The Science of Meditation
We are going to talk about the science of meditation. But first we should prepare ourselves in a positive manner in order to receive this type of superior teaching to take advantage of time. This is the moment for us to understand the need of giving more opportunity to our consciousness.
Centers of the Human Machine
Normally we live on different levels of our interior temple. There are people who always live in the lower levels; those are the ones that are concentrated exclusively in instinct and fornication, the fourth and fifth levels (instinctive and sexual centers, respectively), levels that have been used in a negative way.
Others live on the third level (motor center) and never leave it; they always move following the patterns of predetermined customs, along the line of certain habits. They never change; they are like a train that always runs over the same tracks. These third-level types of people are so accustomed to their train of habits that they are not ready to surrender them.
Others live on the first level (the intellectual center); others, on the second level (negative emotions). Those who live in the intellectual center want to turn everything into rationalism, analysis, concepts, or arguments, and they never leave that place. Others live in the emotional center dedicated to the vices of movies, racetracks, bullfights, etc.; in reality, a very limited and narrow world.
They live enclosed and enslaved by negative emotions, never thinking of escaping from such places. It is necessary to insist upon giving opportunity to our consciousness.
Types of Dreams
There are different types of dreams: intellectual and emotional dreams, others that belong to the motor center or sexual center, or others that are exclusively related to sexual activities. These types of dreams always reflect situations lived during the day; they are repetitions of daily activities.
If people live on the emotional levels, their dreams will reflect situations of terror or craziness; if they live on the sexual level, their dreams will be of lust, adultery, fornication, masturbation, etc. If the dreams belong to the instinctive center, they become incoherent, so submerged that it is impossible to understand them.
Each of the five centers of the human machine produces certain types of dreams. Truly we have to say that only the dreams that belong to the Superior Emotional Center (seventh level) are the ones to which we must give attention. The same can be applied to the positive aspect of the sixth center (Superior Mental Center). Dreams from any of the inferior centers (the instinctive, motor, sexual, emotional, or intellectual) do not have any importance.
We need to be able to distinguish from which center the dream is coming. This is only possible by knowing the activities of each of the five centers of the human machine. Dreams from the Superior Emotional Center are the most important because in them we find perfect, organized dramas, in accordance with the daily activities of our consciousness if we give it the opportunity to work.
What happens is that the Ray of Creation from which we emanated constructs everything from the Superior Emotional Center. It is from there that diverse superior parts of our Being, related with the Ray of Creation, are manifested through this center in order to instruct us during our hours of sleep; then well organized, clear and precise scenes are presented to us so we will be able to understand our situation, our errors and defects, etc.
Of course, the language of the Superior Emotional Center is symbolic, allegoric and corresponds to the Hermetic Kabbalah, to Hermenetics, etc. Unquestionably, it is through this center that any person dedicated to esoteric studies can receive correct and precise information.
Dream Yoga
We have taught you to sleep on your back with your head toward the north, relaxing the body and praying (supplicating) to Divine Mother Kundalini to give you esoteric instructions. We have also taught you the need to lie down on your right side in the lion posture.
When you tire of the right side, you can switch to the left side, keeping the lion posture. Once the disciple wakes up, he should not move but should try to do the retrospective exercise in order to remember all the dream experiences until they are imprinted and registered clearly in his brain and memory. But I want to clarify that not all dreams are important.
For example, pornographic sexual dreams, erotic dreams with nocturnal emissions, are dreams of an inferior nature. Also instinctive, motor dreams do not have importance because they are only reflection of one’s daily activities. Dreams related to the lower emotional center do not have importance because they are of a passionate, brutal type.
Intellectual dreams are only projections and are also of no value at all. I repeat, only those related to the higher Emotional Center should be considered; but in addition, we need to understand the meaning of our dreams in order to avoid mistakes.
It is necessary to interpret the allegoric messages received through the Superior Emotional Center, because those are the teachings coming from the White Brotherhood or from the superior part of our Being. This makes us see the urgent necessity of understanding the profound meaning of all symbolism which should be deciphered in a very precise way in accordance to our development.
