Transformation of Impressions

Learning notes from the lecture "Transformation of Impressions" by AGEAC Vietnam on 15.07.2016 in HCMC.

In every transformation, there is DEATH and BIRTH, or DEATH and RESURRECTION.

If our actions are controlled by:

- Being: superior, conscious acts.

- Ego: mechanical reactions, often negative and harmful.

Everyday events give us an opportunity to self-discover and eliminate from within the sources of our tensions, conflicts and disappointment, etc. If we don't change ourselves (inner work), we will attract the same circumstances. 

Everything in nature is transformed constantly: the grapes turn to wine, the clouds into rain... Every transformation requires a sacrifice. The old must die for the new to be born. For the tree to grow, the seed must die. The seed "sacrifices" itself so the tree can grow. 

Transformning our human condition

Transforming one'slife is possible - this is what the alchemists wanted: to transform lead (of the personality, the psychological aggregates) into gold (spirit). 

Man feeds on 3 types of "food". 

1. Ordinary food: digested by the stomach.

2. Air/Prana: digested by the lung

3. Impressions

1. Normal food

Food is transformed into energy for the body to function. The stomach digests what it needs, and eliminates what it doesn't need any more. We can live for few days without food.

2. Air/Prana

From the lungs, it is sent to all parts of the body through the blood stream. The body eliminates the toxic cardondioxide. We can live for a few minutes without Oxygen.

3. Impressions

The information that enters our body (all 5 centers) by the means of the 5 senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. Each moment of our live we are bombarded with impressions. We do not have a system to digest them, to keep what is useful, and to eliminate what is harmful.

Impression is an imprint of things we see, hear, touch, smell or taste. The impressions become thoughts and feelings and then they turn into beliefs and actions. Impressions are all that we know about the outer world, we receive them and accept them as reality of life, but in truth they are only that, an impression. We mistake Reality with Impressions. 

If we don't change, our past will become our future. If we want to become free, we need to transfrom both past and present impressions. Impressions about life, and about ourselves, need to be transformed if we want to change our lives.

Life is made of impressions

Life is a succession of impressions. Life for an ordinary person, through the 5 senses we have a repetitive life, seeking sensations. Thus, lacking a transcendental life, we are identified with sleepy consciousness. "Things happen" to ordinary people; lack of control, reactive attitude towards life, no true understanding. Untransformed impressions strengthen the Ego, or give birth to new psychological aggregates.

On the vertical path: The work of our life is to transform impressions and eliminate their mechanical results on our life. Each situation provides us an opportunity to self-discover and eliminate the causes of our mechanical reactions.

We can't change objetcs and people according to our wish, but we can change the reactions to impressions produced by them. Transformation is a sacrifice.

How to transform impressions

1. Never forget ourselves, our own Being: constant state of alert perception of self-observation (being present, mindful). Live in a state of alertness: what is happening within me, and why?

2. Reflection: needed constantly in order to understand and transform the events of life and the impressions they left on us. Profound reflection on what and why it happended, the effect on us and others, etc.

I am who I am: to interpose the consciousness between the impression and the mind; to manifest consciousness. Transformed impressions means transform raw energy into refined energy. Spiritual growth is about transforming what is inferior in our nature into something superior, in all situations of life.

Ex: The three poisons destroying the inner sense. Anger is transformed into peace and compassion. Greed is transformed into detachment and generosity. Hate is transformed into understanding and acceptance.

Transform Impressions through logical confrontation/comprehension, stop reacting mechanically. Understand that everything passes, do not give so much importance to what is not truly important. Eliminate the Ego to awaken Consciousness.

The solution to happiness does not lie in running away from pain, but in growing out of it, by understanding it and eliminating its sources.

The Science of Meditation

 

 Photo credit: Finerminds.com

Learning notes from the lecture "Meditation - The Science of Quieting the Mind" by AGEAC Vietnam on 09.07.2016 in HCMC.

Meditation was found at Inca, Maya, Egyptians, Christian (mystic ecstasy)... The passive state of mind, feeling and personality demands tremendous activity of the Consciousness. The more active the Consciousness remains, it's much easier to achieve the awakening.

Every psychological gymnasium, no matter how tough it may be, no matter how difficult it may seem, is indispensable for us. The entire secret is in not allowing neither feelings nor the mind to interfere in practical matters of our life.

