“The Chinese word Mo means ‘silent or serene.’ Chao means ‘to reflect or to observe.’ Mo-Chao, therefore, can be translated as ‘serene reflection’ or ‘serene observation.’” — Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959)
To achieve absolute mental silence in all the levels of the subconsciousness is what is the most difficult, laborious, and arduous task.
It is not enough to reach stillness and silence in the mere superficial intellectual level or in a few subconscious departments, because the Essence continues bottled up within the submerged, infraconscious, and unconscious dualism.
A blank mind is something exceedingly superficial, hollow, and intellectual. What we need is serene reflection if indeed we want to achieve the absolute stillness and silence of the mind.
Nonetheless, it is clear to comprehend that in pure Gnosticism...
“... both the ‘serene’ and the ‘reflection’ have special meanings here and should not be understood in their common connotations. The meaning of ‘serene’ goes much deeper than mere ‘calmness’ or ‘quietude’; it implies transcendency over all words and thoughts [reasoning, desires, contradictions, and words], denoting a state of ‘beyond,’ of pervasive peace.” — Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959)
Likewise,
“The meaning of ‘reflection’ likewise goes much deeper than its ordinary sense of ‘contemplation of a problem or an idea.’ It has no savor of mental activity or of contemplative thought, but is a mirror-like clear awareness, ever illuminating and bright in its pure self-experience.
“To speak even more concisely, ‘serene’ means the tranquility of no-thought (Chinese: wu nien), and ‘reflection’ means vivid and clear awareness. Therefore, serene-reflection is clear awareness in the tranquility of no-thought.” — Garma C. C. Chang , The Practice of Zen (1959)
Perfect serenity reigns when true profound enlightenment is achieved.
Dispersed Mind and Integral Mind
In mental dynamics, it is urgent to know how and why the mind functions. We can make of the mind a useful instrument only by resolving that how and why.
Intellectual liberty is only possible on the basis of understanding, comprehension, and knowledge of the different functions of the mind.
Only by knowing the diverse mechanisms of the mind is how we liberate ourselves from it. This is how we make of the mind a useful instrument.
If indeed we want to control our own mind in an integral manner, it is unpostponable to know ourselves.
Hippocrates, the great physician, was one of the classical masters of the mind.
The human mind is conditioned.
Willpower without chains is only possible by dissolving the ego. The mind must become an obedient mechanism to the human being. Maturity begins when we accept the reality that the human mind is conditioned.
It is possible to achieve the liberation of the mind if we discover the intelligence it possesses. We need an integral mind instead of a dispersed mind.
The Revolution of Meditation
The technique of meditation permits us to arrive at the heights of illumination and the revolution of the dialectic.
We must distinguish between a mind that is still and a mind that is stilled by force.
When the mind is stilled by force, it is really not still. It is gagged by violence and in the deeper levels of understanding there is an entire tempest.
When the mind is violently silenced, it is really not in silence. Deep within, it clamours, it shouts, it is in despair.
During meditation it is necessary to put an end to the modifications of the thinking system. When the thinking system remains under our control, illumination comes to us spontaneously. Mental control permits us to destroy the shackles created by the mind.
To achieve the stillness and silence of the mind, it is necessary to know how to live from instant to instant, to know how to take advantage of each moment, to not live the moment in doses.
Take everything from each moment because each moment is a child of Gnosis. Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant. Momentariness is a special characteristic of the Gnostics. We love the philosophy of momentariness.
Master Ummom said to his disciples, “If you walk, walk; if you sit, sit; but do not vacillate.”
To commence with the study of the technique of meditation is to enter into the antechamber of the divine peace that surpasses all knowledge.
The most elevated form of thinking is non-thinking.
When one achieves the stillness and silence of the mind, the “I” with all its passions, dens, appetites, fears, affections, etc. becomes absent.
It is only in the absence of the “I,” in the absence of the mind, that the Buddhadatu can awaken to unite with the Inner Self and take us to ecstasy.
The Subud school of black magic states that the Monad or the Great Reality will enter within him who does not possess the existential bodies of the Being. This is a false statement. What enters into those tenebrous fanatics of Subud are evil entities, evil entities that express themselves through those people with gestures, actions, bestial, and absurd words. Such people are possessed by the tenebrous ones.
The stillness and silence of the mind has a single objective: to liberate the Essence from the mind, so that when fused with the Monad or Inner Self, it (the Essence) can experience that which we call the truth.
