such a mess? We have had millions of years of lust and envy. We have not created any angels, and the few that have emerged, emerged because they had the secret knowledge. They conquered themselves, purged themselves of all of that filth. The sexual energy is the Divine Mother herself. It is her power, and we call it Kundalini. We call it the Divine Mother Kundalini, Devi Kundalini, the Goddess Kundalini. Some people talk about it just like it is any energy in nature. It is not. It is not a mechanical energy. You cannot turn it off and on like a switch. You cannot trick it. There are a lot of people out there who think that if you go to a certain ashram and you pay a certain amount of money, you can awaken your Kundalini in two weeks. This is snake oil: lies and deceit. You cannot trick the Divine Mother. She has known you for millions of years. She knows your ways. She will only give you what you deservenothing more, nothing less. 48

For her to be born in your spine is for her to give you her power. Can you imagine that? Do you sincerely believe you deserve to handle the power of the Divine Mother? Ask yourself: Do you deserve it? What would you do with power? If you were given divine power with your mind as it is now, what would your mind do with it? Feed its lust? Feed its pride? Make itself out into a big shot? Try to be famous? Try to get power in the world? Try to get money? Yes. That is exactly what we would do with it. Why would the Divine Mother give us that power when we have proven that we are not interested in helping the planet, helping her, helping our brothers and sisters in the other kingdoms? We want to kill them all; we want to conquer them; we want to consume everything to feed our desires. We do not care about anything but our desire, so why would she give us that power? Yet, there are thousands of books and groups and schools who teach that you can awaken your Kundalini and get all this power being just the way you are. Well, Ill tell you a secret that they want to hide from you: Yes, you can get power from what they teach you to do, and it is related to Kundalini, but it is inverted. It is not divine power. Remember all the forces of nature are polarized polarized energies. So just the same way that she can rise up the spine, she can flow down it. That downward flowing energy is the tail of the demon. That is why demons are depicted with tails. The tail represents is their animal power, active and enflamed by lust, pride, envy, etc. You can have that kind of power easily, very easy. It is as simple as reading a couple of books, learning a couple of techniques, and you can instantly start working with those powers, because all of us are that close to the edge of becoming fully-fledged, awakened demons, because of our ego, because of desire, because of pride and lust. But to go upwards is not easyit is very difficult. Every single step along the spinal column is accompanied by tests, ordeals. We have to prove ourselves; we have to conquer ourselves. Nothing heavenly is given for free. If something comes easily, it is because it is not worth anything. What is of value is expensive; that is, to earn the status an Angel, one has to pay the price, and that price is the elimination of everything within us that is contrary to the angelic state. The positive, upward flowing Kundalini must pass through each vertebra of the spine. Every single vertebra of our spinal column represents tests, psychological tests: tests of desire, tests of pride, tests of lust and fear and envy and gluttony and greed and all the elements we have within. When we pass a test, we can receive that force. Step by step, we can raise the thirty-three degrees. You have heard about the thirty-three years of the life of Jesus, the thirty-three degrees of the Freemasons. Those are symbols of the steps we have to walk up the spine, taking that energy back to God, purifying ourselves of all of our animal elements. Raising the Kundalini is a sexual process, wherein one is born again. What is born is the soul. Everything that is born is born of sex. Every living thing is born of sex. To enter that process of birth, you have to be with a spouse. A single person cannot do this, because a single person cannot have a child. A single person cannot engender a child, or give birth to a child. It takes a couple. As above, so below. The angel is born of chastity, Tantra. This is why in the ancient traditions, the most secret, holy symbol of every religion is a couple united in sexual union, even in Christianity and Judaismwhich they deny now, but the evidence is there in the scriptures; you can learn about it in the Gnostic websites. The most ancient symbol that was hidden in the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon was two angels united in a sexual embrace. The Jews know this. They keep quiet. When the Romans saw it they destroyed the temple, because they thought it was depraved. They saw it the way their minds were, as if it was degenerated like their minds. They did not see that it was something holy and pure. That sexual symbol encodes the secret that a male and female working in sexual cooperation and scientific chastity unite forces, restrain them, transform them, and the Divine Mother takes them and creates life inside. That which is physical is physical; that which is spiritual is spiritual. If we take our sexual energy and make it spiritual, it gives birth spiritually. It creates the soul. Initiation and Spiritual Growth What happens then, by passing the ordeals, by satisfying the tests that the Divine Mother provides to us, little by little we raise the force of the Kundalini in the spinal column. We awaken the chakras 49

along the spinal column. We awaken all the hidden powers of a real human being. In other words, we begin to return to Eden, to restore our place where we fell from. There is a spine in each body. There is a spine in the physical body. When that energy reaches the top, we receive an initiation; we graduate into a new level. It is the First Initiation of Major Mysteries, the Kundalini or the serpent of the physical body. In that moment, a connection is made in our soul, in our Spirit, and our Innermost, our Being inside, becomes a Master. You see, our Innermost, our Being, has been working with our Divine Mother throughout all those millennia to raise that conscious spark through all those kingdoms, finally reaches the humanoid kingdom, and that human soul, that person in the humanoid body finally takes advantage of that energy and achieves something. That Innermost becomes a Masternot the human person, not the physical body, not the soulthe Innermost becomes a Master, our Master, inside. The Innermost becomes a Master. This is our Atman, our Chesed, our Inner Buddha. But that is only the beginning. Then the same process has to happen in the vital body. Those energies have to be raised up the spinal column of the vital body, and thirty-three degrees of tests and ordeals have to be passed. And again with the astral body; and again with the mental body; and again with the causal body. Five serpents. Have you ever seen a Buddha with five serpents over his head? That is the meaning. There are five serpents related with these five bodies. There are more serpents than that, but for our discussion today we are talking about just five Serpents of Fire, related with five Initiations of Major Mysteries. The reason is the person who has managed to raise those energies of the Divine Mother within themselves, and reach the Fifth Initiation of Major Mysteries, becomes a Master proper, an actual Masternot a complete Master, but a Master that is beginningbecause that person has raised the forces of the Divine Mother to illuminate their physical body, to illuminate their energy, to illuminate their heart, to illuminate their mind, and to enforce and sustain their conscious will. This person has the Divine Mother inside. This person is a child of the Divine Mother, finally. This person, in the internal worlds, is a Buddha, and angel, really, but is not done, because the ego is still alive. You see, this whole process is hard. There are a lot of challenges, a lot of ordeals, but this is not about eliminating the egothat comes next. This is only about returning to Eden and creating the soul. In other words, in each of these serpents, we transcend the protoplasmic bodies, especially in the top three: Hod, Netzach, and Tiphereth. When the serpent of Kundalini is raised in the astral body, what is really happening is our Divine Mother is creating a new body for us, unless we had one already. She creates a solar astral body. This is a new astral body. This, esoterically, and in initiation, is the first appearance of Christ. Christ first appears in us when we create the Christ Astral, the solar astral body. This is a body of gold. It is a body that is created from scientific chastity. It is created from the purification of the sexual forces, united with prayer and longing and the wisdom and intelligence of the Divine Mother. This is represented in all of the religions, when Athena has the weapons crafted by Vulcan in the forge to give to Theseus or Perseus. Those weapons represent the solar bodiesthe armor, the shield, the helm. These are those solar bodies. This is the chariot of Ezekiel; the Merkabah of the Kabbalists; this is the To Soma Heliakon of the Greeks; the Sahu of the Egyptians. This is the boat of Ra that travels across the lakes of peace. This is the soul. This is an ancient, secret mystery. Each of these bodies is just a vessel, a vehicle like your physical one, but better, because it is not made from fornication, it is not made from sin. It is made from divine atoms. They are bodies of incredible beauty, splendor, and power. They are acquired for a reason, not for fun and games, not so we can go in the astral plane to investigate the lives of other people, spy on our neighbor, or see if what we suspect about our wife is true. These bodies are needed because in order for us to completely eliminate the ego, we need these weaponswe need the protection, we need the armaments. If we try to go into our own infernal worlds with our protoplasmic bodieswhich are infected by egowe have nothing to defend ourselves withno defense, no protectionbecause the protoplasmic bodies are diseased. The solar bodies are perfectwell, on their way to perfection. The solar bodies are perfected in initiations of the Serpents of Light, which come later. 50

A master is one who has reached the Initiation of Major Mysteries related with the Sephirah Tiphereth, and has received a sword. The sword is symbolic. We have all heard about the flaming sword that guards the way to Eden. The flaming sword of any great God or Angel is the Kundalini. What does the sword represent? Willpower. Right now, our will as a humanity is in conquering each other, stabbing each other in the back, stealing and lying, feeding our lust. Our will is all about serving our self-will. But the Divine Mother gives a flaming sword to a Master who will serve Her, who will become an exponent of Divine Will. Kundalini is that sword. That is something that is earned. It is not given for free. This is what the Divine Mother wants. This is why we exist. It is to create the soul, and to return to God, and to advance our evolution. Through the Initiations of Major Mysteries the initiate is transcending the mechanical laws of nature. All of us right now are complete victims of the mechanical laws of nature. We have little or no control over what happens in our lives, in our communities, in our culture. We cannot control ourselves, and we cannot control nature. We think we can, but a little storm comes along and shows us differently, or somebody falls asleep at the controls of a machine and kills a lot of people, or destroys an area of nature from negligence and foolishness. We cannot even control our own nature inside; we are slaves of our animal nature. A Master commands nature. We have all heard about masters like Krishna and Moses creating miracles, Jesus raising the dead back to life. All the prophets have performed miracles; all the saints, all the Buddhas, could fly through the air, walk on the water, command the flames, call the tempests, split the earth. That is because the power of the Kundalini in the spinal column of each body makes them a priest, a magi, a magician. Magi, or mag, means priest. The triangle of Netzach, Hod and Yesod in Kabbalah is called the Magical Triangle, or the Triangle of the Priesthood, because it is here that the real priest works on behalf of others. The real priest works for the benefit of others, not himself. He does this by exercising his will over the lower spheres; the powers of conscious will are in Tiphereth, in the sixth dimension. Through conscious, divine will he uses the powers of conscious thought through the mental body in Netzach, in the fifth dimension. Through conscious, divine will he uses the powers of the astral bodyconscious emotion, divine emotionin Hod. Through conscious, divine will he uses the vital and physical bodies: Yesod and Malkuth. Magic is performed in these spheres. These spheres are where, through conscious will, the Innermost works through His human soul, which is us, to benefit others, to guide the souls. All of nature is organized. The minerals are in groups; the plants are in groups or families; the animals are in families; and every family is guided. Every family has a guide. That guide, in Sanskrit, is called a Deva, an Angel, an intelligence that is responsible for that family, to guide them. Even humanoid families have guides, but we ignore them. If you have studied The Iliad, you remember that the family of Priam takes their totems, the statues of their family gods (penate gods), in order to protect them when they have to abandon Troy. Those statues represent the guardian angel of that family. We all have that. Our families have it, and we as individuals have it, but we do not listen. We persist and insist on following our foolishness, and our guides, our guardians, attempt to help, but there is a limit to what they can do. Cause and effect is still the law. If you shoot yourself, you will die. A master takes his place in the ranks of those hierarchies that manage nature. A master guides beings on other levels below him. Your own Innermost, your own Being, may have relations with certain kingdom, and if you achieve the degree of mastery, your Being will place you in a certain position in order to help other souls in different kingdomsmaybe mineral, maybe plant, maybe animal, maybe humanoid, maybe angelic. There are masters who guide and teach the angels. Our true evolutionary path is not to get rich. It is not to try to fill our house up with a lot of junk and then die. That is not why we are here. We are here to emerge out of the shell of our body as angels, and to step into this evolutionary path into the conscious circle of humanityto leave the unconscious circle, to become conscious, and then to help the unconscious ones. That is our purpose. 51

Along that process, for millions of years, our Divine Mother is the one helping us, trying to give us the ability to do it. But we always slap her away. We spit on her. We ignore her. We curse her. We do it physically; we do it psychologically. Do not forget your Mother. I am not talking about your terrestrial mother. I am talking about your internal Mother. Go back to her. She will guide you. She is the one who takes her child from the level of a simple mineral up to the level of being a God. If you want to transcend suffering, if you want to help others, she is the one who will take you by the hand along the entire path, and she will never abandon you. Even now that you have abandoned her, she is waiting. She is waiting for you psychologically and spiritually, but also coiled up in the bottom of your spine, in your Muladhara chakra. All of her potentiality is coiled there, waiting for you to awaken her. Questions and Answers Audience: As far the lower six vertebrae, are there any physical exercises that you would recommend in addition to mantra exercises to make those more limber? Instructor: Yes, there are a number of practices you can use to strengthen and limber up your spine. The spinal column is very important, and it is necessary that anyone who takes this type of path seriously do a lot to protect their spine, and make it strong and flexible. The single most important rule, that cannot be emphasized enough, is to relax. Just relax. Most of us are so tense all the time; we do not even realize it. And we are tense why? It is because our minds are tense. Our mind is running a thousand miles an hour, our heart is racing with all kinds of uncomfortable feelings, and we get tense because of desire. We want something or we do not want something, and so we are tense. This is desire. Tension in the body makes you sick, and builds up negative energy and stores it in your muscles, and can hurt you physically. It gets worse as you get older. Some peopleeven young people, but some older peoplebecome so tense they are like they are not even flesh anymore. Their muscles are like rocks, steel, totally locked up and inflexible. That is not good. That is a result of years and years and years of tension stored in those musclesuntransformed impressions, energy that is trapped. Samael Aun Weor has muscles like a sponge, like a baby: totally relaxed. Yet, he was dealing with a lot of intense energiesa lot. People were trying to kill him, and he was perfectly relaxed. He was not tense. We need to learn thatto be relaxed. That is the main thing. And he said, in fact, Whenever you remember yourself, relax. Whenever you observe yourself, relax. Relax all your muscles. Constantly relax yourself. Every moment of every day, keep relaxing. It makes a huge difference. Likewise, if you cannot relax during your daily life, then in the evening when you try to meditate, all you are going to be trying to do is relax; you will not get to meditate, because tension will obstruct you. When you begin meditation, you should already be perfectly relaxed. So that would be the main thing I would recommendrelax, relax, relax. Constant relaxation. Do what you can to help: take walks, take hot baths, go out in nature, feel the air, swim in natural waters, take a break from so much thinking, clear your head, go outside and admire your Mother. She is beautiful. She is much more beautiful than concrete and glass and steel and bricks. She is much more beautiful than your computer screenfar more beautiful. Go out and take that energy from her. She can sustain and nourish you. She will feed your soul. Second to relaxation, there are many exercises you can learn to improve your spinal health. The two main groups are the Tibetan Exercises of Rejuvenationthere is a book about thatand also Runic practices, which can also help. There are a number of other stretches, but mostly it is just: relax. Audience: We are doing horrible things to our Mother, and the existence of plastic must be akin to spitting on your mom. Everything that is plastic, that is manmade, is a symbol of what you have done to your mother, negatively. Should you try to reduce that as much as possible by recycling, and it seems like people only use plastic, so should you really be conscious of your carbon footprint, in the way that you use plastic, and stuff like that? Instructor: I totally agree with that. I think we have to reduce how much plastic we use, and be very conscious of what we purchase and utilize. Most people buy bottles of drinks and throw them away, and do not realize that that plastic is sitting out in the ocean right now. It is in landfills. It is not going to break down for a long time. Pens, even our clothes have plastic a lot of the timepolyester, a lot 52

of synthetic fabricsand all these synthetic things that we keep making and buying that we really do not need. We need to be more conscious of what we do, but ultimately, that is really secondary. The reason is, this planet is about to be purged. The Divine Mother is going to cleanse herself. She is about to take a shower in fire. Reducing your carbon footprint and those kinds of things are good. I am not saying to not do them. But in the end, everything will be destroyed anyhow. Audience: Recycle what you can. Instructor: Yes. Do what you can do. Another is to eat properly. Most of us are eating without knowing what we are eating. The minerals, the plants, and the animals that we consume are modifiedgenetically modified, chemically modified, even with radioactive elements. Those elements are filling our bodies and making our bodies and our minds sick. In order to succeed in this process of awakening Kundalini and creating the soul, your body has to be prepared. It is not an easy task. It is not like the Kundalini is going to come along and it is going to be like walking in the park. It is not easy. It is transformative. The energy of the Divine Mother is the very creative power of the universe. It is a lot of energy, and you have to learn to manage it and deal with it. With our bodies as they are now, we are sick. We do not know what is in our water. We do not know what is in our air. We do not know what is going on with these tomatoes that now have the hormones of pigs in them. We buy meat at the supermarket from animals that were tortured, and that is filled with artificial hormones, chemicals, pesticides, and all kinds of garbage that is not natural. I am not saying everybody should immediately become vegans and stop eating altogether. We have to eat and survive, but do what you can to try to take pure food from nature. If you can pick your own fruit, if you can grow your own fruit, do it. If you can get fresh, real, vegetables grown from seeds, do it. If you can get healthy meats, like Halal or Kosher, where the animals are properly cared for, do that. Halal and Kosher are at least an incremental step better than the foods that come out of these giant factories around the world, where the animals are processed like machines, and treated like machines. Our food production system is horrible. We need to become conscious of those facts and try to manage our health better. All those energies that we take inwe have to transform them. If you are a very aggressive person, or you are dealing with a lot of anger, you might want to watch your meat intake. You might want to look at what you are eating. If you are very anxious, depressed, sensitive person, you may want to watch what you are eating. You might be eating garbage that is influencing you towards these bad behaviors. By managing your diet, exercise, and health, you can go a long way towards making your mind more stable, and give yourself a better environment to reach some spiritual development. Audience: Does being obese affect you negatively in the work with your Divine Mother? Instructor: Does being overweight affect you negatively? Absolutely it does. If someone in this work is overweight, they will have a serious obstacle, so it is highly advised that you work on that. Try to uncover what it is in you that makes you eat too much or be lazy. We all have different body types. The idea of overweight is also overblown in this society. Some people are naturally bigger, and some people are naturally smaller. When I am talking about overweight, I mean where you are unhealthy. You can be big or small; it does not matter, as long as you are healthy and strong. But someone who is significantly overweight will have bad back problems; their spine will hurt; they will not be able to relax; they will have a hard time meditating; they will have a hard time concentrating. When you are very overweight, it produces a lethargy in your psyche, and gluttony becomes a big problem, and laziness. So those are significant issues you have to look at. Audience: You alluded to forty-eight laws that are in operation. Can you explain those? Instructor: The forty-eight laws that are managing Malkuth are an aggregation of the laws of the Sephiroth above. When you study how the laws of nature function through the Tree of Life, it makes perfect sense. It is not like you can say, Law number one is the law that you cannot park here. It is not like that. Those forty-eight laws are a mathematical combination of all the spheres above Malkuth. Nature is a series of worlds differentiated by their relative subtlety. The physical world (Malkuth) is very low. Above it are many worlds. Each world is created by the trinity or Law of 53

Three. The first manifested world has three laws. The next world below that also has three laws and are modified by the three above it, so that makes six laws in that level. The next world below has three laws, plus the six and three above it, so that makes twelve laws. This goes on until you reach Malkuth. All the laws of the worlds above Malkuth are combined in order to create this world of forty-eight laws. There are a few lectures that explain this; it is quite simple. Audience: But you would include gravity as one. Instructor: Gravity, relative to the physical world, is a result of those laws. But I do not think, in my experience, that you can say there is one law of the forty-eight laws that is gravity. The forty-eight laws are the interacting, descending forces from above. When those laws interact, phenomena result. In this level, gravity is one such result or effect of the complication of those laws. Yet, similar forces are at work in other planes, where you do not have forty-eight laws. In other levels, there are forces like gravity, that function like gravity. Gravity is a force of attraction, of magnetism. We experience it in a certain way here, but if you go to other dimensions there are similar phenomena. Basically, the laws that we study, are just Sephiroth inside other Sephiroth. Audience: Have you ever heard of those scientists who can create elements that only last for a few seconds? Instructor: Synthetic elements? Audience: Yeah. Like, they can create elements, but it has to be at like -500, or something crazy, and it only exists for a few seconds, but they say it exists. Instructor: Yeah. The scientists are playing a lot of experiments. Audience: That is really bad, huh? Instructor: Not necessarily. It is not necessarily bad. Audience: But does a consciousness go into that, and then the body of that consciousness, is it destroyed? Instructor: Not necessarily. Audience: So if an element is created by a scientist, it may not necessarily be inhabited like natural minerals? Instructor: A scientist cannot create life. A scientist can only modify existing forms. The only one that can create life is God. To take elements, put them together, and put a soul in thereonly God can do that. Audience: So when they genetically modify corn or whatnot, those probably are not inhabited by a soul anymore, huh, since they are modified? Instructor: They can be; they can be deformed. Nature is very complicated. Everything has life in some form or level, but it is modified. Audience: So there is a soul that is going inside it that has to inhabit those atoms that make that piece of corn? Instructor: If it has energy, it has life. And if it is modified to function in a harmful way, then it is a negative form that creates a lot of karma. Case in point: atomic energy. Audience: One more thing. Im sorry. When one destroys atoms, isnt that destroying the bodies of these consciousnesses? Isnt that very bad? Instructor: It is. It is a terrible thing. The splitting of the atom is a terrible crime. Audience: So the atomic bomb is very, very, very bad. That destroys millions of atoms, so you are destroying the bodies of millions of souls. Instructor: Not only that, but when an atom is split, a lot of negative atoms are releasednegative atoms from the infernal worlds. So not only is there physical radioactivity, but there are a lot of spiritual atoms that are split and released. The effects of the nuclear and atomic energy experiments are really unimaginable. Samael Aun Weor wrote about it a few times and it is bad, very bad. Audience: You said we have a lot of dead elements that we surround ourselves with. But the elements that we make, it is still matter. Does it still have evolving or negative forces in them? Instructor: It depends. Every living form has an energy in itlife. But there are also dead forms. So a lot of the forms that we work with are dead, they are corpses, whether that is atomic matter or 54

material matter, different elements that we combine to make things. The way we have to look at it is that atomic structures and molecular structures are hugely complex and apply to the Tree of Life. When we split a physical atom, we release the energy that was in that atom. There is an enormous amount of energy in one atom. But when that split occurs, a doorway is opened, and that doorway affects not only the superior worlds, but the inferior worlds. The splitting of an atom is not just physical, because an atom is not just physical. It is matter, energy, and consciousness. So there is energy from above and below that is affected and released. It creates an enormous impact. Similarly, when we are manipulating matter in the world, we are also manipulating matter internally, just as when we have a physical discussion with each other, we are manipulating mental matter. Right now, we are manipulating mental, emotional, and hopefully conscious forms, if everyone is conscious of the conversation. If someone is angry or irritated, or feeling some negative emotion, then they are affecting very negative forms of matternot physical but internal. So similarly, everything around us is like that. This table has other aspects of its existence, not just physical. All the atoms in it are multi-dimensional. When someone awakens consciousness, they start to intuitively perceive that. Samael Aun Weor was experiencing those types of things, and he explained that when you awaken consciousness in the Causal world, you can see the karma of something; you can see the number of atoms in it; you can see the mathematics of itnot in the intellect, but with the consciousness. It is not hard; it is just something you see thereyou see the other aspects. When you see in the fourth dimension, then you see its eternal aspect; you see its progression over time. Audience: What about when we use elements in the positive sense, say things we put on our altar? That is not something that we use negatively. Instructor: You have identified exactly the key. This physical body is a transformer of energy, and every moment we are receiving energies: from our atmosphere, from breathing, from food that we are digesting, from our senses, from our soul. There is a lot of energy in us, and we are transforming it constantly according to our will. What is our will? When we are following a will to feed our lust, all those energies are fortifying and strengthening that lust. If we are taking all those energies and praying sincerely, then we are fortifying our soul, our consciousness. If in that prayer, we are utilizing an altar or a prayer book or a symbol of God, that symbollets say it is a statue or a pictureis part of the transformation of that energy, and it is affected by it, without question. And this is how churches, temples, even your bedroom, can be magnetized, and can become a very sacred place. You can go into certain places and feel sacred energy. You can go into other places and feel diabolic energy, negative energy. But nowadays, we are so accustomed to the negative energy we do not notice it. We like it. We do not notice how negative the energy of many places is, because we are so used to it. Audience: I am trying to fathom this model that you have here. You have, basically, a soul that emanates from the Ain Soph and comes down into this physical body, and youre talking about a physical process where you are basically effecting some kind of alchemical change in the physical vehicle. Instructor: It is a change that happens on many levels, not just physical. The physical body is the receiver and transformer of energies. Malkuth is the lowest sphere on the Tree of Life, and many forces condense and flow through, in and out of, Malkuth. We know that because right now we have energy working through usthat is our vital body. We have emotionsthat is our astral body. We have thoughtsthat is the mental body. We have some degree of willthat is related with our conscious will, our Essence. We have spirit, but we dont know about spiritit is too subtle. So likewise, when we begin to work with the force of Kundalini, it is a more condensed channel for those similar forces to work. Audience: Okay. Lets pose the question this way: If you begin on this work and along the path you diethe physical vehicle diesand you then reincarnate. Are you then going to derive any benefit from this work in the subsequent vehicle, or do you start from scratch? Instructor: It depends. The Kundalini that is raised in the physical and vital bodies is, of course, brought into these bodies, by means of physical matter. So if you die and you take a new physical 55