After all clarification in relation to dreams, I should tell you we urgently need to pass through the dream or Astral world to become awake in the inner superior worlds. This is possible only when we give greater opportunities to our consciousness.
Transformation of Impressions
Normally people act and react in response to the impacts coming from the outer world. Compare this to the example of a lake in which we throw a stone; we see how the stone produces rings that spread from the center to the edge of the lake. This is the reaction of the water to the impact coming from the stone (external world). Something similar happens to the mind and feelings. If someone hurts us with words, the impact of the word reaches the intellectual center or the thought center and then the person reacts in a violent way; if someone offends our senses, we feel annoyed and possibly react in a brutal way.
In every circumstance of life the mind and feelings take an active part reacting consecutively (in response to the external stimulus). A better response would be not to give any opportunity to the mind or feelings; it is urgent to develop a tranquil, quiet mind. This of course bothers the “mentalists” everywhere.
The idea of a quiet mind is opposed to all those who say that “in the mind is the power” and that “man must be a king who commands and dominates with his powerful mind.” They are sophisms of the mentalists, like those who say, “He who learns to manage his mind is sure to triumph like the arrow of the old archer.” Finally, at the very end, they are nothing more than sophisms extracted from those intellectual fantasies which have no esoteric form.
To negate thinking—this horrifies the mind positivists, but nevertheless the negated form of the mind is the most eloquent; not thinking is the most elevated way of thinking. When the thinking process of the mind is over, the new way arrives; this is what you need to understand.
A calm mind that is at the service of one’s real Being results in an efficient instrument, because the mind is made to be receptive, to serve as a receptive instrument, not as an active instrument. The mind itself is feminine and all the centers should work harmoniously in accordance with the universal symphony of passive serenity. In these conditions we should not permit the mind to project; we need a tranquil mind to put to the service of the different circumstances of our existence.
Until a short time ago, I myself thought that emotions or sentiments came from the real Being, but with investigation and experience I have come to verify that they pertain to the ego and that they are intimately related to the inferior emotional center.
The therapy we need to know profoundly in order to avoid any interior unbalance that can cause outer repercussions is that which will not permit the mind any kind of reaction. If someone hurts us, we must not permit the mind to react. Wish that there will always be someone who can hurt us in our feelings daily, so that we can in that way train our mind better to be passive. The more insults we receive, the better for our training, because we will have more opportunities to stop the reaction of the mind and feelings so that they do not intervene in any circumstance of our lives.
Of course, the passive state of mind, emotions and personality demands a tremendous activity in the consciousness; this shows us that the more active the consciousness, the better for reaching its awakening, because that way the consciousness has to inevitably awaken, being in perpetual activity.
Just now, Buddha Gautama Shakyamuni came to my mind. On a certain occasion, the great Buddha was sitting under a tree in profound meditation when a man arrived and began to insult the Buddha, trying to hurt him with his words.
After a while, the Buddha opened his eyes and asked the man, “If someone brings you a gift and you do not accept the gift, to whom does this gift belong?”
The man answered, “To the one who brought it, of course.”
Then the Buddha said, “My brother, take your gift; I cannot accept it,” and continued to meditate.
There is a beautiful, sublime lesson. Buddha did not permit his mind or sentiments to react under any circumstances because he was living fully awakened in his consciousness; there was no outer reaction. That is the way we should behave, dear disciples.
The school is everywhere; we have to take advantage of it and learn wisely. We have it in our houses, our offices, the shops, or factories, in the street... everywhere, even in the temple, with our fellow students, our children, father, wife, nephews, grandsons, cousins, friends, etc.
All are psychological gymnasiums. As hard as it will be, as difficult as it looks to us, it is indispensable for all of us. The secret is not to allow our mind and feelings to intervene in the practical daily activities of our lives.
