Symbol Ritual and Consciousness

The Pearl      The Next Step    One, Two, Three, and More Dimensions     Limiting Factors

Becoming Conscious    Ways to Be   Spirit Walk   Warrior or Dreamer   Inner Silence

Living Awake   Global Realization   Ascent of Consciousness

I was watching TV - nothing special. For several minutes I had sensed an energy or a movement on the other side of the room. It was almost like heat waves - something, but not really anything. I easily brushed it aside in my mind. Then, inner awareness shook me. Fool! This is something you need to pay attention to. Turning off the TV, I did.

My first sensory experience was of a profound and exquisitely beautiful light. My left brain logic said, "Of course, people always see 'the light', it is the perfect metaphor for what can't be easily explained." My inner knowing chastised me and said to stop thinking and analyzing. Just experience. As my thoughts quieted the light energy became more existent, more real. My awareness sharpened without having to have conceptual thoughts.

 

I quieted my thoughts and I felt it come nearer to me. The closer it was the more I felt the embracing gentle power of sacredness, a divine being. It floated as a clear white wisp of fog might move. Watched, it might appear one second and disappear the next. I had my physical eyes closed but my intuitive vision watched it close the space between us and I delighted in the beauty of the apparition.

 

For a time it remained separate from me. There was an other and there was me. This other, which I can conceptualize only as an angelic being, came to my side permeating the environment around me with sensation something like liquid sunshine, without heat and without wetness. I felt embraced by bliss emanating from this being. The sensation of quiet ecstasy was being spread over and around me with movements of what might have been arms or wings. The spreading sensation was over me, under me, and throughout me. The movements caressed my skin as the brushing touch of the softest breath feather. It might have been brushing away the last remnants of ordinary experience or it might have been healing my less than well body. I could feel it as it touched my skin but it was so soft as to be thought a gentle breath. There was an almost sensation of color or perhaps the color contained in white light but visible only when broken into separateness by a prism. Smell, the sweetness of spreading fragrance, was there also, but it extended beyond ordinary sensory input. Sound was perhaps the most exquisite part of the visit. It was a non-audible sound originating deep in my head but from a place deeper than the centermost point. It was not a melody, but it had the flow of a kind of rhythm of the universe resonating someplace inside as well as far beyond my head.

 

I melded with the energy where only pure being, pure consciousness exists. There was no "I" to have a body or bodily awareness, no me and no other to talk about. "I" existed only as and in that "Be-ing-ness." There was nothing else, no other existence. Everything I ordinarily knew had ceased and I simply was.

 

A moment might have passed or lifetimes might have been lived. It didn't matter. I had no desire of any kind, no expectation, no past, no future, and no awareness of a present state. No words of wisdom were given to me. There were no secret teachings, or earth changing messages. However, I had an experience that alters understanding of reality forever. I continue to explore how my defined reality has been altered.

 

In actuality, an hour and a half of clock time had passed since I recognized that I needed to turn the TV off and pay attention to another level of consciousness. I have since re-called the memory of that experience many times over the past few weeks. The sweetness and bliss is always there with me but I can't yet reproduce the totality of the experience. It remains a part of me as one of those moments in time that changes your life forever after even if you can't understand how anything at all has changed.

 

There is one change I am beginning to become aware of. Since the time of my awakening I have sensed global events. When there is a world situation that is threatening to the peace we on the earth are striving toward, I feel it like a physical blow. This often manifests in physical pain and/or illness. As I was experiencing the divine entity brushing my body I had an almost thought that it could be healing. The closest I came to a message from that being was that I was being released from some of the suffering of the pains of the earth. I had the feeling of giving back gratitude. In the weeks since I had the mystical experience there hasn't been a global event to know for sure but I have been healthier and more free from pain than I have been in more than two years.

 

I am just now beginning to try to think about how I might translate the sensations into words for others to read. When the experience first began, I began to think, "How am I going to describe this experience, what words am I going to use?" Those thoughts caused the experience to slip more distant from me. I would chastise myself, "Stop thinking" and then it would begin once again. After several thinking - non-thinking mind shifts I moved deeply enough to simply experience. I had to remain in the outer silence and the inner silence, the place of no place.

 

From my more ordinary consciousness, I have thought about it for a few weeks now. Any concrete thoughts diminish the experience. Still, I remind myself that if no one points out the possibility of experiences no one will awaken and be aware enough to "see" those things outside the ordinary. No one will step beyond our usual ordinary consciousness. If no one attempts the description there will be no experience to relate to and compare against. That acknowledgement leaves me with attempting to describe the indescribable. And that is followed with attempts to understand what it was that happened, how it happened, and how does it relate to ordinary life?

 

Spiritual emergence, spiritual awakening, and spiritual consciousness are some of the many terms we use for events which fundamentally challenge our beliefs about reality. Upon waking up, all that was no longer is. We experience a movement beyond ordinary, consensual, three-dimensional reality. Through a transcendental experience ... through moving toward a consciousness of oneness ... we discover an awareness where all things and events, while remaining perfectly separate and discrete (unique), simultaneously are only One. Duality both is and is not, both is form and is emptiness (the void).

 

Human beings are transitional beings bridging past and future in evolutionary process. The present moment is the gateway ... the past is only a memory, the future remains an unresolved, illusory possibility. This moment allows us (beings), as a whole, to create future consciousness. We bring spirit and physicalness into an energy which enables us as animated beings to exist in either and both realms simultaneously.

 

The gateway is the opening into all realms ... into consciousness ... into super-consciousness ... into our evolutionary future ... into other dimensions ... into all that exists beyond ordinary busyness of life. This gateway brings a fullness of extra-ordinary experience into ordinary life. Our objective is to bring spirit into physical matter rather than wait for the body to expire to allow movement into spirit. The two exist simultaneously in more than one dimension. 

 

Ordinary reality, this agreed on definition of three-dimensional reality, is where we live, think and function. It is our objective reality. It is our consensual reality ... the reality we have each agreed to function in. For many of us it is the only reality or level of which we are conscious. For eons of time there have been the few who recognize and strive toward knowledge of that which exists beyond ordinary reality. Philosophers, clerics, shaman and mystics have known of a higher order ... of alternate realities ... of a great beyond, of the fullness of the Totality we call by many names and descriptions. 

 

Each and all of us can become aware of the “Great Mystery”, that which exist beyond this sensory/earth reality. Our task as ordinary people is to real-ize (to make real) and to Become all philosophies and religions through our own unique expression. Our task is not to follow after any single aspect to the exclusion of others but to embrace the sacred energy in all aspects and beyond all aspects. All paths lead to the same source.

 

We in our human form have the need for a three-dimensional construct, a described boundary to contain our understanding of the totality. God, Jehovah, Allah, Yahweh, Creator, Great Spirit, the Great Mystery ... and many other names are what we call the Source from which all that exists emanates. This source encompasses the unknown, the unshown and all that is beyond understanding. Just as our physical eyes cannot see themselves, our spiritual seeing cannot clearly see its divine self in its Oneness.

 

After naming or attempting to name the Totality, we humans then build the constructs, the framework, the box, to describe and contain our understanding. We call these constructs our religion, our belief, or our philosophy. The matrix then becomes our individual foundation for existing. It also establishes a framework, a climate, a set of rules, limits, laws and boundaries of and for living. Once this construction is complete it has a tendency to be set in stone, unyielding and impenetrable. This fortress can provide a place of safety and security. It can serve to keep out danger and malevolent forces. And it can isolate or insulate, by setting up limits and boundaries to keep one away from anything viewed as different. Different becomes opposition rather than distinctiveness. Different is then viewed as something to avoid rather than being examined for possible inclusion or something to be enjoyed for its difference. When this happens our self-created receptacle of walls, floors and ceilings becomes an enclosure, a box. Our tiny box becomes the entire world and no longer has life and growth. We see only what is contained inside the box.

 

Carl Jung says, “It is a matter of indifference what the world thinks of religious experience; he who possesses it has a treasure, the source of life, intelligence and beauty, lending the world and humanity a new awareness.” That remains true until we squeeze the life from the experience by putting it into the narrow, rigid confines of a constructed 'box’. It remains true until we call it an ultimate truth and expect others to live 'the way’ as we have defined out truth box. To continue to grow and to move forward, we must take down the walls or at least expand our constructs. 

 

Where is it we are going and growing, we might be tempted to ask! For some, there is no acceptable answer. There is no view beyond the present box. If answers are already ‘set in stone’ with no room for tolerance, growth, change, or flexibility of any kind. If our box has no windows or doors, we see nothing beyond its walls. For through the tiniest crack in the walls we see a myriad of possibilities. Possibilities we ‘might’ see beyond the limits of our box include a fuller consciousness ‘here and now’ in this time ... and human evolution!

 

What realms of evolved being could exist in our future? Who might we become with a few more tools of awareness and consciousness? What veils between worlds might we rend? What flow might be freed? 

 

All beliefs, as we now understand them, address the past; past errors, past joys, past learnings and past processes. Each also examines present reality, present learning and experiences, and then foretells predictions of the future ... a future beyond this life. Prophecy reveals possibilities for impending unfoldings. It provides a set of laws to address the here and now and to keep us in line with the established way.

 

Gnostic scriptures tell of cycles of life with the ultimate purpose of bringing together spirit and body into unity and wholeness. A Gnostic practitioner does not believe in swallowing somebody else’s opinion but in gaining personal access to the source of immediate knowledge. A higher mental state is necessary to have these revelations of direct truths given. It is a balanced union of body, mind, emotion and spirit that gives access to higher consciousness. 

 

Hopi and Dine’ Native Americans, each in their own way, tell of moving into the fifth world. Lakota speak of prophecy and living toward the seventh generation. The Christian Bible speaks of end times and coming changes. When core truths of these unfoldings are examined we find forward movement in evolutionary process. We find movement toward ‘God-likeness’. Each and all speak of new times beyond our ordinary comprehension. Many Far Eastern traditions speak of similar focus, of discovery of Nirvana, of enlightenment. Tibetans refer to Shambhala, a society who all became enlightened and moved to a ‘higher’ plane of existence, of a tathagata path where those who have experienced as it is-ness are willing to walk the path of awakeness. There are many books, many stories, and many oral and written histories that relate similar information.

 

In each of these tales, this movement from world to world, or realm to realm, happens because we misuse and destroy the one in which we live, we ‘use it up’ and have to move elsewhere. This movement is also viewed as process of evolution to higher states as we climb up our beanstalk or our cornstalk, or walk over our rainbow bridge, or climb into the fifth world. We move more and more upwards from dark pits toward the heavens, as from Plato’s cave. Many systems tell of joining physical and spiritual realms into one realm ... one of learning to see and of evolving as living beings and living as evolved beings. 

 

There is an ancient Gnostic story that tells of one individual who forgot where they came from and why they came to this realm. This story helped me remember when I was being pulled from my path and forgot my possibilities of return to full consciousness.

 

 

The Hymn of the Pearl

A paraphrase of an ancient Gnostic story from the Acts of Thomas

 

When I was young and innocent I lived in the distant East in the kingdom of my parents, "a child of the royal family." I was nurtured with love, the fullness of spirit, wealth, and the splendor of my home and my family. Luxury surrounded me and "I was happy and content in my kingdom home."

 

After a time my parents decided to send me, "from our home in the light of the East", on a distant journey to the West. They did not, however, send me forth without provisions. From the "wealth of our kingdom" they prepared for me a bundle, containing all that I might need and still light enough "which I myself could carry." Gold, silver, and precious jewels were placed in my bundle with all my provisions. "I was armed with adamant, an unbending and unyielding metal strong enough to crush iron."

 

"They took off of me my glittering robe of glory which in their love they had made for me." They removed the mantel "that was measured and woven to my stature" and fit me perfectly.

 

"And they made a covenant with me, and inscribed it" on my heart that I might never forget it. "If you go down into Khem," the dark earth country of the West, and "bring back the lost pearl with scattered sparks of light, which is in the midst of the sea" of corruption and surrounded by the devouring serpent-dragon, then you shall return to us. You will again put on the glittering robe of glory and contentment. Your mantle of stature will again be placed around you. And "you and your sibling of us will sit in honor in our kingdom."

 

I came out of the light of the East by a difficult road. I was young and unfamiliar with my travels and I was fearful in those dangerous lands. I was accompanied by "two royal envoys," guardian guides, my parents had provided me.

 

I and my companions crossed many borders and passed through unfamiliar and dangerous lands. We traversed Northern and Southern lands, harsh lands of burning stones and flowing lava, and cold lands of frozen waters and deep crevasses.

 

But, "when I arrived at the border" of Khem, "my companions departed."

 

"I went straight to the serpent-dragon. I dwelt in his abode." I established myself there in an inn. It was my intention to wait for the dragon to sleep so that "I could take my one pearl from him" and return to my kingdom home.

 

I met there in that distant place, one of my people, freeborn with grace, familiar, and a descendent of royalty, an anointed one. I made him my friend and companion with whom I shared my treasures and my journey. "I warned him against consorting" with the people of Khem or partaking of the fruits of their land, for they were unknowing of our ways and were profaned to us.

 

I was a stranger there in that land and wished not to be recognized as a foreigner, there only to take the pearl from within the sea of the serpent-dragon. I did not want them to "arouse the wrath of the serpent against me." I disguised myself by taking on their dress and their ways.

 

I do not know how they discovered that I was not of their land. "But in some way or another they found out that I was not one of their countrymen". They learned that I was from another place.

 

With great deception, they enticed me to join them in food, drink, and life. Having yielded to their enticements, I forgot who I was and where I had come from. I forgot my kingdom, my covenant, and my purpose. I forgot the lost pearl I had come to retrieve. "I fell into a deep sleep."