body, you will have to raise those forces again. However, if the soul did not fall, that recapitulation of that initiation is very rapid and easy, because the initiations are in the soul, not the body. Audience: So if you make that milestone, and you die, you will begin at that milestone you left off at. Instructor: Similar to how your body died, when you get a new body, that new body has to grow and develop according to certain stages. Well, the Kundalini is in that. It also has to grow and develop according to certain stages. But that is only with the physical and vital body. The solar astral body does not die, neither do the solar mental body or the solar causal body. I am glad you brought this up, because it makes an important point. For a master working in these low levels who has just acquired the solar bodiessolar astral, mental, causalthe acquisition of those bodies provides immortality. We all want that, right? Now, we know our Essence, our soul, is immortal in the context of it never dies, but it is constantly transmigrating through nature, according to the karma of the soul: in bodies, out of bodies, in bodies, out of bodies, with no ability to consciously manage that and determine it for oneself. A master has immortality in the fifth and sixth dimensionsin the solar bodiesand thus can self-determine their birth. That is real reincarnation. It is to choose to incarnate. Now, there is still karma, and they still have to work with karma, they are still subject to karma, but they have willconscious willto help navigate that. It is no longer a mechanical process. What this means is that with the acquisition of the solar bodies start you to become free from the mechanical laws of nature. They provide a beginning of freedom from mechanical nature, but it is not complete freedom. You are not completely free from the mechanical laws of nature until you resurrect. With resurrectionI mean, full, real resurrection, like Jesus went throughthe physical body is sacrificed so that that body of liberation can be made, the body of resurrection. That is an immortal, perfected, physical bodyimmortal. That means that, right now, Jesusand many other masters at that levelinhabits the same physical body for millions of years after that resurrection. They have powers over that body to go in and out of the third dimension, to change its shape, to change its formunimaginable abilities that we cannot conceive. Audience: That guy you said was soft as a sponge. He was under a lot of energy of people trying to kill him. They could not kill him unless he desired them to, huh? Instructor: He was able to manage his karma and not be killed by them. But other masters Audience: So the karma was so good it just would not work out for them. Instructor: Well, it was not his karma to be assassinated. He had to die another way. Some masters had the karma to be assassinated. Joan of Arc, for example, was a great master who had, by her karma, to be burned at the stake. Audience: And that means she must have done some bad things. Instructor: She did. She had karma. But with that death, she paid it. She is now a Resurrected Master. Audience: [incomprehensible] Instructor: Exactly. We have to emulate that example. That is a big deal. Audience: With going back into nature, how effective is going back to nature with only the brief periods we can go back for retreats and camping? Im thinking with work, we only get about a weeks vacation. Instructor: Well, I am so glad you asked me that, because this was a big thing I was meditating on all week and I forgot to talk about it. [Laughter] That shows you how much work I have to do. Samael Aun Weor, in his books, told us again and again that we need to return to nature, that we need to return to our Divine Mother. Like much of what he wrote, it would be easy to take that at face value and read it literally, and interpret that as though we should abandon the cities and go live in nature. Some people interpret it that way and go to live in the jungle, and that is fine. There is nothing wrong with that. But that is not what he meant, and the proof of that is how he lived his life. Samael Aun Weor did not abandon the cities and go live in the jungle like a hermit. He lived in the heart of one of the most crowded, polluted cities in the worldMexico City. He did not want to be 56

The Perception of This Moment

Created on Saturday, 28 July 2012 22:04 Written by Gnostic Instructor

there for his own pleasure. It is not a pleasant place to be. He was there to serve and help people to serve humanity and fulfill his mission. What he actually meant by, Return to nature, is psychological. It is spiritual. So yes, we should take vacations; we should take retreats; we should, whenever we get a chance, go to the countryside, the mountains, the beaches, and get away from the city, and appreciate nature, and be nourished and fed. That gives you so much food for your soulto get that influence. But that does not mean that you have to abandon the cities and go live in a cave. The age for that has passed. The need for that type of lifestyle was in the Piscean Era, and that passed. Now we are in the Aquarian Age, which is an era of fraternity, where we have to work together and help each other, and be together. Unfortunately or fortunately, it is in the city. That is where everybody is. So we need to be there; we need to help each other. So take a vacation, but come back. Audience: He did spend a number of years in the Sierra Nevada. Instructor: Yes, and that is a great opportunity to learn about yourself, should you have it. If you have the ability to go for a few years and live with the natives, then you should do it. Nowadays, it is hard to survive that way. Audience: There are plenty of groups and organizations in the cityfarmers markets, and people working in parks and conserving the nature that we do havethat is another way. Instructor: Yes, there are a lot of resources now that you can change your diet and your lifestyle, and there are tools. There is awareness of it, and there are resources you can take advantage of. It is true. But again, the main, most important thing is to change psychologicallynot your physical habits as much. Change your mind. Change how you look at things and how you think about things. That is what is most important. It is not to go home and throw out all your plastic. That is fine if you want to, but it is not going to make any difference to your soul. Your soul needs its Mother.

In order to help us make our practice more effective, it seemed to me that it would be useful for us to put together an explanation or a structure of the factors that are involved in reaching comprehension. That is really our goal. It is to understand for ourselves what is really going on with us and how what is going on with us creates consequences. Gnosis is a very practical science, and it is also very scientific, and of course it has a lot of terminology and concepts that can seem confusing, and at times, even contradictory. So I want to review the psychological structure that we work with, map that out, and then talk, discuss it, clarify anything that is not clear, to make sure that during this time that you are on retreat you have the chance to improve your practice, your way of seeing yourself, and your way of understanding others. Really, everything depends on that. Taking advantage of your life, improving your life, really depends on understanding yourself and understanding others. That is psychological; we have to understand our own psychology and the psychology of others, and that is a long process. Psyche-Logos The word psychology is Greek and is comprised of two fundamental components. The first is Psyche. Psyche is a symbol in Greek mythology that represents the soul. In Hebrew terms we could say Nephesh. This is the embryo of soul or the Essence. This is that portion of soul that we experience here as Consciousness, and that gives us the urgency of spirituality. Unfortunately, Psyche also falls into mistakes, and this is why in the Greek myths Psyche falls asleep, Psyche becomes confused, and has problems. The other part is Logos, which is a Greek term that is usually translated to mean word but really logos means the Essence of a word, the impetus of a word. Logos is like the expression of 57

a thought. It is not the letters but the meaning. We use the word Logos to refer to the first expression of the Divine, which is symbolized in Kabbalah by the first trinity of sephiroth (Kether, Chokmah, Binah), in Christianity as the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), in Hinduism as Brahma, Visnu, Shiva, and in Buddhism as the trikaya (Dharmakaya, Sambogakaya, Nirmanakaya). So, psyche-logos combined is about the relationship between the soul and the creative divine, which we call Logos, the Word. John says in the bible: In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with Theos [God], and the Logos was Theos. John 1:1That Word is not something written. It is a creative intelligence. It is the Christ. It is a force in the universe. So real psychology is about the relationship between That and ourselves. Ego, Essence and Personality In Gnostic terminology, we talk about three fundamental factors that are related with our psychology, three fundamental concepts that define aspects or functions in our psychological experience. To understand those three and experience them is the basis from which we can really begin to transform our lives. The first one, I already mentioned. We talked about Essence. We could also say that it is psyche. We could also say Consciousness. We could also say Buddhadatu or Tathagatagarbha. There are a lot of terms in different traditions that talk about this element. The Essence is the seed of the soul, the embryo, it is the undeveloped germ. Here we mean the ancient use of the term germ, not something that is going to make you sick. Germ means seed. It is the place were all the archetypes are hidden. If we look into the seed of the human being, into the sperm and the ovum, we call this a germ, because in that we have all of the archetypes for a human being both physically and spiritually. The Essence is that seed, spiritually. It has all the archetypes, the blueprints in other words, of an angel, master, Buddha, god, and we all have that. Unfortunately, our Essence is asleep, just like Psyche in the myth, like Persephone, sleeping beauty. All these myths convey the same essential meaning: that our Consciousness has been hypnotized by materialism. In the Greek myth of Persephone, she smells a flower (or fruit) and becomes intoxicated with materialism. That is our state ofConsciousness now: intoxicated with materialism and sensation. So we sleep, unaware of reality. The other factor or element that we discuss is ego, which is a Latin word that means I, me. We do not use the word ego in the Freudian sense. We use it in the more ancient sense that is used in all the esoteric psychology systems of the world. ego is a psychological construct. It is a sense of me or myself that bottles Essence. An ego is a construct, within which is Essence. There are many egos. We say ego in the singular sense to talk about the whole sum of them, but practically speaking, we have many. The third element that we talk about is personality. Personality is derived from an ancient word persona, which means mask. The personality is our outward appearance, our language, culture, tastes, personal history, etc., all of which relate to this lifetime, but which are completely superficial and impermanent. These three psychological elements exist in every being, every human being, every humanoid. To study and understand ourselves, improve ourselves, we need to understand these three practically speaking: how they function, how they relate, how to recognize them. It is good if we study the concepts, understand the terms, but what we need to do is find them practically in our own experience: what they actually are, how to recognize them, how to sense them, how to know their taste, their flavor. The best way to begin that is with oneself: to study our own mind. The Three Brains We always talk about the three brains. The three brains are three psychological machines. They are structures that process information and that perform tasks. They are literally machines. They have no inherent intelligence on their own. They are fed energy, they process energy, and they release energy. That is all they do. If energy is taken from them, they die. The three brains are: intellect 58

heart body The intellect we feel in our brain in our physical brain. This is where we experience thinking. The heart or the emotional center is where we experience feelings, senses of like and dislike. Then in the third brain we experience instinct, the ability to perform all types of physical actions, motor skills, and also the sexual drive. These three brains are only able to function because of the other three elements that we have already described: ego, Essence, and personality. If the ego and the Essence are separated from the three brains, the three brains die. That is what happens at death. When the body dies, the three brains and the personality also die. The personality is created in each lifetime. The Essence (the pure Consciousness) is trapped in the ego (which is our state now). When we are dead and have to take a new body, the Essence trapped in the ego (which is its karma) enters into the dimensions of matter, and in that process receives vessels; specifically I am describing the vital body and the physical body. Those vessels are where the three brains process information, by means of our three nervous systems. When the Essence trapped in ego enters into a body at birth and begins to activate the three brains, it begins to develop a new personality alongside the growth and development of the new physical body. Astrological Influence In this way, we can see that the physical body is intimately connected with our personality, because they are created at the same time. Moreover, when the Essence trapped in the ego enters into the sheaths of the bodies, it does so at a specific moment in physical time, a certain date, a certain hour, a certain year, a certain place. All of that influences the birth and development of the body and of the personality. The moment of birth is influenced by the position of the planets and stars, represented in signs of the zodiac. We are born on a certain day, and that day falls on a given month, and that month is under the influence of the stellar environment. Those radiations influence the implantation of the Essence and ego into the body, and therefore influence the beginning of the development of the personality. Therefore, astrology tells us about tendencies in our personality. Furthermore, we are influenced not only by the day of birth, but also the year. Imagine two great rings through which the Essence trapped in the ego enters into matter. Years move in a cycle of twelve just as the months do, and these years are symbolized in Asian astrological systems. Thus, our personalities have astrological influences related with the year in which we were born. If you investigate Chinese or Tibetan astrology, you will discover that there are parts of your personality related to the year in which you were born. In synthesis, our personality has tendencies it acquired due to the year and month in which we were born. When we are born, the Essence is planted in the body, and then the personality begins to grow and develop. We develop it very intensely in the first seven years of our physical life. During this time, the ego also emerges. Therefore, the body and the personality are intimately related with each other, not only literally, but also symbolically. And due to the strength of the ego in this era, the development of the body and the personality are strongly influenced by the presence of the ego, not only our own, but the egos of those around us. False Perception of Self It is very interesting that when we interact with each other, we mistake the body for our true self. When we look at each other, we make innumerable judgments about each other based on our physical appearances. As soon as we see a person, without even thinking about it, we have already made a whole serious of calculations about the person. It is not a conscious process, it happens subconsciously. Those judgments and evaluations are one hundred percent mechanical. They are one hundred percent subjective interpretations made by our personality of another personality. We look at person and we see their skin tone, how they carry themselves, how they talk, how they look, dress, etc., and we make a judgment. We evaluate them. We determine if we like them or not, if we are interested in them or want to avoid them. How do we do that? On what basis? 59

It is very interesting to observe this in ourselves, because that phenomenon reveals something very important about us psychologically. When we look at other people, we only see the shallowest surface. We are judging by the skin, by the hair. We do not even conceive in realizing that the person near us that we are evaluating has blood, muscle, bone, organs, phlegm, mucous, cartilage, and all the other elements that make up a body. We judge merely by that thin, thin surface of skin, by a few colors and shapes, and from that we evaluate the worth of a person. That is really quite foolish. Moreover, we do that with ourselves. We evaluate ourselves based on the most superficial appearances. What this reveals about us psychologically is that we do the same thing in almost every case. We fail to recognize the deepest parts of a person not only physically, but psychologically, and especially spiritually. In the same manner that we judge each other by the physical skin, we evaluate each other by our psychological skin, which is the personality. It is the most superficial and meaningless part of a human being, and yet it becomes the basis of our friendships and antipathies, our enemies, our lovers, our families, all based on the most superficial and impermanent part of a human being: personality. Each time that we are born, we make a new personality. Each time we die, we throw the personality away and get ready to make another one. Personality dies with the body. Personality is really meaningless. When we are looking to understand ourselves and each other, we need to understand this. We are not the personality. We are not our skin, psychologically speaking. Physically, we have a given appearance, we have characteristicshow we talk, how we speak, how we behave, our interests, our tastesand we normally use those things to determine our course in life and who our friends are. It is sad, because it is so superficial. Likewise, its benefits are superficial. When we judge each other and make friends based on factors of personality, we make choices based on the most superficial and meaningless aspects of life. To really proceed in Gnostic psychology and acquire actual comprehension of our true nature, we have to cut through the appearance of personality. We have to see the actual depth, and of course, that begins in ourselves. We have to see in ourselves that our true psychology is not rooted in our astrological sign; many of us make the mistake and think that it is. We think that because we are Libra or Virgo or Aries, that defines us. We make a great study of our chart and we memorize all of the rules and statements of astrology, and we use it to embolden our personality. It is a mistake, because in a short timemonths, weeks, yearsthe body will die and the personality will go with it, and you will no longer be a Gemini or Leo. All of what you thought was so important will be gone. Your astrological sign has some bearing, because it is an influence in the mask that you use to exchange information with the worldboth what you take and what you put outbut it is limited to that point. Your astrological sign is merely filter. It is not the energy itself, it is not the Consciousness. Your Consciousness does not have a twelve month or twelve year astrological sign. It changes its sign every time it is born. For that reason, in this tradition we do not put a heavy emphasis on astrology, in the terrestrial, personality-driven sense. It has importance, but it is limited to its place. In that way, we really need to understand the role that personality plays in our moment to moment lives, and we need to start seeing personality for what it is. Personality is everything about our lives that we acquired during our development from birth to now. Our personality develops throughout our life. We are constantly modifying it. Whatever age you may be when you enter into a different type of situationlet us say you start a new job you modify your personality in order to fit in: you have to learn the lingo, you have to dress appropriately according to the community that you enter. You may start to change you eating habits, your speaking habits, you might learn new terms, new ways of inflecting your voice, you ways of using your hands, even start listening to different music. There are all kinds of things that change about our personalities. Your humor could even change. This is all personality: superficial. It has nothing to do with our real identity, our true self. 60

So let us not make that mistake of being stuck in the superficial aspects of what we can see in our psyche. Real comprehension begins when we cut through the mask, to see what is behind the mask. This is what is important. Who is Using the Mask? The mask has your name. The mask uses your body. It has your appearance. It has your history, your taste, your language, your interests. It includes everything: clothes, food, music, people, religion. Everything that people think nowadays as me, as myself, is actually just personality, and is very shallow. It is very rare for someone to be aware of who is using the mask. That mask sits on top of the three brains. When we interact with others, we take in information and we put out informationdata such as body movements, speech, eye movements, the way we dress, the way we walk and talk. Everything we do is conveying information, and we are also taking in information, and it is all passing through the filter of the personality. But who is inside receiving it, and who is inside transmitting it? This is the question we need to answer. When we are acting mechanically (which is pretty much all the time)that is, before we have had any training in using theConsciousness the one who is using the three brains and using the personality is one or another ego. Usually they work in succession, fighting with each other to gain control of the machine. Our three brains and our personality are controlled by egos, which we can call pride, envy, fear, gluttony, greed, etc. Every religion presents a different way of studying these submerged elements, and every mystical tradition has different terms and structures that they use in order to teach us about that. For example, in Hinduism you may hear the term samskaras. In the Buddhist tradition you might hear about the five poisons or the ten unwholesome deeds. These descriptions all correspond to what the western traditions call the seven capital sins. Here, we call them egos or defects, Is. We talk about seven main defects: avarice, laziness, lust, pride, anger, envy, and gluttony. But really, these seven are symbolic, because we have many more then seven egos, and any given ego has its own will, and that ego cannot always be defined by a single term. Some lust is very proud, while other egos of lust are gluttonous or vain. Some envy is very angry. Some fear is very lustful. Some laziness is very gluttonous. We talk about these seven defects in order to give us a reference so that we know what to look for, but in our analysis of ourselves we should not be limited by these terms and think that an ego is defined strictly by one word, because in reality, an ego is defined by its behavior not by a word. When the Consciousness (the Essence) is asleep in usinactive, mechanical, which is most of the timeit means that our ego is using our personality to interact with the outside world, and in our psyche, in our mind, it is the ego that is churning. That stream of thinking that we always hear inside, and that stream of feelings that we always feel, is pretty much always the ego, unless we know how to be awake as a Consciousness, unless we know how to utilize the Consciousness and recognize it for what it is. Even then, if we are not careful, or if we are trained badly, we may be observing ourselves with an ego. We may be trying to awaken using the ego. This is more common than you might think. Unless you know the difference between the free Consciousness and the conditioned Consciousness, you cannot be assured of who you are awakening. That is how critical it is that you understand the difference between freeConsciousness and conditioned Consciousness. That is why we are talking about this. The conditioned Consciousness can be defined by a particular characteristic. It can be recognized by a particular term. Nobody likes to hear it, but that term is: desire. By desire, we do not mean just the gross, obvious desires we generally associate with the word. The Buddha explained it in his first teaching: This is the noble truth of dukkha [dissatisfaction, suffering]: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha; union with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation from what is pleasing is dukkha; not to get what one wants is dukkha; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are dukkha. This is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha [dissatisfaction, suffering]: it is this tanha [craving, desire] which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and 61

there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures [kama-tanha], craving for existence [bhava-tanha], craving for extermination [vibhava-tanha]. - Buddha, from Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta The free Consciousnessunconditioned, the actual Essence, free of egodoes not have desire, attachment, it does not crave any sensation. The free Consciousness is content, happy. The free Consciousnessthe Essence that is not trapped in cravingis directly connected with God, with the Being. It is pure. It does not crave sensation. It does not crave money or security. It is spontaneously happy, bright, clear, calm, relaxed. It is Buddha nature: radiant, joyful. Knowing that, if you reflect on your experience, you can see how rare it is that we experience that state of free Consciousness. It is very rare for Consciousness to just be awake, active, and cannot be without knowing how to do it. Consciousness does not awaken automatically or because of anything anyone else ever does.Consciousness awakens by awakening it ourselves, inside. Unfortunately, because of the long period of time we have been engaged in bad habits, we have trapped the majority of ourConsciousness in ego, in desire, and only a tiny fraction of Consciousness remains free: about 3%. Our future depends on that fraction. Everything depends on us identifying recognizing and empowering that fraction of Consciousness. If we do not, we will fail. There is no way around it. Without that fraction of free Consciousness activated and empowered, we will fail. Recognizing Free Unconditioned Consciousness The beginning of recognizing free unconditioned Consciousness is learning how to pay attention and learning how to discriminate what we perceive. That is why we make so much emphasis on learning to be present here and now, observing our three brains. It is so that we can start to taste the difference between these elements in ourselves. What is Consciousness; is it free or conditioned? What is personality? What is sensation? What is desire? What is attachment? What is craving? What is aversion? We need to know the answers to these questions, not through books but through experience. Meditationwhich is an extension of that exercise of directed attentionis a process from which we extract the Consciousness from all conditions. The body is a conditioning factor. That is why in the Hindu tradition it is called kosha or upadi. The word upadi means conditioning factor. The physical body is a conditioning factor. It conditions the Consciousness. We know that because when we are in this body, we mistake this body for ourselves. We lose awareness that the Consciousness is separate from the body. When we are in the body, we become so hypnotized we think that this body is me but it is not. We need to see that for ourselves. We need to experience that realization, and remain aware of it. Furthermore, this is true of all of the upadis. There are five: The physical body; the sephirah Malkuth The vital body; the sephirah Yesod The astral body; the sephirah Hod The mental body; the sephirah Netzach The causal body; the sephirah Tiphereth These bodies are conditioning factors. The Essence is a particle or extension of Tiphereth. So even in that level (the sixth dimension) there is a conditioning that happens to the Consciousness that has to be overcome. To actually do that, you would have to be quite awake. We are not there yet. So, we work here, now, physically, working towards liberation, freeing ourselves from conditions. The five upadis or conditioning factors relate to advanced stages of liberation that we will get to later on in our process (I hope). But for now, here and now, we have conditioning factors that affect us from moment to moment, and the first one is the physical body. The physical body, the vital body, and the personality are all intimately related. They are a conditioning factor, a filter that obscures our perception of reality. When our Essence is asleep and we are not cognizant of the Consciousnesswe are not self-aware, we are just being mechanical, being our personality, being this so-called selfthen it is the ego, the submerged mind, that is utilizing our intellect, our heart, and our body, and taking in information and sending out information through the personality. 62

