Autor: Grupo de Servicio

Awakening Love Section I: Metta (Maitri) or Lovingkindness Practice

So far we have primarily emphasized awareness, equanimity, concentration, and contentment. These qualities will merit further attention, and wisdom should well up from within as the practices take hold and the inner sense of presence responds. Now we turn to the quality of Love, one of the most fundamental to a full and complete awakening.

Many qualities have more specific and limited meanings, applicable to some situations more so than others. Qualities such as humor, loyalty and patience reveal their meaning most strongly in specific circumstances. This is easily seen when exploring qualities like firmness and softness, justice and mercy. Each of these is more appropriate in some circumstances, and may be less so in others.

Then there are qualities that have a more universal significance and more essential and fundamental to the awakened consciousness. These are appropriate in every circumstance but take differing forms in differing circumstances. Awareness and equanimity are two such examples, and Love is another, for the “Greatest of these is Love”. To understand Love in its deepest implication, it is essential and intrinsic to any balanced, awakened perception and action.
Love is not simply a warm feeling towards another, that has more to do with the process of attraction and repulsion. In a spiritual context it is a universal feeling (feeling is much more than emotion for emotion is reactive and steeped in duality; feeling is the essence of the response to identification), and motivates all enlightened beings. True Love is Bodhicitta. Love is the motivation behind all universal action in this system, for here God is Love. Love arises from the depth of our identification with Life, and is the capacity to be intimate with all Life. Love can be in sympathy with all beings, and act for the welfare of the All, first in the immediate environment, then in response to higher and higher wholes. Love in action may appear to be fierce, kind, forgiving or firm, depending on the response to That which lies behind the appearance and is still loving if motivated by the selfless; it supports nurturance, healing, wholing, awakening and enlightening of others.

Love is so universal and so essential to the enlightened heart and its awakening and manifestation. Ultimately, Love is rich and multi-faceted.

Thoughts on the Cultivation and Nature of Love

Spiritual Love is: caring, compassionate and joyful, selfless and unconditional.

Love is balanced by wisdom, discipline and equanimity.

Love is distorted, limited and diminished by self-interest, personal desire and attachment.

Love has both Active and Receptive Elements, therefore, active Love is nurturing, empowering, service, creative, supportive and generous while receptive Love is empathetic, compassionate, understanding, joyful and blissful.

Levels of Love

Egocentric love is personal desire, sentimental and attachment.

Transpersonal Love is selfless, compassionate, caring and active service.

Universal Love arises spontaneously from the nondual, from beyond the concept of service and distinctions between self and other selves, the server and the served.

Therefore we might refer to these stages of Love as ego-love, Bodhisattva Love, and Buddha Love.

Love can be wholesomely directed toward oneself – to the personality, the physical, emotional and mental bodies, for healing, education, nurturance, maintenance and awakening – includes the development of acceptance, understanding, compassion, goodwill, and now the Will-to-Good toward oneself and to other selves. Actually from a ‘Middle Way’ approach to self-love is key to understanding our humanness and willingness to challenge ourselves to growth, and to accept honor and attend appropriately to that humanness. Self-love includes the underlying aspiration for personal liberation and spiritual happiness, innate in the heart of all sentient beings.

Love of other beings – that dimension involving the developing of such qualities as generosity, kindness, sympathetic joy, caring, compassion, nurturance, forgiveness, caring and empathy – these facets of Love are generally described as transpersonal. These find their deepest ripening in the spirit of Bodhicitta, that desire to dedicate and commit one’s spiritual awakening and life to the welfare of all beings.

Love of the Universal Self is whatever form, God, Goddess, Deity (Christ, Krishna, Adi-Buddha, Kwan Yin, Tara, Jehovah, Allah, Isis, Ishvara, Christ Logos, Holy Spirit, etc, etc.) Lineage Yoga, Guru Yoga, Higher Self, etc. This dimension of Love requires the qualities of faith, awe, surrender, grace, consecration, and the sense of the sacred.

Cultivation of Love

The two basic categories of Love Cultivation involve those concepts of Active and Passive Love. This should first be dedicated to a general focus on feeling, caring, selflessness, empathy then active Love practice emphasizing a spirit of generosity, goodwill, and when practiced in meditation involves the formation of elementals or thoughtforms, the vehicles of our love and energy. This will be accomplished through one or more of the following methods: feeling, visualization and sound.

· Metta or Maitri meditation, the traditional Buddhist meditation of lovingkindness using sound mantra, or statements of goodwill to cultivate love towards self and others.

· Compassion and Sympathetic Joy practice, traditional Buddhist practices that cultivate the Brahma-Viharas in a manner similar to metta practice.

· Bodhicitta practice, cultivating the spirit of seeking enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

· Transformation of the solar plexus chakra, the transformation of desire/emotions, practices that aim at using awareness, visualization and other methods to direct energy and consciousness into the solar plexus to facilitate emotional/motivational healing.

· The Tonglen, that Tibetan practice of taking (quietly breathing in) the suffering of others into the heart and sending (breathing forth) out Light.

· Heart Chakra transformation – the practices emphasized in this section suffice in the beginning, any practice involving the heart center later must be most gentle and require the direct participation of the expanding sense of presence, which then occurs with or without direct conscious participation.

· Intuitive Inquiry, an advanced practice which is effective only after the sense of presence has expanded into spacious Love. The technique used by Ramana Maharshi, the direct inquiry in the heart center, to achieve Sahaja Samadhi. Topical questioning in the Heart have been: What is Love? Who is it that Loves? Who or What is the Source of Love? The effectiveness of this practice is that, with an activated Love nature, that the Heart rapidly identifies through the Jewel in the Lotus to various sources of indentifactions on the Buddhic.

There are also seed thoughts such as I am Love; I am infinite Love; I am a source of Love; We are Love; The Self is the Source of Love; The soul of all beings is Love.

The Practice of Lovingkindness

This practice is drawn directly from what was originally taught by the Buddha. Often coupled with other aspects of the Brahma-Viharas when the Love nature is becoming magnetic and expansive. This practice is based on the formation of thoughtforms in the Heart (as a man thinketh in his Heart, so is he) through the active use of mindfulness and concentration to form throughtforms of goodwill, kindness, mercy and love to the self and other beings. As a variation, after you sense the ripening of lovingkindness, practice sending love to lesser beings that cannot easily love, like a goldfish or turtle, the response to repetitive and deepening practice is often surprising. Traditional Buddhist practice makes primary use of sound (as inner statements of affirmations) and also extends the cultivation of lovingkindness towards others as well. This should be done without any reaction, aversion or attraction, just acceptance. This form of lovingkindness practice is based on the cultivation towards several types of subjects: oneself; a benefactor; a loved one; a person who we are neutral towards; an ‘enemy’, finally expanding towards all beings.

Sit comfortably, taking a moment for quiet, following the breath, was the Buddha’s next suggestion, then recollect your desire for spiritual freedom, peace and contentment. Bring forth the general intent to support the spiritual awakening of all beings. Then affirming mantras that D.K. wrote can be most helpful in creating a mood, later a direct perception of inner expansion, of openness. Take your time and let the energy build. Then do the following repetition (translated from the Pali, which was the language recording the direct words of the Buddha) In the beginning it is not important how success is noted in feeling the spirit of each repetition, only seek to be alert and relaxed. Try to sense your way deeper into the spirit of each phrase. Make use of the qualities already developed so far. Seek to remain alert, relaxed, concentrated, equanimous and content. The Buddha suggested that after one has gotten used to the rhythm and form of the practice, to synchronize each repetition with the out-breathing of the breath.

View each phrase as a blessing, a gift to self and others. Each rhythmic, mindful repetition creates a throughtform of goodwill, motivated by lovingkindness that will have a positive effect on self and to whoever it is directed to. Feel free to improvise, so long as the improvisation comes from the expanding sense of presence. The beauty of this is that if you don’t understand what that statement is, you will after establishing a rhythm of practice.

“May my body be healthy and vital

May I have inner peace and contentment

May I have clarity and understanding”.

After some time repeating these phrases, feeling the rhythm, your rhythm, and feeling yourself go deeper (a minute or two, and certainly longer if preferred) move on to applying similar phrases to the following subjects:

a benefactor, someone who you feel respect and gratitude (parent, mentor, etc.)

a beloved friend or family member

someone towards whom we feel relatively neutral

an ‘enemy’ someone we feel some aversion, difficulty or conflict

all beings (human and nonhuman)

“May ______ be healthy and vital

May ______ have inner peace and contentment

May ______ have clarity and understanding

May ______ live in love and harmony”.

Take time to cultivate love in this way towards each of these subjects, substituting in an example of each from each of the subject categories into the phrases. Other phrases may arise from the inner sense of presence after awhile, and feel free to modify from that space.

If feelings of love do not arise in the beginning, have patience because as you build the thoughtform and build in the necessary energy, the feelings become stronger, and when touched with a drop of the nondual from the inner sense of expanding presence become windows and doors into the Fiery Worlds.

Should difficult feelings arise like unworthiness, loneliness, condemnation or alienation, for instance, rejoice(!), and continue with the exercise and allow those feelings through express through the mindfulness, awareness, quality and concentration. This will allow for the inner presence to begin to create a propelling point of transformation.

Awakening Love section II

Thoughtforms and Cultivating Love

The spirit of Love can manifest in active and receptive forms. Self-transcendent Love involves a sharing in the life and experience of others, from an impersonal standpoint. This participation in its active expression may take such forms as healing or nurturing activities, projecting a feeling of goodwill, and with deepening experience the higher qualities, and inspired activities. Whereas, receptive Love manifests more in qualities such as compassion, empathy, understanding. Both qualities can manifest simultaneously. In this essay, the focus has mostly been on the more active qualities in such a way that the passive form easily follows.

Active love can be expressed on various levels – physically, psychologically, soul, and nondual/spirit. As the many levels and aspects of love are explored, and the practice deepens, an interesting fact dawns on the practitioner, deepening practice experience brings on synthesis. The sense of expanding presence starts uniting the physical with the psychological dimensions bringing on a more smoothly developing of personality integration. When the integrated and coordinated personality begins to fuse with the soul dimensions, the deepening sense of presence fuses the personality to soul mindfulness. Eventually, the ever deepening sense of Presence expands to include all lesser fusions into Itself.

When the sense of presence begins to fuse and synthesize the various physical, psychological aspects with the soul, what first transpires is the releasing and redirecting of all thoughtforms, or elementals, releasing then transforming all unredeemed aspects of our natures.

Elementals and Subconscious Transformation

There are various ways to effect transformation on the physical etheric level. The way to purify the etheric is through various approaches of karma yoga specific to the individual life, learning to achieve a rhythm of selfless activity. This imposes a new rhythm on the elementals. To achieve transformation on the psychological dimensions the Brahma-Vihara practice can generate a powerful rhythm on those levels of elementals. A prime indicator of integration, coordination and fusion is when the disciple notices that two or more rhythms are occurring at the same time. For instance, when the inner practice is automatically in motion when one is performing a selfless and routine act, people notice, in whatever form of discipline they find themselves, as a ‘good feeling’ comes over the individual. This deepens when the inner presence actually radiates waves of approval.

Elementals are independent, energetic, psychological ‘objects’ having shape and vitality. They have other names: Thoughtforms or samskaras. Issues, perceptions, memories, images, thoughts, desires, compulsions, addictions, judgments, emotions, feelings are common terms referring to some of the major types or aspects of the elementals. They are made up of elements (hence the term elemental, often referred to by HPB) including desire, direction, intelligence, and intensity of force and energy. The spiritual quality of these elementals, and their karmic fruit, is largely dependent on the intention behind them. This refers to the quality of our motivation when we form them.
Elementals, or samskaras, do not simply go away, they must be transformed and released to higher, purer form. The same energy required to make them, is at least required to neutralize them, and more if we are to create propelling points of transformation. When an elemental is released it becomes radioactive as it changes state/charge/quality/flavor as it raises in vibratory frequency to a higher form of function. This occurs which each elemental or each samskara and is what becomes the propelling point of transformation. What is required to often re-experience the energy locked into that point within the magnetic quality set by the particular practice presented by the Buddha, and the growing, expanding inner sense of presence is what provides the drop of the nondual which results in the propelling point of transformation in the life of the disciple.

Situations may be set up in the future to have this occur in group settings. This will render the group more and more able to be directed clearly from the ashram as a unit, rather than having the group directed from the ashram via the senior disciple outwards into the group. This will save much distortion, and much needless pain for the central disciple, not to mention time.

Most elementals, samskaras, are formed instinctually, moment to moment as we react to circumstances often in rote, automatic ways. Once formed, samskaras continue to exist in our manifested energy field, or they circulate in the general psychological environment of the planet. We pick them up from others, from people we encounter or from the general currents of samskaras in the etheric, emotional and mental environment in which we live. These samskaras may cling to us that resonate with those we carry within our own auras

Elemental/samskaras are made up of various elements and may combine with like samskaras to form character traits. If the quality of these elementals increase in size and magnetic quality, they will aggregate and form powerful personality patterns. These patterns can be large enough to form sub-personalities having more complex patterns and reactions, motivations and behaviors. Each human personality is made up of a number of major patterns of sub-personalities.

Our current personality is made up of the sum total of these elementals or samskaras that we have formed. Some are more active and therefore more manifest in our lives. Others are more latent or deliberately inhibited and so make up our subconscious lives. The latent variety, like seeds, await those conditions that provide opportunity to awaken and seek fulfillment. Many of the latter are carried over from other lives. These form the deepest layers of the subconscious. The active samskaras are either carried over from past lives, or were formed in this life. Some of these layers of samskaras are those qualities we are familiar with, but not part of the awareness at a particular moment. Other layers in the active subconscious are made up of samskaras that we do not wish to consciously experience, therefore are inhibited or suppressed, having been rejected by the conscious personality. The process of rejection usually is maintained unconsciously and is motivated by the power of aversion.

Samskaras at subconscious levels of the personality enter conscious awareness and become prominent, whether directly recognized or not, through the chakras into expression via the etheric body. The chakras in this way are like portals through which the different levels of the consciousness and samskaras associated through similarity of vibration, gain entrance into and influence the physical body, awareness and physical life. The chakras below the heart are particularly connected to those energies, desires, memories and emotions which are generally at the level of the personality, often, particularly before personality/soul fusion, with more egotistic motivations. This will need purification and transformation so that we may be able to raise our level of consciousness.

Among these chakras the solar plexus is particularly significant as a focus for subconscious level motivations. This chakra is a storehouse of elemental or samskaric focus, some latent deep within, others forming various layers and currents circulating and seeking expression. Each samskara seeks to manifest its original creating impulse, and when the desire, which animates begins to loose its energy, the samskara will seek to return to the person of origin, then rise into consciousness and become re-energized and reaffirmed. It then becomes revitalized by the desire of that individual. Any chakra may be a point of access for a samskara thereby circulating to other parts of the body through the nadis, the solar plexus being a powerful center for the experience and expression of subconscious samskaras, particularly those with strong animating emotions.

The wise and loving creation of elementals or samskaras uplift our personalities, infusing both the personality and the world with soul quality. When the expanding, deepening sense of presence ripens into Presence, the propelling points of transformation become the propelling points of transfiguration, and more.

Samskaras and the Three Fires

The problems with the bulk of samskaras created over many lives is that they are animated by points of tamas (inertia). When in the course of evolution the individual creates more coordinated samskaras, they are motivated by rajas (activity). But when we not only hear the call of the Fiery Worlds, but begin to work in concert with That, we not only create samskaras with drops of the nondual, but those drops of celestial nectar can touch everything around us.(sattva – harmony)

Spiritual samskaras are formed through three main types of practice, the traditional, the Tantric/transformational, and the nondual. The traditional method is based primarily on the principle of neutralizing through aversion, limiting samskara activity through beginning equanimity, and the intentional creation of positive samskaras. The trantric method adds the additional principle of transforming existing samskaras (freeing the prisoners of the planet) from hindrance or challenge energy into propelling points of transformation. When the nondual dimension is realized and deepened, the samskaras are then turned into propelling points of transfiguration. This will have wider and wider effect.
Therefore, with the addition/recognition/application of the nondual, the samskaras are liberated by the power of deep realization of the Fiery Worlds. Therefore samskaras when viewed from the point of deeply enlightened understanding are naturally and effortlessly liberated. This method comes as the result of deepening activity after the soul level of presence has done the necessary transforming. This is an advanced stage of spiritual development that gives the capacity to maintain the state of Samadhi or nondual contemplation, starting in meditation practice but deepening into all stages of consciousness.

The trantric level effects of doing practice is that current levels of samskaras are transformed. The nondual dimension of practice effects are that samskaras are liberated. Until that level is reached and maintained, it is good to learn to not only transform the little lives, but to consciously create new ones, intentionally, with skill and as much goodwill, Brahma-Vihara quality as much as we can.

The Burning Ground, the Absorptive states of the Buddha, while impacting consciousness, are the fires which through friction, then in line with solar fire, and finally via the electricity of the nondual also affect, transform and liberate samskaras.

Samskaras and the Senses

Most samskaras are formed instinctually, such as each time we react to a moment of experience by forming a desire to respond. There are various factors contributing to how we consciously form a samskara. These two factors are awareness and intention. Affecting these to is the degree of focus and concentration and the degree of understanding about samskaras themselves, the nature and implication of forming. The Buddha was directing our attention to this when He said (from the Dhammapada):

We are what we think.

All that we are arises from our thoughts.

With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you

As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

Speak or act with a pure mind

And happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakeable.

The creation of spiritual elementals is the art of wise and skillful thinking. The Buddha meant by thought not only ideas but emotions and intentions. When we form a samskara though clarity and love, the effects on ourselves and others is uplifting and inspiring. The types of motivations that generate wholesomeness, and upliftment are goodwill, aspiration, devotion, consecration, service, surrender and spiritual purpose. Samskaras created in light of these qualities will always beneficent and slowly draw us onto the Fiery Worlds.

Actively and consistently creating samskaras for spiritual purposes makes use of the three primary senses. These are the primary ones emphasized in human experience whether physical or psychological, are sight, feeling and hearing. Psychologically, these senses are used in two ways. That is, either in a receptive mode in order to experience our inner environment and actively when intentionally creating samskaras.

Each act of perceiving or expressing, physical or psychological tendencies, forms samskaras. When created without the admixture of a developing, deepening sense of presence, we create karma. The strength of our focus and concentration has direct effect on the power of our creating dynamic, and the quality of our motivations determines the karmic consequences as concerns whether the act of creating resulted in pain, neutrality or positive effects. The skill and knowledge of the creation determines the depth of the karma. In wisely creating samskaras be particularly concerned with motivation, concentration, knowledge and skill.

One principle which really helps increase the energy of consciously creating a samskara is the conscious use of the three primary senses in the creation. This is why careful and meticulous attention is needed to the developing of the specific practices in Part IV of this essay. We are moving to the realization that the specific spiritual practices are building up to the following type of practice/meditation which can be used in all the applications presented here. When applied with the major senses, and the specific points following will result in the sense of presence being invoked to participate with us to begin the extremely necessary propelling points of transformation.

The use of the following meditation and the use of specific color visualization will result in a more enlightened creation and the coming into conscious view of trapped energy which when released through the modes of mindfulness and awareness presented will create the needed transformations.

Enhanced Metta Meditation Practice using Three Senses

What follows is the lovingkindness practice presented previously with suggestion for ways that can enrich the meditation through adding feeling and visualization. For instance, with the first stage of practice using ourselves as focus we can deduce how to proceed with other forms of practice presented previously.

While reciting “May my body be healthy and vital” visualize and feel a ball of blue-white light at the solar plexus.

While reciting “May I feel inner peace and contentment” visualize and feel a ball of rose light around the heart.

While reciting “May I have clarity and understanding” visualize and feel a ball of yellow golden light around the head.

While reciting “May I live in Love and harmony” visualize the rest of the body surrounded and suffused with intense white light.

When moving on to the next stage, wish to do the same form of visualization described above by imagining that you are seeing, with your inner vision, the person concerned (benefactor, friend, etc) and then proceed with the same pattern of phrases and images while trying to feel and know that it is real and that you are creating these samskaras around these individuals. As a final stage of practice visualize the entire planet with these lights.

Meditation on the Sound Current

Meditation on the inner sounds has been an integral part in numerous traditions, as an advanced step to spiritual development for millennia. This inner sound has been referred to as “Music of the Spheres” by Pythagoras; “the Logos” of the Greeks; “The Word” and the “Voice of Many Waters” in the Bible; “Naam” or “Kalma” by the Sikhs; “Shabda Brahman” . “the Holy Nada”, “Anahata Nada” (the Unstruck Sound), “Pranava”, and AUM by the Hindus. Numerous other names that have come down to us are “Voice of the Silence”; “Voice of God”; the Sound Principle; the Audible Lifestream; the Soundless Sound; and the Flaming Sound.

Following is a collection of quotes from the different traditions of the Sound Current with emphasis on its rapture and methods, consequences, and meditation upon it. The reading of which is an excellent way of engaging the abstract mind to focus in this direction before we actually examine methods of practice and appropriation of the inner sound, and cultivation of the inner ear. We will start with the older, outer traditions and then examine what HPB, Helena Roerich, Morya, and Alice Bailey with DK have to say on the subject. These latter are the leading contributors to our Modern Esotericism as inspired by the Transhimalayan Brotherhood. The quotes in this last section are gathered and presented to illustrate the central significance placed by Hierarchy on this path of Transcendental Sound. This section of the path is only effective and significant when the mental body has been stabilized, and a fair facility on one-pointed meditation is achieved. The major effectiveness is only possible when in conjunction with the Master in one’s ashram or with a disciple on the physical plane working consciously with the inner Teachers.

In the Hindu tradition, work with the subtle inner sounds is integral with many paths, in particular when one has reached the advanced stages of practice. The typical traditions employing meditation on the Sound Principle are mantra yoga, laya yoga, tantra yoga, Kundalini yoga, kriya yoga, shabda yoga, among many others. It is to be noticed that the advanced stages of each of these share much in common with each other.

In the Tantric philosophy, kundalini is said to manifest as subtle light and sound (the jyottis and the nada work best together) in the human body. Shakti (also addressed as the Divine Mother) the primal creative force in both micro and macrocosm, is said to exist as sound in its deepest expression through which it gives birth, and access, to the manifest universes and the Fiery Worlds. When the Kundalini begins to raise at the deeper level, it also manifests as a consciousness.

Who is the true Guru for a disciple? Shabd indeed is the Guru and Surat (attention) the disciple of the Dhun (Shabd) – Guru Nanak

He – the Nameless – expressed Himself and made the Naam or Word. – Guru Nanak

Creation came into being from Saut (the Sound or the Word) and from Saut spread all light. – Shamas Tabrez – Sufi.

Everything from beginning to end exists in Shabd. The physical elements, the subtle and ethereal powers and vibrations, the causal seeds and essences, one and all are from Shabd personified. We live and have our very being in Shabd and ultimately dissolve into Shabd. All the scriptures of the world tell us that Shabd is above the material and efficient cause and All-Controlling power of the Universe. – Kirpal Singh from Naam or Word

Shabd is the directive agent of God, the cause of all Creation. – Prabhati

Let the yogi . . . hear the sound through his right ear. By communion with the Word, he will become deaf to the external sounds, and will attain Turya Pad of a state of eqiuipoise within a fortnight. First the murmuring sounds resembling those of the waves of the ocean, the fall of rain and the running rivulets and the Bheri will be heard intermingled with the sounds of bell and conch, etc – Nada Bindu Upanishad

Meditation of Nada or the Sound Principle is the royal road to salvation. – Nada Bindu Upanishad

The mind is fixed on Nada or Anahata sounds heard in the ear. The Yogi (then gradually) enters Samadhi and attains Knowledge of the Self. This is Nada Yoga. Nada Yoga is Laya Yoga. Kundalini Yoga is Laya Yoga. – Swami Sivananda: Nada Yoga

The Shastra teaches that even before there was light at the dawn of creation, God’s first manifestation was Shabda, a sound or word. Tantriks say that it is the Divine Mother who sings the symphony of the universe, “the beginning of which is creation, the end of which is dissolution.” One text declares: “The manifest sound of God (Shabdabrahman) exists in all things as consciousness, which exists in the bodies of living beings in the form of Kundalini. . . Words – or more precisely, the individual letters that comprise them – are nothing more than the mysterious Kundalini, given articulate form in speech and symbolized in writing. Learning to hear the inner, “unstruck sound” is in itself a creative act. It forms one of the most important of the Tantrik disciplines. – Tantra by Omar Garrison

Agni relates to Nada or the original sound vibration, which has an ascending motion. Soma relates to the Bindu or point-drop of pure awareness, which moves downward. The interplay of Nada and Bindu creates the universe. – Tantric Yoga and the Ten Wisdom Goddesses by David Frawley

The following quotes appear in the “Voice of the Silence” making reference to Nada Yoga. The teachings about this path were given Blavatsky by the Masters Kuthumi and Morya in Tibet, and were taken from the Book of Golden Precepts used by the masters in training initiates.

