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A Talk on the Mysteries of Life and Death



Let us begin our lecture, and I hope everybody will pay the maximum of attention. 

Tonight, I am going to speak about the mysteries of life and death. This is the clear objective of this lecture. We are going to make a complete differentiation between the law of the eternal return of everything, the law of transmigration of souls, and the law of reincarnation, etc...

The time has come to widely disclose all of this, so that the Gnostic students become well informed. 

It is obvious that the first thing that we need to know in life is, where do we come from, where are we going, what is the reason for our existence? Why we do exist? etc... 

Unquestionably, if we want to know something about the fate that await us and about life itself, it is indispensable, first of all, to know what we are. This is urgent, unpostponable, and undeferable.

The Physical and Vital Bodies

The physical body in itself is not all that we are. Our organism is made up of organs, and each organ is made up of cells; in turn each cell is composed of molecules, and each molecule of atoms. If we split any atom, we will liberate energy. Atoms are composed of quarks that revolve around the electrons, protons, neutrons, etc. All of this is known in nuclear physics.

Sequentially, the physical body is essentially composed of different types and subtypes of energy; this is very intriguing. The very human thought is composed of energy. From the “neopallium,” from the brain radiates specific type of waves that can be wisely detected. We already know that scientists can measure mental waves with very fine sophisticated instruments (called an electroencephalograph) and these thoughts can be measured as microvolts. So essentially, our organism is summarized as different types and subtypes of energies.

So, matter is nothing more than crystallized energy; this is why Albert Einstein said: “The relative mass of a body exceeds its net mass by an amount that equals its kinetic energy, divided by C squared.” He also emphatically affirmed that “the energy equivalent of a mass is equal to the mass times the speed of light squared.” Therefore, the so-called matter is nothing more than crystallized energy.

Moreover, the physical body has a vital organic base. I am emphatically addressing the Linga-Sarira of Theosophy, the bio-thermal electro-magnetic condensation. Each atom of the vital body penetrates each atom of the physical body making it vibrate and spark. Indeed, the vital double or vital body is a type of organic double.

For example, if the arm of that vital double detaches from the physical arm, we feel that our hand falls asleep. When that vital arm penetrates once again into the physical arm, when each atom of the vital body penetrates into the physical one, it produces a vibration, the vibration that one feels when the arm falls asleep and one has to awaken this arm, feeling, as we say, a kind of “pins and needles” sensation.

Well, if the vital body was definitively removed from a physical person and if this vital body was not attached to the physical body again, then the physical person would die. So, the vital body is indeed interesting. Nonetheless, the vital body is nothing more than the superior section of the physical body. It is, we may say, the tetra-dimensional part of the physical body. The Vedantists consider that the vital and physical bodies as one whole, as one unity.   

The Ego

A little bit further beyond this physical body with its vital organic base we have the ego. The ego in itself is a conjunction of different inhuman elements that we carry within ourselves. It is obvious that those elements are denominated anger, greed, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony, etc., etc., etc. So many are the defects that we have that Virgil in his Aeneid, book six said: 

"No, not if I had a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, and throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs, I could not half those my horrid crimes describe, nor half the punishments those crimes have met.” —The Aeneid

So, the ego is nothing more than this.

Nevertheless, some people enthrone their ego in their hearts, they make an altar for it, they  worship it. These people are sincere but mistaken, because they assume that the ego by itself is something divine; and indeed, about this they are perfectly mistaken. 

Some others divide the “I” into two parts: “superior I” and “inferior I,” and they want their “inferior I” to be controlled by their “superior I.” People do not want to become aware that the “inferior section” and “superior section” are just two parts of the same thing.

The “I” in itself is time, the “I” in itself is a book of many volumes, in the “I” we find all of our aberrations, all of our defects, all of that which makes of us authentic intellectual animals in the most complete sense of the word. Others state that the “superior I” is the divine “alter ego” and worship it, this is indeed just another way of finding escapes in order to save the “I,” in order to divinize it. Sadly, the “I” is still just the “I,” and that’s all.      

Death

Death itself is, indeed, a mathematical subtraction of fractions; once the mathematical operation is done the only thing that remains are the values. These values are positive and negative; these are also good and bad. Eternity swallows, devours these values. In the Astral Light, these values attract and reject each other in accordance with the laws of universal magnetism. These values are just the inhuman elements that constitute the ego. These inhuman elements sometimes crash among themselves or simply attract or reject each other.

Death itself is the return to the original point of departure. A person is what his or her life is. If a person does not work on his own life, if he does not try to modify it, obviously he is wasting his time miserably because a person is nothing more than what his life is. We have to work on our own life in order to make it a masterpiece.

Life is like a motion picture; when the motion picture ends, we take the film into eternity. Once in eternity, we relive the film of our life that has just ended. 

During the first days of this reliving, the defunct ones mostly see the house where they died and they even abide in it. If someone dies, for example, at the age of eighty years, that one will be able to see their grandchildren, to take a seat at the table, etc.; in other words, their ego will be perfectly convinced that they are still physically alive and there is nothing in the world that could persuade them to become aware of the contrary.

Unfortunately, to the ego nothing changes. The ego sees life as it has always been, for example, seated at the table in the dining room, he will ask for his usual food. Obviously, his relatives will not see him, but the subconsciousness of his relatives will answer, that subconsciousness will put the necessary food on the table. It is obvious that this will not be physical food because that would be impossible, but it will be mental forms very similar to the food that the deceased person used to consume.

The disembodied can attend his wake yet he would never think that the wake is related to him. He will think that the wake relates to another person, to somebody else that has died, but he would never believe that the wake relates to him. He feels so alive that he does not even remotely suspect that he is dead. If he goes out to the street, he will see the streets absolutely in the same way that he saw them when he was alive. Nothing can make him think that something has happened to him.

If he goes to a church, he will see the priest performing the ritual of the Mass, he will be part of it and will later leave perfectly convinced that he is alive. Nothing can convince him that he is physically dead. Moreover, if somebody were to affirm to him that he is physically dead, he would skeptically smile, and with incredulity he would not accept that affirmation.

Retrospection After Death

In the astral world, the defunct one has to relive the entire existence that he just physically finished, but he will relive it through time and in such a natural manner that the defunct one — identified with it — really enjoys each of the ages of his already ended life. For example, if he was eighty years old, he will be, for a while, enjoying his grandchildren, taking a seat at the dinner table, lying-down on the same bed, etc., yet, at the time passes, he will adapt to the other circumstances of his existence.      

Soon he will feel that he is living the age of seventy-nine years, or the age of seventy-seven, or his sixties, etc.; and if he lived in a different house at the age of sixty, he will live in that same house again and will repeat the same words that he used to and even his psychological aspect will assume the aspect that he had when he was sixty years old. 

If at the age of fifty he used to live in another city, he will see himself reliving his life in that other city and in that other house and so on and so forth. During that time of reliving, his psychological aspect and physiognomy will undergo a transformation in accordance with the age that he is reliving. For example, at the age of twenty years, he will have exactly the same physiognomy that he had when he was twenty years old. At the age of ten he will see himself as a child, and at the moment when he ends the review of the events of his recent physical existence, then his life will have been reduced to additions and subtractions and mathematical operations. All of this is very useful for the consciousness.