 

My family in my forgotten kingdom "perceived all this and grieved deeply for me." They sent out a "proclamation" for all elders "to come to the gates of the kingdom." They summoned and met with all the wise ones of the light of the East. Together they created a plan on my behalf that I would not be abandoned in the darkness of the West. They wrote to me signifying their resolve. And, "every noble signed his name to it."

 

"From thy father and thy mother; from all thy relatives; from the wise elders of the kingdom... to our kinsperson in Khem: Rise up. Awaken from your sleep. You have 'come under the great yoke of bondage.' Hear the words we send you. Remember that you are a child of the kingdom.

 

Remember your pearl for whose sake you have journeyed into Khem, 'remember the lost pearl' with its scattered sparks of light 'for which you have been sent.' Remember your glittering robe, your royal mantle of stature 'which you shall once again wear and with which you shall be adorned' on your return. Remember who you are, 'that you are a child of royalty' and remember the home awaiting you."

 

My parents, the rulers of the kingdom, sealed this message against the interference of any treacherous influences. "It flew as in the likeness of an eagle, the king of all birds, to my side and lighted down beside me where it became all speech." I heard its rustlings and its words. At its voice and the feelings of it, "I started and arose from my sleep" that held me unaware. I awoke, "took it up, kissed it and I began to read it." It awoke memories of all that had been inscribed in my heart.

 

I remembered everything. I remembered my kingdom, my royal family, "that I was a child of royal parents and my noble birth asserted itself." "I remembered the one pearl for which I had been sent down" to Khem of the West. I remembered the loud breathing serpent-dragon and the sea where it resides.

 

I began to chant the names of my father, my mother and my kingdom. "I charmed and overcame the terrible creature. I hushed him asleep and lulled him into slumber." I plucked the one pearl from the lair of the beast and turned to return to my distant home, to my kingdom in the East. I stripped off the accoutrements of the dark earth, and "left it there in the country" leaving it all in Khem.

 

"And I took myself straight to come to the light of our home in the East."

 

On my return to the light of the East I again found the message that had been borne to me on the heart of the eagle as I slept the unknowing sleep. "And as with its voice it had awakened me, so too, with its light, was leading me." It now guided me with the light of the kingdom. With the vision of my royal garments before me, and with love and the fullness of spirit drawing me forward, with "it that dwelt in the palace, it gave light before me with its form." "And with its love drew me on and encouraged me to speed."

 

 I passed again through many regions, labyrinths, and dangerous lands. I went forth and again passed through heat and cold, North and South, through lies, ignorance, and hate.

 

However, "by the hand of" the two guardian guides my parents had provided for me, and "who in their truth could be trusted therewith," had brought me my splendid robe and royal mantle.

 

"I remembered not the brightness of my robe" and did not recall the perfect fit of the mantle that had been woven to my stature, "for I was yet a child when I had left it" in my palace home. But, suddenly I saw the garments that had been made for me. "When I received it, the garment seemed to me, to become like a mirror of myself." "I saw it all in all."

 

I saw the garments on me and I knew and saw myself through them, "for we were two in distinction and one in one likeness." I saw myself through it, that we had been divided asunder, being of one; and again, we were one in one shape. The distinction between it and myself melted away.

 

"The treasurer-guardians who brought it to be, I saw in like manner." They that had been two, now "had one shape upon them." "One royal sign was on both of them who had restored to me" my glorious robe and mantle, "so skillfully worked in our home on high."

 

I observed my robe still more in all its splendor, variegated with glittering color, adorned in gold and jewels, its seams sewn with threads of adamant, fastened with diamonds. Wisdom of ages was "embroidered and depicted in full - all over it." Also, "all over it the instincts of knowledge were working" and "I saw too that it was preparing to speak."

 

And I heard it speak. "I heard the sounds of its tones which it uttered," saying, "I am the one that acted on behalf of my parents in whose kingdom I was reared." "I perceived myself, that my stature grew in accordance with my work." "And in its movement it poured itself entirely over me."

 

"And it hastened, that I might take it. And I ran to meet it and receive it, it reaching out from the hand of him, unto the hand of him that would receive it."

 

"And I stretched forth and took it," and "adorned myself with the beauty of the colors," and the "flow of motions and instincts of knowledge." "The rippling movement of Gnosis spread through me." "In my royal robe excelling in grace, beauty, and stature, I arrayed myself wholly."

 

"And when I had put it on, I, in my robe, ascended to the gates of salutation and adoration, to the gates of the kingdom," the gates of the palace of peace, contentment and homage.

 

I bowed my head and worshiped the fullness of the source which had sent it unto me.

 

"And that which had been promised was fulfilled."

 

I entered the gates of the kingdom I had left as a child - with my gifts and my pearl and returned into union with all that reside there.

From: The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle in the country of India.

 

This story touches some deep inner knowing in each of us even before we begin to think about what it means. It strikes bells of familiarity at our very core. Even without attempts at understanding, it reminds us to remember who we are, and why we are here. It reminds us that we have a personal, deep and often hidden purpose.

 

We begin to analyze the tale and to look at how it relates to each of us as individuals and our personal development spiritually and egoistically. We can easily see that the kingdom is where we felt safe and had all our needs met. On a still deeper level we can see that it is where the soul originates, the fertile void, the absolute source of existence. It is where we identify with the archetypal psyche. In order to gain personal self-consciousness, the ego must leave the fullness of psychic primordiality. It must leave its source. So the innocent and content child is sent away on a mission.

The  parents send the child on its journey fully provisioned with power, with distant memory, with everything that might be needed and light enough that it might be easily carried. The parents also establish veils of forgetfulness ... "They took off of me my glittering robe of glory which in their love they had made for me." They removed the mantel "that was measured and woven to my stature" and fit me perfectly.

 

Khem, an early designation for Egypt, means dark earth. Therefore Khem/Egypt was the symbol for earthly life and all the darkness and negative aspects of earthly life. In the story it symbolized the darkness of the unknown, the unconscious. Through the descriptions we recognize feelings of alienation and isolation. We recognize ourselves and suffer over our estrangement from the love and acceptance we imagine that others have in abundance. The soul/ego is a stranger to its fellow travelers. It is fully in the midst of existential alienation.

 

In the midst of alienation we sometimes find a kindred spirit. We find a familiar person, someone we know from our homeland, another soul who shares the path of a spiritual quest and mission. This was true of Khem traveler. He found, "one of my people ... an anointed one." He as we often developed a relationship. They, like us, share "treasures and journey" as well as warnings about the dangers of the land. Then we fall prey, we are seduced by the locals, the customs, and we are fed food and drink that causes us to slip even more deeply into forgetfulness, into a sleep of ignorance.

 

In examining the serpent-dragon, the sea, and the pearl; of course the pearl is our lost self, our existential self. It is the wisdom we know is "out there" for us if only we could discover and retrieve it. It represents the iridescent beauty surrounding the grain of sand we feel we are at our deepest core. It is the transcendental, transformative state we seek. It is our fire of life and it is being hidden from us within the sea of corruption and the veils of forgetfulness. The chaos of the sea itself isn't enough to keep us from what we seek, it is also guarded by a serpent-dragon, an ultimate personification of every enemy. It symbols everything that keeps us from attaining our goals.

 

Meanwhile, those special beings of our homeland recognize that we have lost ourselves. They "summon and meet with the wise ones of the land" who gather and prepare a message. It is signed, sealed with the seal of the Parent, "against any treacherous influences, and it is sent in a mystical magical manner. The message speaks to us through our deep sleep and rouses us to wakefulness and memories of purpose. "It flew as in the likeness of an eagle, the king of all birds, to my side and lighted down beside me where it became all speech." I heard its rustlings and its words. At its voice and the feelings of it, "I started and arose from my sleep" that held me unaware. I awoke."

 

On awakening, action is elicited and the lost one sets out to retrieve the pearl. It is with pearl in hand that "I stripped off the accoutrements of the dark earth, and "left it there in the country" leaving it all in Khem. Wisdom is regained one more time after a long period of forgetting.

  

It is then that envoys arrive with our robe of glory of individuated selfhood. The robe restored reinstates our mystical state of consciousness of all that exists beyond the "triviality of everydayness" (Heidegger). It elicits the visionary experience through the grandeur and "the rippling movement of Gnosis ... (so that in) my royal robe excelling in grace, beauty, and stature, I arrayed myself wholly."

 

And we return to our soul's home. "And when I had put it on, I, in my robe, ascended to the gates of salutation and adoration, to the gates of the kingdom," the gates of the palace of peace, contentment and homage.

 

The Next Step

 

The next question? What is spirit and  where is spirit? Science is looking to the farthest domains of the universe and, equally to the deepest realms of quantum physics. We

anticipate, we hope for a clear ‘western thought’ answer. Perhaps then we can contemplate merging spirit and matter. The concept of bringing spirit and matter together calls forth questions of how and why and when. How, why, and when is not important. Readiness to awaken and be aware is important. This is a time of transition, of movement ... a time of new ways of perceiving reality.

 

Visions, revelations, angelic visits, memories of ancient time and places, seeing deities ... demons ... spirits, prophecy, flashes of light and color, spasms, anxiety attacks, hearing voices, and other breaks with reality may be symptoms of psychosis. Psychiatric help may be needed. However, more and more frequently these experiences suggest a spiritual emergence and need no external care or need care of a very different kind. In past times prophets, saints, mystics, and holy people had similar experiences and were recognized as agents of God ... more worthy than ordinary persons of direct contact with the divine. 

 

Today more and more average, ordinary individuals are having these kinds of experiences. The event may be a divine awakening but few mental health care sources have recognition of any distinction between  mysticism, mental illness and spiritual awakenings. Therefore, there are few resources available for assistance. Conventional western mainstream psychology does not acknowledge that many great spiritual traditions regularly pursue higher consciousness and the benefits that are part of higher states of consciousness. Expanded awareness, altered states, spiritual and physical healings, visualizing and conversing with holy people may be considered (in this dominant culture) as mental illness rather than sacred pursuits. However, Native American cultures and aboriginal cultures as well as many of the Eastern beliefs consider these and other alternatives not only normal but view them as desirable options.

 

These experiences may be psychotic breaks with reality, learned spiritual practices or they may be an evolutionary crisis ... or what has come to be called a spiritual emergency ... an awakening of spiritual consciousness. Sometimes this is so dramatic in its challenge of previous beliefs and life styles, that our stability ... our homeostasis is threatened. There are some spiritual leaders, guides and teachers to assist people in these breakthroughs ... but they remain relatively few in number. This difficulty in breaking through to a higher level of consciousness has been the reason for the necessity of a guru in the past. The path was so treacherous that it could not be undertaken without guidance. During this time of transition, this time of evolution ... this time of new ways to perceive reality, we discover new ways to step into spiritual consciousness that are less crisis oriented and less threatening. The guiding hand of a leader who has gone before is less necessary but the path remains full of pitfalls.

 

As we walk our path, one of many lessons is to remain mindful. We must be mindful of the ever-present pot holes and pitfalls. We must remain mindful to the joy and beauty which surrounds us each and every moment of life. Additionally, we must learn and remain mindful of the very ordinary. The ordinary can be as much a peak experience teacher and can the sunrise of a new dawn, as can the skinned knee of the soul after a fall from the windhorse.

 

One, Two, Three and More dimensions

 

Humanity is in a process of movement from a one dimensional point (origin), through a two dimensional shape (outline), past three dimensional form (structure) ... which is our currently defined reality ... into a multi-dimensional being traveling in a multi-dimensional reality. This leap requires full-consciousness, allowing spirit or the intangible aspects of us, to merge with physical matter of this reality. This process of movement is evolution. 

 

Until we become evolved beings able to live as fully conscious spirit/matter beings, we must continue to live as we do now, in our physical bodies in this three dimensional world. Spirit continues to exist as something apart from physicalness, something to be aspired to, something consigned to the realm of the heavens. We can barely begin to understand our three consensually defined dimensions. How can we possibly begin to comprehend multi-dimensions? How can we create a picture of a dimension of spirit? ... or dimension of  universe? ...or dimension of God? ... of multiple dimensions? We begin very simply.

 

One dimension has only one point.                       

 

One dimension is the dot on the page. It is not the page. It is not inside nor is it outside. It has no volume, no depth or no width. That very simple concept of one-pointed-ness is almost incomprehensible to us. We cannot understand that one point is, so how can we perceive that one point can be both empty (nothingness) and everything? With two dimensions, lines can go in any direction on a flat plane.          

 

In the case of two dimensions, we still tend think in terms of more. Is the object or shape separate from the page. Is the page one or two dimensions? They are tied together on one plane by a boundary. They are the same thing ... they are paper. They are part of a page of a book, a symbol for something. Part of the page has more ink than another part, but all the page is still one flat plane, two dimensions. The inside and the outside of the circle, the square, and the triangle remain on the same plane and are both comprised of the same components, paper and ink.

 

The third dimension has depth and volume.

 

Three dimensions can be expressed or visually portrayed, on a two dimensional surface. This depiction requires assumptions, representations, and a common understanding of consensus reality. We interpret each of the shapes as having volume as well as an inside and outside. Still this can be expressed on a two dimensional plane. We think we understand what this physical realm is and our first question seems answered.