We must always allow the Consciousness to be the one that acts, the one that commands, the one that works, the one that speaks, does, and executes all of our daily activities; in this way we prepare ourselves harmoniously for meditation.


Without meditation, it is impossible to have serious innerwork and calibrate our path towards the being.

The mind loves chattering incessantly, it is not quiet for a single moment. It is critical to abtain a passive mind. The highest way of thinking is not to think; and this requires patience, discipline.

The mind and feelings react all the time. It is important not to allow the mind and feelings to take an active role and to react. Bringing meditation to our daily activities is transformation of impressions.

Illuminating Void is beyond time and beyond eternity.

What can we achieve through meditation?

On a basic level:
- Peace of mind
- Increasing concentration, memory, efficiency

Intermediate level:
- Self-knowledge, getting rid of psychological defects
- Improving our interpersonal relations

Advanced level:
- Experience the truth of any phenomenon
- Investigate the past history of anyone or anything

Basic steps of meditation

1. Asana: body posture
2. Pratyahara: quietmind, introspection, without thinking of anything
3. Dharana: concentration on a single thing
4. Dhyana: meditation, contemplation
5. Samadhi: ecstasy

1. Asana - Body posture

Relaxation of the body. Pay attention to the breathing. Straight spine.

2. Pratyahara - Serenity of the mind

There is a thinker behind each thought, you should not identify. "Thoughts must pass through the screen of the mind just as birds in the skye... without leaving trace."

Mantram creates a vibration:

Om Mani Padme Hum
Gate Gate Gate Parasamgate Boddhi Swaha
WU: sound of the wind in the forest

3. Dharana - Concentration

Practices to increase concentration:
- candle light
- glass of water
- heart beat

4. Dhyana  - Deep inner meditation

Achieve information through:
- conscious imagination
- inspiration (have knowledge about something)
- intuition

5. Samadhi - Enlightening Void

Sunyata. Ecstasy. Satori.

The mind is absolutely quiet. The Essence can become completely free from the Ego and the Reasonality. The Essence then perceives everything without using the mind as an mediate, that is the direct perception of the Truth.

At that moment, "I was the flower, the river... And I felt myself mixed with everything, being everything. I was no longer living as a person..." ~ Samael

Helpful hints for meditation

• Incense
• Music - vocalization of the mantram
• Prayer
• Patience
• No time dependence

Practice to experience the Illuminating Void

- Sit comfortably, place the palm of left hand open and facing up and the back of right hand upon the palm of left hand. Relax the body the best possible and then inhale profoundly, very slowly.

- When inhaling imagine that the creative energy rises through the spermatic canals until the brain, and pronounce the mantra HAM, like this: "HAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM". Exhale short and rapid, whilst you pronounce the mantra SAH: "SAAHH"...

- Inhale through the nose and exhales through mouth. When inhaling, one will have to mantralize the sacred syllable HAM (mentally, as one is inhaling through the nose); but when exhaling one will be able to articulate the syllable SAH in an audible way.

The inhalation is done slowly, the exhalation short and rapid. The creative energy flows with every person from inside to outside, in a CENTRIFUGAL way. But we must  reverse that order for reasons of spiritual improvement. Our energy must flow in a CENTRIPETAL way (from outside to inside). If we inhale long and slow, the creative energy will flow in a centripetal way, from outside to inside. If we exhale short and rapid, then that energy will become every time more centripetal.

During the practice one must not think of absolutely anything. The eyes must be profoundly closed; only HAM-SAH will vibrate within our mind, and nothing more.

Through practice the inhalation becomes deeper and exhalation shorter and quicker.

Great Masters of meditation reach to make breathing into pure inhalation; then that remains suspended. And in such state the Master participates in NIRVI-KALPA-SAMADHI or in MAHA-SAMADHI; there comes the irruption of the Illuminating Void, one precipitates into that Great Void, where nobody lives and where only the word of the Father who is in secret is heard.

With this practise one obtains the irruption of the Illuminating Void under the condition of NOT THINKING absolutely anything, not admitting into the mind any thought, any desire, any memory. The Mind must stay completely quiet, from within, from without, and in the middle. Any thought, no matter how insignificant it may be, is an obstacle for Samadhi, for Ecstasy.


