A Deeper Look at Detachment

I took a six month journey into an understanding of detachment which has taken me deeper into the concept than I had imagined, and in ways I could not foresee. I thought that I had, through recent experience shown a fair level of it and had become a witness in my life. This was true in a sense, but it  would be tested. My life has changed in many ways and I have resisted that change. I did not just trust the process and do whatever was my next task, knowing deeply that everything is moving in the right direction. I began to wallow in ego and wonder why I was so misunderstood and why my job had become this and my financial situation had become that. I have worked very hard for years on my projects and nothing appeared to be happening so I needed to get back to work to support my family. When I needed it, it was there, but I carried resentment at returning to a working environment that had become foreign to me. Rather than recognizing that my needs were being met and that the system was working as it should, I could only see that it was not working in the way I had hoped.

Where was the detachment? Where was the interested observer? It seemed the more I tried to detach myself from these situations the more I attached myself to them. Anger crept back into my consciousness and over a period of time I began to slip back into old habits of thinking. I began to wonder if this was just a part of the process. Was I just more attached than I thought, gaining recognition of the fact as I looked more closely? Was I actually becoming more attached because I was looking more closely? I saw that moment as a turning point and began to come out of what was a very difficult time based on those questions arising in my mind. My lower self had seized the moment and took advantage of a weakened resolve to re-assert itself. I am still faced with a situation which seems unsustainable and could face further complications which make the outcome unknowable. It is just more OK than it was before.

Many spiritual teachers tell personal stories of great loss. Many successful business people tell of multiple bankruptcies prior to the developmental changes that lead to their eventual success. The loss of the things that one identifies one’s self with is a very traumatic and powerful moment. Eckhart Tolle tells of being suicidal and going beyond that total loss of self into a void. He came out of the other side of it into bliss. He spent the better part of 5 months homeless, sitting on park benches in what he describes as pure presence. This is the unfiltered awareness toward which discipleship is geared. He became a spiritual teacher and has dedicated his life to helping others attain that bliss through the discovery of the eternal now.

What lead to his epiphany was the loss of all that he identified with, and from which he drew his sense of self. This left nothing but the witness, and could have lead to his taking of his own life in the usual meaning of that term, through suicide. Instead it liberated him from his suffering in a different way and he took his life in a completely new direction. He died while still alive. He gave up his identification with the mortal coil, as Shakespeare called it, while the mechanism still lived. As much as I thought I had learned about detachment, I was only capable of releasing certain things. There were many things I still had very deep attachments to and still do. Of course I don’t expect to be perfect but we need to continually ascertain where we are so we know what the next step is.

This renunciation comes in stages depending on the karma, the circumstances, and developmental level and capacity of the person involved. Its culmination is the fourth initiation in which all sense of self is renounced including the Soul and its causal body is burned up in the process. Just as in the case of having a psychological death without the death of the human form, it is possible and eventually necessary to release all ties to possessions and the outcomes of our activities. If we are unable to release these ties when the time is ripe, then Egoic impulse may set events in motion that remove what we are clinging to. It seems that if we are capable of that release while these things, people, or circumstances still exist within our lives that this devastation on the physical plane is not necessary. Seek first the kingdom of God and then all else will be rendered unto you. You may not have to live in poverty or come to the edge of suicide to lose that sense of self if you are working on it consciously.

Jesus told the rich and pious man to sell all he had and give to the poor, then follow him. The man walked away hanging his head because he had great possessions and could not imagine his life without those things. He also said that it is easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom. He did not say it was impossible, but was acknowledging, I believe, the strong pull that our possessions have upon us and how cumbersome those attachments are on the path. The more we possess, the more we are possessed, if we allow it. Emerson said if you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end instantly attaches itself to you. If you believe another human being completes you than you are only half a person.

As disciples and aspirants we are supposed to practice control over our desire or emotional nature with our mental nature. It is always the higher which gains steady control over the lower. The problem is that we are also to aspire to higher learning and expression and that in itself is a desire. So how do we use desire while simultaneously shutting it down? The simple answer is we don’t. It is not necessary at this point in our lives to destroy our astral (desire) nature. What we need to do is stop letting it drive. As we use our minds and strengthen them we begin to exercise control over emotional responses.

The emotional investment is some part of what is at stake. In situations where we don’t “have a dog in the race” we can be impartial and more effective judges. It’s easy to raise other people’s kids from the sidelines. I think every kid should have a step parent; we are so much harder to manipulate. We need to be able to apply that interested detachment to our own lives as well as those situations. If we are more effective when we are detached we should try to be that effective in our own lives. It is easier said than done but not impossible.

The point is that we need to live and love without clinging. We speak of love as the law of attraction. If we don’t stop attracting, we should never need to begin clinging. A magnet does not need a hook. As long as it stays a magnet the iron won’t leave. If you want to keep someone in your life, make them happy and they will want to stay. Clinging never really kept anyone from leaving and sometimes it makes them want to. It works with everything. You have attracted all that is in your life by thinking of it and infusing that thought with emotion. If you only infuse the negative thoughts then that is what you manifest. That is why we try to think positively and radiate good feelings. We will resonate with and manifest the positive thoughts and our lives will show it.

The next step is to become acutely aware of the functioning of our minds. In the same way that we can step aside and observe our emotional state, we can observe our mental state. This means that the mind is no longer our identity. Who is watching the mind? The Soul. This is the unit of consciousness within the greater life. It has no beginning or end that we can deal with practically. It can’t use money, doesn’t need sex, a house, a job, or children, and can’t be killed. To the soul, none of these things matters, except in how they contribute to the opportunity for growth. In that case, what Eckhart Tolle experienced which seemed like the worst of possible circumstances to his personality, was a good day for his Soul.