The Three Demons This is why in the Gnostic tradition, in esoteric Christianity, in the Egyptian tradition, in the Masonic tradition, and in many other ancient mystical traditions, we find the symbol of the three traitors. The demon of the mind (Pilate) The demon of desire (Judas) The demon of ill will (Caiaphas) Those three demons represent how our ego utilizes our three brains and the upadis (koshas, inner bodies, protoplasmic bodies) in order to feed themselves, in order to advance their own agenda. The demon of the mind (which is represented in the Christian tradition by Pilate) is very logical, reasonable, and smart, and he always seeks to get what he wants in a very reasonable, logical way. His reasoning seems perfectly acceptable, and we rarely doubt it, because it seems so right. We fail to recognize that the demon of the mind is always trying to fulfill a desire, a craving, or seeking to avoid something that it does not want to deal with. The demon of desire (which was represented in the Christian tradition by Judas) is quite crafty and seems like our best friend. He seems like the one that we can always rely on, always gives us exactly what we want, but in fact, utilizes lust in many ways to fool us, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally. If you study lust in yourself in detail, you will discover that lust does not have its roots in the physical experience of the sensation. Lust is primarily emotional and mental. Really, when craving through lust what we want is attention, security, appreciation, recognition, approval, superiority, domination. These are psychological factors, not physical. Lust is psychological. The demon of desire uses that in many ways to feed its cravings. Finally, the demon of ill will (which is represented the gospels by Caiaphas, the high priest) is quite devoted, quite sincere it would appear, and always seems to have our best interests at heart, always seems to be quite devoted to God, to religion, and always wants to uphold tradition and do what is right. In our depths, that aspect always betrays Christ, and always feeds desire, always seeks to rise above others and be recognized and praised. This is the demon of ill will, seeking to put oneself before others, always. Seven Capital Sins These three demons are symbolic of functions in our psyche, functions that are studied in more detail in the seven egos. We talk about the ego as one, as ego in general. We talk about it as three, as these three demons. We talk about it as seven, as these seven defects. But really, this is all symbolic. It is all symbolic of intimate processes that we need to be aware of that happen in us all the time. They are happening all the time because we are not vigilant, we are not really aware of what is happening in our mind, heart, or body. We need to become so. Avarice By studying these in detail, we can start to recognize elements in our psyche that previously we have not been aware of. What is avarice? Can anyone define avarice? Its hard to define but we should know what it is. What is it? Audience: Greed. Instructor: How does greed work? Audience: Coveting what others have got. Instructor: Well, that would be more like envy, I think, covetousness and envy. Avarice is a kind of selfish attachment. We tend to think of avarice as a miser, someone who hoards money; this is true, but unfortunately this is only the most superficial understanding of avarice. What is avarice, really? Avarice is attachment to anything. It is grasping, craving. It is that aspect of our psychology that wants to keep for ourselves, that wants to take, that does not want to give. It is selfishness in every form. Avarice has a million faces, it shows up in all of our little actions, all the time. When you want to be first in line, there is some pride there, and there is some avarice there, too. When you do not want others to have the last doughnut, you want it for yourself, that is 63

avariceit is a silly example, but it is significant, because that little action reveals a big tendency. When you want to hold something for yourself and not give it to others, that is avarice, greed. This applies to anything, from superficial things to very important things. As an example, we can look at the story that happened with Jesus. The religious powers of that time were very greedy with the knowledge; they did not want to give it to others. They had a lot of excuses and reasons. They did not want to share the teachings with anyone. That is avarice. It is greed. Laziness What is laziness? We tend to think laziness is just lying on the couch all the time and not doing anything. But here, laziness refers to the laziness of the Consciousness, laziness of the Essence, laziness of the soul. We may be very busy with our bodies, our minds, in our lives, but that is actually a sign of incredible laziness as a soul. Physical activity does not override the laziness of the Consciousness. To have the Consciousness active, vigilant, is to transform laziness into diligence. Laziness has innumerable forms as well. There are many people have has access to many beautiful teachings, very profound knowledge, but they do not use it: they are very lazy. For example, all of us we have been entrusted with the most sacred teachings on the planet, the heart doctrine of every religion has been revealed to us. I can state without an atom of doubt that I have abused that privilege, that I am a very lazy person. I have not fully taken advantage of that knowledge. I am not fully capable. I am very lazy. I should do better. In that way, we should see that laziness is a very significant psychological element, because it is at play in our lives all the time, because we are asleep. We might remember ourselves from time to timemaybe that once a week or twice a week when we meet with our spiritual friends. We might all of a sudden realize, I am going to remember myself today if I am going to Meditation. I am going to see my Gnostic friends, I better be observing myself. But what about all the other time that we do not? That is laziness. It is very significant and very important; we need to study that. Lust We tend to think of lust in only a very crude and superficial way, as if lust is only the act of the orgasm, or that it is only looking at pornography, or looking longingly at someone we find attractive. Lust is far more subtle and clever than that. Lust infects us constantly from moment to moment. It is always present, it is always active, and seeking, and we are always unaware of it. This is why Samael Aun Weor told us that every single dayno matter what happensmeditate on your lust, even if you did not see it that day, meditate. It is that important, it is that pervasive, it is that tricky. We are that fooled. It is that important. Lust infects us and influences us in more ways than we can possibly imagine, not only in our moment to moment experience of interacting with other people, but in the subconscious, unconscious, and infraconscious processes that are happening in our mind all the time. Lust is active; lust is using our energy. Moreover, we abuse the sexual energy all the time, which is a by product of lust. When we over indulge in certain activities and start to steal energy from the sexual center in order to continue our indulgence, this is related with lust; it is a way of misappropriating those energies in ourselves, which only happens because lust exists in us. Pride We tend to think that pride is only those moments when we boast of ourselves or make outrageous claims about ourselves, but really, pride is with us all the time from moment to moment. That instant when we evaluate another person and we determine we are better than them, that is pride. When we look over their personality, how they dress, how they talk, what they say, and we feel better than them, that is pride. When we see someone who we feel is better than us, maybe they have more money, more education, more status, that is pride. It is pride as shame. Pride is an filter on our perception all of the time, but we do not see it. 64

Pride is caused by forgetting God. If we remembered who we are, if we really remembered our Being, pride would not afflict us; we would feel content with who we are, we would fee connected with the divine. We would not feel better than anyone else, we would not feel worse than anyone else; we would feel exactly what we are. But because we forget God, because we compare ourselves, we indulge in pride. Pride manifests in millions of ways in our lives, too. In everything that we do, from the smallest things to the biggest things, pride is active in us. When we pick our clothes to get dressed, we compare our choices with our pride. Vanity is a sister of pride. When we cultivate a given appearance to present ourselves to others, we do so based on our pride, how others will see us, and how that will make us feel; that is pride. The job we have chosen, the role we have taken in society, is heavily influences by pride. Even the person who intentionally wears the cheaper clothes or the older clothes, is doing it out of pride, so that others will see how humble we are. Pride is very mischievous and sneaky. Pride wants to feel better than others. As shame, pride wants to feel worse than others, and in that shame (self-deprecation), it feels better than them. Anger We tend to think of anger as something superficial that only comes up when somebody does something against us, such as they criticize us and we get mad. Anger is far more subtle than that. Some of us pick our job in life due to resentment against our parents. Some of us choose our path through life due to resentment and anger against society. Some of us reject religion due to our anger against religion. Some of us gossip due to our anger against others. Some of us sabotage our own lives intentionallymake mistakes, get fired, rejected, divorced, poorbecause we are angry at ourselves. Some of us reject getting an education and fulfilling our role in society because of our anger against ourselves. Hate is anger. Resentment is anger. Frustration is anger. Our behaviors are very complicated, full of all kinds of hidden motives. Anger is a major player in the choices we make, in the actions we engage in. Envy Envy is covetousness. Envy is to want what others have because we feel we deserve it. So you see, envy is proud. Envy wants what others have, and will do anything to get it. Envy is very subtle. It is the gears of society on this planet. Our entire society is mechanized by envy. Those individuals who want to base all the actions of their life on ideals, theories, and all that various recollections accumulated in the warehouses of their memory, always go around from comparison to comparison, and where comparison exists, envy also exists. They compare themselves with their neighbors; they compare their children and relatives with the children and relatives of their neighbors. They compare their house, furniture, clothes, and all their possessions with the possessions of their neighbors. They compare their ideas, the intelligence of their children with the ideas and intelligence of other people, and so on and so forth; thus, this is how envy appears, which then is transformed into the hidden, twisted source of action. For the disgrace of this world, the whole mechanism of society is based on envy and the spirit of acquisition. Everyone envies everyone else. We envy ideas, things, people, and we want to acquire more and more money, new theories, new ideas that we accumulate in our memory, new things in order to dazzle our neighbors, etc. - Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education When you watch TV, when you read magazines, every image is designed to stimulate your envy and encourage it, and get you to buy things, because you see an image of that happy person in that advertisement and you want to be like them. So you want that house and that car, you want to be happy like that person in that commercial. You want to be cool, you want to be wanted like that sex symbol, like that hero. Envy wants what it sees elsewhere. Envy is a very insidious form of desire. It infects every relationship we have, both with ourselves and with others. Envy wants what it does not deserve. In the Bible it is stated: But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. - 1 Corinthians 7:17 65

And: ...godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into [this] world, [and it is] certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. - 1 Timothy 6 Envy hates that. We envy spiritual teachers. We envy the one who has a position in society. We envy the CEO, the actor, the musician, the Dalai Lama, Jesuswe envy everyone who has something that causes what we perceive to be happiness, and we want that happiness. It is a mistake, because happiness does not come from things, situations, money. Happiness comes from inside, from the Consciousness free of conditions. Gluttony We think of gluttony in a superficial way as well, that it is simply eating too much. Most people in the Western world suffer from gluttony. We eat too much; we really do. People in the West assume that we should have meat with every single meal, and eat very rich food with every meal, and expect that is the way things should be. This is a form of gluttony. Gluttony extends far beyond the table. Gluttony is the tendency to over indulge in anything, to be addicted to anything. Many of us are gluttonous with attention; we want attention from others. Lust also wants attention. So, some of our lust could be very gluttonous. Our pride also wants attention, so some of our pride could also be very gluttonous. Gluttony is any craving that does not stop, craving for all kinds of things. Some of us have gluttonous habits with our intellect. We just stuff our intellect constantly, we just always want to feed the intellect, with new ideas, with new theories, with new books, with new teachers, always seeking and seeking. Some of us are very gluttonous with our emotional center, always seeking certain types of sensations to feel in the heart. Maybe we watch too many soap operas or we are into certain kinds of music or we want to be with our friends all the time and we want to feel a certain kind of acceptance and appreciation and we indulge in that and we crave thatl it is gluttony. Some of us are gluttonous with physical sensations, not just on the tongue. We are gluttonous with exercise, with the rush of winning, scoring, running, adding a mile to our belt. Some are gluttonous with shopping, with fashion, with acquiring a profit. The Nature of Defects In each of these cases, we can see the ego has polarities, and it is different in all of us. Just as pride can manifest as shame, laziness can manifest itself as hyperactivity. In addition, along with polarities, there is a pendulum in our reaction to the defects: sometimes we indulge, while sometimes we repress. So we see that all the egos have great diversity and power in us, and you can see now that it is all quite complicated, quite subtle, quite dangerous. These seven defects relate to planets, to forces in nature. They relate to psychological habits, engrained energies that are trapped, and in every case, they want to repeat themselves again and again. They can never, ever, be satisfied; ever. As much money as you may acquire, you will never have enough. As much admiration as you can get from others, it will never be enough. As much lust as you can indulge in, it will never be enough. Desire is insatiable. Do not make the mistake that you can feed it and it will go away, because it will not. No one ever conquer a desire by feeding it. 93. Through the attachment of his organs (to sensual pleasure) a man doubtlessly will incur guilt; but if he keep them under complete control, he will obtain success (in gaining all his aims). 94. Desire is never extinguished by the enjoyment of desired objects; it only grows stronger like a fire (fed) with clarified butter. 95. If one man should obtain all those (sensual enjoyments) and another should renounce them all, the renunciation of all pleasure is far better than the attainment of them. 66

96. Those (organs) which are strongly attached to sensual pleasures, cannot so effectually be restrained by abstinence (from enjoyments) as by a constant (pursuit of true) knowledge. 97. Neither (the study of) the Vedas, nor liberality, nor sacrifices, nor any (self-imposed) restraint, nor austerities, ever procure the attainment (of rewards) to a man whose heart is contaminated (by sensuality). - Laws of Manu, c. 1500 BCE Desire in all forms is animal, bestial, mechanical. It is built from elements from nature that depend on nourishment and that grow on nourishment. Every time we feed a desire, we strengthen it. Every single time that we feed our pride, that we allow our lust to continue, we strengthen it. In other words, we strengthen the cage that traps us. To Break the Cage To become free from bondage, to become liberated, requires that we break the cage. The cage is our own mind. The cage is very complicated, and the only one who can see the cage for what it is, is you. No one outside of you can tell you about the construction of your cage; no one. A great master can give you hintsm and can give you help in the internal worlds. That is why we need to have experiences. That is why we need to awaken Consciousness, to get that help. No person in the physical world can do that for you. People in the physical world can show you the door, but you have to walk through it, and walk you path. No one can do that for you. By self alone is evil done, by self alone does one suffer. By self alone is evil left undone, by self alone does one obtain Salvation. Salvation and Perdition depend upon self; no man can save another. Buddha Shakyamuni, from Dhammapada 165 The only way that the cage can be seen clearly is by an element that is not trapped inside it. In other words, you cannot see the lock from inside the cage. You cannot use the key from inside the cage. You need to get out of the cage. That is why we emphasize these essential skills: awakening the Consciousness from moment to moment, being present, being here and now, being very engaged with observation of all phenomena. Constantly being as vigilant as a soldier who knows that the enemy is right on the other side of those trees and is about to attack and we do not know when and we do not know where and we do not know how but it is going to happen. That is how vigilant we have to be. The enemy is the ego. The enemy is these three demons, these seven demons, these ten thousand demons. The enemy is inside of us, not outside. So, we need to clearly define through our experience the difference between the Essence, the personality, and the ego. Practically speaking, we need to know what they arenot to guess, but to know. We need to know the taste, the sense, the feeling of being awake. We need to know how to evoke it; to be awake, to have our senses activenot just our physical senses, but our internal senses. In this way, we start to engage in the process of freeing ourselves from the cage. When the Consciousness awakens, we can start to see where we are, why we suffer, and how to change it. The way to change it is to free ourselves from these elements. That process is an ongoing and very long process that happens from moment to moment. In each moment, we need to make better choices. Awakening the Consciousness is not something that will happen tomorrow. It will not happen next year. It can only happen right now. It happens by your will: to be present, discriminating the contents of your mind, the movements of your body, making better choices. It happens by being able to recognize that when you are in a conversation with a person and you feel that urgency to be better than that person, and you reject it. That is a triumph. It might seem insignificant in the scale of things, but it is a step, a beautiful step. We need to be making those steps all of the time. In that moment when our senses detect a person that we are very attracted to, we need to make the decision to overcome lust, to not indulge it, to see that person as an incarnation of a divine being, not a play thing for our animal desire. If we can do that, it is a triumph. Energy is transformed. We make a smart decision. We understand something new. This is something that we have to do all the time. Retrospection 67

Then, everyday, at the end of the day, we should set aside some time to reflect on what we did that day; to review the day. We can put as much time into that review as we want, as is needed. We call this retrospection. It is a process in which we sit or lie down, and we extract our attention from the bodies. We let the physical body rest; we stop paying attention to it. Thus, the vital body also rests, and we do not have to pay attention to that. We let our heart come to rest, we let our mind come to rest, and we activate the Consciousnessitself so we pure attention, and we begin to replay the events of the day as they actually occurred. In that review of the day, we sense with our intuition, Did I do right or wrong? Was I hurt? Did I hurt someone? What can I do better? Did I make a mistake? Did I do the right thing? At the place that we do not know and need to understand, we pause and we spend time with that, studying that event as it actually happened, listening to what we feel in our heart, observing the impact of our actions on others and the actions of others on us, and learning how to change. This in a nutshell is the core and heart of Gnostic practice. Everything we do is for that. All of the mantras, practices, prayers, rituals, runes, Meditation techniques, retreat, books, etc. are about this. This is the essence of the teaching; this is the heart teaching: learning how to change. It is a very simple thing, but it requires a very clear understanding of all the pieces, and it requires a lot of energy: a lot of energy. Energy Conservation The problem is that for many centuries we have mistakenly dedicated the vast majority of our energy into creating the cage that we are now trapped in. Lifetime after lifetime, from personality to personality, body to body, we have made a lot of mistakes. We have invested a lot of energy in a lot of bad choices. Fortunately, we made some good choices, too, and because of that, we now have access to the teaching that can free us. If we had been purely evil, we would not be here right now. But, we were not purely good, either. So we need to come up with enough energy to overcome centuries of poor choices. We need a lot of energy. One of the side benefits of learning to be vigilant and to self-observe, to be present here and now, if we make better choices, we transform energy, we stop wasting energy. We start renouncing harmful behaviors. We develop real ethics. We start to realize, Yes, it was fun to hang out with my friends and listen to bands and go to clubs and drink and all that stuff, but I wasted a lot of energy on that, and what did I get from it? Nothing. A lot of suffering, a lot of wasted time. By analyzing our behavior in that way, we start to make better choices, and use our moment to moment existence in better ways, to transform energy in better ways. So, we start to acquire and accumulate energy. Moreover, if we are very serious about this teaching, we conserve our sexual energy, which is a powerhouse. It has the energy to create new bodiesnot just physical bodies, but spiritual bodies, internal bodies. That is what creates the soul, what creates our path. That is the energy that can be used to annihilate the cage, but we have to know how to use it. First, we have to acquire it, not waste it, then we have to use it in a very smart way On retreats like this, we acquire a great deal of energy, not only from the energy that our body is continuously generating from the air we breathe, from the water we drink, from the food we eat, but also from the energy that we are taking from nature and the energy that we are asking for from Christ; as we engage in all of our exercises, we are charging up the body. What are we doing with it? Energy does not sit still, especially this type of energy; it is quite volatile. If we are continuing to allow our mind to be mechanical and habitual, then we are using that energy to feed those habits. But if we are making the effort to be present and awake, then the energy is supporting that effort. Moreover, I will give you a little preview of what will come, that when the retreat ends, you will feel so energized and happy, many students make the mistake of rushing right out and wasting all their energy in explosions of conversation, in socializing, in doing all kinds of fun things, indulging in all kinds of interests, and all of a sudden they find in a day or two they are right back where they were before the retreat started. Be prepared to hold onto that energy. I will remind you again on the last day. So, while we are on retreat, let us use that energy well. 68

Freedom from the cage begins right now; it is up to you. You made the cage, so you can break the cage. To break the cage, you have to see it. Learn to recognize these elements in yourself. Learn to recognize and experience what is Consciousness. When you feel and start to recognize Consciousness, ask yourself, Is it conditioned or unconditioned? Is my Consciousness conditioned by my emotions, by my thought, by sensations in the body, by subtle desires, subtle impulses? Only you can answer that, only you can know. The Goal During the day, when we are observing ourselves and trying to understand all the processes that are happening in ourselves, really what we are trying to is keep the Consciousness unconditioned and free, unmodified, flowing through the three brains and the personality. When the Consciousness is free and unconditioned, it provides a direct connection to our own inner Divine, our Being. That connection is intuition. That is the sense and feeling of what is right and wrong, it is conscience, it is in your heart. It is a feeling of what is true, not a thought; it can come as thoughts occasionally, but its root is in the heartnot as logic; it may be logical, it may be illogical. Real intuition is a nudge, a sense, a subtle thing (in the beginning) in the heart. Intuition senses what is right, what is wrong. It is quiet. It is subtle, precisely because our Consciousness is weak. The more that you can keep your Consciousness, free from the cages of sensation in the body, of impulses in the emotional center, of impulses in the intellect, the more you can keep your vigilance free of all of that, the more attentive you can be to intuition in your heart. Furthermore, when you sit to meditate, it will be easy, because throughout the day you were refusing to be identified with your bodyyou were seeing the body for what it is, just a vessel, a vehicle, filled with sensations that arise and pass awayit is not self. Throughout the day you were recognizing emotions for what they are, sensations in the heartlike and dislike, attraction and repulsion, comfort and discomfort, emotionally speaking, but not being identified or conditioned by them. You see emotions and thoughts for what they are: concepts and ideas that pass in and pass out. So when you sit to meditate, it is quite easy to extract attention from all of those upadis, or conditioning factors, and be pure attention, unconditioned, not desiring. This is the critical factor, this is the defining factor. Not craving, not avoiding, just being: being. That is the Dao. It is the middle path. To be. That is the pure nature of the Consciousness, unconditioned. It simply is. Nothing is lacking. It simply is. We all have that. Through learning these elements in yourself you will access that, and then you will find the source of real happiness, of real contentment, and real peace. You will be able to access it anywhere and at anytime, even in the midst of great difficulty. We need that, not only to deal with our lives right now, but to deal with the difficulties that will come. We need to ability to access and sustain inner serenity, a connection to the divine that can guide us intuitively to what to do at the right moment. So, let us study our cage, let us study our behavior. We present this structure to you. It is somewhat complicated with all the terms, but the more you make the effort to study yourself, the more simple this becomes. The more you meditate, the more natural it becomes, until eventually you do not need the terms, because then you know the taste of each element, so you can proceed without thought, without labels, without concepts. So, if you have any questions, we can talk. Questions and Answers Audience: Sacrifice, how do we do that, what is that, is that like doing charity? Instructor: In all genuine traditions, there are three fundamental factors that are described in different ways. In this tradition we talk about them as birth, death, and sacrifice. To really awaken Consciousness, these three need to be balanced with each other continuously, every day, and in every moment. We talk about birth in a large scale as the birth of the soul. The birth of the soul takes many, many years. We talk about death as the death of the ego. The death of the ego takes many, many years. Third, we talk about sacrifice for humanity. The sacrifice that humanity needs is enormous. So it is something that is a very big work. When we look at those three factors in an 69

achievable way today, and we compare them with what we are capable of today, then we look at how we make choices from moment to moment, from situation to situation. To have these three factors engaged and active is firstly to make choices based on strong conscious ethics. It is the ethics of divinity, not the ethics of a book or of religion. Real ethics come from your Innermost, through your heart. That means that in each action, you are choosing to give birth to the will of God through you. To act from conscience, to do what is right. It may seem like it is small actions in the beginningnot cutting in line, not lying, not gossiping. These types of things that seem inconsequential, but actually have huge consequences. Make choices to reject negative behavior and to adopt positive behavior. That is a combination of birth and death. You are choosing to kill the harmful action and give birth to the beneficial action. That is birth and death, but it is also sacrifice: a sacrifice of selfishness. Each time that you go against your mechanical habit to feed your pride, to satisfy your sense of vengeance or to feed your envy, you are making a sacrifice. You are sacrificing that desire. You are saying, If I indulge in expressing my anger, I am going harm that person. If I say those angry things, I will hurt them, that will be wrong. I should restrain that. You give birth to a new action, you stop the harmful action, and you make a sacrifice on behalf of that other person. That is very beautiful. You have the intention to do good, to be ethical, to act from conscience. So that is the beginning of sacrifice. Sacrifice begins by learning in our every action to do what is right for others, not our self. That is how you study your behavior in preparation to enter into the path of the bodhisattva. Someone who chooses to enter into that path is someone who has already been trained to do for others, not themselves. Entrance into that path is not when you begin that training; you only enter into that path when you have already been trained. To become a bodhisattva begins now in the way I just explained, which develops bodhichitta. Properly speaking, the initiation into the path of the bodhisattva is with the initiation of Tiphereth after the creation of the causal body. That is when someone actually enters into the path of the boddhisattva (the straight path), but to do that, they would need to have been properly trained all the way from the very beginning of their entrance into the work. That training is precisely this: in every action, in every decision, you do what is good for others; you give up your own desires. You give up your own envy, you give up your pride, you give up your own anger, you give up your lust, you give up your gluttony, you renounce your avarice, because all those things harm other people. They create suffering. By recognizing that, you refuse to empower them. That begins here, in each moment, in every conversation, in every turn of the car, in every step down the street, always watching for how your actions, your thoughts, your feelings, impact the people around you, and choosing to act for their benefit and not your own. That is an immense sacrifice. That is the entry way to making the types of sacrifices that humanity really needs. So, that is the very basis in succeeding in awakening the Consciousness. Sometimes we talk about sacrifice for humanity in other ways. Teaching is a good sacrifice. However, not everybody is born to be a teacher. There are many needed roles, necessary roles. If we were all teachers, who would we teach? Some of us need to be the students, too. I know for all of you, it is a sacrifice to listen to me all the time. I really feel compassion for you. I cannot stand to hear myself talk! So, we each have our own role to fill. Some sacrifice for humanity by facilitating, by organizing, some facilitate by donating, sometimes money, sometimes effort, sometimes proof reading, or suggesting. There are many ways to sacrifice, and we each have our own. We each have our own vocation, we each have a role to fill, we each have a place where we are needed, and only we can define. We define it by listening to our intuition, and little by little by the actions that we make. Let me tell you something: I never wanted to be in this chair teachings others. I still do not want to be in front like this. I am by nature a very private, shy person; I do not like attention. Being in front of others is not my choice. It is my choice to follow what I am asked to do by my Innermost. That is a sacrifice I make. It is not easy for me, but I do it because it is requested of me, and it is my role to fill. As much as I do not like it, I will do it. So, for me, teaching is a sacrifice. It is painful for me, and I suffer much by doing it, but since my Innermost is directing me to do it, I continue. 70