He who would hear the voice of Nada, ‘the Soundless Sound’, and comprehend it, he has to learn the nature of Dharana. . . The ‘Soundless Voice’, or the ‘Voice of the Silence’. Literally perhaps this would read ‘Voice in the Spiritual Sound’, as Nada is the equivalent word in Sanskrit for the Sen-sar term.

Saith the Great Law – ‘in order to become the Knower of All Self thou hast first of Self to be the Knower’. To reach the knowledge of that Self, thou has to give up Self to Non-Self, Being to Non-Being, and then thou canst repose between the wings of the Great Bird. Aye, sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the AUM throughout eternal ages. Bestride the Bird of Life, if thou would’st know.

Says the Nada-Bindu Upanishad, ‘A Yogi who bestrides the Hamsa (thus contemplates on AUM) is not affected by Karmic influences.

Let not thy ‘Heaven-born’, merged in the sea of Maya, break from the Universal Parent (Soul), but let the fiery power retire into the inmost chamber, the chamber of the Heart and the abode of the World’s Mother. Then from the heart that Power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the One-Soul, the voice which filleth all, thy Master’s voice. The inner chamber of the Heart, called in Sanskrit Brahma poori. The ‘fiery power’ is Kundalini.

The ‘Power’ and the ‘World-Mother’ are names given to Kundalini – one of the mystic ‘Yogi powers’. It is Buddhi considered as an active instead of passive principle. It is an electro-spiritual force, a creative power.

Before thou set’st thy foot upon the ladder’s upper rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast to hear the voice of thy inner God (the Higher Self) in seven manners . . . the nightingale’s sweet voice . . . a silver cymbal . . . the ocean-sprite in its shell . . . Vina (a stringed instrument) . . . a bamboo-flute . . . a trumpet-blast . . . the dull rumbling of a thunder-cloud . . . swallowing all the other sounds.

Before the ‘mystic-power’ can make of thee a god, Lanoo, thou must have gained the faculty to slay the lunar form (astral body) at will. . . Kundalini, the ‘Serpent Power’ . . . Kundalini is called the ‘Serpentine’ or the annular power on account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of the ascetic developing the power in himself. It is an electric fiery occult of Fohatic power, the great pristine force, which underlies all organic and inorganic matter.

Desire nothing. Chafe not at Karma, nor at Nature’s changeless laws. But struggle only with the personal, the transitory, the evanescent and the perishable. Help Nature and work on with Her; and Nature will regard thee as one of her creators and make obeisance. And she will open wide before thee the portals of her secret chambers, lay bare before thy gaze the treasures hidden in the very depths of her pure virgin bosom. Unsullied by the hand of matter she shows her treasures only to the eye of Spirit-the eye which never closes, the eye for which there is no veil in all her kingdoms. Then will she show thee the means and the way, the first gate and the second, the third, up to the seventh. And then the Goal – beyond which lie, bathed in the sunlight of the Spirit, glories untold, unseen by any save the eye of the Soul. There is but one road to the Path; at its very end alone the ‘Voice of the Silence’ can be heard.

The pupil must regain the child-state he lost [rigpa, Sahaja Samadhi] ere the first sound can fall upon his ear.

But, O Disciple, unless the flesh is passive, head cool, the soul as firm and pure as flaming diamond, the radiance will not reach the chamber, its sunlight will not warm the heart, nor will the mystic sounds of the Akasic heights reach the ear, however eager, at the initial stage.

The inner chamber of the Heart. . .

These mystic sounds of the melody heard by the ascetic at the beginning of his cycle of meditation called Anahad-shabd by the Yogis.

Unless thou hearest, thou canst not see. Unless thou seest, thou can not hear. To hear and see this is the second stage. When the disciple sees and hears, and he smells and tastes, eyes closed, ears shut, with mouth and nostrils stopped.

And now, Lanoo, thou art the doer and the witness, the radiator and the radiation. Light in the Sound, and the Sound in the Light . . . Behold! Thou hast become the light, thou hast become the Sound, thou art thy Master and thy God. Thou art Thyself the object of thy search, the Voice unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities, exempt from change, from sin exempt, the seven sounds in one, the Voice of the Silence.

The next set of quotations are from the Letters of Helena Roerich and the Agni Yoga series. The Agni Yoga series were given out by Helena Roerich, primarily under inspiration of the Master M. They will allude to the significance of the nada and meditation upon it without fully teaching the method. Following each quote is the book title and entry number (stanza), and not page number. Near the end of her time of service to M, He dubbed her “the Mother of Agni Yoga”.

People frequently distinguish fragments of the music of the spheres, just as they do the vibratory differentiations of light, and only a false attitude towards everything prevents them from concentrating on this. — Fiery World 1, 198

You are familiar with the music of the spheres, the spatial bells, and the reverberating strings. It will be asked why, then, do not a multitude of people know these manifestations. But, then, why is a multitude of people satisfied with false intonation, absolutely refusing to realize the nuances of sound? — Heart 267

Before you is another manifestation of a high degree – the Kundalini bestirs itself from base to the highest . . . Sound and color are among the principle fiery manifestations. Thus the music of the spheres and the radiances of the fires of space are the highest manifestations of Fire. — Fiery World 1, 72-3

Cosmos in silence makes manifest the language of the heart, and the Cosmic Voice may become audible. Sensitiveness and vigilance can aid us in giving ear to the Voice of the Silence. — Infinity 1, 80

When I say utilize the manifested rays, when I say fill the chalice of knowledge, when I say design the best creations through straight-knowledge, when I say strength lies in the timelessness of knowledge – it means lend an open ear to the cosmic whirls, it means search the radiances of Fohat, it means understand the music of the spheres. — Infinity 1, 5

Likewise, excellent are your thoughts regarding the Universal Symphony. Verily, each spirit resounds to its own tone, and nothing can be compared with the beauty of these sounds. The one who has heard the music of the spheres has the right to say in the words of the Teacher, ‘The former song will become the noise of the wheel.’ Of course it is true that the primary aspect of Manifestation is the Divine Tremor in the Bosom of the Great Mother. Tremor, or vibration, is, at the same time, Light, for List is the movement of Matter, and it creates form. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, . . . In him was life, and the light was the light of men.’ In this statement is the whole profundity of the sacred knowledge. — Letters Vol 2 page 181

First the Yogi hears the music of the spheres, but later, by way of the heart, he himself begins to reverberate with this harmony of the Highest World. But for this a flaming heart is needed. — Heart 196

We send calls of heart to those friends who meet upon the crossroads of the East. We send calls of unity to those whose hearts have already sensed the music of the spheres. For him to who the spheres are void the heart is only a sack of blood. — Heart 394

It will be asked, Which energy is assumed when one speaks of the Heart? Of course it is the same AUM, the psychic energy of all three worlds. – Heart 14

People usually believe that they can attain perfection through many methods. This multiplicity of mirages lulls the mediocre mind. But humanity has only two ways; either wisely and ardently seek the realization of the AUM, or to lie in a coffin like a log, taking for granted that someone or something will take care of the destiny of the shopkeeper of the spirit. — Agni Yoga 158

AUM is the power of Grace, and help is at hand for each one ready to set sail from the shore of the flesh . . . Some know the music of the spheres and the song of space. Few have approached this step, nevertheless these transfigurers of life do exist. Let us guard such heralds of the far-off worlds. — AUM 18

AUM resounds not as a name but as a concept. The cognizing one will realize the sounding which is consonant with the music of the spheres. Rarely is it possible to hear this resonance of the spheres with the earthly ear, but the ignoramus take it only for a noise in the ear. Thus let us walk there where sounds Infinity itself. — AUM 79

Thus it is necessary to appreciate the wondrous music of the spheres, and to understand that on this step are also heard the lamentations of the world. — AUM 204

Today you heard the music of the spheres, that rhythm which strenghthens the realization of evolution. It is not the theme precisely, but the rhythm that forms the essence of the music of the spheres. It is indeed the degree of purity of the sounds which determines the planetary conduit. These sounds are heard only at high altitudes, and it is necessary to have a musical ear. — Agni Yoga 149

The next set of quotations are taken from the various books of AAB and inspired by DK.

By intense devotion to Ishvara, knowledge of Ishvara is gained. (Commentary) Ishvara is the son of God, the cosmic Christ, resplendent in the heart of each of us. — Sutra 1:23

This Ishvara is the Soul, untouched by limitation, free from karma and desire. — Sutra 1:24

In Ishvara, the Gurudeva, the germ of all knowledge expands into Infinity. (Commentary) In the macrocosmic sense God is the Master of all and He is the sum total of omniscience. . . He is the soul of all things . . . as the souls of men are a part of His Infinite realization . . Students would do well in studying these few sutras relating to Ishvara to bear in mind that they have reference to the son of God, the second person of the Trinity as He manifests through the medium of a solar system, to the macrocosmic soul. The secondary meaning has reference also the the divine son of God, the second aspect monadic, as He manifests trhough the medium of a human being. — Sutra 1:25

Ishvara (the Gurudeva) being unlimited by time condition, is the teacher of the primeval lords. (Commentary) The primal Lords, or Sages, are those great Adepts Who – having ‘tasted experience

Under the Law of Rebirth, were initiated into the mysteries by the one Initiator, the representative in our planet of the Oversoul. They in their turn become teachers and initiators into the mysteries. — Sutra 1:26

The Word of Ishvara is AUM (or OM). This is the Pranava. (Commentary) This is the Word of Glory, the AUM. This is the Pranava, the sound of conscious Life itself as It is breathed forth into all forms . . . (it) is the Christ in us, the hope of glory. The Word causes the second, or Christ aspect of divinity to shine forth resplendently. It is the sound that brings into manifestation the incarnated soul (macrocosmic and microcosmic). — Sutra 1:27

Through the sounding of the Word and through reflection upon its meaning, the Way is found. (Commentary) The expression ‘the sounding of the Word’ must not be too literally interpreted; the esoteric ‘sounding forth’ is based upon a study of the Law of vibration . . . Speaking correctly, the Words is sounded by the soul on its own plane. Secondly, there is the earnest reflection of the man in his physical brain upon that sound as he recognizes it. He hears the sound (called sometimes the ‘still small voice’ or the ‘Voice of the Silence’), he recognizes it for what it is and in deep reflection he assimilates the results of his soul’s activity. — Sutra 1:28

The Light of the Soul – pages 46 – 60

The Sound (or Word), that which it denotes (the object) and the embodied spiritual essence (or idea) are usually confused in the mind of the perceiver. By concentrated meditation on these three aspects comes an (intuitive) comprehension of the sound uttered by all forms of life. (Commentary) This is one of the most important sutras in the book, and holds the key to the object of the entire meditation process. This is to reveal . . . the true nature of the self, the second aspect, and the correspondence to the second aspect in all forms of subhuman life, as well as to put him en rapport with the second aspect in all superhuman forms. Thus it concerns the consciousness aspect . . . the Christ of Buddhic principle and which is the direct cause of . . . the revelation of the spirit through the medium of form. When the nature of the second aspect, the soul, is known, the nature of the form is also known, and the essential nature of the spirit can be inferred. He must arrive at the Sound of Word which brought every form into manifestation, and which is the result of the breath, the essence or spirit. ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Words was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by him . . . (John I 1:2) Here, in the Christian Bible, is t he substance of the entire teaching, and in the significance of the . . . Sacred Word, AUM, lies the clue to the entire cosmic process. The meditation process when duly and correctly carried out reveals therefore the second of soul aspect, and the Sound, or Word (the Voice of the Silence) can be heard. — Sutra III 17 — The Light of the Soul – pages 271 – 273

By the growth of intuitional telepathy and the increasing comprehension of the power of color and sound will the work of the Christ and of the Great Ones be contacted and understood, and the peoples . . . enter into the Kingdom of God. — Externalization of the Hierarchy pg 509

Sound Current Meditation Practice

Before we begin, a few words about posture:

1. Sit comfortably erect.

Read some inspirational material to get into the mood more easily.

Take seven deep breaths: inhale for count of 7; hold for count of 7;

exhale for count of seven.

1. Choose one of the following methods:

a. Arms resting on front torso,

hands to sides of face

middle fingers pushing in the tabs of your ears.

b. OR have a good pair of ear plugs, or sound

dampening earmuffs.

c. OR sit at a comfortable table, elbows on pillows

with hands at side of face, plugging ear tabs with

middle fingers (do NOT plug earholes with fingertips,

but use ear tabs to plug ears, and snug but not too tight.

1. The reason for step 2 is to deliberately get in the habit of

blocking outside noise. NOW use the bodily sounds to

comfortably, and one-pointedly, draw you deeper:

Note the lungs breathing — go deeper.

Note the heart beat — go deeper.

Note the rushing of the blood stream — go deeper.

Note the outward sound in the ear canal — go deeper.

Take your time with this initial step as it will slowly train your inner hearing and focus.

This step will take months or years.

1. When you have trained the hearing and focus to not

be distracted by bodily sounds, there are some choices.

However, initially keep the quiet, relaxed

LISTENING in the head.

1. When certain inner sounds become more frequent

(and ONLY then) the following tantric techniques is most

efficacious: draw your attention to the root chakra, and go deeper.

When the sound from THAT chakras becomes regularly clear,

go to the sacral – taking your time because hurrying only causes delay.

1. Do this with each chakra up the ladder until you

hear the sound coming from the brow chakra.

Stay there for however long it takes, and how ever many sessions

it takes (good advice for all the inner listening stages,

as this builds in strength and stability).

WHEN the sound emanating from the brow SWALLOWS all

previous sounds then the real work begins.

1. However long it takes to build in the necessary state of presence,

when the duality inherent in early meditation begins to subside,

you will HEAR. You will KNOW. You will BECOME.

At first very faintly in the center but it WILL increase and emanate from every fiber of your BEING. Know this, when the Voice is heard, you will have experienced Presence.

Trechko Practice

You will note that from Part I of this Initiation and Dzogchen Tantra essay that everything fits together as pieces of a puzzle. The concepts flow from one point to the next. The exercises, first promoted by the Buddha, flow from one to the next. Unless the reader were a post third degree initiate with a thorough grasp of the synthesis of the state of presence ripening into the State of Presence, it would still be difficult to simply wait until this point of the essay to finally begin. However, the Buddha knew EXACTLY what He was doing when He set the Awareness Practices in motion. The Awareness Practices set in motion that magnetic resonance which attracts the energy of the Fiery Worlds, which interpenetrate everything, through building similarity of vibration.

Everything before this point in the Essay built to the Sound Current Meditation Practice. The Sound Current Meditation leads to the Trechko Practice. The beauty of the entire interlocked underlying Planetary Lineage hinted in the Gupta Vidya and the Atma Vidya is that perfection is not required for results, but consistency is. In other words the whole system points to the magnetic resonance built through consistency. NOT through desire, NOT through aspiration alone, and certainly NOT through supplication of the gods alone, but through continuity of effort. It is with that in mind that the following is presented.

You will note that some resonance with succeeding points is required of present points attained. The reason for that is so deceptively simple. The entire principle of resonance preceding the principle of radioactivity is so inextricably bound at each stage of the entire process: from sub-plane to sub-plane, from personality to soul alignment to fusion to the magnetic buildup of Causal Field leading to its radioactivity and to its ultimate destruction. This is true of death of the personality from life unto life, to death of the personality within life. Whether the focus is on personality, or spiritual awareness or spiritual growth it is all the same: the discarding of the old and the taking up of the new. Even the entire panorama about the play out on the world scene, of the old dispensation giving way to an entirely new one, is still a variation of the same theme from the very beginning of the manvantara. From death to immortality, from the unreal to real, from chaos to beauty lies hid the entire clarion call of the Fiery Worlds.

1. Having your awareness prepared by the following, focus on where you are now, to what the next step is: the expansion of your life focus to the next major opening to wider space.

2. Start by following the breath and allowing the process to expand and deepen without interference of any desire or aspiration on your part. After all, that is how the Buddha commenced on His final embarkation to Buddhahood.

3. Focus on your state of presence, and using your following of the breath, LET it slowly open to your sense of Presence.

4. Whenever you conscious mind start its spinning, bring the attention back to following the breath.

5. When this has gradually built up to the point when the awareness is faced with the sense of space, take that sense of space into your following of the breath. Without trying to make it happen in any way, when becoming aware of the sense of limitation with detachment, take the awareness of the next opening of space into the following of the breath.

Once this is established sequentially and naturally the student will have grasped the essence of trechko or “cutting through”. When the process has become normal in the meditative process, right withdrawal, or pratyahara, will be established. You will note how this same technique once established, set to rhythm, allowed to magnetically resonate leads to right withdrawal, opening to stages of the Savikalpa. It is in the deepening stages of the Savikalpa that the rhythm leading to the trechko takes place. You will note how the technique, once deepened, will ripen into that disinterested, but focused detachment which leads to luminous seeing, or togal. The technique when followed on a sequential basis, will slowly burn off the samskaras coming up when they are allowed to expand with detachment, leading to the opening and expansion of space.

Togal Practice

Once the opening and expanding have become established so that detachment can take place, the attention can be taken from the process of opening on to that which can be seen, sensed and apprehended. When the focus has gone from noting the process of expansion on to what the soul sees and contemplates that state is what leads to what is contemplated by monad, in other words, the sense of presence ripens into Presence. There is at first a subtle difference between awareness of the process of discarding and opening, to what is being apprehended in wider fields. This is how the ‘rain cloud of knowable things’ is reached in conscious, aware, focus. The process will have ripened from awareness of form to awareness of function. We will have taken ourselves from awareness of samskaric activity, to awareness of expanding space in our vehicles, from personality to soul, to causal field, to Buddhic field, to the apprehension of what the ashram focuses on, to what the Center of the ashram, focuses awareness. From contemplating plan to becoming part of the awareness of Purpose.

Once the process has ripened, in other words become an ingrained habit, the listening to the note of soul, of monad, of Fiery Worlds, becomes a moment to moment focus in everything that comes to the attention. This is what sahaja is all about. When that is established, then becoming en rapport with wider focus outside of our field, the meditation/contemplation/Samadhi absorption into the field of a focus greater than ours, be it someone we can see or levels or perception of Those beyond the physical, becomes not so far fetched.

Part V will focus on the petals of the chakras, and the sub-planes of the physical to the Buddhic will be a natural outgrowth of this section. We will continue with one more advanced practice, the marma points from what is known in public to their Tantric focus, and end with a call to the Fiery Worlds.

2002

Toward An Integrated Awareness Practice

In order to give the scope of this subject its due and proper consideration, it appears that this part of the Essay will establish what a spiritual practice is, how to establish it and how to begin. Part IVb will explore the intricacies of advanced practice, up to and including the trechko. It is necessary to start at the beginning, even if one believes that one is quite advanced in meditation. The reason being that this type of practice establishes that inner rhythm of presence (the attitude of the Observer) in every aspect of daily living, plus this will then establish That state of presence (the deepening and ripening of which becomes the state of Presence) through which the samskaras (the elementals, thoughtforms or patterns) are viewed, experienced and then changed into “propelling points of transmutation, transformation and finally transfiguration” which is what the Buddha had originally established and is hereby presented in a more modern esoteric mode. Here in Part IVa we shall see how to establish that abstract mental attitude which will be reflected into practice, ripening into presence and deepening into a spatial Presence.

This section (Part IV a and b) will establish those conditions leading to ‘spiritual awakening’ that rhythm which awakens the truth of our already acquired spiritual growth, leading more clearly to those conditions which lead to ‘spiritual growth’ or in other words, leading to that which will define and inwardly point to the new.

At the outset it cannot be emphasized enough that Concentration is the central factor of a spiritual practice. Concentration is that central quality of sustained attention in a particular and desired way. Since we are seeking to cultivate those qualities invocative of Bodhicitta, in order to compress or straighten the way toward attainment, concentration allows for us to accelerate the rate of unfoldment, qualities, insight and ability. Different styles and stages of practice use concentration, dharana, in different and central ways. Even unto the most advanced of stages, it is concentration that is the integral component of awakening, especially while employing those awareness practices in this essay, and spiritual manifestation. Therefore, it is useful and desirable to develop increasing proficiency in concentration, and understand more about how and in what most efficacious ways to develop and work through the various obstacles to concentration.

There are two types of concentration for our purposes, momentary concentration and selective concentration. Selective concentration is based on concentrating in a sustained manner on one object while excluding others. We select an object of focus and then hone in our awareness allowing us to increasingly center in that object or view. This is the type of concentration we employ everyday when reading, exercising, remaining ‘present’ in conversation, or planning our day and any number of tasks. Often it is the desire nature that unconsciously determines the focus of concentration, and we typically move semi-consciously from one focus to the next without conscious choice or greater degree of awareness of intentionality and focus. This is why when we undertake to use a particular focus that our mental nature, like unbroken horses, rebel, because we are so used to semi-conscious choice of focus. It is the strength of our desire, and when we graduate to the level of mental choice, plus the degree to which we are distracted by competing desire and thoughts drawing our attention to other interests, which determines the quality of focus of the concentration. The developed power to selectively concentration is what determines the degree of success in chosen fields of endeavour.

Concentration usually feeds that which we focus on, and whether it be a little or quite deep, is the indicator of the what and the quality of what we manifest in our lives. Therefore, concentration is a foundational factor as we cannot bring other qualities to a task, or deepen those qualities, if we are not able to sustain the level and depth of focus.

Momentary Concentration describes the quality of awareness that in certain ways shares similarities of selective concentration, but in an important way is different because it is the systematic way in which we deepen those qualities which require mindfulness, steadiness and alertness. These are the factors which cause the deepening of those qualities which we seek to ripen into the bodhicitta we seek to become.

Momentary concentration takes as its object that which is spontaneously arising into the awareness as we seek to look at the field of the quality which we seek. The ability to sustain the focus on the general field, while allowing that which is hidden to come to the surface in time, ripens into the ability to effect much needed transformation. What arises is thoughts, sensations, memories, emotions, desires (in advanced levels these will be coming from deep within referring to the samskaras of past lives). Samskaras are the depressions/impressions made in our various fields which are out of alignment with our deepest inner integrity, and therefore tend to block that free flow which the soul, and later the monad, seeks to further the connection to and portions of the Divine Plan and Purpose. In meditative practices like the Dzogchen or Vipassana we seek to cultivate this type of concentration. The one-pointed concentration required also sharpens without the mind seeking to rebel. Becoming very strong and penetrating, it may in the beginning not rest long on a subject, as it tends to inadvertently circumscribe the entire experiential field before reaching into the depths.

It is a leavening factor, because it most easily deepens into the attitude of the observer, the soul levels, as it meets each experience as it rises with awareness and focus in the encounter, and then letting it pass, and is freshly open to the next moment or experience. Not unlike standing in a reception line, meeting each person with intensity and focus (later deepening into equanimity, compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy or gladness) then freely and gracefully passing on to the next.

Both practices, which are complimentary to one another, will be used in these exercises with a primary focus in the momentary concentration. In the vipassana, emphasizing the open eyed approach) selective concentration is developed as a by product of focus on, say for instance, the breath at the abdomen or the nose, and therefore is used to inadvertently develop selective concentration as a foundation, while gradually and easily shifting growing emphasis on deepening momentary concentration. We will however explore deeply both modes of concentration in this essay, but still emphasizing the approach to that which will hasten and deepen the approaches leading to the threshold of the deeper vipassana and the dzogchen practice.

Stages of Concentration

Let us distinguish five important stages in developing concentration, applied to both meditation as well as daily activity practice (the key to the Vipassana is Access Concentration in daily practice, while the stage of Meditative Concentration is ripened sense of presence into daily living, and the fifth stage is the Sahaja state of the Arhat). These stages are:

Random Distraction
Thematic Distraction
Access Concentration
Meditative Concentration (Dhyana)
Samadhi (Absorption)
In the context of this essay, spiritual awakening is the process of emerging from a state of false identification with our bodies, sensory apparatus, emotions, focused desires, thoughts, memories and values to the remembrance of our original nature. So let it be understood that this state of Self-realization or enlightenment is identical with perfected spiritual concentration. The goal in mind is to steadily and directly remain effortlessly in a state of undistracted realization of the Absolute. Therefore our spiritual development can be seen as unfolding the degrees of concentration and the ripening/deepening of the state of presence. We are simply seeking to eventually concentrate ourselves into the nondual/Absolute in the moment, moment by moment.