In this condition, the defunct one will have to present himself before the courts of objective justice or celestial justice. These courts are completely different from the subjective or terrestrial justice. In the courts of objective justice only the law and mercy reign truthfully. It is obvious that beside justice there is always mercy.

Three possible paths are opened before the defunct one:

1. Vacations in the superior worlds (this path is for those that really deserve it).

2. To return into a new womb in an immediate or gradual manner.

3. To descend into the infernal worlds. To fulfill the Second Death that is mentioned in the Apocalypse of Saint John and in the gospel of Christ.

Obviously, those who achieve ascending to the superior worlds experience a period of great happiness.

The Paths of the Dead: Vacation in the Superior Worlds  

Normally the soul, or consciousness, is trapped within the “I” of experiential psychology, within the ego, that, as we already stated, is formed by different inhuman elements.

Yet, it so happens that those who ascend to the superior worlds temporarily abandon their ego. In these cases the soul, the consciousness, or Essence — or whatever terminology we want to put to it — is liberated from that horrible dungeon, which is the ego, the “I,” in order to ascend to the famous Devachan that is mentioned by the Hindustani. The Devachan is a region of ineffable happiness located in the world of the superior mind of the universe.   

In this region the souls enjoy authentic happiness. There they find their relatives, those that had died before; they meet there, we might say, the souls of their relatives. Later, the consciousness, the Essence, or soul (or whatever terminology we want to put to it), also abandons the world of the mind in order to penetrate into the world of natural causes.

The causal world is grandiose, marvelous. In the causal world resound all the harmonies of the universe. In this region one really feels the melodies of the infinite. It happens that each planet has multiple sounds, and all of them added together synthesize into a note; this is the keynote of the planet. The conjunction of the keynotes of each world sound marvelously in the immense chorus of the starry space, and this produces an ineffable joy in the consciousness of all of those beings that enjoy the happiness of the causal world.

In the causal world we also find the lords of the law, they who punish and reward people and countries. Here we find the true humans, the causal humans. We find them working for humanity. In the world of natural causes we find the principalities, the princes of the elements, the princes of fire, of air, of the waters, and earth.

In the world of natural causes life palpitates with intensity. The causal world is beautiful. In the world of natural causes a profound blue, intense as a night filled with stars and illuminated by the moon, shines constantly. I do not want to say with this that there are no other colors, there are others, but the basic fundamental color is an intense blue, profound as a bright and starry night.

Those who live in that region are happy in the most transcendental sense of the word; however, sooner or later any reward ends. Any reward has a limit, and the moment comes, of course, when the soul that has been in the causal world has to return, to come back and descend, inevitably, in order to enter into the “I” of experiential psychology. Later, these types of souls are connected to the fertilized ovum in order to form a new physical body. Once they are reincorporated, they emerge again to the physical world.

The Paths of the Dead: The Infernal Worlds

The other path is for those that descend to the infernal worlds. These are people that have already fulfilled their time, their cycle of manifestation, or that were very perverse. Undoubtedly, these people devolve within the entrails of the Earth.

In his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri talks about the nine Dantesque circles, and he sees those nine circles in the interior of the Earth. Among the ancestors of Anahuac, in the great Tenochtitlan, they speak clearly about the Mictlan, the infernal region, which they also locate within the interior of our terrestrial globe.

Among the ancestors of Anahuac, as we have seen in their codices, to pass through the Mictlan was obligatory. They simply considered it as a world of probation, where the souls are tested, and once they achieve passing through the nine circles, they unquestionably will be able to enter into Eden, in other words, the Terrestrial Paradise.

To the Mohammedan Sufis, the inferno is not a place of punishment, but of instruction and purification for the consciousness. 

To Christianity, in all of the corners of the world, the inferno is a place of eternal punishments  without end, however, to the secret circle of Christianity — that is, the hidden part of the Christian religion — it is different. In the hidden part of any Christian movement, in its intimate or secret part, we find Gnosis. Thus, universal Gnosticism sees the inferno not as a place of eternal punishments without end, but as a place of expiation, purification, and education for the consciousness.

Obviously, there is pain in the infernal worlds, because within the interior of the Earth life is terribly dense, especially in the ninth circle, where we find, we might say, the concrete core of a terribly hard matter; there the sufferings are unspeakable. Anyway, those who enter into the submerged devolution of the mineral kingdom sooner or later have to experience that which the Christic Gospels call the Second Death.      

When universal Gnosticism has studied this matter about the Dantesque infernos, it has never conceived that punishment has no limit. We consider that God, being eternally just, could never collect from anyone something more than what they already owe, because any fault, even if it is really grave, has its price. Once that price is paid, we consider that it would be absurd to keep paying. Even here in our terrestrial justice, which is not perfect but a subjective justice, we can see that if someone goes to jail for a determined transgression, once the convict has paid the penalty the convict is free. Thus, not even the terrestrial authorities would accept that a convict should remain in jail after he has paid his time. However, there have been cases of convicts that are very comfortable in prison, that when the day of liberty came, they did not want to get out; then they had to be taken out by force.

Thus, every fault, as grave as it might be, has its price. If the terrestrial judges know this, how much more would the divine justice know? Even the gravest faults have their price, but once the price is paid, we have the ticket to freedom.

If things were not like this, then God would be a great tyrant ,and we know very well that beside divine justice there is always mercy. We can never, in any way, qualify God as a tyrant; to assume that would be similar to blasphemy, and frankly we do not like blasphemy.    

So, in the Dantesque infernos, the Second Death is the limit of the punishment. Whether the infernos are called Tartarus in Greece or Averno in Rome, Avitchi in India, or Mictlan in the ancient Tenochtitlan, it does not really matter. Every country, every religion, every era or culture, has known about the existence of the infernos and they have always entitled it with a name. 

For the ancient inhabitants of the great Hesperides, the infernos are the dwelling of Pluto, as we can verify when reading the divine Aeneid of Virgil, the poet of Mantua. So, the infernos are the cavernous regions in which the Trojan Aeneas found Dido, the queen who, so enamored of Aeneas, killed herself for love, after she had sworn fidelity to the ashes of Sychaeus.

The Second Death is really painful. The ego feels that he becomes sundered into many pieces, that his fingers fall off, that its arms are lost. He suffers a tremendous syncope; then moments later, the Essence, the soul that was trapped inside of the ego, takes the form of an infantile figure; then it becomes a gnome or pigmy in order to enter into the evolution of the mineral elementals.    

There are different classes of elementals in Nature. As an authority in this field we have Franz Hartmann, who wrote a very interesting book entitled precisely “The Elementals;” we have also the great doctor Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, Aureolus Paracelsus.

Essentially, the elementals are the consciousness of the elements. We know very well that the elements (fire, air, water, earth) are not only something merely physical, as many learned ignoramuses suppose, but the vehicles of simple, pristine consciousness, primogenial we might say, in the most transcendental sense of the word. Thus, the elementals are the cognizant principles of the elements, and nothing else.   

The Wheel of Life

Now, let us continue with our explanation. Obviously, those who have passed through the Second Death will have to emerge back to the surface of the world, in order to re-initiate new evolving processes that evidently will have to begin from the mineral, the stone, and that will proceed into the vegetable, and that will continue into the animal until finally gaining access into the human life. Then, the human or humanoid state that was formerly lost will be then reconquered.  