In other words, my personality and my ego do not like being a teacher. I have to sacrifice them in order to serve others. So in all likelihood, your sacrifice for humanity will be like that for you, too: your ego, your personality, will not like it. You may have a certain ability that your Innermost wants to use that will force you to confront things about yourself that are uncomfortable, and it may involve things that you are really good at, and that you like doing, but also things that make you uncomfortable; that is sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of our own desire; it is a sacrifice of our energy and time. So, we have to find our own way. Audience: Do you think that lust has to do with depression? Instructor: Sometimes. Audience: Can a person, well we all have lust, but someone with a very strong ego, can that person develop depression? Instructor: Yes. Depression is a repression of energy. Usually it is repressed anger, but depression can be quite complicated. So, what is anger? Usually, anger emerges because of some desire that is not fulfilled; it could be pride, it could be lust, it could be envy. When our envy is not fulfilled, when our lust is not fulfilled, we get angry, and when we do not deal with our anger, and we repress our anger, it becomes depressed. That is, the energy is inverted, suppressed, buried in the mind. Those are layers of submerged psychological conflicts that need to be resolved, otherwise they will transform into illness and kill us. It is quite significant. We all have that in our own ways. Any ego can be engaged in that way, and be transformed in that way. Audience: Can you talk about the subject of what is known as mystical pride? Instructor: Mystical pride is a special form of pride related to spirituality. Mystical pride is that part of the psyche that becomes fat based on its perception of itself in relation to spiritual things. So for example, someone who has memorized the bible becomes very proud of that, and struts around quoting scripture all the time to show off. That is mystical pride. It harms them and it harms others. The problem with pride is that when you allow pride to proliferate in your psyche and in your environment, you are a liar, first of all. We have no cause to be proud, especially spiritually. We are not significant and important. What has spiritual value is our Being. Secondly, pride is harmful because it generates resentment in the people around us. Someone who has mystical pride causes others to be resentful and to be shamed in fact, so it is really harmful. Mystical pride of a teacher drives students away from spirituality. This is a very serious crime. Mystical pride has other manifestations as well. It becomes especially dangerous when we start to have spiritual experiences, especially when we misinterpret them. Every religion in the world has suffered from this. There are many people who have some kind of samadhi or spiritual experience, and then they think that they are a great master, so they go out posing as humble but are really quite arrogant, and telling people to worship and follow them, and that they are master so and so and that every word they speak is important. That is what we call mystical pride. Another word for that is mythomania. It is prevalent in every religion in the world. Every student of religion needs to mindful of this, because mystical pride can emerge in different ways. We all have mystical pride when we think that our spirituality is superior to others. Unfortunately, in the Gnostic movement this is very widespread. There are many Gnostic schools that teach that we Gnostics are superior to all other religions in the world and if you are in a Gnostic school you are better than other people because you have Gnosis. That is an outrageous lie. All it does is feed fear and pride, and create separations between people. It is harmful, it is infectious, it is a negative emotion, and it should be stopped. It is poisoning humanity. You find that in every religion. The Christians think that they will be saved, that they are all going to heaven and no one else is. That is mystical pride. It is harmful to them and it is harmful to others. The Jews think that of themselves, too. So do many Tibetans, many Hindus, many Muslims. So, mystical pride has many forms. Audience: So the ego travels from life to life and gets stronger, but what about our good qualities then? If the personality dies, then what can we take? 71

Instructor: That is a great question, and I am really glad you asked that. I meant to elaborate that, but my brain is not capable of bringing all the pieces together. Audience: Not the color of the hair, how we look that, we are not personality but there are certain things that are more spiritual? Instructor: The Consciousness carries our virtues, if we separate that from the ego. The Consciousness is our Buddha nature, what we call our soul, our Nephesh in Hebrew terms. The Consciousness is a part of the Being; the Consciousness is a part of God that is manifested here in order to engage in this level of existence. As such, in the Consciousness we find all of the virtues and qualities that should be grown in us until we become a great master, a great Buddha, a great angel. The Consciousness is something inherent in all of us. Those divine qualities are the inverse of the seven. So, naturally inherent in the very nature of who we are we find philanthropy, generosity, not avarice. It is spontaneous and natural in us when the Consciousness is unconditionedfor us to be generous, to give, and we see that especially in children that have not been fully incorporated into their own karmic inheritance (ego). Children have moments of beautiful generosity, and a parent or a teacher sees that from time to time. Yet only rarely does it appear in adults, because we have become so conditioned in our karmic inheritance. All of our avarice is conditioned Consciousness that should be generosity. That is why when we meditate, for example, this morning we actually did this practice in which we view a given scene to see the harmful aspect, and then we work to imagine what we should have done. So in that we should be looking for that essential duality. If we acted in a proud arrogant way, we really should have been humble. That is true of all seven. Laziness should be diligence of Consciousness, that willfully wants to work on behalf of others, to do good. That is our true nature. Lust is trapped Chastity, purity. If you see your pure Essence itself, pure, naturally, unconditioned, in the internal worlds, in its natural state, it is so beautiful. In us, because it is undeveloped, it is like a small baby, but it radiates so much beauty. It radiates these qualities: generosity, diligence,Chastity, like a flower but more beautiful than any flower that you have seen in the physical world. Pride is humility. Anger is love. Envy is happiness for others. Gluttony is temperance, restraint. We all have those virtues, naturally, spontaneously, inherently in our true nature, but they have become obscured, conditioned, covered. If you can penetrate the covering and see what is hidden there, you can see the undefiled Consciousness. In Buddhist philosophy, especially in the more advanced forms of Buddhist philosophy, it is stated that the natural state of mind (rigpa) can never be defiled. It is always pure, it is always free and unconditioned. It is in itself, in its Essence, the Absolute, the Emptiness, the purity inherent in all things. In its heart, it cannot be defiled. The example is given of a glass of muddy water. The water is mixed with mud. You would not want to drink that, it would be bitter. But if you let the glass sit and you wait and let it settle, the water appears, pure and clean. Our Consciousness is like that. When we learn to meditate, we are doing the same thing: letting the impurities separate from the original purity. When your mind becomes very still and calm, and your vigilance is very focused and present, that clarity emerges spontaneously. Moreover, you access your true nature, which is the undefiled aspects of the psyche, which are humility, Chastity, purity, happiness for others, etc. Those are natural in us. Anyone of us can access them at anytime. You can make that access more persistent, more consistent and more normal, every time you eliminate an ego. Every time that you choose for that ego to die, to renounce harmful action, you start to extract that free Consciousness. So, from life to life, the Essence trapped in ego moves on, and the ego gets fatter and fatter. Unfortunately, because it is unused, the Essence does not develop. It remains like a seed. Like a 72

seed in the earth that does not grow, that is filled with and surrounded by impurities. If we receive the training, we can start to grow that seed, the Consciousness, through right action, through serving others. If we have grown those elements in previous existences, they are still there, hidden, until we awaken again. So anyone of us who may have done work in the past, restored virtues, established certain qualities in the Consciousness, those are still there, but they may be latent, because we have forgotten how to use them. If you awaken, you recover it. Audience: The ability to concentrate can you take that from life to life? Instructor: The ability to concentrate is the ability to control the flow of your attention. If you developed the Consciousness in previous existencesin other words, if you awakened a certain percentage of Consciousnessthen the degree of concentration could be stronger, but if in the next existence you fall completely asleep, you lose that. As you eliminate ego and awaken you recover it. That is why certain people can enter into a teaching and move very quickly, because they are recovering what they had lost before, but at the same time, those people can go quite quickly and hit a wall, because that is far as they got before, and then they might feel disappointed, they might feel frustrated. They have to realize that about themselves. So yes, concentration is about learning how to pay attention, and it is something that can be recovered, certainly, and also the skill to meditate, as well as learning to get out the body, clairvoyance, and other types of skills. However, these skills can also be residual in the psyche of the person. There are people who did work in previous existencessometimes in witchcraft or black magicwho developed those types of skills, but in those existences could be totally asleep but could be able to get the body or have clairvoyant visions easily. They may have worked in white magic or black magic but they are asleep and happen to have the residue of those previous activities. Unfortunately, if they stay asleep, those abilities will harm them, because they will act in harmful ways. That happens too. Audience: In relation to sacrificing our desires, I find sometimes over a period of time they accumulate and I feel resentment because all my desires havent been fulfilled and I feel quite angry and all this energy. For example my husband is quite willing to help and all that and when he sees me doing something he will come and give me help without even blinking. For example even though he needs to study then after a few days if I ask him to do something there will be this burst of anger. Is there another way that we can sacrifice? It just shows me that. Is there another way we can sacrifice? I find it difficult. I mean we have our needs but we have these desires that come up as well? Instructor: Yes, I totally understand, because I go through that all the time, too. Well, it seems to me the way to overcome that situation and transform that situation is in the moment of making the sacrifices and performing these actions, really be cognizant of your limits, to not compromise too much of your own responsibilities. What I mean by that is that we need to do good and help others, but we need to do it consciously, and with our whole heart. So, for example, when your spouse asks us to do something for them, we should do it without expecting anything in return. We should do it out of love and duty, and do it because we should and it is needed and necessary, and it is our way of helping. Then if we find that we have resentment, we need to correct ourselves. We need to meditate on that resentment and transform it. So it is a process. It is a process that begins when you make those decisions and you offer to do those thingsdo it consciously so that you take responsibility for it, and then if you have unpleasant consequences from that, like the resentment, you have to meditate. That is a great opportunity to transform and grow in your capacity to give. This brings up an important point about sacrifice. We all have a duty to our spouse and to our families, and we have a duty to society, also. Sacrifice is something more than duty. The term sacrifice implies something that is more than just duty. To go to an extreme example, we can look at what Jesus did. Jesus came with a duty to teach and to fulfill a mission, but he did way more than his duty; he really performed an incredible sacrifice, giving up so much in order to help other people. So in that way, we can look at our lives and see the same scenario. For example, if we are part of a Gnostic school, and we are receiving teachings from that school, it is our duty to pay back in kind, in turn. Sacrifice is another thing. Sacrifice is beyond that duty. Sacrifice is something above and beyond. Real sacrifice is often painful and not easy. So I think it 73

is important to make that distinction. I think to really be making sacrifices, we really need to go beyond mere duty, and basic responsibilities. I think sacrifice is more. Audience: What are the seven plants in relation to the forces in nature? Instructor: I meant to say planets. Sorry; it is probably my accent. Those seven planets are related to plants as well, if you look in the book Esoteric Medicine by Samael Aun Weor. He talks about plants related to those planets. In this context, I was talking about seven planets. This is the order of the seven planets: Avarice, which should be generosity: Moon Laziness, which should be diligence: Mercury Lust, which should be Chastity: Venus Pride, which should be humility: Sun Anger, which should be love: Mars Envy, which should be happiness for others: Jupiter Gluttony, which should be temperance: Saturn That is explained in quite a few of the books by Samael Aun Weor if you want to study more about that. Audience: Can the zodiac sign have an influence as well? Instructor: There can be an influence from your zodiac sign because your zodiac sign is a planetary influence as well as a stellar influence. It can energize certain tendencies we have. For example, someone who is a Gemini or an Aquarius is an air sign, and both of them are influenced by Mercury. So this type of person has qualities of laziness or hyperactivity. They are always zooming around. That tendency can be quite mechanical. All the signs have a planetary influence, and that influence extends to the ego. The reason I presented the lecture the way I did was so that we will not get caught in thinking that because we are a given sign related to a given planet that it defines the nature of our ego. It does not. Our zodiacal and planetary influence is an impact that stimulates our personality. In this given existence, the personality has certain tendencies and flavors; that means that we might see certain egos more often, but that does not mean that those egos are our chief feature or are the worst egos we have. They are just the ones that are more visible. Yet, below the surface, are many more that we do not see. There are egos we made in other lives, while under the influence of different zodiacal signs. I know it is complicated, but study it. Study your astrological sign, study the planets that are related with it, study how they influence your behavior, but do not make the mistake that this defines your deepest behavior. It is only the most superficial level. When you find you have a planetary influencesuch as Marsthat influences anger, it brings up anger a lot, so you have to deal with a lot of anger, but it also means that you have a great capacity to love. But remember: that is in the personality not the Consciousness, not the Essence, not the ego. That planetary influence is in the personality, not the ego, so make that distinction. What that means is that just because you are an air sign, or just because you have a planetary relationship with Venus, does not mean that lust is your chief feature. It does not mean that at all, because in your other existences, Venus was not your chief influence, which means that lust is not your chief feature. Audience: In the retrospective Meditation when we find that we did something wrong in the review of the day. When you say meditate on it what exactlyI mean we can recognize what we did? Instructor: Do you remember this morning when I suggested to imagine a person that you love and an image comes up? And then I said look at your heart and how do you feel and you feel something? When you imagine that person, naturally the feelings emerge. That is it. That is to meditate on something. It is very simple; it is not complicated. The problem is that we are so intellectual nowadays, and we think things are so complicated, because our mind is so complicated. Everybody says I do not know how to meditate on the scripture, I do not know how to meditate on what I read. How do you meditate on a dream? It is so simple. Visualize it, and see how you feel. Sometimes thoughts come, sometimes the intellect want to chew on it fine, let it; and if it does not, then it does not. The main thing is the concentration and the 74

visualization and that self-awareness that is looking for how that image is reflecting against our heart. Comprehension comes from the heart, not the intellect. Comprehension is here in the heart; it is intuitive. You can apply that technique to anything, and you should, especially when you study for example. I do not do as much studying as I should, but as a student, when I listen to lectures, I really prefer to meditate during the lecture and after the lecture; that way I isolate myself from any distractions, and I am fully focused and concentrated on hearing the lecture, and letting my imagination show me what is being explained. So I get a lot more than what is said physically. It is something that was taught to me by my teachers, and it has proved to be very valuable. The same is true of scripture. When we are studying scripture and we are trying to understand something that is written in the books or in any scripture, we do the same process. We study, we look at the concept, we look at the message and the teaching, and then we meditate and we imagine that, and we observe the reflection of that in our heart. What do we feel, what do we sense? Sometimes the answer comes through thoughts, through feelings, sometimes through images, sometimes, Oh yes, I remember when I read this other thing... It is simple, it is not complicated. Audience: When we die where do the Essence and ego go, and when we return what determines when we are going to come back? Instructor: We gave a whole course about death. There are also some good books you should read. The book Beyond Death explains all that. Quite simply, when we die, the ego and the Essence are bound by all of the effects of our previous actions. ego and Essence are intertwined with each other and bound in that karma. When the body is dead and the personality and the body are severed from theConsciousness, the ego and the Consciousness are projected out. Their trajectory is determined by the actions that we performed previously, as well as being influenced by that instant of death. Everything that was happening at that moment has an influence on the trajectory of that soul. What happens after that depends on all the consequences of those previous actions. I would suggest that you look at those books and study that course. It is a very deep topic, and there is a lot involved. Audience: I would just like to know if an ego is taking control of your three brains, if you are able to sense it or anything, is there anything that you are able to do in that moment just to sort of break that taking control. Is there mantras or anything like that. I know we can go back later and revisit it and everything but in that instant? Instructor: The most important thing to do is become aware of yourself. Become aware of what is happening to you and really observe it and do not avoid it. Audience: To allow it to flow through say it is an assault or something like that, coming through? Instructor: It depends, and this is something for which you have to listen to your intuition. Let us look at a couple of examples. Let us say, for example, that you have an argument with your spouse. I know you havent [laughter] but if someday it does happen that you have an argument with someone and all of a sudden you realize that you are angry, the first thing to do is really observe yourself, because there is an invader in your psychological house. Unfortunately, we generally make the mistake of believing we are justified of being angry or we repress it. We say No, no I do not want to be angry and we try to avoid it. Both of these are mistaken. The best thing to do is be very aware of it. Sense it. Observe it. Do not push it away, and do not indulge in it. Really become aware of what it is doing to you and what it wants you to do. The second part is to be very careful about what you do next, because that energy will try to express itself in some way. Often what you need to do is walk away from the situation you are involved in, especially in regards to anger and lust. You need to walk away; do something else, at least until you fully regain control of yourself. If you have a strong desire that emergesanger or lust or pride, something like thattry to walk away, calm down, relax. Sometimes you cannot; you have to deal with it. But generally, that is the antidote: analyze yourself, be aware, be sensitive to what is going on in your three brains. Remember your Being. If you do not, it is going to come back, and you might not catch yourself next time. That is the simple answer. 75

Three Modes of Perception

Created on Tuesday, 07 October 2008 23:16 Written by Gnostic Instructor

Another helpful tool is in the moment of feeling a strong ego inside, pray. Pray intensely for help. You can use the Lords Prayer, which is a powerful magical invocation. Ultimately, the real solution is to on meditate on the experience, to recollect it, and get more information through Meditation. You will only be able to succeed if you go beyond what you can perceive with your five senses. You need to see more than what you could see with your eyes and ears and only Meditation can give you that. That is a work of a lot of patience.

The basis of this teaching is direct experience. When we discuss Gnosis, we have to put our mind in the correct position in order to properly understand the nature of the lectures that we hear. In other words, what we discuss, what we examine, and what we explore in these lectures about Gnosticism is direct experience, practical experience not belief, and not simply theory. When we hear the lecture and listen to the topics that are presented, it is important for us to apply it, to experiment. We should not merely take this as something theoretical or merely intellectual, something just for the mind to toy with. To really comprehend and understand what Gnosisis, what Dharma is, it is something we have to work with practically within ourselves, continually. In regard to the nature of the lecture today, it is particularly important to remind ourselves repeatedly that we have to be practical. If this information remains merely as a theory or as something that we contemplate from time to time, its true meaning will continue to escape us, and we will lose time. We will lose an opportunity. When we are born - when we are suddenly injected into this material existence - we begin a cycle that is reflected in all of the different levels of nature. Observe how the seasons arise, manifest, and pass away. Observe how plants and animals are gestated, born, develop, and then begin to age, decay, and die. We ourselves as an organism pass through the same cyclic existence, repeating. Our mind, the mind that we have now, fails to remember this. Our mind produces a kind of illusion that prevents us from seeing the fundamental fact of our existence, not only in the larger scale in context of our life as a whole, but in the moment-to-moment existence of our lives. We are victims of an illusion that is produced within our own psyche, and this illusion is the root of suffering. It is the cause of pain. This is why we emphasize making this teaching practical, now. In the moment. Today. This is not something to think about in the future as if maybe we will become serious about it in the future. There is no such thing as a future. The future is a concept. What exists is now, this moment. It is important for us to grab a hold of that and to utilize this opportunity, to deepen our understanding, to take advantage of life. To not waste it. When we enter into birth, when our Consciousness is born into the little vessel that becomes a baby, this cycle begins. As adults, when we look at children, when we look at babies, or when we look at a newborn, we see a creature that has a quality that is different from us. This creature has a kind of presence or a beauty that is indescribable, that is nearly hypnotic. It is so magnetic and so attractive that we naturally love babies. We love to see the quality that they express naturally: the radiant beauty, innocence, and happiness that is very natural to them. The Hebrew word for beauty is Tiphereth, and in Kabbalah, Tiphereth, "Beauty," refers to the Human Soul or human Consciousness. Tiphereth is a special aspect of the Tree of Life related to the willpower of our Consciousness. When we are born as a baby, the Consciousness that emerges is pure. It is perfectly clean, it is perfectly innocent. It has a radiant quality that is very easy to perceive, and is very naturally happy and joyous. In most cases, in most births, we see babies are naturally beautiful, happy, and radiant. Thus, our willpower (Tiphereth) is pure. 76

Within every human organism can be found this Tiphereth, this beauty. It is a seed. We say it is a seed because the humanConsciousness or the Human Soul in the status of a baby, in that stage of life, is the current level of development of the Consciousnesswithin us, the Consciousness at its level of being. In other words, when you look at a child or a baby, what you see is the pure essence of the human Consciousness, which is that beauty, that innocence. But it is just an embryo. It is just the beginning of what a human being should become. In Buddhism, they call this embryo Tathagatagarba, and that Sanskrit word means "the seed embryo of the Buddha." It is the Buddha nature. It is the potential to become a fully developed Human Being, also called a Buddha. Such a person is an entity that has an awakened Consciousness that is fully developed. Our essence is just the embryo of that. The spark ofConsciousness that we have within is just an embryo that has the potential to grow. Unfortunately, we ignore it. And our own inner beauty (Tiphereth) that by being born has initiated the cycle of life, and becomes conditioned. The human essence, the human Consciousness, begins to be conditioned by its inheritance. There is a great law in nature called recapitulation, and in the process of nature creating any form, through the stages of that creation, nature always recapitulates its origin. This is why when we look at the process of the development of an embryo within the womb, we see how within the womb the embryo of the child begins as a single cell, created by the merger of the chromosomes of the father and mother with the egg and the sperm, which gradually begin to multiply. And that little development begins to change shape and form, and it passes through many stages of transformation. All of those little stages of transformation of the embryo, the fetus, reflect the previous development of the inheritance that is latent within the genes. What we see then is that that development of the fetus is a phenomenon (phenotype), which is the outcome of the genome (genotype), the genes, the inheritance. That inheritance is both material and energetic. It is the inheritance that arrives not only from the parents but from the Consciousness, from that stream of Consciousness, that stream of energy, which is entering into a birth. Now at this moment, you might be wondering, Where did that energy come from? If you have studied any form of science then you have undoubtedly heard of Einstein. Einstein presented a special theory of relativity and some other special theories that revolutionized physics in regards to the way physics is understood in these times. One of the theories that he presented is that energy and matter cannot be destroyed (e=mc2). This is the famous theorem. What that theorem essentially states is that you cannot destroy energy or matter. They can be modified, they can be changed from one into the other, but you cannot destroy matter or energy. When we understand that law and apply it to our own Consciousness, then it is naturally evident that our own Consciousness cannot be non-existent. It can only change. This is clear evidence, in physics, for the continual existence of Consciousness. Yet, it does not exist in a continual state. It changes. It flows through a variety of states. In Tibetan Buddhism these states are called Bardos. Bardo means something like "becoming" or "a state of becoming." Bardos are a variety of states through which theConsciousness passes, depending upon how it is conditioned, depending upon the circumstances that are applied to it. When we look at the course of our own life we see that our state of Consciousness changes many times. We pass through many varieties, or many states of Consciousness. Yet, we still fail to understand what the Consciousness is, what it actually is, how it works. This is the very starting point of this teaching. If you don't understand what the Consciousness is, you can never understand whatGnosis is. Gnosis in itself is experiential knowledge, direct knowledge. But it is not intellectual knowledge and it is not belief. It is not theory. Here, no one asks you to believe anything. On the other hand, we encourage all students to experience, to experiment. But, that experimentation, that experience, cannot be limited to intellectual games, and it cannot be limited to beliefs, or mimicry, or imitation in our behaviors. It has to be experience that we arrive at through our own Consciousness. So this is the starting point: knowing what theConsciousness is, and knowing how it works. 77