The third stage in our list can be described as stable concentration, and is a great turning point in our practice, sustaining us unto the Absolute. In the beginning we start to taste it now and then in our meditation practice, then later in our daily waking activity. This is what leads to a sustained service, without getting so involved in the thought of service that we merely get caught up in the personality rather than soul intent. Until we get to the point of sustained, stable, concentration in our daily living (what D.K. describes as the ‘Attitude of the Observer’), we continue to learn the tests of failure. Remember that all goes according to the Law of Cycles, meaning that we will go from initial stable success, than a seeming loss of sustained activity, then the eventual returning to stronger and deeper success. When this happens Rejoice! The ripening is then in process of becoming.

This stage was called ‘access concentration’ by the Buddha because stabilized concentration has decisively arisen above distraction, and will provide access to meditation.

The development, or arising, of this stage results in a sense of emergence from personality distraction and illusion to a space of greater clarity, serenity, inner calm, alertness ripening into the state of presence. Because this state is not normally possible to sustain from moment to moment, the various tendencies and preoccupations coming from the depths of the personality will still arise into the consciousness, needing to be transformed, until all within the personality field, and even the deeper lower causal, is transformed and consumed by the complete cultivation of bodhicitta — ripening into arhat liberation. So as the process keeps cycling itself, rejoice, because that recycling is the indicator of success. As this is the sub-plane of the astral plane where desire and aspiration meet (the battle ground and Arjuna factor), future attainment is indicated because at least in the meditative state the soul presence is momentarily stronger then the personality identification. Hence the significance of this stage considered as being the turning point(s) — the points of emergence. Patanjali referred to this as dharana, and is the sixth stage of his eightfold path.

This third stage of Access Concentration brings on the beginning of insight as a result of the points of emergence.

The next stage, meditation proper, that stage where deepening concentration develops in which soul qualities grow increasingly dominant while the personality qualities grow increasingly quiet – moving into the background. The severity of the hill and valley experiences which make this stage so stressful are significantly lessened by those practices advocated by the Buddha, which is what this essay is leading to.

There are many ways to develop concentration. Some of the most important factors are:

Consistency of practice — miss as few days as possible in the beginning, as the concentration/meditation muscle will fail to develop. Make this a high priority in life. We are setting aside other ‘important’ things aside to nurture our souls.
Quality of practice — make the sessions alive and dynamic, not boring, empty ritual; fully involve yourself in meditative practice.
Seek to maintain mindfulness and concentration throughout the day — Not bringing the fruits of practice into daily living does not develop ripening. Be patient with this. It is far easier to develop concentration and meditation during practice, but simply making the attempt in daily living consistently promises success.
Generate inspiration before practice — motivation through inspiration is the surest way to increase the intensity of spiritual presence in the practice.
Reflect on the growing power and significance of concentration. Note and observe the studied effects of concentration and distraction. Try to make the quality of your concentration a theme in your reflections and awareness, in your meditation and during the daily round. Bring this attitude into your study and service, thus will the attitude of the observer lift you up. We will now take up the studied effect of deepening concentration leading to meditation and the ripening of the qualities of Awakening.

The Mechanism of Awakening

In order to deepen our sense of the place that meditation has in the spiritual path, we must recognize and include the nature of transformation, and how various practices facilitate and promote transformation.

One basic factor arises when there is sufficient success in the awareness practice, it will naturally lead, of its own, to that emphasis on a more direct realization of the end state itself – what in the Dzogchen are completion stage practices. The style of the practice plus the way it is “held” will focus on the direct attempt to access or realize the state of Realization or Liberation, rather than view the practice as a means to an end – as an aid to growth, development, purification, awakening, or cultivation. This will indicate that the probationary path (discipleship or initiate) has reached the next plateau. Instead of pursuing the path, you will become the path and the path will pursue you. It then is not a matter of Doing, but of just Becoming.

So how does this change come about? In the Teaching there is the notion that our thoughts, desires and emotions have form and substance. Each of these psycho-spiritual forms remain with us – either active in the life experience or less active, or even latent, in the subconscious field – like seeds that are in various stages of germination, sprouting or blooming. These are the samskaras in Sanskrit (sankhara in Pali) which are basically activators (elementals in metaphysics) which seek further action and longevity. The purpose of spiritual practice is to plant the higher seeds of quality which will squeeze the samskaras out of us, so to speak, in order to reach a state of satiety with those patterns which pull the personality mechanism away from realizing and manifesting the Good, the True and the Beautiful. First and essentially, the concentration practice must be centered in the Buddha’s Access Concentration mode, allowing the re-experiencing of the energy or desire, the thoughts or other forms of elemental/samskara without re-energizing them.

In other words, our samskaras, our personal down-ward moving tendencies, are experienced as desire or aversion until we learn via the Access Concentration Mode to experience without re-energize-ment. There are other dimensional dynamics involved but this is pivotal. If we can re-experience all our tired old creations from a trans-egoic viewpoint, meaning to witness them with the qualities of peace, contentment, openness, equanimity, unconditional love, with acceptance, concentrated observance and surrender, (differing modes of awareness practices by and through which we re-experience the samskaras) we establish and put into motion the mechanism of our own transformation!

In other words the point of Part IV (a and b) of this essay is to lay the foundation of those qualities, even if imperfectly applied at first, that the contents of our storehouse of experience, even the semi and sub-conscious energy and substance, will begin to be purified and uplifted! It is precisely these samskaras that form a cloud blocking our realization of our true nature. When these energies are transformed through the mechanisms outlined in this essay, insight and spiritual intuition grow and the heart opens. Put into motion, more and then almost continuously reinforced, we will have the full release of the last of our ego-generated elemental/samskaras (clearing our past karmas) which will result in our more swiftly, when avoiding the haphazard approach, have our full and final realization.

The Power of Awareness Meditation

Meditation is widely recognized as a most powerful tool for awakening. The power of Awareness Meditation is the act of profoundly establishing the conditions for the purification, then transformation, of the samskaras/elementals by building up the sattvic/dharmic elementals that replace and help transform the rajasic and tamasic elementals, the samskaras. This type of meditation is powerful for this reason: it is the deliberate building up of more spiritual elemental, substance, and then transforming and releasing more limiting ones (the prisoners of the planet) and when this has made the necessary impact of the life of the disciple, some point close to the third initiation, the aura will have impact on those in the immediate environment. Access Concentration, leading to Awareness Meditation, wherein enhanced concentration is nurtured, naturally leads to the condition for application to daily living. The building in, and ripening of, these qualities naturally bloom into outward living.

The qualities of presence developed (and stabilized) in awareness meditation naturally merge into the daily state of presence. Once having established this solid foundation, our deepening meditative states profoundly affect the daily living. This results in a process of simply and more profoundly recognizing that the time dedicated to deepening awareness is an intensifying period resulting in the purification and transformation of old built energies from yesterday or a millennia ago that has continued to haunt us, often in ways of which we were unaware, until the releasing mechanism holds sway over our process.

Developing the Access Mechanism

In whatever concentration, then meditation, performed, it is best to start with Breath Awareness. Do nothing with the breath, simply become aware of the process of breathing, using the act of breath awareness to start focusing the mind into a state of quietness. Remember, it will all start here. In fact this particular method of ‘Breath Awareness’ was the beginning of the final method used by the Buddha to attain full enlightenment. Although this practice may seem simple, the potentials are profound. The heart of all Buddhist practice, whether Theravada, Mahayana, or Tantric/Dzogchen is primarily or significantly based on this practice as a starting point into all corresponding psychologies of awakening (which is what Buddhism is, not so much religion, but a psychology of awakening).

The practice of breath awareness is in essence, very simple. After taking up the particular posture favored by the student, turn the attention to the sensation of breath movement at the abdomen. Do not attempt control or influence of the breath but simply observe the natural movement. Observing the breath may cause temporary changes in the pattern and depth of breathing. This is natural and will pass with experience. The point being is that nothing is done but attention to the breath.

When becoming aware of distraction, the becoming involved in meandering thoughts and other sensations, simply stop following the breath and become aware of the breathing again. Seek to avoid becoming involved in frustration or judgment about having become distracted. Gently and firmly return to the breath each time it is noticed that there is distraction. If judgments do arise in this, simply note them, do not engage, and return to the awareness of the breath.

The facility gained in this part of the practice established the Access Concentration and continued use of which establishes sustained mindfulness, leads to deepened meditation. Without this facility strengthened, the results will not be consistent enough for sustained deepening.

The distractions that challenge the concentration and mindfulness can be categorized. The traditional ones are: desires, aversions, restlessness, boredom, pride and attachments. All thoughts, emotions, plans, day-dreams, that distract us during meditation are motivated by desires and aversions. Boredom during practice is the result of attachment to stimulation to avoid being fully conscious by the use of stimulation as a narcotic. Restlessness is a type of aversion. Anxiety is about facing ourselves, or not.

In the first stage of this practice the goal is to seek to sustain the concentration on the sensation of the breath. During this stage, when other sensations, impulses, emotions and thoughts arise, seek to remain focused on the breath. Every time there is distraction, simply come back to the breath focus. To take the practice of meditation beyond this point before facility is gained, results in disjointed and chaotic conditions of activated samskaras, without transformation.

As concentration reaches a certain level, we will find that we can remain focused on the breath for longer periods of time. This is still not true meditation, let alone Awareness Meditation, but is finally the stage which the Buddha referred to as ‘access concentration’. At this stage there will be only the peripheral notice of potential distractions that continue to arise in the field of awareness. Well and good.

The reason that we are taking the necessary time to build this foundation is that too many disciples in the world do not properly meditate, because the concentration is not adequate. This results in: clogged systems, bouts with inertia, and the stimulation of glamour– hence the time taken to build to this point in this part of the essay (after all, simply put are not glamours but the full stimulation of sets and subsets of samskaras?). To go further into meditative work can cause what the Master Morya has referred to as the ‘crises of imperil’. Not being thoroughly grounded in the technique of concentration leading to the Buddha’s “Access Concentration” prolongs the difficulty of reaching the second degree consciousness, and really deepens the difficulty of the disciple in reaching the third degree initiate consciousness.

At this point one may choose to intensify the level of concentration while diminishing the field of awareness so that the breath becomes more and more absorbing while the presence of thoughts, emotions, sensations and the like diminish even more. Then and only then is the taking up of a seed thought of real and consistent value. We can then learn to eliminate awareness of the physical body all together, eventually learning to eliminate emotions and thought altogether. This is what the Tibetan was referring to when He mentioned Right Withdrawal, the gaining of facility is the establishing of right contemplation.

However, the introducing of Awareness Meditation becomes the most effective after the Access Concentration is developed. The gaining of mastery in awareness meditation, the introducing of awareness practice, makes the deeper withdrawal not only possible, but the necessary purification and transformation affected by the next phase under discussion here will result in drawing closer to Hierarchy, or more correctly, allows Hierarchy to attract us more closely. Service will become more effective.

The Essence of Awareness Meditation Practice

The entire reason for the presentation of this essay is because too many disciples between the second and third initiations (most of them) spend far too much time wrestling and contending with their samskaras, when they should be ‘putting them to bed’ and entering a ‘wider field of the Lord’ in service to the Plan and more engrossingly approach the ‘fiery worlds’. For want of placing into motion that mechanism which transforms the conflict and crisis, much time is lost, and unneeded pain, when the aspiration is invoking the higher energies and the disciple is too distracted with ‘dancing with the shadows’. It will dawn on the reader that the next set of instructions will be (far from concrete mental) placing the focus on that mode which invokes the abstract mental. This is what sets the “propelling points of transformation”.

The practice of awareness meditation is deceptively simple. Apart from adherence to a few fundamental principles, even though there are various ways of applying these principles, one will be practicing a true awareness meditation. Once the simple essence is understood we can begin to explore a variety of perspectives and modifications that will deepen, then ripen, the practice. After some time in laying the inner foundation, the deepening, ripening, sense of presence will present subtle variations which will naturally introduce the higher fiery energies. The practice of adherence to the quality of mindfulness, observation or awareness is the key and is given the main emphasis. Awareness is a part of other practices, but in this essence first introduced by the Buddha, awareness is given the main emphasis. First begins effort, because we must establish a rhythm of practice, then other qualities come to the fore: devotion and surrender, bliss and lovingkindness. The underlying quality which remains after effort establishes rhythm, and deepens all the other cultivated qualities is mindfulness. It will be then easy to see why the Buddha first stressed access concentration. As this practice deepens and begins to ripen (which is another way of describing the result of invoking the presence of the solar angel, and eventually the Presence Itself) the practice will widen to develop the relative balance of the main facets in the spiritual nature – awareness, love, energy, devotion, equanimity among others. First it is important to take up the practice that develops each of these aspects separately so that each is strengthened in us and is more accessible as a quality which then radiates out into the environment. It is at that point when the practitioner reaches the stage to better work with integration, coordination of the personality, personality/soul fusion, finally into nondual awareness (the Presence of the Monad).

Is it now possible to see that taking these Buddhist practices at their essence how the Buddha was able to point the student to the attainment of Nirvana? The transcendental structure as presented by Buddha was weighed down with form and institutionalism resulted in future generations missing the point of His Teaching entirely. People failed to realize it was the structure itself that allowed one to Enter the Stream into the Dharma. (However, the inner traditions never lost this point) The loss of this bit of mindfulness has resulted in many disciples failing to “get it”, thereby not picking up the thread consciously until often times just before the third initiation. Just think where we would be today as disciples if we “caught the thread” right at the first initiation and put into motion that transcendental essence which was the heart of the Buddha’s presentation even at the beginning . . .

Also, the gaining of facility in this makes the practice of Vipassana, the open-eyed meditation, which the Buddha also recommended, possible.

Awareness Practice is dependent on the foundation of selective concentration. When an adequate level of selective concentration is established (access concentration) one can begin shifting modes to a more non-selective mode of concentration that emphasizes a more open awareness. In this type of awareness, the simple noticing of whatever presents itself to the field of consciousness, through the circumscribed field of for instance equanimity, rather than restricting awareness to a specific focus such as mantra, visualization, or a chakra is key. What happens when this route is taken first, the other forms of focus (mantra, visualization, etc.} result in performing that focus at the periphery of the fiery worlds. In more selective concentration we restrict and then eliminate extraneous thought, sensation and other phenomena to an object and progressively become more absorbed in that object. The two approaches are not exclusive of each other, but the selective concentration, without the awareness quality cultivation, results in the contacted energies also highly stimulating the samskaras.

In awareness practice we lean in the direction of allowing these phenomena (thoughts, sensations, sounds, visuals) to arise in the awareness while focusing on cultivating the ability to remain alert (awake) mindful but detached – maintaining the attitude of the observer. In this way we remain concentrated in our ‘presence’ and awareness in each moment of whatever arises naturally, but needs to pass through our generated field of transpersonal quality. In this way the seeds of bodhicitta are planted and take root.

When the practice of awareness meditation has reached a significant level of development, we are able to remain undistracted in any situation, sitting in meditation or in daily living because of the developed form of spiritual awareness that is not using the support of an object of focus. In this way, the state of presence ripens into the field of the ashram vertically and horizontally into the world of form. Thus do we become true servers, and we are not semi-consciously distracted in daily living as in ineffective meditation. Nor are we caught up in the narcotic of forced chaotic activity because the personality is not in synch with ashramic rhythm. Awareness practice integrates our inner and outer environment into the meditation because whatever is occurring in the field of awareness is the current object of meditation. We grow in our ability to greet each moment of experience consciously and we grow in our ability to let it pass by without attachment, while remaining alert, relaxed and content giving rise to great equanimity and FREEDOM!

However, both forms of practice are valid, but in practicing this way, we bring in the light of the soul (first, last, and always) and when moving into (even somewhat concurrently) into the selective mode, then we enter deeper levels of reality, not the danger of deeper levels of glamour. The Tibetan has repeatedly stated that the light of the soul dispels glamour, hence the value of destroying glamours with deepening qualities of soul before attempting to withdraw into contemplation and Samadhi, the door into the higher worlds. The quality of what we are determines whether we enter the higher worlds, or lower astral or lower mental sub-planes. We are attempting to quantify those qualities which bring on the light of the soul, and in the fullness of time, the Life of the Monad.

Dimensions of Awareness

So it can be seen that the aim of Awareness Meditation is to arrive at that state of presence in which the awareness is uniformly open to any and all dimensions of experience, that is, mindful of bodily and sensory states, emotional and motivational, of thought and memory, and then the ripening involves the more subtle spiritual experiences while neither grasping nor rejecting anything that arises. Thus do we finally know truth. Thus do we approach existence with profound spiritual peace, clarity, bliss and freedom. This will naturally arise to the extent of the attainment of a pure, equanimous, awareness of what is arising. Do you see how this naturally leads to the trechko, the cutting through the causal field into transcendental states of nonduality?

The Buddha in discussing awareness practice (He called it Vipassana) repeatedly referred to “The Four Foundations of Mindfulness”. These are foundations of experience, the specific areas where one focuses one’s concentration and awareness. The Four Foundations are four general areas of experience that one might choose as a daily field of meditation in cultivating mindfulness/awareness. These four are the body, feelings, consciousness, and ‘dharmas’ (the various fundamental elements or contents of the mind).

Awareness of the body includes the general and specific sensations of the presence of the body and the sensory (etheric) awareness through the body (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing). Mindfulness or awareness centered in the ‘foundation of body’. This uses the flow of bodily experience (rather that the interpretation of, and reactions to, these sensations) as the center of our practice.

Feeling as a foundation of mindfulness refers to the sensation of emotion and motivation.

The foundation of consciousness is the content of thought and memory and the ‘knowing’ of something – the factor of awareness itself.

Dharmas is the term in Buddhist psychology to refer to the various basic contents of knowing consciousness. For instance, observing the quality of arising anger through the sense of detachment refers to the quality of ‘dharmas’ which begin to transform because of the detached, open, non-reactive, awareness.

The beauty of all this is that the awareness practice espoused by the Buddha brings on the contents to be properly dealt with in order to achieve nirvana. Is it then possible to see that the awareness practice more evenly invokes the absorptive states mentioned by the Buddha! The difference is that the process is brought on in the direct manner of the spiritual warrior, rather than lost time wandering as a victim of circumstance, or of glamour and illusion.

Contentment and Equanimity

In the process of cultivating aspects of our innate being, our spiritual presence, we must consider many qualities which are exhibited by the awakened being. Consider these qualities as facets of one reality, our soul or Christ presence. These qualities are the fruits of spiritual development as well as the tools we use to cultivate our innate spirituality, ultimately leading to the realization of our non-dual or Absolute nature. This is ultimately beyond any definition of terms of even universal qualities as love, peace, joy, equanimity or wisdom. These qualities, when sufficiently cultivated and ripened, DO lead to the doorway to the fiery worlds. Spiritual qualities are often grouped in specific ways such as the Buddha’s Seven Factors of Enlightenment, or the Six (or Ten) Paramitas (literally the Perfections of the Bodhisattvas). All spiritual traditions have groupings that point to the cultivation of qualities leading to the Absolute.

The Brahma-Viharas

Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions have a grouping of four major virtues also called the Four Immeasurables. Brahma-Viharas in Sanskrit is roughly translated as the “Stations of Brahma”. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali refers in sutra 1.33 to the practice of cultivating these four virtues.

These four virtues are: equanimity, lovingkindness, compassion and sympathy. Compassion and Sympathetic Joy can be viewed as aspects of lovingkindness. Lovingkindness is the spirit of selfless caring, that concern for the well-being and spiritual progress of another (beginning bodhicitta). These are basically the outcome of the sense of sharing in the experience of others in the light of the soul. Should that experience be painful, love takes the form of compassion. Empathy, with the experience of happiness in another may be called ‘sympathetic joy’. Therefore compassion and sympathetic joy are simply two aspects of love (empathy and caring) reflecting the positive or negative conditions of others in the light of the soul, or presence.

Equanimity

All paths are based on the development of equanimity, whether it be the path of love, devotion, beauty, wisdom or surrender. Equanimity is the key to personality/soul fusion.

Equanimity is inner poise and balance. It is the establishing of a balanced, equal relationship to all aspects experience. When we divide the phenomena of life into what we like and what we dislike, we foster attachment, judgment, and aversion. We then restrict our awareness and life force, and bar the recognition and inclusion of the ripening of non-duality. As a result, we suffer. The cultivation of equanimity liberates us from these entanglements. Ripening equanimity de-centralizes us, giving peace, clarity and freedom.

It is equanimity which will describe our way of relating both outwardly to our field of service and inwardly to Hierarchy and the fiery worlds. It will slowly define the quality of our thought, feelings, desires, aversions, attachment to the form nature, our possessions, events, relating to other people, even Nature, whole Kingdoms, higher orders of wholeness and oneness. The result is that we neither foster aversion or desire, grasping or pushing away. The cultivation of equanimity will manifest the dual qualities of detachment and acceptance. When expressed in the presence of aversion, coming from within us or in our environment, takes the form of acceptance and detachment. We return to balance because we apply a third quality to duality which will synthesize into the non-dual absolute. However, acceptance does not mean that we remain passive in the face of injustice, but rather in the course of needed action, we remain inwardly at peace, avoiding excessive judgment.

One of the most important ways to apply equanimity in our own lives is towards all the ways in which we lack equanimity. We therefore follow the Middle Way espoused by Buddha and the Hierarchy. We unfold equanimity in our lives by learning to live with our humanness and through the acceptance discover our own path of expanding the heart and growing equanimity. Is it therefore clear that in establishing and expanding the sense and experience of presence in our lives we draw to that Presence which is our ‘comforter’. We must also seek to avoid that aggression which demands equanimity from others.

With the growth of equanimity the mind discover a naturally expansive spaciousness, because through the cultivation of equanimity we discover Space, which HPB asserted was an Entity. This act throws open the windows of the mind allowing the cooling balm of Presence to take residence and we discover that softening which expands the heart and we are therefore less and less harsh with self and others, and discover the depths of mercy and forgiveness. In fact equanimity gives courage to open the heart to discover the reservoirs of greater joy, bliss, beauty and love, but most importantly, the compassion to beat the pain and suffering that is so much a part of living on this non sacred planet. Suzuki Roshi describes equanimity as the ‘beginners mind’: a fresh awareness in each moment – not deadened by habitual modes of perception and interpretation.

The Intuition, the quality of Buddhi, flourishes with growing equanimity.

As equanimity unfolds in our physical lives (a natural first result of cultivation) our senses are cleansed and enlivened. We are liberated from false identification with our bodies, manifesting the freedom to live from the heart.

Emotionally we are gradually freed from compulsive and unconscious behavior.

Mentally, equanimity makes room for greater wisdom and love in living, a capacity for more relaxing and spaciousness in each moment, and the FREEDOM to embrace more wholesome actions.

In more fully developing equanimity we are not attracted to spiritual states and experience either, but have the grace to honor all dimensions of experience – the bodhisattva lifting all to Heaven. Equanimity leads to initiation, human, solar and cosmic.

Ultimately, equanimity nurtures a form of awareness that sees all through the Eye of God.

Equanimity is both a method we can truly use to lead to this perception and a quality that arises naturally as a result of this perception.

Contentment

Equanimity is that quality describing an awakened relationship to samsara, to the realms of birth and death, and to the conditions arising from the misunderstanding of who we truly are. Equanimity expresses wisdom, acceptance and surrender to life on its own terms. As such, equanimity has a somewhat negative connotation to the uninitiated, not in the spirit of a negative trait, but in describing a state of releasing attraction and repulsion to that which cannot ultimately satisfy our true nature. We come to a state of balance, of refusal to be involved in a confused relationship with that which appears to be separate from us in the ultimate sense.

What is misunderstood by the uninitiated is that equanimity brings such bliss, a great openness of heart, profound peace and contentment. Therefore this is not a cold or stoic state of being. True equanimity brings expansive love and an intimacy with all things, all beings. Equanimity is therefore spacious and luminous. The Tibetan Buddhist refers to the expansion of luminosity into the nondual as the ‘child luminosity’.

One quality which can be easily related to equanimity is contentment. Contentment is a positive description of equanimity. We realize a deepening independence from all that used to condition our happiness. If conditions are not as we would like, or desire, or if attached to conditions remaining as they are (pertaining to past and future personal expectation as well) then we suffer – often to punish those we seek to conform to our needs, and later some seek to punish the universe.

