the Hebrew letter LamedThe Hebrew letter ל Lamed is the twelfth letter of the aleph-beth. It is the source of the English letter L. 

Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet contains within itself the letters previous to it. So the second letter, ב Beth, contains א Aleph; likewise, the third letter, Gimel, contains א Aleph and ב Beth. So, ל Lamed, which is the twelfth letter, contains within itself the previous eleven letters. Yet, it is distinct amongst all of the Hebrew letters, because it is the only one that ascends, up, higher than all of the other letters. In the romanized languages like English French, German or Spanish, letters are written on a baseline. There is an imaginary line above which the letters are written. In Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, it is the opposite: there is a top line and the letters hang from it. In the Hebrew alphabet, ל Lamed is the only letter that ascends beyond that top line. This gives it a special significance in the alphabet. 

If you observe the shape of the letter ל, it has a line above, like a tower. It is almost as if the bottom part is the letter כ kaf, the eleventh letter, and sitting upon the top of it is a letter ז Zayin, a ו Vav, or a י Iod connected downwards. All of those letters apply here. That part that projects above the line is called the “Tower in the Air.” This is a very special symbol and it represents the power to ascend, the possibility of religare or yoga, both of which imply “union.” This tower in the air, the upper segment of the ל Lamed, is our hope. It is the possibility to return to God: to unite, once again, with God. So, you can see that ל Lamed is a very important letter for us who are aspiring to know God, to know our divine source. 

In the previous lecture כ, we studied how the letter כ kaf relates to many things, in particular to the cap or hat that the spiritual aspirant wears upon their head. The ל Lamed is the fulfillment of that. It is the complete establishment of that cap, upwards, which connects one to God. That is why we see that ל Lamed contains כ kaf, but extended; connected to a י Iod above. The kaf is the bottom half of the ל Lamed, and the top half is a line, arching up to a Iod. That Iod is the sephirah Kether, the “crown.” The כ kaf is on our head, it is our cap, it is our humility. 

tree-of-life-ain-soph

Through the channel of light (Ain Soph Aur) that emerges from the Absolute and flows throughout our inner Tree of Life all the way into the sephirah Malkuth (our physicality, here and now), we can connect to our inner sephirah Kether, represented in the letter ל Lamed by that letter י Iod at its top. 

The י Iod represents the root of our root, the Being of our Being: the Absolute, unknowable, the root of divinity. The Iod is a bindu (Sanskrit), a dot, atom, or spiritual particle that contains within itself everything. In Asian Tantra, a bindu is a symbolic dot that represents the highest aspect of divinity, the abstract, profound, formless, perfect, incomprehensible nature of divinity, which is called Brahma, Adi Buddha, Samantabhadra, Dharmakaya, etc.

In this way, we can synthesize this letter ל Lamed as a symbol of Dharmakaya, in Sanskrit terminology. In Buddhism, the Dharmakaya is the highest body of the Buddha. It is a body that is beyond our ability to understand, beyond our intellects' capacity to conceive. It is “the body of the law, the reality body, the truth body.” It is the gateway to complete and absolute liberation from suffering. Lamed represents that possibility: the potential or possibility to be completely liberated, to be 100% united with the divine. In other words, to become a fully developed Buddha, a master, fully developed. In other words, a perfected master. There are many grades of mastery, but perfection in mastery is distinct. 

Lamed is the twelfth letter and contains within itself the previous eleven letters. They are all synthesized in ל Lamed. 

The number twelve is significant. We have twelve hours on our clock [study the twelve hours of Apollonius]. There are twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twelve signs of the zodiac, etc. In each of these cases, the twelve parts form a circle, a circumference that encapsulates existence, that defines movement.

Lamed is a letter of movement, of action. In this context, ל Lamed relates specifically to Assiah, the physical world, because it is through Assiah, Hebrew for “the world of action”—the physical world and the physical body—that we can act. In Kabbalah, existence is studied from the point of view of four worlds. Assiah is the lowest, the most dense, and contains within itself the other three, which are more subtle. The first three worlds (Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah) cause Assiah to exist, and for a reason. So, the first twelve letters represent how the Ain Soph Aur descends into manifestation through three worlds or stages: archetypes (Atziluth), creation (Briah), and formation (Yetzirah), until becoming the world of action (Assiah).

four-worlds-color

Assiah, the physical level of nature, exists because of all of the letters that extend themselves into ל Lamed. They are the circumference of life, the circle. These twelve points, or twelve signs of the zodiac, represent twelve great stages of work. This law of twelve applies in many levels, such as the twelve zodiac signs, but particularly, the twelve labors of the initiate. 

Tarot 12

The person who enters into initiation has to perform twelve labors. These are represented very well in the life of the Buddha, and also in the life of Heracles (Hercules). Heracles is a Greek symbol of Christ. The labors of Heracles are twelve stages of work that apply only to the initiate who has received Christ within, who has embodied that light. This is what we call a Bodhisattva: someone who is on the direct path. Such a person is not just any spiritual aspirant, not even just any Buddha. A person who is on the direct path walks a distinct, unique path. It is different from that of the Buddhas, masters, who walk on the Pratyeka path, the spiral path. It is different from that of Shravakas, followers or listeners of the path. The twelve labors of Hercules, Heracles, are great works performed only by Bodhisattvas who have entered the direct path. Such persons are very rare. They enter into a very profound work in which they descend into the depths of the mind in order to cleanse it. When they cleanse a given level, they free themselves of suffering in that level. This is represented in twelve great stages. The first nine are related with the nine hells. Those nine hells are the inferior aspects of nine heavens. When that hero, that Bodhisattva, descends into an inferno, a hell, they cleanse it; when it is cleansed, they have gained access to the corresponding level of heaven. This is repeated nine times. These are the first nine labors of Heracles, in symbolic form. Following that are three additional works of perfecting the light within. 

Through the twelve works, absolute liberation is achieved. First, the hero accomplished the complete death of the ego. When the first nine stages are cleansed, the ego is 100% dead. Why is this so? The only way that the roots of suffering can be purged from us is by means of a power greater than the causes of suffering. That power is what we call Christ: it is the very ray of creation, the Ain Soph Aur, particularized within a human being in order to save them from suffering. That is why it is called Yeshua: “savior.” That light can only save us by incarnating in us, and the only way it can incarnate in us is through the superior path: a path that is very revolutionary and very demanding, precisely because it radically transforms every atom within us.

This means that only the Bodhisattva on the direct path can eliminate 100% of the ego. This is a very bold statement. This means that all of those billions of souls who walk on the other paths (such as the spiral path, or the path of the lunatic, the one who follows the moon), cannot accomplish complete elimination of the ego. They are on paths within samsara, the cycle of mechanical existence. They will rise and fall, yet remain bound to suffering because of the contents of their minds. The direct path goes out of the wheel of mechanical existence. The direct path leaves samsara completely. The direct path is only way that the Being can be fully developed. The shape of Lamed represents all of that. 

The shape of ל Lamed has two levels: one superior aspect, one inferior aspect. One descends in order to ascend. Those who are working in the direct path—and those who are training in order to enter it—work in the depths of the mind in order to gain access to higher levels of life. We cleanse our mind of impurities in order to give birth to purity. We conquer the lower levels in order to conquer the higher ones. In other words, we cannot enter heaven with lust, anger, pride, envy, fear. These must be cleansed, purged from our mind. ל Lamed teaches us this. ל Lamed, specifically, is the process through which we accomplish it. 