In simple terms, we can say that the Consciousness is the capacity to perceive. Simply that. But Consciousness is far more than that. It begins there, it begins with the basic capacity to have perception, which is energetic. The Consciousness is a form of energy that transmits and transforms energy. In Kabbalistic terms, we call our human Consciousness Tiphereth, Beauty. But strictly speaking, Tiphereth refers only to the pure, free Consciousness, unconditioned. When the Consciousness becomes trapped in conditioned states, we call this ego or I. We have a multiplicity of Is or conflicting wills. And as I mentioned, the only time we clearly see that pure, unconditioned part of ourselves in our lifetime is when we are really small, a little baby. Then, it is at that stage of life that we can also see the recapitulation or the reflection of our origin. A long time ago, we were in that pure state naturally. We existed in a state of innocence, a state of purity. A long time ago, the humanConsciousness had no ego. There was no pride, there was no anger, there was no lust. So, when nature recapitulates our development through the growth of the embryo of our body and the growth of our own entrance into life, those early stages of freedom and purity are recapitulated. As a baby grows, its inheritance arrives. That inheritance is both physical and psychological: it is matter and energy. It is the inheritance that is arriving due to cause and effect, or in other words, karma. Just as Einstein pointed out, you cannot destroy energy, you can only modify it. What this really points out to us is a law of physics called invariance. Invariance states that if an energy begins at a given level, and that energy is moved, it must inevitably return back to its point of origin. That energy must become equilibrated. This is a law of physics. As an example, you can see invariance in the movement of the ocean. When wind strikes the water and a wave is formed, projecting the water forwards, the water will naturally recede in order to balance that energy, until it resides back again in its original state. Thus we see the water surging forward and then back. This is the law of invariance in action. In Sanskrit, this is called karma. Karma is simply the law of cause and effect. Energy and matter are ruled by cause and effect. The other implication of that theorem e=mc2 is that energy becomes matter and matter becomes energy, and there is a constant flow, or exchange, back and forth, between matter and energy. There are transformations that are always occurring in nature between matter and energy. There is a great interaction that is occurring right now, in every level of existence. Energy uses matter and matter uses energy. When you really start to investigate the nature of that law, you see how mysterious and wonderful it is. Sadly, it is poorly understood by the common person. Most people nowadays, in their understanding of science, in their understanding of just simple physical matter, are still several centuries behind those who are educated in science. Most people have a way of perceiving the world and a way of perceiving each other that is centuries behind even what materialistic science says, to say nothing of what the esoteric sciences say. We all suffer from this point of view, not understanding the way physics actually works, not understanding the nature of matter. I will give you an example. In quantum physics, in the analysis of quanta, or particles of light and other energies, it is now understood that your physical body is mostly empty space. The atom itself is mostly empty space. But your mind produces the illusion that your body is a solid, existing, permanent thing, even though it is not. It is mostly empty. It is mostly nothing. In reality, the body consists of a variety of particles that have come together due to certain causes and conditions, and when any one of those causes or conditions suddenly changes, your body will cease to exist. There is a very delicate balance of matter and energy that gives us the opportunity to be alive, to give this body the opportunity to exist. That same delicate balance is what provides us the opportunity to have theConsciousness in manifestation in a physical body, and to have the ability to perceive. Not only do we mistakenly believe the physical body is solid and real, we also believe it is our identity. We make the assumption that the body is who we are. We might not think or believe that, and we might believe that we have a soul, but we do not really know what the soul is. Nonetheless, in our behavior, we demonstrate consistently that because we only perceive the body, we believe 78

that the body is our identity. But the physical body is not our identity. The physical body is impermanent. When we look at nature, we see that everything in nature has a cycle of life. All physical, existing organisms are born, grow, develop, decay, and die. This is impossible to deny. We ourselves are subject to this invariable law. But the law of invariance states when you set an energy in motion, that energy must return back to its original point of departure, it must be balanced. What this tells us is that during the course of our existence we initiate the flow of many types of energy. We initiate flows of energy in our intellect, which is a form of energy that relates to matter. We initiate flows of energy through our emotional center, which is an energy that relates directly to matter. And we initiate energy in our physical actions. All of those energies are streams, or forces, that are put in motion through our will, through our own use of Consciousness: Tiphereth, willpower. We use our Consciousness and we use our organism according to our will, or so we think. In every moment we put energy in motion. In every moment, we use our willpower (whether conditioned or unconditioned) to propel energy. When death arrives and the physical body begins to decay, all of the energy that we propelled during our lifetime does not cease to exist. It continues in its motion, because it must be satisfied. Remember: you cannot destroy energy or matter. They merely change form. An energy set in motion must be set back in balance. This is the nature of invariance, also called karma. The propelled energy is united with its initiator. That is us. Our Consciousness propels energy, and must receive the consequences. Thus, when the physical body dies, the Consciousness (energy) returns into a new body (matter) because it must. Invariance, karma, is why we are born again and again. We take a new birth, a new body, without even wanting it, because of the actions we set in motion in the past. Thus, at birth, our free Consciousness arrives into a body, and little by little the conditioning of our past actions begins to condition us, and we receive our energetic, psychological inheritance. This is how we can see - from one lifetime to another lifetime - cycle of behaviors, cycles of patterns. In this way we can understand why certain people are born with certain talents, gifts, understanding, or habits. This is how we can understand how children arrive knowing a lot of things spontaneously, without being taught. That is because the Consciousness is beyond the body. This is not all. The human Consciousness is a seed. That seed has the potential to become something more, like any seed in nature. When we look at nature and we observe, for example, a great tree, we see that the tree came from a seed that was quite small. Because of the conditions that surrounded it and the forces of nature in activity, that tiny seed became an amazing tree. That tree, in turn, generates seeds, and those seeds then enter into their own challenge, which is to become great trees. In mechanical nature, that process unfolds automatically, according to the laws that manage that level of existence, but in the human Consciousness things are different. The difference is because of will. The human organism is put in a unique position because it sits in a unique place in the cycle of nature. The human organism needs to develop individual will. The tree of our example also exists psychologically, spiritually, consciously, and we call it the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is also called the Kabbalah. It is called Yggdrasil. It is called Kalachakra. This tree has many names in many traditions throughout the world. TheTree of Life is a map. It is a diagram that reflects the structure of creation. In Kabbalah, it is usually illustrated as ten spheres organized in a pattern. The Tree of Life not only maps our human Consciousness in its many levels; it also maps the dimensions of nature. They reflect each other. We see the microcosm and the macrocosm. Tiphereth, our percentage of pure human Consciousness, sits directly in the middle of the Tree. When we enter into a physical body, the Consciousness descends from its normal habitation in the sixth dimension (Tiphereth) into physical matter, represented by the sephirah Malkuth. And thus is initiated that cycle of life, and all those energies are put into motion. What the Tree of Life shows is a vertical path, symbolized by Jacob's ladder in the Bible. Jacob's Ladder is the structure of creation upon which beings ascend and descend. While some are rising to more elevated states of Consciousness and more elevated levels of being, others are descending 79

into more degenerate states, to more inferior levels of being. The physical world is between the two great levels, the superior and inferior, what some call Heaven and Hell, or in Sanskrit terms we would call Samsara and Nirvana. These are levels of bliss and levels of suffering that oppose each other, and between them is this physical world. The Tree of Life is a map of states of Consciousness (bardos), and any religion, any true religion, explains the science one needs in order to reach more elevated levels of Consciousness. Conversely, any form of black magic explains the science you need in order to become more degenerated and enter into more inferior levels of Consciousness. When we enter into life, we enter into the horizontal path, which directly crosses this vertical path. So then we see two paths, or two lines of life, one horizontal and one vertical, and they cross each other. This is one of the meanings of the ancient cross, again a symbol that is found in every religion throughout the world. From birth to death, every organism walks the horizontal line. But unfortunately, because of our past mistakes, humanity in these times ignores the Consciousness, does not understand the laws of invariance, the law of karma, the law of cause and effect. Humanity now believes that we as individuals can do whatever we want, pursue whatever desires we have, pursue any course of action that we intend, without consequence. We ignore the law of invariance. And because of that, all the human organisms who enter into birth and march steadily towards death, initiate cycles of energy within one life and within repeated existences, which invariably drag them down. As we create, act upon, and stimulate our anger, we set in motion cycles of energy that belong to the inferior worlds, Klipoth, the world of the shells, the world of the empty shells, what is also called Hell. Hell, or Avitchi, or Averno, the inferior worlds. Anger, lust, gluttony, envy, greed, laziness: all of these qualities are inferior states, inferior wills or desires, that condition the Consciousness to feed them and act according to their will. When anger comes into us, all we can think about is anger, and we feel that, and we want to act upon it. And when we do, whether we act upon it simply in the mind or through the heart, we initiate these activities, these energies that put in motion the law of invariance. Our Consciousness is trapped within that energy. As the initiator of that energy, it belongs to us, and thus that energy begins to flow, but it belongs to the inferior worlds. So, when we expand our perception here and look at the whole of humanity, we can see why humanity is becoming worse and worse from day to day. Because of our psychological addictions, because of our egotistical addictions, because of our ignorance, humanity is degenerating. We ignore the fundamental laws that govern nature. We ignore that there is a vertical path, and that our actions determine whether we ascend or descend. Those actions are not merely physical actions they are actions of the Consciousness(will) in the mind, in the heart. This is why in the Gospels Jesus said, "If you even look at a woman with lust, you have committedadultery." If you even LOOK at her with lust, you have committed adultery in your heart. The crime is committed, even if you had not performed the act physically. So we see here a grave responsibility in how we utilize our energies. That responsibility is not merely for our own well-being, it is also for the well-being of others. When we have angry thoughts towards a person, that energy affects them. We can make someone sick. But unfortunately, we remain unaware of this. The reason is because we have never learned how to grow our own embryo ofConsciousness, our own soul. When we are born as a baby, the Consciousness enters into life, we have that beauty, that purity, that innocence, but our own inheritance from our past actions begins to enter into us. And if you have ever raised a child, you know how dramatically they change from ages 3 to 8. They can have a complete reversal of character and become a completely different person. What happens during that time is that the ego (willpower trapped in selfish desire) that was created in past existences begins to manifest due to invariance. All those desires, all those unresolved energies, begin to enter into the organism. This is because the human being, the human organism, does not develop immediately. Like any thing in nature, like a tree that grows slowly over time, the human organism develops in periods through life, developing itself, growing slowly, and so all those energies arrive gradually, and we see those changes that enter into us. But what happens when those desires arrive, 80

when our inheritance arrives, is that the Consciousness becomes hypnotized by those desires once more. When we were babies, our free Consciousness was there: awake, pure, perceptive. But as we begin to grow and develop and our own inheritance arrives, the Consciousness becomes entranced once more with all of its old fears, with all of its old longings, with all of its traumas. All of the desires, and anger, and envy, and gluttony, all of the elements that we had previously set in motion, arrive. The child becomes conflicted, fearful, angry, resentful, gluttonous, lustful, proud, or ashamed. And those problems begin to overlap and become very complicated. We begin to suffer. And that suffering only grows, because our Consciousness, that beauty, has fallen asleep. This is illustrated in the Greek myth of Psyche, when Psyche falls to sleep. This is a symbol of how our own Consciousness falls asleep. And all the great fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, all represent how desire intoxicates the Consciousness and puts it to sleep. You may find it strange, but this teaching tells us that all of us are asleep right now. Our own Consciousness is not awake. We might be here and have perception, but that perception is filtered and conditioned by the "I", by the ego, and thus the Consciousness is dozing. It is not fully awake and attentive the way it was when we were children. And if you want proof of that, just take a quick second to reflect on how many times you lost the thread of this lecture since it began. How many times were you distracted into thinking about something else? Or going off and wondering about something that happened this morning or something that will happen later today, or daydreaming about something you heard in that past, or about something you have to do? All of those distractions, discursive thoughts or feelings, are those egos or "I's", memories, images, sounds, that surge within our mind, that condition our Consciousness and give us the great difficulty to remain attentive, to be present, to be here and now. All of us suffer from this problem. We have a very weak Consciousness. It takes enormous effort to train the Consciousness and develop it, to strengthen it, to be present, to be attentive, to be concentrated. To direct our Consciousness with conscious will takes a lot of discipline. It only takes an instant of distraction to fall asleep again. This is why all the great religions emphasize watchfulness, awakening, mindfulness, or as we call it, Self-observation, Self-remembering. You may have studied these things in depth, but that is meaningless if you are not performing it right now. To perform Self-observation or mindfulness or watchfulness, is not something you can just start and walk away from, the way you start a car or any engine. It is not mechanical. It is conscious. It has to be continually maintained. This is not an easy thing to do for us, who are like babies. The baby does not have yet the strength to crawl, to walk, to run, and our Consciousness is the same. It is in an infantile stage, and needs to be grown, needs to be developed, nurtured. The food for the Consciousness is in the scriptures of all the religions. The food for theConsciousness is in its use and activity. It is in Meditation. So it is good and useful for us to study, to feed the Consciousness with good things, but the most important thing we can do is to use it. To activate it. To pay attention to ourselves, and what we are doing. In Buddhism, the worlds of existence are represented by the Wheel of Life: the Bhavachakra, the Wheel of Becoming. This wheel is in the grip of a demon. His name is Yama. This demon represents the God of Death. This whole wheel represents the cycle of suffering that we ourselves have initiated, and we continue to initiate so long as we act ignorantly. All the beings who dwell throughout the worlds that are depicted on the wheel suffer from Wrong View. They do not see reality.

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It is worth noting that the worlds that are illustrated here range from the hells up to the heavens, in the same way that you see on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The physical world is there, too. The Axis of Suffering In the axle, the very point around which the entire wheel rotates, are three animals. These three animals represent three essential qualities that keep the Wheel of Suffering in motion. The first one is a pig. The second one is a rooster, or a bird. And the third one is a snake. These three represent Ignorance, Craving, and Aversion. Ignorance in Sanskrit is "avidya." This ignorance does not refer to a lack of education. It is ignorance of the true nature of existence. This is the greatest problem that exists. When we talk about ignorance, we tend to think of it as to not be educated, or to not have a scholastic or intellectual education. This is not what we are referring to. Ignorance in this case is the root cause of all suffering, and ignorance in this form is that we ignore reality. Not just as an idea and not just in our theories or our beliefs, but practically, in our ways of behaving, in our ways of perceiving. We do not perceive reality. We have the illusion that we do, and unfortunately in these times, not only does our own false ego or "I" produce that illusion of knowing or seeing reality, but science is making it worse. Now we have this mistaken idea that science in these times is unraveling all the mysteries of life, and our media is doing everything they can to support that mistaken idea. But if you step back, you will see that our science reverses itself continually. They will make one statement and fight and fight to affirm its truth and fact, and a short time later, they will say, "Oh, sorry, we were wrong it is actually like this." And then they will revise it again. We cannot rely on the opinions of others or the doctrines or dogmas of others for the perception of the truth. The only way to arrive at Correct View is through our own Consciousness. This is the first step of the Eight-fold Path that was taught by the Buddha Shakyamuni. The first step is Right View. First, he stated that all life is suffering. Then he stated that all suffering is born from illusion. Then he said there is a way to overcome suffering. And that way is, firstly, Right View: to learn to see. Once more: that way of seeing is not with an idea. It is not by simply believing or disbelieving what I am explaining. It is by training your own Consciousness to see. To perceive, without condition, without any conditioning, without any filter. 82

Right View is not based in physical senses, either. The Consciousness itself is far beyond the senses. The Consciousness is far beyond the brain. Far beyond the body. People have out-of-body experiences in surgery or after death or while sleeping. This demonstrates that their Consciousness is not tied to the body. We can experience this for ourselves, when we learn the tools, when we awaken our Consciousness and learn how to direct it, by will. We can experience these things. But for us to do that, we have to first learn how to see What Is, to begin to overcome this ignorance we are submerged within. What we ignore, firstly, are the other two animals on this Wheel of Life, at the axis. We ignore aversion and craving. These are psychological phenomenon. We ignore desire, in other words. Craving and aversion are the two sides of desire. When we crave, we are trying to pull something towards us. When we have aversion, we are trying to push something away. It is this pendulum between craving and aversion that produces suffering, and we ignore that pendulum. That pendulum is in activity in this instant, in you, and in me. That pendulum is how the mind is fluctuating, always, between "for" and "against." "Do I believe this or do I not believe it?" "Do I accept it or do I reject it?" "Does it scare me or does it excite me?" "Do I like it or do I not?" That is the pendulum. That is what the mind does. We play games with yes and no in the intellect. We play games with like and dislike in our heart. We play games with "it feels good" or "it feels bad" in relation to sensation. It is this pendulum, that is always swinging, that we ignore. Because of our ignorance, we initiate cycles of suffering. Due to this, we never realize that the repeating cyclical habituation, being hypnotized by our own intellect, our own emotions, our own sensations, is dragging us downwards, whether quickly or slowly. All of the organisms on this planet who are infected with the ego are sinking into the Abyss (Klipoth). This is why life is becoming more and more complicated. The Tree of Life, at the bottom, is extremely dense and complex, with many laws conditioning those levels of life. At the very top, life is very simple. As the Ray of Creation descends, energy and matter become more complicated, more dense, more painful. In Dante's Inferno, as Dante began to descend into the Inferior Worlds, he saw how suffering increased every time he went down one more level. Of course, there were nine spheres, just like in the Aztec and Mayan traditions there are nine hells and nine heavens. Same in the Nordic. Same in the Christian. Same in the Jewish. Same in the Buddhist. They all have nine heavens and nine hells. Why is that? The conditioning of the Consciousness into the ego causes the Consciousness to sink. This is why we suffer. The pendulum of identification is self-produced. We initiate that. But we do not like to admit it. We prefer to blame others for our suffering. We do not realize that we, ourselves, produced the consequences that we experience. That is why the Bible says we will reap what we sow. This is Karma. This brings up an important point about the Infernal Worlds: God does not punish us, we punish ourselves. God does not punish us for our anger. Our anger punishes us. But we do not see that. We refuse to take responsibility. When we have anger, we suffer. When we have lust, we suffer. The same is true of every ego: Fear. Envy. Gluttony. They all condition the Consciousness that was once pure, and they cause us to suffer. No one is to blame for that but us. We created it. When we became identified with a desire, when we became entranced with some craving or some desire to avoid something else, we initiated a cycle of energy that must be satisfied. But unfortunately, when we become identified with desire, the outcome is suffering, always. Desire can never be satisfied as a desire. As much as you try to feed lust, it only becomes stronger. It only becomes a fire that burns. The more you try to feed greed and satisfy greed, the more it consumes you. And all of our great literature is about that. What else was Shakespeare writing about? What else was Homer writing about? It was that. But we ignore it. We think we can get away with it, because we lack the perception to see the consequences.

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We fail to grasp that before us is that vertical path, and our every action defines: Are we acting in a way that will cause us to rise as aConsciousness, to raise our Level of Being? Or are we acting in a way that will cause us to sink? Action is not limited to physical matter. By action we mean as a Consciousness, how are we acting? Our actions as a Consciousness produce energy that relates to matter. If we become tempted to steal something, we initiate a flow of energy related to theft, and we condition the Consciousness to enjoy that sensation of stealing. For us it feels normal, it feels right, and we have justifications for that. That is why when the police catch shoplifters, shoplifters never believe that they are doing something wrong. Very rarely do they see that they are doing anything wrong. They believe they are doing something good. They feel justified in doing it, and that is because their Consciousness has become conditioned. The same is true of an alcoholic. We all know that alcohol destroys the cells of the body. Destroys it. And yet all around us is advertising to celebrate alcohol, to encourage its consumption. And there are many who defend it, rigorously, and who actively consume it, ignoring the simple fact that alcohol is destructive. They willfully destroy themselves. The same is true of lust. The same is true of gluttony. We know we should not overeat, we know we should not overindulge, but we do it. We ignore that there are consequences. This is why it becomes very curious, this depiction that we have of Hell that somehow hell is God's punishment. But it is not. It is actually the natural consequences of energy that has been put in motion. When you consciously perceive Hell, as Dante did, which he wrote about, you can understand this. In reality, hell is a place that was put in place out of compassion, to give us another chance. If we do not do the work to free theConsciousness in our physical life and our time runs out and our karma is too heavy, then nature has a great cleanser, a recycling plant, that will purify us of all those mistakes, and we will recycle and have another chance to try again. Hell is not the way that it is depicted in our religions: A place of eternal damnation and great physical pain. Physical pain is nothing compared to the pain of hell. If you reflect on the greatest anguish that you have ever experienced or seen, I am talking about emotional suffering that is a window into what hell is like. It is not physical pain, it is conscious pain. We can avoid that experience. The way we do it is learning how to perceive correctly. In this very instant, this very moment, right now, there is a door. The door is not outside of you. It is not in your brain, it is not in your heart, it is not in your body. It is yourConsciousness. Your Consciousness is a doorway to ascend or descend. As a person, as a soul, as a Consciousness. If you use yourConsciousness wisely, if you put in motion energies that are proper, in harmony with nature, then you set in motion causes and consequences that will naturally cause you to become elevated. You do not have to believe anything. This is a law of nature. If you start to perform good things, truly good things, in your mind, in your heart, and in your physical actions, it is a law of nature: you will start to ascend. This is why in the Hindu traditions, for example, people who have committed great crimes are often given a lot of Seva, or selfless service, to begin their work; a lot of Karma Yoga, to perform a lot of charity. To go and serve the lepers, to go and serve in a clinic or a hospice, to assist the dying, to work in places that are painful and difficult simply out of sacrifice and love. And that is because that service, that performance, turns the course of their life. There are many levels of that type of activity. The most important ones are psychological, not physical. The path to ascend to Heaven, or to Nirvana, is in this exact moment. It is not in the future, it is now. You can only enter that door by being aware of yourself, by activating your Consciousness. By fighting against the habits of your mind. We have to become Tiphereth. The symbol of Tiphereth in the mysteries of Northern Europe is Lancelot, the knight, the warrior, the fighter. Odysseus. Hercules. These great warriors. Aeneas. Jason. All of these warriors or fighters symbolize the necessity for theConsciousness to fight against the dragon, the demon, and that dragon is our own desire. Not just lustful desire. The desires of pride, the desires of anger, the desires of envy. Hercules fought 84

against the Hydra, which had seven heads, and those are the Seven Capital Sins. The Seven Defects. Laziness, Lust, Avarice, etc. That doorway is here within us, if we choose to use it. The Bible talks about this in many ways, when we look into the Hebrew or Christian Bible. In the Book of Proverbs, which is an old Jewish text, there is a very Kabbalistic explanation, in the second and third chapters. When I say "Kabbalistic," what I mean is: the work is written as a form of poetry, but the Hebrew words hide the Tree of Life. They hide a deeper esoteric meaning, Kabbalistic meaning. To understand this, let me explain a little bit about this Tree. When you understand that this vertical path is the Tree of Life we are here in this moment in the physical world (Malkuth) the capacity to elevate our own Level of Being, our own Consciousness, is in this moment. We can begin to learn how to perceive more than this physical world, including other dimensions that interpenetrate it. At the top of the Tree of Life we have a triangle called the Solar Logos. This triangle has three spheres which in Hebrew are called Kether, Chokmah, and Binah.