We should allow the consciousness to be the one who commands, directs and works, the one who talks and executes all one’s daily activities. That way we prepare harmoniously for meditation.
Training for Meditation
From the practical point of meditation, we must say that what we are looking for goes beyond mind and feelings. This is only possible if in our practical daily life we have trained ourselves intensively and prepared ourselves in our daily lives for this wonderful goal.
Meditation becomes difficult when in our daily life we have not passed through a rigorous training, when we have not trained properly in the psychological gymnasium using social and family life as a training field.
During meditation, we should release the Essence, the Buddhata, the best inside of us, the most dignified and decent. Precisely the Essence or Buddhata is enclosed within the inhuman elements or psychological aggregates that constitute the “I” or ego.
It is not possible to experience Reality or Truth, that which interests all of us, unless we free the Essence, which is trapped in the ego; if we do not, we will have to continue to live on in a world of dreams, in the intellectual center, emotional center, motor center, instinctive or the sexual centers. We want to be able to escape, to experience Truth. The great Kabir Jesus said: “Know the Truth and it will make you free.”
Truth is not a question of theories; it is not a question of believing or not believing. It is not a matter of concepts or opinions.
Can you form opinions in relation to Truth?
What is an opinion? It is the projection of a concept, keeping the doubt and fear that truth is another thing.
What is a concept? Simply an elaborated reasoning projected by the mind; it can coincide or not coincide with something.
Can we assume that a concept or an opinion given out by the intellect would be precisely the Truth? No.
What is an idea? An idea can be magnificent; for example we can form an idea in relation to the Sun; such idea could be more or less exact, or more or less mistaken, but they are not the Sun. That way also we could form multiple ideas in relation to Truth but they are not the Truth.
When Jesus Christ was asked what is Truth he kept silence; when Gautama Shakyamuni the Buddha received the same question, he turned back and walked away. Truth cannot be defined by words; the same with a sunset. Anyone can go into ecstasy while watching the Sun beginning to hide behind the golden splendour of the mountains, but trying to communicate to others this mystical experience is very difficult because others will not feel the same.
So Truth cannot be communicated. Truth is real for the one who has the experience. When freed of the ego we can experience Truth, we can perceive a radical transforming element within us as a high voltage element. This is possible but we have to know how to get it: by putting to work our consciousness to replace mind and feeling so that the integrated consciousness in us will be the one to function.
We must have a passive mind, a passive feeling and a passive personality, but have a totally active consciousness. To understand this is indispensable; it is urgent if we are to become practical meditators.
Technique of Meditation
With the technique of meditation what we are looking for is information. With a microscope we can see the life of microbes, bacteria, cells, microorganisms, etc. Any telescope can give us information about the celestial bodies, planets, meteorites, stars, etc. But meditation goes beyond and would permit us to know the Truth from something so small to something as grand as the Sun, the Truth of an atom or a constellation.
The most important thing is to learn to know how we can disentangle, take out our consciousness from our mind and ego, to know how to extract the consciousness from within the feelings. When we dominate the mind and feeling, obviously, we are breaking chains; we are coming out of that deadly dungeon, of that jail. In this way, we are preparing ourselves for meditation.
Before anything we have to know how to meditate, we have to learn the correct technique. In the Oriental world they put a lot of emphasis on the Padmasana position with the legs crossed, but we are not orientals and should meditate in accordance with our own customs and style. As a matter of fact, not all the orientals meditate with their legs crossed. What is important is that each person should adopt the position best for him. If you want to meditate with your legs crossed, do it; we are not going to prohibit this, but this is not the only practical position for meditation.
For a correct meditation we can take a seat in a comfortable chair, with arms and legs relaxed, without tension in our muscles; or if you wish, you can lie down and take the position of the five pointed star (hands and legs open to each side) with one’s head toward the north. Remember, you can take any form or position you like or the most comfortable for you.
If in reality we want to separate our consciousness from our mind, feelings and the psychological “I,” it does not matter which position we take. The important thing is to know how to meditate; do not worry about the other things.