It is really intriguing to see these gnomes or pigmies inside the rocks, they look like small dwarfs, with their big books and long white beards. Obviously, this, which we are stating, to declare this in the twentieth century sounds very strange because people have become so complicated, their mind is so deviated from the simple truths of nature that it is difficult for them to readily accept these things. Rather, this is a type of knowledge that is to be accepted by those who do not have a complicated intellect, that is, by simple, natural people.      

Regardless, I want to tell you that the mineral elementals transitioning into the plant evolution become really interesting. Each plant is the physical body of a vegetal elemental. The elementals of plants have cognizance, they are very intelligent and there are great esotericists that know how to manipulate or maneuver them by will; they are indeed beautiful. Those who know them can, by means of their assistance, control the elements of nature.  

Further on after, the plant elementals, we have the elementals of the animal kingdom. Undoubtedly, only the advanced plant elementals have the right to enter into animal organisms. The evolution in the animal kingdom always begins in simple organisms, yet according as the evolving process proceeds, animal life also becomes more complicated to the point that the animal elemental can manage more complex organic bodies. Later, they can reconquer the human organic state that they lost in the past.

In the human organic state, the elemental, the Essence, the consciousness, the soul (or whatever terminology you want to use in order to define it or explain it) once again receives 108 existences for the realization of their Inner Self. 

If the Inner Self realization of the Being is not achieved during the 108 existences then the wheel of life continues rotating and the Essence has to descend again into the entrails of the mineral kingdom with the purpose of eliminating the undesirable elements that in one form or another were adhered to the psyche, thus the same devolving process is repeated.      

In conclusion, the wheel revolves 3,000 times. If within the 3,000 cycles (each one having 108 human existences at their peak) the Essence does not attain realization, every door is then closed and the Essence, transformed into an innocent elemental, submerges itself back into the bosom of the Great Reality, in other words, into the Great Alaya of the universe, into the universal Spirit of life, or Parabrahman, which is how the Great Reality is denominated by the Hindustani.     

So, this is how life is experienced by those that descend into the entrails of the Earth after death. 

Thus, we can see that after death some souls ascend to the superior worlds to experience some vacations, while others descend into the entrails of the Earth; and there are still others that return in a gradual or immediate manner into a new womb, in other words, they reincorporate, they reappear, they come back, in order to repeat their existence here in this physical world. When the soul returns or reincorporates, she physically repeats the events of her former life.  

We already saw that death itself is the return to the original point of departure, and we already explained that after death, in the Eternity, in the Astral Light, we have to relive the physical life that we just finished. Now I will tell you that when our soul returns, we will have to physically repeat once again in a new body, in a new physical life, the entirety of our former physical existence.

Question: Venerable master, you have spoken about the devolution of the souls or Essences through the interior of the Earth and thereafter their evolution on its surface through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. You have also stated that human essences have to return 108 times after physical death. Is this the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul?

Samael Aun Weor: No! I just mentioned the law of the transmigration of souls in regard to the souls that had fulfilled the cycle of 108 human existences and the necessity for them to descend into the entrails of the world. Posteriorly, I stated that once the ego is dead, these souls would be able to evolve again from mineral organisms to human organisms. This is the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul.

Now I am beginning to talk about the doctrine of the eternal return of everything along with that other law that is named the doctrine of recurrence.

Return and Recurrence

If, instead of descending into the entrails of the world, the soul returns here to the physical world in a gradual or immediate manner, it is obvious that soul will have to repeat in her new existence the same life, the life that just ended.

You might say that situation is very boring. Yet, we are all here repeating what we did in our former existence, in our past return. There is no doubt that this is indeed tremendously boring! Yet, we are the only ones to blame because, as I have said, a person is what his life is; thus, if we do not modify our life, we will have to repeat it incessantly. 

We die and once again we get another physical body. What for? In order to repeat the same life, then we die again, thereafter, we return again into a new body in order to repeat again the same. However, the day when we have to carry our boring song to another place arrives, then that day, we will have to descend into the entrails of the world, until the Second Death. Thus, we cannot avoid such repetitions. These repetitions are known as the law of recurrence. Everything happens as it happened before. But why, you might ask? Why does the same has to be repeated? Well, this deserves an explanation.  

First of all, I want you to know that the “I” is not something autonomous or self-cognizant, or something, we might say, very individual. Indeed, the “I” is a sum of many “I’s,” it is a plurality.

The common and current psychology, modern psychology, conceives the “I” as a totality. Yet, we conceive the “I” as an collection of many “I’s,” because one is the “I” of anger, another is the “I” of greed, another is the “I” of lust, another is the “I” of envy, another is the “I” of laziness, another is the “I” of gluttony. Thus, there are different “I’s. There is not one single “I,” but many “I’s” within our organism.      

It is obvious that the plurality of the “I” is the foundation for the doctrine of the many, which is taught in Asian Tibet. 

The great Kabir Jesus confirmed this doctrine of the many “I”s. It is written that he removed seven demons from Mary Magdalene’s body. There is no doubt that these were the seven capital sins: anger, greed, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony. Each one of these demons is the head of a legion; this is why, as I have repeated many times, Virgil said: 

"No, not if I had a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, and throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs, I could not half those my horrid crimes describe, nor half the punishments those crimes have met.” —The Aeneid 

Each defect is an “I” in itself; so, we have many I’s-defects. If we qualify those I’s-defects as demons, we are not mistaken. 

In the Christic gospel, Jesus asks a man with an unclean spirit: 

“What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.” —Mark 5:9

Indeed, in the depth, the true name of each of us is Legion; thus, each I-demon of this legion wants to control the brain, wants to control the seven principal centers of our organic machine, each “I” wants to be renowned, to strive for fame, to ascend to the top of the ladder, to make itself noticed, etc.

Each I-demon is like a person inside of our body. If we were to say that within our personality there live many people, we would not be deluded; indeed, this is how it is. 

Therefore, the mechanical repetition of the different events of our past existences is certainly based in the multiplicity of the “I.” 

Let us explain this with concrete facts: Suppose that in a past existence, at the age of 30, we had a fight with someone in a tavern (something common in life). Obviously the I-defect of anger was the principal personage of this event. After death, that defect will continue to exist within Eternity, thus in our new physical existence that I-defect will remain in the depths of our subconsciousness, awaiting the age of thirty in order to return to another tavern. Within our I-defect there is resentment, which is an impulse that desires to meet the person involved in that previous event. Likewise, the other person, who was involved with us in that tragic tavern event, also has his own “I” that wants revenge and that remains at the bottom of that person’s subconsciousness, awaiting for the moment in order to enter into activity. When the age of thirty years arrives, the “I” of the person, the I-anger, the “I” that took part in that past tragic event, says from within the subconsciousness, “I have to meet that fellow.” On the other hand, the other “I” from the subconsciousness of the other person says, “I have to find that fellow,” and telepathically both “I’s” decide to meet in some other tavern. So they finally in their new existence meet physically, personally, and repeat the event as it happened in their former existence. All of this has been done without the intervention of our intellect, below the awareness of our reasoning. We have been simply dragged to a tragedy, we have been unconsciously taken to repeat the same thing over again.