 

Fourth, fifth, sixth ... dimensions? Multi-dimensions are beyond simple pictures. We cannot come up with a representational concept. We cannot create a model of fourth dimension to show in a three dimensional world. We can understand one, two and three dimensions but our mind cannot conceive of moving into fourth, fifth, sixth ... dimensions, much less many other unseen realities, including; micro dimensions, macro
dimensions, spirit dimensions, unnamed possibilities, and God dimensions. We become quickly overwhelmed with the inconceivable and cease to think.

 

 

Limiting Factors and the Contrary of the ‘Truth’ ... Duality

We live in our body, with our body the emotional center of the universe around which everything revolves ... Me, Myself and I.  We are egocentric beings with every thought and action undertaken to gratify self in some way, even those experiences we describe as unpleasant.  Mankind takes upon himself this endless burden ... refusing to let go of anything ... holding on endlessly. We clutch tightly at every past experience, holding it tightly to our bosom as a treasure. We wallow in our angst, relishing our delicious, well deserved suffering. We justify every characteristic of ‘self’, saying ... “I am who I am” “because of alcoholic parents ...”,  “because of rigid religious views ...”, “because of childhood abuse ...”, “because my mother committed suicide ...”, “because I was adopted ....”, “because I had an abortion ....” “I am trying to live the fairy tale.”  We “because .....................”, endlessly to defend who we are and how we are in the world.  We recognize our tendency toward addictions, then we become addicted to our addictions.  We become our addictions and our excuses, spending more time on our pity pots than interacting with the world.  We give our power to our “poor me” issues.  We adopt the role of victimization.  We feel we have been victimized by life and its forces.  As victims we are disabled and ineffective with a comprehensive repertoire of excuses.

 

We can choose to continue this path of self suffering or we can consider the uses of adversity.  We can thrive in spite of ... or indifferent to our difficulties.  We can see adversity as an integrated part of the whole.  We can see that adversity and bountiful blessings each define the other. 

 

We can become self responsible.  We can accept the teachings of life's hardships and adversities.  We can choose to reject the victim role.  We can choose to stop suffering over the suffering.  We can become awake and emotionally whole individuals.  We can seek an alternative.

 

The alternative?  Leave it all behind and move on, make room for something new.  If need be, examine each incident, recapitulate it, re-live it if you must, process it if necessary, but find some way to stop living in the midst of it.  Cease being fixated on the past or on the present residue from past pain.  Resist the temptation to hold on to long gone events.  Dump it.  Burn those bridges.  Self discover ... find out, “who am I”?  Define life purpose. 

 

First, discover and accept on a conscious level ... Self.  Second, dis-identify ... gain freedom from past influences.  Clean out preconceptions, limiting beliefs and thoughts, assumptions, premises, handcuffs and blindfolds.  Make room for new aspects of self. Third, center yourself.  Psycho-synthesize yourself.  Become a conscious ‘I’.  Self realize, acknowledge, integrate, resolve and accept self ... as is.  Fourth, define personal beliefs, values and ethics.  Fifth, discover concepts of self actualization, transcendence, and the transpersonal.  Develop consciousness and real-ize connections with life, nature and spirit.

 

There are many therapeutic processes, many paths of growth and development to accomplish these goals and objectives.  There are many ways of healing old wounds.  This book is about what comes beyond therapy, beyond emotional whole-ness, beyond well adjustment.  Once we have accomplished this task of sane stability ... when we begin to live empowered, there may be a tendency for old familiar habits to return.  We might be tempted to return to the old unhealthy patterns, or to build a new tight little box to contain the new something that we have so newly discovered  ... to hold on tightly once again.  We might be tempted to find a comfortable, safe, little home box.  We might forget to continue to move forth.  Squelch that desire.  Leave room for an ongoing new growth,  for continuing new perspectives.  Examine the underside of the boxes, take off the box-top, put a window in the bottom, look at the outsides, explore other boxes, stack them differently, see how the boxes are alike and how they are different.  Re-examine the definitions of truth.  Perceive ‘truth’ through the eyes of someone else.  Never admit a truth in the mind without simultaneously keeping the mind open to the contrary of that truth (Aurobindo).  The result of that action?  The prestige of the intellect is gone.  When our intellect releases attachment to ‘the truth’, then we can begin to see possibilities, to examine options, to appraise alternatives, to look toward a future beyond rigid intellectual barriers.  We have begun to move past our personal history.  We become free to pursue beyond the limits of thought and beyond past truths.  We can begin to think beyond thinking.

 

When physical reality and our personal history ceases being our main center, our entire focus, we can shift into a fuller consciousness. We begin to have an inner life independent of physical circumstances and physical life.  We have the ability to live free of physical controls and past annals.  Life changes.  Life broadens to include more.  There is room to look to future mysteries, to seek new answers, to find the mystic within ourselves.

 

Why would the world need another mystic? ... another set of answers? ... another viewpoint of answers we have already defined? ... another piece of the puzzle?  Perhaps the world does not, I do.  After thinking about some of these comments you might decide to seek a peek at options and alternatives, too.  I need a new model, a new perspective, a cohesive construct, with flexible walls or freestanding, wide open spaces.  The old limited representations stopped working for me long ago. 

 

However, this new construction, this new model, must not become a prototype for another ‘ultimate’ answer.  The world has no need for one more “one and only” religion.  This model can only be viewed as a set of signposts, of guidelines for each individual to use in locating their own personal concept of path.  A personal conception of spirit may be part of a conventional religion or a unique alliance between an individual and the Great Mystery.  We ... I reach to a concept of fuller consciousness.  I seek a connection, a personal partnership with Source as I personally and privately understand it.

 

Humankind has entered a time in this evolutionary process when each individual can seek a unique path ... for in truth, all paths end in the same Source.  The time of requiring an intermediary to intercede on our behalf is past.  We now become our own savior, our own priest, our own rabbi or lama, our own medicine man or woman ... we become our own holy person.  We reach toward consciousness, toward fuller awareness of the Universal Totality for ourself.  We reach toward a unity of spirit and matter through our expanded consciousness.  We quest for the Supreme.  We evolve in the direction of ultimate oneness; an infinite, all-pervading and all-embracing Consciousness.  A totality where all things and events remain separate and discrete and simultaneously are only One, a place beyond and encompassing ordinary duality. 

 

 Never admit a truth in the mind

without simultaneously

     keeping the mind open to the contrary of that truth

Sri Aurobindo

 

What is this Consciousness spoken of as if it were at our fingertips and as if all we need do is grasp it?  Are not we each and all conscious?  Conscious ... attentive ... cognizant ... aware?  Kant’s, “I think, therefore I am”, becomes insufficient.  We are more than our thoughts, more than our bodies, more than our emotions, more than attending and more than ordinary awareness.  We experience awareness beyond thought and consciousness beyond awareness.  All the words and definitions used in the past, become insufficient to discuss these new levels of evolutionary knowing.

 

Consciousness, through the expanded definition of evolutionary process, allows us to remain focused on our goals, our path.  We remain impeccable, genuine and fully aware in our behaviors and our actions.  Consciousness encompasses a new component, trust ... trust in process ... trust in knowing beyond our ordinary conscious.  Consciousness is comfort in the mystery of not knowing on an intellectual level what will happen next.  Consciousness is knowing everything in our Oneness and not needing to know in our separateness.  Consciousness is a new kind of sensory awareness beyond our five familiar senses.  This ‘not knowing’ is sanctioned as one of the great joys, a joy requiring constant focused surrender to expanded Consciousness.  This kind of Consciousness requires that we live more fully, savor our emotion, keep our Chakra (energy) centers clear, sense the divine in every action: that we maintain clarity in who ‘I’ am, in every situation.  Consciousness requires that we live in the moment and live fully.  Consciousness becomes an alertness and a knowing through recognition, through simultaneous ‘being with’ everything that exists.  Consciousness rewards us with mental, physical, spiritual and emotional connection.  In combination we become the gestalt.  The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Becoming Conscious

How do we begin to be conscious of Consciousness?  Our beginning task is to become conscious in every way possible at this ordinary reality level of daily busyness.  This must occur before consciousness at other levels of being can begin.  Consciousness at all degrees of universal existence, in ourself, in others, in all things; in waking, in sleeping, in awake behaviors, in dreaming behaviors and ultimately in what we know as death.  The extent of our consciousness in life is reflected in the extent of our consciousness in dreams and in death.  Consciousness carries us forth into the infinite All, beyond life, sleep and death.  Consciousness is not just a way of thinking or feeling, it is an energy, a power for contacting the myriad degrees of existence, visible or invisible, sentience or essence, source or outcome, form or void. 

 

Before awakening Consciousness we are products of our intellect, our emotion, our sensory interpretation, our delineated physical body.  We define our world through those limits.  As we become more aware and awakened we recognize alternatives.  We adopt and examine a perspective.  Perhaps we pause and contemplate other concepts as distant possibilities.  We may attempt to blend and assimilate.  However, to discover new native lands, we must first leave the old one behind.  Not even a synthesis will suffice.  We must reach toward authenticity, we must reach toward originality ... and we must reach forth without trepidation.  This freedom from trepidation and consternation is also called fearlessness (not foolishness).  Courageous forward movement, having moved through fear is fearlessness. 

 

To begin to reach toward consciousness, in this beginning task, we state our intention and our commitment to constant surrender to whatever is our highest path.  We vocalize it with verbalizations such as: “I am willing to walk my personal, spiritual, path;  I am willing to respond to the light of consciousness, to let go of fear, to let go of artificial clarity;  I am willing to let go of the idea that I know what is happening and how things work;  I am willing to let go of the thought that ‘I’ am in control.” 

 

We achieve personal, emotional wholeness through self-knowing.  We discover our true nature, our true name, our true path, our manifestation in the world which we know as our personality.  To discover cosmic Consciousness we must look existence, joy and pain, in the face.  We must ... if our aim is to arrive at a ‘right’ solution whatever that solution may be.  We must face it all equally if we strive toward consciousness.  To look existence in the face is to look God in the face, for the two cannot be separated ... and the higher order is the truth of the two.  Truth is the foundation of real spirituality and courage (fearlessness) is its soul (Aurobindo).

 

This chaos of life is where we have to act, to face things, to Become.  Physical, material reality is the moment we live in.  It is here we must learn to Be.  It is here we learn to be mindful.  To step into the ‘more’, into Consciousness, we must learn to be fully conscious in the ‘here and now’.  Without ‘Being’, our ‘Becoming’ is scattered in the prevailing chaos.  We cannot pass into the place where the individual, the cosmic and the transcendent are part of ultimate, infinite, Consciousness until our becoming is pulled into Being. 

WAYS TO BE ... Being, a true name and a true path

There are many ways of Being in the World.  To create a new way of Being, we must be awake and emotionally whole.  This is the objective of psychotherapy, of self help programs, of thousands of books.  It is a life goal for many.  This treatise will not discourse on that particular subject.  This disquisition begins at the point of psychological or emotional or mental wholeness.  Past wholeness there are many beginning places.  One of those “ways” is to enter a Circle of Movement, a Circle of Life, a Life Path.  This may consist of a philosophy, a religion, a culture, a belief, a life style, or we might call it a Medicine Wheel ... from the Native American traditions.  Naming it isn’t important.  The walking, the movement, the growth ... the path is momentous.  It is critical.  It determines personal self actualization and contributes to the evolution of humanity.

 

Your true path and your true name ... how you want to be recognized ... are requisites, they are first step discoveries.  You can discover your true path by noticing what ‘lights you up’ and keeps you ‘lit’. Ask, “What is it I am doing when I feel most alive and in the universal flow?”  “How do I want to be remembered?”  “What legacy do I choose to leave behind?”  “How do I contribute to the world ... to humanity?”  The answers to these questions become path options.  Teacher, student, parent, mate .... worker, protector, guide, an intellect ... all and more are paths to walk.  It is up to you to ascertain your personal pathway. 

 

Your true name creates an awareness of internal resonance. Ask, “Who do I want to be known as?”  “What labels do I want to be associated with me?”  Healer, mystic, teacher, cleric ... artist, sage, server, priest ... scholar, leader, listener, and speaker are names you might hear.  When you are called by one of these terms (or others) and you smile with recognition deep inside ... then you know your true name.  You know who you are. What sounds resonate your name?

     

You may know already who you are and the path you follow or you may spend time and/or meditation in the discovery.  You may ask friends or family their vision of you and your path.  Prayer may provide your answer.  But, seek and find you must. 

 

“I freeze on this new level because I am faced with the death of this new level.  I have found a higher self only  to see it threatened globally by the skull of death which grins in again.  There is now the possibility of new and higher Eros (self-actualization), but it necessarily brings in its wake the terror of new and subtler Thanatos (death and transformation) ... I have found a total self, only to face total death.  It is then impossible for me to orient meaningfully to life’s future because I am terrified of life’s present .... (Maslow)”.  Maslow discovered what he called the Jonah Syndrome ... the fear of greatness.  This fear also includes our fear of being unworthy, incapable and less than what was expected of us.  Maslow found this fear to be the greatest barrier to self actualization (fulfilling one’s potential).  We become fearful of possibilities.  Fear of discovering Self immobilizes us.  We find ourself doing ‘nothing’ in order to avoid failure.  It is the greatest barrier to walking our personal path and answering to our true name.  Modern psychology has also named this the “impostor syndrome”.  It is the fear of being discovered as far less than what we present ourself to be.  “What if they see me as I really am, rather than what they think I am.”   We must move past fears, become fearless ... become courageous and find our path.  Finding our true path has been most clearly presented in conventional psychology by Abraham Maslow. 