One person may take an oriental position, another an occidental one, another whatever position he wants; the important thing, I repeat, is to be comfortable so you can have a good meditation. Every person is unique and should look for the most comfortable position without being held by any rule, pattern or position; it is very convenient to relax the body, it is indispensable that the chosen position feels good to the body.
Many times I have explained to all of you how to work with the mantra HAM-SAH; pronounced HAM (silently, with the inhalation), SAH (vocalized aloud, exhaling like a soft sigh). This mantra is the wonderful symbol that in the Orient makes fertile the chaotic water of life, the symbol of the Third Logos. It is very important to know how to vocalize this mantra and to know about its powers.
Normally sexual forces flow from inside out (centrifugal way); due to that, wet dreams occur when having a dream based on the sexual center.
If man would organize his vital systems and instead of propitiating the centrifugal system will use the centripetal system, that means to make the sexual forces run from outside in making use of transmutation, then even if he had an erotic dream there would be no wet dreams. But because man does not have his sexual forces organized, he will have wet dreams, the loss of the sacred sperm or spermatic liquor. If we want to avoid wet dreams, we have to learn to organize our sexual forces.
These forces are profoundly related to breath, to Prana, to life; that is obvious.
There is a close and deep relation between sexual forces and respiration. Both, well combined and harmonized, originate profound changes on the anatomy and the psychology of man. What is important is to make the sexual forces run within and upward on a centripetal course. Only in that way is it possible to produce a radical change in the work and functions that can be accomplished by the creative sexual force.
It is necessary to imagine the creative energy in action during meditation. We have to make it rise to the brain in a natural and rhythmic way, using the vocalization of the mantra that I explained before without forgetting the synchronization of the inhalations and exhalations in perfect concentration, harmony, and rhythm.
It is very important to clarify that inhalation should be more profound than exhalation, because that way we make the creative energy flow from outside in. With this practice there is a time when all the creative energy will flow from outside inward and upward.
The creative energy directed each time from outside inward deeper and deeper becomes an extraordinary tool for the Essence to awaken consciousness.
I am teaching the legitimate White Tantra; this is the practice used in the Tantric schools of the Himalayas and Hindustan. This is the way to ecstasy and Samadhi, whatever you wish to call it.
During this practice you should keep your eyes closed without thinking of anything. Unfortunately, some desires may hit the mind; we should study them without identifying with them. After these desires have been understood fully in all their aspects, then we are able to disintegrate and destroy them using the spear of Eros.
But if suddenly we remember something that happened to us that brings us rage, what can we do? Stop the rhythmic breathing for a while and try to understand that event which caused that rage in you. Let us study that situation carefully in every detail and disintegrate it with the bistoury [surgical knife] of self-criticism and then forget it and continue our meditation and breathing.
And if suddenly it comes to our mind the memory of a past event of our life that happened ten or twenty years ago, use the same self-criticism and the same bistoury to disintegrate such memory to discover what truth is to be found there.
Continue the meditation and respiration without thinking while chanting the mantra HAM-SAH, lengthening the inhalation with HAM and shortening the exhalation with SAH. Repeat the mantra Hhhhhhaaaaammmmm - Ssssssssaaaaaaahhhhhh, remaining completely calm of mind; only in that way will the Essence be able to escape for a moment in order to submerge herself in Reality.
Reality: the Absolute, the Emptiness
A lot has been said about the Illuminating Void. We will, of course, be able to experience it, and in this emptiness we will discover the Laws of Nature. We can see these laws not in the way we normally see them, but the way they really are. In this physical world we can see figures from outside, but can we see them as they really are within, or from the sides, etc.? In the Illuminating Void we can know the Truth as it really is and not the way it appears to us. We can experience the Truth of an ant, a world, a sun, a comet, etc.