In Esoteric Healing we are told not to invoke the will, and to realize that for the soul’s purpose, death may be the result of successful healing. We do not understand the soul’s purpose or we would be called adept. If we attach to circumstances that are of no interest to the soul, we impede its development. If we recognize our identity as the soul then the matters of daily living will take their rightful place as circumstances with which we must deal. We cannot confuse what is our life with our life situations. Emersion in that situation is effectively the same as an actor believing in the threats or dangers inherent in the play in which he plays his role. Only the character he portrays is at risk. The actor’s true self is outside of the realm of the threat or circumstance. “Be a Soul” said Ram Dass. This is what you are in essence, and you are safe to experience all the travails of life without concern. What is the real you cannot be harmed on the physical plane.

Death and Living Part III – Incarnation

We have discussed in the first two parts of this series, what I perceive as the misconceptions about death and the possible sources of these traditions and misconceptions. Then we covered what the Ageless Wisdom teaches on the process of the death of the physical body and the staged withdrawal of the indwelling consciousness or Soul. I would like now to address the reverse process that occurs when after a period of repose the Soul seeks again to venture into the physical world to gain more experience and also to put into practice what it has learned about functioning in that world.

The soul on its own plane does not record experiences per se. It has no gender or nationality. It has no personality and is not simply a disembodied person. It really only registers growth and is increased in its capacity to create on the physical plane through experience. Memories are available through access to the storehouse known as the Akashic Records, but as it incarnates it does not bring with it any recollections of those experiences accept in fairly rare cases where children recount events of past “lives” they have lived. This formed the basis for much of the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson. He found that in these cases physical attributes seemed to carry over as well. There are likely many more cases of this that are written off by parents as fantasy or suppressed by them for the same reason until the child is convinced that these things are dreams that never happened. It is actually fortunate in a way that we do not remember our distant past. Memories of past wrongs could impede progress just as memories of past accomplishments could lead to an inflated sense of self, another impediment.

My father used an analogy of a computer and its programmer as a utility to express the function of the Personality (the computer) and the Programmer (the Soul). Imagine a programmer who has had as his task the tracking of inventory in a company in the past (life) and now is tasked with the tracking of payroll records. His new computer has no need for the inventory records in its memory and although his expertise increased through the experience he gained and his capacity to understand computers was enhanced through that process, even the programmer has no direct use for the information that was imperative in his last assignment.

So the Soul enters a new episode with the fruits of the past in capacity of expression without the un-necessary and cumbersome information about every detail. Residing in the causal body, a sheath of very fine and rarified matter on the upper mental planes it extends from itself a thread of light known as the anthakarana. Strung upon this thread are the Physical, Astral, and Mental “permanent atoms” containing all of the capacities it has gained in the experiences of the past and that it will use in constructing the new mental, emotional, and physical bodies of the coming incarnation. Don’t get hung up on the word atom as it is represented by science. That picture in your head is a cartoon anyway. The word is simply a representation of an indivisible unit of some substance. Having split atoms in the laboratory for decades, science itself admits this is a misnomer. We are talking about the smallest possible remnant of each of the three aspects of personality that is carried with the Soul in order to create a new form. I know it is hard to wrap your head around a concept like this but your physical body was created from a single cell and all the instructions to create a multi-billion celled infant in the course of nine months was held in a strand of DNA. Think of this as “Psychic DNA”.

This foray into the “three worlds” of evolution is done with purpose and in order to accomplish certain ends or growth, so it chooses a situation that will foster the possibility of that growth. Souls are said to incarnate in groups with so called “karmic ties”. A child born into a family today may have been that family’s matriarch in generations past, or someone with particularly close ties to one of the family members. If you have heard the complaint that some child has not chosen his or her parents, the Ageless Wisdom teachings contradict that notion directly. You are where you are out of your own choice and creation. This is true within a single incarnation and the much longer all encompassing life of the Soul as well.

In the perfect economy of nature nothing is lost and the new bodies will reflect the capacities and level of refinement acquired through previous incarnations. So, if I am eating and living in a way that is really purifying my body, I will theoretically carry over that purity into the creation of the next one. For this reason, it is never too late to do anything to make amends for past wrongs, even on one’s death bed. It is never too late to begin purifying the physical body, strengthening the mind or subduing the emotions. “I’m too old to change” doesn’t hold water here.

The Soul broods over an essentially useless body through the age of infancy and appropriates the physical body between the ages of four and seven. This corresponds to western psychology’s assertion of the formative years. These are the years in which outside influences of environment set the stage for all further development. The second crisis in the development of the individual happens between 14 and 17 years when the emotional body is appropriated. Anyone who has had a teenager in their home can attest to this as an emotional turmoil of the highest degree. The lower self always rebels against the imposition of control by the Soul and discipline is needed to further development. In these early stages there really is no choice. The mental body is appropriated between the ages of 25 and 28. This does not mean that the personality is fully integrated. Far from it. What is happening up to this point is really a re-capitulation of the previous spiritual development.

The soul now has a vehicle which is fully capable of responding to its impressions, if it is interested. Now is when the personality’s choices really come into the picture. You have to grow up. You don’t have to behave as a grownup. I know men in their 50’s who act like (and think like) they are still 12. If it is going to happen, the Personality really opens the door to this impression, either voluntarily or as the result of some crisis. The person has to begin to identify with the inner thinker rather than the outer expression. Sometimes this is a result of dissatisfaction and sometimes it comes as a result of the loss of all that with which it had previously identified itself. Life crises are often the focal point of revelation.

Eckhard Tolle points to being about to lose everything and in deep despair when he describes going down a tunnel in his consciousness releasing everything and emerging into bliss. He spent the better part of the next five months homeless and on park benches in what he describes as pure presence; a state of open, non judgmental consciousness or enlightenment. All that had been the source of “self”, the mental constructs and associations was gone, leaving just the witness or Soul.