 

Maslow, rather than studying individual deficiencies and abnormalities, examined the excellence in the world and those individuals who live in excellence.  Maslow presents a hierarchy of needs with self actualization being the highest accomplishment.  As a humanistic psychologist, Maslow and others recognize that we are each unique individuals, with morals and values, with a basic goodness, and a desire to reach goals that have value to us.  This hierarchy is generally presented as a pyramid, the smallest point at the top being self actualization.  I prefer to think of it as building blocks with each forming a foundation for the next layer.  Any removal or threat to the lower blocks and we fall to the level of the block that was in danger.  Then when stability has been restored, we quickly return to the top.  This is what Abraham Maslow calls the self actualization process.  Perhaps there is Consciousness, Super-Consciousness and MORE and MORE above self actualization.

MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE
  Super-Consciousness - 

Consciousness

Transcendent-

self-actualization

self-esteem, self-esteem

love, love, love, love, love

belongingness, belongingness

safety, safety, safety, safety, safety, safety

survival, survival, survival, survival, survival, survival 

Ordinary teachings from Maslow stop at the level of self actualization, which is the peaking beyond ego states.  His theory does carry us beyond this level but is considered too extreme for was most textbooksl.  This book is about reaching beyond, beyond what we have previously seen as our limits.

 

There are many paths we can select from, an unlimited number of paths.  Many of the many paths available have been in existence for centuries.  Some of these are included in this primer on Consciousness for your examination.  If none of these fit you, your name or your path comfortably, find others to explore.  

 

Seek your own true ‘way’.

PATHS ... Hindu yoga paths, Tibetan paths, Psychology

The yoga path is the Hindu-wisdom path to find health, happiness and peace of mind ... not in some future post-death place but in the here and now.  This can be achieved through union with the higher self ... a mind-body union.  The objective of this union is to manifest divinity within through controlling internal and external natural impulses and behaviors.  Breath and physical postures are an integral part of this path.  According to Hinduism and revised and modernized versions of Hinduism (some might say misbegotten versions) there are different forms of yoga a teacher presents his students with.  These are paths of movement through the world which encompass our true name.  A teacher will watch his students and say, this is a person of devotion, this is a person of work, or this is a person of mind, this is a person of mysticism, this is a person of service.  In recognizing our nature they will give a practice based on that nature.  In this culture we must seek this knowledge ourself.  Knowing our personality allows us to interact more effectively with self as well as with others.  None are better, or worse, merely different.  We say things like “If I were only ...............”  It doesn’t matter what we do, just so we do it well.

 

Vivekananda addresses four main yogas, Karma Yoga - the path of action, Jnana Yoga - the path of knowledge or philosophy, Bhakti Yoga - the path of devotion, and Raja Yoga the path of control of the mind. The most commonly known yogic path in North America is a physical yoga known as Hatha Yoga. Yoga paths are generally divided into three Buddhist vehiecles; Hiiniyana, Mahanayana, and Vajrayana. These three paths include the yogas of  1) Hatha Yoga, 2) Karma Yoga, 3)Yama/Niyama Yoga ... (Samjna), 4) Bhakti Yoga, 5) Raja Yoga ... (Vignana), 6) Jnana Yoga ...(Vedana ... Samskara/the rounds of birth and death), 7) Laya Yoga, 8) Yoga, 9) Tantra Yoga, 10) Kundalini Yoga, 11) Yantra Yoga  12) MantraYoga, 13) Japa Yoga, 14) Siddha Yoga.

 

1) Hatha Yoga focuses on breath, postures (asanas), mudras (hand gestures), and muscular locks (bandahs) to achieve union by bodily mastery.  "Ha" means sun - "tha" means moon. The right nostril is sunbreath and the left nostril is moon breath - giving health of nervous system, glands, and vital organs.  

2) Karma Yoga is action and service based. It stresses God-realization through selfless service. For benefit to occur it must be action performed without expectation of outcome, reward, or even acknowledgement "selfless service performed with skill". 

 3) Yama/Niyama Yoga ... Samjna. Yama and Niyama are aspects of or extensions of Karma yoga. 

Yama yoga is union through conduct toward other. Purity within can overcome the enemies within ... greed, anger, lust, pride, and jealousy which lead to lying, killing and stealing. Purifies the mind. 

Niyama Yoga pursues union through conduct with regards to self, self service. This includes outer and inner cleanliness, contentment (harmony), chasity (moderation), study, and devotion. 

4) Bhakti Yoga is union through love and devotion - rites and singing of songs of praise, love, devotion, and worship ... in love of the One (Hindu - Krishna). The sweetness of the "Beloved" is seen in all things. 

5) Raja Yoga ... Dhyana Yoga (Vignana) is union by mental mastery, tapping latent energies, mastering consciousness, stilling thought, and becoming ruler over mind. It stresses concentration and meditation as methods of attainment. It includes sensory mastery as well as subtle counterparts; clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience. 

6) Jnana Yoga ...(Vedana ... Samskara) is union through knowledge, study, and meditation. It is spiritual knowledge and wisdom. Intellect penetrates veils of ignorance that prevents one from seeing the true self. It stresses God-realization through knowledge and discrimination. 

7) Laya Yoga is union by arousal of latent forces. Laya yoga includes breath suspension, stable posture, and release meditative concentration to awaken latent forces. 

8) Kriya Yoga literally means an activity performed with awareness. The goal is to develop awareness and "see things as they really are" free of ordinary perceptions. Discipline or sadhana incorporates many components of the other yogas; breath, posture, devotion, and control of the mind. Kriya yoga utilizes massage (internal control) of internal organs and glands to stabilize the physical body. 

9) Tantra Yoga is union of polarity or duality, of masculine and feminine, of the yogi and Yogini, through actual or visualized union. It is a physiological discipline. 

10) Kundalini Yoga is union with the goal of arousing latent dormant psychic and vital forces which lie coiled at the base of the spine in the form of a serpent. Chi or energy awakens through movement from the base chakra through all chakras to crown - enlightenment. Prayanayama (breath control) is one of the important skill leading to breathless state of samadhi. 

11) Yantra Yoga frees one through meditation on a symbol - frequently a mandala of specific forms and shapes. 

12) MantraYoga or Nada Yoga is union through sound. Mantra (think and protect or free) is to free oneself from habitual and limiting tendencies of thought and awakens the internal intellect.. It replaces "I" centeredness with God centeredness. 

13) Japa Yoga is another form of meditation with the use of mantra to bestow peace, bliss, illumination and consciousness. 

14) Citti (subconscious / unconscious) or Siddha Yoga (perfection) is union through work with supernatural powers ... yogic miraculous powers.

 

1. Hatha Yoga - As stated previously hatha yoga focuses on breath, postures (asanas), mudras (hand gestures), and muscular locks (bandahs) to achieve union by bodily mastery.  "Ha" means sun - "tha" means moon. The right nostril is sun breath (heating) and the left nostril is moon breath (cooling) - giving health of nervous system, glands, and vital organs. Through the strict and correct discipline of  Hatha practices, postures (asanas), seals (mudras), locks (bandhas),  kriyas (cleansing practices), and pranayama (breath control) the practitioner merges the pranas (forces) through the pingala (right channel) and ida (left) nadis which merge and flow through the sushumna (central channel). When the energy rises to the crown chakra (sahasrara) bring Self-realization / God realization.  

2. Physicality, Karma Yoga means action.  Karma Yoga takes action as the way to conscious living and follows the idea of work for work’s sake.  It is a collection of precepts rather than only a system, for those who live in the world in an active physical way.  The ideal is the active life as praised by the Bhagavad Gita, the beautiful Indian holy book, “Action alone concerns you, never its fruit, stability in success or failure, the balance is called Yoga.”  This concept incorporates the philosophy of non-attachment to outcome.  Only ‘work for work’s sake’ utilizes the path of consciousness living.  Attachment brings fixation, concern over recognition, ‘success/failure’, rewards of the work ethic.  You serve eternity, humanity, yourself, your children, your lover ... through your work.  You clean house, paint the house, pick apples.  You engage the physical body.  So ... you may work setting up a new elementary school, working in politics, running countries, or refugee camps ... you may create businesses or build highways.  Your expressions of service to a higher purpose is one of physical interaction with environment and with others.  Kaarma yoga is union by action and servicce, selfless service without reward.

 

In Tibetan Buddhism this would be Form, Rupa, the realization that the Self is an entity in the external world.  The external world provides us with information in the form of five senses.  This sensory way of experiencing environment in relationship to self is one of Carl Jung’s four ways of being in the world.  Western psychology would describe this way as   behavioral and biological in origin.  Movement in the world is one of physical action.

 

3.  Service, Yama -Niyama Yoga, an aspect of Karma Yoga is concerned with conduct toward others.  Concentration on the idea of purity and service can overcome the enemies within ... greed, anger, lust, pride, and jealousy which lead to lying, killing and stealing, and other ‘sins’,  Yama Yoga is concerned with conduct toward others.  Any ‘enemy’ thoughts are to be replaced with a new and contrary thought, i.e. service and good action toward others. 

 

Many people are inspired by service ... nurses, doctors, counselors, paramedics, government workers, community workers, hospice workers.  This service is pursued for the sake of higher purpose not for personal outcomes.  For many people on any form of a spiritual path, the heart chakras ... our loving heart energies, benefit greatly through giving light to someone other than self.  This can be accomplished through service as previously discussed or any kind of unselfish service to others.  Allow light to flow through you, give light to someone else.  This might be expressed as simply as offering to work in the garden of an elderly friend ... or give regular visits to ‘stay-at-home’ elders or volunteer time at a nursing home.  Do something you believe in ... do something beyond self-serving activities.  This does not mean being taken advantage of.  Expressing through service does not mean allowing yourself to be used as a doormat.  Hold great dignity in the heart.  Serve because of heart-felt caring.  If you confront criticism, say, “I’m serving the highest good for all concerned, I hope you are also (Beth Hin).”

 

A counter part of Yama Yoga is Niyama which is concerned with conduct with regard to self, self service.  This includes outer and inner cleanliness, contentment (harmony), chastity (moderation), study, and devotion.  Signs of accomplishment are contentment and joy.  Implementation of Karma Yoga, both Yama and Niyama are through carrying the basic goodness or selflessness through daily activities and living.

Perception, Samjna an active reaction to the external world, corresponds to Yama Yoga in Tibetan thought.  Jung’s ‘feeling’ way of experiencing the world fits most closely with the service path of Yama Yoga and perception of the Tibetans.  This is accepted in conventional psychology as phenomenological, humanistic or person centered practice in the world.

 4.  Devotion  - Bhakti Yoga  follows the path of feeling ... of affirmation, of synthesis.  It is the path of heart.  Bhakti followers intensify emotions and the power of love as levers to attain super-consciousness.  “.... love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own ... (Saint Paul, I Corinthian 13:4-5)”.  You are individuals who get all excited about romantic things, a picnic in the neighborhood, a surprise dinner for a friend, random acts of kindness.  You are very effusive and emotional.  All the emotions you feel in your soul teaches you how to be in the world.  Many mystical poets, sources of many holy books, in Persia were Bhaktii.  If this is your path, your name, if this is your nature; it is important that you create strong form in your life so that your heart can waft back and forth like a river where the banks are diffused with flexible riverbanks ... like a great delta.  Learn to allow love to flow freely.  However, make sure you know the delta, don’t get lost ... overworked.  With individuals of devotion, heart is everything.  They may be easily buffeted around in the world and tender in feelings.  They survive by facing the fear and doing it anyway.  They may express the feelings ... and say ”you broke my heart”... then having expressed the pain go on. Bhakti yoga is union by love and devotion through rites of songs of praise, love devotion and worship ... in love of the ONE (Hindu ... Krishna).

Feeling, Vedana, instinctive, intuitive reaction to the external world by Self is the Tibetan Buddhist correlation.  Maslow’s Self Actualization, self-theory would correspond to living through ‘intuition’ ... or devotion as presented by Bhakti Yoga.

 

5. Mysticism  - Raja Yoga  -  Great Dance of God, the royal path.  Raja Yoga is the path of realization, for which all others were preparation.  It combines the practices of the others.  “Raja Yoga leads to the realization of the Absolute through concentration and meditation ... (Ramakrishna)”.  This means you listen to eternity and live according to moods you assess in your life.  Use your mind to transform, use the heart to be devoted, use your mind to be of service, use your body to do work ... and you are bringing into unity a tremendous magical quality.  For those of you who think that being mystical is being in touch with the heart of the world, sometimes it does.  More often it means dealing with the ordinary tasks of daily life in an extra-ordinary manner.  Listen to eternity through the ordinary.  Raja yoga is union by mental mastery.  It is tapping latent energies, mastering consciousness, stilling thought and becoming ruler over mind.

 

The point at which Self becomes its own world, and the universe becomes a reactor, a responder, to the stimulus of the Self is the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of Consciousness, Vignana.  Enlightenment comes when the individual recognizes a dissolution of self into One Mind.  This is a product of inwardness.  Through the discipline of meditation and the development of psychic powers and mind control, Self discovers all the world in Mind.  When human mind can merge with ... develop Consciousness of the One Mind, it is complete and total.