The Essence submerged in the Illuminating Void perceives with its spatial sense everything that was, is, and will be. Her radiations will reach the personality and the mind. It is interesting to know that while the Essence is submerged in the Illuminating Void, it experiences Reality. The emotional and motor centers will integrate with the intellectual center, and the receptive mind will capture the information received by the Essence. For that reason the information is accumulated in the intellectual center; thus, we do not lose it when the Essence comes out of the Illuminating Void and penetrates the personality.
It has been said that to obtain Emptiness we need a suction pump. We have that pump in the spine in the channels Ida and Pingala used by the creative energy to reach the brain. Also it has been said that we need a dynamo; we have one in our brain and willpower. It is obvious that we also need a generator. Fortunately this is the procreative organs (the sexual organs and willpower).
Having the system and elements, we can reach the Luminous Emptiness; the pump, the dynamo and the generator are the elements we need to reach the Illuminating Void in our meditations. Only through the Illuminating Void can we know Reality, but it is necessary that the Essence penetrates the Absolute Emptiness.
In the old texts, they talk a lot about the Holy Okidanokh: Omnipresent, Omnipenetrating, and Omniscient. He comes from the Sacred Absolute Sun. How can we know truly the Holy Okidanokh if we cannot penetrate the Luminous Emptiness? It is well known that the Holy Okidanokh is within the Illuminating Void; it is one with the great Emptiness.
When you are in ecstasy, you surpass personality; when you are inside of the Luminous Void and experience the Reality of the Holy Okidanokh, you are one with the leaves, the water... you live everything that exists, the only thing you need is courage so you do not lose the ecstasy, because when one feels that one is diluted in everything and feels that one is everything, one experiences the fear of annihilation.
One thinks: “Where am I? Why am I everywhere?” Reasoning comes and one can lose the ecstasy returning to the trap again, enclosed again by the personality; but if one has courage, one does not lose his ecstasy.
At this moment, one is like a drop that is submerged in the ocean, but one has to realize that the ocean is submerged in the drop as well. You will feel you are a bird flying, a deep forest, a petal of a flower, the children who play with a butterfly, an elephant, etc. This situation brings terror and you can fail in your meditation.
It is indeed in the Sacred Absolute Sun where one comes to know the final Truth. In the Sacred Absolute Sun there is no time. There, the time factor has no existence. There, the universe is all One and the phenomena of nature take place beyond time.
In the Sacred Absolute Sun we can live in an instant eternity. There, one lives beyond good and evil, transformed into radiant creatures.
Therefore, once one has experienced Truth, he cannot be like those whose lives are based on creed, no; there, one experiences the urgent necessity of working in the Innermost Self-realization of one’s Being here and now.
It is one thing to experience or to truly live the Illuminating Void and another is to acheive Innermost Self-realization. Because of this we need to know how to meditate, to learn to meditate; it is urgent to understand meditation.
I hope that you listeners will understand this, that you will practice meditation so one day you will be able to liberate the Essence and experience the Truth by yourselves. The one who is able to liberate the Essence and to enter the Illuminating Void will be distinct; he will no longer be like the others. For this you need a special course; such persons will be different, ready to fight up to the maximum with their only purpose being to realize here and now the Illuminating Void within.
In the Orient, when a disciple reaches these marvellous experiences by experiencing the Truth and comes to tell his Guru, the Guru strikes him hard with his hands; it is clear that if the disciple has not ordered his mind, then he will react against the Guru. Will he not?
However, these disciples are already well trained. Gurus do this to equilibrate the values and to test the disciple, to see how he is progressing in the elimination of his defects.
I hope that all of you have understood deeply what the science of meditation really is; I hope that you will practice intensively in your homes and in places of meditation.
Question: Master, how can we control the fear when we feel that we are in the Illuminating Void?
Samael Aun Weor: It is necessary to fight fear, forcing it to disintegration, until it is converted to cosmic dust. For that reason we have given you specific techniques for disintegrating your defects, using the spear and with the help of your Divine Mother. Of this, we have spoken amply in my book, The Mystery of the Golden Flower.