Now, let us look at another case where a man who in his past existence at the age of thirty had a love affair with a lady.  After that affair, the “I” of that affair remains alive; thus, after death it continues alive within Eternity. When we return, when we reincorporate into a new physical organism, that “I” that caused the affair continues to be alive at the bottom of the subconsciousness; in other words, within the unconscious levels of our life, of our psyche, that “I” awaits for the moment in order to enter into a new activity. Thus, when the age of thirty arrives, when the age of that past affair comes again, then the “I” enters again into activity and says, “Well, now this is my time, now I am going to find the lady of my dreams.” Likewise, the “I” within the lady of his dreams says the same thing, “This is the moment, I will find that gentleman.” Thus, below the awareness of their reasonings, their two “Is” telepathically arrange the meeting. So, without the intervention of our intelligence and the mystery of our intellectual awareness, each will drag the physical personality and the affair is once again repeated. 

This is indeed how things happen to us. And even if this sound incredible, indeed, we do not do anything: everything happens to us, as when it rains, or when it thunders.

If, in a former existence, one had a problem with real estate, for instance a house, then the “I” of that problem will remain alive after death. In the new existence, this “I” will be hidden in the levels of the mind waiting for the moment in order to enter into activity. So, if that problem occurred in the past life at the age of fifty, then in this present life at the age of fifty that “I” will say, “This is my moment,” and the other person with whom one had that problem will certainly also say, “This is my moment.” Thus, they encounter each other again at a similar event, and they repeat the scene.   

Therefore, this indicates that we do not even have free will. Everything happens to us, I repeat, like when it rains or thunders. 

There is a small space of free will, but it is very small. Imagine for a moment a violin inside its case. There is very little space for that violin to move around. That is like the space our free will has to move in, which is almost nothing; so, there is only a small space for free will, almost imperceptible. Yet, if we know how to use it, then it is possible for us to transform ourselves radically and become liberated from the law of recurrence, but it is necessary to know how to take advantage of it. How?

Well, only in practical life, by becoming a bit more observant of ourselves can our small margin of free will be used. 

When one accepts that one has one’s own psychology, then one begins to observe oneself, and when one begins to observe oneself, then one begins to become different from the rest of the world.

In the street, at home, and at our job is where the defects that we carry hidden within blossom spontaneously, and if we are as alert and vigilant as a watchman in a time of war then we can see them. 

A discovered defect has to be prosecuted by means of in depth analysis, reflection, and intimate meditation of the Being, with the objective of comprehending it. 

When one comprehends this or that I-defect, then one is prepared to atomically disintegrate it. 

Is it possible to disintegrate a defect? Yes, it is possible, but we need a power that is superior to the mind, because the mind by itself cannot fundamentally alter any psychological defect. The mind can classify it with different names, and pass it from one level of understanding to another, or hide it from itself or from other people, it can justify it or condemn it, etc., but it can never radically alter it. We need a power that is superior to the mind, a power that can disintegrate any I-defect. That power is latent at the foundation of our psyche. It is necessary to know that power in order to learn how to utilize it.

Devi Kundalini & the Disintegration of Defects

In Asia, in India, that power is called Devi Kundalini, the igneous serpent of our magical powers. In the great Tenochtitlan it was called Tonantzin. In the Middle Ages alchemists gave it the name Stella Maris, the Virgin of the Sea. Amongst the Hebrews it was called Adonia. Amongst the Cretans it was known by the name of Cybele. Amongst the Egyptians it was Isis, “the one whose veil no mortal has lifted.” Amongst the Christians it is Mary, or Maya, that is to say, God the Mother.

We have thought of God as the Father for a long time, but it is also worthwhile to think of God as the Mother, as love, as mercy. God the Mother lives at the foundation of our psyche, that is to say, she is in the Being. I may say to you that God the Mother is a sunderable part of the Holy Spirit, She is our own Being, but derived.

Notwithstanding, distinguish between the Being and the “I.” The Being and the “I” are incompatible, they are like water and oil. They cannot be mixed. 

The Being is the Being and the reason for the Being to be, is to be the Being itself. The Being is what is, what has been, and what will always be. It is the life that palpitates within each atom, just as it palpitates within each Sun.

So, God the Mother is a variant of our own Being. This means that each one of us has his own particular, individual Divine Mother. The Hindustani name her Kundalini. I agree with that term, and I consider that while in profound meditation we may invoke the Divine Mother Kundalini and beseech her to disintegrate the I-defect that we have perfectly comprehended by means of meditation. After our supplication the Divine Mother will proceed and disintegrate it, she will reduce it to cosmic dust. 

When a defect is disintegrated, it liberates psychic Essence, because inside of every defect there is a percentage of trapped psychic Essence. Thus, when a defect is disintegrated, the spiritual Essence is liberated. If two defects are disintegrated, well, more spiritual Essence will be liberated, and if the totality of the psychological defects that we carry within is disintegrated, then we will liberate the consciousness completely.

The Truth

A liberated consciousness is a consciousness that is awakened. An awakened consciousness is a consciousness that will see, hear, touch and perceive the great mysteries of life and death. It is a consciousness that will be able to experience—through itself and directly—that which we call reality, that which we call the truth, that which is beyond the body, affections, and the mind.

When Pilate asked the great Kabir Jesus, “What is the truth?” Jesus remained silent. When the same question was asked to the Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha Gautama Shakyamuni, he turned his back and walked away. The truth is the unknowable from moment to moment, from instant to instant. Thus, only with the death of the ego is how that which is called the truth comes to us.

The truth is something that has to be experienced like when one puts a finger in a flame and is burned. No matter how appealing it might seem, a theory about the truth is not the truth. As respectable and venerable as it might be in relation to the truth, a theory or an opinion is not the truth either. Any idea that we may have about the truth is not the truth, even if the idea is very dazzling. Any thesis that we could substantiate about truth is not the truth either. The truth has to be experienced, I repeat, like when one puts their finger into a flame and is burned.    

The truth is beyond the body, the affections, and the mind, and can only be experienced in the absence of the psychological “I.” When the “I” has not been eliminated, the experience of reality is impossible. 

The intellect with very astounding ideas or theories about the truth, as brilliant as they may appear, is not the truth. As Goethe, the author of Faust, said, 

“All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs evergreen.”

So, to liberate the Essence we need to disintegrate the psychological “I.” Only thus we will experience the truth.

In John 8:32, Jesus the Christ said: 

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 

We need to experience it directly. Indeed, when somebody achieves the destruction of the ego she becomes liberated from the law of recurrence, and makes her life a masterpiece, she becomes a genius, an enlightened one, in the most complete sense of the word.

When somebody liberates his consciousness, obviously he knows the truth. But the consciousness has to be liberated. Yet, if the psychological ego is not eliminated, the liberation of the consciousness is impossible. Those who worship the “I” are egocentric and instinctual by nature. The mythomaniacs worship the “I” because they are mythomaniacs; the megalomaniacs also worship the “I” because they are megalomaniacs. The “I” is worshipped by those who are paranoid, because they are paranoid.

Life on the surface of the Earth would be different if we all eliminated the ego, the “I,” because then the awakened consciousness of everyone of us would radiate love and there would be peace on the face of the Earth. 

Peace itself it is not a matter of propaganda nor something related to peace agreements, nor armies, nor the U.N. nor something of the sort. Peace itself is a substance that emanates from the Being, that emanates from within the entrails of the Absolute. 