Spiritual contentment is not the state of static or laziness. It is simply that we are no longer looking for personal fulfillment through our experience. We then become the source, or are connected to the Source, of our satisfaction, fulfillment our contentment in life. We let go of personally wanting the conditions of our lives, our bodies, our emotional and psychological needs, to be the way for us to be happy-pervasive equanimity-we then naturally rest in a profound, unshakeable contentment.

Contentment is one of the fundamental keys to awakening. From the standpoint of Hindu philosophy we experience a steadily deepened sense of sat-chit-ananda: Spiritual Beingness-universal consciousness-unconditional bliss. These same qualities are considered in the Vedanta Vision as being the essential attributes of the Atman, the liberated spiritual core of all beings. Ordinary experience is vastly limited and unstable reflection of our true nature, the Atman, or True Self. Through spiritual practice (coming up I promise you, since we are presenting an abstract mental practice we must build up the abstract mental focus) we cultivate that mindfulness/awareness and in doing so, we gradually expand our awareness into fuller and unbounded consciousness of our spirit. More importantly, we also first explore the nature of our ordinary beingness until it too expands, through that transformational release into realization of our true Being or Self.

Similarly we cultivate the realization of absolute bliss through realizing first the expansion of our capacity for unconditional satisfaction, the transcendence and fulfillment of all lesser pleasures, happiness and satisfactions. We get a hold of this vast potential for realizing bliss by cultivating contentment.

As we grow into our ability to access contentment and not only in our periods of quiet contemplation, but throughout our waking and dreaming, this contentment will deepen and ripen into that unshakable peace and bliss of our Buddha-nature.

Contentment then is not simply one of many hundreds of spiritual qualities; it is really one of the most essential keys to awakening. It is similar to such qualities as awareness, equanimity, love, concentration, wisdom and discipline. Contentment is the precursor to our finding fulfillment in our natural state. We need to re-phrase the spirit of bodhisattva-hood as the vow to work to bring all beings to ultimate, absolute contentment.

The qualities mentioned, the Brahma-Viharas, contentment, will form that diamond light which ultimately guides us Home.

Practice

The simplest way to cultivate contentment (or any of highest spiritual qualities) is to be mindful of contentment while doing any form of sitting practice. Whenever we sit in meditation, have contentment as the basic foundation. Then make contentment the central theme, of our meditation. It can be tremendously powerful as the practice takes hold to sit and follow the breath and be particularly mindful of seeking to rest in a peaceful state of contentment with the universe. This does not mean, however, that there may not be other experiences that pass by the consciousness, come up into consciousness so to speak; uncomfortable sensations or emotions. Only, and here was one of the Buddha’s central themes, rest in an innermost state of presence and awareness, allowing what needs to come up, or pass by, and let these samskaras come to our awareness through the chosen state of mindfulness. With just a little experience, the inner presence will touch the samskara with a drop of the nondual presence, turning that same samskara into a propelling point of transformation. Through such a practice we directly explore and expand on the truth that we do not really need anything interesting, pleasurable or otherwise fulfilling to occur in our physical or psychological experience in order to be spiritually content – even bliss. This will lead to the invoking of the atmic, and later even the monadic, into our state of presence.

Variations will come up in consciousness, let it happen but do not make it happen, by using words or phrases to stimulate, or as a response to deepening, attunement. We can do this in conjunction with other practices after a while as a response to the deepening with following the breath, listening to the inner sound, by being one-pointed in our focus, the possibilities may be endless. The main point being, let the variation well up from the state of presence we invoke. This attitude of observer will become more and more spacious and expansive, as the energy of the samskara activators are redirected for direct use of the soul nature for service.

Practicing contentment throughout the day is, like working with any other universal quality, a matter of remembering to return to the more relaxed, contented state whenever we notice we have become tense, or anxious, caught up in the drama of our lives and the outer world. Let go, accepting and returning to intrinsic contentment.

Presence

Each of the qualities touched on in this part of the Essay are designed to ripen into the full spectrum of spiritual potential qualities in human nature. The spiritual practice develop a path or linking thread that seeks to gradually and smoothly unfold these aspects in our nature. The practice, as outlined by the Buddha, is like developing a spiritual muscle or organ, and the practice of those qualities we like, to the neglect of those qualities that make us uncomfortable, will achieve a short term goal of personal liberation, but will not achieve the deepening potential, and inevitable calling, of full enlightenment and spiritual individuation.

These qualities are aspects of our underlying spiritual nature, that state of presence. The spiritual practice invokes that sense of presence within us, adding the higher rhythm to our samskaras, eventually transcending duality or Maya and will also be due to the collective fruits of our spiritual development from numerous lifetimes. The distillation of character and spiritual realization is what makes us aware of our transcendental nature, while at the same time is also present to our relative existence. It infuses into the personal/relative.

Qualities of Presence

Following is an attempt to organize the innumerable qualities of presence into several general categories:

• Awareness — Qualities that reflect this aspect are mindfulness, clarity, consciousness, wakefulness, and attention.

• Equanimity — Other terms that reflect this aspect include detachment, acceptance, dispassion and spiritual indifference.

• Peace – Tranquility, contentment, serenity, calm and bliss.

• Love – Compassion, sympathetic joy, generosity of spirit, selfless service, caring and understanding.

• Wisdom – Inquiry, discrimination, insight, understanding, discernment and knowledge.

• Devotion – Faith, trust, surrender, grace and gratitude.

• Will – Responsibility, choice, intention, discipline, concentration, effort, work, patience and inspiration.

There is no perfect way to categorize these subjects, but from the standpoint of the abstract to the nondual, these can work quite adequately.

This list does help clarify the needed task of identifying areas of practice, which are designed to call forth those qualities direct from our own expanding sense of presence. The list does not cover or exhaust the qualities or virtues (how to exhaust the Dharma?), but does cover a comprehensive foundation, and when pursued will generate the needed points of propelling transformation.

Heart of Awakening Presence

The essence of Awakening lies in remembering the natural, unconditional state. This is not a belief system or code of ethics. Spiritual awakening happens everytime we remember to come back to ourselves, recollect ourselves and thereby moving closer to the universal Self which is our underlying nature. The direct realization of transcendent reality is not immediately accessible to most of us as a luminous apparent truth (that would imply the attainment of togal). However, each time we can move closer to this state through innumerable keys or tools, those methods that bridge to this reality leads to that Remembering which is the heart of spiritual awakening.

Levels of Presence

Presence is that underlying state of spiritual being that is the foundation of all awakened qualities. When we manifest humility, compassion or clarity, we are manifesting aspects or underlying presence. There our levels to this Presence, manifested initiations, pointing to the nondual aspect, called Rigpa in the Dzogchen and Atman in Hinduism. This is that state of liberated presence beyond not only limiting identification with the body, emotions and mind, but even beyond intuition and spiritual qualities as well. It is a level of our being that rests in direct realization of our absolute nature, the monadic, even while living in the world.

Each moment of cultivating a bit more patience, understanding, detachment, awareness or any other qualities is a moment of awakening, that moment when we move closer to a remembering of our true nature. The accumulation of awakening leads to core spiritual awakening, the initiation into greater Life, and Life more abundantly so. Cultivating these qualities is the bridge to transcendent realization. Every act of remembering to return to the moment, letting go of anxiety and regret, to be content with life as it is, is a step into our deeper nature.

In Part IVb we will explore an exact technique of Lovingkindness Practice, the use of Awareness Practice in other techniques such as the Inner Sound Current (in inner meditation and during heightened points of service) and end with a discussion of Trechko Practice.

2002

The World Disciple and the Inner Transcendental States Deepening The Connection To Service

In order to explore the subject of transcendent states of consciousness it is always best, from the standpoint of one who reads this essay, to view from the stance of the Heart Path, rather than the Eye Path. These concepts are the bedrock of entry to Enquiring the Way.

The Tibetan Master has this to say in Letters on Occult Meditation:

“Divine inspiration or that ‘divine obsession’ which is the privilege of all advanced souls, will be understood in the coming years as never before, and will definitely be one of the methods used by the coming Lord and His Great Ones for the helping of the world.

The thing to be remembered is that in the case of the wrong obsession the man is at the mercy of the obsessing entity, and is unconsciously or unwillingly a partner in the transaction. In divine obsession the man consciously and willingly co-operates with the One Who seeks to inspire, or to occupy or explore his lower vehicles. The motive is ever the greater helping of the race. The obsession is not then the result of a negative condition, but of a positive collaboration and proceeds under law and for a specific period. … As more and more of the race develop continuity of consciousness between the physical and the emotional, and later the mental, this transference of the vehicles will be more frequent and more understood.” (page 123) It is safe to say that today the inspiration must also include the abstract mind of the cooperator.

The Tibetan goes on to say in The Externalization of the Hierarchy: “The stimulation of certain people to phenomenal action, and the instigation of others to emerge as dynamic and inspired leaders, is also another way in which divine intervention might find expression. Oft, down the ages, men have been overshadowed by divinity and inspired by God to accept positive leadership, and so make divine purpose a fact in conditioning world affairs. Had they not so responded to the influencing impression, and had they not accepted the responsibility imposed upon them, the course of world affairs and world events might have been very different. I refer not here to specifically to spiritual leaders, but also to leaders in other departments of human living — to such expressions of divine will as Moses the Law Giver, Akbar the warrior and the student; Leonardo da Vinci the inspired artist, to other great and outstanding figures who have determined the basic trends of human civilization; I refer also to the constructive forces which have guided mankind into the increasing light of knowledge and understanding.” page 200

These practices are vital in establishing those qualities that will establish a soul firmly in the spiritual life, of the stream to nirvana. The realization of these practices can mature into a persistent state of awareness that will eventually permeate one’s entire life.

We set into motion those energies that will awaken deeper spiritual perspectives and values. We awaken to the beauty of love and kindness, the value of self-control and detachment, the importance of living in the present moment in the attitude of the Observer which hasten the day of becoming, rather than being constantly distracted by thoughts of the past and future, of doubt and negativity. When being in the proper mindset, with our arsenal of instilled spiritual values, we can deal with those issues, those imbedded energies, which then do not distract us but serve to liberate us! The purpose of the above has been by way of casting a light on the true “straight and narrow way” which lead us directly from awakening to awakening until we are gradually faced with the “Great Awakening” of the Arhat Who has entered into permanent Sahaja Consciousness.

So let us create that foundation in this essay which will then serve to further illustrate the various stages of Samadhi to such an extent that there will not be such a tremendous gulf between us and these higher states of consciousness. What we wish to create is such a state in ourselves which will find the ground of our spiritual garden ready so that the seeds of the Brahma-Viharas will bloom in such a way as to form a path to that key within us unlock these concepts in a living reality.

Awareness Practice and the Factors of Enlightenment

A word on Awareness Practice: Awareness Practices are different spiritual practices that can be categorized according to the primary quality that is emphasized. This may emphasize devotion, concentration, inquiry, love, surrender or any quality that will eventually call to us from within.

Rather than rigidly systematize these practices, which often tends to not be so conducive to that spontaneous upwelling which is so necessary to any ashramic work, we will just indicate the following few guidelines:

1. Take something simple like metta (loving kindness) in your daily life start the day with the intention that you will strive to start the practice as a daily affair.

2. In your deepest meditative state ask that you be given the opportunity to learn and set those energies in motion in daily living.

3. Contemplate those qualities in the lower interludes of your meditation.

4. DO NOT REACT when you suddenly bring yourself up short when your inner sense makes you aware that you are not practicing that chosen quality at the moment, only focus at that point to continue your resolve. This process will also speed the quality of your meditations.

5. After practicing the above qualities one at a time for a period of one month, then three months one at a time, you will find your inner sense coming up with its own suggestion of needed quality.

This may seem to take lots of time in the beginning, but you will find that this foundational work only serves to speed up the process later when it will really count.

As you become aware of the difference in your moment to moment awareness deepen and turn more and more into a soul awareness, you will find those supporting practices which will be the natural outcome of the awareness practices such as concentration, effort and equanimity naturally added to your daily focus. The result of this will be the ability to hold those presented points of tension from within which will make it possible to spontaneously begin to enter those states which we will examine in detail later in this paper

In His Teaching about the path of awareness/mindfulness (which He called “vipassana”) the Buddha identified seven qualities that He described as those factors that make enlightenment possible. These seven qualities need to be deeply developed and balanced one with another in our practice, which will purify our nature to ripen consciousness for the realization of nirvana. The Seven Factors are: mindfulness or awareness, equanimity, investigation, tranquility, effort, concentration and rapture. Mindfulness is the central balancing factor between the three energizing factors (rapture, effort, investigation) and three stabilizing factors (concentration, tranquility, equanimity).

These seven factors are practiced in the context of cultivating awareness of mental and physical phenomena as they arise, moment to moment, in one’s daily experience.

As these virtues and practices are instilled and ripened in consciousness, the result will be the ability, privilege and opportunity, in conjunction with deepening service, to move closer and closer to the center of the ashram in which we learn to more effectively serve.

Spiritual practice (sadhana in sanskrit) is the foundation of spiritual evolution. This practice is based on the exercise of discrimination and the conscious will to aid in accelerating our spiritual awakening. The practice and ripening of the above will lead to a natural touching more and more of that non-dual essence of ourselves involving the recognition that the concept and experience of practice, effort, will, discrimination, etc, will be transcended in those moments, infrequent at first but more and more stable as spiritual quality and service ripen that are described as Samadhi and non-dual realization. These moments assure us of the enlightenment to come. Spiritual practice and service that are first planted, allowed to ripen and squeeze out the “weeds”, are a precondition to non-dual awakening into enlightenment. This ripening, whether deliberately cultivated, or eventually resulting from longer and bitter experience, will lead to that transformative and awakening power which brings us enrapport with our Solar Angel, and the Great Ones. Not as a goal but as a result.

As the practice matures, the practitioner will naturally move on to more subtlety of awareness and practice, assimilating more and more of a non-dual perspective, finally erupting into what the Dzogchen Tradition refers to as “entering the Great Non-Action” — in other words, there being nothing in the personality which interrupts the goal of the soul, the ashram, the Monad (need we go on?). This ripening of qualities bring on the overshadowing quality of Bodhicitta which brings the soul-infused personality point of tension enrapport with the Monadic point of tension. In other words, transcending the decision of “doing practice”. The direction of this ripening is rigpa, in the Dzogchen, and sahaja samadhi in the Vedanta. This advanced state of the practice is a stage accessible to a very small number in any given generation of practitioners.

The point of this essay is to indicate the direction in which we, as disciples learning to love and serve, can begin to achieve this practice as a World Group. Think of the implications on a world scale!

“A kind heart is of potent use in our service, provided that it is kept in place by a wise head, and does not assume the form of glamour. That then makes it a definite and hindering weakness. We today need disciples who are capable of seeing people truly; able to see them as they are, and yet to love them and serve them just the same. … When the radiation is the radiation of love, the resultant words and actions can be stern without hurting. …A loving radiation and an intelligent assessment (or do I mean appraisement…?) of those you seek to aid, will render you more effective in your service to your fellow men, then anything else.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I page 382

“I tread the lighted Way into the hearts of men. I serve my brother and his need. Those whom I, the little self, love not, I serve with joy because I love to serve.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I page 481

“With a tender heart of love and pity, serve all you meet, knowing that ‘each heart hides its own bitterness’. This constitutes your major lesson on the Path at this time … the lesson of utter self-forgetfulness. Forget the past and all that it brought to you of pain and of joy; forget the personal self and all it has to give or what it withholds; forget that which you said or has been said anent you and your ways, and seek simply to serve. Serve with a joyous heart and equilibrium.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I pages 562/3

“Let the light and radiance of the Soul illuminate your service, and let not your intellect be the dominating factor. Let spontaneous love and not a cultivated kindness condition your relations with your fellow men.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II page 656

The Tibetan has referred to letting our service be horizontal and exceedingly inclusive. Here He holds out the goal of loving kindness and service leading to the second initiation.

“The task of the Master is to evoke from His disciples such a depth of consecrated love, and such a realization of today’s opportunity, that the personality aspects of their lives will fade out of their consciousness, and their main preoccupation will be: What must be my service at this time? What are the non-essential things in my life to which I must pay no attention? Which aspects of the Master’s work should I endeavor to give the most help at this time? These questions must a ll meet with a balanced, intelligent and non-fanatical response and answer.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I page 693

It dawns on the student that the needed qualities the Tibetan is referring to deepen service, are those qualities which will slowly ripen into that Bodhicitta which is the unifying quality of the Spiritual Hierarchy.

“As the individual aspirants lose sight of themselves in service, and as they arrive at the stage of indifference to personality claims and happenings, they learn to cherish a spirit of confidence, of joy and of love, deep and lasting for each other; they learn to work together wholeheartedly for the helping of the world and the assistance of the Hierarchy.” The Externalization of the Hierarchy page 117

“. . . as you achieve initiate status, self interest declines until it disappears and, as an ancient Word has it, ‘only God is left’; only that remains in consciousness which is THAT, which is beauty, goodness, and truth; which is not form but quality, which is that which lies behind the form, and that which indicates destiny, soul, place and status. Ponder on these words, for they convey to you where (as evolution goes on) you will later lay the emphasis.” The Rays and the Initiations page 293

It might also be of practical value to touch on the Brahma-Viharas. The four virtues mentioned in Buddhist traditions and in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali can be roughly translated as meaning the four “heavenly stations”; these Brahma-Viharas are metta (loving-kindness), mudita (sympathetic joy and gladness), karuna (compassion), and upeksha (equanimity). Working with the Brahma-Viharas in these traditions consists of methods extending and developing these qualities towards oneself and other beings through awareness practices and meditation practices. The awareness practice anchors the seeds of these qualities in the everyday waking consciousness and the meditation practices extend these seeds into the meditative states. Success is measured when these seeds also sprout in the dream state and the unconscious. These practices are foundational and make it possible to stabilize these qualities into transcendental states.

There is profound reason for this in all foundational esoteric literature. To attempt to reach these extended states before the foundational practices are set, not only invites danger, but increases the time needed in the cleansing and purifying stages in the absorptive states touched on in Part II. These seeds sprout into thoses needed qualities which give us the “ammunition” and reserves needed to deal with the dark seeds that the aborptive processes bring to the surface.

The Brahma-Viharas are prime spiritual practices that, when brought to our meditation/daily life/service, ensures core spiritual awakening. Core spiritual awakening involves direct perception of the true nature of oneself, all beings and all things. These means the deliberate cultivating of those virtues in dealing with plants, animals, friends, family and even those we do not like or care for, which results in the birth of that Bodhicitta which is the result of all our striving. It safely awakens us to the underlying nondual, transcendent essence of the universe. This realization emerges gradually, but saves much wasted time in vain, time wasted effort. But steady effort guarantees that there will be those moments along the way in which one experiences acute instances of illumination or openings to the divine, Buddha Nature or the Tao. It does not matter what tradition we find ourselves in the implications are universal. The Zen, for instance, refers to these experiences of kensho or satori, even if minor in the beginning. In other traditions they have been termed mystical experiences, cosmic consciousness, etc.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the above statements when taken to heart, can cut short those points of wasted time, denials, and desperate contentions, in the absorptive states leading to first and second initiate consciousness.

DYING TO THE SELF

Lord, make me an instrument of thy Peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

Oh Divine Maker! Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console.
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to the self that we are born to eternal life.

FRANCIS of ASSISI
Affirmation of an Arhat.

It might profit us here to start to examine those states leading to the spiritual states of samadhi, and divine functioning. First, there is meditation. Used in a spiritual context, meditation usually refers to spiritual practice while engaged with the personality remaining inwardly still. Eventually the fruits of the meditation, cleansing, energizing, renewal, insight, revelation needs to be carried into outer living. The practice of meditation is dependent upon developing adequate concentration. The factors leading to deepening meditation require the cultivation of essential factors like, for instance, awareness and equanimity. All forms of spiritual meditation share in common the need to consciously cultivate an undistracted state for the purpose of spiritual development. By this is meant the creating of the basic internal environment so necessary for creating those expansions that will go beyond the limitations of the little self.

In advanced stages the notion of attaining something, and making effort are abandoned; yet those earlier elements of cultivation and attainment are essential to earlier stages of practice and motivation. To bypass the early needed essentials results in inertia, glamour or the negative state of the astrally polarized solar plexus psychic. The greatly increased concentration, awareness, love, and other qualities that the experienced meditator is able to generate and achieve while meditating (compared to the ordinary state of waking consciousness meditation) is widely recognized as creating the power to greatly accelerate transformation and spiritual awakening. Therefore, effective meditation attracts soul energy and awareness (and builds in these qualities in our very substance) to renew the personality and its destiny is the essential backbone to any program of spiritual growth.

To illustrate how interconnected the practice of the Brahma-Viharas are in deepening the meditative process leading to the goals we all seek, let us examine the word Metta. From the Pali meaning lovingkindness, metta comes from the Sanskrit maitri. Maitri is the root of Maitreya. The Bodhisattava Maitreya is considered to be the Bodhisattva of lovingkindness. The cultivation of metta or maitri in such practices is necessary in developing the capacity of contemplate. This contemplative act, according to the Buddhist who is aware of Who the Lord Maitreya is, results in the birth of the Maitreya consciousness (Christ consciousness in the west) in the heart. The Christ, as a result of the first initiation, is connected to each and every disciple who reaches this degree. The Lord Maitreya’s practice of metta to the degree where His relative bodhicitta is deepening to Absolute Bodhicitta (His Becoming the next Buddha) on a planetary scale is the reason why those who know of such things refer to Him as the new Buddha.

As meditation is the outcome of successful concentration, contemplation is the outcome of hard won success in meditation. All sacred literature that touches on meditation, stress the meditative attitude (the result achieved of deepening through cultivation of Brahma-Vihara practice) expands to the outer activity and outer mental attitude. Contemplation is that state of mind, of consciousness, where the personality nature begins to be “in synch” with the soul’s level of meditation. When this happens the attitude of the Observer becomes so ingrained that one can be contemplating something (a factor in service or the inner focus resulting in revelation) even while the concrete mind is involved with being engaged in the outer world. This smoothness allowed to ripen as the spiritual practice fills the empty spaces in consciousness with more divinity becomes the state of mind of the arhat known to the Vedantin as Sahaj Samadhi. The same practice stumbled upon and muddled through by the humble disciple is becomes the same panoramic, dynamic practice of the Christ which will deepen into the focus of a planetary logos, and the dynamic breath of a solar or cosmic logos.

It is indeed true that from the small acorns of our spiritual practice and service, mighty oaks grow!

“To contemplate involves steady vision, one-pointedly directed towards a specific objective. The soul or solar angel might be regarded as gazing in three directions.

1. Towards the Light Supernal, towards that central Life or Energy which holds hid within Itself the purpose and plan towards which all Being tend. . . . What that directive force may be, what is the secret of Being Itself is only revealed during the more advanced initiations, and is only finally grasped when the causal body itself, the karana sarira, disintegrates and the final limitation slips away. With this direction of the solar Angel’s vision we need not concern ourselves.

2. Over the kingdom wherein the solar Angel reigns supreme, over the world of souls, or egoic impulses, of hierarchical work and of pure thought. This is the Kingdom of God, the world of heavenly Being. It is the state whereof disciples are becoming increasingly aware, wherein initiates work, and from which the Masters in Their graded ranks direct the evolutionary process of the planet. These two directions in which the soul looks constitute the world of its spiritual experience and the object of its aspiration. Let it not be forgotten that the spiritual man, the solar Angel, has also his goal of endeavour, and that his becomes the predominant impulse once the subjugation of the vehicle in three worlds is brought about. Just as the fully intelligent human being can only begin consciously to function as a soul and to contact the kingdom of the soul, so only the fully active and dominant soul, in which the buddhic principle is potentially controlling, can begin to contact the state of pure Being for further progression in the awareness of the state of pure Being.

3. The third direction in which the soul looks and wherein he exercises the faculty of contemplative vision is towards his reflection in the three worlds. The object of the long struggle between the higher and the lower man has been to make the lower responsive to and sensitively aware of the forces emanating from the soul as the soul ‘contemplates’ his triple instrument.

There is an interesting relation between these three ‘directions of contemplation’ and the awakening in the three major centres. This cannot be more than hinted at owing to the abstruseness of the subject. So man factors govern this awakening, and each aspirant has to determine for himself the mode of his awakening.