I don’t believe that it is necessary to lose everything to gain enlightenment. We just have to lose our unhealthy and unproductive attachments to the material world. Revelation is said to come as a series of recognitions leading to a change in identification. You are a soul. Recognition of this and then the subsequent functioning as a Soul in the world but not of the world is the task at hand. Your level of accomplishment at this task will represent the foundation upon which the next one will be constructed.

www.Higher-Ground.com

Death and Living Part 2

The soul’s contact with the body (bodies) is maintained through a twofold channel or thread. It is a literal bridge of light from the Soul to its mechanism. The first, called in Sanskrit the Sutratma is the life thread and is anchored in the heart center, one of the 7 major centers or Chakras found in the etheric or energetic counterpart of the physical body. The second is the anthakarana or consciousness thread which is anchored at the top of the head at the Crown center. It is sometimes referred to as the “Rainbow Bridge”. We know that we can be alive but unconscious, and this is a result of the temporary withdrawal of that contact. Meditation is the process by which the anthakarana is developed and strengthened and the conscious contact with the soul is increased, allowing it more influence in the “life” of the practitioner.

The withdrawal of the soul’s support is sometimes accompanied at the moment of death by the appearance of a blue spark coming out of the top of the head. This is one of the points of exit usually used when we are dealing with an advanced human being, because that is where the consciousness is centered, rather than in the solar plexus of the less developed individual. I shared a flight with a Registered Nurse, who by the way shared very little else in the way of beliefs or philosophy other than a fairly open mind. When I told her I did not believe in an anthropomorphic and interfering God she said “oh, I’m sorry”. I couldn’t help but feel the same for her. She told me she had seen this occurrence 7 times in her career.

At that moment of withdrawal the body is no longer subject to the cohesive and coordinating energy of the soul and begins to decompose. The etheric or energetic structure remains for a period of time and the life force of the cells themselves is still present. This is why an organ can be removed and used in another body. The cells are still alive and when placed under the influence of the other person’s soul, can begin functioning again along with the normal repair and rebuilding that replaces all of those cells over time. Keeping with the statement from Part I, over the course of 7-10 years this will no longer be foreign material but each and every cell will have been re-created under the influence of the dweller of the “new” body in which this organ now resides.

Cremation is a recommended practice in esoteric circles because it hastens the decomposition of the Physical and Etheric bodies, freeing the consciousness or soul more quickly to continue its journey.

The Soul now resides in the Astral or emotional body, but this too must be dropped when the time is right. Depending on the strength of the astral body and its attachments to the physical world, this can take a prolonged period of time. People have long reported having been “visited” by loved ones just after passing. This can be caused by strong astral or emotional ties between the two people.

In some cases of addiction or other irresistible drives toward material satisfaction the Soul may become “earthbound” and wander the astral plane searching for satisfaction it can never have without a physical body. This is a cause of possession, which is only recognized as such in the most dramatic cases but can occur without the person possessed realizing it, even after the fact. In an impaired state either due to intoxication or severe emotional distress the host is overcome by an entity seeking expression and loses control. The next day he may not know what came over him, but he knows that he was “not himself” the night before.

When the Astral vehicle is dropped the soul remains in the mental vehicle, a more refined and subtler body of the Manasic plane. Under certain conditions the astral shell may go on even though uninhabited. In some cases when a psychic is contacting a person who passed long ago, they are merely contacting a resilient thought form or astral shell and have not really contacted the being who had at one time occupied that shell.

Once the mental body is likewise abandoned the Soul now occupies the Causal Body on the upper levels of the Manasic Plane, which in Biblical texts is referred to as the Temple of Solomon. A temple “made without hands” or mortar or brick. It is here that it will process the experiences of physical form life and prepare for the next cycle on the Wheel of Life in a state known as “Devachan”.

When the soul has processed it’s “life”, and is ready to take in a new round of experiences, it begins a new cycle, endowed with the heightened capabilities and capacities it has gained through all of its experiences. The Soul, on its own level is the product of its experiences just like the man. It just has more of them. It brings these capabilities to its next incarnation without the memories of the specific experiences, just as we bring our entire childhood with very few specific memories to each situation we encounter as adults. You can see behavior in people sometimes and just know that it is the product of something that happened when that person was a child. He does not even remember the event, but its effects are obvious.

This is the basis of psychological evaluation. We even refer to the psychologist as an analyst. Unfortunately, Psychology which is the knowledge of the soul or psyche has devolved into a science of behavioral modification. Modifying the personality rather than understanding the soul. It’s like the new math; getting the answer without understanding the process. This can just bury problems deeper rather than solving them.

The soul re-enters the physical realm with specific goals and chooses the environment that will most likely allow for the needed growth and development as well as the payment of what is called karmic debt. St Gregory, in the third century AD said “It is absolutely necessary that the soul be healed and purified. If this does not take place during its life on earth it must be accomplished in future lives.” The problem is that it enters the world in a body that is, for all practical intents, useless. This new body or, in its totality, “personality” is then basically programmed by other personalities, our parents and teachers. We have to overcome this programming through self discovery as adults so that we can realize our purpose.

If you are reading this article it is an indication of your desire to discover your true self because it is a challenge to the programming that most of us have undergone to question those things that are presented as absolute, like the nature of life and death or the existence of heaven and hell. I hope what I have had to say here has been helpful in your quest. Next month we will address the process by which the soul creates and takes hold of its mechanism.

Death and Living

As I sit here contemplating the subject I have decided to cover, wonder whether I really know what I am getting into. Most people won’t even talk about politics or religion, two of my favorite subjects. I am about to summarize my understanding of life and death, or death and living. This is no small task, but that is what makes it important. That and the idea that death has probably been the subject of more lies, stories, misguided fabrications and misunderstanding than any other in the history of mankind’s struggle to understand himself and the universe we inhabit since the dawn of time (another immense subject that will get little treatment here).