The Samadhi is produced during this practice if meditation because the creative energies flowing from outside to inside - impregnate the Consciousness and result in making it leave the Ego and the body. The Consciousness, un-bottled from admidst the Ego, in the absence of Ego and out of the physical body, undoubtedly penetrates the Illuminating Void, it receives the Tao.

*Koan: a tehnique that uses questions, statements or stories that cannot be answered by the intellectual mind. Koan means 'public case' in Japanese. Koan is often paradoxical or nonsensical story leading to the opening of the intuitive mind.

*Mantram: a wise combination of sounds that produces internal benefits. 
Om Mani Padme Hum
Gate Gate Gate Parasamgate Boddhi Swaha

We meditate for self-knowledge, to destroy ego and experience TRUTH. We need correct position, quiet mind, concentration, imagination, intuition and samadhi will come.

We should meditate daily. Goal is to put the consciousness to work in place of the Minds and Emotions. We need to persevere and be tenacious if we want to experience truth.

"Peace of mind comes from eliminating the useless thoughts from the mind and peace of heart comes from eliminating negative emotions." ~ Samael Aun Weor

The Awakening of Consciousness

See the first part on Psychic Study of Man.

Learning notes from the lecture "Awakening of Consciousness" by AGEAC Vietnam on 07.07.2016 in HCMC.


 
"The awakening of the Consciousness is only possible when we free and emancipate ourselves from the mental dualism, from the battles of antitheses, from the intellectual breaking waves..."
~ Samael Aun Weor
It is necessary to know that humanity lives with its Consciousness asleep.  People work asleep.  People walk through the streets asleep.  People live and die asleep.

When we come to the conclusion that the entire world lives asleep, then we comprehend the necessity of awakening.  We need the awakening of the Consciousness.  We want the awakening of the Consciousness.

The Stages of Falling Asleep

1. Fascination
2. Identification - we are constantly identified with either positive or negative things/events in life.
3. Sleep

What is Consciousness?

It is the ability to comprehend all the phenomena (both internal and external) that are related to us. It is an alert cognitive state in which a person is aware of his or her existence at all levels. It is the immediate knowledge or perception of self and surroundings.

Consciousness transcends the physical plane and connects us to all the superior dimensions of nature, and to God/Divinity. Active consciousness gives us the immediate and constant access at will to all the inner worlds: 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, etc. dimensions.

Our psychic faculty is currently asleep, inactive. Consciousness does not increase with age or worldly forms of recognition, social position, fame, etc.

Consciousness is not Intellect nor Memory. It is not related toour memories, feelings, thoughts, concepts or any other intellectual or psychological processes.

Real Man - At his origin, the human being has been endowed with fully awaken consciousness and many powers: intuition, telepathy, clear vision, clear hearing, ubiquity, power over elements, etc.

Intellectual Anima - The human of today is asleep separated from Divinity and other people and nature and has lost his natural powers. In order to regain his fully human nature, man needs to awaken consciousness.

We perform many daily activities without the involvement of consciousness (without being present). We have mechanical (automated, habitual) actions/ thoughts/ emotions/ reactions/ choices, etc.

The consciousness seems to beat work only in the critical moments of our life. In reality, we should live each moment, each day, each situation as if it was our first.

Children's consciousness are more present (their consciousness are not trapped yet). Thus, we should learn from children.

We need will power/discipline/efforts to do the inner work of self-observation for awakening of consciousness.

We need to realize that we are asleep. Our reality is limited to the perceptions of the 5 senses - limited to the physical plane. Our consciousness is trapped by the egos, and therefore cannot be active.

The world created by consciousness is void of any confusion and conflicts.

Sleep

During the physical body’s sleep, the ego escapes from it.  This departure of the ego is necessary so that the Vital Body can repair the physical body.  However, in the Internal Worlds we can asseverate that the ego takes its dreams into the Internal Worlds. 

Thus, while in the Internal Worlds the ego occupies itself with the same things which keep it fascinated in the physical world.  Therefore, during a sound sleep we see the carpenter in his carpentry shop, the policeman guarding the streets, the barber in his barbershop, the blacksmith at his forge, the drunkard in the tavern or bar, the prostitute in the house of pleasures, absorbed in lust, etc.  All these people live in the Internal Worlds as if they were in the physical world.