6.  Mind  -  Jnana Yoga, the yoga of discrimination through conscious reasoning follows a path of negation, of analysis, of scholasticism.  Jnana Yoga seeds the secret of what moves us, the secret of what we call the soul but seeks through rational thought and logic.  All the tools of our consciousness are examined one by one, and it is recognized that I am not this, nor am I that.  Senses; touch hearing sight taste and smell, are contrasted by five acting senses, breathing, evacuating, digesting, feeling and thinking.  At last we arrive at the core of our being, recognizing it as the ‘I’, the spirit, the soul.  This is more difficult than the path of Love (acceptance) but it fits the ‘western thought’ more fully than the others.  These individuals use the mind to address their path.  This is the person who is very “intellectual” ... criticizing everything ... analyzing everything ... putting forth the  ‘shoulds’ of life ...  “I know that but he doesn’t.”  “I keep my checkbook perfectly balanced.”  This person likes everything in form and organized, taking pride in action.  These persons must use the mind to create something that has integrity around it.  Mind without virtue, honor and morality is destructive, non-productive at best.  And if these mind individuals ‘do’ with integrity they are likely to have great happiness in the world ... their mind is engaged.  A person with a mind focus must do something to it ...  like keep it very focused.  Jnana yoga is union by knowledge, through study and meditation.  It is spiritual knowledge and wisdom where intellect penetrates veils of ignorances that prevent one from seeing the true self.

 

Tibetan Buddhism refers to Concept, Samskara as a combination of intellect and emotion in which the distinct personality of the individual is defined.  Thinking, mind, cognitive theories, social learning would all be comfortable in the Jnana Yoga concept.  Western thought would be most at home with this path. 

7.  Laya Yoga is union by arousal of latent psychic nerve forces through Hatha yoga, breath suspension, stable posture and intense meditative concentration, to awaken serpent power coiled at the base of the spine through all the chakras from the base chakra to the crown chakra. This produces enlightenment or samadhi through meditative practices leading to the absorption of the mind into the Self by listening to the inner sound.

 

8. Kriya Yoga is a physical or subtle- mental, emotional - purification movement. It occurs as a result of the movement of the awakening the Kundalini. The body and nervous system are purified and strengthened so that the seeker can endure the higher states of consciousness.

9. Tantric Yoga is a physiological discipline.  It is a union of male and female energies.  This may be as yogi and yogini and either actual or visualized.  Tantric yoga is an awakening into enlightenment.  It is an aspect of Vajrayana yoga.

10. Kundalini Yoga

 

11. Yantra Yoga is union by vision and form.  Sight and form together provide a design with power to influence consciousness.  these might include a picture, a visualization, a design of a temple, or a mandala.  Yanta yoga and tantra yoga are sisters.

12. Mantra Yoga / Nada Yoga  is union by voice and sound/vibration. Mantra is sacred word or cosmic sound invested with the power of God. It is God in sound form. Consciousness is influenced by syllables, words, phrases and sounds.  Rhythmic repetition of mantras are called japa. Nada is divine music or sounds which are heard in higher states of consciousness

 

13. Japa Yoga is the repetition of a mantra, usually silently, to take one to higher states of consciousness.

 

14. Siddha Yoga is also known a Maha Yoga. Also see Kundalini Yoga. It encompasses the physical asanas of hatha yoga, the love of bhakti yoga, the meditation of raja yoga, mantra yoga, laya yoga, and jnana yoga. A goal is the awakening of the Kundalini. when the Kundalini is awakened all the other yogas occur automatically. Muktananda states through awakening the kundalini, all the other yogas take place spontaneously. The process begins to happen when we receive Shaktipat and is called Siddha Yoga (perfect yoga) or Maha Yoga (great yoga - encompasses all other yogas). He states that we cannot possibly know which asanas, mudras, bandhas, and pranayamas are good for us. We are told that Kundalini  (the inner guru) knows our past, our future and what is best suited for us as individuals. Hearing inner sounds, perceiving divine tastes and smells, and/or having visions of lights, gods, goddesses, saints or even other realms and worlds. When the Kundalini awakens and moves through the central channel (shushuma) the chakras and knots are pierced and balanced. This brings about the Samadhi state.

  

Spirit Walk, Darshan, Enlightenment, Samadhi, holding hands with God

 

 Create a sacred space  - medicine wheel, alter, ceremony, ritual and prayer

  1.  preparation, motivation

  2.  connection

  3.  purification

  4.  protection

  5.  consecration

 

Meditation ... Visualization ... work with vajra body of energy channels, meridians, chakras and drops, hollow bone self, double, divine spirit.

1.  comfortable and quiet

            a.  relaxed body posture

            b.  focus on breathing or peaceful image

2.  sensory withdrawal, create stillness, emptiness with characteristics, this is the basis of accomplishment of empty body - clear light body.

            a.  winds ... nostrils, mouth, crown, 3rd eye, eyes, ears, navel, genitals and anus

            b   quieten/silence sensory input ... vision, smell, hearing, taste, touch

            c.  bring duality to sate of non-duality, of unity

            e.  develop awareness of emptiness/fullness (void, motherwomb)

3.  stabilize: intensify stillness, focus on sensory silence - emptiness without characteristics (dhyana- makes this attainment of empty body firm)

4.  energy control: separate physical and subtle body, become aware of internal channel(s)

            a.  vase breath ... embryonic breath ... death stages

            b.  mantra - toning - soundings - chants

            c.  tummo - internal heat

5.  retention: hold energy, hold subtle body ... clear light body  this is applied to gain control over subtle energies, manifest double.

6.  mindfulness:  become empty body ... apply with visualization (external mudra)

            a.  move and merge or combine drops in subtle body

            b.  alignment of drops in subtle body

7.  samadhi, unity, wholeness, signs and concerns

8.  return (with light)  -  reconnect with the physical self while retaining samadhi and abiding in union with the divine nature of reality.

            a.  subtle body returns to physical body

            b.  physical body begins sensory awareness

            c.  mental and physical alertness

            d.  merging of body and spirit

The previous exercise is to ‘touch’ the experience, to provide a direct awareness of supreme consciousness used by holy people through out time, to go beyond the verbalizations, beyond the thought.  This is to have an experience ... then transfer that experience that is beyond concept, directly into heart center of direct knowing. Through developing higher levels of consciousness, we can directly perceive the source.  Each person can realize divine self.

Enlightenment:  Samadhi through sadhana - spiritual goals

     Consciousness which directly perceives source of all.

     Direct insight into the true nature of reality and abiding in that union

     Merging spirit and matter into union.

Samadhi - abiding in union, direct insight into the true nature of things, achieved through our Sadhana, our personal spiritual practice.  Some of many possible signs of and/or reactions to Samadhi are:

            a.  feeling that the breath is breathing person rather than person breathing breath..

            b.  point of light ... often blue or white ... white light presence

            c.  divine surrender - spiritual oneness - god perspective

            d.  may have sensation of going crazy or loosing control, spiritual emergence

            e.  may have tendency to pull back because it feels too overwhelming

            f.  global consciousness

            g.  dissolution ... oneness with everything

           

Attitude and motivation:

Viharas:    1) maitri ... loving kindness    Precepts:          1. loving kindness

                2) karuna ... compassion                               2. generosity

                3) mudita ... sympathetic joy                          3.  contentment 

               4) upeksha ... equanimity                                4.  right action

                                                                                     5.  truthfulness

                                                                                     5.  awareness

                          

Vows/ pledges to self and higher power

            samaya - commitments one takes upon oneself

            bodhisattve resolve

                        self liberation

                        aspirational - to achieve highest enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings

                        practice - generosity, self discipline, patience, enthusiastic energy

                                          meditation wisdom (6 perfections)

                        

Signs of withdrawal of senses and winds

            a.  mirage-like appearance - dissolution of earth elements

            b.  smoke like appearance - dissolution of water elements

            c.  sparkling-fireflies-like appearance - dissolution of fire element

            d.  flickering-candle-flame-like appearance - dissolution of wind/air element

            e.  mind of white appearance - sensory silence

            f.  mind of red increase - non-duality - movement toward emptiness

            g.  blackness of completely darkened room

            h.  sphere opens

            i.  mind of clear light - the most subtle mind - luminous space ... physical body and

            subtle body begin to separate

            j.  abide in clear light ... clear light consciousness of subtle body

            k.  inexpressible bliss

 

Vase breath ... embryonic breath

            a.  Method one -Visualize winds, mind base, sensory input dissolving into white moon disk at heart.  Doors through which winds enter and leave the body are nostrils, mouth, crown, 3rd eye eyes, ears, navel, sex organs, anus and the pores of the skin.  Maintain single pointed focus for a short time while holding breath.  Remember (focus on) that winds and sensory input are dissolved.  Improve clear appearance.  Bring winds into central channel.  Separate subtle body from gross (physical) body ... forcefully eject mind from body ... transfer consciousness.

            b.  Method two - (1) Breath in nose and out mouth in a natural manner nine times. 

 

2)  Begin to breath in and out through nose, comfortably.  3)  Inhale clear white light and exhale toxins (may be gray or dirty looking) nine times.  4)  Inhale breath to the area of the heart.  Exhale breath to lower abdomen nine times.  5)  Inhale from lower abdomen, exhale back to lower abdomen nine times.  6)  Use breath to cleanse lower elixir field ... and heart field nine times.  7)  Bring attention to lower abdomen ... extension and retraction ... (chest hardly is moving).  Do this for ten or fifteen minutes.  8)  This is known as breath holding.  Breath is not actually held or stopped but is so slight that it might not move a down feather held at nostrils.  9)  This skill can be used to renew self at the source ... and to create a beginners mind.  10)  Look for five qualities of breath ... slow, long, deep, fine and even.

 

Mantras, universal

            a.  OM MANI PADME HUM (Chenrezig, Quan Yin mantra)

            b.  SO HAM  (SVAHA)

            c.  OM AH HUM  - om is vajra body (crown), ah is vajra speech (throat), hum is

            vajra mind, blends external and internal winds and gathers them into the heart area.

            d.  OM AH DHIH HUM SVAHA  (Perfection Wisdom Goddess)

            e.  OM  TARA TUTTARE TURE SVAHA (Tara Goddess)

            f.  vowel sounds ... a (ah), a, ee, o, oo

            g.  your personal sounds ... toning

Truths:  Ultimate truth  The true nature of reality, shunyata, absence of inherent existence of all phenomena.  Relative truth  The conceptual formulations of reality - law of conditionality.  Simultaneous truth  One truth does not negate another truth even though they may appear as opposites.

 

Apply practices and paramitas (to cross over) ...  personal ethics ... the discipline required to make a successful journey on our path.  It is another way of saying “walk your talk”.  The Three practices ... the disciplines are:

            a.  main practice ... meditation, thought, focus

            b.  side practices ...

                        1)  purify, clean-up, process ... past, old tapes, issues

                        2)  create merit, achieve meaning, contribute

            c.  discipline

                        1)  refrain from ordinary appearance

                        2)  restrain from grasping at ordinary

Emptiness:

Emptiness with characteristics  -  mind directly perceiving the empty body arises within a subtle light of dual appearance empty of physical matter.

 

Emptiness without characteristics - mind directly perceiving the emptiness of its object of negation - the emptiness of inherent existence ... that mind has reversed all dual existence.

 

Wisdom of emptiness is brought into one taste with supreme unchanging great bliss (clear light and illusory body).  Empty body and unchanging bliss is absorbed in wisdom of emptiness within the stream of one’s body and mind.  This equally the Great Union (of clear light and illusory body).

 

Signs of enlightenment

1.  body of clear light

2.  state of omniscience - all pervading luminosity or clear light

3.  total awareness

4. full compassion/mindfulness

5.  eradication of karma

6. seeing into past and future

7.  emotional distraction is eradicated

8.  perceive recognize and utilize powers of sound, light movement, energies, seeing, knowing

9. see into stream of consciousness of others

10.  sense/now what is going on with others

11.  work with environment to benefit others

12.  work with life force to benefit others

13.  dualistic clinging eliminated

14.  last subtle remnants of veil of ignorance is gradually purified and eradicated

15.  total knowledge of true nature of reality

 

Yama (goodness), Niyama (surrender), Asana ( postures), Pryanayama (breathing), Pratyahara (one-pointedness), Dhahrana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), Samadhi (super-consciousness) ... are the eight steps to the Absolute.   Jung presents four ways of experiencing the world; sensing, intuition, feeling, and thinking.  Other psychology typologies would be called behavioral, biological, self theory, self actualization, phenomenological, person-centered, cognitive, or social learning theory.  All are similar.  Each is a different perspective of the same manifestation.  Each is how we perform ‘personality’.  Personality is the truth we each live in daily life.  To speak a common language we use typologies.  A typology is a descriptive system in which all people are classified into a limited number of categories or types, with each typological term supposedly describing a central or overriding characteristic of all aspects of an individual’s life.  It is simply a tool to enable us to have a common vocabulary for communication, and each system or belief has its unique typology.

 

In conventional psychology, as presented by western thought, personality is a typological look at traits and characteristics, all the aspects which set us apart from others.  Personality is our way of thinking, feeling and behaving.  This reflects our unique method of relating to our environment.  It is assumed that there is a personality core common to humans and that our process of development channels this core into various directions of emphasis.  These exist in a hierarchy from strong to weak.  It is also assumed that we have a unique pattern of traits and our personality is generally known by the characteristic traits.  We have 1) surface traits which are the visible aspects of personality and 2) source traits which are those underlying aspects of self that influence us in less obvious ways.

 

Conflict, internal and external, whatever ... is behind much of our personality according to psychology.  Freud would call that being ‘fixated’, another way of saying ‘stuck’.  We may be introvert or extrovert, stable or unstable, open or closed, agreeable or disagreeable, responsible or irresponsible.  Each characteristic reflects our personality and path.  Another major contributor to our definition of personality is our job and/or our role in life.  All of psychology can be loosely classified as intellectual or emotional.