Much of this, I believe has sprung from the need to tell our children why grandma won’t be coming over on Sundays anymore. As adults we don’t really know where she is, so it’s nice to tell our children what we hope; that she is in a better place. I believe children are much more capable of assimilating and understanding truth than we think they are, and even more capable than we are at times, but in this case no one really knows what the truth is. Even if they do they don’t have the ability to convey that understanding to us and we have no ability to verify what they say. This involves more than just the barriers and blank spots that language represents, but also abstract ideas that lie outside the ability of the concrete mind to digest.

What I have to say on the subject will proceed, as always, from my understanding of the principals contained within the Ageless Wisdom teachings which are purported to be at the core of all of the major religions of the world. There will still be no way to prove what I propose and again, as always, it is up to the individual student to use the intuition to determine what part or parts of this position resonate with his or her consciousness and warrant further consideration. This is all that one can ask under the circumstances.

It begins with an understanding of the nature of the human constitution, which we have covered in  previous articles contained within the archives section of this newsletter The articles titled “Spirit Soul and Personality” and “The Human ‘Being’” may be worth reading if you are unfamiliar with what the teachings have to say on this. In order to stay on the subject I will assume a certain level of understanding of that topic as I proceed.

Most of us believe we have a soul, or consciousness that indwells the body. Its existence is proposed in all of the world’s religions. Its departure at death is a fairly universal tenet as well. Without the soul’s support or at least presence, the body lies down and decomposes. What the Ageless Wisdom teachings tell us is that the indwelling soul is the human being and the physical body with its energetic or “etheric” counterpart, as well as the Astral (emotional) and Manasic (mental) bodies are merely sheaths taken on by the soul in order to interact in the lower three worlds or planes of manifestation. The soul has no sex, nationality, race (other than Human) or personality of its own. As a matter of fact the personality is a term used to identify the sum total of those three sheaths or bodies with which we interact and experience the physical world and, each other.

The soul is that immortal “you” which for the purposes of this conversation will not “die” and remains intact at physical death to continue on in unknowable realms when that personality is no longer of use and or the physical body no longer functions. Reincarnation is the belief that the soul takes on new forms in succession in order to further perfect is grasp of, and ability to function in, the physical world and the “use” of matter for that expression and interaction. This belief is not necessary in order to grasp the process of life and death as I understand it, but it certainly fits in and ties the pieces together for me.

In trying to understand this process people have asked me questions like; how many lives will I have? If we look at it from the perspective of the soul, the indwelling thinker in the body, the answer is “one”. Your soul, being the “real” you will live only once, through many incarnations and episodes, through many differing garments or bodies. If you think about it, even in a single lifetime we have had many different bodies. We are taught by medical science that every cell in our bodies is replaced over the course of 7-10 years and some in cell types over the course of days. You don’t have the body you occupied at your 5^th birthday, but your memories are contained in your consciousness; the consciousness or soul that is the real you. This aspect will not die, so eternal life, in the context of these teachings, is a reality.

The Christian Churches, and they are many, teach of an immortal soul that does not pre-exist birth but lives on after death. We are told that if we live and exemplary life here on earth we will go on to live in Heaven, a place with no pain or death which is depicted in the clouds with Angels playing harps. I saw a woman interviewed after the horrific murder of her sister talking about a plane ride in which she felt closeness to her sister being up in the clouds where her sister undoubtedly now resided. I find this as hard to believe as she might find the concept of reincarnation in which her sister had not died, but the physical body she had employed as a means of contact with the world we inhabit had been destroyed and she would now have a period of rest (pralaya) until she deemed it beneficial to begin the process anew. From the perspective of the Ageless Wisdom the crime of murder is that the mechanism for the soul’s purpose in the world is destroyed, ending the possibility (in that particular cycle) of the soul fulfilling that purpose.

A recent television documentary proposed the possibility that the ostuary (or bone box) used to hold the final remains of Jesus may have been recovered. After the show a panel was convened with various religious leaders arguing against the possibility that this was for real. One of these high level priests was insisting it could not be the case because Jesus had ascended in his physical body to heaven. He essentially said that the entirety of the faith hinged on this occurrence and that his belief system disintegrates if the ostuary was in fact used for Jesus’ mortal remains. I wish I were there to ask the question no one asked. If he ascended in a physical body, where did it go? How can he enter this non physical realm physically? Heaven is not a place. If it “is” at all, it “is” a state of conscious being. The polar opposite, Hell, is not an underground dungeon that can someday be excavated either. If it exists, we are in it now. This is where there is pain and suffering if we allow it and “death” as we understand it.

The process of the withdrawal of the soul from the “mortal coil” (Shakespeare) happens in stages. The death of the physical body is the first and of course the most obvious. The successive stages of withdrawal from the subtle bodies of the human personality, we will cove in Part II.

The Soul and its Mechanism

One of my papers for The Arcane School required that I relate my current understanding of the nature of the Soul and its Mechanism. I was tempted to look at my old papers and begin with what I have written in the past on this subject because it is so daunting a task, but I resisted, wanting to honestly take the snapshot of my understanding in the here and now. This represents that snapshot.

Soul is a universal principal and an aspect of the divine trinity. It is synonymous with Consciousness and represents the second aspect of Love/Wisdom. We see this aspect, therefore in expression on every possible level of manifestation for it represents itself through the synthesizing of spirit and matter. The soul is love.

It is the binding agent of the universe, if I could put it so bluntly. Every form from the grossest mineral matter on the dense physical plane up through the highest manifestation displays an aspect of this principal, as it must. As above, so below, states the Hermetic aphorism. It binds the sub atomic particles that make the atom and binds the atoms together to form a molecule. It is the support system keeping all life forms in the plant and animal kingdoms coherent and growing. Without this cohesive energy and support the life form goes through the death process of restitution and elimination, returning the matter and energy of which it was made back to the reservoirs from which they were drawn.