During his sleep, not a single living being has the inkling to ask himself whether he is  in the physical or Astral World.  However, those who have asked themselves such a question during sleep, have awoken in the Internal Worlds.  Then, with amazement, they have been able to study all the marvels of the Superior Worlds. 

It is only possible for us to ask such a question of ourselves in the Superior Worlds (during those hours of sleep) if we accustom ourselves to ask this question from moment to moment during the so-called vigil state.  Evidently, during our sleep we repeat everything that we do during the day.  Therefore, if during the day we accustom ourselves to asking this question, then, during our nocturnal sleep (while being outside of the body) we will consequently repeat the same question to ourselves.  Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of the Consciousness.

Life awake

- Unconditional love and happiness
- Direct experience of the superior worlds
- Symbolic and prophetic dreams
- Mystical experiences

Four States of Consciousness

The first state of Consciousness is called Eikasia.

The second state of Consciousness is Pistis.

The third state of Consciousness is Dianoia.

The fourth state of Consciousness is Nous.

Eikasia is ignorance, human cruelty, barbarism, exceedingly profound sleep, a brutal and instinctive world, an infrahuman state.

Pistis is the world of opinions and beliefs.  Pistis is belief, prejudices, sectarianism, fanaticism, theories in which there does not exist any type of direct perception of the Truth.  Pistis is that level of Consciousness of the common humanity.

Dianoia is the intellectual revision of beliefs, analysis, conceptual synthesis, cultural-intellectual Consciousness, scientific thought etc. Dianoetic thought studies phenomena and establishes laws.  Dianoetic thought studies the inductive and deductive systems with the purpose of using them profoundly and clearly.

Nous is perfect awakened Consciousness.  Nous is the state of Turiya: profound perfect inner illumination.  Nous is legitimate objective clairvoyance.  Nous is intuition.  Nous is the world of the divine archetypes.  Noetic thought is synthetic, clear, objective, illuminated.

Whosoever reaches the heights of Noetic thought totally awakens Consciousness and becomes a Turiya.

The lowest part of man is irrational and subjective and is related with the five ordinary senses.

The highest part of man is the World of Intuition and objective spiritual Consciousness.  In the World of Intuition, the archetypes of all things in Nature develop.

Only those who have penetrated into the World of Objective Intuition, only those who have reached the solemn heights of Noetic thought, are truly awakened and illuminated.

A true Turiya cannot dream. The Turiya who has reached the heights of Noetic thought never goes about saying so, never presumes to be wise; he is extremely simple and humble, pure and perfect.

It is necessary to know that a Turiya is neither a medium, nor a pseudo-clairvoyant, nor a pseudo-mystic, unlike those who nowadays abound like weeds in all schools of spiritual, hermetic, occultist studies, etc.

The state of Turiya is most sublime and is only reached by those who work in the flaming forge of Vulcan all of their lives.  Only the Kundalini can elevate us to the state of Turiya.

It is urgent to know how to meditate profoundly and then to practice Sexual Magic during the whole of our life in order to reach, after many difficult trials, the state of Turiya.

Meditation and Sexual Magic carry us to the heights of Noetic thought.

Neither dreamer nor medium, nor any of those who enter a school of occult teaching can instantaneously achieve the state of Turiya.  Unfortunately, many believe that it is as easy as blowing glass to make bottles, or like smoking a cigarette, or like getting drunk.  Thus we see many people hallucinating, mediums and dreamers, declaring themselves to be clairvoyant masters, illuminated ones.  In all schools, including within the ranks of our Gnostic Movement, those people who say that they are clairvoyant without really being so are never missing.  These are the ones who, based upon their hallucinations and dreams, slander others saying such a person is fallen; such a fellow is a black magician, etc.

It is necessary to advise that the heights of Turiya require beforehand many years of mental exercise and Sexual Magic in the Perfect Matrimony.  This means discipline, long and profound study, very strong and profound internal Meditation, sacrifice for humanity, etc.

Awakening consciousness is a work of a lifetime or more...

Degrees of Consciousness

Duration: How long did we stay conscious?

Frequency: How many times have we been able to be conscious?