In fact, the word למד Lamed is spelled Lamed, Mem, Daleth: three letters. This Hebrew word Lamed means “to learn.” But this learning is not merely intellectual; it begins with the intellect because we have to acquire information through our senses, brain, nervous system, but the knowledge we acquire through the intellect is very shallow. We need to go deeper than that. If we want to revolutionize our life, if we want to leave this level of suffering that we are in now, we need to revolutionize our mind. That is not done with the intellect. Ideas and theories are just that: ideas and theories. They cannot change anything. Change comes through the heart. The “heart” is spelled לב Lamed-Beth in Hebrew. Lamed can represent the heart. 

Gnosis is a doctrine of the heart. Gnosis is not an intellectual doctrine. Some people come to our studies and accuse it of being intellectual. Even many Gnostics look at the Gnostic teachings and say that it is too intellectual. The reason is because they do not understand with their heart. When you comprehend in your heart, the intellect relaxes. What we need is for our intellect to become emotional and for our heart to become cognitive. We are not like that. Most of us, especially in the Northern hemisphere, are extremely intellectual, and very cold emotionally. This has to change, because Gnosis, religion, is not achieved through the intellect. That is impossible. The intellect only plays games with concepts. You cannot reach God through a concept. God is beyond concept. Far, far beyond ideas. The living, vibrating realities of the Buddha are far beyond any idea you can have about the Buddha. Life is a living, vibrating reality, which we feel and taste physically, but life is beyond the physical world. There is life in the fourth dimension, in the fifth, in the sixth dimension, and even in the seventh, but we do not see it. We have ideas about it, but we cannot get there through our ideas. Our ideas only make us wonder, theorize, argue. None of these achieve anything. 

sacred-heart-of-jesusWhat should happen in us is represented in Lamed. The lower portion of Lamed can represent your heart. If you look at the shape, you can see the shape of a heart in it. Your heart is shaped somewhat like your fist, and almost the same size, and it is almost a pear shape. You see how that fits into a Lamed? If you just drew the little tower on it, you would have Lamed. Lamed is your heart. 

When you seek knowledge about religion, your heart looks to your intellect. Your heart asks, “What do I do with these feelings that I have? This longing that I have?” Then we go out and we look for guidance, using our intellect to analyze books, teachings, etc. This is “lamed,” to learn. Our heart reaches towards the brain. Our mind looks for knowledge; it seeks information. Unfortunately, most of us get stuck right there. We acquire a lot of information, and we might believe it or disbelieve it, but rare is it for that information to come to the heart and be comprehended by the heart; to be digested, to be understood in the heart. Normally, we take ideas and concepts and play with them in the mind. We dance with them in our mind. We pull them back and forth. We spin them around. We show them to others; we compare; we analyze; we argue; we debate. But rare is it for that knowledge to become part of our soul. It is rare to live it. To become conscious of it in the heart. Very rare. Yet, it is what we need. The book of Proverbs says 

“The לב [heart] of the בין [prudent] getteth דעת [knowledge]...” - Proverbs 18:15

It does not say that the mind gets knowledge. It says, “the heart of the prudent,” so let us look at what that actually means. It is not talking about your physical heart. And, it is not talking about “prudent” in the way we think of it. 

In Hebrew, the word for prudent is בין bayin; Beth, Iod, Nun. This is the first half of the word בינה Binah. It is Binah without the letter ה Hei. There is a clue there. Binah is the third sephirah on the Tree of Life. It is through Binah that our heart can acquire knowledge. Knowledge in Hebrew is דעת Daath. The sephirah Daath is next to the sephirah Binah. דעת Daath is Gnosis, real knowledge. In other words, if we want real knowledge, we need Binah. But we need Binah with a ה Hei on the end of it. We do not have that yet. 

The letter ה Hei is the Divine Mother. We need the Divine Mother (ה) in our heart. Prudence is important, but when we have our Divine Mother in our heart, that prudence is transformed from bin to Binah ("intelligence"), the sephirah of the Divine Mother, which she uses to create. This is how the archetypes of Atziluth enter into the world of creation (Briah), and process hidden in the sephirah Daath (knowledge, gnosis). In other words, real knowledge is power, whether in the lower or higher worlds. Intellectual knowledge is just concepts. Real knowledge (Daath) is the power of God. 

It is in this way that we acquire real knowledge: by working with the letter ה Hei. If we just have our intellect playing games and we have our heart full of beliefs but we don't have our Divine Mother inhabiting our heart, then we have nothing. And, having Her in our heart is not just an idea or a belief, it is an experience, a living reality.

We can have all of the scriptures memorized. We can have the entire doctrine beautifully arranged in our mind and be able to explain it, discuss it, and debate it, but that is meaningless if our heart is dead, cold, if our heart does not hold divinity: the Shekinah (Divine Mother, Isis) and Kether (Osiris, our Being). The problem is, our hearts are corrupted by desire.

"And יהוה saw that the רע [ra, sexual pollution] of אדם [adam, man] [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his לב [leb, heart] [was] only רע [ra, sexual pollution] continually. And it repented יהוה that he had made אדם [adam, man] on the earth, and it grieved him at his לב [leb, heart]." - Genesis / Bereshit 6:5-6

This reminds me of a very beautiful teaching that we have all heard of, but very few have understood. It is called “The Egyptian Book of the Dead.” This book encodes a great mystical significance. It explains how the soul can proceed to liberation through death, not merely physical death, but psychological death. If you study that document, it explains to you in perfect clarity. In order to incarnate Osiris (Christ; Heracles), one must be absolutely pure. Your heart and mind have to be in balance with each other. Have you ever looked at “The Book of the Dead” amongst the Egyptians? You will see when the scribe Ani approaches the court of Maat (truth-justice), the judge Anubis weighs his heart and his mind on a great scale in order to see if he has equilibrium. His heart and mind are represented by a jar and a feather. The jar is the heart. The feather is the mind. If they are out of balance with each other, he cannot enter heaven. Who among us has our heart and mind in balance? Who among us has a heart and mind pure, faultless, without sin, and can state the Negative Confession? The Negative Confession is when the initiate stands before the court of God, in the face of all the divinities, and states, “I have not killed, I have not lied, I have not fornicated, I have not stolen, I have not envied...” There are 42 confessions. And, they must all be true, because the judges are gods, Buddhas; you cannot lie to them. They know you. Moreover, your own Being is there. Your own Divine Mother is there. How can you lie to them? That scale is a cross, and upon the cross hang the heart and mind. 

weigh-heart

It is interesting to note that in Hebrew mind is spelled exactly like heart, but with another letter Beth. לבב Lamed-Beth-Beth is mind. This shows how closely related they are. We need heart and mind in balance. In fact, in Tantric Buddhism, heart and mind are considered the same thing (chitta); only in the West are they considered separate. Heart and mind are one thing. We can understand that Kaballistically, because we relate the heart and mind with our emotional body, Hod, and our body of thought, which is Netzach. These two are both in the fifth dimension. In that context, they are similar. They are in the same world. In fact, when many students begin to have experiences, consciously, out of the body, cannot tell if they are in the mental plane or astral plane, because they are so similar. Many of us, when we observe ourselves, cannot tell the difference between what we think and what we feel. Are we being driven by a feeling in our heart, something emotional, or is it something in the mind, a thought? We often cannot discriminate between them. If we cannot tell what is in our heart and what is in our mind, how can we be in equilibrium? 

In order to balance your heart and mind, you need to know your heart and mind. Moreover, you need to control them. To be a master is to be a master of your mind. It is not to do miracles, to show off powers, or to have followers. It is to be a master of your mind. This is the essence of the Buddhas teaching, the essence of the teaching of Mohammed, Jesus, Quetzalcoatl, Moses... Control your mind. Why? Because through your mind comes reality. We are what we are because of the mind. If you want to be something other than what you are now, control your mind. But not with evil will. Control your mind through the grace of God. 