Kether means the Crown. The Bible often talks about the Crown of Life. This is that Crown. This is the Father, Brahma. The second one is Chokmah. This is the Hebrew word for Wisdom. In Sanskrit, this would be Vishnu, or Bodhi, for wisdom. This is the Sun, the Christ. The third sphere is Binah, which usually is translated as Intelligence, or Understanding, but is directly related to perception. In Christianity this sphere is called the Holy Spirit. These three spheres are the Tri-Kaya, the three bodies of the Buddha, which reside at the very root of our Consciousness, but undeveloped. They are there in potential, but there nonetheless, for us to give birth. When our Consciousness is fully developed, we then have elaborated our own Tree of Life, at the top of which are the three bodies of the Buddha, the three glorious bodies of the Soul. Immortality, perfect knowledge. Paramarthasattya, which means "perfect happiness, perfect truth, perfect knowledge." That is the ultimate potential that we have. That doorway in the vertical path to ascend those levels is through the use of the Consciousness now, in this very moment. Not by believing or thinking, but by using energy and matter wisely. The three spheres at the top are the Trinity, the three-in-one, the three forces that are behind all of creation. So in the Book of Proverbs, we find a short passage which reads, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. Remember I said that wisdom is Chokmah. Understanding is Binah. So this phrase is saying, "True happiness, true freedom from suffering, is acquired by the one who can incarnate these two aspects of our own Inner Buddha." For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof of fine gold. She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her. 85

Proverbs is usually read in these days quite literally as nice poetry, but it actually hides the same teachings that the Buddha gave. True beatitude, true happiness, is in the heights of Consciousness that we have latent within us. The Lord by wisdom (Chokmah) hath founded the earth (which is us: our physical body is the earth). By understanding (which is Binah, the Holy Spirit) hath He established the heavens. The heavens are these nine spheres above the physical world. By His knowledge the depths are broken up. Knowledge. By the knowledge, which is the opposite of ignorance, are the depths broken. The depths are the hells, Klipoth. In other words, by knowing ourselves, by acquiring Gnosis of ourselves, we can escape suffering. We can conquer Hell. That Hell is here. It is not after death. We experience it every day. We carry Hell around with us. Hell is a state of Consciousness. It is a place, too. But more than that, it is a state of being. If you observe the life of any alcoholic you can see very clearly that they live in Hell. If you observe the life of any thief, any murderer, any adulterer, pretty much any person on this planet now, you can see that their life is a hell. To their own level, and according to the circumstances. Life is a lot of suffering. The opportunity is there for us to escape that suffering, and the opportunity is within us. When wisdom entereth into thine heart (wisdom is Chokmah, Christ) and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul (theConsciousness) discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh fro-ward things, who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the fro-wardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked. To deliver thee from a strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgeteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead. None that go into her return, neither take they hold the path of life. This is cause and effect. The passage is basically saying: When you receive the light of Consciousness, Christ, in your heart, when you begin to pay attention to yourself and utilize those forces actively, you begin to find happiness. But that happiness has nothing to do with circumstances. You might be in good circumstances or bad circumstances, but still you are happy. That happiness is unconditional. Instead, most of us do not find pleasure in that knowledge. Instead, we are deceived by the voice of the harlot, Jezebel. That is our own mind. Instead, we pursue our craving for comfort, for security, for sexual pleasure, for our lust for money, for our greed. To conquer others. To scramble to the top of this dunghill of humanity. For what? All of that type of activity, the activity that is so celebrated in our world now to get rich, to get famous is really just scrambling around in Klipoth, the kingdom of shadows. None of that lasts. All of it is impermanent. As rich as you may become, you have no guarantee of happiness. As famous as you may be, you have no guarantee of long life or health. And no guarantee to raise your level of being. We have to break the illusion that our ego tells us. We have to understand that real happiness has nothing to do with physical circumstances. In the book The Revolution of the Dialectic, Samael Aun Weor addressed this very plainly. What is understood by happiness? Are we sure that we are happy? Who is happy? I have known people who say, I am happy! I am content with my life! I am joyful! But I have heard these same people say, Such a fellow bothers me! I dislike that person! I do not know why I cannot get what I have always desired! Therefore, they are not happy; what really happens is that they are hypocrites, that is all. To be happy is very difficult; for that, one first of all needs to be meek. The word beatitude means inner happiness, not in a thousand years, but now, right here, in the instant we are living. That happiness can come to us when we develop correct perception. There are three terms that we are going to talk about: Parakalpita Paratantra 86

Paranishpanna These come from the Yogacharya school of Buddhism. The Yogacharya school of Buddhism is most associated with Asanga and the Buddha Maitreya. 1. Parakalpita The ignorance that we suffer from now is because of a certain mode of perception that we have. A certain way of seeing which is caused by the conditioning that our ego produces. In Sanskrit this mode of perception is called Parakalpita. Kalpita relates to something that is illusory, something that is false. This mode of perception is a view of life that is projected by the ego. In other words, we project our view. Our ego projects it. We see life simply as a physical thing, we only believe our five senses. And then we see everyone else as if they have the same point of view. Meaning, that we think everyone else sees things the way we do, as physical matter. If we have the focus entirely on money, on becoming famous, then we have this view and mistaken perception that everyone else must see things the same way. And so we compete with everyone else. We project our point of view, but it is an illusion, it is a lie. This kind of identification is produced by desire. And when we say that desire produces identification, we can say that when we have a desire that arises within us, it causes us to forget everything else. We forget everything else and our focus becomes entirely on that desire, so we lose perspective. We forget the bigger picture. And then we begin to pursue that desire at all expense. Once again, we return to the example of an alcoholic. Someone who is desperately craving their next drink only sees that desire and will do anything to get it. The same occurs with a drug addict. They will do anything to satisfy that urge, to feed that addiction, to feed that sensation. When we become angry, when our anger is very strong, all we can see is the anger. Everything that appears to us is filtered by that anger. And so we project the point of view of that anger on everything. When we are out of work, out of money, at the brink of poverty, our fear affects everything we see. That ego, that form in the mind, discolors our entire mode of perception. In other words, we do not see the whole picture. We fail to see the reality. This mode of perception is the mode of perception that all of us are existing within from moment to moment. But we ignore it, because our Consciousness is asleep. We are not seeing those impulses that strike us physically, to act in certain ways, that strike us emotionally, to feel certain things, to crave certain things, to avoid others, and that strike us in the mind as thoughts. We think this body is who we are, our thoughts are our real self, and our feelings are genuine. And this is all mistaken. And it can all be demonstrated as mistaken if we awaken our Consciousness. The adulterer who becomes identified with her desire for another person becomes so absorbed in that lustful desire that she forgets her spouse. She forgets her children. This is Parakalpita, the mode of perception that is illusion. It is a distorted picture. This form of identification is very evident when we watch television. We do not like to hear this. We really like TV. But when we watch TV and movies, we completely forget about ourselves. We become the movie. We become so identified with the story or the characters that we feel emotions. Our body will jump. We feel our pulse racing. We sweat. Because of something, an illusion, that is playing out on a little screen, that has hypnotized us, completely hypnotized us. We become so absorbed that we feel all kinds of emotions and thoughts and sensations that are not ours. All of those thoughts and emotions and sensations are transactions of energy. They are a waste of energy. How can we say that this experience has improved our lives? That this has made us better people? How can we say that the few minutes we watch of a show and the few minutes we watch of commercials are good for us? When really, all it is is a form of programming. They even call it that. You know what "programming" means? Conditioning. When you program something you condition it to behave in a certain way. The television is programming you to behave in a certain way. To mimic the actors and actresses, to act like Al Pacino, or to act like your other stars that you like, to behave like them. It is also programming you to have certain kinds of humor, to indulge in your lust, to express your anger, to celebrate your envy, and to buy all the products that they 87

desperately want you to buy. This is not beneficial for anyone except the actor or the advertiser, who is like a great vampire, sucking the blood (energy) of humanity. This forgetfulness of self is the very ignorance at the root, the core, of the Wheel of Suffering. And this is why we always return to this point of view: pay attention. Be here now, be in your body, do not forget. Be very aware of how you use your energy in each moment, because it has a consequence, a direct consequence. Understand that if you learn how to overcome identification, you can begin to use your energy in a way that is harmonious with the development of your Consciousness. That is why in Proverbs, it says, "The fruit of the righteous is a Tree of Life." Righteous does not mean someone who believes. Someone who is righteous is someone who behaves properly. That behavior is not physical, it is conscious. It is behaviors in the mind and the heart. Behaviors of the Consciousness, which are both beyond the body, and with the body. If we are ignoring even the laws in the physical world, if we do not know how to behave in accordance with the laws here for example, with our continued addictions to lust and alcohol and drugs and money and all the other things that we are addicted to that is just here in Malkuth. We also have to learn how to act in harmony with all the other laws that modify nature, in all the other planes ofConsciousness. This is not easy to do. It is impossible to do if our Consciousness is asleep, because we will have no awareness of those places. We have to develop that awareness by starting here and now. As another example of how we ignore the Law and rely too heavily on science, there is this materialistic idea of how things function. To demonstrate for you that we really do not know what science is and not even science knows what matter is: Did you know that in recent experiments with a single particle, the scientists project that particle toward a card that has two holes, and that single particle can pass through both holes at the same time, and emerge on the other side as a single particle? The scientists are dumbfounded. How can that one thing be in two places at the same time? They can prove that it happens, but they cannot explain it. This is because matter and energy function in ways that our physical senses cannot perceive. Nonetheless, our Consciousness can see it, and that is how the Buddha discovered the atom 2500 years ago, and understood the functions of energy. Because he could see it. 2. Paratantra The fruit of the righteous is a Tree of Life. We need to learn a new mode of perception. This is called non-identification. But this non-identification comes in stages, it comes in levels. In the first form, Parakalpita, we are identified with the illusions that are projected by our own mind, illusions that are self-produced, that are part of our karmic inheritance. This is the illusion of the "I", our false "I". To go beyond that, we have to learn to start seeing things as they truly are, and this is called Paratantra. The word Tantra means "continuum" or "stream." Para is "beyond." So, the mode of perception called Paratantra is where we learn to start seeing beyond the stream, beyond the continuum. To see beyond what is apparent, and to see what is. Now, let me explain once more: this mode of perception is beyond Parakalpita. It is beyond identification. In this level, we are trying to move into perceiving nature or reality or any phenomenon as it truly is. The term for that in Sanskrit is Paratantra. Paratantra is a way of seeing that has two aspects. Paratantra has two modes, or two levels. Once we have started to break our identification with the ego, we start learning how to really self-observe, to really Self-remember, to really be present, to really awakenConsciousness. Then we start to see objects as they are. As we are now, we do not. We see things through our projected illusion. But someone who is beginning to awaken Consciousness begins to start seeing things in a new way, and first is impure: impure perception related with Paratantra. It is impure because they are still only seeing things in terms of the Wheel of Samsara, the wheel of illusion, the wheel of life. So, as an example: When we are identified with the ego, we would see a rope and we would think it was a snake, and we would become afraid. There is no snake there, and if we really awaken the Consciousness and look, we see, "Oh, it is not a snake, it is a rope." That would be the Samsaric 88

view. We penetrated past the illusion projected by the mind and we see the thing as it appears to be in this level of life. But if we awaken the Consciousness more, then we can see it in its pure form, in the Nirvanic way, and we would then penetrate and see that rope as it exists in other dimensions. This requires more Consciousness to be awakened, and in this context we would see, for example, the atoms of the rope. We would know how many atoms were there, we would know the constitution of those atoms, the construction. We would know the history of that rope, where it came from, who made it, where it has been, what it has done. This is the type of information that emerges spontaneously to the enlightened eye of a saint or a buddha. That information is simply visible, it is known. But that is not the ultimate view. There is a third, which is called Paranishpanna. 3. Paranishpanna Paranishpanna is the ultimate view or perception. Paranishpanna is the mode of perception that penetrates to the absolute truth of a given thing. It sees not only the physical aspects or the superdimensional aspects, but the absolute aspects, which are beyond matter and energy. This is something our intellect cannot really grasp, but in synthesis we can say that type of vision sees the two truths simultaneously: the ultimate truth and the conventional truth. This is Right View. Fully developed Right View, in the context of the Eightfold Path, is that View which can perceive: (1) Yes, the rope exists physically, conventionally, in conventional truth; it is here physically. (2) In the Nirvanic levels, we can see the atoms and the construction of the rope. (3) But in the ultimate level, it does not exist. It does not exist inherently, independently on its own. It is only there due to all the causes and conditions that we can see, that we can perceive spontaneously when we have that mode of perception. That is Paranishpanna. Do not make the mistake of thinking that these points of view are intellectual games. It is very sad to see students of the various traditions who study Consciousness and its modes of perception, who develop the belief that as soon as they have read about these higher perceptions, Paratantra and Paranishpanna, as soon as they have the intellectual idea, then they get it. That somehow they are done, somehow they have figured it out already and they understand it and that is it. And then they are very proud of themselves. This is false. This is actually Parakalpita: it is deluded perception. We can study a teaching and understand a teaching, and it is good. But these are forms of perception, these are ways of seeing that we have to cultivate and grow. These are not ideas and intellectual things. These are not beliefs. These are facts of life. To put it in another way: When someone has developed the perception to perceive things in a Paranishpannic way, to have Right View fully developed, this person has reached Paramartha. Paramartha is absolute truth, absolute happiness. What that means is: when you have developed your perception to its fullest capacity, you are naturally happy. Spontaneous happiness. This is the natural state of the mind: joy, ecstasy. That natural state of Consciousness is represented by these spheres at the top of the Tree of Life, the Crown of Life, where the law is very simple, it is one law: that law is love, and that is all. Pure, unconditioned compassion. So when you have the Paranishpannic view, you have ultimate Right View, and you see all things with perfect equanimity and beatitude. Happiness, spontaneously not produced artificially through a belief or an idea. Naturally. And that is because the mind has become perfectly clean. No impurities at all, no ego, no false "I". Instead, what remains there is the fully developed Consciousness, fully awake. A being who naturally radiates happiness, love for others, diligence, great equanimity, tolerance, and tremendous beauty. Just radiates it! Similar to how a baby does, but to a far greater degree. It is hard for us to understand that because most of us have never met a person like that, but they are there. There are a few around. Our Choice In synthesis, what we can say is that we have a choice. That choice is with us in every instant, and the choice is very simple: do we remain enslaved to our habitual desires, our habitual mistaken views of life, or do we fight against it? Are we brave enough to open up our view, our point of view? There are many tools and techniques that are taught in this tradition to assist us in that effort. But there is no trick. There is no shortcut. It is very hard work. You have probably noticed just in the short course of this lecture how many times you have been distracted, how many times your own Consciousness has wandered off into some other land, and then you remember, "Oh! I am 89

supposed to be here paying attention." It is hard. But if you make the persistent effort to keep putting your Consciousness in its place, to be aware of yourself, you can start to train your point of view, to expand your vision, to not simply see things in the very limited way that your ego wants you to see it, and in the very limited way that our culture encourages. We need to see the bigger picture. In order for us to come to know what God is, to know what the truth is, we have to stop living a lie. The lie is self-perpetuated. If we stop lying to ourselves, start being honest with ourselves, stop justifying ourselves, and change, suddenly it is like a veil can become lifted. The type of change that I am describing can be rapid. This correlates directly to the amount of effort you put in. If you just change a little each day, that is fine, you can do that. No one is pushing you. But the option is there to change a lot. The method to do it is actually not that complicated: Pay attention. Observe yourself. Watch all of your actions, not just physically, but in the mind and heart. From each moment, whether you are alone or with others, pay attention and do your activities consciously. At the end of every day, review that. Look back over the course of your activities. Even during the day, if you have a moment, reflect, "What was I thinking? What was I feeling? How did I behave? Why?" We have to become our own judge, our own watcher, our own police. If we do that with sincerity, little by little we discover that our point of view begins to expand: we begin to see a little more, first about ourselves. When we really start to see things about ourselves and understand how our own mind functions and how it is the cause of our pain, then we can start to grasp why other people suffer. Then we can help them. That is when the real magic can begin. The pain and suffering that we experience now is not the definition of life. It is just the consequence of our mistaken activities. Happiness, joyfulness, true love, is the natural state of our mind. Pure peace. This is the natural state of the mind. But our mind has been infected with a great disease. And do you see the breakdown of that word? Dis - ease. That disease is the "I", that we made. The doctor is our ownConsciousness; the medicine is Gnosis, selfknowledge. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. This is simply cause and effect. If you produced the causes, you will enjoy the consequences, whether good or bad. This is the point of this teaching. You are free to accept or reject, to believe or disbelieve, but all of the instructors of Gnosis, wherever they are in the world, have only a single objective, and that is to help you learn how to see yourself, and that is all. Any questions? Audience: [...] can clairvoyance be used by the ego, and by the Being? Instructor: The reason I did not address clairvoyance in the lecture is because we perceive in many ways, or through many vessels. You perceive through your sense of touch. You perceive through your sense of smell. Through your sense of hearing. Through your eyes. Through your taste. And these five senses are all, of course, rooted in the physical body. But you also can perceive that you have thoughts. And you can perceive that you have emotion. But we do not see a direct physical correspondence to these things. We think it is the brain science thinks it is the brain but it is not. The brain is a vessel that is involved, but it is not the source of thought. It is not the source of Consciousness or feeling. Clairvoyance is a word that was invented in order to describe a certain mode of perception, or a vessel through which we can perceive on a given level of nature which is beyond the physical senses. It is from French: Clairvoyance, which means "clear vision." But in reality, there are five fundamental types of clairvoyance, five ways through which the Consciousness can receive information, whether we are perceiving through the physical senses or the supra-physical senses for example, when you see your own thoughts and feelings, you are not seeing that with physical senses. You do not see your thoughts or feelings with the eyes, or your sense of touch or taste, but you perceive them. That is a form of clairvoyance. Your daydreaming, your fantasy, your imagination, are forms of clairvoyance. In other words, these are senses that are beyond the physical ones. Whichever of those vessels you are receiving the data through, that data is received and interpreted through one of these ways of perception, one of the three we talked about today. If 90

your Consciousness is conditioned with Parakalpita, by the illusions that are projected by your ego, then everything you see, whether it is physically, whether it is as a thought, as a feeling, or as a daydream or a fantasy or a dream while your body is asleep and you are out of your body all of those perceptions will be false, whether it is physical or clairvoyant, because you are seeing through Parakalpita. Audience: How does one counter negative clairvoyance? Instructor: Stop dreaming. You have to learn to pay attention, be present. Daydreaming is produced by the sleep of theConsciousness. When we start to become drowsy as a Consciousness, we might be very busy physically, but our Consciousness is very lazy, we start to daydream about, "Oh, wouldn't it be great if I had this much money and I could go here and there and I could buy this or that. I could do this, I have all these things I could do, blah blah blah." This is daydreaming. This is a form of clairvoyance that is harmful. It is negative. The only way to stop that: get a hold of yourself. Pay attention. Be where you are. Pay attention to what you are doing physically. You will notice this very easily if you read, because you will be reading the page of a book, your eyes will continue reading the page, but your mind is in Singapore, or on the moon, or in a video game that you were playing yesterday, or in a movie that you were watching last week and then all of a sudden you realize, "Wait a minute, I have turned three pages and I have no idea what I just read." Right there you need to wake up and realize that you were just asleep. Your Consciousness was dozing, slumbering, and you were daydreaming and fantasizing, and what you were doing was wasting your energy and your time. Pay attention. Read consciously. I guarantee you if you read consciously, willfully, carefully, your experience of reading will be completely transformed. This does not mean, however, that you cease to imagine. Let us say you pick up a scripture like the Bible, and you have heard these lectures and you say, "I have got to read this chapter of Genesis with full Consciousness and really pay attention and be here and now" and you start reading, and you start yawning, sleepy, and you still cannot make sense out of it. After a while, when you start to really get the feeling of how to truly pay attention, to really be observant, you realize that you can read, consciously, and activate your imagination at the same time. This is how you really comprehend a scripture. That is how you really read. When you read that way, you are aware of yourself, you are reading the page, you are conscious of it, and you activate conscious imagination, and this is how the meaning of the text can start to appear to you as images, or as intuitive grasp, an intuitive understanding of it. Audience: It is a Paranishpannic meaning, right? Instructor: Right. It is the Paranishpannic meaning, it is the way you begin to penetrate the truth that is hidden in the code, in the symbolism of the story you are reading. The capacity to do that is within all of us, but unfortunately, we read, let us say the Bible, and we read it with all of our projections about the Bible, the conditioning of our mind. Most of us who have grown up in the Western countries read the Bible according to the conditioning we were given by the church, and that is to read it in accordance with church doctrine. This is wrong. You should not even read the Bible in accordance with the things that I am telling you. You should read it openly, with a completely open mind, with a completely open imagination, willing to receive which is the base of the term Kabbalah, "to receive" the true meaning, from inside. This is how you can penetrate into the depth. But only the Consciousness can do that, not the mind. Audience: This question is about [...] perception versus arrogance or righteousness, specifically, how can you tell the difference and logically differentiate between the two? Instructor: Well, the question is kind of complicated. If I understand it right, it is about, How do you tell the difference between right view, or right understanding, and arrogance? You have to observe yourself. No matter what level of being you have achieved in your spiritual development, so long as the ego is alive, you need to pay attention. You might have achieved certain levels of development, and have the capacity to access other levels of Consciousness that are beyond the physical one. This does not mean that you can take your understanding for granted, or that you can just be relaxed about how you perceive things. You have to be very diligent. It is extremely common for a person to enter these studies, develop a certain amount of capacity, and then become diverted by their own 91

Pharisee, their own ego. Bottom line: If you observe arrogance in yourself, you are wrong. It is simple. There is no place for arrogance with God, with what is pure, with what is really divine. Many students who approach this teaching or any given religion, approach with this longing or this wondering about what is God, or what is divine, and many have this frustration: "How come I cannot experience that?" And sadly, there are students of traditions like this one who have practical tools, and students still fail to experience the realities that are beyond the flesh, to really see and perceive directly what God is, what a buddha is. For this type of person, there is a simple piece of advice for them: Observe yourself. The ego cannot go where God is, and that is all. If you are not having the experiences of perceiving something that is divine, your own inner Monad, your own inner Spirit, your own inner Buddha, to perceive Jesus as he truly exists, it may be because you are trying to take your ego, your desires, there. Or you are expecting God to fulfill your desires. And let me tell you: God and the ego can never mix. They are like oil and water. You cannot mix them. If you are failing to have experiences in Meditation or with dream yoga practices, analyze yourself. You may have desires that are interfering. You may have expectations that are interfering. You may not be working with yourConsciousness. You might just be intellectualizing, and if that is the case, you need to develop an antidote. Find an instructor who can help you. The bottom line is, only the Consciousness, which is free of conditioning, can experience the nature of the truth, and this is what these modes of perception express. As long as your Consciousness is identified with anything it could be with bills, it could be with financial troubles, it could be with marital troubles, it could be with "Where am I going to live," it could be with your friends, your family as long as your Consciousness is conditioned by any form of identification, you are trapped there. And you are trapped there by your own will. The thing to know about all of the divine levels of existence is that all of the beings who live there respect your will. They respect your will. If you want to indulge in that desire, "OK. We wish you would not, but you have the will, you have the right to do it." Audience: Is it your ego speaking or is it God speaking? Instructor: Well, that is a question I will have to answer for myself when I meditate. I will have to meditate on it and see. If I as aConsciousness have done my job, then my inner Being is giving me the words to speak. Audience: What are the best tools or techniques to change the conditioning that has taken place in our Consciousness? Instructor: I have explained them, they are quite simple. The first one is to observe yourself continually. This is how you begin to gather knowledge about yourself. There is a lecture that was recently given called "The Methodology of Gnostic Dharma" and that lecture is about that. First stage, you observe yourself. Second stage, you meditate. Third stage, you work on eliminating those conditions. That science can be simplified in those steps. It can be understood in that way, but it is extremely difficult to fully accomplish it. The obstacle is our own mind. We do not want to change. All of us want to go to heaven exactly the way we are, which is impossible. We have to change. So when we are always questioning and doubting and having problems with knowing how to practice in this teaching, sometimes it is because we are not willing to really change, we want an easier way. We need to be sincere with ourselves and change ourselves. That is not complicated to understand but it is complicated to do. If you want additional help with that, I recommend you study three books: The Revolution of the Dialectic, The Great Rebellion, andRevolutionary Psychology. Let me point out something: You notice how all three of those titles say "revolution" or "rebellion"? These are not about rebelling against the world but against your own mind; that is why it is so hard.

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Self-knowledge
Created on Sunday, 14 October 2007 17:05 Written by Gnostic Instructor

The study of Gnosis is concerned with a very special form of knowledge. When we say the word "Gnosis" what we are referring to is not the kind of knowledge that you can read, or that you can acquire from a book or a lecture, but instead this knowledge refers to something that one acquires by one's own experience. It is important for this definition of Gnosis to be maintained in a clear way within the mind of the student, for without it, the study of the doctrine of Gnosis can quickly become mere dogma or belief; it can remain as a theory. One of the central postulates of any Gnostic tradition-wherever that wisdom has appeared in the world-has always been "know thyself," the acquisition of knowledge of oneself, which is in fact the central basis or central ground from which the path is discovered. It is very easy for any student to begin to study and explore the wisdom of Gnosis, and to maintain this information merely in the intellect; this is very common and very easy. Likewise, the student may gather and maintain this information merely as a belief, as something they hold dear in their heart, and this also is common and easy. Or a student may adopt the point of view, the practices, and certain types of habits that they learn from the Gnostic doctrine, and maintain those simply as habitual or mechanical behaviors, and this is also easy to do and common. These three fundamental, mistaken paths relate to our three fundamental brains or psychic intelligences, psychic computers if you will, or aspects of our psyche that function as machines, that function in a predetermined way with specific energies and towards limited goals. These three "brains" in their conjunction form a machine that we call "the human-like machine." These three are the psychological aspect of an enormously complicated organism, a very complex, sophisticated, and intricate mechanism. Each of us is extraordinarily lucky: we have been gifted with the most spectacular device that exists on this planet, and yet we fail to realize it. This device we received free from our parents; it has within the capacity to transform the universe; it has within itself abilities and powers which the vast populace does not even begin to suspect, and yet we remain ignorant of it's function and it's potential. This human-like machine, this body that we inhabit, and it's psychological aspects, has such tremendous power and abilities that only few have realized. In the history of our race, our humanity, there have been a few individuals who have risen above the crowd and have become noteworthy, and typically these types of individuals appear as miraculous to the uninitiated hordes of human-like machines. These very unique, true individuals are beings such as Buddha, such as Mozart, such as Beethoven, Krishna, Plato, Shakespeare. These are individuals who to some degree or another were able to realize more of the capacity of the machine that their Consciousnessinhabited, and this in itself underscores one of the fundamental factors of learning how to best utilize this human-like machine, and that is to realize that it is not our "self." It is a device, a machine, a mechanism, an organism that is utilized by other forces. This human-like machine, this organism that has the appearance of being human, is just a machine that needs to be directed, that needs to receive instruction, that is in essence controlled by some other factor or force.