During ecstasy and in the absence of the “I,” the Essence can live freely experiencing the truth within the world of the mist of fire.
When the mind is in a passive and receptive state, absolutely still and in silence, the Essence or Buddhadatu is liberated from the mind, and the ecstasy arrives.
The Essence is always bottled up in the battle of the opposites, but when the battling ends and the silence is absolute, then the bottle is broken into pieces and the Essence remains free.
When we practice meditation, our mind is assaulted by many memories, desires, passions, preoccupations, etc.
We must avoid the conflict between attention and distraction. There is conflict between attention and distraction when we combat those assailants of the mind. The “I” is the projector of those mental assailants. Where there is conflict, stillness and silence cannot exist.
We must nullify the projector through self-observation and comprehension. Examine each image, each memory, and each thought that comes to the mind. Remember that every thought has two poles: positive and negative.
Two aspects of the same thing are entering and leaving. The dining room and the washroom, tall and short, pleasant and unpleasant, etc. are always two poles of the same thing.
Examine the two poles of each mental form that comes to the mind. Remember that only through the study of these polarities can one arrive at a synthesis.
Every mental form can be eliminated through its synthesis. Example: the memory of a fiancée assaults us. Is she beautiful? Let us think that beauty is the opposite of ugliness and that if in her youth she is beautiful, in her old age she will be ugly. The synthesis: it is not worthwhile to think about her; she is an illusion, a flower that will inevitably wither.
In India, this self-observation and study of our psyche is properly called pratyahara.1
Bird-like thoughts should pass through the space of our own mind in a successive parade, but without leaving any trace behind.
The infinite procession of thoughts projected by the “I” is exhausted in the end, and then the mind remains still and in silence.
A great self-realized master said:
“Only when the projector, in other words, the “I,” is completely absent, will the silence (which is not a product of the mind) then befall. This silence is inexhaustible; it is not of time, and it is immeasurable. It is only then, when THAT which is, arrives.”
This whole technique is summarized in two principles:
- Profound reflection
- Tremendous serenity
This technique of meditation with its non-thinking puts to work the most central part of the mind, the one that produces the ecstasy.
Remember that the central part of the mind is that which is called Buddhadatu, the Essence, the consciousness.
When the Buddhadatu awakens, we remain illuminated. We need to awaken the Buddhadatu, the consciousness.
The Gnostic student can practice meditation seated in the Western or Eastern style.
It is advisable to practice with the eyes closed to avoid the distractions of the exterior world.
It is also convenient to relax the body carefully, thus avoiding any tension in the muscles.
The Buddhadatu, the Essence, is the psychic material, the inner Buddhist principle, the spiritual material or raw matter which will eventually give shape to the soul.
The Buddhadatu is the best that we have within, and awakens with profound inner meditation.
Indeed, the Buddhadatu is the only element that the wretched intellectual animal possesses in order to arrive at the experience of that which we call the truth.
The only thing that the intellectual animal can do (being unable to incarnate the Being due to the fact that he still does not possess the superior existential bodies) is to practice meditation, to self-awaken the Buddhadatu, and to know the truth.
Mechanical Association
Isan sent a mirror to Master Koysen, who showed it to his monks and asked, “Is this Isan’s mirror or my mirror?
“If you say that it belongs to Isan how is it that it is in my hands? If you say that it is mine, have I not received it from Isan’s hands? Speak, speak, or else I will break it into pieces.”
The monks were unable to pass between those two opposites and the master broke the mirror into pieces.
Ecstasy is impossible as long as the Essence is bottled up in the opposites.
In the times of Babylon, the bodhisattva2 of the most saintly Ashiata Shiemash,3 a great avatar,4 came to the world.
The bodhisattva was not fallen and, like every bodhisattva, he had his superior existential bodies of the Being normally developed.
When he reached a responsible age he arrived at the Veziniama mountain and entered a cavern.
The tradition narrates that he carried out three tremendous fasts of forty days each, accompanied by intentional and voluntary suffering.
He dedicated the first fast to prayer and meditation.
The second fast was dedicated to reviewing his entire life and his past lives.
The third fast was definitive. It was dedicated to putting an end to the mechanical association of his mind. He did not eat; he only drank water and every half hour he pulled out two hairs from his chest.
There are two types of mechanical associations which are the foundation of the opposites:
- a) Mechanical association by means of ideas, words, phrases, etc;
- b) Mechanical association by images, forms, things, persons, etc.