In the illustrations of this Egyptian Book of the Dead, you see the judges of the law above the court. If the initiate succeeds and proves the purity of their heart and mind, and their psychological equilibrium, the initiate is allowed to go onwards. Eventually, through many tests, Ani eventually incarnates Osiris. He becomes Osiris. In Egyptian mysticism, Osiris is Christ. Ani becomes a Bodhisattva. Through the heart, not through the intellect alone, but through his heart. This is why it says in The Book of the Dead, 

“Sayeth Osiris, Ani. Hail ye who carry away hearts, Hail ye who steal hearts. Ye have done so with mine. Homage to you, oh ye Lords of eternity, ye possessors of everlastingness, take ye not away this heart of Osiris-Ani in your grasp, this heart of Osiris. And cause ye not evil words to spring up against it, because this heart of Osiris-Anni is the heart of the one of many names; the Mighty One whose words are his limbs and who sendeth forth his heart to dwell in his body.” 

Lamed represents how Osiris, Christ, descends into your heart. That is also this shape: Osiris coming into your heart to live there, to inhabit you. So, you see, Lamed has this back-and-forth significance. The relationship between us and God, which is not in the mind. It is in the heart. 

“The heart of Osiris-Anni is pleasant unto the Gods. He is victorious. He hath gotten power over it. He hath not revealed what hath been done unto it. He hath gotten power over his own limbs.” 

Do we have power over our own limbs? The limbs are a symbol of our mind. We do not. Our ego controls our limbs. When we close our eyes and we look into our mind, is our mind quiet? Do we see God within? Are all the thoughts and feelings that flow in our heart and mind from God? Are they pure? No. What we see inside is a chaos. What we hear are many voices, many sounds, many thoughts, many desires, all in conflict. Psychologically, spiritually, we are confused, in a great battle, a mess. Thus Osiris is not there. Our mind and heart are not inhabited by divinity, but by animals, our own psychological animals. 

“His heart obeyeth him. He is the Lord thereof. It is in his body and it shall never fall away therefrom. I, Osiris, the scribe Ani, victorious in peace, and triumphant in the beautiful Amen-Kah. And on the mountain of eternity, bid thee, be obedient unto me, in the underworld.” 

So this initiate, Ani, is demonstrating how Osiris incarnates in his heart and gives him the ability to dominate himself and the beings in the underworld: his egos. We need that help, because we cannot do it ourselves. All of us who have been studying religion and pursuing beliefs, if we are sincere about ourselves, will come to the realization that we cannot do it alone. It is too hard. The mind is overwhelmed with its poisons and filthiness. Many people just give up. We may continue to put on a show, like we are a spiritual person, we may continue to go to our groups and belong to our religions and our clubs and go to the social events and talk about our religion, our belief, but inside, we do not meditate. We no longer try to conquer the mind, because we gave up. It is hard. And we have a lot of excuses. The problem is that we did not rely on God, Osiris, the Buddha. We tried to do it ourselves, through the mind. 

Lamed represents how our heart is the temple within which God must dwell. If we open a space in our heart for that to happen, it is not through thought, ideas, belief, belonging to any group or following any person. It is through cognizance. Being conscious of ourselves and remembering God from moment to moment. In every action, remembering the presence of Osiris. Remembering the presence of Buddha in your heart. That remembrance, that cognizance is what makes your heart cognizant. It awakens your heart. 

Awakening and becoming liberated from suffering has nothing to do with the mind. In the mind we learn steps, concepts, ideas, and we need them in order to clear confusion. But they do not awaken you. You awaken yourself by remembering God. By opening that space in your heart continually. This is why an illiterate person can do it. You do not need to memorize all the scriptures of the world to awaken your consciousness. You do not even need to know how to read. You do not need to have any money. You do not have to follow anyone but your own God, inside. You can be in any country, in any place anywhere in the world. You do not even need arms and legs. All you need is a heart that longs to know God, and that remembers God continually. If you have that, you can do it. Gnosis is a heart doctrine, not an intellectual doctrine, not a belief. It is a practical seed. 

The word לב “heart” (leb in Hebrew) is Lamed-Beth. Lamed is the twelfth letter, but it carries the number 30. In Hebrew numbering, the letter Iod is 10, kaf is 20, Lamed is 30. Beth is 2. So the numerical significance of the word לב Lamed-Beth is 32. This is important. The Zohar teaches that there are 32 paths to wisdom. 

You can read books and books and books of intellectual ideas about these 32 paths. There are 32 paths. It is very simple: there are 22 Hebrew letters and there are 10 sephiroth. 22 plus 10 is 32. There are your 32 paths. Very simple. We do not need very complicated diagrams or theories to understand this. But the real meaning? The real meaning of the 32 paths is Lamed–Beth. Leb: your heart. What the Zohar is saying is that your heart is the path to wisdom. And this is stated in every religion. Remember Proverbs said,

“The לב [heart] of the בין [prudent] getteth דעת [Daath: knowledge]...” - Proverbs 18:15

Not the mind. That wisdom, that knowledge, is דעת Daath. So these 32 paths are the light of Chokmah, the ray of creation that comes through Kether-Iod, Chokmah-Christ, Binah-the Divine Mother, the Holy Spirit. This 3-in-1 is represented by the Hebrew letter Shin. It is Aleph, the 3-in-1. Wisdom, light, Aun Weor. Strength and light. We enter that path through the heart. But that heart needs to be in equilibrium. 

nervous-systemThe 32 paths also relate in a very interesting way to your body. You may not be aware of it but your spinal column is of great significance in these teachings. Within the spinal column is a subtle channel through which that light can emerge. The spinal column has what is called a mixed spinal nerve. The mixed spinal nerve is 31 nerves on your spine. Interestingly, as a symbol, Lamed represents a staff. You carry a staff in your body: your spinal column. 

In addition, your brain has twelve primary nerves. Remember, Lamed is the number twelve. 

So, if we analyze this, the brain plus 31 nerves in the spine, we see in our nervous system 32 paths to wisdom. So the 32 paths of wisdom also points at your nervous system. This is because, through our nervous system, we experience life. Through our nervous system, we receive life. 

What is life? The power of God. But as we are now, we do not control it. We do not have power in life. We can receive it if we deserve it. To receive that power is to become a prophet, a master, a Buddha. It is to accomplish the 32 paths, to have power over the elements. That power comes through the nervous system, our staff, the spinal column. This is why the masters carry staves: to represent the fire that is awakened in their spine columns. But all of this only comes when the heart is in equilibrium. 

The synthesis of all of this is very simple. Control your mind. Stop harmful action. Do good. In other words, use your Lamed, your staff, to direct your psychological animals towards good behavior. This is how you direct yourself towards higher levels of Being.

When these factors are fully developed in us, then we are acquiring what is called in Sanskrit, Bodhichitta. Bodhichitta teaches the same thing as the letter Lamed. The Sanskrit word Bodhichitta has a very deep significance in Mahayana Buddhism, and in Tantra. The word bodhi can be translated as “wisdom.” In Hebrew, wisdom is Chokmah, Christ. The word chitta is “mind-heart.” So in conjunction with each other Bodhichitta means “Christ-heart-mind.” Wisdom heart-mind. Bodhichitta is the power of divine love, compassion, cognizant love. 