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Those individuals who have stood out in the course of time, such as Beethoven or Mozart or Jesus, are individuals who learned how to awaken the Consciousness, to utilize the Consciousness itself as the commanding intelligence to dominate and best use this organism that we inhabit. This is actually the whole reason, the whole purpose of the existence of all the ancient mystery schools. If we look at and study any ancient mystery school such as the Essenes, the Greeks, the ancient Aztecs, the Tibetans, any of the ancient mysteries, we discover that their primary message was intensely psychological. This psychological point of view or message was always veiled or delivered through symbolism, through metaphor, through analogy. Thus if we study, for example, the Greek mysteries, we may discover that amazing and deeply insightful story of Cupid and Psyche, of which there is a beautiful rendition in the book by Apuleius called "The Golden Ass" or "The Metamorphosis of Lucius." This is an ancient Gnostic novel that contains a very potent but very modern story, a very important psychological teaching, and I recommend that you read and study this book. In the middle of the book, Apuleius tells the story of Cupid and Psyche, and within that myth you discover a profound teaching about the nature of our Consciousness. The gist of the story of the golden ass is about a man named Lucius who is quite vain and quite pleased with himself, who has a strong curiosity about magic. He also has a very strong lustful passion. The combination of these factors leads him to a situation where because of his lust and his naivety he becomes transformed into an ass, a donkey, and from this moment he enters into the most disturbing, extensive series of sufferingdifferent events within which he suffers terribly again and again and again. Lucius is a symbol of you and me; Lucius is a symbol of any intellectual animal that becomes hypnotized or under the control of the desires of the animal mind, that animal mind that we have within. Lucius in this story is controlled by his lust, by his curiosity, by his vanity, by his pride, and these, of course, appear in the screen of his mind through his three brains. These three brains are the vehicles through which psychological impulses manifest. They are also the vehicles through which external impressions are received and transformed. These three brains are machines, each of which has a specific function and a limited potential. So in our story of Lucius, we see how this person who had the potential to become a great person instead became victimized by his own desires, and due to karma-due to cause and effect, in other words-he transformed himself into an animal and thus suffered intensely. I will not spoil the ending of the book for you because the ending is fantastic, but what is important for us to understand is that we ourselves have become the golden ass, the donkey. We, like Lucius, are tossed from situation to situation in life without any real ability to control our circumstances. We find ourselves in one circumstance after another, and merely respond, react, but our potential to change those circumstances is incredibly limited; part of the reason for this is that we do not have individual will. We think we do, we believe we have individuality, we believe we are an integral person, one, unique as a whole, but if we become really sincere with ourselves, really observe ourselves, we can see that this is not true. From one moment to the next our will is constantly changing. In one moment we may feel the impulse, the craving, the urge to eat, and perhaps we are attracted to a particular kind of food and the whole organism reacts and responds to this, and we feel the hunger, we imagine that food, we want it and we begin to plan how to get it, but then in the next moment we feel a different desire, even a contradictory one. Perhaps we feel we want to be 94

skinny. We want others to like our appearance so then we say, "No, I cannot eat that chocolate cake," and then we begin to feel and to be driven by that impulse to develop our vanity, and then the next moment we feel a desire to buy something, to go shopping, and in the moment after that we have another contradictory desire to stay in bed and sleep or to watch TV. These sort of seemingly unimportant changes of direction reflect a very significant psychological scenario, and this scenario is called "the doctrine of the many I's." This doctrine of the many I's states that we do not have a single 'I'; instead we have a legion of them, and this legion of I's is constantly in battle to take control of our human machine, to manipulate our three brains in order to feed themselves, and this is how we can understand that in one moment we may be deeply in love with our boyfriend or girlfriend, our spouse, but then with a very small change of circumstances we can feel complete indifference towards them, or even hate. How else can we explain to ourselves this contradictory flux from one day to the next, from one hour to the next, where in one moment we are very happy with our job and in the next we hate it, and just a little while after that we are indifferent? This constant back and forth of contradictory wills is what keeps us trapped as a victim of circumstances. We may find from time to time that we do develop a very strong desire or a longing to make a change in our lives. Say for example we want a particular type of career and we feel very enthusiastic about this career. We might spend months or even years training ourselves, studying and learning about this career, and then one day we do not like it anymore, we become indifferent, we even hate it, and how is that? Is it true, this illusion we tell ourselves, that we simply "changed our mind?" Or is the truth so disturbing to us that we can not bear to face it, and that is we never really wanted that career in the first place, an 'I' did, an ego, an aggregate in our psyche desired that? Perhaps because of longing for security, perhaps because that 'I' wanted to be respected, to be admired, to be rich, to look different or to follow in the footsteps of a person we admire. From moment to moment, from scenario to scenario, different desires-or stated another way, different wills-step in and take control over this human-like machine, and we as a Consciousness remain asleep. We have this mistaken perspective that somehow we are a unity, and this illusion is there partly because of the nature of having a physical body, that being in a physical body it feels like we are in a continuity. It also comes because we have a memory and the nature of our memory is such that we naturally merge together all these contradictory events as one single flow, but we fail to recognize the true characteristics of that flow of events or circumstances within our psyche. In the Bible, this doctrine of the many I's is presented in the form of a story. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he (Jesus) was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs (among empty forms: the Klipoth, the "World of Shells": the unconsciousness, subconsciousness and infranconsciousness. This man lived among the illusions of his own mind, among perceptions and ideas that have no life, or God, in them); And no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. (Because he is filled with conflicts: he does not keep commitments or respect the bonds of friendship; he cannot keep his word. He says one thing and does another. He is only interested in serving himself). And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones (he is lost in the painful wilderness of life, lost, directionless, with no sense of where he is going or what he is doing, suffering, damaging himself with the abuse of his own stone, the Mercury, the sexual energy). But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, (because he still has the Consciousness inside, and can recognize the Christ) And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. (already he contradicts himself: he goes to Jesus because he wants the Light, then he tells Jesus not to torment him. We seek out the light of 95

Christ by seeking for Gnosis, yet when we find it, we make demands and want the teaching to come according to our taste, our desires; we want it in accordance with ourego). For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. (the ego) And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. - Mark 5:1-9 This story symbolizes how that universal compassion embodied in Jesus, that compassion that we call Christ, has the capability to clean our unclean spirit. To reject from our psyche all of those legions, those psychological elements that constitute what we also call "theego." It is in this way that we find and discover that there is a way out of suffering, and that way out of suffering is to cleanse the mind, to eject from our psyche all of those discursive emotions, discursive thoughts, discursive impulses which arrive into the screen of our mind from our own subconsciousness, from our own unconsciousness, and the infra-Consciousness, the deepest levels of theConsciousness. When we are capable of doing that, we can arrive at what is called individuality. Someone who is an individual has an individual will. An individual is someone who does not contradict themselves, who knows the will of their own inner Being, their own inner Buddha, and acts on that will without contradiction. This is a person like Buddha, like Jesus or Moses: human beings in the full sense of that word. These are people who learned how to control their own human machine consciously, with conscious will, no longer being driven by impulses. We learn that through self observation, through self remembering, through Meditation, and we learn that by studying ourselves. We need to study Gnosis, we need to study the doctrine, we need to study the scriptures, but all of those studies are only there in order to give us fuel, to give us support for the study of our own selves. If we are not studying our own mind, we are wasting our time. If we are not really studying the function of our own psyche, we have not begun to enter into Gnosis, because remember as I said, Gnosis is the study of our own selves. When we sincerely observe our own life, when we watch our own mind from moment to moment, we begin to become terrified because we see very quickly that the mind is out of control. If you have tried to meditate, to quiet your mind, to have a silent mind, then you know exactly what I am talking about. If you have individuality, an individual will, you should have the capability to sit and not think, to be silent, to be serene as a mind, but what you will discover is that you do not have that ability, and that thoughts and feelings and impulses arise from your three brains constantly without your will. The recognition of this could drive you mad. If you really just watch your mind, just watch the impulses that come up constantly and how contradictory they are, when you really start to listen closely you will hear and see and feel in yourself a whole legion of voices, voices that have different tones, different timbers, different characteristics. Some sound like men, some sound like women, some cry, some shout, some whisper... and who is that? This is something for you to question about yourself. You may notice this situation most strikingly in those moments when you are falling asleep or just waking, when external sensations are not so distracting and you are more submerged into your own interior psychology, and you can feel and experience this cacophony of voices, all of whom struggle with each other in order to establish control over your machine. This is a very disturbing thing to face in oneself. It is very unsettling, it is very uncomfortable, and this is one of those causes that drives people away from genuine self-knowledge. It is very painful to see the facts, yet if we cannot diagnose the disease, we cannot cure it. It is essential for you to see yourself as you really are, to recognize that we, each of us, are victims of this legion of our own mind. This is very important for beginning students in this study in Gnosis, but it is equally important for students who have been around for a while. It is very subtle, but gradually the more you become familiar with this doctrine, the more relaxed you can become about making effort. There are many who have been studying Gnosis for many, many years, who have the illusion that they are knowing themselves more, but they are not. It is easy to become hypnotized by the circumstances of life and by the various egos that feel very threatened by this knowledge. Yes, our mind is very threatened, because Gnosis seeks to destroy the ego, to remove pride, to obliterate lust, to vanquish envy, to crush fear, and in that way, when all of these conflicting, discursive, filthy egos have been removed, what remains is the Being, what remains is 96

the Consciousness, what remains is purity. When the ego is removed, what remains is the Essence, the pureConsciousness. The Essence is the embryo of the real individual, the embryo of the soul, that part of our psyche that can be grown and developed into a complete human being. The essence is the reflection of God, and it is those great prophets and angels and masters from all times who reflect to us the nature of our own Essence: conscious love, innocence, tremendous intelligence, brilliant creativity, patience, happiness for others, temperance, fortitude. All of the real virtues emerge from the Consciousness. There are some who say "if you destroy the ego, you destroy the person, you destroy the mind, what is left?" These types of people do not understand that the ego and the Being are different like oil and water. The destruction of the mind means the destruction of the animal mind. The destruction of the 'I' brings about the revelation of the true self, the real Being, which is beyond any kind of 'I', which is a kind of individuality that is beyond individuality. The true self, our true nature, is empty. Our true nature, our true 'I,' has no 'I' but is individual, and though it seems contradictory, it is directly verifiable, it is something you can experience if you practice Meditation seriously, if you dissolve your ego, if you conquer your desires. As we are now, we are tossed from circumstance to circumstance, from one form of suffering to another like a donkey, like an ass who is tied to a stick, who does not see the rope or the stick, who sees in front of it's eyes a carrot, and who wants the carrot, and that carrot could be anything: it could be a new car, it could be a career, it could be a baby or a child, it could be spiritual realization, it could be money or wealth or fame, it could be "success" (whatever that means). Each of us is that donkey, marching from day to day, blindly and with a great deal of hypnotism, pursuing this carrot that dangles before us that we can never seem to grasp, all the while not realizing that we are tied to a pole and all we do is walk in circles, around and around, repeating ourselves again and again, repeating our circumstances, repeating our sufferings, and all the while the only result is we make that hole deeper. Every time we walk around that circle, we dig it deeper. The fact of this is ignored by everyone because it is too painful. We cannot face it because we love the idea that we can achieve our dreams. We love the dream that "life can be what we want it to be," but it is a lie. So long as the ego is alive, we will be what our circumstances produce; we can do nothing, because the ego is karma, the ego brings to us the results of our actions according to the law. The Bible says we will reap what we sow. We receive what we give; we receive what we are due. So we repeat ourselves in cycles again and again-in fact, when you seriously begin to observe yourself, to study yourself, you discover that the vast majority of the feelings and thoughts that you had today, you had yesterday. The vast majority of the fears and concerns and worries that you have today, you had yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, ad nauseam. What is new in our minds, in our hearts? Where is our will? This sad truth is nothing new, what I am stating to you is an ancient truth which is contained within all of the religions, within all of the mystery schools. In fact Shakespeare wrote about it very beautifully but tragically, in Macbeth. The story of Macbeth is of a man who had tremendous potential to become a great leader, to become of tremendous benefit to Scotland, but who instead was misled by three sisters. These three sisters symbolize the Three Furies, the Three Traitors. If you have studied any religion, you have studied the three traitors. Jesus has three traitors, Hiram Abiff has three traitors, Osiris has three traitors-in all of the great religions those three traitors represent the demons that inhabit our three brains: the demon of the intellect, the demon of the heart, and the demon of our instinctive, motor and sexual center. These three sisters in Macbeth offer prophecies to Macbeth, and when those prophecies start to become true, he becomes convinced that these three witches have supernatural powers so he begins to trust them. But, very significantly, his companion Banquo says: ...oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence. 97

This is exactly what the ego does. Our own ego always working to convince us of it's authority, of it's wisdom, of it's importance; it tells us things in our intellect about ourselves, about our future, it tells us things in our heart about ourselves, about our future, about our potentials, and it tells us things through our sexual center, our motor center, our instinctual center. This is where we get these thoughts and ideas about what we can become, about what life can be for us, about all the great things that we will do in the future, about all our dreams. It is a very bitter medicine to become a little older and discover that it is all a lie. Some people discover that when they get a little older and reflect on their lives and find nothing has gone the way their mind told them it was going to go-nothing, not their brilliant career, not the great wealth they would acquire, not the fame, not all the friends, not the admiration, the success, and even if they got some of those things, it never comes the way the mind says it will, because the mind is a liar, the mind is Satan, the father of lies. So Macbeth follows what his own three traitors tell him, and if you are familiar with the story, the outcome is tragic. At the very end there is a part of him that realizes it-he doesn't change course because his ego is too strong, but he makes a statement that can only be made from the comprehension of this fact of life, that the ego is a liar, and as we listen to it, we waste our life. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Truthfully I tell you this: I read this to you with pain. It is painful to see the realities of life, a life lived under the sway of the illusion of the animal mind, this legion of egos that controls humanity... To see all of the children who are being indoctrinated with this false idea, who are not being taught about the Consciousness, about how to awaken their own Consciousness... who are being taught instead to celebrate lust, to enjoy their anger, to be entertained with violence and to cultivate envy and greed. These are the values of our current civilization, these are the things that we celebrate and love, and the result is suffering. The result is the mass of confusion and chaos that we now furtively attempt to deny. We all are grasping desperately to the idea that somehow life is going to get better, when in fact from week to week it is getting worse, from month to month life is becoming more difficult, more complicated, more contradictory, and this is because that is what is happening with the ego. The ego itself is not organized in any way; the ego has no coordination at all. Now there are some schools who believe that it does, who believe that you can "map" or "structure" the ego, but the fact is that the different elements of the ego emerge in our mind only because of circumstances, and when circumstances change, new egos emerge. There is no pattern except chaos. There is no structure except a riot. That riot is our own psyche. The solution is to begin to pay attention to it. We need to come to understand that this human-like machine has capacities, enormous capacities, but that have to be harnessed by conscious will. Even science nowadays tells us that we only use a very small percentage of the brain, and the percentage varies, three percent, five percent, sometimes a little more, but neuroscientists all recognize this universally and are perplexed. How is it that of all of the beautiful and intricate systems in our organism, the one we do not use is the brain? The one that we do not understand, the one that we take for granted, and that is underdeveloped and underutilized is the brain, which incidentally we all think is our real identity anyway. How curious it is that we think we are the brain, and yet we only use a small percentage of it. 98

All of the mystery schools teach how to awaken the Consciousness, and when the Consciousness is awakened then we start to use the human organism to it's full capacity. We start to use the entire brain, we start to use all of the glands, the endocrine system, and the nervous system. We awaken subtle centers of transformation that exist throughout the seven bodies that we have, and in that way open up senses that up till now have been dormant, ignored. This is how we can understand those great prodigies like Mozart. I invite you to study Mozart, to listen to his music, but more incredibly, to look at how he wrote it. Actually look at the documents where he wrote the music down, and you will see that he didn't erase anything. He wrote it down once. He didn't sit and think about it and say 'oh maybe I will try this or maybe I will try that'. He heard the music inside and then he wrote it down, that is all. All the great composers have stated that that is how their greatest works have come to be. They themselves did not write it, they were only machines that transformed it. Straight-away the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind's eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and orchestration. - Johannes Brahms [Madam Butterfly] was dictated to me by God; I was merely instrumental in putting it on paper. Giacomo Puccini I can only assume that God wanted penicillin, and that was his reason for creating Alexander Fleming. - Sir Alexander Fleming The Consciousness, when awake, can perceive other dimensions, can perceive things beyond mere physical matter. TheConsciousness can see and hear and sense the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh dimension. This is how Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, and the other great composers heard their music, received that music through the three brains, consciously, and transcribed it. This is why all the great artists, the really great artists say "I am but the pen of God." This is the goal, the purpose of this human organism: to receive and transmit the idiosyncracy of our own inner Being. The purpose of this marvelous machine is not simply to be born, to fornicate, to have children like rabbits and then die. That would be truly sad if that were the point of life. The point of life is to become a human being, a real human being: one that can see, reflect, and interact with the whole cosmos. The great prophets have all reflected that to us: life does not have to be just suffering and pain. Life can be joyful, beautiful, very fulfilling, but it cannot be that if we remain hypnotized by our self interest, by self will, by our own self-obsessed ego. This is the other name for the legion: "the self-willed," and that term can provide us with a great clue when we are self-observing, when we are observing our own mind. When we see elements arise in our thoughts, in our feelings, or in our impulses to action, we can analyze it: who benefits? "Who will benefit if I take the course of action that my mind is proposing?" Who benefits, who loses? The point of view of our modern culture is 'give me what I want'. Our entire culture is focused on this, fulfilling desire, getting whatever it is we want, and yet if you take a step back, and you imagine for a moment the limited sphere or circle of life, and you put within that circle a pile of goods, and all the people who are within that circle have the same idea, 'give me what I want'. The strongest, the fastest are going to rush forward and take what they want, and some will get nothing. Who benefits, how long can that circle be sustained? If the resources are limited, and a few are stealing all for themselves and leaving nothing for the rest, what will happen? Obviously, the rest will die, the few will be left alone, and they too will die, because no one can exist independently; what is left is nothing. Reciprocity is another word for karma. Everything in life is reciprocal, circular, cyclical. Every action that we perform has a consequence. Every direction that we choose has a consequence. When we take something, who are we taking it from? Who benefits, who loses? I am not proposing that we should renounce all things; I am proposing that we should become cognizant of what we use and why, because at the moment we are not. How else can we explain that the vast majority of the world's resources are concentrated in a very small number of places? For example, North Americans and Europeans can eat anything they want at any time, but most of the rest of the world does not have that benefit. Why? Who loses and who benefits? Do 99

you want to know why there is starvation in the world? The answer is simple: because others are hoarding what they do not need. The same goes for poverty, for the lack of clean water, for the grossly imbalanced distribution of every kind of necessary resource. There is a fundamental disparity which is caused by the self-willed. We persist from day to day listening to the desires of the mind. As a friend told me, "we live as slaves to our tongue." Each of us is a slave to taste: if food does not taste sensational, if we do not love it, if we are not crazy about it, then we do not like it at all, we criticize it, we reject it, we will not eat it, and if you go to any restaurant in the western world, you will see how people will send back food or not pay for food, when not too far away there are people who have no choice, who eat things that westerners would not even consider eating, would not even touch it. I am giving this as an example of the point of view of the ego. The ego is all about "more and more and more, give me more, give me what I want" - it is self-willed, selfish, and this fundamental point of view is what has caused the situation our world is in. Society does not exist separately from you or from me. Society is because of you and because of me. All of us long for a better society, and all of us want to change others to be the way we want them to be, and yet we cannot even change ourselves. It would be good, it would be beneficial for us to wake up, to become conscious, to begin to establish conscious control over this intellect, and when thoughts arise, to question them. It is useful to not just go along with whatever we think, but to question our thoughts: "where does this thought come from, what does it want, why am I always listening to these thoughts, did I ask for this thought, did I call this thought," etc.; we need to ask these questions of ourselves. The same is true of emotions, feelings, likes and dislikes. Why do we feel antipathy for a person? Is it because we see something of ourselves in them that we do not want to see? Is it because we see something in them that reflects something that we have, that we cannot bear? Do we really consciously comprehend why we feel the way we do, why we have the desires that we do? Why we are attracted to certain kinds of emotional stimuli such as music, television or books? Likewise, we are we driven by impulses that arise in our action center, and motor-instinctive-sexual center? Why is the sexual impulse so powerful, why are we such victims of the desire for sexual sensation? Why do we have no control? Why is it that this donkey is allowed to do whatever it wants? What about our impulses to over eat, to eat poorly, or to be extremely picky, or the opposite? There are people who are very proud of themselves when they get the latest fashion, when they get some new clothes and they love how it makes them feel. They feel pretty, handsome, they feel "new," they feel like they're "ahead" of everybody else, but this is vanity and pride. Standing next to them is another person who feels vanity and pride for wearing their old clothes, who feels vanity and pride, telling themselves "I'm better because I'm being more prudent, I am saving my old clothes and reusing them," this is still vanity and pride. The ego is multi-faceted; so long as we continue in all of our circumstances to be driven by the impulses of the animal mind, suffering will persist. So the solution for us is to learn about ourselves, to know ourselves, to be aware of what is arising within us, to not be a marionette, to become a real person, a real human being. Any questions? Q: I guess we have a misconception of mental projections, there is something we project onto others through the eyes I guess, through the jealously, or pride, or it could be like a scenario that we create that just because we are not committing a physical action that we do not really receive karma for that, or is really karma administered for committing the act or not just by mental projection? A: The question is about whether there is karma for actions that occur in the mind. You have to understand that we exist in more than just the physical body. Because we are asleep consciously, we have lost the ability to perceive the other aspects of our existence. This human-like machine that we exist within is multi-dimensional; it is not just physical. All of the energies that surge and process themselves through our three brains have components or aspects that are likewise multi-faceted. 100