An idea is associated with another, a word with another, a phrase with another, and the battle of the opposites follows.
The memory of someone comes into our mind; this person is associated with another; an image is associated with another, a form with another and the battle of the opposites continues.
The bodhisattva of the avatar Ashiata Shiemash suffered the unutterable. Fasting for forty days, mortifying himself horribly... Sunk in profound inner meditation, he achieved the disassociation from the mental mechanism and his mind remained solemnly still and in an imposing silence.
The outcome was ecstasy with the incarnation of his real Being.
Ashiata Shiemash carried out a great work in Asia, founding monasteries and establishing rulers with awakened consciousness everywhere.
This bodhisattva was able to incarnate his real Being during meditation because he already possessed the superior existential bodies of the Being.
Those who do not have the superior existential bodies of the Being cannot succeed in getting the divinity or the Being to operate or incarnate within them. However, they are able to liberate their Essence so that it will fuse with their Being and participate in his ecstasy.
In the state of ecstasy, we can study the great mysteries of life and death.
We have to study the ritual of life and death until the Officiant (the Inner Self, the Being) arrives.
It is only in the absence of the “I” that one can experience the bliss of the Being. Only in the absence of the “I” can ecstasy be attained.
When one achieves the dissolution of the mental mechanism, then comes that which the Asians call: the breaking of the bag, the eruption of the void. Then there is a shout of joy because the Essence (the Buddhadatu) has escaped from within the battle of the opposites, and it now participates in the communion of the saints.
The Dominion of the Mind
It is clear that at each moment we have to become more and more independent from the mind. The mind is certainly a dungeon, a prison where all of us are prisoners. We need to evade that prison if indeed we want to know what liberty is; to know that liberty which does not belong to time, that liberty which is not of the mind.
First of all, we must consider the mind as something that is not of the Being. Unfortunately, people who are quite identified with their mind, say, “I am thinking,” thus they feel as if they are the mind itself.
There are schools that dedicate themselves to the fortification of the mind. They impart courses by correspondence, teaching how to develop mental power, etc. However, all of that is an absurdity because it is not the fortification of the bars of the mental prison (within which we are captive) that is required. What is required is the destruction of those bars in order to know true liberty, which as I have already stated, is not of time. For as long as we are in the prison of the intellect, we will never be capable of experiencing true liberty.
The mind, in itself, is a very painful prison. No one has ever been happy with the mind. Up to now, we have never known of a human being who is happy with the mind. The mind makes all creatures unhappy, the mind makes them miserable. The happiest moments that we have all had in life have always been in the absence of the mind. These have been moments that lasted for an instant, but indeed these were moments which we will not be able to forget in our lifetime. In such a moment, we have known what happiness is, despite that such a moment has only lasted for a second. Therefore, the mind does not know what happiness is; it is a prison!
We need to learn how to dominate the mind; not other peoples’ minds, but one’s own mind, if we want to become independent of it.
It becomes indispensable to learn how to see the mind as something that we must dominate, as something that, let us say, something that we need to tame. Let us remember the Divine Master Jesus entering into Jerusalem seated upon his donkey on Palm Sunday. That donkey is the mind that we must subdue. We must ride upon the donkey, and not allow the donkey to ride upon us. Unfortunately, people are victims of their mind since they do not know how to ride upon the donkey. The mind is an extremely clumsy donkey that we must dominate if indeed we want to ride upon it.
While in meditation we must converse with the mind; if a doubt crosses the mind, we must then perform a dissection on that doubt. When a doubt has been properly studied, when a dissection has been performed on it, then it does not leave any trace whatsoever in our memory, it disappears. However, when a doubt persists, when we want to incessantly combat it, then a conflict is formed. Every doubt is an obstacle for meditation. It is not by rejecting doubts that we are going to eliminate them, but on the contrary, it is by performing a dissection on them in order to see that which is real, that which is concealed within them.
Any doubt that persists in the mind becomes an obstacle for meditation. Therefore, we must analyze it, disjoin it, and reduce such doubt to dust. This is not performed by fighting the doubt, but by opening it up with the scalpel of self-criticism, by carrying out a rigorous and implacable dissection on it. It is only in this manner that we will come to discover what was within that doubt that was not important, and to discover what was real and what was unreal within that doubt.