When we talk about Christ, we are not talking about a person. We are talking about a force, but a force of intelligence. This force of Christ is love, but it is not sentimental love. It is not gushy love, the way we think of it. It is real love. It is beyond even the love of a mother for a child. Terrestrially, that is probably the strongest love we witness. When a mother loves the child, they will give their very life to protect that child. That is love through sacrifice. That is christic love. But that love is but a pale reflection. When you compare a mother's love to the love of Christ, it is like comparing the strength of a match with the power of a sun. Someone who has incarnated Christ, who has fully developed Bodhicitta, is an incarnation of that cognizant love. By cognizant, I mean intelligent. Wise. Penetrating. Sees beyond all appearances. Sees the truth. But acts. The love of Christ is active. It is not a passive love that is gushy and sits back and just wants you to feel good about yourself. That is not christic love. Christic love is a lion. It is ferocious. It can be gentle. It is beyond conception. If we study the life of any great christified master, we see that love in action. In the life of Jesus, for example, he did many acts of kindness. Healing the sick. Guiding the confused. Aiding the perplexed. Raising the dead. Yet he also showed his ferocity when he cleansed the temple, when he debated the liars and the cheats. His doctrine is very fierce, very penetrating, very wise. But he showed the true power of that christic, cognizant love through his resurrection. Even while tortured, persecuted, and put to death, he only expressed love for his persecutors.

“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” - Luke 23:34

We see, likewise, in the life of the Buddha, in the life of Krishna, a terrific compassion. A compassion, that, when we see it, makes us see how inept we are. How foolish we are, how pathetic. Pathetic means “worthy of compassion.” It is not a criticism. We are pathetic. We are worthy of pity. We think we are gods, but we are not. We have nothing to boast of. 

One who incarnates that force incarnates that love not for themselves, not to glorify themselves, not to show themselves to others and to be followed and respected and admired, but to heal, to help, to serve. Sometimes with ferocity, sometimes with gentleness. That is christic love, and that is what must inhabit our heart. That is why, the twelfth commandment is,

“Thou shalt make thy light shine.”

That is not your personal light, not your name, opinion, point of view, belief, thought, idea, attachments. It is your light. That light is Christ. It is not your country, religion, education, schooling, the clothes you wear, nothing terrestrial. It is the light of your own Osiris. This is a commandment. That is the light of your own inner Buddha. The light of Chokmah. The light of Shekinah. 

This a commandment for you. It does not say, “Go follow somebody who has light.” It does not say, “go believe in this other light,” or “go think about it.” It says “make your light shine.” 

That light does not shine through your mind, body, or words unless it shines in your heart first. Your heart needs to be inflamed, burning, with the light of prajna. 

Prajna is a beautiful Sanskrit word. This is the light that must burn in your heart. Prajna is a Sanskrit word that is very difficult to translate. It is somewhat similar to Ain Soph because prajna is the wisdom of the Ain Soph. Ain Soph is a Hebrew phrase for the limitless space, the Absolute, unconditioned, free in it's movement, knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, but beyond intellect. It is the emptiness, it is the void, it is Shunyata. It is Anatman, non-being, no self; this is prajna. To have prajna is to have experiential knowledge of ultimate reality. We do not have that. We are in a sea of illusions. We believe what we see is real. We believe what we believe is real. We believe what we think is real. When the truth is none of it is real. 

"Shariputra, any noble son or noble daughter who so wishes to engage in the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom [prajna; bodhi / chokmah; Christ] should clearly see this way: they should see perfectly that even the five aggregates [form, sensation, discrimination, mental formation, consciousness] are empty of intrinsic existence. Form is emptiness [Ain Soph, the Absolute], emptiness is form; emptiness [Ain Soph, the Absolute] is not other than form, form too is not other than emptiness [Ain Soph, the Absolute]. Likewise, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are all empty. Therefore, Shariputra, all phenomena are emptiness [Ain Soph, the Absolute]; they are without defining characteristics; they are not born, they do not cease; they are not defiled, they are not undefiled; they are not deficient, and they are not complete.

"Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness [Ain Soph, the Absolute] there is no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no mental formations, and no consciousness. There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, and no mind. There is no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no texture, and no mental objects. There is no eye-element and so on up to no mind-element including up to no element of mental consciousness. There is no ignorance, there is no extinction of ignorance, and so on up to no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death. Likewise, there is no suffering, origin, cessation, or path; there is no wisdom, no attainment, and even no non-attainment.

"Therefore, Shariputra, since bodhisattvas have no attainments, they rely on this perfection of wisdom [prajna; bodhi / chokmah; Christ] and abide in it. Having no obscuration in their minds, they have no fear, and by going utterly beyond error, they will reach the end of nirvana [cessation of suffering]. All the buddhas too who abide in the three times attained the full awakening of unexcelled, perfect enlightenment by relying on this profound perfection of wisdom [prajna; bodhi / chokmah; Christ].” - The Heart of Wisdom Sutra (Prajnaparamita Sutra)

The intellect can never grasp reality. It can talk about it, it can explain it conceptually, it can theorize, and we can believe or disbelieve, but the experience of reality transforms us. 

We need to experience prajna, and that light needs to burn in our heart. This experience of the truth, of the Being, cannot come to us when we worship our ideas and our beliefs. When we worship our attachments and when we are in love with matter and energy, when we are addicts of sensation, when we follow people or beliefs, or schools, or traditions, when we are attached to flags and countries and educations and titles and theories, all of that, which is our mind, is an obstacle. 

To taste prajna, to experience the reality of the emptiness in all things, one must abandon everything that one thinks one is. Not even a speck of “I” can enter there. The letter Lamed teaches us this:

א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת

Look at the twenty-two leters: lamed is exactly in the middle: the heart of the alphabet. Lamed shows us it is possible to go beyond the line that the letters hang from. You see the line that all the letters hang from? Only Lamed passes beyond it, above, reaching... This is the power of the heart.

To penetrate beyond that line is to see through the veil of Isis. It is to exit the illusion of existence. It is to see past what we assume is true, and to see the truth. Lamed teaches us that. Through the heart, it can be done. Not through the mind. The power of Bodhichitta is the power to comprehend prajna. Through the comprehension of prajna, we develop more Bodhichitta.  

Bodhichitta is simply compassion and comprehension of the absolute. Many people say Bodhichitta is just compassion. They are wrong. It is not. Bodhichitta has two aspects. Bodhichitta is cognizant love for others. But that cognizant love cannot exist if there is no comprehension of the Absolute, the Ain Soph. Bodhichitta is a union of love and comprehension. That is why it belongs in the heart. We can all agree that love is centered in the heart. But once you have had the experience of the Absolute, then you can understand that is also in the heart, not the mind. The experience of reality is in the heart. It comes through the heart, not the mind. 

There are many meditators who sit and concentrate on their mind, and work on their mind, on their mind, on their mind. They are mistaken. The mind is the problem. The mind is the obstacle. The mind must be abandoned. The mind must be controlled. To experience the void, the Absolute, is not a question of time, space, belief, or idea. In fact, it is not even a question of technique. It is a question of attitude. To experience the reality of life only requires that one has the attitude that what we see now is not reality. This is not an intellectual game, and there are many people who play this game. Who tell themselves, “Yes, everything I see is a lie,” who tell themselves and tell others, “life is an illusion, you can do whatever you want.” That is a lie. You cannot do whatever you want, because karma exists. 

“Your realization of the view’s nature [dharmakaya, Ain Soph] may be like an ocean, but still guard the relative cause and efect [karma] down the finest detail. You may have understood the vast ocean of dharmata’s nature, but still keep an undistracted training like a pillar of gold. You may have realized the natural state of open mind, but still protect your samayas and precepts, stable and undamaged... You may have seen the equal nature of buddhas and beings, but still avoid like poison the ten unvirtuous deeds and their results.” - Padmasambhava, The Precious Golden Garland of Meditation Instructions 

What we need is a new attitude of consciousness. The Sanskrit word for this is paramita. Paramita is “a virtue or quality that is beyond.” Para means “beyond.” Prajna is the highest paramita (conscious attitude). The Buddha taught the paramitas in stages. The highest one is prajna. Prajna is the comprehension of reality, to see the truth. To access that, we begin training in this very moment. It is to have the conscious attitude that, “I do not see reality as it really is, but I need to.” You do not do that through your mind. You do it through your consciousness, in your heart, by remembering God. By being cognizant of every little thing that you sense, that you feel, that you think, that you do. Cognizant in your heart of that. This is the same thing as developing intuition. It is the same thing as self-observation and self-remembering. It is the same thing as the key of S.O.L. It is watchfulness, it is mindfulness. It is right view. 