 

Each of us walk one of these paths, by whatever name is most comfortable for us.  One is source ... outstanding or primary to us but we incorporate parts of the others.  Ask, which of those pathways is mine? ... what is my core?  What is my true name?  Until you know that form, you go up and down ... “What’s wrong with me? ... what am I doing wrong?”  “I’m not centered enough.”  In truth, it is not that at all ... you are simply bouncing from path to path and finding none the ‘correct’ one for you.  Remember who you are, remember your true name, remember your form, find your true path.  Allow the light to course through you.  When the path is real-ized a tremendous amount of energy can flow through to enhance self and the ultimate good.

 

“Ask, what form of ‘God’s plan’ am I?  Is it through .... Physical ... Service ... Devotion ... Mind ... Mystic ...?  How can I utilize that so I will be unafraid to be the instrument of ‘God’ that I am; so that I can let eternity flow through me?  That is our greatest teacher.  If you let it flow through you this way, light will come back to meet you.  If you try to be a different instrument, then spirit says .... nope, nope ..... we’re not going to take care of you (Beth Hin)”.

 

You will engage with masters or teachers in your life; those individuals who have come to walk true to their form, who walk their path powerfully.  If you engage with these people on a personal (intimate and open) level, you ‘feel’ against them.  Through ‘touching’ them you feel more clearly how you are ‘standing’ in life.  You learn to walk in a different way and you ‘try them on’ for size.  You might say ... “that felt wonderful  .... I started to think of my own path of light.”.  You learn how to stand in the light through their Being.  If you feel ... from the inside ... how it feels for you to have that teachers skin, you begin to feel how you can stand in a powerful way also.

 

Recognize and utilize the teachings ... the brushing close to great teachers.  Learn to incorporate the feelings of standing in light through those encounters with individuals who have already learned to walk in a powerful way.

 

We frequently know how we do not want to be ... who we do not want to act like.  This is important ... granted.  But, it is important to follow the theories of Abraham Maslow and reach for peak experiences.  It is important to follow the teachings of Sri Aurobindo ... and other teachers ... and look to those who have climbed higher than we have and to learn from their pathway how to walk our own.

 

If you find that you are on a path that does not fit your footsteps well and you answer to a name that is not of your choosing.  You may want to create a change in your life; a new job, a career change, a lifestyle change.  You may want to answer to a different name and remain on the path you walk now.  Step outside old, limiting, beliefs and create the change you want in your life. 

 

Use all the symbols and rituals ... all the meditations and sacred spaces ... all the sounds, the colors, the vibrations, the songs, the resonance, the heartbeats ... everything ... to find yourself.

 

Warrior or Dreamer

Path and name discovered, then we are ready to examine “how I participate in the world”.  We move through the world circle ... walk our path ... as a warrior or a dreamer (or you may have another term ... we use words merely as expressions of  ideas).  No one is exclusively one or the other, warrior or dreamer, but we know intuitively how we walk our wheel of life.  If you remain unsure, ask others.  Friends and relatives see our movements on our path and call our name.

 

A warrior is impervious to the world and has the ability to be empowered by events that in the past could have drained and defeated.  A warriors actions must match intent and a warriors intent must direct action.  A warrior lives by doing.  A warrior protects the world.  A warrior asks, “Who are you?”  “What are you doing?”   A warrior lives in the world through actions and confrontation.  A warrior is motivated through planning and organization.  A warrior is not afraid to be who they are.  That is the definition of courage and fearlessness, not being afraid of yourself.  Warriors combine heroism and kindness.  It is thinking, feeling and acting beyond Self. 

 

A warrior’s carriage, manner of movement in life, is one of naturalness and calm.  This decorum comes from a feeling of being in harmony with self and with environment.  A warrior does not fit into situations but situations fit the warrior ... naturally.  You, as a warrior, live with life as it is and as you are.  Warriors feel a sense of ease, of spaciousness in the world.

 

A dreamer learns by being, is inspired, has a quiet way, and is motivated through feelings and esthetics.  A dreamer focuses on the inner meaning of things.  Dreamer’s dreams and dreaming of a dreamer can only be experienced, not described.  It is a way of perceiving other worlds as well as this world.  It is a way to ‘see’ the essence of the world.  It is seeing and working with energy, invisible energies, spirit energy and energy of the highest self.

 

Dreamers are the visionaries of the world, the mystics, the see-ers.  Dreamers see through the heart, think through the heart, and act through intuition.  Dreamers know through a direct connection rather than through ordinary knowledge. 

 

Dreamer/Warrior, these modes of action do not exclude the other.  We are predominately one or the other and find balance through the opposite aspect.  A dreamer has warrior aspects and the warrior has dreamer aspects.  We also have aspects which fit into neither category but still remain part of who we are.  This simplistic description does not rule out a broader scope of being but examines action from these two perspectives.  Either the warrior or the dreamer can have a variety of personalities or truths lived in daily life.  This would include introvert and extrovert, private and public, intellectual and emotional.

 

Public or Private Life

Another decision to make ... we must decide how we are going to fulfill our purpose in the world.  Are we going to work in the eye of the public or will we work in private.  Are we going to work quietly and unobtrusively or will we work in the sparkle and excitement of public view.  Neither is best.  It is simply a choice, public or private.  We are allowed to work as we choose, as is most suited to us..

 

We enter the medicine wheel.  We become awake and emotionally whole by recognizing our nature, our name, our path ... warrior or dreamer ... then, defining our personality, how we move through the world.  Then, we move through the circle, we walk the wheel.  We walk our path.  Next we learn to live awake and responsibly.  We reach toward the divine, toward consciousness, toward merging matter with spirit, toward erasing the boundaries between asleep and awake ... between life and death.  If you still don’t know how to do this ‘self-discovery’ process ... create a sacred space. 

 

Sacred Space

A sacred space may accomplished in many ways.  Native American commonly use (past time and present time) a vision quest.  For a period of time, an individual went/goes alone into a ‘special’ place to wait for a vision.  Usually the quest was/is preceded by a time of fasting and of sweats ... of ceremony followed by talk with the holy person, the shaman of the tribe.  Many people, non-Native Americans, use a similar ‘get away from it all’, technique.  If we fail to get the desired results it might be because we take all our comforts with us and leave no time for discovery or vision.  It must truly be ‘away’ from all we know, not just a shift of scenery. 

 

Another sacred space might include a retreat spot, or a church.  It might be an attitude of prayer.  It could include selecting a special place with special objects around ... candles, incense, stones, flowers, music ... whatever puts you into an internal, receptive quiet place. 

 

There are many other techniques ... and many books and teachers to help you create your sacred space.  Ultimately, your sacred space is with you at all times, not someplace you go.  You remain within sacredness with every step you take through life.  Walking in a sacred way, in genuineness, in our personal truth ... is what Consciousness is about.  The symbols and rituals we use are ways we develop and follow to keep us on our chosen path.  It is important to remind ourselves that all paths, names, and ways are changeable as the need changes and as we grow into new places of being.

 

Wheel of Life

Having discovered our true path and our true name, how we want to be known by others, we have defined our way of walking.  We recognize our warrior or dreamer self, our public or private self ... then, we are ready to continue to move through life's circle or if we are linear beings, down life’s road.  One way we can look at path is the path of the unending circle, a path without beginning and without end.  We can walk the medicine wheel of life, a symbolic representation, based on a synthesis of Native American teachings, toward the fullness of Consciousness.

 

Entering the circle, we learn to put down our ego, to stop measuring self through ego definitions.  We begin the ego death, self integration process.  We eradicate our sense of self importance and begin to release personal history.  This is the lesson of the South on the medicine wheel.  It is the place of trust and innocence.  From this place of trust, we discover that our personal history is a barrage of habitual feelings and thoughts.  We frequently discover that it no longer serves us well.  We seek a new beginning with new self awareness and self understanding.  We become a unique and special person free of old programming.  All our habitual patterns, feelings, thoughts, behaviors ... are components of what we formerly considered our unchangeable personality.  Personality or personal history includes all we learned from family, culture, religion, environment ....  In releasing our personal history, we examine everything.  We keep what we choose because of its value to us not because we inherited it, and we release all which no longer serves us well.  This is also called ego death, allowing the death of ego measured characteristics and actions.  We are liberated from pretense, from self-concerns, from self image, appearance, habits ... all the “I” we use to define self.  Less “I” fixation is less self consciousness, then we become more of Self.

 

In releasing personal history, it is necessary to give away old attachments and dependencies.  Only through clearing away old garbage can we make room for new growth.  We must examine self and culture within its context ... and from the perspective of the objective observer.  Many of us began our lives under rigid controls and rules ... then, we replaced some of the limiting lifestyles we were given with ‘adult’ work and materialism which became our preoccupation.  This may have been done under the cloak of religion or success or personal goals ... money, fame, respect, love, admiration, etc.  We looked for the ultimate answer to provide happiness.

 

We found the inevitability of change.  This place of teachings on the South of the medicine wheel is where we see that life is change and new beginnings. We learn to give away the expectations toward getting love, acceptance, approval and recognition from others.  It is through the teachings of the South we learn to validate ourself.  We may find or be given these confirmations of self worth but the expectation of them must be released.  Allow these ‘little’ deaths.  Death is change ... change is a way of identifying self.   Know the self and release attachments and expectations.  This is necessary in order to make a place for something more.  The big death, as in forever after, does not exist.  It is not real in terms of finality, of coming to a terminal ending.  In the unending circle it is most closely seen as beginning.  It is a dramatic change ... as is birth ... as is life.  Death, birth and life are equal, different but equal.  They are transitions.

 

With this realization we can recognize that death is merely another kind of consciousness, one that no longer requires a physical body.  This is the teaching of the West.  We can make death an advisor and companion.  Death becomes a doorway.  The small deaths of life allow us to clean house, to throw out the ‘space keepers’ we hold on to.  We make room for new births.  Birth is change.  Change is process.  Movement and change are small deaths.  Death, the one that involves the body, is a concept.  Death is part of harmony and alignment.  We come to the real-ization of death as a friend, a friend who makes room for new births.

 

After we erase self importance and then embrace change, the many deaths and rebirths, we can stop the mad pace of the world.  This is the teaching of the North.  The North is the place of peace in the midst of chaos, it is a place of wisdom and knowing.  It is the place of the Spiritual Warrior energy.  It is the place of the wisdom of the ages.  A warrior steps out of time, transcends space, is fully in the moment without “self-ness”.  A warrior is free from attachments, is awake, is aware, is alert ... with multiple points of view.  The past no longer exists, the future is yet unformed, only the present moment is.  This is a place of silence, of consciousness.  This is a place to step from dissonance to resonance, a place to take personal power.  It is a place to balance the duality of no self-importance and divine self.  Both are true without contradiction. 

 

The teaching of the East on the medicine wheel, is the teaching of the dreamer.  It is here we awaken the sacred dream.  It is here we know how the image maker created you and me and the world and all things ... how we were co-creator of this process ... how the creation process continues.  We begin to fulfill our personal promise to wake up, to remember ... and to do our part in real-izing consciousness.  We learn to embrace both sides of each duality ... equally ... as part of the circle.  We face our fears, release fears and walk courageously, fearlessly, into the dream.  We create an inner attitude which has the power to move outer circumstances.  Because this power can be used for either good or bad, we must learn how to live in an awakened state responsibly.  We can not awaken what is not recognized.  We must recognize the sacred dream, wake it up and live it impeccably. 

          Release our personal history ...

                   know death as another consciousness ...

                                    stop the mad pace of the world ... 

                                                        awaken the sacred dream.

 

 

Inner Silence

 

When we decide to shatter all our previous constructions, our tiny self contained boxes; when we remove the walls of self importance, of expectations ... when we remove fear ... and we receive all the ‘outside’ into ourselves then we shall be at home anywhere.   The same holds for the opposition between action and meditation ... and for all the ‘opposites’ we think exist, the dualities.  The seeker has then established non-dual inner silence.  We have become one with ourself and are setting a sacred space for oneness with the ‘Total’.

 

As long as we hold to our ego, alienating aspects of self, denying ... creating a shadow, we have split ourself.  Part of us begins to appear to exist in our environment rather than within us.  We have projected it, and it becomes our enemy.  We turn and fight our self.  “... once a projection has occurred ... (it) turns against us (Fritz Perls).”  For example, if we have an impulse to study and we project the impulse to study into our environment, then we feel the ‘push’ to study coming from the environment rather than from ourselves.  We  feel pushed to action by our situation ... and frequently rebel.  In place of pleasure or interest in study we feel obligation.  Projection happens with negative feelings also ... resentment, rejection, anger and we begin to feel that our entire world is turning against us.  We feel resentment, rejection, anger pushing us from outside ourselves.  This is a shift from an internal locus of control to an external locus of control.  We allow (invite) the environment to control, to push, us.  Our shadow alienation keeps us apart from our recognition of inner silence.

 

We must review our emotional wholeness and our ‘shadow’.  Our shadow ... the part we deny.  Self must differentiate from the ego ... another duality.  Our shadow is split-off facets of the ego self or submerged persona.  Shadow is unconscious.  We dis-identify with ego, with shadow.  Then ... we transcend ego/shadow and integrate it with Self ... with our higher order and newly emergent structures.  We retain an ego, it is just that our identity is no longer determined by ego.  We re-integrate shadow, accepting it as part of Self.  We re-establish our emotional wholeness to greater magnitude.

 

To step into consciousness we recognize the ways we have learned to survive.  We learn to recognize our shadow creations, our rejected aspects.  We learn to recognize our  childhood trauma and experiences.  We recognize how we created our coping skills, our  techniques of stealing energy from others in order to survive the external pushes against us.  We becoming aware of family dynamics, the workings of our family of origin.  Recognition of our shadow and our seeking of energy, allows us to change.  We reach back into the process of becoming emotionally whole and bring forth awareness of these survival skills, the power controls we have learned to use. 