Thus, peace cannot exist over the face of the world neither true tranquility in all of the corners of the Earth as long as the psychological factors that produce wars are still alive within us. It is clear that as long as the factor that produces discord continues to exist within our interior, there will always be discord in the world.

Social masses are the extension of the individual, thus what a person is society is. So, the government is what society is, and as a consequence the world. If an individual transforms himself, if a person eliminates the elements of hatred, egotism, violence, discord, etc. — in other words, if someone achieves the elimination of their ego so that their consciousness become liberated — then, what will appear in him is what is called love. If every person that lives on the surface of Earth would eliminate their ego, then the social masses would be masses of love. There would be no wars or hatred. Therefore, true peace cannot exist in the world while our ego continues to exist.

Some affirm that from the year 2001 or 2007 on there will come an era of fraternity, love, and peace. But, thinking out loud I ask myself, and even I ask you, from where do you think such an era of fraternity, love, and peace among “men of good will” will come? Do you believe perhaps that the psychological ego with its hatreds, rancor, envies, ambitions, lusts, etc., can create an era of love and happiness? Do you really think that this could occur? Obviously not!

Therefore, it is necessary to die within ourselves in order for peace to truly reign in the world. Yes, that which we have of inhuman has to be destroyed — namely, the hatred, the envy, the horrible jealousy, the anger that makes us so abominable, the fornication that makes of us so bestial, etc. 

Comprehend that while those psychological factors continue to exist within our psyche, the world cannot be different, instead it will become worse, because over time the ego will become more powerful, more strong. Thus, as violence increasingly manifests in the ego the world will become more tenebrous. Thus, at the rate we are going, if we do not work psychologically on ourselves, the day will arrive when we will no longer be able to exist, because we will violently destroy each another.    

If the ego were to indefinitely continue to grow stronger, as we are now, the moment would come when no one could have security in his life, not even at home. In a world in which violence is fully developed, nobody’s existence feels secure. So I strongly believe that the solution to all the problems in the world is the elimination of the “I.”

•••

[Here begins another lecture on a similar theme.]

Concerning death or elimination, tomorrow we will celebrate a very important annual festivity, and it is clear that an explanation about this holiday is necessary. Thus, let us clearly explain about the Day of the Dead (All Hallow’s Day), a festivity related to the mysteries of life and death that seems necessary to explain.   

The Path

You know very well, my dear brothers and sisters, that the secret path, the path that Jesus the Christ spoke about is strait, difficult, this is why he said:

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the path, that leads to destruction, and many are they which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the path, which leads unto life, and few are they that find it.” —Matthew 7:13, 14

Hermes Trismegistus, the thrice-great ibis god of Thoth, living incarnation of the god Osiris, granted us the marvelous science of alchemy.

In the Middle Ages, that hermetic science passed from the Arabic world to the lands of Europe, then the enthusiasm for the hermetic art awoke everywhere. Within the doctrine of Hermes is contained — as much in essence as in potency — the greatest keys and the purest knowledge that allows us to walk the “narrow path” mentioned by Jeshua ben Pandira, Jesus the Christ. We know very well that in his past existence, before fulfilling his mission in the holy land, the great Kabir Jesus was Yeshuah, the Son of Nun.   

Undoubtedly, “Many are called but few are chosen.” Certainly, one can count on the fingers of one hand those who have perseverance in order to achieve the final goal. Fortunately, we have the doctrine’s body, the principles, the bases, which properly studied and experienced allow us to walk on the path of the razor’s edge.

Those who brought the doctrine for us were always great avatars. Avatars are Logoic crystallizations, since it is impossible to conceive a messenger that descends from the heights that is not an emanation, a crystallization, or manifestation of the Logos in our world. 

So, having thus the bases, it is necessary to do the alchemical work. Only in this manner is it possible to achieve the final liberation.

Undoubtedly, my dear brothers and sisters, the human species is submitted to the law of eternal return. We have already repeated many times that each cycle of manifestation, each cycle at its peak, is granted 108 human existences. Thus, the eternal return grants us, assigns to us, 108 human existences, and if during these 108 human existences we do not attain the realization of our Self, it is obvious that then we remain submitted to the law of the metempsychosis of Pythagoras or the transmigration of souls. So, I am addressing the law of the transmigration of souls cited by the great avatar Krishna from Hindustan, who lived about 3,000 years before Jesus.    

The souls who do not attain the realization of their Self during their 108 human existences will obviously have to devolve within the submerged mineral kingdom until reaching the Ninth Sphere. There they become cosmic dust; in other words, they pass through the Second Death that was mentioned with great wisdom by the great Kabir Jesus.

After the Second Death — in other words, after the death of all the inhuman elements that we carry within — the Essence, the soul or immortal principle, escapes, emerges back to the surface, to the light of the Sun, in order to re-initiate a new journey or evolution that obviously will have to start from the stone, and that will continue in the vegetable, and later proceed into the animal state, until finally reconquering the humanoid state that was previously lost. When the soul reconquers the human or humanoid state, the law then again assigns it 108 human existences. If the soul attains the realization of the Self in this new cycle of existences, wonderful! Yet, if the soul fails, it is obvious that the process will have to be repeated.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, we either achieve the realization of the Self or we have to remain wandering in the valley of Samsara, incorporating in this great fatal wheel that revolves 3,000 times. Obviously, after the last rotation, the opportunities end, and those who did not achieve the realization of their Self — that is, adepthood — will have to submerge themselves into the Universal Spirit of Life, but without mastery. They will have happiness, but without adepthood. They will reach bliss, yet they will not attain the realization of their Self. They will simply be transformed into elementals of the universe, and that is all!       

There is no doubt, my dear brothers and sisters, that the 3,000 rotations of the wheel are very painful. 

Those of us who have profoundly studied the doctrine related to the realization of the Inner Self have reached the conclusion that not all human souls are capable of achieving the realization of their Self. 

It is also true and all truth that not all the Monads or divine sparks that emanated from the entrails of the universal spirit of life are interested in mastery. When a divine spark really yearns to achieve mastery, it exerts pressure in its soul, its Essence, and fights in order to achieve it. 

In this world we see many people, millions of human souls, who do not have any interest in the realization of their inner Self. Someone could object to the former statement and say that these people do not know Gnosis or the body of the doctrine. This is correct to a certain point, yet when we divulge the teachings everywhere, some people come to the call and others are just indifferent, and these unfortunately are the majority. 

So, we know when there is inquietude and yearning. If somebody wants to achieve adepthood, he works. When somebody has that yearning, obviously his most intimate Self moves him inwardly, they are working in secret, he is in disquietude. But, who is moving him? His own divine spark, his real Being, because the spark itself wants to achieve mastery. But I repeat, not all the virginal sparks yearn for mastery. 

Thus, when the festivity of the Day of the Dead (All Hallow’s day) arrives, it is necessary to reflect on this. 

The great law does not abandon those who do not yearn for mastery, nor do they leave those that fight in order to achieve it and fail. The omnimerciful takes cares of all creatures and does not abandon anyone.  

In ancient times, the funeral mysteries had special importance. 

Egypt was very advanced in the field of embalming and mummification. There is no doubt that the mummies in Egypt are extraordinary. They also achieved the preservation living bodies, not through hibernation, but through a type of mummification that allowed physical bodies to live for thousands of years.