To access prajna requires this conscious attitude. It is the heart longing to know God, to receive that letter Iod at the top of the letter Lamed, to incarnate that. It is to acquire knowledge through prudence, Bayin, Binah. The method to acquire this begins here and now. But to fully develop it, you have to close your eyes. You have to shut off your sense of touch, you have to walk away from your hearing, from your sense of taste, from your sense of smell. You have to withdraw into your heart and dive deep into that cognizance, that flame that longs to know the truth. In that diving deep within, you have to leave behind every thought, feeling, sense of I, me, myself. You have to remain conscious of the root of your experience of being cognizant. That root is your essence, consciousness, soul. That soul does not have your current name. That soul does not have your current history. It is bright, active, joyful, awake, alive, nameless, selfless, perfect. You do not have to believe anything, pay anyone or follow anyone to taste that which is within you. No one can give it to you. No one can show it to you, but you, yourself. Your essence, soul, consciousness is yours. Only you can develop it. And it is not hard. To taste your true inner nature is not hard. All it requires is that you let go of all your attachments. 

Learn to meditate, in which you forget your body. You leave it there in your chair or in your bed. You abandon it. Forget your body. If you are still paying attention to a pain in  your body, to discomfort, to any sensation, then you cannot have this experience of reality. If you are seated, trying to meditate and you are distracted by a sound, or a feeling, or a memory, or a worry, or a thought, you cannot experience reality. To taste the reality of who you are as a soul requires you abandon everything that the soul is not. Your body is not the soul. Your vital body, the body of energy, is not the soul. You have to abandon that. You have to be cognizant, conscious. 

Reaching the experience of reality is not a question of time. It is a question of putting the pieces in the right places. It is like turning a key in a lock. It does not take time to unlock the door. It only takes knowing how to use the key, and the key is your consciousness. To access prajna is the same. 

Samael Aun Weor tasted prajna, the Absolute, when he was only 18. There are many members of other traditions who tasted it even younger, or older, because time and age are irrelevant. The experience of the Absolute is not dependent on time because the Absolute is beyond time. 

Prajna, in itself, means knowledge or wisdom of  the absolute, the Ain Soph, the Adi Buddha, the Emptiness. In Sanskrit there is a word: Pratityasamutpada, which means dependent origination, interdependence, which indicates that all manifested things lack independent existence. The experience of that, the knowledge of that, is prajna. 

In simple terms, we can approach that perspective in our daily lives when we learn to balance our heart and mind, consciously. This conscious attitude or paramita of prajna should be our daily focus. To look beyond what we assume, what we think, what we believe. To cognizantly perceive what is actually there. Right now, we do not do that: we do not really see. We do not see the reality of anything. We go through life with a lot of pre-conceived ideas and beliefs. This is why we suffer. We believe this and that about ourselves, about the government, about life, about money. It is all lies. We need to see the truth. What can you see—truly see—in your life? Look at that and try to see more. 

I will give you an example. In your daily life, let us say at work, you are having a conflict with someone. Someone is creating trouble for you, and you are feeling irritation in your heart, frustration, maybe anger. Your mind is in a battle, “Why is this person being like this? Why are they doing this to me?” You have all the thoughts and feelings of frustration, anger. So, right there, you have a problem. The problem is not being created by the other person. It is being created by you, because of how you interpret the impressions that come to you. You are placing meaning on what is said and what is done. And when you place that meaning, you create. Most of us do not see any of that. We just react, we blame, we feel this, we think that, and we react, all the time, continually. We never look at what we feel and think. We never doubt it. If we looked at ourselves we could see, “you know what? The only reason I'm feeling this way is  because of my self-esteem. Maybe the other person is right. Maybe I was being rude. Maybe I was being careless. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe they are correct in what they said or did.” We can go further than that. “Who is this “I”? Who is this “me” that is suffering?” 

When we look into ourselves and we see this “I” that is suffering, if we know Gnosis, if we know this doctrine, we should know, immediately, that “I” is an ego. Those emotions and thoughts, and the will to act on that “I,” are egotistical. They are not Christ. They are not Bodhichitta. We need to see that in ourselves. Who is this “I”? Who is this ego? 

This is not an intellectual game. Let me repeat, it is not enough to say the words, to repeat the question in your mind. That is not it. It is a conscious attitude, cognizant observation, sincerely, with your heart: to look at yourself. When you do that, then you might see something of the truth. You might see that the feeling of self is really an illusion, that the situation or the words are totally impermanent, are actually completely irrelevant, and have no more meaning than any of the other billions of events that are happening in this instant, and that, ultimately, will mean nothing. So why react so strongly with negativity?

When we can recall, in those instances, that we are a child of God, that no matter what anyone else says, or what anyone else does, we have our Divine Mother, we have our inner Being, then who cares what anyone else says? Who cares what they think of us? Naturally, if our actions were mistaken, we need to correct ourselves. This is the value of learning from the point of view of others: it teaches us where we need to change. Yet ultimately, if our point of view is centered in remembrance of the divine, the opinions of others become less able to hurt us or motivate us towards harmful reactions.

When we can remember God in that way, we are given amazing strength. This is how the great martyrs, the great prophets, the saints, were always able to receive the persecution of others and only respond with love. They cannot fake that. Neither can you. The ability to respond to all of life’s challenges with a loving heart is a matter of comprehension, cognizance in the heart. It is not a faked attitude. There are many people who try to fake it. There are many so-called masters and spiritual guides who fake it, who are all smiles and speak very sweetly. But in their mind, in their heart, they are wolves, beasts. It is easy to fool oneself and others. Yet no one can fool the Innermost Being.

The path to wisdom can only be walked in sincerity. That path utilizes the physical world as a tool. But it is not accomplished for the physical world, by the physical world or exclusively for the benefit of the physical world. The path is accomplished to develop the soul. The awakened consciousness who has the fire of prajna burning inside of it, directly perceives, not though the mind, not through thought, but sees it, that everything that we see is temporary, illusion, will pass away. The one who has real prajna, who has bodhichitta in their heart sees that, not with despair, not with hopelessness, not with nihilism, but with love. This is the meaning of a real Bodhisattva. You see, a Bodhisattva who works through these twelve labors, represented in the letter Lamed, and fully develops the soul to reach that absolute perfection, does not seek to escape the world. It sounds contradictory to us. If prajna is to see that the world is illusion, why would you want to stay in it? It does not make sense to the mind. But it makes sense to the heart, because, through the wisdom of prajna, through that comprehension, that Bodhisattva sees all of us. That Bodhisattva sees that all of us suffer in that illusion. That we believe very much in this identity, this cage that we have made with our own hands, this cage, which we call our sense of self, which is a lie. And they see how much we suffer, because of the lies we tell ourselves. That is why the Bodhisattvas who acquire prajna, who acquire comprehension of the Absolute nature of reality, return. They come back, out of compassion. They come back to radiate that light of comprehension. It is not sentimental, “I feel bad for you.” It is not that. The real Bodhisattva comes back with a  sword. That is why Jesus said,

“Think not that I [Christ] am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34

"I [Christ] am come to send fire on the earth..." - Luke 12:49

That fire is represented by the letter ש Shin. That is the flame of prajna that burns in the heart. The flame of comprehension that wants to eradicate illusion. It does not want to pat you on the back and make you feel better about yourself. It wants you to see the truth, that you create your own suffering, needlessly. All of us. You suffer because of yourself. That is what we have to see. And we have to see how we do it. We have to see past the illusion that we have made. When we see that, we can stop lying. The worst lies we tell, are to ourselves. We have to see those lies and stop telling them. This is very painful, but necessary. When we can see the lie, then maybe we can see the truth. But you can never see the truth, unless you see the lie first. 