The center between the eyebrows, commonly called the third eye has a unique and peculiar function. . . . students must not confound the pineal gland with the third eye. They are related but not the same. . . .The third eye manifests as a result of the vibratory interaction between the forces of the soul, working through the pineal gland, and the forces of the personality, working through the pituitary body. These negative and positive forces interact, and when potent enough produce the light in the head. Just as the physical eye comes into being in response the light of the sun so the spiritual eye equally comes into being in response to the light of the spiritual sun. I refer to the light in all forms, veiled by all sheaths and expressions of the divine life, and not just the light within the aspirant himself. As his awareness of this light increases so does the aparatus of vision develop, and the mechanism whereby he can see things in the spiritual light comes into being in the etheric body.

This is the eye of Shiva, for it is only fully utilized in the magical work when the monadic aspect, the will aspect, is controlling.

By means of the third eye of the soul accomplishes three activities:

<![endif]>1. <![endif]>It is the eye of vision. by its means, the spiritual man sees behind the forms of all aspects of divine expression He becomes aware of the light of the world, and contacts the soul within all forms. . . . It opens up the world of radiance.

1. It is the controlling factor of the magical work. . . . the soul knows the plan, and when the alignment is right, and the attitude correct, the will aspect of the divine man can function and bring about results in the three worlds. The organ used is the third eye. . . Force flows through the third eye.

2. It has a destructive aspect and the energy flowing through the third eye can have a disintegrating and destroying effect. It can, through its focused attention, directed by the intelligent will, drive out physical matter. It is the agent of the soul in the purificatory work.

It should be noted here that in each of the subtle bodies in the three worlds there is a corresponding point of focus, and the centre between the eyebrows is but the physical counterpart (for etheric matter is physical) of inner correspondences.

Through this point of focus the soul looks out upon, or contemplates the mental plane, including the mental mechanism. Similarly on the emotional plane, the soul is brought into a state of awareness or vision of its emotional sheath and the world of astral phenomena, and the physical parallel exists for the etheric body. . . . the destuctive work of getting rid of the oldforms, of shaking out of the bodies matter of an undesirable nature and of breaking down the barriers and limitations to true so ul activity.” A Treatise on White Magic pages 211/13

It should be noted that when the “centre between the eyebrows” comes into activity parallels the time when the student is in the third absorptive state touched in Part II. To illustrate, during the third stage leading to the first initiation, the ajna center at the etheric level begins to dispel undesirable matter. At the second absorptive state leading to the second initiation, the ajna centre dispels undesirable matter at the emotional level. At the path leading to the third initiation, the process begins with the dispelling of undesirable matter at the lower mental level, an “eye” develops making that process possible. The fact is that an “eye” develops at the appropriate time during each burning ground experience. After the particular initiate consciousness, the “eye” becomes the organ of perception at the appropriate plane (in stages, first the destructive, then sensitivity to impression, then vision), making perception and service possible at that level. The true third eye becomes the synthesizing organ of vision and perception after the third initiation, in all the three worlds of human experience.

It should become obvious that the spiritual practices hinted at in Part III of this essay become of enormous importance when the appropriate destructive aspect of the eye has been accomplished and the building in of appropriate higher molecules and atoms begins. After enough building in of the appropriate higher energies is accomplished within a particular vehicle (etheric, astral, lower mental) then the eye can effectively be directed to pour the higher energies into the corresponding environment in service. This is first accomplished as a serving soul as probationary disciple, then as a soul serving ashramic intent as the probationary initiate, then as the outpost of the master as He works with Shamballa energies as the initiate becomes the Shamballa disciple.

The Importance of Meditation leading to the Deepening of Non-dual Essence

Meditation is a term referring to spiritual practices engaged while remaining inwardly still. To be effective the meditative attitude must eventually be carried into the round of daily living. The practice of meditation is based on the degree of developed concentration. Success is also dependent upon the development of essential practice such as awareness, equanimity, and lovingkindness. Other spiritual qualities to be cultivated in meditation involve such concepts as the object of concentration, and the understanding that one must be “doing” something. Whatever that something is must involve the process of cultivating the necessary soul energy to gain control over, at first, unruly and unregenerate aspects of the personality. All forms of spiritual meditation share in common the conscious effort to cultivate an undistracted state for the purpose of spiritual development. In more advanced stages even the notion of attaining anything or making effort are abandoned, because the personality has come into alignment with the soul, and enters into the soul’s meditation. Yet the elements of attaining control, cultivating spiritual qualities to transmute and transform personality substance, are essential to earlier stages of practice, motivation and attainment. To move onto more advanced stages of practice without gaining the necessary proficiency in the earlier practices, result in inertia and sinking into negative, passive astral states.

There is a steady increase of deepening concentration and other qualities that the experienced meditator is able generate while in meditation. Meditation is widely recognized as having the power to greatly accelerate spiritual transformation and awakening and to be an excellent backbone in any effective program of spiritual growth. The Sanskrit term dhyana, often translated as meditation, results in the ability to be en rapport with inner quality, be it person, being, idea, feeling, intuition, energy or other reality in a direct soulful manner. Meditation, when successful, results in the opening of the inner doors of perception. The increase of this type of inner attunement results in the attaining (some say the maintaining) of the state of contemplation. The deepening into contemplation results in samadhi states. Success means awakening.

Core spiritual awakening involves the direct perception of the true nature of the self, all beings and higher reality. The goal is an ever-deepening process of awakening to the underlying non-dual or transcendent reality of the universe. Normally, this type of realization unfolds gradually, but there will be moments along the way in which one experiences acute illuminations or deep opening to the kingdom of souls, God, the Buddha-nature (monadic) or planetary, systemic, cosmic perception (the Tao). The zen buddhist calls the experiences kensho or satori; they have been termed mystical experience and cosmic consciousness. These core awakenings establish a soul firmly into the “stream to Nirvana”. In other words, the steady increase into a persistent awareness that permeates the entire life. The Vedantin refers to this state as sahaja samadhi, effortless and persistent God-consciousness, during daily activity and is the result of Self-liberation. This Self-liberation further results into a kind of absorption into the trans-human reality of the Master.

This does not happen by happy accident. The arhat, that being who is absorbed into a kind of relative bodhicitta (as compared to the absolute bodhicitta of buddahood), which is the perfect balance of Love and Wisdom and all spiritual qualities, happens over time. It starts with the concept of service, first to the Master and then to the plan and purpose of this planet. The process deepens through the cultivating of spiritual quality, which more rapidly brings on a steady, rather than dis -jointed growth. This is why this part of the essay on Initiation and the Dzogchen tradition focuses on awareness practice. We build into our vary nature the state we aspire to.

Differing spiritual practices are generally catagorized according to the primary quality emphasized. Given practices may focus on the deepening significance of concentration, devotion, love, inquiry, surrender, the list goes on, and when properly engaged, evokes the next step to cultivate from within.
Those practices involving the cultivation of mindfulness are termed “awareness practice”. Buddhism traditionally refers to these practices which stem from the oral teachings of the Budda.
It is said that these oral teachings resulted in the awakening of many arhats and masters. Other practices, stemming from the awareness practice, are also widely used. Examples of of awareness practices include vipassana, zazen, shikan-taza, and the essential practices of Dzogchen. It is said that the essence of Dzogchen has been successfully introduced on other solar systems prior to being introduced in deep inspiration on earth. The Hierarchy practices Dzogchen, though without any of the outer practices. It is said that early in the twentieth century an American Initiate achieved a level of realization of Dzogchen awareness in the Himalayas resulting in his achieving mastership. The Tibetan has referred to a Master P in North America who does not generally take on students on the physical plane.

Metta is the Pali translation of the Sanskrit word maitri. Metta is a word commonly used in Buddhist teachings to refer to quality of loving-kindness towards self and others. The practice of which deepens into loving-kindness, becoming a true bodhicitta, to the life wave as a whole. The Lord Maitreya, the future Buddha, has at the root of His name maitri, which is why He is considered as the bodhisattva of loving-kindness. Metta, or maitri, is one of the four Brahma-Viharas, and is the quality most invoked by humanity as a whole, and is why the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, is preparing for a momentous Appearance in the very near future.

Hence the emphasis in Part III of this essay as cultivating those spiritual qualities, when deepened in practice, lead to those states of transcendence (the various stages of Samadhi leading to the state of Relative Bodhicitta) which will be the highlight of this part of the Essay.

“Contact must be made by the soul between the lower aspect of its triple nature and the aspect which has already found lodgment in the brain of man. Intelligent activity and love wisdom must be united, and the union must take place on the physical plane. In order to do this the soul is entering into ‘meditation deep’, in union with all other souls who may have brought their instrument into a responsive state. This is the basic group meditation, and when a man achieves what the oriental books call ‘samadhi’, he has succeeded in participating, as a soul, in this group meditation, and enters upon that cycle of service which expresses itself through the planetary Hierarchy. The rational mind and the abstract mind function as a unit, and the motivating principle is love. The soul, expressing love and abstract intelligence, is at one with its expression on the physical plane through the brain, and, when this is the case, the lower man has synchronised his meditation with t hat of the soul.

This is the objective of our work. Let this not be forgotten, and let every effort be made to bring mind and brain into such functioning condition that a man can slip out of his own meditation and (losing sight of his thoughts) become the soul, the thinker in the kingdom of souls.” A Treatise On White Magic page 89

“This is brought about by the magnetic control of the soul, seated ‘on the throne between the eyebrows’.

Here enters in the work of one of the means of yoga, abstraction or withdrawal. Where the three lights are blended, where the centres are aroused and the atoms are also vibrating, it becomes possible for the man to centre all three in the head at will. Then, by the act of the will and the knowledge of certain words of Power he can enter into samadhi and be withdrawn from his bodys carrying the light with him. In this was the greater light (the fused and blended) illuminates the three worlds of man’s endeavours and ‘the light is thrown upward’ and illuminates all the spheres of man’s conscious and uncomscious experience.

. . . 1. The Solar Angel begins the work of initiating the Personality.

1. He withdraws his forces from soul enterprises in the spiritual Kingdom, and centres his attention on the work to be dome.

2. He enters into deep meditation.

3. Magnetic rapport with the instrument in the three worlds is instituted.

4. The instrument, man, responds, and also enters into meditation.

5. The work proceeds in ordered stages and with cyclic activity.

6. The light of the soul is thrown downwards.

7. The light of the vital body and the physical form is synchronised with that of the head.

8. The centres swing into activity.

9. The light of the soul and the two other aspects of light are so intense that now all life in the three worlds is illumined.

10. Alignment is produced, the work of discipleship and of initiation becomes possible and proceeds according to the Law of Being”. A Treatise On White Magic pages 108/09

Before we examine the inner stages of Samadhi, it will be well to examine a few more concepts. It will be seen that these examinations in Part III will only serve to widen the door to Samadhi.

First, let us examine the Intuition. This is the experience of direct realization without the use of reason, intellect or the senses (whether physical or psychic). The Intuition, or Buddhi, is a mode of relationship, insight and identification that transcends the dualism of the mind and senses, and gives the capacity to commune with a being or state, and know from deep attunement. Yet in the West, Intuition has sometimes been used synonymously with psychic abilities such as clairvoyance or telepathy, but these senses are still based on dualistic sensory modes of the subtler bodies, usually the astral, but can be the vital or lower mental. Therefore, they do not represent true spiritual understanding that is the true Buddhi or Intuition, which is group oriented and involves the kingdom of souls, and not material and personally centered. The Intuition informs the intellect in symbols, words, and the sensory and psychic, it is essentially formless and not dependent on these for functioning. Intuition is the heart of spiritual development and is a gradual unfoldment that is the increase of love, wisdom, peace, clarity, equanimity and ultimately non-dual realization/illumination/revelation with eventual impact on the environment of the three worlds through impact. It has been known as prajna, buddhi, and the ananda-maja-kosha.

It might serve to note here that the Buddhic Lotus has 49 petals, one for each of the forty nine fires of the Cosmic Physical Plane. Unfoldment of each petal, is the unfoldment of the Intuition, which gradually brings us into closer identification with the essence of the Absolute at each subplane.

Sunyatta, a Sanskrit word meaning emptiness, is a term often used in Mahayana Buddhism to refer to the Absolute or non-dual essence of reality. The use of this term in place of nirvana was first introduced by Nagarjuna Who would use the term to describe the Absolute as being void or empty of a self-nature or other eternally permanent characteristics.
All phenomena, including spiritual phenomena, are ultimately relatively fleeting manifestations in a stream of endless transformations. The Absolute is empty because it lacks any eternal substance distinguishing one thing as separate from another. The realization of the emptiness of the Absolute of all impermanent phenomena, even the self, is the same as the realization of the Absolute is Buddha-nature of the Absolute Self.

The term Absolute does not imply that It is missing something, or lacking anything, only that its nature is so transcendent that it is impossible to attach any limiting characteristic or label. It is void of any conditional or limiting characteristic, yet is the very foundation or substance behind all phenomena. This emptiness is synonymous with nirvana, Brahman, the Absolute. It is not limited by the finite, because it is Infinity — the drop can become the ocean while still remaining the drop.

Therefore, Non-dual Realization (the essence which samadhi leads to) is a state of spiritual illumination in which there is no imcompatibility with relative existence in human incarnation. This is a state in which the elements and conditioning aspects of Relativity are perceived as a relative level, and simultaneously realized to be none other than the non-dual Absolute or Buddha-nature. In various traditions, this realization is referred to as sahaja samadhi, theosis, rigpa, jivanmukti, Self-realization and nirvana.

Rigpa is a term used in the Dzogchen to refer to state of non-dual presence, often as the child luminosity. The Dzogchen Master Namkai Norbu has translated rigpa as the “state of presence”. Norbu has described rigpa as having three primary characteristics: Essence, Clarity, and Energy. Essence refers to the nondual nature of rigpa, its original state or nature. Clarity refers to the luminous and pure awareness of rigpa. Energy refers to the characteristic of rigpa to manifest uninteruptedly (the same as Sahaj Samadhi). In the state of rigpa one recognizes the non-dual nature of both consciousness and energy, synthetically, in each moment. Rigpa is essential identification to the Atman.

One of the concepts to understand before preparing consciousness for sustained experience in samadhi is that of Dharma. Dharma is a Sanskrit term with numerous meanings used in various spiritual traditions such as Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The Hindus do not traditionally refer themselves as “Hindu”, and neither do Native Americans ever refer to themselves as “native American”.
The Hindu traditionally have referred to their tradition as the Sanatana-Dharma, which means “The Ageless Wisdom” or “The Eternal Wisdom. The inner teachings have often been called “Atma Vidya” or “Gupta Vidya”. Often when we refer to “The Dharma” we really are meaning The Ageless or Primordial Wisdom Tradition. All authentic spiritual traditions across the planet and from the very beginning are strands of The Gupta Vidya, and may be included in “The Dharma” when the dispensation is still energized from the core Lineage of the planet.
No matter how profound a particular tradition may be, it cannot ever exhaust the Dharma. When dharma is referred to in the lower case it means the individual duty and path within the greater Dharma. But, as the dharma of the many fit into the one universal Dharma, there is no room for any glamour. Glamour diminishes dharma. Generally speaking, everyone’s dharma is to pursue the path to Self-Realization with the commitment to help other beings discover their dharma.

Duhkha is the Sanskrit term meaning “discontentedness” or the state of “suffering’. (The Pali word, a language of much of the early Buddhism is duhkha). In both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions the word refers to the experience of the individual, separate, self which always leads to extreme discontent. This discontent marks the point where the individual finally heeds that inward call which will lead to “Entering the Stream”.
Duhkha is a concept describing the realization that suffering is the flip-side of personal striving for fulfilling the specter of personal desire. No matter how much temporary happiness is achieved is always tainted by emptiness and limitation, doomed to wither and pass away into nothingness. There comes a point where a profound insight dawns on the consciousness that ego existence is limited, painful, discouraging and ephemeral. The sobering truth of Duhkha is the separative mode of existence of samsara, does not work. It ultimately is seen that we always wanted something deeper. The pursuit of individual, separative, happiness is seen to be the ultimate narcotic. It has always promised but never delivered. We each come to the realization that, unless separative striving is transcended permanently, we will continue to blindly suffer.

Duhkha is then the essential insight that we have been addicted to ego and desire and that addiction has been at the core of suffering and limited existence. The Buddha has given us the antidote to this suffering, and that is the cultivation of that bodhicitta leading to nirvana, Self-liberation and in order to achieve this we must be fully disillusioned with samsara. This insight eventually gives us the key to the end of suffering and aimless searching.

The Deepening Leading to the Arhat Stage

Let us go from Duhkha to activating the Amrita Nadi. This has been eloquently described by Ramana Maharshi as a subtle channel that continues the sushumna nadi from root to crown and arcing downwards to the heart chakra. In some traditions the raising of Kundalini to the Crown Chakra is the achievement of mastery, but in the Dharma established by the Buddha and His Arhats, and further widened by the Christ and His Masters from the angle of Humanity, there is so much more. The full raising of the Kundalini to the Crown on the path of ascent (culminating in the Third Initiation and absorption into Nirvikalpa Samadhi) reaches back to the Heart in a further stage and leads to the fourth initiation, Sahaja Samadhi or rigpa, the integration of non-dual realization into ordinary life at the emotional level. The Buddha referred to this stage as “nirvana with elements” and the Arhat stage of enlightenment.

Many traditions refer to the third initiation (really the stage before the point as recognized by Hierarchy) and the raising of the Kundalini to the Crown as final liberation. The amrita nadi is that etheric channel involved in the passing beyond the third initiation into higher levels of deepening and awakening. It is the channel that leads us to bodhisattvahood, which is the path of the Heart Doctrine, drawing us to stages beyond that of personal liberation.

Samadhi is a Sanskrit term describing a state of spiritual union with transcendent consciousness. In the Hindu tradition, Samadhi has been classified into two or three main categories. For instance in the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali divided Samadhi into two basic states which he termed samprajnata samadhi and asamprajnata samadhi. In the first instance the Sanskrit describe a state “with intuitive wisdom” so we can describe it as a superconscious state with intuitive insight. It is a formless state of soul/intuitive understanding uniting Bliss and Peace into Unity.
In this state the personality limitation have fallen away leaving a profound clarity and contentment. This is a union of the personality with the soul, and at the asamprajnata state leads to deepening identification with the Monad. In Samprajnata, the Non-dual awareness/presence is suffused with a subtle sense of a most reduced duality and spiritual identity. This state is described in the Vedanta as Savikalpa Samadhi, and there are four stages. It is now time to describe these four stages in a more public format.

Each of the first four initiations describe the establishing of an “eye” at a particular level. That eye is established as a result of activating of the ajna center at a particular level. For the first initiation, the eye is developed at the etheric level, and is a result of being absorbed from the third absorptive state to the fourth absorptive state. The first phase of the development of this eye is that of destruction. Matter which has become undesirable to the incoming soul energy is expelled. The sufficient expulsion of undersitable matter/energy results in the disciple being able to be a channel for buddhic energy through the lowest etheric sub-plane.

The point of tension established when the disciple goes from the second to the third absorptive state (remember that the burning ground leading to the second initiation starts at the astral, and not the etheric as with the first initiatory burning ground) results in an “eye” being created at the upper astral level. As in the previous state, this “eye” is only able to destroy the cohesion and then expel undesirable matter from the vehicle. The disciple is able to work with atmic matter (which explains that those on the path of the second initiation must learn the lessons of failure and make contact with the first will petal in the Egoic Lotus) through the third etheric sub-plane.

That point of tension established by the disciple going from the second to the third absorptive state (remember that the deeper burning ground leading to the third initiation requires only two absorptive state) results in an “eye” at the mental which expels undersirable matter.

Now what makes a disciple a third degree initiate who is recognized by the Lodge before the initiation is formalized, is the fact that these three “eyes” must become synthesized into what is the true Third Eye, and results in the ability to be absorbed into radical, non-dual realization or nirbikalpa samadhi.

After the Third Initiation the initiate begins that tension which will eventually propel to the one absorptive state leading to the Fourth Initiation. The final Dark Night has created a fourth eye at the Buddhic Plane becoming synthesized with the previous three “eyes”. This is what the Tibetan meant when He stated that at the Fourth Initiation one’s vision becomes fourth dimensional.

Back to our discussion of the four stages of savikalpa Samadhi: These four stages refer to Pratyahara which means a right withdrawal. The first degree initiate, at those rare instances when he achieves samadhi, becomes absorbed to the first subplane of the physical, and that part of the triple nature of the personality becomes united, in sensation only. The second degree initiate in achieving a samahi state (this is rare but not so rare as with the first degree initiate) becomes absorbed into the second stage savikalpa at the eye developed at the first astral subplane and unites his feeling with soul consciousness. At the third initiation (and this is before the moment of full recognition by the Lodge) the initiate more easily can achieve up to the third stage of savikalpa. After the three eyes have become synthesized into the Third Eye, the initiate can reach nirbikalpa Samadhi, the fourth Savikalpa state is often used after the radical, non-dual Samadhi state when the intuition subtle reacts to the Samadhi and registers revelation. The nirbikalpa state can touch the atmic plane. Between the Third and Fourth Initiation, when an eye is established at the first buddhic subplane, the initiate can become caught up to the fourth savikalpa state.

It is when the arhat has synthesized the eye at the buddhic that the first stage of Sahaja Samadhi is established. Ramana Maharshi described Sahaja Samadhi as external nirbikalpa.

We will now explore samadhi from the standpoint of sound.

A further note on the “Dark Night” experience, which relates to sound and samadhi. The four dark nights refer to the death of certain identifications. These deaths must occur to enable us to “at-one” with our higher nature and God through love. Each dark night renders us more able to respond to the inner “song of God”, which is the call to return to the Source. These “deaths” are the death of identification with the physical body, the emotional self, the mind, and finally the intuitive self, which is the final and most thorough purge and transformation, resulting in rigpa or sahaj samadhi or Self-Realization. In other words, these “deaths” are actually specific attention shocks that allow us to awaken to our true nature.

Those planes or dimensions of being dominated by abstract elements (“mind elements” espoused by the Buddha) are formless, and have the elements of akasha (space), consciousness, beingness. These formless states are beyond time and space, as we experience them, and are comprised of states of realization, quality and revelation. The soul or higher self is considered to be “formless” while the personality is comprised of mind and emotions, very much restricted to time and space, form and body. The psychological realms are also part of the concept of form and body. The formless realm is that of universal laws, principles, archetypes, Ideas, essences, soul, spirit and are also contained within Relativity. (Ponder on Einstein’s “Special Theory Of Relativity”) The universes of conditioned and dualistic experience (even though that dualism of the formless realms is subtle and secondary to Unity) are still the upper reaches of Relativity. Beyond the form and formless, comprising the ultimate essence is the nondu al Absolute. These formless states and realms, though still a part of Absolute, are more spiritually expansive, and less veiled, more reflective of the nondual Absolute.

The Sound Current, or the Nada, is the essence of the Absolute and is the “thread” which, when caught when we came sufficiently purified and transformed, guides us to It. Nada is Sanskrit meaning “sound” or “holy sound”, and when used in a spiritual context, refers to those subtle, non-physical sounds that are typically heard in the mind, especially in the region of the head, but can also be heard in any chakra, throughtout the body, and beyond the body. In advanced stages, it is possible to hear the inner sound of an object, being, kingdom, plane, which casts the listener as Bodhisattva, or Buddha, and makes it possible to magnify the current and sound of the Absolute enabling those behind to be drawn forward.

These sounds are audible manifestation of various levels of consciousness within us. These can be correlated to various qualities, chakras, realms, Beings, planes, etc. These sounds can take various forms, depending on stage of development. At the beginning, these sounds are like that of the conch, buzzing bees, rushing waters, tinkling bells, the harp, the flute, or roar of thunder. When meditated on, these sounds gradually become louder and more refined, thereby leading the consciousness through various stages of unfoldment. Eventually, the inner sound of nadad merges into the “music of the spheres” (Shabda Brahman — the Sound of God) expressing the realization and Presence of the universal Logos (the Word), the Transcendent Personality, Adi-Buddha, or Christ-Logos. Beyond this lies the Void or “Nirguna Brahman”. Thus, we might think of the nada, when fully realized, as “the sound of nondual realization”, or the “sound of the Christ Logos”. The nada is also referred to sometimes as “the Word”, the “sound current”, the “flaming sound”, “the sounding flame”, the “Celestial Sound”, Bani, Kalma, or Logos.

Being able to hear “the Voice of the Silence” is the beginning of being carried forward to Nirbikalpa Samadhi, the sound being described also as “Saguna Brahman”. What makes one an Arhat, is being able to listen to that sound coming from another or the environment. What makes one Master is being able to hear the sound coming from an entire Kingdom, and to learn what service means on that level. So hearing the sounds in us, even hearing the Soundless Sound which carries us to flat-out, direct, raw, Samadhi is only the beginning. Being able to hear and RESPOND to that sound is the true function of Bodhicitta.