 

Recognition enables us to transform our feelings and behaviors.  With transformation, we move more easily and fully along our path of consciousness.  This is part of our ascent into consciousness.  We periodically review Self, discover some unacknowledged pieces of self, and integrate once again.  This aspect of our transformation may include contemplation, meditation, intuition development, dreamwork, Shamanistic study ... and many other possibilities in establishing inner silence.  Different steps of transformation may encompass different methods of growth.  Inner Silence ... has occurred.

Living Awakened ... Responsibly, 24 hours a day

Genuineness (Truth) is the ability to be freely oneself, without phoniness, without role-playing, without defensiveness.  It is when external words and behaviors match inner being.  It is being authentic in every way.  It is the ability to communicate with sincerity about relevant concerns.  It is being self-actualizing.   It is recognizing the aspect of mutual teaching/learning in each and every relationship.  Being genuine is walking our personal truth.  It is seeing self, not as having arrived at some level of attainment, but as continually being in movement.  It is the activity of being fully present in the moment.  There is no defensiveness because a self actualizing person living in genuineness does not have to protect ‘self’.  This occurs because of self acceptance ... both strengths and weakness, successes and failures.  A self actualizing, genuine person does not judge or moralize ... themselves or others.  They exhibit a spontaneous warmth and intimacy.  They can flow toward possibilities without being incapacitated with anxiety.  They may feel stress and tension but are not immobilized by them.  There is no fear.  “They risk new behavior in order to grow or discover new truths about self and consciousness.”  “They do not rely on dogma and preconceived notions (Jacquie Small)”.

 

Impeccability is dictionary defined as without flaw or fault.  The concept in use here is more closely understood as the proper use of energy.  It is the ability to temper or tone your spirit while you are being trampled upon, the ability to grow and improve while  the tyrants of life are in full attack (Castaneda).   Our tyrants are our ‘button pushers’.  It is through them we learn to have calm conscious interior as well as exterior. 

 

Impeccability encompasses Interpersonal Ethics.  Impeccability and interpersonal ethics express the ability to speak from the heart, the spirit, rather than through the ego.  It is the ability to be there for others, to uplift those who cross your path, while avoiding the pitfalls of dependence and codependency.  It may be an action as simple as making and returning eye contact with full and appropriate involvement. 

 

Impeccability can be described as allowing the winds of life to blow through you, or around you, but not allowing the winds to push, shove or control you any more.  You continue to see it, to hear it, to feel it, to listen to its voice, but maintain your stance of balance.  It is the ability to regain balance if and when buffeted by life.

 

It is having an intentional, interact ional goal of higher order, an alignment with a higher path.  It is having a way of knowing ... a way of connecting with that higher order.  It is knowing the higher path is more significant (more important) than being right, more important than being in control.  It is more important than being treated respectfully, more important than injustice ... more important than ... anything, because it is the highest possible good for all concerned.

 

Our goal, our path, becomes behavioral impeccability and thought impeccability.  It is proper use of personal power for the highest good through both word and action.

 

Fearlessness must be the manner of walking the path, but this does not mean fearlessness without appropriate caution.  We learn to walk without fear.  Many times that means face the fear, face it down, and do it anyway.  Fear serves only to warn.  After the warning is received then it begins to block action and consciousness.  Fear blocks Light.  Fear acts as a filter blocking our contact with consciousness.  We cannot determine if our intuition is giving us information or if our fear is in control.  We must release fear if we are to be conscious.

 

Unbending intent is being involved yet detached.  It is our aim, our purpose, our state of mind operative at the time of and directed toward action, meaning and significance.  It is being able to immerse in the action at hand so completely that no one can detect the detachment.  Unbending intent is alignment of attitude and behavior.  It is being in resonance rather than dissonance.  It is performing actions fully in line with ideals.  Unbending intent is like a laser beam, invisible until it touches something.  Then you can see it.  When used with power it can record, it can alter things, it can slice through and it can destroy or create.

 

Awareness is a corollary of having attained a calm, centered indifference ... it is the eye that gazes inwardly and simultaneously into the beyond.  Seers who have gazed at the boundless have attested that the boundless stares back with an emptiness ... and fullness ... a completeness.  Awareness allows us to step to the side and perceive another’s experience through their perception.  It lets that individual know the perception is complete.  “I cannot experience your experience but I can perceive the essence.”  This expression is one of empathy ‘as if’.  Awareness allows feeling and seeing more.  It is full attention, not just attention to one or two things at a time but to everything equally ... right, left, in front, behind, above and below ... inside and beyond ... and outside sensory input.  With expanding awareness we begin to become aware of coincidences.  Then, we recognize that the coincidences were meant to happen.  We recognize and follow the synchronistic coincidences.  Our path of expanded awareness ... our spiritual path is in full process.

 

Controlled Folly is a a term Carlos Castaneda coined which describes the ability to move through daily life, even the distasteful aspects, appropriately and impeccably.  It is a way of living fully in the moment, absorbed and without self-importance.  It is doing one thing and doing it impeccably.  It is doing without doing. 

 

It is knowing that you are actually doing something else, something Supremely important in its mundanity.  The only importance our actions can have is the meaning we place on them.  Controlled folly is doing for the sake of doing without regard for reward or recognition.  Self importance and the meaning we believe others place on our actions, places limits on us.  The concept of important activities and unimportant activities is only in our definition of those actions.  We give away our power by allowing others to manipulate us through our own thoughts. 

 

Surrendering self importance does not preclude self care and self respect ... both of which we rely on for emotional well being and for proper action in the world.  Authentic self care and self respect are necessary attributes of an awakened individual.

 

Self Actualization is looking at the world in a holistic manner that allows one to reach for their highest path and highest potential without any attachment to success or reward.  When deficiency needs are met, people tend to operate out of Being needs (Maslow).  Being needs are gratified with love and enhancing one’s potential and, are no longer concerned with ego gratification.  Self actualizing individuals no longer look at the world as right and wrong but how the “wrongs” can be very right.  This includes the ability to ‘self-care’.  “Draw first from the well to nourish and give to yourself, then there will be enough to nourish others.”  Self actualizing individuals carry the transparency of an enlightened being ... lighted from within and allowing that light to shine through.

 

Self Actualization is not merely a trait or characteristic ... it is a description of the whole person in process ... (Jacquie Small).  It is the process of being fully in the moment, without self-consciousness.  We do for the sake of doing not for the perception of others.  The self actualizing person is able to sort personal feelings and values from an unexamined belief system.  This individual listens more to personal internal voices of truth and less to noises of culture, society and the world.  Arduous preparation becomes common as values change or direction alters.  This preparation leads to greater self actualization.

 

A Self Actualizing person begins to experience “peak experiences” which are recognized moments of ecstasy, or mystical experience.  Peak experiences are those moments that bring tears to the eyes from the bliss of the moment, those moments in which the ordinary can become instantly sacred ... love, music, art, poetry, a sunrise, birth, compassion ... other joy-full moments.  Then these moments begin to be a part of ordinary experience.  The peaks become the norm for the self actualizing person.

 

Focused Surrender has to do with no expectation of outcome.  It is a process of creation through doing the preliminary work, then moving out of the way and allowing the thing to be or not to be according to the higher good.  It is a way to create change without force.  It requires intent and a decision to change or influence.  The process is 1) Thought, 2) Examination of the thought, 3) Engaging awareness (over time), 4) Breathing life into the thought ... then 5) Releasing the intent ... to be or not, without attachment.  We view outcome with a sense of complete detachment, not getting involved with succeeding or failing.  Allow.  Attachment blocks action.  We may wish to extricate ourself from the mundane and to focus only on our path.  This includes capitulation and recapitulation ... surrender (under specific conditions) ... giving up resistance ... acquiesce.  All that we hold on to, give our energy to, traps our energy and it then becomes unavailable to us.  Surrender releases this trapped energy.  But dropping responsibility in the world is not living impeccably, or living consciously.   We may know (or think) that the activities at hand may be of no universal significance.  However, in this present moment nothing else exists.  We can be in the joy of not knowing what will happen next.

 

Non-Attachment to Outcome is indifference with compassion.  Everything is undertaken unemotionally, in a detached manner without any desire to succeed or any apprehension of failing.  All attention is focused on process.  It is being fully in the moment with no past and no future.  “Be concerned with the deed alone, never with its fruit.  Never let the fruit of the deeds be thy motive, as thou shalt never attach yourself to action” (Bhagavad Gita).  Also, “as the ignorant one acts through attachment to action, the wise one acts without attachment, for the welfare of the world.”

 

Real-ization is the process of making real, of bringing into reality.  It is reality of thought or reality of physical manifestation.  It becomes within our power to make ‘real’.  This task begins with real-izing in our thoughts.  This is opening our thinking processes to perceive beyond our limited boundaries.  Then after thought real-ization, we can real-ize in three dimension, we can create.  Before we develop this ability we must have the other

Self Actualization is not merely a trait or characteristic ... it is a description of the whole attributes well developed so that we do not misuse this capability.  After real-ization in third dimension we have the ability to real-ize in other dimensions.

 

 

Genuineness,

         Impeccability,

                  Fearlessness,

                          Unbending Intent,

                                     Awareness,

                                              Invisibility,

                                                        Controlled Folly,

                                                                   Self Actualization,

                                                                              Focused Surrender,

                                                                                         Non-Attachment to Outcome,

                                                                                                       Real-ization

                                                                                                    Consciousness

 

Global Real-ization

 

Discovery of our true path, our true name, our awakeness and wholeness, our warrior or dreamer balance, our public or private way of walking, our responsible living practices ... are still not enough. We seek global relization, divine consciousness, a perfect state of equilibrium by whatever name we call it. We discover that we can act and work in stillness and in silence as well as through action and chaos. We can allow awareness of the world to be swallowed up in consciousness of everything, where they become one and total. We have stepped into our great awakening. And ... once we have “been over the rainbow, nothing ever looks the same again”.

 

This waking up begins with flashes of light in which we glimpse some portion of the grand scheme of life. We experience intuition and synchronicity. We begin to know the infinite through the finite. We incorporate our momentary view into our understanding of truth. We see a point of brilliance that illuminates its surroundings. We want more ....

 

 .... a linear realization in one point is not enough; a global realization in all points is necessary, one that involves the individual’s entire being;  If you want to change your nature and your being, and participate in the creation of a new world, this kind of aspiration, this one-pointed and linear thrust is no longer enough;  you must embrace everything and contain everything in your consciousness ... then you can realize cosmic consciousness in any part or at any level of being in mind, in heart and in body because the cosmic spirit is everywhere in every point of the universe (Aurobindo).

 

“Everyone wakes up as least once in their life. Many times this is a grand awakening. Unfortunately many discount the experience and promptly go back to sleep (Jean Houston).” 

 

The Riddle remains. How do we, the seeker, reach toward this global real-ization? First, we work in our own individual body. This body is the very place where consciousness connects with matter. It is here we must begin the process of integrating spirit and matter. Secondly, we recognize the dual movement of ascent and descent of individual consciousness. We find our reality is made of duality. We must dismiss and reject all mental constructions and remain in a constant state of openness. As consciousness rises, it breaks the hard shell at the top of the head, and we emerge into the light. The immediate impulse of this flash of light, of  consciousness is to soar straight up, and to remain there, in the light. It would seem incongruous to our ‘logic thinking’ trained mind, to want to come back down to intermediary levels, and look for anything else. The seeker, assuming there is nothing between the thinking mind and higher consciousness, tries to rush through all that intervenes ... perhaps arriving at the objective ... only to fall asleep in the Infinite ... remembering nothing, because there has been no consciousness of anything. We cannot remain there so we return. Then thirdly, we strive to discover the principles of consciousness that have the power to transform physical reality. This transformation of physical reality is an integral part of the human evolutionary process. We bring ‘there’ to ‘here’. We integrate spirit with matter. Rather than wait for spirit in some distant place, we bring spirit into matter.

 

With the eventual transformation of matter, we can be in full consciousness and in physical matter simultaneously. It is not control but transformation we seek. This new existence we reach for can be called Super-Consciousness. This higher consciousness must first be established in a few individuals, those who are open to receive it. Then, by contagion, in all those who are ready, as they become ready. 

 

We must work in our body, recognizing the dual movement of ascending and descending between spirit and matter. We begin to work with the principles of transformation. The world is not finished, it is becoming. We humans are not finished, we are becoming the endless more that we must be. There are some guidelines to achieving transformation. In this discovery task, we begin by pursuing the psychic center and cosmic center.

 

We have a psychic center which is our individual center, and a cosmic center or our cosmic totality. We begin by finding the psychic center, our psychic being ... the soul. It is, “within, as a child to be born”, says the Rig Veda (IX. 83.3). {The word Veda means knowledge.}

 

First, we seek out and find the soul, the psychic center....  When we have opened the doors of the psychic, a first phase of cosmic consciousness is unveiled.  The first signs of psychic opening are love and joy - a joy that may be extremely intense and powerful but without any exaltation, and without any object .... as calm and deep as the sea. 

 

Look at someone that is conscious of his soul, and lives in his soul. There is a feeling of descending,  deep, into the person, far within that person. Near the surface you find something that shines and sparkles. Don’t stop there. To find the soul you must go very deep, to embracing silence, to absolute stillness ..  and you find something warm and quiet, very still, very full, and exceedingly soft ... that is the soul, the impression of having always been and of being for eternity. Someone who lives fully from the soul is an awakened person.  (Aurobindo).