In the higher life forms in the animal kingdom it is known as the anima mundi and is passed from life to life through the reproductive process, carrying with it the developed characteristics of the species and extending the refining process through many lifetimes producing ever more complex and diverse manifestations of the one life. Life evolves through generation after generation to higher and more accurate expression of its divine origin.

Within the human being we see this as one of the expressions of soul, the soul of the bodily nature. We also see the reincarnating entity or individualized soul. Man is the creature in which the lower evolution is met by spirit on the path of return. Spirit in manifestation as the Monad or divine spark clothes itself in matter of the higher planes of the cosmic physical plane in order to find expression in the lower three worlds through the use of the fleshy vehicle created through this refining process. It forms sheaths of the finer matter of the Atmic, Buddhic and the highest sub-planes of the Manasic plane, creating a causal body through which it will contact the lower three worlds of manifestation.

It creates a form on the lower three planes in order to better master these worlds and matter itself. It vitalizes the lower triune expression of concrete mind, emotions, and the physio-etheric body through the life thread or sutratma, and communicates with this lower self via the consciousness thread known as the anthakarana. Over many incarnations it develops an increasing ability to find expression through these denser vehicles and grows in its ability to express through this experience. It also gains facility in building and creates vehicle of higher caliber and sensitivity over time, which of course enhances the soul’s ability to establish contact in future cycles.

I see the life of the lower self in terms of a dream of the soul. Through the experience of dreaming it becomes a more adept dreamer and begins to gain in ability to control these dreams. At first when it enters this dream state, just as the personality mechanism in its dreaming, it is not aware of its potency and is in a sense just going along for the ride. Just as a personality can gain dream control or lucidity in the dream state with practice, the soul can become an ever more effective dreamer gaining in its ability to control the life of the personality over many lifetimes.

As this development continues the soul becomes more effective in seeing its purpose fulfilled during the cycle of incarnation. It is building the antahkarana and participating in the “waking state” of the personality. The outward expression of this is a more effective human being, manifesting the love of the soul outwardly and aiding and nurturing his brothers on the path, which he may still be treading unconsciously.

As this integration between personality and soul continues the aspirant and later the disciple is said to be leading a soul infused life. Under the soul’s influence this life becomes one of study (developing the mental apparatus), Meditation (further developing soul contact), and Service.

Service is the outward expression of the effects of this soul infusion and it is also a technique which aids in group awareness. Empathy and love for his fellowmen, community, and eventually all humanity is increased as he grows in this awareness and realization that we are all in this together and even that we are all component parts of one greater organism. An organism is an assemblage of lives working together as a whole, whether conscious of this fact or, as is usually the case, unconscious of it. Having some small percentage of these contributing lives working consciously helps to move the purpose of the greater life forward.

In connection with humanity and the One Life we refer to these workers and servers as working in harmony and “cooperation” with the plan to whatever level they can understand it, but how is this accomplished?

In order to gain control over the mechanism we must first gain an understanding of what it is. If all is energy, and energy follows thought as the occult wisdom teaches, then we must gain an understanding of the energetic underpinnings of the physical world, and then learn to direct these energies, as force through the use of the mind. Gaining a working knowledge of the constitution of man, or the anatomy of consciousness is an essential step in this process. It allows us to direct our consciousness consciously. There are many external forces directing and influencing the mass of humanity, but as the student learns more about himself and his surroundings he becomes a more self directed part of the overall picture. “The student learns by self devised and self induced methods” (HPB).

This act of self direction represents the transmutation of the desire based aspiration into spiritual will and the student of occult wisdom becomes and active participant in the forwarding of the divine will or plan, as he understands it. Through the understanding of the etheric substance and centers of vitalizing force of the physical frame as well as the response mechanism to the directing energies of the astral and mental natures the student refines and perfects the mechanism, tuning it to the souls influence. Resonance with the higher vibrations of the soul simultaneously represents dissonance with the lower vibratory nature of what are called negative emotions such as hate.

Understanding of our unity with all life naturally fosters harmlessness. With what part of ourselves will we wish to make war? Who’s resources would we steal? What part of humanity deserves to starve once we realize we are one? What part of the earth shall we destroy when we realize she is our source and not a resource?

The individualization of consciousness is a stage which is important to our development. As is the case with every other stage, there comes a time when we must transcend it and move on. Becoming trapped within emotional consciousness curtails the development of mind. The mind can become a similar trap if it is not treated as the gateway to the soul. We must develop and then transcend each of these states of awareness, and then lose our separateness as well. As the Tao Te Ching tells us “The student grows by daily increment. The way is gained by daily loss.”

The three Temptatons of Jesus Christ

Attached Please Find…

A video clip of a recent Talk I did on the symbolic nature of the Gospel stories. This section, as indicated in the title of the blog is about the temptations in the wilderness after the Baptism at the river Jordan. Jesus is driven into the desert by the revelation at the baptism and undergoes several tests which, if seen symbolically contain a great wealth of information about the  spiritual path.

Force and Form

When the light shines forth and men gain in understanding of the true nature of themselves and their surroundings we will come to the realization that we are all expressions of the same life force. This force is not the form which we initially feel is our being. It is using that form in order to express its being. Gaining knowledge and understanding of this essential truth will naturally and gradually move the focus of our awareness (our purest expression of that essence) from the form to the underlying life force.

In our infancy our consciousness inhabits a very small world in its appearance. We have little awareness of anything outside of our families. We have little influence even within the small confines in which we find ourselves. Later, as we grow in our capacities to understand and interact our sphere of influence increases and we realize we are a part of a world much larger than we had understood. That whole world was always out there but we were unaware. We become associated with a group or community and a school with friends. In the best of circumstances we begin to include those other environing associates in our thinking and planning.

For many people the group never grows beyond that small community and for some they will only treat their family members well and the rest of humanity remains “outside the wire” so to speak and left to fend for themselves while the individual fights against the world in order to protect and care for that small group.