Even now, these physical bodies still exist, underground in the land of the Pharaohs, some under the pyramids or in secret places. They are living bodies of masters that date from 3,000 to 4,000, and even 10,000 years before Christ.  At the right time, these masters will once again enter into their physical bodies that sleep underground, and appear under the light of the Sun, as it written in the Book of the Dead, in order to initiate in the world a new Neptunian-Amentian Era. 

Sequentially, going back to the base of this subject regarding liberation, just like the Egyptians, the Tibetans, Aztecs, and Mayans taught that it is possible to achieve liberation after death in order not to return to this afflicted world again, but without self-realization. Obviously, there are those who proceeded in this manner; they did it, but without the realization of their self.

Since those who achieve the realization of their Self are few, it is always advisable to know how  to escape from this painful valley of Samsara. 

So, in order to achieve liberation it is not mandatory, it is not indispensable to wait until the 3,000th rotation of the wheel of Samsara. Therefore, those who yearn for liberation can achieve it even if they do not attain adepthood, since not all human beings were born in order to become adepts, or to become mahatmas, or Logos. Thus, there is always a door to escape for those who feel they are not capable of performing the Great Work.

Obviously, if after the 3,000th cycle we have to be restored into the universal spirit of life as simple elementals of nature without the realization of the Self — understanding that this will be the case for us if we did not really work on ourselves — then it is preferable for us to be liberated once and for all from this fatal wheel. Thus, in this manner we would avoid the terrible sufferings of this valley of tears in each cycle of manifestation and to descent 3,000 times into the infernal worlds. 

The Two Ways for Liberation

There are two ways to achieve liberation, two ways to liberate ourselves from this valley of Samsara. The first is to become Self-realized, transformed into a mahatmas or Logos; the second, as simple elementals, without the realization of the Inner Self. 

Everyone has to reflect and select a path for themselves. Once it is selected, we have to be serious, because once we step onto the secret path, it is not possible to turn back. 

That is why, in the Tibetan mysteries, when somebody is going to receive the initiation, the priests play their trumpets made of human bones, while warning the neophyte: “Stop! Do not try to walk on the path that follows after the threshold. Remember that the path of initiation is full of tears, pains, and suffering... You can still be happy with the religion that was taught to you, and live in the heavens of nature, in the land of the devas, of the holy gods! Why do you insist on following the secret path?”

If despite all this the neophyte says: “Nothing can stop me, I will walk on the path of the razor’s edge. I am going to follow the path of inner realization, nothing can push me aside,” obviously, he or she will receive the initiation. But if he falters, then he would have to forcibly search for the common emancipation by means of “understanding,” which is a type of liberation without the realization of the Self. He will not become a Sun (to rule in a cosmic day), but he will be content with being a little star (within the universal spirit of life).

So, the path of emancipation through comprehension does not transform us into gods, it only allows us to escape and to live in the universal spirit of life as elementals, forever.     

Thus, one is not forced to wait until the 3,000th cycle of the wheel of Samsara. Those who do not want to live, those who have become disenchanted with life, those who have drunk from the chalice of bitterness and do not feel prepared in order to walk on the path that will transform them into gods beyond good and evil, can walk on the path of less effort, the path that can transform them only into elementals, into small elemental buddhas, the path that allows us to return to the Great Reality forever.

Obviously, those who do not achieve realization and have ended their cycle of manifestation normally have to descend into the entrails of the abyss and suffer terribly in order to pass through the Second Death. After that death comes the emancipation of the Essence, which having transformed into an elemental will initiate a new evolution. 

So, what we have to do naturally — better said, what nature will have to do for us within the entrails of the earth — can voluntarily be done by us here and now; this is how we can avoid the descent into the entrails of the abyss. If nature has to disintegrate our ego, the myself, mechanically in the abyss, we can do it here instead. In this way we will avoid the necessity of submerging ourselves within the frightful abysses of the submerged mineral kingdom. If after suffering the Second Death we will be transformed into elementals, it is better to be transformed into elementals here and now, and avoid passing through that vast bitterness. So, there is mercy, for the Eternal Cosmic Common Father, the Omnimerciful, never abandons anyone.

There are extraordinary mysteries in relation to death. 

For those who really want emancipation, to not ever return, forever, it is indispensable to start by knowing the doctrine regarding the dissolution of the ego, the “I”, the myself, the self-willed. 

It is not possible to demand from a human creature the radical elimination of the ego, here and now, if she is not prepared. But it is possible for any creature, if this is what she wants, to eliminate her ego, the “I,” even if it is only partially done, for after physical death, she can continue to perform the rest of the work.

But – here comes the big “but” — if our consciousness is asleep, we will have to return anyway. Then what do we have to do in order to avoid returning to this valley of tears? We have to awaken the consciousness! But when do we have to awaken it: after we are dead, or now? It is clear that we have to work here and now in order to awaken the consciousness! Is there a science that will allow us to achieve the awakening of the consciousness? Yes, there is, and we have taught it, and we will continue teaching it in our different lectures.  

Thus, the one who awakens can select his path. The one who awakens will be able to continue his work after physical death, and if he does not want to return, he will not return. 

But, how can someone who is asleep avoid the return, the reincorporation into this valley of tears? Is it impossible, right? So, first, it is necessary to awaken. Once awakened, we will be able to continue the work after physical death.

Tests After Physical Death

It is obvious that the awakened defunct one will be submitted to tests, if he does not want to be reincorporated into a new physical organism. 

First of all, after death the soul passes three days through a faint, a kind of swoon; after these three days the soul feels refreshed, revived. 

If the defunct one is vigilant and alert, if she really does not have her consciousness asleep, and if she really has yearnings, she will be able to avoid the reincorporation into this valley of bitterness. And, I repeat, if she does not want to be reincorporated, she will be tested.      

Her Divine Mother and her Father who are in secret (or the Father-Mother in their totality, since everyone has their Father that is in secret and their Divine Mother Kundalini) will test her. They will take on, in front of her, a terrible form, a supra-human figure, with the intention of testing the defunct one; but if she remains firm as steel, it is certain that she will be victorious. Nonetheless, that is not the only test, there are many others.

The defunct one who does not want to be reincorporated should not feel any attraction to his relatives, since the attachment towards brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, etc., will hinder his longing. When feeling attraction to his beloved relatives that he left in the world, it is clear that he will return, he will reincorporate once again. Thus, if we do not want to return after physical death, it is necessary to have no attachment towards those that we have left in this valley of tears. After death, nature has many systems in order to make us return, and this is something that we must comprehend.

First of all, it is not irrelevant that you know that after death we have to review the physical existence that just ended. We will start from the last moment, which is the one that preceded our agony. 

We will have the inclination to live in the same house that we lived in before we were dead. We will want to walk on the same streets that we used to walk. In other words, we want to collect all our actions, and we collect them when reviewing the different ages of the physical existence that we just ended.    

It is clear that this is not a mere intellectual retrospection. 

After death one has to vividly portray, relive all the events, situations, and occurrences of the past physical life, and while one is reliving them, one assumes the same aspects that one had in each one of his ages. If one died being an elder, one will see oneself as an elderly person. After this, being a middle aged person, being a young adult, later a teenager, and finally a child. Thus, in this way one will relive the entirety of his resent existence with the purpose of settling a balance of his good and bad actions. 