How can you know what the truth is unless you know what the lie is? Because, even seeing the truth, you would not know it is the truth, because you still believe in the lie. 

This, again, is why many people get stuck in meditation and never advance. They are unwilling to escape the lie of the self. If you think this is too vague, try to meditate. Close your eyes, sit, later, when you are alone, close your eyes and look at your mind. Look for God. What do you find? You find a chaos, darkness, and surging desire. That is our reality, but that reality is a lie. 

The primary, most important heart of Gnosis, is meditation. I know that many instructors and many students think that the main teaching in Gnosis is sex. It is an important one, because it is the sexual power that creates life. If we want spiritual life, we need to know how to use that power and intelligently. But there are many, many, many people who learn to use that power and create devils, because they do not meditate. Conversely, if you meditate, you can acquire great things, great comprehension, and you will be given the doctrine. If you are a real meditator, that is inevitable. But the other way around, it does not work. If you are given the sexual teaching first but you never meditate, you are doomed. If you meditate first, you will be given that doctrine. It is inevitable. This is why meditation is more important. This is why, in ancient times, all students of the doctrine were required to awaken consciousness first, before they were given the sexual doctrine. Nowadays, there is no more time to wait for us to awaken. We are given the doctrine now, because we need to hurry. There is no more time. But then, make no mistake. If you only practice the sexual aspect, you will fail. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated explicitly, after his doctrine spread throughout all the countries of South America. He said “those brothers and sisters from South America are in trouble. There is going to be a huge wave of demons that come out of South America because they do not meditate, they do not work on their ego.” They are all using the sexual energy but they do not work on the ego. What is the result? Suffering. He did not state that just to scare people. He said it because it is a fact. We are seeing the results of this now. Anyone who has been around the Gnostic movement for a while sees how poisonous much of it has become, with so many people claiming to be this and that. Who is teaching meditation? Who is teaching how to eliminate the ego? We do not see that. We see them emphasizing who to follow, who to worship, and how to be a good little soldier. We do not see anyone teaching you how to decapitate your self, which is what we need. We do not need masters. 

“Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master: Christ.” - Matthew 23:10

We need psychological death. We do not need people to follow and be followed. We need to die psychologically. Without death, there is no resurrection. If you want to resurrect, to become perfect, to be like your father in heaven, who is perfect, you must die. That “you” is your pride, anger, lust, fear, envy, jealousy, politics. All must die. The only thing that can escape, to rise above the line that the letters hang from, the only thing that can penetrate beyond that, and approach God, is the purity of your soul. That purity does not have beliefs, it does not follow anyone but the Innermost. That purity has no “I.” I pray that you can taste that. If you are a serious meditator, you will. On any particular day, without having any expectation of it, suddenly you will discover that you are experiencing life in another dimension, and that you are not you. The self that you think you are is not there, but what you feel is blissful. It is an ecstasy. 

“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.” - 2 Corinthians 12

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for נצח netzach.” - Psalm 16:11

I am sorry to tell you, but the first time you experience being free of your ego, out of the body, in a superior dimension, you will probably be so excited that you will come right back to your body. Then, all you will think about for weeks is “How do I have that experience again?” That is OK. You will. You get it back by not wanting it. Desire is the obstacle. Even the desire for an experience like that is an obstacle, because the mind makes it into desire. That kind of experience is called in Sanskrit samadhi. 

Samadhi is the experience of the soul, free of the ego. It is very simple. People make samadhi out to be this mind blowing experience of physical sensations. It is not. It has nothing to do with sensations. People invent beautiful ideas about what samadhi is, and say, “Pay me, and I will teach you how to get Samadhi.” That is a lie and a deception.

Samadhi can be accessed easily by anyone, if you know how. First, observe yourself. If you really observe yourself during the day, all day, and then later, you rest, close your eyes, let your body sleep, but stay cognizant, watchful, awake; your body sleeps, your soul does not. If you fall asleep, then you just fell asleep. That is not samadhi. Samadhi is when the body falls asleep and the soul begins to extract itself from its shells. Those shells are the internal bodies. 

We start with the three brains. When you relax to meditate, you start with your physical body. Relax your body. It must be perfectly relaxed. Just like when you sleep, your physical body actually sleeps when you have samadhi. Again, your consciousness does not sleep. Your body sleeps. Some people lie down, some people sit in meditation, some people sit in a chair. Your posture only matters in the sense that you need to be perfectly relaxed. Then your heart needs to be relaxed. Your mood. If your are feeling anxious, irritated, angry, just meditate on that. Meditate on what you see in yourself. Reflect on it, observe it, and allow it to pass away, to cool off. If you do not relax it, if you allow any disturbance in your physical body, any disturbance in your heart, you are going to go nowhere. That disturbance, that vibration traps your consciousness there. To leave and enter samadhi all of those disturbances have to become perfectly calm. The same is true in the mind, the intellect. If your mind is very much worried about your bills, worried about what somebody said, “what is going to happen tomorrow, what about the flu that is going around,” if your mind is obsessing about those kind of thoughts, you are going to be stuck there. So, see what is arising in you, and let it relax. When you see things surging in your physical body, in your emotional body, or your mental body, observe them and let them relax. Step away from it all and watch it. If you keep this sense of separation between the two, the awareness will grow, naturally. 

You see, samadhi cannot be forced. Samadhi is the natural state of the mind. In Tibetan, it is called “clear light.” That is the natural state of the consciousness. Clear light does not mean a physical light. It means the light of the consciousness is clear. It is empty, open, pure joy, blissfulness. This is the natural state of the mind. The ego is an accident, a monster. The ego should not exist, but we made it, and now we have to get rid of it. So to reach that natural state of the mind, that silence of the mind, you have to relax your three brains. 

So when you learn to meditate here, this is where we start. It might take you a little while, because the consciousness is weak and you have to train it. And your mind is very complicated, very dense with all kinds of thoughts and memories and desires. And it may take you a little while to learn how to separate your consciousness from that. Do not worry about the time. That will just become a desire, and you will start comparing yourself with everyone else. Do not do that. That is the mind. Be where you are, now. Do what you can now. Be aware of yourself. 

Persistence in that effort, continually observing your mind, heart, body, you begin to create a sense of separation, a space inside,  within which the consciousness becomes stronger, more vibrant, more consistent. This effort is not only for when you sit down to meditate. This is all day. This is all night. This is a very rigorous effort. It is not something you can sit back and be on autopilot. It will never happen. It takes constant, constant, constant remembrance to watch and keep watching. To be conscious and remain conscious. 

“With mindfulness, vigilance, and conscientiousness,
Constantly guard the gateways of your senses.
Again and again, three times both day and night,
Examine the flow of your thoughts.” - Atisha, Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland

When you forget yourself, reflect on what caused you to lose awareness. But do not lose awareness now, when you reflect. Remain aware of yourself reflecting. Observe how you observe. It sounds complicated, but it is easy. It is easy, because your consciousness naturally knows how to do it, if you extract it from the mind. What is complicated is the mind. The consciousness is simple.