Nada Yoga is related to mantra yoga in that both are forms of practice based on sound. With mantra yoga, the aspirant generates the sound (at least in the early stages) usually internally (mental repetition), whereas with Nada Yoga the sounds meditated on are spontaneously arising from within. Both lead to hearing what has been called the “music of the spheres” or the “Voice of the Silence” and are considered in various traditions leading to identification with the Universal Self, the word of that transcendent sound is the “name”. The catch is that these things will not happen, or if it does, will not be sustained unless one builds in the necessary qualities through what the Buddha termed “awareness practices” accompanied by the increased ability to serve the Whole.

We will now continue with deepening Samadhi.

The state of presence in the nondual reality is revealed from moment to moment as the true nature of everything perceived is called Sahaja, meaning “spontaneous” and “effortless” and refers to this state as being natural and effortlessly sustained while involved in ordinary life. This is in contrast to previous forms of Samadhi which require meditative absorption to maintain, and lead to loss of awareness of the physical and psychological dimensions of experience, also sustained in situations such as meditative retreat.
The Sahaj is liberated spiritual awareness integrated with, and sustained in the midst of ordinary, everyday life. It is “Sahaja” (spontaneous) because it is not sustained by an act of will or intention, and has become the natural state of awareness. Spontaneous, effortless it may be, but is virtually always realized through spiritual practice and is an outgrowth of those qualities cultivated in practice which have become a way of life. The heart and awareness have given birth to an expanded consciousness and expanded living. The only exception is where the foundation of practice has existed from a previous life (or lives). Sahaja samadhi has also been referred to as jivanmukti (embodied liberation), the Sant, the fourth initiation, “nearness to Allah” (the fourth ‘station of the soul” of Sufism), rigpa (integrated with elements) of the Dzogchen, and the Arhat realization (nirvana with elements) in Buddhism.

Ramana Maharshi is believed by many to be the greatest Advaita sage of the 20th century. Born in 1879, he experienced a strange premonition of impending death at age 16. He was profoundly moved to investigate from within, rather than get medical attention or ignore the feeling entirely, hoping it would all go away. After nearly a half hour of deep intuitive contemplation of the question “who am I”, “who is it that dies?” he entered a profound state of Self-Realization, Sahaja Samadhi, which persisted for the rest of his life. He died at age 81. In addition to offering a powerful transmission of non-dual realization through his presence and silent meditation, he also emphasized (to those who were ready) the method of atma-vichara or “Self-inquiry”, an awareness practice of contemplating the question of “Who am I” in the heart.

A word on Advaita Vedanta: This is a Hindu philosophy meaning “non-dual end of the Vedas”. Used to refer to a philosophical tradition espoused by Shankara. Advaita Vedanta teaches the radical non-dual view that there is ultimately no distinction between the Absolute and Relativity (the relative universe(s), and that even the “Creator” is dualistic. The path to God-consciousness in Advaita Vedanta is jnana yoga (as espoused by HPB) or the path of wisdom; the goal is Sahaja Samadhi or Jivanmukti — liberated enlightenment while still living in the phenomenal world. Another figure in early 20th century history publicly known to achieve this state is Krishnamurti.

A still higher state of samadhi is sarupa (while in form) or soruba samadhi in the tantric Siddha tradition of Souther India (a sister lineage to the Trans-Himalayan). Whereas Sahaja is achieved by integrating non-dual awareness down to the emotional level of the individual (nirbikalpa can be viewed as achieving integrated nondual awareness to the mental plane), Sarupa Samadhi is achieved by so deeply integrating nondual awareness with the physical body that it then becomes “transubstantiated” or “divinized”, becoming immortal of so desired. All within the Master is synthesized from the lowest levels with Atmic perception.

To illustrate how far the practice of meditation and awareness cultivation merged with the life of Bodhicitta resulting in going ever inward into deeper/higher initiatory states can go, we will explore the form of realization called in Dzogchen as “The Great Transfer”, or the “Body of Light”. This represents a level of samadhi life that culminates the manifestation of nondual realization of monadic awareness within the physical form, resulting in the complete transformation of form in spiritual light. This results is a complete disappearance from the physical plane. We might call this state “Shaberon” Samadhi (a phonetic spelling of a term referring to the sixth initiation consciousness). This state was attained by the 19th century Adept Ramalingar, whose body disappeared in a flash of violet light in 1874. Only the hair and nails were left behind.

Let us arrange the various levels of samadhi described in this part of our essay into these following stages:

1. Savikalpa samadhi — initial nondual realization, in four stages, conditioned by subtle separation.

2. Nirvikalpa Samadhi — radical, flat-out, nondual transcendence, achieved only in meditation.

3. Sahaja Samadhi — nondual realization sustained in deep sleep, dream, and waking states.

4. Sarupa Samadhi — further integration/realization leading to transubstantiation, immortality.

5. “Shaberon” Samadhi — final dissolution into nondual presence.

The list goes on, but no longer refers to consciousness, but integration into Life.

The realization at the third stage does not require going through the second, and the realization of the “final” stage does not require passing through the fourth, if achieved in previous lives. Also it is interesting to note that there are Those Who choose to remain in Sahaja, or Sarupa Samadhi in order to best serve humanity, even though they could choose to pass on further.

Some of the present day Buddhist literature stress that the Buddha only preferred the states reached through the practice of Vipassana (eyes wide open). Highlighting certain truths, this view is a limited understanding of the potential of some approaches to samadhi practices. The Buddha’s original teachings, according to the Northern Buddhist of the Heart Doctrine tradition stressed both internal samadhi practice with awareness practices.

Although some people experience peaks of momentary samadhi, or superconscious states, regular experience of Samadhi does not occur until one achieves just prior to the Third Initiation. Such experiences do indicate the future.

Completed on the Full Moon of Wesak, 2002 and dedicated to the Master at the Center of the Ashram (and to what that means to each reader) and the One Life.

If a “Part IV” is considered desirable, we shall delve into the differing practices leading to the cultivation of spiritual qualities which deepen into those states which are the natural result of sustained invoking of Bodhicitta, as way of a consciously sustained working with Hierarchy.

2002

Birth, Death, The Dark Night, and Rebirth, leading to Initiation, individually, and for Humanity, as seen through the Buddha’s Four Absorptive States

The processes leading to initiation are those of hard work, dedication, pain, experience, love, self-forgetfulness, learning how to serve, equanimity and time (among other factors) involving the ebb and flow of energy. All this and the steady increase of quality in the atomic structure of the personality vehicles through the unwavering application of love and sacrifice carried forward for many lives. This happens as a result of hearing an inner call, tinged with selfishness at first, eventually involves an embrace of an ever-widening sense of wholes. So great becomes that inner call that the little self is forgotten in response to that call. Little by little, “Vision comes and Insight”, because that call is recognized as the birth right of the entire life wave. All we are, all that is appropriated in the act of responding to what loving consciousness really means, all we will become is gladly given to this call, this magnetic pull to the Real, the True and the Beautiful.

We learn to recognize those who are our brothers and Those who have gone on ahead as we learn how all is synthesized by love, in fact that the law of Love in our system is the very platform which propels us onward. This willful surrender to our inner growing loving consciousness comes to heal all and reveal all.

The Vision that impels the Spiritual Hierarchy and which is impelling those of humanity to enter into the Fifth Kingdom is set to burst upon the astounded gaze of Humanity. Then all tears will be wiped away and all units will be swept into making man and his environment in the three worlds fit to meet this Vision of a new Heaven and a new Earth. All pain, all past error, all inadvertent mistakes will then be seen as but the Birthing of a New Day.

Part One of this essay has outlined those opportunities, which come to those who learn the “Yoga of propelling Points of Tension”. Part Two will deal with the process of those Tensions leading to death and Dark Nights as interpreted through the Buddha’s Four Absorptive States, for individuals up to the Fourth Initiation and where Humanity might be in this context leading to its First Initiation. We will not be dealing with the Hierarchical response to the individual, or humanity, but to those states leading to achieving the Initiate Consciousness, and not the Point of the Lodge’s Recognition. This will show at what points we achieve clarity, where it leads to points of crisis, blindness, dark nights, and achievement.

Part three will deal with the acquired modes of access to the Vision, Plan and Purpose. This will be explored under the headings of: Savikalpa Samadhi with various other names (with its four stages); Nirbikalpa Samadhi; Sahaja Samadhi (with its four stages; and Sarupa Samadhi. These states will be examined in relation to service and contacting the Plan and Purpose and not in the way they have been presented in ancient literature as a goal for beginners. The early response to the presentations of these concepts has been from the angle of personal achievement, and not group awareness and progress.

Access Concentration
The key to entering these absorptive states, and it is important to note that this especially has bearing on our daily focus, that is foundational to the achieving the meditative focus, is what the Buddha referred to as “Access Concentration”. By this is meant the achieving of that point of focus, that point of tension, which no longer is distracted by those situations which lead us to losing sight of our goal, our focus, our concentration. This allows for those points in our meditative interludes where thoughts and memories must be allowed to come into the field of consciousness. It leads to becoming conscious of that in is which is not conscious. When we allow this to happen while being detached, we will see how this leads to resolving unfinished issues, errors and unresolved energies.

This attitude will, more and more, continue in our daily round of activities. It makes us more conscious in the moment. It is what the D.K. has referred to as the “attitude of the Observer”. We learn to see our life through the eyes of the Soul. Without this result in daily living, our meditations are not as useful and effective.

This does not replace the need to keep improving the one-pointed focus required to have success in meditation, but the lower interludes need to include this welling up from the unconscious (later from the soul, but that is another matter and another kind of focus, the result of the Second Initiation) but instead of “feeding” the little elementals, non-reaction and a dis-interested, detached point of focus becomes most useful. The unredeemed piece instead of being fed as before through our attentive absorption, will unravel itself. This is much like the evening review the Tibetan has touched on in the past. The welling-up process can also be by way of the feeling/sensation as well as memory; it can then also become an energy awareness In a small way this leads to a freeing of those little lives that have given shape to our past pre-occupations.

The Four Absorptive States leading to the first Dark Night and the First Initiation
We must bear in mind that meditation alone will not properly develop these states, but to use the Arcane School’s terminology, esoteric meditation, study, and service as a way of life is the surest way to bring these states about. These states can be experienced, somewhat, during long meditative retreats, but they cannot be sustained and the results achieved, if any, do not form part of a process leading the personality to increased soul orientation after the retreat.

Also, the Tibetan has referred to these Absorptive States as the “Burning Ground”, as the forms of absorption result in varying degrees of friction in the personality vehicles. The four states leading to the First Initiation focus on the etheric body, the first state referring to the etheric body quickened by etheric energy; the second state primarily refers to astral energy impinging on the etheric; the third state imposes concrete mental energy on the etheric while the dark night state sees the over-shadowing abstract energies cooking the physical/etheric from which there is no retreat.

To give a quick synopsis of the entire field of experience:

First: There are four absorptive stages, starting with the physical etheric body, leading to the First Initiation. It concludes with the pouring through of Buddhic energy through the fourth etheric sub-plane through to the environment for service.

Second: There are three absorptive stages, starting with the astral body, leading to the Second Initiation, resulting in Atmic energy pouring through the third physical etheric sub-plane to the environment for service.

Third: There are two absorptive stages, starting with the lower mental body, leading to the Third Initiation with the result that Monadic energy pours through the second sub-plane of the etheric body of the disciple available for service.

Fourth: There is only one absorptive stage, starting with the abstract mental, leading to the Fourth Initiation resulting in Logoic energy pouring through the first sub-plane of the arhat’s etheric body for service.

So the first absorptive state leads to a quickening of the etheric body. Even though there are four absorptive states leading to the First Initiation consciousness, the entire focus is on the etheric body, hence the Tibetans focus on the etheric, resulting in the lowest etheric level of the etheric body exhibiting energy from the Buddhic plane. This will result in soul energy pouring into the etheric body. This will happen as a result of the point of tension applied. At this stage the disciple is able to hold the tension sporadically at first, then in stages, eventually more or less continuously. The first result is what the Buddhist will refer to as a sense of peace and happiness. It will also create friction as those energies in the etheric body that are not harmonious to soul energy are activated, insuring their release. The movements of energy are not brought about by conscious means so much as the result of the increasingly successful results of learning to lead the life of discipleship. As time goes on (in the beginning many lifetimes elapse but recapitulated with increasing rapidity as one nears the portal of initiation) the necessary purification, and the deepening of the meditation goes forward as the result of increased success in changing our daily focus and how our awareness deepens the process naturally unfolds into the second absorptive state.

This second absorptive state includes the astral body, but the emphasis will still be on the etheric body.. The feeling of peace and happiness extends and increases in the emotional nature. Depending on physical and astral ray combinations, the individual is faced with the joys of the astral plane. The disciple will either perceive, or even experience somewhat visually, communication and exchanges with all sorts of angels, masters, Christ, Buddha, etc. The time the individual spends in this state is dependent upon his remembering what was learned in the Access Concentration stage. Sooner or later it will be apparent that this is nothing more than glamour and the individual strives to keeping meditating, and to renew a further dedication to purer and more honest daily living. Because of so much public knowledge, often when the aspirant begins to notice energy in the physical dimension, particularly energy in the spine, there we see the misconception that the Kundalini is in full force – and nothing could be further from the truth.

It can be inferred that even though the life emphasis is on the physical/etheric, the fact that astral energy is in motion shows the first brush with Glamour. This will not be as intense as in that Burning Ground/Absorptive State leading to the Second Initiation.

The Tibetan states that: “Glamour is the powerful enemy of all who tread the Path of Discipleship . . . Disciples who live on the mental plane are freer from glamour than are those whose polarization is purely emotional. Therefore, one of the first things we seek to teach all of you is to work, live and think in freedom from the astral plane. . .

Glamour is, of course, such a subtle thing that it ever masquerades as the truth. It is powerful because it finds its point of entry into a disciple’s consciousness through those states of mind and those habits of thought, which are so familiar that their appearance is automatic and constitutes an almost unconscious manifestation. There are (for the average disciple) three main attitudes of mind and of feeling, which predispose him to being glamoured:

i. Self pity. To this all disciples are prone. Their lives are necessarily difficult and they are more sensitive than the average. They are also being constantly tried and tested in this particular direction. Self pity is a powerful and deluding force; it exaggerates every condition and isolates a person in the center of his own life, and the dramatic situation evoked in his own thoughts. . . .

ii. A spirit of criticism. This induces more states of glamour than any other one factor; and here, who shall say he is immune? When harmlessness and kindness in thought and word are practiced, and automatically become a part of a disciple’s daily life expression, then glamour will end . . .

iii. Suspicion. The most poisonous of all weaknesses is this glamour; it is usually the most false and – even when well founded – is still capable of poisoning the very roots of being, of distorting all attitudes to life, and of bringing into activity the creative imagination as its potent servant. Suspicion ever lies, but lies which such apparent truth that it seems only correct and reasonable . . Give not way to suspicion; but be careful not to cast it away from you to the hidden depths of yourself, whence again it most raise its head. End its power in your life by doing three things:

a. By assuming more definitely the attitude of the Onlooker, who sees all people and happenings through the light of love, and from the angle of the eternal values.

b. By leaving everyone free to live their own lives and to shoulder their own responsibilities, knowing that they are souls and are being led towards the light. Simply give them love and understanding.

c. By the fullness of your own life of service, which leaves you no time for the moments and hours of suspicion which blight so many lives.

These three things, if persisted in and practiced, will do more to release you from glamour than any other one thing.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I pages 310/5

The lessons learned will show that no perception is worth it if it fuels pride, glamour and a preoccupation with the personality. The longer it takes to fully realize this, the greater the danger of sinking into a kind of spiritual inertia. Again it will be realized that just as in the earlier state issues would come up dealing with energy and purely cellular memory, issues will now arise from the emotional state. When this is correctly apprehended then the process speeds up and such issues are dealt with more definitely.

When the purification has gone on to the degree necessary for this phase of development, the process will deepen to where the third absorptive state opens into the lower mental body and life of the disciple. The feeling of peace and happiness deepens and extends into the lower mental body. Again, bear in mind that in order to insure success at this level and avoid being snared into longer duration at this third absorptive state, the disciple must deepen his commitment to inner integrity and to serve as a soul. At this level, issues from the lower mental will arise and need to be dealt with. Meditation becomes easier to sustain. Issues that are handled in the light of the soul will result in more issues arising and more rapidly. For example, toward the end of a physical detox, one becomes aware of toxins being released with greater rapidity into the blood stream, to be released through the kidneys and skin. So it is at this stage regarding inner issues.

Particularly at this stage, and starting with the previous stage at the emotional level, one can be in a temporary denial and prolong the time and experiences involved but, at the same time, increased aspiration evokes more energy from soul levels and the ashram. Under the law of cause and effect, this will only deepen the point of crisis to the point where attention shock(s) are self generated in the life. It must be borne in mind that these absorptive states are much like the between life states that a person goes through before rebirth. The difference is that on the path these “death” experiences are greatly intensified and compacted. It has been said that a disciple, in the purification process, will go through in a compressed period of time what it takes the average person nine life times to normally go through. Until the time of Psychosynthesis and the transpersonal psychologies, it was considered not a good idea for disciples to go into mundane therapies, as these therapies imply a person being “stuck” whereas the disciple may simply be burning of karma. Realization, inner honesty, further purifying/clarifying /dedicating the outer and inner life will result in increased success in meditation (and service) and build in ever purer matter and molecules into the personality vehicles. It will result in absorption into the fourth state called by some the great death, or the dark night.

It is not the complete “Dark Night of the Soul” spoken of in mystical literature, as that is undergone at the Fourth Initiation. It is a dark night nevertheless. There is a dark night experience before each of the four initiations. This dark night experience involves the higher mental body of the disciple. The difference at each fourth stage, the dark night, is that there is no denial possible. Realization comes flooding in. It is a real purification. When this stage has done its work there will be a kind of rapture but it is not the initiation itself because we must win and polarize/stabilize at the level of consciousness. It is not the initiation itself as that is a matter of time and cycle.

However, when all occurs as it must (the initiation ceremony itself), and it is time for the initiate to win through to the next height, he must rededicate his life. The process will start all over again and deepen, but this time he will start with the second absorptive state. This will result in an increased sense of peace and happiness. After that the effect will be that the fire of the mental plane will result in the fog the Tibetan was talking about. This fog will produce glamour. What is happening is that the increased concentration and meditation will result in the opportunity for a greater cleansing and purification of the astral body and the entire emotional nature.

The Three Absorptive States resulting in the Second Initiation
The incoming light will eventually unearth all the glamours in the emotional state, conscious and especially unconscious. There will be feelings of highs punctuated by feelings of lows. The technique of Access Concentration carried on in the first four absorptive states, will especially mark the moment when one begins to dis-identify from the glamours coming up to the surface of awareness. It is at this point where the third absorptive state opens up the lower mental body of the disciple. There one deals with the motives lying behind the glamours.

Even at this stage one can be dealing with points of denial and one can be engaged with vigorously contending with what arises to the surface of consciousness. When the energy of this contention dies out and one can more easily fall back into the attitude of the observer that the process opens into the fourth stage. This is where the dark night experience becomes especially painful because it is felt so keenly in the emotional body.

“The disciple is the victim and, let us hope, the dissipator of both glamour and illusion, and hence the complexity of his problem and the subtlety of his difficulties. He must bear in mind also (for his strengthening and cheer) that every bit of glamour dissipated and every illusion recognized and overcome, “clears the way” for those who follow after, and makes easier the path of his fellow disciples. This is par excellence, the Great Service, and it is to this aspect of it that I call your attention.

Glamour: A World Problem page 44

“Avoid at least one glamour, and that is the glamour that it is your task to shoulder all responsibilities and make all final decisions. Leave people . . . the opportunity which you yourself so much welcome, of learning the needed lessons. Seek not duly to lift and shield, for the shielding mother-complex is in itself a glamour.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II page 643

“Glamour can always be found where there exists:

i. Criticism, when careful analysis would show that no criticism is warranted.

ii. Criticism, where there is no personal responsibility involved. By that I mean, where it is not the place or duty for the man to criticize.

iii. Pride in achievement or satisfaction that one is a disciple.

iv. Any sense of superiority or seperative tendency.

Glamour: A World Problem page 84

Again, our process is experienced through the light of the upper mental regions of our nature. The pain results from the fact that there is no possibility to hide or turn away from the truth of ourselves, and the purification goes deeper into the emotional body then in the previous cycle leading to the First Initiation. It is a kind of friction (burning ground) resulting in a deep transforming of the astral body. After the emotional darkness, a kind of death of the seperative emotional state, there is another state of bliss.

We are not referring to the “initiation ceremony” wherein one stands in the Presence of the Lord, but that state of awareness that indicates that we are polarized/stabilized into the second initiation consciousness that must precede the point of recognition of the Christ. As in the previous cycle, this point of achievement is a satori, or kensho, a core spiritual awakening.

The first core spiritual awakening the Buddha referred to as “Entering the Stream”. This second core spiritual awakening He referred to as “the Once- Returner, as the initiate need return only one more life to achieve nirvana. This means that after achieving the Third Initiation, what the Buddha called “the Non-Returner” one need not reincarnate for merely personal karmic reasons. However, in this cycle many do return because of the need being so great.

After the Second Initiation the emotional body becomes very clear in order to more easily reflect the reality of soul life vertically and register human need horizontally. This is one reason why the Sufi tradition refers to this level or awareness as “the Station of the Soul”, because the astral body more easily reflects soul light.

Some say that First Degree Initiates in the world are in the millions, while those of the Second Degree number in the hundreds of thousands. True, there may only be a few million First Degree Initiate, and a few hundred thousand Second Degree Initiate, souls, but this points to the success of hierarchical planning and endeavor.

The Two Absorptive States leading to the Third Initiation
After the Second Initiation, there is normally some time wherein the disciple learns what it means to serve humanity and the Plan as a Second Degree server. One way of determining if one has embarked on the path leading to the Third Initiation is the ability to enter the state of contemplation more consistently easier than previously. As before this requires an even deeper commitment, and resulting opportunity, to service and in facing that part of ourselves not in harmony with our higher intent. This ability opens up to the absorptive state that leads to deeper purification and a transformation of our lower mental nature, which eventually triumphs in the transfiguring of the entire personality.

As noted before, here one starts by experiencing deeper peace and happiness, but this time there is the joy that defines the space of the abstract mental perceptive states, but a joy that is not diluted with emotional reaction. The ability to more deeply engage the meditative process brings in its own perception and revelations, and these revelations bring on the deeper cleansings.

It may serve to point out the following information given by the Tibetan about the glamour and illusion of idealism:

“Ideals must go as they are now formulated, because we are entering into a New Age where all things will become new. They can safely be relinquished when their place is taken by a real soul love for humanity – inclusive, sane and practical. Ideals are formulations by the human mind. The Hierarchy has no ideals. The Hierarchy is simply the channel for pure love, and where love exists there is no danger of harshness, of cruelty, of misunderstanding, of evasion of facts, or of harmfulness. Much also that many regard is harmless is definitely harmful in its general effects. Ideals, as usually held, feed pride, lead to stubbornness, and engender a seperative superiority; they produce impractical attitudes and negative activities. The one who thus holds them frequently serves only in the limited field, conditioned by his chosen work and colored by his idealism. He excludes the Whole and thinks in terms of the past and as he wants to think. There is no real understanding of an opposing idealism and often no real attempt to comprehend its basis. His emphasis upon his own ideals (in his own consciousness even when not imposed on others) prevents understanding, and he is so busy up-holding them and defending them (oft again to himself) and being conditioned by them, that the larger human issues escape his attention. He settles down within the limits of his imposed belief. This makes him immediately a theologian, and his usefulness then rapidly evaporates, except in the intimate circle of his fellow idealists. As time goes on, crystallization takes place. A “crystal barrier” is set up between the personality and the soul. The soul is seen but its influence is insulated. But – because there is a vision of the soul still persisting – the disciple is deeply satisfied. The crystallization eventually affects all aspects of the nature. Emotions settle into “grooves of crystal”; the mind becomes set and brittle. The physical body crystallizes also and gets old rapidly because there is no free flow of life.