When the light of the mind is increased through evolutionary development and the urge to study and ponder upon the information gathered the individual begins to realize that he is part of an increasingly larger group. Service of country through military service or public office may be the expression of this selflessness. Military service within the context of society is perceived as a noble and selfless act. This urge will eventually find expression in other service when the thought form we call our society is sufficiently altered by the awakening consciousness of the populace as a whole, but how does that happen?

It is brought about by the individual and collective efforts of those men and women of goodwill who surround the globe and find themselves in every single nation and community. As they learn and understand the world in these ever increasing circles of both influence and caring, it is their responsibility to that increasing perception of the whole to spread this newly gained knowledge to those around them who are increasingly able to understand and assimilate it.

When I realize that I am a part of a larger consciousness and my nature is pure energy, the form becomes less important. When I realize that my brother is the same as my self and in fact is my self, the form he inhabits is of no importance at all. It is not his identity. I focus on his identity as a soul and communicate soul to soul and then our forms no longer hinder.

The light of the intuition is like a flash of brilliance. It is a momentary access to an idea that is a part of the plan, embodying some aspect of the will of God. This is something we gain the ability to access by fostering communication with our higher self. The light of the soul is increased through right aspiration, study, service and meditation. When the light of the soul shines forth it is an indication that much work and service has already taken place. We are looking at a servant who has prepared and purified his various vehicles so that when this access is gained he is capable of understanding the form his service should take and strong enough to create it. His ability to then transmit this “new” information to his fellow man will determine its effectiveness along with their ability to grasp and interpret its meaning.

The shift will be in identification from the form to the life force within because we will better understand that life is the common thread within all forms. We will understand that consciousness is the expression of that life force and forms are the result of this process of conscious response and its creative efforts, and not the cause of anything. My body is a crystallized thought form created by my soul and my soul is an expression of a conscious fragment of the One Life. This gives me the potential through the re-identification of the focus of my consciousness to eventually gain access to the thoughts of the universal mind. To the highly developed consciousness there is no “ring pass not” and the more I am capable of perfecting its expression the closer I come to the One Life.

Where We Are Headed

We are, without a doubt within a period that will bring many changes to the way we live our lives and represents an example of the convergence of crisis and opportunity. I believe the objectives of the physical reconstruction of the world must include the following concepts, for we are expanding in our consciousness moment by moment and that expansion must be reflected in any successful realignment of the physical world. The world we see is, in every way, a product of conscious response to stimulus. That conscious response gets refined over time and the outward expression will become refined along with it. This is the true evolution. It is not the evolution of form, but the evolution of consciousness, which is obviously perceived in its outward expression.

Humanity is moving toward a better understanding of its own nature and the nature of the world it inhabits. The evolution of consciousness creates for itself a telos or direction toward more accurate expression of its divine nature. Only those experiments which yield movement in that direction are continued. In the human kingdom, this is movement toward the understanding of unity; the unity of all physical expression of the life force that is becoming better aware of its own nature through that physical expression. If this is in fact the direction that life is moving then the future societies will better express the need for an environment which will allow this development to flourish. “For the new construction of surroundings one should realize whither life is directed”.

If we are becoming aware of our unity with all men then they should be granted the same opportunity for growth which we declare for ourselves. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are granted by the US bill of rights but we are not so quick to grant those to all people until we establish our dominance and superiority. That kind of hypocrisy has to be eliminated. No man can be free until all men are free; but what is freedom? It, like everything else expresses itself on many levels. The freedom of self determination means nothing to someone who has no food. Free access to technology as a governing policy in a land without sufficient electrical power is worthless.

There are basic needs granted in the animal kingdom through its organization and integration with the plant kingdom that are the “right” of all animals. They include access to food and shelter and space to explore and experience. Human society as it has developed has banded together to create certain benefits of shared labor and specialization of trades that have made all of us better off in many ways. The problem is that these societies take away the free access to food and shelter at the same time. We are no longer hunter gatherers who can fend for ourselves and become dependent because of our specialization, on others in the group for the activities which are their specialty. This fact makes it incumbent upon the group to provide for those essentials which the group effectively takes away for the common good. Our common needs do go beyond just food and shelter. Shelter at this point includes energy. We also have a very real need for transportation. This and other aspects of life which we in the developed world take for granted have actually become necessities.

In order to create an environment where the survival instincts may fall away we must provide for those necessities in every land for every person. The resources of the world belong to all creatures. It is more than the environment that we live in; it is the organism of which we are a part. My brain has no more right to the use of my blood than my feet do, and I in the Western modernized world have no more right to the earth’s resources than a human being living is an undeveloped third world nation. Moreover, my use of those resources cannot negatively affect the other interdependent kingdoms of nature which have no voice in current decision making. We must protect them as we would protect parts of our own physical being.

We have become extremely adept at the preservation and repair of the human physical body, but only those with the economic resources can gain access. We do not treat all human beings the same way. As societies we have chosen to grant relative value to human life while we extol the absolute sanctity of all life. America must take care of Americans first, and we will have huge demonstrations against abortion while we neglect to even mention the 35,000 children who die each day due to starvation. Free and unfettered access to critical human need is the role of society and needs to be excluded from the “free enterprise system” which cares only about profit.

This means we free the human intellect from the driving concerns of survival. When a person has no need to worry about food or clothing, medical needs, shelter, and energy he is free to find a way in which he may express the true purpose of his soul. Some people will not aspire to great contribution and may find joy in what others consider to be the trivial. Every step on the path is equally is important as every other step. In the course of a life time or life times everyone will end up making a contribution which is appropriate to their particular level of consciousness. In our current system we are losing incalculable contributions from people who have no energy to spend on anything but pure survival. We occasionally hear a story about some unlikely hero who, but for some freak chance circumstance would have never been heard from.