 

When our psychic being emerges, it casts such a brilliance we may confuse its luminous truth with revelation. We may be tempted to define the brilliance as enlightenment, as truth. If we do so, we find that we are stuck again. Once more we have constructed a tiny little box with all its limits and called it enlightenment. Our psychic being, our psychic center must be free. It needs nothing to exist. It extends its strength, its love, its joy, its light, and it is irresistibly open. To experience the psychic being in its crystalline purity, we must create a transparency. This is our true self, walking our true path, answering to our true name.

 

Ken Wilber calls this the Centaur level. This level has access to language, cognition, ego logic and will. It reaches beyond ordinary physical abilities to a pristine sensory awareness. It reaches to an ongoing psycho-physiological flow. Jung’s collective unconsciousness is this flow. It is above language, above logic and above culture. It is trans-language and trans-cultural. Existence or personal orientation and awareness remain but consciousness is no longer identified with any of these elements to the exclusion of any others.

 

Body, persona, shadow, ego are integrated with higher order consciousness, with the psychic self, with the soul. This integrated self, where mind and body are harmoniously One ... the Centaur ... and they exist in a state of at-one-ment. Autonomy, integration, authenticity, self actualization; the highest states according to Western Psychology ... becomes merged into a whole with consciousness beyond this limited dimension.

 

From one perspective, mind and body are not differentiated. Self is inside and reality is outside, spirit is ‘something’ else. With maturing ego states we come to recognize that mind and body are differentiated. The self is in the mind and the mind controls the body. Both the mind and the body are perceived as ‘real’. Then we come to see that our persona, our social role, our public presentation, is differentiated from our inner true self. Our public person and our inner person are different and both utilize mind and body. This understanding leads us to know that this is a con-structural not substantial understanding.  At the Centaur level, the psychic level, we embrace mind, body, shadow, persona as experiences within consciousness, within what we come to know as self. Higher levels of consciousness either intuit or are personally alive to a higher level of Being and Awareness.

 

We seek to rediscover our innate totality, beyond the many dualities. This totality is our newly discovered psychic self and more. This seeking draws us, it pushes us, it is behind us.  It is in front of us and inside us. When we reconnect with the totality we have found the cosmic total ... we have found our cosmic center. This central, cosmic center ... this aspect of our being, is in all points and at the heart of everything. It is the world. We become the world when we discover our cosmic center.

 

When we find our Psychic Center, we have found our true individual self, but we find that we have left out the world. When we find our Central Being, our Cosmic Center, we have gained the world, but we have lost our individual self. Each of these changes of consciousness seems to be cut off from the other by a vast abyss. This becomes a contradiction to be resolved.

 

Taisha Abelar, the Sorcerrers Crossing, sees the real division ... the primary duality ... as being between the body, home of the mind and the ‘ethereal body or double’, our energy body. “The moment our physical body becomes totally conscious of its energetic ethereal counterpart, we have crossed over into the abstract, a completely different realm of awareness (Abelar). This would also be the aspect of ‘us’ that leaves our body (conscious exteriorization) ... and is capable of movement and travel without the limits of physical being.

 

The more our Psychic Center, our individual center, grows ... the greater the consciousness force within us grows. At the same time our Cosmic Center grows, our oneness grows. Psychic tension grows and cosmic tension grows. Our psychic center seeks to merge with our cosmic center so we can become directly aware. We seek to become a conscious, aware being ready to step into full Consciousness, the Supreme. The Supreme, the transcendent spirit ... Nirvana, a Higher State of Consciousness merged with Universal Consciousness is what we seek. 

 

Energy fields

In our quest for Universal Consciousness we become acquainted with the concept of energy fields which infuse and reside with all things, with everything we define as reality and with more than we can define. We discover that energy is matter and energy is Consciousness. Matter energy and Consciousness energy, (our psychic, individual center and our cosmic, world self) represent the duality ... mind and body. As they merge into the higher consciousness or Super-Consciousness, we begin to extend our awareness of energy fields beyond our physical sensory input ... vision, sound, smell, taste, touch to incorporate a direct knowing with broader sources of input. 

 

As we become in tune with energy fields we begin to recognize energy as our power source. We see our efficiency and deficiency needs as being met through attainment of more energy. This sets the stage for competition for energy. This is part of the feeling of scarcity. The fear that there in not enough to go around leads us to hoard and to attempt to steal energy. Through manipulating, intimidating, dominating, interrogating, seducing, planting guilt, feeling pity and/or denial we attempt to draw the energy of others to us. We feel we must steal their energy to try to feel fill ourself. This method of increasing our energy becomes our model for life relationships. This is a no-win situation. Even when we win our energy dual, we find that both of us have been damaged. This conflict wounds everyone. We become a mass of scars and wounds and learn to be more defensive, more protective of our energy and better at taking from others. This is sometimes referred to as animalistic survival instinct. Actually it is a humanistic creation. Our newly won energy, when we win, still feels inadequate and we seek more.

 

As we move along the path of connecting with the cosmic totality, with finding our cosmic center, and our psychic center we become more whole and we come to recognize that there is no lack. Energy is abundant. Not only is there enough to go around ... there is excess. Love, balance, harmony, caring, giving, experiencing the mystical beyond are all part of and a result of energy consciousness. This process becomes our Ascent of Consciousness. Learning to replenish our energy and to give freely to others is our path.

 

Ascent of Consciousness

Describing this Ascent of Consciousness can only provide a few pointers ... each person must find the particular opening that will light up his or her own path ... to capture the thread of one’s own consciousness, the “shining thread” of the reshis (Rig Veda, X.53), to hold onto it and go right to the end of it.

 

Consciousness becomes increasingly real, concrete. We recognize hundreds of tiny, almost imperceptible experiences that come to us from this Silence above. A tiny click, a flash of insight and we know exactly what we have to do, and how it must be done, down to the smallest detail.

 

There are many ways of accomplishing this ascent. Aurobindo presented one way of ascending. An interpretation of his path of ascent follows. First, we shift our concentration toward our aspiration ... the thing that put us on the path in the first place. We allow that silent internal nudge to drive us forward. Second, we clear the passage, we silence our mind, not to find a ‘lacking’ ... an emptiness, but to discover a fullness. Third, the seeker understands this is being born to another life, a birth process, and new eyes, new hearing, new senses of all kinds, are forming. Fourth, we remember this more often, and keep it to the front of us, constantly in our awareness. There is not a  lessening of consciousness, but a passage to a new kind of consciousness. Fifth, we discover we have a foreknowledge, something in us that knows before we do, sees before we do and sends visions and knowledge to the surface in the form of intuition or a yearning. Sixth, we regain the vibration of silence. With inner calm, we carry within our self, an inviolable retreat of peace. Then, we feel a descending current, a force. At first this current is rather spasmodic, sporadic and a conscious effort is necessary to reconnect with it when it vanishes. Then it slowly becomes continuous ... a source of fresh energy, like another kind of breathing. This marks the shift of our energies. We emerge into a new mode of knowledge and therefore into a new mode of action ... the silent mind, the direct connection. When we feel the need to think, to call upon memory, to look for ideas, to analyze, to bring in all kinds of mental processes, we can remember ... ‘this is only a habit’ ... and ‘can be changed’. We can know directly.

 

 The mind is not an instrument of knowledge but only an organizer of knowledge.

 

Awaken energy awareness ... aspire ... tune in ... remember ... feel life within ... carry vibration of silence ... carry retreat of peace ... feel the silent and vibrating depth ... discover no necessity to think (move thorough and beyond thought).  

 

It seems an easy set of steps to follow, until one has begun. Then realization of the magnitude of the undertaking becomes ponderous. Equally ponderous is the attempt to understand what the physical body, the energy body, the spirit body is. With this recognition of need to understand we move beyond the three dimensional definitions. 

 

Body/Universe Energy

We find that the energy body is a Luminous Ball, a weaving of fibers and filaments. The Universe is comprised of an infinite number of incandescent threads stretched into infinity in every direction. This is understandable only from the concept of multi-dimensions.  Ordinary reality cannot encompass this understanding of energy. 

 

These luminous filaments are in themselves conscious of themselves; filaments that touch each others filaments at any/all ‘points’. These filaments have capacity to be conscious of every other filament including humans. They are more global than linear in action. This consciousness is a two way communication, actually more like multi-way consciousness. 

 

Humans are luminous balls or eggs, bright, glowing with fibers, filaments extending both within and without the sphere. The physical human body is smaller, 1/2 to 2/3 the height of the luminous sphere. With ‘activation’, each fiber can be conscious of each other fiber in the universal aggregate. Human luminous spheres can be perceived by other humans through a learned or remembered faculty. Some spheres float slightly, others ‘drag’ slightly along the planet. Some seem to be dim ... less apparent. Others seem more vibrant and alive. Egg shaped and elongated luminous spheres seem to be more ancient and have a more transparent quality. They retain more remembrance of distant times and places and the luminous fibers extend with more consciousness into other realms.

 

In other realities, beings have different spheres of luminous existence. Some have a stronger brilliance, some have a “color” or hue, or unique vibrations. Others have a more amoebae-like form. If they contain a ‘body’ inside, I have not yet been able to perceive it. Size varies greatly, perhaps extending into size variations beyond ordinary human comprehension. All this is beyond ordinary comprehension. It begins to enter our awareness as we broaden our perceptive abilities and can receive it.

 

Each sphere has a special center, a ‘heart’ of energy. This core seems to be something like a sensory organ, an ‘eye’ of perception that allows a stronger connection with fibers of other spheres or beings. It is almost like an energy finger reaching out to ‘touch’. It also is a fiber collection center of each individual. 

 

Each energy/light body is comprised of layers of consciousness in a roughly human-like shape. The innermost form is the etheric body ... it is reflected in the physical body. It mirrors our state of health in a physical form. It is the in-most plane and appears as gray, brown, black ... dark and dull and is rather opaque.

 

The next layer out is the emotional body. It is also our strongest connection with the planet and the sentient and essence beings of the earth. Many medicine people work with this energy in working with the teachers of the directions, the mountains, the animals, the stones, the plants, the elements ... all sentient beings. It is also our manifestation of personality in the world; the way we dress, talk, live, move, and look. This layer is the subtle physical plane and has more vibrant hues.

 

The third level out is the psychic body. We more commonly know this level as the aura and chakras. It is broader and has layers within layers ... colors, sound, vibration that reflect our uniqueness of spirit and Chakra energy. Other humans of similar vibration levels are able to detect this aspect of us. Some know it visually, others through sound, still others through a ‘body’ knowing, through what we may call 6th sense. This layer has varying layers of opaqueness or transparency.  It is generally brighter, more flashy and many times has a ‘hardness’.

 

The fourth layer is our conscious awareness of the universe ... and all that’s contained within the universe. It is transparent and has the luminous quality we see as the luminous sphere of fibers. It is in this layer we are most conscious of Supreme Light or what we might call God. In many people, God-awareness is the light popping through to the inner layers. In other individuals ... life is lived from that space, but that is still a rather rare event. As evolution progresses, more and more people will live and act from that space. It is in that space that our “heart” resides and operates. It is most commonly to the rear of the physical body and slightly to the right side. This is our mental plane and it becomes increasingly powerful as it rises. It is not lit from the outside but internally. It is our transparency in the world.

 

Energy flows up and down through the physical body and through these energy layers to connect with ‘higher’ realms and with ‘lower’ realms. All these words are merely representations of concepts, useful only for purposes of communication. As we begin to live more in our consciousness and experience existence directly through these ‘luminous fibers’ the words will begin to make more sense and then will become completely redundant ... unnecessary. 

 

                        In the enormous spaces of the self

                        The body now seems only a wandering shell ...

                                                                        (Aurobindo)

 

Naguals, teachers, masters, prophets have a specific kind of energy configuration. It is ‘seen’ as something of a double luminous sphere. Or ... perhaps a fifth layer, an outer layer beyond the fourth layer. A consciousness beyond consciousness.

 

The position of the ‘heart’ of this energy self is directly related with our perception of connection with other energy. It is a factor in consciousness and what we can translate into mental comprehension. We can be consciousness of everything but can select and attend in physicalness to only part of what we are conscious. It is something like the sensory input from our physical data sources. We can see or hear everything but can select and attend to only a small portion of the information.

 

On previous pages the concept of stealing energy was presented. The overlapping of one person’s energy with anther persons energy ball is the dueling ground for this competition ... competition for what seems to be a finite amount of energy. Effects of the overlap ... mixing of energies ... can also result in unconsciously taking on other persons ‘stuff’  anger, fear, frustration, moods of all kinds. We unconsciously pick up anther persons moods and emotions. Prior to connection with Source there are techniques of protection taught, encapsulation within white light, angel beings, mirroring back negative energies, cleansing with smoke, oils, fragrances and many other techniques. After we step into Super-Consciousness there is less need for these defenses. We are no longer vulnerable to attack.

 

The ascent of consciousness, stepping into a higher order and recognizing an unlimited availability of energy, can prevent this struggle for energy. With consciousness, we gain awareness of higher vibration where we take our energy supply from the supreme source ... an unlimited supply ... so our amount of energy is never depleted. A continual supply allows us to give energy freely and still replace our amount unendingly. This ongoing gift of energy allows others to recognize that there is no scarcity.

 

Not only do two-legged beings have this energy, so do plants, places, even objects. They each have their own unique energies but we leave traces, bits and pieces of our energy. This is something like fingerprints ... smudges. We leave these samples on everything we come in contact with ... or think about. They can be positive, negative or neutral.  Plants, places, or objects can share the memory traces of energy. And ... they can ‘consciously’ share their ‘life’ energies with us as we can with them.

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