One thing only will prevent this happening: Loving understanding and a consequent sacrifice of the life to humanity as a whole. The greatest good of the greatest number becomes his life theme, and to this the whole man is subordinated.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 330/1

A word on the Illusion of Power: “The Illusion of Power is perhaps one of the first and most serious of tests which comes to an aspirant. It is also one of the best examples of this ‘great mistake’, and I hereby bring it to your attention as being one against which I beg you most carefully to guard yourself. It is rare indeed for any disciple to escape the effects of this error of illusion, for it is, curiously, based upon the right success and right motive. Hence the specious nature of the problem. It might be expressed thus:

An aspirant succeeds in contacting his soul or ego through right effort. Through meditation, good intention, and right technique, plus the desire to serve and to love, he achieves alignment. He becomes then aware of the results of his successful work. His mind is illumined. A sense of power flows through his vehicles. He is, temporarily at least, made aware of the Plan. The need of the world and the capacity of the soul to meet that need, flood his consciousness. His dedication, concentration and right purpose enhance the directed inflow of spiritual energy. He knows. He loves. He seeks to serve, and does all three more or less successfully. The result of all this is that he becomes more engrossed with the sense of power, in the part he has to play in aiding humanity, then he is with the due and proper sense of proportion and of spiritual values. He over-estimates his experience and himself. Instead of redoubling his efforts and thus establishing a closer contact with the kingdom of souls, and loving all beings more deeply, he begins to draw attention to himself, to the mission he is to develop, and to the confidence that the Master and the Planetary Logos apparently have in him. He talks about himself; he gestures and attracts notice, demanding recognition. As he does so, his alignment is steadily impaired; his contact lessens, and he joins the ranks of the many who have succumbed to the illusion of sensed power.

This form of illusion is becoming increasingly prevalent among disciples and those who have taken the first two initiations. There are today many people in the world who have taken the first initiation in a previous life. At some point in the present life cycle, recurring and recapitulating as it does the events of an earlier development, they again reach a point in their realization that they earlier reached. The significance of their attainment pours in upon them, and the sense of their responsibility and knowledge. Again they over-estimate themselves, regarding their missions and themselves as unique among the sons of men, and their esoteric and subjective demand for recognition enters in and spoils what might otherwise have been fruitful service. Any emphasis upon the personality can distort most easily the pure light of the soul as it seeks to pour through the lower self. Any effort to call attention to the mission or task which the personality has undertaken, detracts from the mission, and handicaps the man in his task; it leads to the deferring of its fulfillment until such time as the disciple can be naught but a channel through which love can pour, and light can shine. This pouring through and shining forth, has to be a spontaneous happening, and contain no self reference.”

Glamour: A World Problem pages 52/3

As in previous third phase experience, one can prolong the time it takes to experience this state by being swept up in denial or contention. It is in fact possible that each of the third phase stages result in facing that burning ground which faces the Dweller on the Threshold. Denial comprises the first stage of the Dweller experience; the other stage might well be in vigorously engaging the Dweller, or in contending with that part of our nature which we deeply need and wish to improve and bring in line with the intent of our higher self. The experience here is at once deeper and more difficult as it requires a death not only of our lower mental nature, but the entire coordinated personality. Only in this way can we fulfill our deep inner inclination to approach more closely to That which calls us.

“’How can I overcome this Dweller and yet at the same time refuse to concentrate on myself and my problems? This I am told by you not to do, and yet the Dweller is the sum total of all personality holds and defects, all potencies – emotional, mental and physical – which limit my expression as a soul. What can I therefore do?’

My answer would be: You must first of all accept the fact of the Dweller, and relegate that Dweller to its rightful place as part of the Great Illusion, the great phantasmagoria of existence and as an integral part of life in the three worlds. You must then proceed upon your planned life of service (What definite plan or plans have you, my brother?) and act as if the Dweller existed not, thus freeing yourself from all personality influence in due time, and leaving your mind free for the task at hand. I could perhaps word it another way. When your interest in the hierarchical work and the programme of the Ashram with which you are connected, is adequately strong, it will then dominate all your actions, and all your thoughts (waking or sleeping); you will then find that the grip of the Dweller will be broken, that its life has been destroyed by the force of attrition, and its form destroyed in the fires of sacrifice.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 47/8

The “Dark Night” experience at the last absorptive state here is at once deeper and more painful but without the emotional angst which was the hallmark of our emotional dark night. There is doubt, but the doubts come and go quickly. Indeed, the deep cleansing at this dark night is an extremely rapid; cleansing experiences come and go so fast that we are often left only with the strain of the experience and the strain can feel nearly crippling.

This dark night is left behind only after all this cleansing, we are faced with the sudden realization that there is a quiet, expansive space which refuses to recognize that the Dweller has any life of its own left. Now there is only a quiet but explosive rapture that is ours when we first are able to face the opening of the first synthesis petal around the Jewel in the Lotus.

This quiet, explosive, great Joy/Bliss is ours with the realization that Shamballa discipleship starts here and this awareness (further) transfigures the personality.

Forget not that as humanity advances, as the hierarchy advances, so does initiation.

What is often over-looked is that with the first raising of the Kundalini at the Third Initiation (by that is meant the state of consciousness prior to the actual ceremony) is the “cracking” of the Causal Body, bringing with it deep intuitive opening. This makes possible direct nondual contemplation and surrender. Samadhi states are then actually modes of contacting higher realities as an act of service, and not as an act of separativeness. Such states are the means where the initiate, as a soul in deep communion, contacts eternal truths, achieves vision and gains inspiration in service, allowing him to see more of the panoramic program of Hierarchy and Shamballa.

The One Absorptive State of the Final Dark Night and Fourth Initiation Triumph
Momentous though the previous statement is, even more so is that this fact of Shamballa Discipleship extending to Third Degree Initiates has only been possible since a certain full moon of 1948!

“It is the expansion of consciousness and the production of increased sensitivity and perceptive awareness, which is the goal of all divine and hierarchical effort. The goal is not for betterment of material conditions. These will automatically follow when the sense of awareness is steadily unfolded. The future of humanity is determined by its aspiration and ability to respond to the idealism which is today flooding the world.”

Education in the New Age page 103

“The life of the man who takes the fourth initiation, or the Crucifixion, is usually one of great sacrifice and suffering. It is the life of the man who makes the Great Renunciation, and even exoterically it is seen as strenuous, hard and painful. He has laid all, even his perfected personality, upon the altar of sacrifice, and stands bereft of all. All is renounced, friends, money, reputation, character, standing in the world, family, and even life itself.” Initiation, Human and Solar page 88/9

The pain and suffering does not matter. What one sees, and is beginning to comprehend is everything. There is no reaction to the pain and suffering. The invocative crying out of the amassed pain and suffering of the whole human lifewave becomes paramount. Here begins the mystery of the true broken heart. The agony is taken into the heart until the heart occultly breaks. The immense concentration and focus drives the Kundalini upwards afresh going to the head and back to the heart via the amrita nadi. The force of this activity destroys the Causal Body, and the initiate makes first full contact with the heart of the sun. All is relinquished in the supreme act of becoming a pure and unblemished channel for the Divine to rescue and redeem humanity. After this, the love of the heart of the sun, and the force of the monad, pour directly to the consecrated and now sanctified personality vehicles directly toward the healing of humanity as a divine whole.

“The initiation of the Renunciation is of supreme importance to humanity and to the individual initiate. . . . First of all, this great act of renunciation marks the moment when the disciple has nothing in him which relates him to the three worlds of human evolution. His contact with those worlds in the future will be purely voluntary and for purposes of service.” The Rays and the Initiations page 696

“The Form of the Causal Body. This is the vehicle of the higher consciousness, the temple of the indwelling God, which seems to be of a beauty so rare and a stability so sure a nature that, when the final shattering comes of even that masterpiece of many lives, bitter indeed is the cup to drink, and unutterably bereft seems the unit of consciousness. Conscious then only of the innate Divine Spirit, conscious only of the Truth of the Godhead, realizing profoundly and in the depths of his being the ephemeral nature of the form and of all forms, standing in the vortex of initiatory rites, bereft of all on which he may have leant (be it friend, Master, doctrine or environment), well may the Initiate cry out: ‘I am that I am, and there is nothing else.’ Well may he then figuratively place his hand in the hand of his Father in Heaven, and hold the other out in blessing on the world of men, for only the hands that have let slip all in the three worlds are free to carry the ultimate blessing to struggling humanity. Then he builds for himself a form such as he desires, — a new form that is no longer subject to shattering, but suffices for his need, to be discarded or used as occasion warrants.”

A Treatise on White Magic pages 264/5

The deeper communion possible after the destruction of the Causal Body makes contacting even higher realities a fact, whether in deep, internal contemplation, or in deep external waking mode. There is no difference for the Arhat. Ramana Maharshi often referred to external Sahaja and internal Sahaja. (More on that in Part III)

The Four Absorptive States and Humanity’s coming Initiation
It will be noted that many lives are involved learning the lessons of each absorptive state until such time as an apotheosis is reached when the disciple “wins through” all for states in one life, and takes the first initiation. Until that time he will be preoccupied with learning the lessons involved, even between lives.

Humanity has now come to the point were its opportunity is now upon it. Let us look at this process in light of the hierarchical effort in the past 600 years. In the hierarchical conclave of around 1400 the present day possibility was noted and discussed. In 1500 the program was put in motion, the Purpose registered, and the Plan formulated. The lowest point of hierarchy was polarized on the highest astral sub-plane for many millennia. With the advent of HPB, and her momentous engaging of the crystallization of humanity’s thinking, was more successful from the Hierarchy’s standpoint then the outer success of the Theosophical Society. The placing of her writings into motion for public consumption, particularly Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine, opened up the thinking of many forward- looking people. For instance, these books made an amazing impression on Thomas Edison, and it is not well known that Gandhi embarked on his work after being catalyzed by HPB in London (the famous motion picture GANDHI began with his life in South Africa).

The resulting effect on the thinking of key units of the intelligentsia and those disciples coming into incarnation, allowed the Hierarchy to polarize on the lower mental plane. AAB was contacted on the lower mental by D.K. because of her particularly clear and stable focus. Inspite of the apparent outer conflicts, this work by AAB came at a time when mankind was feeling the impact of the new energies in such a way that old forms were beginning to shatter, showing the proof of Christ’s dictum that you “cannot put new wine into old bottles”. If HPB, and people like AAB and Helena Roerich had not been in place at a time when the incoming “new wine” was building up so rapidly, the results would have been disastrous. The information being put out by the hierarchy was having an even better effect during the time of AAB than at the time of HPB (who did an incredible job of preparing the ground for a planetary renaissance), so much so that it had become possible for Hierarchy to polarize its lowest point of contact at the upper mental plane. This is why the Tibetan Master kept reminding us to go deeper into the events going on, rousing us to more dedication and service, because the success of the hierarchical program was becoming apparent.

The Shamballa impact on the physical plane during Wesak of 1949 resulted in the Hierarchy being able to focus its lowest point of contact with Humanity on the Buddhic Plane. This would not have been possible were it not for the success of the process.

With the advent of the Age of Exploration, the Renaissance, Marco Polo — humanity beginning to know itself on the physical plane, the differing cultures on the planet coming into contact — marked the beginning of Humanity entering the Buddha’s first absorptive state as a whole. Remember, that for the individual this is when the physical etheric body begins its quickening. With the quickening comes an integration, marked by the first possibility of world travel with sailing ships, and contact resulting in trade and exchange of ideas on a global scale. The individual at this point of absorption begins to take stock of the physical potential and material potential. Another indication of humanity’s successful reaction to this stage was the growth of education and the growing postal possibilities. Yes, on the surface it is often chaotic and prone to breakdowns and breakups but so is the outer life of the aspirant, the probationary disciple, and the accepted disciple. For the Hierarchy these are all indications of growing pains. There must need be supervision and guidance to avoid disaster, so that even the potential disasters can be turned to the good. Is not even the disciple prone to such upheavals? All this is simply the process of bringing up to the surface that which is hidden as an opportunity for transmutation and transformation.

The timing of the hierarchical effort in bringing forth the work of HPB marked the end of the first stage experience and offered the opportunity for entering the second absorptive state. This occurred about the time AAB brought forth her work. The disciples written about in Discipleship in the New Age, in both volumes, were the cream of the crop for their time; it would stun the world to find out who they were: scientists, businessmen, industrialists, inventors, psychologists, clergy, the list goes on. Let us forget the apparent failures, the hierarchy thinks in wholes, and on the whole it was incredibly successful. On the inner side, the real success is apparent in the way today’s world is for disciples and initiates. We stand on the shoulders of giants!

The conflict of the World War shattered many old forms and brought about the international consciousness after the end of the war, and marked the success of humanity’s time in the second absorptive state. Just imagine, an entire generation rallied to save the world for the future!

The 1950’s marked the beginning of humanity’s testing and crisis in the third absorptive state. And there were many successes and failures, but, just as in the individual process, there was great potential for denial and in the West people were focused on personal, material wealth and that world felt no connection to anything but the pursuit of material happiness and not taking notice of anyone outside the little circle and financial and racial class. But the growing welfare movements, the concern about world hunger and poverty became very focused at this time, along with a growing awareness of abuses. People started to care about world news. However, when invoked energies are coming in and building up, and is met with denial and complacency/inertia, the result is the precipitation of “shock” to rouse one out of the straying of focus. That is what has been happening in these past decades culminating in what happened on September 11, 2001. The result has been to recognize the need to “close the door where evil dwells”. This tells us that we are near the end of humanity’s testing and cleansing in the third absorptive state.

When humanity enters into its fourth absorptive state, its dark night preceding initiation, it will become keenly aware of energy from the abstract mental. It will throw such a light on the situation! Unlike any other time in history, there will be no denial, no turning away, no hiding from the truth.

After the force of realization, it will be time for the reconstruction that the Tibetan was talking about. There will be recognition of the disenfranchised, awareness of pain in portions of the “body of humanity”, and the need for global synthesis. When that synthesis begins its releasing process (all true synthesis results in a release), the Hierarchy will make Its presence felt.

The moment when Christ is recognized globally, that moment will mark Humanity’s world-wide satori — its kensho.

Humanity will have arrived at its First Initiation.

Then the real work begins.

After all, we all will need to do our part in bringing in The New Heaven and The New Earth, to prepare for the New Revelation.

2002

The Modern Disciple, Points of Tension as Spiritual Practice, The N.G.W.S., Planetary Tantra, Bodhicitta from a Hierarchical Perspective

It might be useful to look at the current world picture of crisis and opportunity through the eyes of the Dzogchen tradition. This is a spiritual transmission that emerged somewhere in northern India about the second century B.C. through the great master Garab Dorje who received it in inspiration from the Adi-Buddha via Vajrasattva.

It has been coupled with traditional and tantric techniques used to prepare one for very advanced non-dual practices. “Dzogchen” means “Great Perfection”. Essentially, it is a non-dual transmission, emphasizing the awakening, after appropriate preparation, of non-dual realization by direct transmission from master to student. This discipline takes the form of two primary practices (trekcho and togal) to cut through into direct, non-dual awareness, then to integrate that awareness into daily life.

More on this later from a Hierarchical standpoint.

This lineage views all spiritual practices on this planet as being in basically one of three categories: the Renunciate Path, the Tantric Path, or the Non-Dual Path.

The Renunciate Path in the past has been characterized by a complete withdrawal from the world. It creates a focused duality (the cherished ideal versus the rejected ideals, the sense of exclusivity of only one point of view over all others, of the sense of the polarized ideal at odds with “the others”). Like all withdrawn, focused groups in the past, the fruits (for good or ill) eventually find their way into mainstream consciousness in some form. It has served the development of the discriminative sense. Today it illustrates the old ways and the crisis of opportunity for Humanity as it nears the Portal of Initiation.

The true Tantric Path is a path of energetic relationship. It reconciles pairs of opposites. It is Present in the Moment, taking no sides, with no sense of separateness but involved in bringing unresolved factors together in order to heal, build and make whole. This approach fosters equanimity, compassion, the esthetic sense and the open heart. The true tantric path is a path of transformation. It is a path of healing and energy awareness. The true tantric path has more to do with embracing life and its issues rather than in retreating away from life. True tantra is transformation.

The leading exponent of the Shamballa School in New Zealand makes mention of “Vertical Sex”. Tantra is “Vertical Sex”! Referencing first to healing the various unresolved aspects of the personality, then linking the lower with the higher — personality to soul — followed by reconciling personality and soul individually then (since all such techniques are good from the particular to the universal) in groups, between groups, in nations, between nations and finally within Humanity itself. Transformation works with being engaged with the Now, eventually lifting it closer to Soul/God/The Absolute!

This is how the N.G.W.S. operates. It is a transforming agency, present and engaged in the moment, out in the world. Like a world tantra, the N.G.W.S. is involved in relationships. First relating to humanity with the goal of healing cleavages within the outer human world and then with relating Humanity with its Soul, and more directly with the Hierarchy. The personnel of the N.G.W.S. come from every country in the world. As a world group they work outwardly in the world of Humanity while vertically reaching into the world of meaning. Since the Libra Full Moon of 2001 they are beginning to work with molecules of the atmic plane attracted into the group aura (which is safe in group formation under Hierarchical impression). Many decades of serving and sacrificing makes this possible. When such molecules begin to make the slightest impact, one can observe a breaking down of the old, often through conflict, with a keen sense of old forms shattering giving way to the new, more suitable incoming energies. We should start to see humanity try to take those steps that will begin to “close the door where evil dwells”. This will indicate the growing effectiveness of the N.G.W.S.

“The N.G.W.S. is comprised of the following groups:

i. Initiates and disciples who are consciously a part of the Great White Lodge.

ii. Aspirants and lesser disciples who are affiliated with the Hierarchy; but who do not usually possess that continuity of consciousness which will come later.

iii. Those upon the Probationary Path who are not yet affiliated with the Hierarchy; they are however, subject to hierarchal impression and are determined to serve their fellow men.

iv. This is a matter of practical import, and is not at all an easy thing to attain. It lays the foundation for the An increasing number of people who respond to the idealism of the N.G.W.S. and who will rapidly join the group.

The main requirement is Meditation but—as you know—it is not necessarily the set meditation of occult groups and churches; membership in the group, however, requires the development of the reflective spirit along some line of human understanding. It requires the power to focus attention upon that which can serve humanity, and a compassionate recognition of human need . . .because demands a definite measure of decentralization, in this, habits of meditation rapidly contribute.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 202/5

Further evidence of the requirement of sustained spiritual practice:

“For the members of the N.G.W.S. and for the men and women of goodwill, the Hierarchy of spiritual Leaders have laid down the following rules:

i. That they must aim at achieving peaceful relationships with, and harmonious acquiescence in, as well as cooperation with the government or state to which they owe allegiance of loyalty. This does not mean endorsing all policies and lines of activity undertaken by such governments, but it does mean the refraining from all that could cause difficulty. There is always scope for much constructive activity within the governmental policy or regime, and it is to these constructive and peaceful enterprises that the servers of the Great Ones and for humanity will direct their attention.

ii. They must refrain from all interference in the affairs of any political or religious group.

iii. They must endeavor to express practical goodwill where their lot may be cast.

iv. They must strive after harmlessness in speech and in life in relation to their family, community, nation or group of nations. This means a consistent policy of non-attack. No leader or nation or race must be attacked of defamed.

…It lays the foundation for the rapid formation and definite emergences of the N.G.W.S. and for the discovery and organizing of the men of goodwill throughout the world, wherever they may be found. The spiritual Hierarchy cannot work through people whose tongues are critical, whose ideas and attitudes are separative, and who are violently partisan in their beliefs and comments. This is a statement of fact. I seek to have you train yourselves in such right activity, beginning with your own lives and your personal expression in the world.” Esoteric Psychology II pages 747/8

It is easy to see that membership is no small matter, or easy task and why the Hierarchy is pouring more and higher energy in to this momentous undertaking. This may lead one to conclude that in light of the foregoing, and the following instruction by the Tibetan, this may be indicative of an emerging group planetary yoga with all its implications:

“The personnel of the group is known only to the Elder Brothers of the race and no register of names is kept, and there only three main requirements:

i. A certain amount of at-one-ment between the soul and its mechanism is essential, and the inner triplicity, usually dormant in the majority, of soul-mind-brain must be in alignment and active.

ii. The brain must be telepathically sensitive in two directions and at will. It must be aware of the world of souls and also of the world of men.

iii. There exist a capacity for abstract or synthetic thought. This will enable the man to leap over religious barriers. When this is present also, there is an assured belief in the continuity of life an its correlation to the life after death.

…The group that is now process of formation, is composed of those who are aware of the fact of the soul, and established a soul intercourse, that is real and lasting . . .“

A Treatise On White Magic pages 414/6

“You need to work more definitely from what might be called a point of tension. . . . It is intensity of purpose which will change you from the plodding, fairly satisfactory aspirant into the disciple whose heart and mind are aflame. Perhaps, however, you prefer to go forward steadily, with no group effort, making your work for me and for the group an ordered part of the daily life, which you can adjust pretty much as you like, and in which the daily life of the spirit receives its reasonable share, in which the service aspect is not neglected, and your life presentation is neatly balanced and carried forward without much real strain. When this is the case, it may be your personality choice or your soul decision for a specific life, but it means you are not the disciple, with everything subordinated to the life of discipleship.

I would like here to point out two things to you.

First: if you can so change your tension that you are driven by the life of the spirit, it will entail a galvanic upheaval in your life. For this, are you prepared? Secondly: It will not produce any outer change in your environing relationships. Your outer obligations and interests must continue to be met, but I am talking to you in terms of inner orientations, dynamic inner decisions, and an interior organizing for service and for sacrifice. . . . It is preeminently a question of speed and of organizing for speed. This means eliminating the non-essentials and concentrating on the essentials – as they concern the soul and its relation to the personality, and the outer ones as they concern you and your environment.” Discipleship in the New Age – Volume I pages 538/9

Further: “Intensity, or working from a point of tension, brings in the flood-tide of revelation, and it is then possible for the disciple to learn in one short day what might otherwise take months or even years to learn. Tension, when focused rightly, is the great releasing power. So many disciples focus tension wrongly and release energy in the wrong direction and (if I might so inadequately express it) from the wrong location. Right tension is brought about first by correct orientation; this necessitates a true sense of values and freedom from those minor preoccupations, which produce extension instead of tension. If you are . . . preoccupied with your physical condition, you will not experience the tension which will make you a magnetic center of power and love; if you are preoccupied with the failures of other people, or with their ideas about you, you will again fail to experience the tension which releases. You will find it of value to discover where your “extensions” are and then retreat inward to the point of tension from which you can consciously and effectively direct soul energy.

This is the true esoteric work. The majority of disciples are not even 60 per cent effective, because their points of tension are scattered all over the personality and are not focused where the individual tension should be. Each has to discover the point of spiritual tension for himself. The reason that disciples are not sensitive to the Master, to the life of the Ashram, and to each other, is that they are extended and not tense; they are working and living on the periphery of consciousness and not at the center. Their service, therefore is partial; their concentration is weak . . .

Most disciples are not working from a point of spiritual tension, but from a point of personality focus . . . As long as a man is focused in his personality, the point of spiritual tension will evade him. He will be driven by personality aspiration and not by ashramic force, and this focus in form will lead to trouble, both to the individual aspirant and to his group. Spiritual tension as a result of the complete dedication of the personality to the service of humanity stimulates and empowers but does not invoke the lower life of the personal self.” Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I pages 734/5 and 745

And finally: “In the life of every disciple, particularly those who face certain great expansions of consciousness, a point of crisis will come about. In that point of crisis, decisions are voluntarily or involuntarily made; having made them, the disciple then stands at a point of tension, with the decision behind him and the next step to be taken becoming clearer to his mentality, and influencing his attitude of the future. When the work is done in a point of tension, then there comes what we might call the point of emergence. This is both an emergence from and also an emergence into a field of experience. The Reappearance of The Christ page 68

“Shirk not these crises, hard and difficult though that they may appear to be. Difficult they are. They are only the points of examination as to strength, purpose and purity of motive and the intent of the soul. They evoke confidence when surmounted and greatly expanded vision. They foster compassion and understanding, for the pain and conflict they have engendered is never forgotten for they draw upon the resources of the heart. The release the light of wisdom within the field of knowledge and the world is thereby enriched.” Esoteric Healing page 477

All this is designed to lead to the objectification and participation of humanity in the Plan. That Plan will reveal to humanity that psychic sensitivity that will reveal the past with all its accomplishments; the future which will reveal the fact of soul/mind/brain and lead to that etheric sensitivity which will lead to the FACT of scientific brotherhood. The result will be a planetary omnipresence of which today’s internet is a vague reflection. This will be brought about by using the FACT of the Planetary Etheric Body of which our internet as a dim reflection.