There is a story I cannot verify, but will repeat for its symbolic value. It is about a boy who was hurt, I believe by falling in a hole on a farm. He was found and aided by a local peasant farmer and returned hurt but alive to his family which happened to be quite wealthy. The father of the injured boy offered the farmer a great gift that might be refused by some out of pride. He offered to take the farmer’s infant son in and raise him as his own in the wealthy home and provide for him a life and level of education the farmer could never have provided. The peasant farmer agreed, and we came to know the boy in his adulthood as one of the greatest leaders of western civilization. The potential existed in the boy, obviously, but if not for the event that brought his father into contact with the wealthy family we would perhaps never have experienced that leadership. Every day we are losing access to that kind of brilliance by having a great portion of our society living in fear for their lives and well being. Albert Einstein failed science and worked as a patent clerk. This boy could have more easily ended up in jail for theft of food or clothing had his circumstances not been changed.

If we raise the level of the living conditions of the poorest among us so that they have no worry about food and shelter, and we offer them free education so that they may better their own lives through struggle and challenge we lift the whole of society in unimaginable ways. There are some that would argue against such things because there are those who would simply take this aid and do nothing. That too is a stage and a step upon the path that is no better or worse than that of the true servant. It is something that must obviously be experienced by that soul at that time or it would not be happening. Barring the criminal mind, which too will fall by the wayside over time, the better you treat someone the better they will try to treat you and I think the appreciation of the masses of people who simply need a hand will show itself as an overwhelming counterbalance to any abuse.

I have, in my own life wished and worked for the time when I will be able to work full time as a servant of humanity without the financial concerns of everyday life taking my energy. We work full time just to keep the roof above our heads instead of spending our energy on constructive concerns and the betterment of humanity. The future society will not allow this waste of energy which enslaves the poor and builds the wealth of a few.

With free health care, comes free addiction counseling and detoxification treatment so that when an addict is ready there is help available. I have experienced the pain of knowing and feeling how far from the true expression of one’s nature you move when you are lost in life’s circumstance. There are many of those moments when an addict can be helped that are missed because there is no help available and a downward spiral that may have been stopped continues and perhaps leads to criminal behavior.

What we are talking about is freedom. Freedom of expression in that we become free to express the purpose of our soul, the reason we came into incarnation. If we have latent inside ourselves potentialities not yet realized, society’s role is to create that environment which will best draw forth or educe that potential. This is the real definition of education and it is the role every parent plays, for better or worse, in the lives of their children. I have heard the concept of the government as parents denigrated by some political factions, but maybe their parents were over controlling. The same people will tell you “it takes a village to raise a child” when it suits their ends. It does take a community to raise a community and that should be the goal.

Responsibility

As the disciple learns and grows in his understanding it becomes increasingly important that he share that understanding with his fellow man. To fail to do so would be akin to having the body refuse to share its food with its feet, or any other part. We are all parts of the one life and on a different level we are all part on one humanity. The body shares the food and vitality it gathers from its environment equally with all of its parts as needed for the survival of the whole. If we have a condition where one area of the body were to hoard resources such as nutrition or the awareness of danger the damage would be done to the whole. Cancer behaves this way and through its selfish theft of resources and unbalanced growth it can cause the destruction of the organism of which it is a part. It treats its host much in the same way that we are treating the earth. Selfish purposes work against the evolution of consciousness this way.

If one member of the human family foresees a danger or the possibility of some beneficial action and withholds this information from the body of humanity for some selfish reason we all fail to benefit from the information and humanity suffers as a whole, not just the few who the knower may have been able to inform directly. If greed causes one man to hold a secret formula which increases the quality and yield of a certain grain for selfish profit and the result is that there is less food for the community.

It is incumbent upon the disciple to share his understanding with those around him who are ready for the information so that he may ease their suffering, or more accurately, to enable them to ease it for themselves. This is inherent in the knowledge that we are all one and the same. Christ said “whatsoever thou doest unto the least f these, thou doest also unto me”. This is a statement which illustrates that understanding. My feet are a part of me and if I neglect them I neglect my own well being.

My fellow man also is a part of me and if he suffers or is lost and I refuse to help him, humanity suffers. By opening up our hearts and minds and sharing our discoveries we raise the consciousness and the quality of the life of the whole. The process helps to foster group awareness and accelerates our development as better servers of humanity as we help others to become servers themselves. Failure to do so is an act of selfishness and separateness and will effect the disciple’s growth. “You have no right to evoke that which you do not share”. (The Tibetan).

As disciples and Aspirants we are bearers of light and our presence on the path helps to make it easier for our fellow travelers. We always hear the analogies of those who have “lost their way”. We need the light of the soul carried down through the mind. With a little more light we can see perhaps a few more steps of the path before us and make better decisions. When we open our minds we open them to the light that shines and it shines forth in us.

In our full moon meditation the keynote says “He who faces the light and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the great center of absorption. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, but loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.”

He becomes a light on the path and then the way for his brother is not so dark. “The seven centers within him transmit the streaming light and lo! The face upon the darkened way receives the light”. This is the disciple living the life of the soul, actively radiating light through the centers he is awakening through his service. His selfless caring for his brother on the path propels him in his development. This is why he need not desire anything for the separated self. The act of caring for and serving humanity is what develops the disciple’s group and soul awareness.

Is there really a War on Christmas?

It’s here… That time of year when to all of the pressures of everyday life are added the pressures of the holiday season. In addition to the bathroom remodel, the demands of Higher Ground, kids, the day gig, (I am an engineer) and everything else that seems to pile up over time, we now have shopping, family pressures, decorations, (inside and out) advertising blitz’s, the “must have” toys of the year and everything else that is attached to a holiday that is purported to be under attack. This is evidently caused by the courtesy extended by the use of the phrase “Happy Holiday” instead of “Merry Christmas”; or perhaps by having to share a season of well wishing with the evil celebrants of other less worthy holidays. It makes me wonder who is really under siege, and by whom.