Now, I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that the Being is composed of different parts. Each one of us has their own Being, who is formed by many parts. 

For example, within ourselves there is a part of our Being that we may call the “good angel.” There is also another part that we may call the “bad angel.” Understand that what we call “bad” here, is not really bad, it just takes note and gives accounts of all of our personal bad deeds, just as the good angel takes note and gives accounts of our good deeds. So, the good and the bad angels are not external personages, no, they are part of our own individual Spirit, of our own intimate Being. For example, after death, the good genie will count with small stones the quantity of good actions that we have done, and we will also see the bad genie (remember it is called “bad” because of the fact of counting our evil deeds, since it is just a part of our Being) counting with small black stones our wrong actions, but that count will be done only after we have internally relived in a retrospective manner our recent physical existence.  

Therefore, the entirety of the existence that just recently passed is reduced to numbers, to additions of good and bad actions. Obviously, at the end of the retrospection and after the balance, the inventory that our own Being has done about our good and bad actions, we will be judged by the lords of karma who will determine the type of existence that awaits us in the future. 

However, if we do not want to be reincorporated, we must have been psychologically preparing during our entire physical existence. If we are awakened, we will then be able to defend ourselves, we will then be able to beg our Mother Kundalini for the forgiveness of our errors. We will then be able to concentrate on another part of our Being called the Great Merciful. Then, help, mercy will be granted onto us. But, if our karma is extremely bad, if we were extremely perverse in life, then obviously we will have to enter into the submerged devolution within the infernal worlds, and there will be no other solution, or at the very least we will have to be reincorporated once again against our will. If the karma is not so bad, if there were more good than evil deeds, if during life we were really concerned about the elimination of the ego, the myself, if we were charitable, we will have the right to defend ourselves, with cosmic capital on our side.

Closing Womb-doors

It is necessary, however, to not be attracted to human wombs. The human spirit can pass through a mountain and nothing can stop him; the only thing that can stop him is a womb; behold, this is the problem. The wind of karma will howl, a cold hurricane will approach the defunct one. Multiple apparitions of terrible beings will try to frighten him, but if he remains firm in his desire of not returning, he could become triumphant. But if he yet feels in danger of falling into a human womb, he will have to learn how to close womb-doors, and there are many systems in order to do this: in the inner worlds, the defunct one suddenly feels that it is raining, there is thundering and flashing, lightning falls from heaven during a storm. This is the law of karma trying to connect him to a womb. If he remains serene and immutable, he will close a womb. The untrained one will run trying to find refuge in a cavern, trying to avoid the storm, he does it and when he tries to walk back outside that cavern, he will feel as if he is tied to that cavern. Yes, he is now connected to a womb, to an embryo. That cavern was a womb. So, it is necessary to learn how to close womb-doors, if we do not want to be reincorporated. 

The defunct one who does not want to be reincorporated will also see many creatures (men and women) copulating. If he is suddenly attracted to a determined house, and if he feel sympathy for one of the couple and antipathy for the other, obviously right there he will have to return and be reincorporated.

Another example, the defunct one that feels sympathy for the feminine member of a couple will certainly be reborn with a masculine body, and vice versa. If he feels sympathy for the masculine member of a couple and repudiates the female, then he will obviously be born there with a feminine body. 

So we are attracted to determined places or homes in accordance with the law of karma, and if pass beyond sympathy and antipathy, if during our life we had been practicing in order to control those feelings, we then will not enter into any human embryo, we will not enter into any womb. 

Another system to avoid falling into a womb is to learn during profound meditation how to achieve in ourselves the stillness and silence of the mind in order to achieve the irruption of the Illuminating Void within us. If we learn how to sustain ourselves within the Illuminating Void, we will avoid the attraction of any womb, we will close wombs.

Those who yearn to be liberated during life, even at the elemental state, without the realization of their Self, must be instructed in that purpose, they have to fight for the elimination of their ego, their “I,” their myself, they must walk on the straight path, tread the path of sanctification, awaken their consciousness, learn how to live consciously in the superior worlds.

In order to awaken consciousness it is necessary to work here and now. We have taught the science for the awakening of the consciousness, it is written in my books; you have read it, but indeed what really counts is to practice it.

Those who learn how to avoid the attraction to the valley of Samsara will be able to be reborn after death not within a physical body, but be reborn in a paradise, in some superior type of realm. It could be in the realm of Gautama Shakyamuni, the realm of Amitabha, or in the realm of Maitreya, or in the realm of the Long Hair, or in the realm of Supreme Happiness; all of this relates to a supra-normal birth.

There also are those who are reborn in the inferno; that is the case of those who have already ended their physical cycle of births and deaths. 

However, those who yearn for liberation can be reborn in supra-normal manner, in any of those kingdoms of the superior worlds. When we achieve to be reborn in any of those kingdoms, we will then devote ourselves intensively to the work of the elimination of the inhuman elements that we carry within. Our goal will be to clean up our Essence, to make it transparent as crystal without the adherence of terrestrial dust. It is obvious that those who will proceed in this manner must have had previously passed through some esoteric training here in the physical world.

Stages of the Minor Path

It is written that what a master does in a higher degree in order to achieve Adepthood, in order to become a Dhyani-Choan, a Kumara, a Mahatma, is done, yet, in a lesser degree, by the one that does not yearn for the realization of the Self, but who simply wants is to avoid the valley of Samsara. 

It is written, and this is how the powerful eastern wisdom sustains it, that the path is divided into four stages, namely: 

The first we could denominate as the stage of the disciple or “chela.” The second, the stage of the initiate or a person that is “initiated.” The third the stage of the arhat or perfect human, and the fourth the stage of the mahatma, or great soul. These four stages are represented in many temples and ancient monuments. We can see these stages in the Pyramid of the Sun, in Teotihuacan, etc. 

So, what the master has to do on a higher scale has to be done on a smaller scale by the one who wants to avoid the valley of Samsara, this valley of tears. If the master has become a great buddha, a god, then the one who wants to avoid this tragic valley will become an elemental buddha.

If a solar system exists in the macrocosmos, a similar system also exists in a molecule, right? What is a molecule? Is not perhaps a molecule a solar system in miniature? Therefore, what the adept does by means of the realization of the Self is to transform himself into a cosmocreator, into a Dhyani-Choan, a child of the flame, a Kumara, is also done by the devout but in a lesser manner, thus transforming himself into an elemental buddha, also by four stages but in an incipient manner. 

Therefore, after becoming liberated from the dust of the Earth, the Essence will progress through four stages:

We can call the first the stage of Nirmanakaya; please understand this does not mean that by this name we mean an elemental is a Nirmanakaya who has renounced Nirvana in a cognizant and positive manner, nor anything of the sort, but that elemental will live within a kind of illuminating Void similar to that of the Nirmanakaya, thus that elemental will be developed within that environment. 

The second stage, even if we call it the Sambogakaya stage, is related to the experience of an even deeper level of enlightened Void yet more profound, accompanied by wisdom. The elemental will not enjoy a body of Sambogakaya because that elemental has never created it, but it will pass through an analogous or similar state, in its return to the Great Reality. 