Eventually, if you work in the right way, if you are patient, you will find yourself in that moment, whether in the body or out of the body, where you experience what it is like to be free of the ego. You will then, in that moment, even if it lasts only an instant, have acquired a comprehension that is so priceless, it is the most valuable thing ever. 

“Whosoever has awakened the consciousness lives awake in the Superior Worlds.

“We feel the mystical beatitude of the ineffable Light while in the supra-sensible worlds. Then, the past, the present, and the future harmonize within an eternal Now.

“There is no better pleasure than feeling one’s soul detached. Then we taste the divine nectar of eternity, and we enter through the doors of the temples filled with joy and amidst the ineffable melodies of the great mysteries.” - Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message

The first moment that you taste that your soul is not the “I,” when you first experience your consciousness, free of the “I,” you have acquired that “pearl of great price.” There is no value you can put to that. The whole universe exists so you can taste that: the reality of yourself as a soul. That is your first glimmer of prajna. That that self, the consciousness, is not “I.” There is no “I” there. There is existence, there is life, there is light, there is beauty, but there is no “I.” In those moments, you are the real you, but without ego. Your name is not there; your history is not there. Your worries and concerns are not there; just your soul. But that is only the beginning. That is the beginning of a long, very difficult, but very beautiful process, which is represented in the life of every great master. It is the process to liberate the soul from the illusion. 

In synthesis, Lamed represents all of that. It is the longing of the heart to receive prajna, wisdom, knowledge, the light of Christ, to incarnate God within. It is beautifully hidden in this word leb, “heart” in Hebrew. 

“And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the Elohim of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing nephesh: for IVHV searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee...” - 1 Chronicles 28:9

The letter Lamed represents the ascent and descent of the light of Christ. The letter Beth indicates the Divine Mother. When you see the word heart written in Hebrew, what you are seeing is Osiris and Isis. The Egyptians even drew images of Osiris in the shape of a Lamed. It is no accident.

heart-of-osiris 

In other words, in your heart should live your own Osiris and Isis, Abba-Aima, father and mother, Shiva-Shakti. They can only live there if you purify your heart temple. So, “Make thy light shine,” the light of your Innermost Divine. 

Questions and Answers

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: The challenge with teaching how to eliminate the ego is that you can only eliminate the ego with the consciousness. We have our consciousness asleep, and so people invent a lot of intellectual ideas or beliefs about that elimination. But intellectual ideas and beliefs can never convey the actual method, because the actual method is conscious. On the other hand, if you have your consciousness awake, you can learn that method intuitively, on your own. You can learn it from a koan, which is a very cryptic, enigmatic phrase, such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping”? If you have your consciousness awake, you can acquire from such a phrase the direct instruction of how to eliminate your ego. But if you are asleep, you can read 10,000 books and you will never get it. This is why, in every tradition of meditation, the requirement is: awaken your consciousness first. Then you can learn the sexual aspect and the way to eliminate the ego. Otherwise, you cannot understand. 

Samael Aun Weor taught the method to eliminate the ego. He taught it in every single lecture and in every single book. Yet, he taught it consciously. Unfortunately, many of his students have failed to understand that, so they have invented a lot of ideas. They have developed a lot of beliefs about how to eliminate the ego, and they teach a lot of practices, but they are not elimination. Let me give you an example. There are some schools that require their students to follow a visualization practice, where everybody visualizes a given event where they saw a particular ego. They visualize the ego, and then they visualize asking their Divine Mother to eliminate that ego. They go through a very sophisticated process of visualization. This effort itself does not eliminate anything, because the Divine Mother can only eliminate an ego if you have comprehended it and taken the consciousness out of it. This is similar to someone taking a book and reciting it as if they understand it. They do not. To repeat, mechanically, a given practice, does not bring comprehension. To comprehend something is to understand it deeply and to not repeat it. If an ego, if a desire, if a conflict is continually emerging, it means that there is no comprehension of it. In order to comprehend it, you have to observe it and get to know it. You have to study it, not with the intellect, with the heart, with the consciousness. 

The book “The Revolution of the Dialectic” beautifully teaches how to comprehend. But many students become frustrated by this book because it does not say, intellectually, “Step 1: Sit and do this. Step 2: Do this and this. Step 3: do this.” It does not do this because the consciousness does not work that way. Only the intellect does. Gnosis is not intellectual. It is a doctrine of the heart. To comprehend your ego, you need to be conscious of it: to awaken, to be cognizant. This is something that words can never convey. A practice that you repeat everyday can never grasp it. But if you awaken, you can get it. 

The method to eliminate the ego is in you. It is a knowledge that your Being will give you, that your Divine Mother will lead you towards, if you practice seriously in meditation. In other words, read the books, read the lectures, study them; they will prepare you. But you will only learn it if you meditate seriously everyday. That is how you learn it. You do not learn it by going to a group and following the same steps with everybody else. Impossible! You learn it by diving into your heart, and abandoning everything else outside, then you will discover it.

Audience: Is it true that anyone who does not walk the straight path becomes a Hasnamuss?

Instructor: Well, the question is a little bit off base, because the fact is that we are all Hasnamussen already. A Hasnamuss is a person with a split center of gravity, consciously speaking. We are that. We have a small percentage of free consciousness which is still pure. But the vast majority of our consciousness is trapped in pride, fear, jealousy, resentments, memories. Most of our consciousness is trapped in that. We are Hasnamussen. Every one of us. The only ones who are not Hasnamussen are resurrected masters. How many of them do you know? Very few. And most of us do not know them personally. They are not Hasnamussen because they have no ego. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: The question is about self-remembrance and sexual transmutation and awakening. To awaken the consciousness is not dependent on any method. It is only dependent on using the consciousness. It is very simple. People go running from teacher to teacher, and school to school and book to book, trying to find the way to awaken the consciousness, when the way to do it is with them, all the time. That way is to be cognizant. To pay attention to yourself. Sexual transmutation empowers it because the sexual energy creates. When the consciousness harnesses that force, it awakens rapidly. This is why, in both black schools and pure schools, the sexual energy is utilized in the awakening of consciousness. In the black schools, that energy is utilized through desire. The black magicians or black tantrics utilize desire and the orgasm in order to take that energy and awaken the consciousness, but through desire. The pure schools utilize that energy through chastity, controlling that force without lust, desire, anger, pride. This type of school is very rare. Either way, awakening consciousness takes effort. 

There are a lot of people who follow black schools or pure schools and who do all the practices, but never awaken, because they are lazy, as a consciousness. They might meditate six hours a day and they might practice tantra and they might do hundreds of thousands of repetition's of mantras, yet they never awaken because they are lazy as a consciousness. They do not pay attention; they do not use the consciousness; they are very distracted. There are many teachers like this. Yet, to awaken your consciousness, you do not need all of that. Practices help. Mantras give power; sexual energy gives power; meditation gives comprehension; but awakening is from moment to moment. It is an attitude of consciousness that has an infinite possibility, both upwards and downwards.