Amplitude and Depth: How deep the light of consciousness penetrated?

Keys for becoming conscious

1. Accept that we are not conscious (97% time asleep)

2. Constant self-observation

3. The SOL Key
Subject: What is happening inside of me?
Object: What is happening to me?
Location: Where am I?

Self - Remembering (Remembering our Being - God inside us)

Subject - Self-observation is critical. Self discovery of the Truth about ourselves.

Object - observe the objects/events around us. What is happening to me, and why? The way out of the mechanical life is constant self -observation and self remembering. It is a way of being - a lifetime commitment: unidentify from circumstances and inner states; defeat mechanicity (automatics and habits); live in the present moment; observe and dissolve the ego.

Location - Where am I, and why? Observe the place, even if we know it; also - which dimension. If we are not awake here, we will not awaken in the Superior Worlds.

The awakening is slow and steady, like the growth of a tree. When we change, our life changes.


Remembering Oneself

The human being in his fascinated trance does not remember his Self.  We must Self-remember our Selves from moment to moment.  We need to Self-remember our Selves in the presence of every representation that could fascinate us. Let us hold ourselves while in front of any representation and ask ourselves:  Where am I?  Am I in the physical plane?  Am I in the Astral Plane?  Then, give a little jump with the intention of floating within the surrounding atmosphere.  It is logical that if you float it is because you are outside the physical body.  Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of Consciousness. 

The purpose of asking this question at every instant, at every moment is with the intention of engraving it within the subconsciousness, so that it may manifest later during the hours given to sleep, hours when the ego is really outside the physical body.  You must know that in the Astral Plane, things appear just as they are here in this physical plane.  This is why during sleep, and after death, people see everything there in a form very similar to this physical world. This is why they do not even suspect that they are outside of their physical body.  Therefore, no dead person ever believes himself to have died because he is fascinated and profoundly asleep. 

If the dead had made a practice of remembering themselves from moment to moment when they were alive, if they had struggled against the fascination of the things of the world, the outcome would have been the awakening of their Consciousness.  They would not dream.  They would walk in the Internal Worlds with awakened Consciousness.  Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can study all the marvels of the Superior Worlds during the hours of sleep.  Whosoever awakens the Consciousness lives in the Superior Worlds as a totally awakened citizen of the cosmos.  One then coexists with the great hierophants of the White Lodge.

Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can no longer dream here in this physical plane or in the Internal Worlds. Whosoever awakens the Consciousness stops dreaming. Whosoever awakens the Consciousness becomes a competent investigator of the Superior Worlds. Whosoever awakens Consciousness is an illuminated one. Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can study at the feet of the master. Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can talk familiarly with the Gods who initiated the dawn of creation.  Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can remember his innumerable reincarnations. Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can consciously attend his own cosmic initiations.  Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can study in the temples of the great White Lodge.  Whosoever awakens the Consciousness can know in the Superior Worlds the evolution of his Kundalini.  Every Perfect Matrimony must awaken the Consciousness in order to receive guidance and direction from the White Lodge.  In the Superior Worlds the masters will wisely guide all those who really love one another.  In the Superior Worlds the masters give to each one that which one needs for his inner development.
Complementary Practice

Every Gnostic student, after waking from their normal sleep, must perform a retrospective exercise based on the process of their sleep, in order to remember all of those places they visited during the hours of sleep.  We already know that the ego travels a great deal; it goes towards where we have physically been, repeating all that which we have seen and heard. 

The Masters instruct their disciples when they are out of the physical body.

Therefore, it is urgent to know how to profoundly meditate and then practice what we have learned during the hours of sleep.  It is necessary not to physically move at the time of waking up, because with the movement, the Astral is agitated and the memories are lost.  It is urgent to combine the retrospective exercises with the following mantras:

    RAOM GAOM

Each word is divided into two syllables.  One must accentuate the vowel O. These mantras are for the student what dynamite is for the miner. Thus, as the miner opens his way through the bowels of the earth with the aid of dynamite, similarly, the student also opens his way into the memories of his subconsciousness with the aid of these mantras.

 "Who we are internally is a magnet that attracts the circumstances of our life. All of us have the right to be happy and we can be, if we take our destiny into our own hands, and work to awaken our consciousness. The rest will follow..."