The third stage is the Adikaya stage, an intelligence illuminated by the Spirit. This will not be the intelligence of a Logos, nor of a Hermes Trismegistus, nor of a Kumara, but only of an innocent elemental.

In the fourth stage, this elemental buddha will have the reward that Dharmakayas receive. Finally, that pure Essence united with the Monad will submerge itself forever within the supreme Parabrahma, or in other words, into the great ocean of the universal spirit of life, within the very pure Alaya of the universe. That elemental buddha will not be a god, but only a spark of the Eternal One. It will be liberated from the wheel of births and deaths. So, despite it did not achieve the realization of its Self,  it will be nevertheless a spark of divinity without the realization of its Self, without mastery, but happy, and that is all. 

Thus, not everyone is indeed prepared to walk on the strait and narrow path that leads to the light, and this is something upon which we must reflect. Those who are not prepared, those who in their consciousness feel that they are not capable, can then devote themselves to the elimination of their ego and the awakening of their consciousness and seriously devote themselves to tread on the path of sanctity.  

The last thought of the dying one is definitive. If the dying person does not want to come back, if he does not want to be reincorporated, he can escape and not return, but only if the karma is not really bad, because there are people who have such very hard karma due to their perversities that naturally they will have to return.

The most grave part of this matter is that the majority of souls will have to descend instead of being reborn and returning into this world; yes, they will have to transfer their existences, whether they like it or not, to the infernal worlds, thus unfortunately this is the case for the majority of souls.

Thus, my dear brothers and sisters, on this night, on the vesper of the Day of the Dead, we have to reflect. We have to put our right hand on our heart and ask ourselves, ‘“Do I really want to walk on the path of the razor’s edge, and work on the realization of my Inner Self?” If perhaps I am not capable, if that is not my longing, if my desire is to leave this world forever, then I will make a resolution. Thus, we must begin with the awakening of our consciousness, to work with our systems in order to achieve such self-awakening, to dissolve the ego by means of the teaching that we have given in a positive, clear, and didactical manner.

So, we are before the dilemma: whether we follow the path of the razor’s edge that will lead us towards the realization of the Inner Self, or we do not follow it. If we are not able to follow it, if we feel that we are not capable, then it is better to make the resolution of not returning to this valley of tears forever.  Only we, by ourselves, must choose the path, nobody can do it for us.  This is the end of this lecture. If any of the brothers or sisters want to ask a question, they can do it with the most complete liberty.

Question: Master, you were saying that some Monads are interested in realization of the self and others are not, even though all of them emanate from the Absolute. I thought that all of them had the duty of achieving self-realization. Could you speak about this?

Samael Aun Weor: I hear the words of a person and I will answer with pleasure. First of all, my friends, I want you to understand that God, the universal spirit of life, is not dictatorial. If that which is the reality, which is the truth, which is not of time, was dictatorial, what could be our destiny? Friends, God respects in himself his own freedom. With this I want to say to you that amongst the core of divinity, there are no dictatorships. Every divine spark, every Monad, has absolute freedom to accept or to reject the path of mastery. Is this clear?

Question: With your explanation, master, could we say that the Monad is responsible when the Essence goes to the inferno?

Samael Aun Weor: I see a lady in the auditorium that with sincerity has asked a question, and it is evident that I will enjoy answering.

Ladies and gentlemen, when a divine Monad wants mastery, it is obvious that to achieve it, it has to work with intensity on its Essence from within, from the most profound recesses. It is clear that if the Monad does not have an interest in attaining mastery, it will never awaken in the Essence any intimate aspiration. Obviously, in this case, the Essence without any yearning, trapped in the ego, will enter into the infernal worlds. So my answer is emphatic in saying: the Monad is guilty of the Essence’s failure.

If the Monad would really work the Essence, it is obvious that it would never descend to the Tartarus as a failure. In millenarian Tibet, the Bardo Thodol guides the deceased people that want to achieve liberation and not return to the bitterness of the world. In the sacred land of the Pharaohs, many souls would escape from the cloak of Samsara after having worked on the elimination of the ego. Terrible tests await the deceased people who do not want to return to this world. When they successfully pass these tests, they can enter into the suprasensible kingdoms. In those regions, they are instructed and helped in order to happily submerge themselves as innocent children into the Great Ocean. Many of those souls will return in the Golden Age, after the great cataclysm, in order to continue to work on their realization of the Inner Self.

Obviously, it is intelligent to retire on time, before our cycle of existences has ended. It is preferable to retire from the school of life rather than be expelled. The submerged involution amongst the entrails of the Earth, in the tenebrous Tartarus, is certainly very painful... 

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[Related questions from other lectures]

Question: Venerable master, regarding if the physical body is cremated or not, does it has something to do with liberation?

Samael Aun Weor: No! Although it is often advisable to cremate the body because any attraction that the soul can feel to the body after death is cut when the physical body has been cremated. Nonetheless, this is not a very serious factor. Some souls may feel some attraction to the body: they shall walk to and fro looking for their body, they may want to enter within it, they will regretted having lost it; of course, these souls are eligible to return to the world.

Others do not feel any attraction to their physical body and definitely prefer to leave; it all depends on the life that we had.

But, however, it is often appropriate to cremate the body, this way the soul loses with its vehicle the smallest attraction, even the most subtle attraction that the soul could feel towards the body is actually cut off when the body is burnt... 

Question: In regard to pregnant women, what about sexual gender?

Samael Aun Weor: There is one factor that greatly affects the question of sexual gender, and relates to what is called "antipathy" and “sympathy." This comes to define very much, define practically we might say, the seualx gender that the soul will have in its new physical birth.

For example: after death we feel attraction to a certain household (sometimes it usually will be the home of our own family, our descendants, etc.). As the soul approaches a couple of those whom we feel by law of destiny, of karma, to be dragged to them, and especially at the moment when they are copulating, the soul will feel, or the defunct one will feel, to speak clearly, a specific attraction for a particular gender. If the soul feels attraction for the woman who is copulating, the soul can be born there, trapped there, the soul remains related to her ovum seed, and will have a male body. But if you feel more attraction, more sympathy, love for the father and antipathy for the woman with whom the man is copulating, then obviously the soul remains related to that male seed and therefore will have a female body. Observe that male children are more attracted to their mothers. Observe, in a very special manner, how girls have more love for their fathers… This matter about sympathy and antipathy that we see in the girls towards their fathers and boys towards their mothers determined their sex. That sympathy exists not only after being born, it also exists before the soul was born, since it was this sympathy that brought us into existence.

When the soul feels a specific sympathy for the mother, it is born with male body. If the sympathy is very special for the father, the soul is born with female body.

So if the defunct one does not want to return, it will need to know how to pass beyond sympathies and antipathies; if what the soul wants is not to come back… 

Question: Venerable master, in your book Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic you state that cemeteries are halls of Black Magic and that we should not bury our dead in those graveyards, then repeating the same former question, it is always better to incinerate the body?

Samael Aun Weor: Yes, it is always better to incinerate them. And naturally, in the cemeteries, there are within the inner dimension, in the fifth dimension, in the molecular region, certain dens of black magic and personages of the "left hand," tenebrous ones, which typically dwell in cemeteries, and who even use the ghosts of the dead in order to harm the living.

Many are the ominous things that happen in the cemeteries, upon which I have spoken in my book Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic.

Learn more: read Beyond Death.