So for example when a thought is processing in your physical brain, that thought has arrived from an ego. That ego exists in your own particular klipoth or hell, which is part of the fifth dimension, the submerged part, and that thought is a reflection of the will of that ego. Energy and matter can never be separated, and this is what Einstein pointed out to us, so when that energy of that thought is processing itself through your intellect, it has consequences. Everything has consequences, without exception. Your thoughts have consequences, but you cannot perceive it because you are asleep. When you awaken Consciousness, then you can perceive that a thought is an energy which produces a result. Our mind is not a self-enclosed sphere; this is part of the illusion that we have, related to this idea that we are an individual. We think that our mind is a self-enclosed unit, and that within that space we can think what we want, we can feel what we want, we can imagine whatever we want and this is a lie. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, whatever you imagine, affects others. How else can we explain those times in our lives when we have felt intuitively that someone is feeling a certain way towards us, while there is no physical evidence? Say for example when you were a kid and you started to feel like one of the other children liked you. There is no physical sign because as children we do not show things like that, but you can sense it, or if you work in an office and you have a coworker and you start to sense something, to feel something. That is because the mind is not selfenclosed: we mix and blend with each other. When you think and feel things, there are consequences. Any other questions? Q: So why is it that I guess when we project something onto others, we always get it back as it is what we will both get, right? So in reality, I mean, we should think about it before projecting our suffering right? A: Well, yes, we need to become more cognizant of our actions, there is no question about it, and that includes our actions of thought and feeling. Let me give you an example. Many people who are in a marriage or in a couple are being indoctrinated with this cultural perspective now that it is o.k. for them to fantasize about having sexual acts with other people, as long as physically they do not do it. This is the idea; this is a lie. The physical body is just a vehicle in the physical world. Our emotions have their corresponding vehicle in the astral world. Our thoughts have their corresponding vehicle in the mental world. When we understand that the vehicles we inhabit have seven dimensions, the physical is just the lowest, and we are encouraging and indoctrinating each other with this idea that it is o.k. to fantasize about others, what we are doing is saying it is o.k. to commit adultery, because eventually all of that energy in the mind will manifest physically; it is inevitable. As much as you fantasize and think about things and allow your mind to imagine, in this case the sexual act with other people, what is happening is that you are training your mind that it is o.k., and all that remains is that flimsy barrier to act on it physically, and you can see very easily that that barrier does not stand up when the desire is strong, and that is why adulteryand fornication is so widespread, that is why so many marriages fail, because people fantasize. Q: "I remember when Jesus says, if you have lust in your heart then you have already committed adultery." A: "Yes, it says in the gospel. If you have committed an act in your mind, you have committed it. It says that in the gospel, Jesus says that, if you have committed adultery with a woman in your heart, you have committed the act, and this underscores the extreme difficulty of this work, because our ego wants to indulge itself in all of it's desires and if it cannot do it physically, it sure wants to do it in our fantasy, in our minds. Fantasy is an obstacle to comprehension. Fantasy is an obstacle to the awakening of the Consciousness. Daydreaming is a form of hypnosis, it is a way of lying to ourselves and committing crimes. The function of imagination is critical, because imagination is directly connected with sexual energy, and sexual energy is the most powerful energy that exists within our organism. 101

We can see seven fundamental types of energy that exist within us. There is the physical energy, which is clear, there is vital energy or sexual energy, emotional, mental, the energy of will, energy of Consciousness and energy of spirit, but what is the most powerful one? What is the one that we have so much difficulty controlling more than any other, that has the most power? The sexual energy, it is the one form of energy that gives us the power of God, and in the most superficial level, that power comes about when we join a male and a female through the sexual act. They have the power to create a child. That is the most superficial level of the use of sexual energy. There are levels above that and beyond that, that are more powerful, and that is to use that sexual energy to transform the mind, and this is the basis of Tantra: to harness those forces, to utilize them and direct them consciously to free ourselves from the legion, and that is what is symbolized in the story about Jesus. Q: What are the kind of dreams you have at night like when you do not have control of them? A: Dreams that we have at night are a reflection of our state of Consciousness. If we lack any control over our dreams at night it is because we lack any control over our Consciousness during the day. Between night and day there is a continuity; the only difference is at night we let the physical body rest; that is the only difference. Your Consciousness functions the same way, but what happens is, because we are so asleep, and because we are so hypnotized and identified with our ego, the different desires that arise in us, when the physical body goes to sleep we become totally entranced by all the manifestations of our mind, and in reality what we dream is the interior of our mind, and that is why we have dreams about being at work, about going to church, about going shopping, about going here and there and doing all the same things that we did during the day. If you want to take conscious control over your dreaming, take conscious control over your waking life first, because by natural extension if you become conscious of yourself during the day, then when your physical body goes to sleep you will remain conscious of yourself and then you can begin to exercise conscious will over your experiences while you're outside of the body. Anyone can achieve that if you make the effort. The problem is we want an easy answer, everybody wants a simple trick or a magic pill that will awaken their Consciousness in the astral plane and nobody wants to make the effort to awaken physically; that is because we want the sensation of being awake in the astral plane. This is the ego; it wants to experience the sensation of flying, of moving through walls, of manipulating matter the way you can do in the astral world. But if we instead start from the point of view that we want to change to take control of our lives, to become a better person, then we will start working here physically and that work physically to become conscious of ourselves, to dominate the donkey mind, will start to reflect in our dreaming, because we will start to be awake during the process of dreaming and be able to take control over those dreams. Nonetheless, whatever we do while dreaming while in the astral world whether we are conscious or unconscious produces karma, because every action on any level of existence has consequences. So if you are dreaming that you are committing a crime, in that world you are committing a crime, and that is because in your mind you have the element that can only commit that crime, so it becomes your responsibility to remove it; that is why we study the dissolution of the ego. Any other questions? Q: O.k. but how do you distinguish then when you are, I guess, in your own experiences like a God, or have problems when you try to interpret your dreams. If you are shown robbing some bank or some vain or really interpretation could be something over a computer... (((inaudible))) A: Well, this is something you have to develop through experience. It is one thing to watch the screen or the reflection of a past action or a potential action, and it is another thing to do the act. For example, when you are in Meditation, if you have observed some impulse in yourself during the day that is disturbing. Say for example, you have felt extreme anger toward your spouse, and this is very disturbing because we are supposed to love our spouse and when you feel that kind of anger, anger is hate, anger wants violence; this is disturbing to see, but we all have it. So if you are meditating on that, and observing that, part of what you have to do is to replay that scene where that feeling emerged, the impulse emerged, so you have to review it, to reflect upon it, to watch 102

Key of Sol

it. This does not mean you are committing the action again unless you become identified with it and start to invest more emotional energy into it like "yea I was right, I should be angry", then you are making it worse, but if you can maintain that separation consciously, to just observe the image, you are not contributing to the continuity of the crime, in fact you are doing the opposite. You are beginning to extract what is valuable from it, to comprehend it. In this way you can see that the Consciousness has a power that is in some crude way similar to the power that the body has to digest food. The body has the power to take food, to extract from it the elements that we need and to dispel the rest, to eject the rest. The Consciousness can do that with impressions, but we do not use it, and that is why the mind becomes so full of so much garbage, but when we start to activate that ability from moment to moment by observing, we start to clean the mind and that does not mean that we are contributing to those crimes in the mind. Each one of us has the potential, the great gift to become a human being. As difficult as life is, as painful, we have an unbelievable opportunity. In lectures like this and in studying the books, sometimes the knowledge is very bitter and painful and we do not like the taste, but we have to take our medicine. It is important for us to realize that within each one of us is the seed of a Buddha, the seed of an angel, but that seed can only grow if the ego dies, because a Buddha, an angel, cannot have ego, cannot have lust or anger or pride or envy or fear, gluttony, greed, avarice, self love, self esteem none of that. So we have the capacity to become pure, we have that potential, and this human-like machine that we inhabit at this moment is the vehicle that can take us there if we use it wisely. If we use all the energies in all of it's levels, we can become what we should be.

Created on Friday, 26 October 2007 15:03 Written by Samael Aun Weor

Unquestionably, the most important thing in life is the realization of the inner Being. Once, I interrogated my Divine MotherKundalini, as follows: How is it that the path that leads to the resurrection is extremely long? She answered me, It is not that the path is too long; rather, the work with the philosophical stone is very hard: it must be worked, chiseled. It is necessary to give the brute stone a perfectly cubic shape. Our motto is Thelema, meaning willpower. We must begin by awakening the Consciousness. Obviously, all human beings are asleep, and in order to see the path it is necessary to be awakened; thus, what is essential is to awaken here and now. Unfortunately, people sleep; it seems incredible, but this is how it is. We wander in the streets with the Consciousness asleep; we are in our house, in our job, in the body shop, in the office, etc., with theConsciousness profoundly asleep. We drive our car and we go to the factory with the Consciousness tremendously asleep. People are born, they grow, they breed, they get old and die with the Consciousness asleep; thus, they never know where they come from nor the objective of their own existence. What is most grave in this matter is that all of them believe that they are awake. For instance, many people are preoccupied in knowing many esoteric things, yet they never occupy themselves with the awakening of their Consciousness. If people had the purpose of awakening here and now, then immediately they could know all of that which for them are enigmas; this is why skepticism exists, because the skeptical is ignorant, and ignorance is the outcome of a sleeping Consciousness. Indeed, I want to tell you in the name of the truth that skepticism exists because of ignorance. Therefore, the day when the people awaken their Consciousness they will stop being ignorant, and, as a fact, skepticism will disappear, because ignorance is equal to skepticism and vice versa. 103

Indeed, Gnosis is not a doctrine that seeks to convince skeptical people, because if today we convince 100 skeptical individuals, tomorrow we have to convince 10,000, and if we convince the 10,000, then 100,000 will appear who want to be convinced, and so on and so forth, thus, we will never be done. The system to attain the inner realization of the Being is a matter of cognizant works and voluntary sufferings, yet, the continuity of purpose in the three factors of the revolution of the Consciousness is necessary. Logically, in order to achieve the awakening of theConsciousness, it is necessary to die from instant to instant, from moment to moment. The sleeping person ends up intoxicated when in the presence of a cup of liquor. The sleeping person ends up fornicating when in the presence of the opposite sex. Thus, the sleepy ones becomes identified with everything that surrounds them, and forget about their selves. From my memoryat this very momentI recall the unusual case of Piotr Demianovich Ouspensky, who when walking on the streets of Saint Petersburg, had the resolve to remember his self, and to not forget about himself, not even for an instant. Thus, he said that as he remembered himself from moment to moment, he even perceived a spiritual aspect within all things, and while this type of spiritual lucidity was increasing he felt his psyche gradually transformed, etc. Nevertheless, something very discouraging happened to him: all of a sudden he felt the necessity to enter a smoke shop in order to select an order of some tobacco. Certainly, after being attended and provided with his order of cigars, he left the smoke shop very quietly while smoking along an avenue. Thereafter, remembering different things and occupied in diverse intellectual matters, etc., he walked through different places of Saint Petersburg; in other words, he became absorbed within his own thoughts. An hour and a half lateralready at his homehe observed very well his room, his bedroom, his living room, his desk, etc., and suddenly, he remembered that he had first wandered through many places with his Consciousness awake, but after having entered into the cigarette shop his psyche had fallen asleep again, and thus, his good intentions of remaining awake from moment to moment were reduced to cosmic dust; thus, he regretted the incident. He took an hour and a half to reach his home, and during that entire time, he regrettably treaded the streets of the city with his Consciousness completely asleep. Behold how difficult it is to remain with the Consciousness awake from instant to instant, from moment to moment, from second after second. However, if one has true longings for becoming fully awakenedthis is the beginningone must not forget oneself, not even for a moment. Yes, one must keep remembering oneself wherever one walksin any living room, or on whichever street one goes by walking, jogging, or riding a car, whether it be night or day wherever one might be, at work or in the shop, anywhere: one must remember oneself while at the presence of any beautiful object, or while before any window-shop where very beautiful things are being shown, etc.in other words, one must not become identified with anything that one likes or is captivated by. Subject The person needs to always keep remembering himself: not only his physicality, but also one needs to watch ones own thoughts, feeling, emotions, deductions, appetencies, fears, longings, etc. Object Beloved brothers and sisters, it seems to me that this second aspect (object) is abundantly intriguing, because it is related with becoming inquisitive about objects, that is, with not becoming identified with things as we already stated; thus, if you see a beautiful objecti.e. a suit within a window-store, or an exposition of something, or an exhibition of anything: a very beautiful car, a pair of wonderful shoes, anythingwhat is important is to not become identified with the thing, and to know how to distinguish between common things and uncommon things, like a strange animal, an elephant that flies, or a camel that appears in the middle of the livingroom, etc.; thus, the first thing that one needs to do is to reflect. One needs to not become identified with the object or creature that one sees, because if one becomes identified with what one sees, that is, if one is absorbed by the representation before ones eyes, then one remains fascinated; in other words, one passes from identification to 104

fascination, and this is how one remains enchanted, marveled, identified. If one forgets oneself, then thereafter ones own Consciousness falls asleep, it will snooze profoundly. Thus, my dear brothers and sisters, the only thing that one achieves with this mistaken behaviorthat is, by allowing oneself to become foolishly fascinated with objectsis to deactivate the Consciousness, to put it to sleep, and this is critical, very critical, very critical very critical Location From my memoryat his very momentI recall another unusual case: many years ago when I was traveling through the countries of South Americasince as a traveler I always walked from one country to another around the worldon a given night it so happened that I saw myself walking through a garden, then into a living room and through it, and finally I arrived at a lawyers office, where I saw seated at a desk a lady of a certain age, with grey hair, who very amiably attended me; she stood up and greeted me. Suddenly, I observed that two butterflies made of crystal were on the deskwell, there is nothing odd about seeing two butterflies on a desk, right? Yet, the intriguing aspect of this matter is that the two butterflies were alive: they were moving their wings, their little heads, their little legs, and that is very odd, right? So, this was very unusual and intriguing: two butterflies made of crystal, and alive! These butterflies were not normal; it is clear that they were not natural, my beloved brothers and sisters, this was something odd; it was a case where one has to become very inquisitive. Well then, do you want to know what I did? I did not become identified with the pair of butterflies, I only pondered the following question within myself: How is it possible that there exist in the world butterflies whose bodies are made of crystal, whose head, legs, and wings are made of crystal, and that breathe and have life like the natural ones? Thus, this is how I reflected, my beloved brothers and sisters. What if I had become identified with the butterflies and not pondered an analytical question, without reflecting on those butterflies made of crystal? What if I had become fascinated, or enchanted, and had fallen into unconsciousness? Well, that would have been foolish, right? However, I reflected, by pondering the following statements to myself: "No! It is impossible for these type of creatures to exist in the physical world. No, no, no, this is very strange, this is very odd, this is not normal. Here, I smell something fishy, there is something rare. This type of phenomenon, as I know, does not exist in the tridimensional world; since this is only possible in the astral world, it seems that I am in the astral dimension; could it be that I am in the astral world?" Then, I question myself: "It seems that I am dreaming, it seems that I left my physical body sleeping somewhere, because indeed this is very odd. So, in order to be sure, I am going to perform a small jump with the intension of floating in the environment, thus, this is how I will verify if I am in my astral body, so let us see what happens." So, this is what I said to myself, yes brothers and sisters, with complete confidence I tell you that this is how I proceeded. It is obvious that I had to proceed in that manner and not in another manner, right? However, I was concerned about jumping in front of that lady; thus, I said to myself, This lady might think that I am a nut case if I start jumping here in her office. Apparently, everything was very normal: a desk like any desk, the chair where the lady was seated was one of those that rotate from one side to the other, there were two candelabra in that office, I remember that one was at the right and the other at the left, they seem made of massive gold. So, I remember this with entire exactitude, my dear brothers and sisters, even though it happened a long time ago, many years, since I was very young in that epoch, thus, I remember that the candelabra were of seven branches. Well, talking here with complete confidence, I did not find anything odd in that room, everything was normal in that office, however, when I focused my sight in those butterflies they became the only truly questionable oddity there. As for the rest, I said: There is nothing odd about this lady, she as normal as other ladies in the world; however, these butterflies make me intrigued. The fact that they were alive on their own accord was very rare. Anyhow, be it as it is, I resolved to leave the room with the intention of performing a little jump, do you understand? Of course, I had to give an excuse to the lady, thus, I 105

asked her consent to leave the office; I told her that I needed to leave the room just for a moment, and that I did. Thus, when outside in the corridor and being sure that no one was looking at me, I performed a long jump with the intension of floating in the environment and behold, let me tell you what happened, sincerely I tell you that I immediately remained floating in the surrounding atmosphere. Of course, I felt a delectable sensation, my dear brothers and sisters, a delectable sensation; then I said to myself: I am in my astral body; here I do not have even the slightest doubt about it. I remembered that a few hours before I had left my physical body sleeping in my bed and by displacing myself there in the astral world I had arrived to that place, to that office. Then, I went back into that office, I sat again before the lady and spoke to her with much respect, I told her: Be aware, maam, that we both are in the astral body. Wondered, with sleepy eyes as a somnambulist, that lady scarcely looked at me; she did not understand, she did not comprehend, nevertheless, I wanted to clarify the situation for her and I told her: Maam, remember that a few hours ago you went to bed, to lay down in order to sleep, therefore, do not wonder why am I telling you this; listen: your physical body is sleeping in your bed and you are here talking with me in the astral world Yet, definitively, that lady did not understand; she was profoundly asleep, she had her Consciousness asleep. Thus, upon seeing that everything was useless, comprehending that she would not awakennot even with cannon shots, since that wretched lady had never dedicated herself to the labor of the awakening of her Consciousnessthen frankly, my dear brothers and sisters, I resolved to apologize, and left. Well, as a curious thing, I want to narrate for you that many years after, maybe 30 years or more, I had to travel to Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico. Taxco is a very beautiful town, situated over a hill and built in the colonial style; its streets are stone-paved as in the epoch of the colonization, and it is very rich indeed; it has many silver mines, and many beautiful objects and jewelry made of silver are sold there. I had to travel to that town because someone I was making some remedies for lived there; he wanted to be healed and wanted me to help him in his healing process; he was a wretched patient, very sick Well, I arrived at a house, I crossed a garden, and arrived at the living room, which I recognized immediately. There was there a lady; I looked at her and recognized her: she was the same lady that I had seen behind the desk many years ago in the astral world; however, this time she was in the living room. She invited me to pass into another room, where I found the already mentioned lawyers office, where I, so many years ago, had arrived in my astral body. Yet now, instead of the lady behind the desk, it was her husband, a very well educated man who without a title was dedicated to the law (in some places these people are call interns); well, call them as you please. The fact was that he was seated there, in said office. He stood in order to welcome me and thereafter he invited me to sit down in front of his desk. So, I had immediately recognized the office and the lady. Then, it so happened that because that man liked a little these sort of spiritual studies, we talked and conversed for a while on these matters; he liked everything related with esoteric studies. Thus, I surprised him a little when I told him: Sir, I was here already some time ago. I was out of my physical body, in my astral body, and you know that one moves, walks, and goes from one place to another. This gentleman already knew a little about these things, so my statement was not unusual to him. Then I told him: See, on this desk there were two butterflies made of crystal. What happened, where are those butterflies? He quickly answered me: Here are the butterflies, right here, look at them. He then raised some newspapers that were upon the desk and certainly, they were there, the two very beautiful butterflies made of crystal... Of course, he was very astounded that I knew about those butterflies. Then I told him: But something else is missing. I see one candelabra of seven arms, yet I saw two. Where is the other, what happened to it? 106

Here is the other one, look at it, the gentleman in his office answered me. He then removed some papers and newspapers that he had there and indeed he showed me the other candelabra, yes, it appeared in order to confirm my assertions even more. Of course, the man was amazed. Then I told him: I want you to know that I know your wife, because when I came here your wife was at the desk. Well, the gentleman was amazed. Thus, at dinner time we were seated at a round table and something truly unexpected happened: in the presence of her husband, the lady told me: I met you a long time ago. I do not know exactly where, but I have seen you... Yes, I have seen you before in some place. Anyhow, you are not an unknown person to me. Then, I immediately elbowed the gentleman and told him: Do you realize it? Are you convinced of my words? Well, the amazement of that man reached its maximum. Unfortunatelyand this indeed is what is very critical, my beloved brothers and sistersthat man was so attached to his sect, which we might call a type of Romanist sect, that frankly speaking, he did not enter into the path due to sectarian matters. Otherwise, he would have come to the path, because I gave him extraordinary evidence that for him were factual and definite; at least, he became for ever amazed, did he not? Regrettably, his beliefs did not allow him, they confused him, he became entangled in all those religious dogmas, etc. Well, many years have already passed, nevertheless I still have been able to narrate this event for you. Thus, this is why I recommend to you the division of attention into three parts: 1- SUBJECT, that is to say oneself. One must not forget oneself, not even for an instant. 2- OBJECT: to observe all things, as in the case of the butterflies that I have narrated to you. What if in this very moment in which you are reading this book, a person that died many years ago arrived to your home and spoke to you. Would you be so naive, would you be so absent minded, as to not ask yourself: What is this? Could it be that I am in my astral body? Would you be as reckless as to not do the experiment and to give a little jump? Well then, do not forget that any detail, as insignificant as it may appear, must be enough in order to perform this type of inquisition. Thus, every object must be studied in detail, and thereafter one must ask oneself: Why am I here? 3- PLACE: one must not live unconsciously. When we arrive at any place, we must observe it in detail, very minutely, and thereafter ask ourselves: Why am I here, in this place? And by the way, you that are reading this book, tell me: did you already ask yourself why are you there in that place where you are reading? Did you already inconvenience yourself to observe that place, the ceiling or the walls, or the space that surrounds you? Are you already observing the floor or the place, up and down, to the sides, behind you, and in front of you? Did you already look at the walls and your surroundings in order to ask the question, Where am I? And if you did not do it, why do not you try? Or, perhaps you are reading this book unconsciously? It is clear that you must never live unconsciously, no matter where you are: in a house, on the street, in a temple, or in a taxi, on the sea or in an airplane, etc. So, wherever you may be, wherever you are to be found, the first thing that you must ask to yourself is, Why am here I in this place? Look minutely at everything that surrounds you: the ceiling, the walls, the floor; that observation is not only for the park, the house, or an unknown place, but one must do it daily, all the time. Look at your house as if it was something new or unknown; do so every time and every moment that you enter into it. You must also ask yourself, Why am I in this house? What a strange house.. Then look at the ceiling, the walls, and the ground, at the patio, etc.everything in detailthen ask yourself the question: Why am I in this place? Could it be that I am in my astral body? Thereafter, perform a little extended jump with the intention of floating in the environment. If you do not float, but still feels that you are in your astral body, then go stand on top of a chair or on top of a low table, an abdomen, a strong box or something of the sort, and jump in the air with the intention of floating. Sometimes one performs the extended jump and nevertheless one does not float, thus the best solution is to go and stand on something that allows us to jump in the air in order to hover in the environment when one jumps with the intention of flying. Thus, 107

it is clear that if one is in the astral world, one remains floating in the environment and if not, then one returns to the ground. So, do not forget the division of attention into three parts: SUBJECT - OBJECT - LOCATION. If one becomes accustomed to live with the attention divided into these three partssubject, object, and locationif one is habituated to do it daily, at every moment, from instant to instant, from second to second, then this habit becomes recorded deeply in theConsciousness; thus, at night, when our physically body sleeps, one performs the exercise in the astral world, one does the same thing that one does in the physical body: the outcome is the awakening of the Consciousness. You know that often at night you repeat in dreams the same things that you usually do during the day. For example, during the day many work in a factory, or as traveling salesmen, or in an office, then at night during their dreams they see themselves working, doing exactly the same things that they do during the day: they dream that they are in the factory, or selling, or in the office, etc. It is clear that everything that you do during the day you repeat during the night, that is to say, you dream the same thing at night. So, it is a matter of performing this practice during the day, at every hour, at every moment or second, in order to achieve it during the night, and thus awaken our Consciousness. It is clear that when any person is physically sleeping, the Essence, the Consciousness is far from the physical body; then it so happens that when the Essence is outside of the physical body, it acts within the astral body, and repeats the same things that it does during the day. This is how you can awaken automatically, because the practice of this exercise gives a spark or shock to your Consciousness, which then remains awake. Thus, my dear brothers and sisters, when one is already awake in the astral world, one can invoke the Masters, for example, one can call the Angel Anael or the Angel Adonai - the child of light and happiness - or the Master Khut Humi, so that they can come to instruct us, to teach us, etc. Likewise, you can call any other Master, namely Morya, the Count Saint Germain, etc. and those who invoke me they can be sure that I will concur to their call; they should be sure. Therefore, I give you the system in order to receive the teachings directly, and if you want to remember your past lives, then invoke the Masters of the White Lodge, Khut Humi, Hilarion, Morya, etc., and ask them to have the amiability, the kindness, to help you to remember your former existences, to help you to recall your past lives. You can be sure that the Masters will grant you such a petition. This system that I am giving to you all is in order for you to receive the direct knowledge. You can also travel to Eastern Tibet, you can also go to the depth of the oceans, including to other planets if you want... Thus, this it is the way to receive direct knowledge. This is why I tell you: Awaken, my dear brothers and sisters, awaken, awaken; do not continue living your life as unconscious or asleep individuals, as this is very sad, my dear brethren. Behold the sleepy souls, how they walk unconsciously in the astral world, and after the death they continue asleep, unconscious, and dreaming foolishness. They are born without knowing at what time, they die without knowing at what time. I do not want that you continue like this, within that terrible unconsciousness. I want you to awaken.

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