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: The levels of the mind can be perceived by the senses related to each level. Let me give you an example of that. We state in Gnosis that we have 49 levels in the mind. And so everybody's intellect says, “What are those 49 levels and how do they relate? I want to see a chart and a diagram of the 49 levels.” It does not work like that. You, here, in your physical body, can see mind at this level. What do you see as mind, when you look at yourself? Well, you see your physical body, which is not mind. It is related; it is a product of mind, but it is not mind itself. What can you see of mind? Not much. You see thoughts, memories, fantasies, daydreams, beliefs, but these are only glimmers or reflections of where those elements actually inhabit. They are in another level. So, when you, here, physically, become irritated or angry with your neighbor, you can observe that mind, in this level, but you cannot see the whole thing, because you do not see where those thoughts came from. You only see after they arrived. And you do not see where they go when they leave. Nonetheless, they return again tomorrow, right? If you observe yourself today, you see given thoughts. They arise, they sustain and then they pass away. But, then, tomorrow, the same thoughts come. Why is that? How is it these thoughts and feelings come into my mind stream, and then go back out? They must be coming from somewhere and going to somewhere, right? It is logical, but I cannot see that physically. So what makes me think physically I can eliminate the ego? It is incongruent. It is illogical. That makes no sense. In order to eliminate the producer of that thought—let us say it was lust, let us say, in my mind was coming these images of desire of a certain thing—if I want to eliminate that, I can hack at it when it flows through my mind, then it goes away. I cannot get the roots and, sure enough, the next day, it will come back. To get the root, I have to go where the root is. It is not in the physical body, or the physical world; it is deeper. This is why we have to meditate. 

When we learn to meditate, we learn to take the consciousness out of the physical body and go to the other levels: the fourth dimension, the fifth dimension, and the sixth. We learn to be like the heroes Orpheus or Heracles, who descend into hell in order to save his love, to clean hell. You can only do that by being there and seeing it for yourself, face to face, consciously. Many people are scared of hell, or scared to meditate because they “might see the devil.” Let me tell you something: the devil is you. You are going to see yourself. Now, if you admit that you are scared to see yourself, I am happy for you. Now get over it and look at yourself. Be honest. If you avoid yourself, you condemn yourself to suffering for a long time. Be courageous. Look at yourself. You will not like it, I promise you. But from that sight, you can change.

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: To raise a child to have no ego? I wish! Any child that is born with karma will have ego, but as you raise that child, you can give them a lot of tools, a lot of guidance. Nonetheless, you have to respect their will. So, as a parent, you can set a good example, not by telling them, “do this,” and then you do something else; which is what we all do, right? But, instead, to live a good example. Live it, and teach what you can and suggest, and encourage. But, at a certain point, you also have to let the child do it themselves. To learn to walk, the child has to do it on their own. If you are there, as daddy, holding their hand all the time, you have to do that until they are 40 or 50 years old, which is probably not a good idea. The same is true with the consciousness. Every one of us has to learn to walk on our own. Consciously. A good instructor, like a good parent, will hold your hand and then let go. And if you fall down, you learn from falling. At least, you should. We have to learn. Same with children. So we do our best; try to help them, but, ultimately, you have to let them develop themselves.

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: That image of the sacred heart of Jesus is exactly this whole lecture. You see, that sacred heart is enwrapped with the crown of thorns; penetrating the heart and making it bleed. That crown is the letter kaf.  That crown is kaf, which we learnt about in the last lecture. That flame is the top of the Lamed. You see the flame? The Lamed is that sacred heart. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: We talk about self-remembering as related with the pineal gland, and we talk about it related with the heart, yet self-remembering is the same thing. There are distinct forces that the consciousness relies upon in order to be empowered. How that works is best learnt through experience. A fully-developed sense of self-remembering relies, heavily, upon the pineal gland being active and functioning properly. This is why we always talk about the need to restore the pineal gland and to direct those energies into the brain; to saturate the pineal gland and to awaken it, to restore it. Nonetheless, those forces come from the heart. They also relate to the pituitary gland. There is a very deep significance of these three locations. So, I would say that, as a practical matter for self-remembering, that the practice of self-remembering, particularly in the beginning, does not begin with awareness of your physical glands. You might observe things there in the glands or in the heart. You might. But it does not mean that you are attempting to maintain awareness of your physical heart or glands. Self-remembering should be focused on God, on divinity, on generally expanding awareness. When that practice becomes developed, results can be observed in relationship with the pineal gland and the heart. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: It sounds contradictory, right? It is a very good question. This is the exact subject that you will find in “The Revolution of the Dialectic.” As you study that book, it seems to be filled with contradiction after contradiction. He will teach you one technique, and you turn the page, and there is a contradictory technique. And, so, your intellect becomes overwhelmed. This is actually part of the point. That is the nature of Zen, actually. “The Revolution of the Dialectic” is a book of Zen, but very beautifully expressed.  To understand real Zen, you have to awaken your consciousness. 

When I stated earlier that meditators who meditate on the mind make a mistake, I am referring to particular techniques in meditation in which the meditator attempts to force the mind to be silent. They sit by force of will, trying to silence the mind by willpower. It is impossible. You might as well try to pick yourself up from your feet. You cannot do it. Even if you think you are silencing your mind, all you are doing is hiding from the truth. 

The thing about proper meditation is, to really do it well, you have to balance your heart and mind, just like the scale from the Egyptian image. The heart and mind have to be in equilibrium. This means that you have to have cognizance of them both. Simultaneously.

In discussing meditating on the mind, what I am trying to impart to you is the ability to be observant of your mind, but not attached to it. This is a subtle thing. It is to observe the mind but not try to force it to do one thing or another thing. To not impose your will, but to just observe. This is hard to do, especially when you really are trying to meditate and your mind will not be quiet. And you get angry at it and shout at it and try to force it to be quiet. And there are techniques of recriminating the mind called the Second Jewel of the Yellow Dragon, which is where you learn to recriminate the mind, to talk to the mind, and to silence the mind. But many people try to do that by using the mind to silence the mind, which does not work. Many people who learn this technique try to do it with the intellect. To use their mind to tell the mind to be quiet. You cannot. It does not work. It is, again, trying to pick yourself up from your feet. 

For Second Jewel of the Yellow Dragon technique to work, you have to be consciously awake, to use it with the consciousness. 

So, you see, there are things here that escape explanation in words. It requires that you have experience in meditation to understand what they mean. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: There is a great book to help parents. It is called Fundamentals of Gnostic Education. Any parent or teacher should study that book very deeply. It gives a methodology to help children. Anyone can use it, even if you do not have kids. And, in fact, if you have the interest of teaching Gnosis or teaching meditation or helping others, in any way, you should really know that book very deeply. That book helps you learn how to help someone in a christic way, a conscious way. 

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: In the Gnostic tradition we use the word “mind” in very specific ways, which is different from the Asian traditions. Most people in the West interpret mind to mean “intellect” or the place where thoughts occur. Yet, when you read translations of books from or Hinduism or Buddhism, they use the word “mind” where we would use the word “consciousness.” This can give rise to a lot of confusion for students. 

By “consciousness” we are referring to the true nature of the mind. It is mind in the sense of cognitive discrimination, but it is not ego. So Raja Yoga, Mahamudra, Dzogchen, all these traditions refer to “mind observing mind.” That is because they are showing you that the ego, itself, has mind in it. It has consciousness in it. In Gnosis, we discriminate between the terms in order to help our understanding. We discriminate between consciousness and mind, but the truth is, they are really the same thing. 

“What is called mind, consciousness, or awareness is of a single identity.” - Guru Shri Singha, teacher of Padmasambhava

Egos (defects, vices, errors) are cages that traps consciousness. Egos do not actually exist, in the ultimate level. Each is a false creation, a shell. Each is made by you, and is, in other words, consciousness perverted. Each is mind, but we have to remove the perversion so that that consciousness can be free. So whatever the terminology, we are all talking about the same thing.

Audience: [inaudible]

Instructor: Well in theosophy, they call it inferior and superior self, “I.” In Hinduism they talk about manas, which has two levels, superior and inferior, and these relate to the fifth and sixth dimensions (the sephirah Netzach and Tiphereth), two aspects of the soul. So when we get into the details, it is just semantics. It is just the way the words are used are slightly different. But let us understand the meaning. The meaning is, we need to free ourselves from false ideas, from falsities of consciousness, or mind. The defects are also called samskaras or aggregates.