Well if you get down to the true meaning behind the origins of the Christmas Holiday and that into which it has grown, I think its safe to say that Jesus lost that fight to Corporate America a long time ago. If we want to “put Christ back in Christmas” I can get behind that, but I think commercialism has been more of a nemesis than Kwanza or Chanukah could ever be. The modern Christmas celebration, including the Coca Cola Santa Clause that I grew up with, would be unrecognizable to anyone from the 19th Century, let alone the year zero. That leads pretty easily to what I want to talk with you about.

There are aspects of the real holiday that do survive. You will see the classic Nativity in front of a home or church and just for a moment you remember what we are celebrating. But what are we really celebrating? It is supposed to be the birth of Jesus Christ. A nice Jewish boy born 2000 years or so ago, who had a profound effect on humanity. I say “or so” because no one really knows the date. Many don’t even know he was Jewish. We just assume it was December 25th exactly 2008 years ago (or would it be 2009?). Now, if this was in fact the case, it would not have been called the year zero, it would have been 754AUC (referring back to the start of the Roman Empire). People in the year 45 BC didn’t call it that… how could they know? The calendar was later re-calibrated to center it on the birth of Jesus and the so called start of the “Common Era”. Are you confused yet? Wait it gets worse. Without getting too lost in all of this, does it seem strange to re-organize a calendar to a date and year we can’t identify? That gives you an idea of how unique the impact of this one individual.

Now why do we have such a hard time setting this date? Don’t we have his whole life story? Well, yes and no. The two gospel stories that do cover the birth of Jesus conflict with each other, and the earliest of the books in the canonized Bible (Mark) which doesn’t mention the birth wasn’t written until about 60-70AD (we cant set that date either). Mathew says he was born while Herod the great was King of Judea and Luke tells us it was in the time that Quirinius was the Governor of Syria. Ironically, history indicates that those two things didn’t happen at the same time. In addition, census that put Joseph and Mary on the road to Bethlehem was most likely the one commissioned by Cesar Augustus in 6 AD. So we are left to wonder…

Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter what year it was as long as we have the day right. Birthdays don’t mean as much to me anymore and I’m not 2000 years old. We can still celebrate and just not have the right number of candles on the cake. Sorry, we don’t really know the day either. As a matter of fact in the first 337 years of the common calendar 136 different days were used to celebrate Jesus’ birth. That means there is a 1 in 3 chance; no matter what day you are reading this story, that it was Christmas Day at least once. In 337 Pope Julius decided that they had to do something. That mess was OK before, but Rome had basically adopted Christianity in 325 at the council of Nicea. I guess he figured they had to be more organized. So how did he decide? In the absence of reliable historical evidence where would you turn?

As beautiful and complete as the story of Jesus may be, it is not unique in some of its aspects. There are many avatars over the ages and in different civilizations that are celebrated as the “only begotten sons of God”. Edward Carpenter identified 21 common characteristics of these Scriptures and traditions in his “Pagan and Christian Creeds” starting with a virgin mother, (many of whom were named Mary) and including the flight from “a slaughter of the innocents”. Interestingly, many of them were (supposedly) born on December 25th. Are they copying Christmas? Not by a long shot. Christianity is one of the most recent tellings of this ancient story.

Dr. Annie Bessant explains this unlikely coincidence in her book Esoteric Christianity.

“He is always born at the winter solstice, after the shortest day in the year, at the midnight of the 24th of December, when the sign Virgo is rising above the horizon; born as this sign is rising, he is born always of a virgin, and she remains a virgin after she has given birth to her Sun-Child, as the celestial Virgo remains unchanged and unsullied when the Sun comes forth from her in the heavens. Weak, feeble as an infant is He, born when the days are shortest and the nights are longest…” Alice A. Bailey, in her definitive work on the subject, From Bethlehem to Calvary, states, “At the time of the birth of Jesus, Sirius, the star in the East, was on the meridian line, Orion, called ‘The Three Kings’ by oriental astronomers, was in proximity; therefore the constellation Virgo, the Virgin, was rising in the east, and the line of the ecliptic, of the equator and of the horizon all met in that constellation.”

Hence, we celebrate the birth of the “light of the world” at the birthing of the light at the winter solstice, along with countless other celebrations in varied cultures… which constitutes an attack in the minds of some, even though some of the traditions such as the Yule Log cross over and many of the traditions are much older.

Does this sound far fetched? Why would a Pope care about hokey astrological signs when dealing with purely Christian issues? If we dig a bit into history we find some interesting facts. Did you ever wonder why Easter Sunday moves around every year? The date is set each year in accordance with rules set in the same council of Nicea anchored to the Vernal Equinox. As a matter of fact it was among the reasons for the reform of the Julian calendar into the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The older Julian was skewed and over time the date of the equinox had drifted 10 days, effecting the Easter celebration. The new calendar bearing the name of Pope Gregory XIII would “reset” Easter to the date established in Nicea in 325 AD and correspond with the solar or tropical calendar, the actual time it takes for the earth to complete its path around the sun. So, as you can see there is precedent for this kind of basis for the timing of a Christian celebration

So where are we now? We celebrate a definitive event in human history, the date of which cannot be fixed, at the same time that many other celebrations occur, for many of the same reasons. Insecurity alone can be the reason for thinking that the other celebrations are less important or somehow diminish the one that is most important to us. In my father’s One Solitary Life series, this information is given in much greater detail including over a dozen virgin born Sons of God. If we look together at what the teachings of the world have in common we may find even greater reason for our faith. If differing civilizations and cultures all over the world center around the same tenets without the possibility of a common language to have effectively bridged or communicated these aspects of faith, does that diminish the tenets of any?

On the contrary, I believe it is compelling evidence of the central truths.

So is there a war on Christmas? Maybe so, but the combatants may not be who they seem at first glance. Let’s celebrate our faith together and truly honor the teachings and life of the Lord of Compassion along with all of the other celebrations of light around the world.