Thus will dawn the realization of true world stewardship. It will lead to the recognition by Humanity of Hierarchy and Shamballa and cooperation with the Lord of the World of that Purpose which He deems ready to incarnate will become a planetary objective. To quote the Master Morya:

“Let us lift the consciousness to the betterment of all life, and the struggle for existence will give way to the conquest of possibilities!”

This will lead Humanity to the doorway of Omniscience. In this way we become a sacred planet.

“To the Spiritual Hierarchy, the Plan involves those arrangements or circumstances which will raise and expand the consciousness of mankind and enable them, therefore, to discover the spiritual values for themselves and to make the needed changes, of their own free will, and thus produce the demanded betterment of the environment, consistent with the unfolding spiritual recognition”. The Externalisation of the Hierarchy page 670

The Non-Dual Path is representative of the Spiritual Hierarchy’s focus as it relates to Humanity, Shamballa, as well as systemic and extra-Solar sources and contacts. The impact of this brings us all to the Portal of Initiation: individually, in group formation and in Humanity as One.

Let us examine Initiation both from outer lineages and internal results: Initiation, in this context, is referencing certain major transitions in an individual’s (and a group’s) spiritual evolution.

A Comprehensive Look At Initiation
A specific and precise meaning of Initiation is in making reference to certain major transitions in individual and group spiritual evolution. These may be called “Stations of the Soul” (Sufism), the sapta-jnana-bhumi or “Seven Stages of Wisdom” (Vedanta), among other terms. Each of these stages refers to a fundamental transition and a major cycle of death and rebirth each relating to a major plane, chakra, element, body and so forth. Each of these stages refers to a fundamental transition, and a major cycle of death and rebirth, relating to one of the major elements, bodies, planes, and chakras.

These stages of initiation are deep processes of purification, transformation and enlightenment resulting from time, dedication, pain and sacrifice. The process takes place over many incarnations. The turning point of each of these initiations (a satori or non-linear moment of awakening) is also a time of receiving a powerful moment of transmission from an initiating source.

The following overview of the first five initiations, with reflections and indications of the focus, or points of emerging tension that are prominent at each stage: These are general, as each person brings individual contributions causing unique elements to each person’s (and group) paths.

However, underlying is a somewhat universal pattern that can be understood through some of these indicators.

Initiation Plane Element Quality and Characteristic
1st. The Birth (Christian) Physical Earth Discipline, Self-Control, Karma Yoga
The Stream Enterer (Buddhist) 7th Ray Physical Equanimity/Purification
Transmutation & Transformation
Station of the Heart (Sufi) Physical Etheric opening

Breaking identification with the Physical body – establishing foundations of spiritual practice and Dharmic behavior.

The need to define service as right activity in one’s life.

Initiation Plane Element Quality and Characteristic
2nd, The Baptism Emotional Water Aspiration, Devotion, Love
The Once Returner 6th Ray Emotional Equanimity, Bhakti Yoga
Station of the Soul Tantric/Transformational Yogas

Breaking identification with the Emotional body – depending on approach, devotion, love and aspiration deepen.

Tantric/transformational yoga (vertical sex) as life focus now more suitable.

The emotional body now reflects hierarchical impression and the needs of humanity now define service.

In the Buddhist lineage, the disciple need return only one more life in order to reach the Arhat stage, however, the disciple may choose to reincarnate for reasons of service, not karma.

Now the Accepted Disciple and the Probationary Initiate.

Rejecting the Nirvana of the Personality in response to the first breath of planetary Bodhicitta – to serve the Will-to-Good of the Divine Plan.

Initiation Plane Element Quality and Characteristic
3rd , The Transfiguration Mental Air Mental Equanimity/Clarity/Knowledge
The Non-Returner 5th Ray Profound Concentration/Integration
Station of Divine Secrets End of Personal Physical Karma,
Jnana, Raja ,Tantra Yogas applicable.
Occultly absorbed into the Ashram

Breaking identification with the Mental Body — bringing deep intuitive opening.

Direct non-dual contemplation (Savikalpa, Nirbikalpa Samadhis possible after this initiation) and the path of self-surrender now accessible.

Non-dual awareness brought to the mental level. Internal radical non-dual awareness (Nirbikalpa or Nirbija Samadhi).

The perfection of Karma Yoga. Tantric/transformational practices still relevant in meditation and daily focus.

End of physical karma.

The first Synthesis opened and the Causal Body cracked with the first complete raising of the Kundalini allowing awareness centered in Mental Permanent Atom in deep meditation.

The need and opportunity to assist the Master in handling more ashramic work as an aspect of serving the Plan is now possible.

Able to contemplate on aspects of the Plan entrusted to the ashram.

The first degree Shamballa Disciple in- group- formation with others at the core of the Ashram through the Master.

With the first Synthesis Petal unfolded the disciple is able to contact and be impressed by the Monad far more easily than the individual personality can contact his own Ego.

The Mind of God can now impress the disciple.

The Monad now enters the state with other monads making up Ajna Center of the Planetary Logos.

Initiation Plane Element Quality and Characteristic
4th Arhat Intuitive Fire Profound Intuitional Equanimity
The Renunciation 4th Ray Love and Wisdom, Selflessness, Sacrifice,Christ-consciousness,
Station of Nearness to Allah End of Emotional Karma, Bhagwan Consciousness,
Beginning Bodhisattvahood

Breaking identification with the intuitive, spiritual soul — leading to constant God-consciousness (Bhagwan Consciousness).

Rigpa (Dzogchen) or Sahaj Samadhi (external radical non-dual awareness) (Nirvana with elements) whether on path of non-dual awareness, Divine Presence or both.

Non-dual awareness brought to the emotional level.

Custodian of the Divine Plan.

The Second Synthesis Petal opened and the Causal Body destroyed due to the second, further, more deeply penetrating, raising of the Kundalini.

The Amrita Nadi (a channel filling with Kundalini going from Crown to Heart – thus entering the true Heart Path) activated with the Kundalini raising further and more deeply a second time.

The completion and attainment of personal/individual enlightenment over- lapped with beginning bodhisattvahood.

After this attainment, each initiation more completely contributes to the out Life Wave or beyond.

First penetration to the Heart of the Sun, thereby the initiate at this degree can sense the Divine Purpose on this and the Venus Chain.

Initiation Plane Element Quality and Characteristic
5th Master Atman Akasha Theosis, Non-dual Consciousness,
The Asekha Adept Absorption into trans-human Beingness
Station of Oneness with Allah Completion of human karma, the Sant, The Siddha (Perfected Beings), Brahmi or Unity Consciousness, The Liberated Bodhisattva

Exhaustion of mental (and human) karma and Irritation of any kind, thus climaxing the process of complete transcendence of personality/Ego identification.

The Third Synthesis Petal opened with the complete dissipation of the destroyed Causal Body due to third more complete raising of the Kundalini.

Non-dual awareness brought to the physical level resulting in the Transubstantiation of the lower vehicles through Sarupa Samadhi – non-dual realization brought to the physical body resulting in a form of physical immortality, if chosen.

If completely allowed results in the Body of Light or “Great Transfer”: the complete transformation (the mystery of the true Transubstantiation) of the material elements into their inner essences.

Therefore, those attaining to the Fifth or higher initiations whose choice/dharma is to remain in physical incarnation must not fully integrate this state into the physical body.

Here lies the mystery of liberated and advanced bodhisattvahood considered as being a sacrifice.

At this initiation the Central Spiritual Sun is first penetrated.

Points of tension, invariably lead to points of revelation, when not correctly apprehended, understood and applied in service can lead to the causes of glamour and illusion on the path.

As the Tibetan states:

“The inexperienced neophyte is constantly receiving revelations and is recording what he regards as most unusual intuitions. All that is really happening, however, he is becoming aware of soul knowledge, whereas, for the initiate is ever the revelation of the purpose of Shamballa and the working out, both from the short range and the long range angle, of the Divine Plan.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 237/8

“I have stated that initiation is essentially a process of revelation. For the disciple who is being prepared to take initiation the emphasis is necessarily laid upon recognition — the intelligent recognition of what is to be revealed. This requires on his part a definite emergence from the world of glamour so that there can be a clear perception of the new vision; a new light is thrown upon old and well known truths so that their significance is extraordinarily changed, and in that changing the plan or purpose of Deity takes on an entirely fresh meaning.”

(See quotation above)

“As man the human being, man the disciple, and man the initiate gradually move onward on the stream of life, revelation comes step by step, moving from one great focus to another, until naught more remains to be revealed.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II page 293

“Once the initiate has penetrated to the point where revelation becomes possible, he automatically attains the needed fixation, concentration, poise, polarization and focus, which will enable him to translate what has been revealed to him, in terms and symbols which will convey significance to the intelligentsia with whom all initiates principally work. . . . The most urgent and most difficult part of his task is to correctly apprehend the precipitating truth, information or revelation, and then to give it equally correct format so that he can meet the immediate human need.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 312/3

It is in the failure to follow through, from revelation to correct apprehension and application in service, which results in the inertia and clogged aura of many aspirants and probationary disciples.

“In the initiatory process where the disciple is concerned, revelation is simply one way of expressing the constantly recurring effects of pressure forward and of vision . . .Revelation is both formless and also within form, and the closer to realization, the more subtle and devoid of form will be the revelation , , , It can be a pictorial symbol or a subtle demonstration; it can be expressed only in words, or it can take the form of wordless expression; it can be a goal or a future sensed possibility, but it can also be an incentive and dynamic impulse of the initiate’s life, because it is not distant but is a real aspect of his divine equipment.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II pages 367/8

It can be seen how important these points of tension are.

Most importantly: “There is no initiation possible without a preceding revelation, and yet each initiation leads to a subsequent revelation. The objective of all initiation is a conferred revelation, yet no initiation is attained without an earlier self-engendered and not conferred revelation.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II page 417

And finally we see how being in the present moment is the key to handling the following points of crisis: “You talk of a series of initiations, but the Masters talk in terms of a series of revelations, and Their work with disciples is to prepare them for revelation. . . . Bear in mind that revelation is hard to take and to hold – a point often overlooked. It is exhausting to the personality of the disciple, but it is of no service unless the personality recognizes it; it is excessively stimulating and the initiate passes through three stages where a revelation is concerned: First comes the stage of ecstasy and recognition; then darkness follows, and almost despair when the revelation fades and the disciple finds that he must walk again in the ordinary light of the world; he knows now that he is, but it is at this point that his test lies, for he must proceed on that inner knowledge but dispense with the stimulation of the revelation. Finally, he becomes so engrossed in his service, with aiding his fellow men, and with leading them toward their next revelation, that the excitement and reaction are forgotten. He then discovers to his surprise that at any time and at will – if it serves his selfless interests – the revelation is forever his. Ponder on this.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume II page389

As Humanity reaches the First Initiation, the outer work of the N.G.W.S will be more and more appropriated by Humanity. The day will come when the human kingdom as a whole will hold points of tension held by individuals or groups. Then we will only begin to know what Invocation/Evocation really means, what service to the Divine Plan and what sensing the Divine Purpose really is. Humanity will become a true Server within the Solar System. Indeed, the Tibetan has indicated that eventually Humanity will be a factor of service and Light in seven solar systems. To point to the words of the Master M. in the Agni Yoga books: “We affirm the Future!” Humanity will one day, with a divine point of tension, work consciously to become a liberated hierarchy, which is its destiny. Words cannot not begin to describe what Vision will unfold when we gaze and focus as One Humanity with one held point of tension.

As the First Degree Initiate, Humanity will no longer be tied to the rise and fall of civilizations, as in the past, because the form side will no longer dominate the consciousness of Man. Humanity as the World Disciple will embrace change and work for those changes with a conscious and cooperative effort to work with the sensed Plan. We will also learn to be more sensitive to the Hierarchy energetically. Earth will become a planet where the concept of World Disciple will pertain to Humanity as a whole. This will be the start of the Will-to-Good that the Great Ones are working toward.

After Humanity as a whole takes the Second Initiation, we will have the opportunity to begin holding points of tension as a whole which will produce the next Vision. We will have real Peace. We will purify, embrace and be present with the astral plane of the planet. We will then consciously cleanse and redeem all the accumulated ancient evils lurking on the lower levels of the emotional dimensions of the planet. The Golden Age will be present, but ever-changing in line with the Divine Plan and Purpose.

It might profit us here to consider Tantra in its planetary significance. Tantra is a term used in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions which refers to a philosophy and broad set of practices characterized by eventually realizing the non-dual Absolute through integrating the male/female duality in oneself (as well as something envisioned as a goal in daily life) and a deep reverence for the feminine in nature. In the past this was realized through worship of the Goddess, and accomplished by working with subtle energies, the charkas, and later with the kundalini. There is a marked tendency to honor and work to transform matter, nature, form, desire, and the physical body, rather than to ignore, reject, repress, and remain indifferent to these aspects. Some approaches to tantra are open to working with those practices considered taboo in other teachings, including the famous sexual practices, which are not universally employed or acknowledged in Tantric approaches. Rather than over-emphasizing the form aspect, the hierarchical approach sees the essence of tantra as that of transformation, as service, as the Will-to-Good, as opposed to the simple affirmation of virtues. This leads to the releasing of vices or hindrances (releasing the prisoners of the planet) as well as the integration of opposites leading to the Mystic Marriage.

Tantra Yoga is also practiced in many forms including Kundalini yoga and can extend to other forms such as Raja and Kriya yogas should they begin to lead to an unfolding transformation. Like kundalini, raja and kriya yogas, tantra is a comprehensive path that may incorporate ritual, devotion, mantra, nada, among many other practices. These are all seen as modes to approaching the integration of desire and the entire lower nature and lifting them into the Light of our higher natures (transforming them).

When the disciple in the ashram learns to hold those points of tension that are the result of integrating the ashramic life with the outer life of service, then he or she is employing tantra as presented by the Hierarchy. The points of presented tension being a further step — holding that point of tension that leads to the “soul controlling the outer form, and life and all events”.

The Tibetan has pointed out the most profound hints (which are not registered, no matter how many readings, until the disciple is ready).

Hierarchy as the embodiment of Planetary Bodhicitta

Bodhicitta is the altruistic motivation to seek enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. The aspiration to personal liberation is the motivating cause eventually leading to arhatship, individual enlightenment, but this is not attained until we are consumed by bodhicitta. Then awakening bodhicitta (sometimes called ‘relative enlightenmen’) becomes the motivating cause resulting in buddhahood. Buddhahood is a liberating enlightenment that is realized and expressed to its fullest through the cultivation of the complete spectrum of spiritual capacities in service and in spiritual virtues leading to a universal awakening. Awakening bodhicitta results in the birth of a bodhisattva, a being moving toward buddhahood as the highest form of service.

The bodhisattava follows a path of perfect balance of Love and Wisdom through the practice of the full potential and spectrum of human spirituality. The deepest level of bodhicitta (often called ‘absolute bodhicitta’) is the realization of non-duality, which supports the development of Love/Wisdom to its fullest.

Since the achievement of the Christ in which He established a continuous contact with The Lord of the World and Shamballa, the entire Hierarchy has been orienting itself to more and continuous contact with Shamballa. Today, the center of an Ashram, the Master, is a point of contact with Shamballa, and Who today is giving opportunity to those initiates of at least the third degree, to partake of that contact with the Center, in group formation (affording them the opportunity to become Shamballa Disciples). The implications of this are astonishing and this fact foreshadows the ultimate success of the hierarchical effort in this present cycle.

The Hierarchy as a whole also makes group contact with Shamballa (and thereby can be impressed by Sanat Kumara), hence it being told that the Hierarchy forms the Ashram of Sanat Kumara. So the achievement of the Christ Who 2000 years ago, contacted, brought down and anchored the Shamballa energy so that the Hierarchy (eventually Humanity via the Hierarchy) has the opportunity to link Its relative bodhicitta to Its potential of absolute bodhicitta.

These achievements also have impact on the disciple starting after the second initiation. Bodhicitta (as a result of the disciple working closer with the ashram) begins to impact the disciple’s astral body. The motivation to serve from life to life may result in the disciple voluntarily foregoing the so-called ‘Nirvana of the Personality” (the highest point toward the end of the afterlife prior to incarnation) is sacrificed. This results in not losing any time in service to the Plan, by not getting side-tracked in being caught up, or getting absorbed in an any activity which interrupts one’s chosen service to the Plan. This will cut short time in the afterlife in order to continue serving, often by reincarnating as quickly as possible.

“I would point out to you that the two greatest revealing Agents Who have ever come to earth within the range of modern history, made the following simple revelations to humanity:

i. The cause of human suffering is desire and personal selfishness. Give up desire and you will be free.

ii. There is a way of liberation and it leads to illumination.

iii. It profits man nothing to gain the world and lose his soul.

iv. Every human being is a Son of God.

v. There is a way of liberation and it is the way of love and sacrifice.

Glamour: A World Problem page 185

Points of Tension and the Hierarchy

Let us first define Hierarchy. Hierarchy stems from the Greek hier – meaning ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’ and arch – among other things meaning ‘ruler’ or ‘principle’ – therefore a ‘holy order of rulers and principles’. In various traditions across the planet and the ages it is believed that there is a group of Beings associated with the Earth, including many in human incarnation, Who form a spiritual hierarchy of the planet. In the Sufi tradition, advanced members of this group are called “Sufis” or “awliyas”, regardless of what spiritual tradition they may be associated with. In other places and traditions, they have been referred to as ‘Enlightened Bodhisattvas’, or ‘Mahatmas’, ‘Great Rishis’, ‘Avatars’, or ‘Siddhas’ from the Hindu; the Tao tradition refers to them as ‘Immortals’; ‘Righteous One’ from Judaism; ‘the society of Enlightened and Illumined Minds’ from the pre-Tibetan; ‘Elder Brothers’ from the Rosicrucian, among many other examples. Regardless if the terminology, such a group has been with us since pre-historic times, and is remembered by the race as the gods and goddesses of yore.

The Spiritual Hierarchy is believed to exercise a benevolent influence over the spiritual traditions and activities of the Earth, over human culture as well as guide the evolution of the human and nature kingdoms of the planet — in line with the Divine Purpose of Deity. This Divine Purpose is stepped down and formulated as the Plan of God by the Hierarchy. This Plan is formulated into cycles. The shorter cycles within any given century are entrusted to disciples and initiates (much like on the job training). In the beginning, posts in the Hierarchy were held by Beings Who achieved liberation on other planets, but most of those posts today are rapidly held by those of humanity who have achieved, allowing those Who came before to go on to Higher Work. Earth humanity graduates now hold up the banner for the rest of us!

This last Initiation of Decision, Libra Full Moon of 2001, may have resulted in more Masters taking Decision than at any previous time, resulting in new opportunities and responsibilities from those disciples after the second initiation onwards. This may result in an unprecedented opportunity to more swiftly aid humanity in closing the door where evil dwells and speeding up the time of reconstruction that the Tibetan has hinted at the beginning of the 21st century. Perhaps this will hasten, or at least insure, the Externalization of the Hierarchy and the Reappearance of “He Whom the whole world awaits”.

“The Hierarchy is a community of souls who are swept by the desire to serve [bodhicitta], urged by a spontaneous impulse to love, illumined by one pure Light, devotedly fused and blended into groups of serving Minds, and energized by One Life. Its Members are organised to serve the Plan which they consciously contact, and which they deliberately cooperate.

The Hierarchy of Illumined Minds is a group whose telepathic powers enable them to be sensitive to the mind currents of those Who personify the Mind of God, the Universal Mind, and to register the thoughtforms of Those Who are as far beyond the Hierarchy of Masters as They, in Their turn, are to the disciples of the world.

“Those Lives Who carry out the ideas of the Divine Mind, exist in Their graded orders, and with the details of Their groupings, we are not concerned, except for the fact that the Planetary Brotherhood is in telepathic rapport with Those Who are responsible for the planetary conditions in the Solar System, with the Great Council, therefore, at Shamballa. They are also therefore in immediate telepathic rapport with each other. The slowly manifesting power of the radio, and the sensitive workings of the perfecting mechanisms of the radio and of television [not to mention the computer, internet, global satellite communications, etc.] are but the response in physical matter of the perfected telepathic powers and television of the Masters of the Wisdom. Forget not that such powers are available to all men.

The inner group of Master with which I am associated, also work telepathically with Their disciples, and the disciples with each other in lesser degree.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I page 24

“There are many in the Hierarchy at this time, Who have refused further opportunity of progress, in order to stay with and help the sons of men.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I page 290

“The group of a Master is a focus of power, built up by the Master is three ways:

i. By the potency of His Own thought life, evoked by His response to the united Hierarchical purpose, and by a growing ability to respond to Shamballa.

ii. By His ability to integrate the center of power (His group for which He has made himself responsible) into the immediate activity of the Hierarchy.

iii. By His wisdom in His choice of collaborators. His group of disciples will be effective in world service and useful to His Superiors, just as far as He employs judgment in gathering together the men and women He is preparing for initiation.

…A Master can be greatly hindered or aided in His work for Humanity in His choice of disciples.”

Discipleship in the New Age — Volume I pages 684/5

“The work of the radiatory activity of the Hierarchy is today more potent than at any time in human history. The Masters and Their disciples (under the guidance of the World Teacher of that period) were physically present on earth in early Atlantean times and the radiation emanating from Them at that time was protective, guarding and nurturing. Later the Hierarchy withdrew into a subjective expression, and humanity was – under the Law of Evolution – left to its own devices, thus to learn the Way, and to tread the Path of Return, through individual experiment and experience. The Masters (in this long interim) have not come forth to contact humanity on any large or group scale; many of Their senior disciples, have, however, emerged at varying intervals and as needed; the World Teacher has also come forth to sound the key for each new civilisation, and to express the results of the passing civilisation. Men have had, therefore, to find their way alone to the Hierarchy; in silence that Hierarchy has waited, until the number of “enlightened souls” was so great that their invocative appeal, and their magnetic radiation reached such a potency which could not be denied; the balance of equilibrium, between the Kingdom of God on Earth, and the Kingdom of God in Heaven (to use Christian phraseology), became such that the “Gates of Return” could be opened free intercourse be established between the fourth and fifth kingdoms in nature. The Gates (and I am here speaking symbols) are already opening, and soon will stand wide open to admit the passing of the “Son of Man, the perfected Son of God”, back to the place — our Earth – where He earlier demonstrated perfect love and service. But – as you know – this time He will not come alone, but will bring with Him the Heads of certain Ashrams, as well as a trained group of initiates and disciples.

These happenings are taking place today before the eyes of all men, even though much that is going on remain unrecognised over vast areas of world thought and by many millions of men. However . . . there are enough initiates and disciples working upon the physical plane at this time to ensure a recognition so extensive that the steady, consistent arousing of human expectation is guaranteed. Ponder on this, and learn to recognize on every side the signs of human anticipation, and the pronounced indication of the approach of the Hierarchy.”

Discipleship in the New Age Volume II pages 409/10

“The Hierarchy is the result of Human activity and aspiration; it has been created by Humanity.

Its members are human beings who have lived, suffered, achieved, failed, attained success, endured death and passed through the experience of resurrection. . . All states of consciousness are known to Them, and They have mastered all of them; They have mastered them as men, thus guaranteeing to Humanity the same ultimate achievement . . .Their great Master is the Christ; They have passed through the initiation of the new birth, the baptism, the transfiguration, the final crucifixion and the resurrection. But They are still men and differ from the Christ only in the fact that He, the first of our Humanity to attain divinity, the Eldest in a great family of brothers (as St. Paul expresses it), the Master of the Masters, and the Teacher of angels and of men, was deemed so pure, so holy and enlightened, that He was permitted to embody for us the great cosmic principle of Love; He thus revealed to us, for the first time, the nature of the Heart of God.

These perfected men, therefore exist; They are more than men because the divine spirit in them registers all stages of consciousness and awareness – subhuman, human and superhuman. This inclusive development enables then to work with men, to contact Humanity at need, and to know how to lead us forward to the phases of resurrection.”

The Externalization of the Hierarchy pages 472/3

In Closing

We stand on the threshold of stupendous and unprecedented opportunity. This paper has attempted, in a small way, to bring, to some, fresh perspective and the processes.

To look at the same things from a different perspective and focus has ever been the way just before embarking on the new dispensation.

It is hoped that in examining some old concepts (Tantra, Points of Tension, and Bodhicitta) will be of some value.

In the meantime, may we continue to look at fresh opportunities to serve, and deepen, our apprehension of Truth, Beauty, Love, Compassion and Service to the Whole and ever strive to fit ourselves to be of service to the Whole.

Love to All Beings, North, South, East, West, Above, Below: Love to All Beings!

Peace, Joy, Bliss, Compassion, Service to All Beings!

2002