Therefore, doubts sometimes serve in order to clarify concepts. When one eliminates a doubt through rigorous analysis, when one performs a dissection on it, one discovers a truth. Thus, from that truth something more profound comes, more knowledge, more wisdom.
Wisdom is elaborated based on direct experimentation, on our own experimentation; it is elaborated based on profound meditation.
Sometimes, I repeat, we need to converse with the mind because many times when we want the mind to be still, when we want the mind to be in silence, it persists in its stubbornness, in its useless chattering, in the struggle of the antitheses. Therefore it is necessary to interrogate the mind. Speak to the mind as follows, “Well, mind, what is it that you want? Well, answer me!” Then, if the meditation is profound, a representation can emerge within us. Thus, within that representation, within that figure, within that image, is the answer. We must then converse with the mind and make it see the reality of things, until we make it realize that its answer is erroneous; to make it realize that its preoccupations are useless and the reason why such preoccupations are useless. Thus, in the end, the mind remains still, in silence. However, if we notice that illumination does not emerge yet, that the chaotic state, the incoherent confusion with its struggle and incessant chattering still persists within us, then we have to call the mind to order once again; we have to again interrogate it, “What is it that you want? What are you looking for? Why do you not leave me in peace?” One needs to speak clearly and converse with the mind as if it was a strange individual. Certainly, the mind is a strange individual, because it is not of the Being. Therefore, we must treat the mind like a strange subject, we must recriminate it; we must scold it.
The students of advanced Zen are used to the practice of Judo. However, their psychological Judo has not been comprehended by the tourists who arrive in Japan. To see for instance the monks practicing Judo, struggling with one another, it would appear to be a mere physical exercise, but it is not. In fact, when they are practicing Judo they are hardly noticing the physical body. Certainly, their struggle is directed towards the domination of their own mind. Thus, the Judo in which they are engaged in is against each of their own minds. Therefore, the objective of psychological Judo is to subdue the mind, to treat the mind scientifically, technically, with the objective of subduing it. Unfortunately, Westerners see just the shell of Judo. Of course, as always, the superficial and foolish Westerners take Judo as a practice of personal defense; they forget the principles of Zen and Ch’an. This has been truly lamentable.
Something similar happened with the Tarot. It is known that all of the ancient wisdom is within the Tarot. It is known that all the cosmic laws and laws of nature are within the Tarot. For instance, an individual who speaks against Sexual Magic is speaking against the Ninth Arcanum of the Tarot. Therefore, this individual is casting a horrible karma upon himself; an individual who speaks in favor of the dogma of evolution is breaking the law related to the Tenth Arcanum of the Tarot, and so on and so forth. The Tarot is the “measuring pattern” for everyone, as I stated in my book entitled The Mystery of the Golden Flower, which I concluded stating that the authors are free to write what they please. Nonetheless, they must not forget the measuring pattern. This measuring pattern is the Tarot that is the golden book, if they do not want to violate the cosmic laws and fall under the Law of Katancia, which is superior karma. After this short digression, I want to state that the very sacred and very sapient Tarot has become a poker game and has converted into different card games to entertain people. People have forgotten the laws and principles of the Tarot.
The sacred pools of the ancient temples, of the temples of mysteries, have today become pools for swimmers.
Tauromachy or the art of bullfighting (a profound science, the Taurine science of the ancient mysteries of Neptune in Atlantis) has lost its principles. Today this science has become the vulgar bullfighting circus.
Therefore, it is not strange that the Zen / Ch’an Judo (whose objective is precisely to subdue one’s own mind in each of its movements and holds) has degenerated, has lost its principles in the Western world, and has become nothing more than something profane which is used today only for personal defense.
Let us look at the psychological aspect of Judo, the psychological Judo that the revolution of the dialectic teaches. One needs to dominate the mind. The mind has to obey. We need to recriminate it firmly in order for it to obey.
How is it possible that while we are in the practice of meditation, in those instants within which we seek stillness and silence, the mind imposes itself and does not want to be still? We need to know why it does not want to be still. Then, we need to interrogate it, to recriminate it, to whip it, to make it obey, since the mind is a stubborn, clumsy donkey that we have to dominate.
Krishnamurti has not taught this, neither has Zen nor Ch’an taught it. This discipline that I am teaching belongs to the Second Jewel of the Yellow Dragon, to the Second Jewel of Wisdom. Within the First Jewel we can include Zen, but Zen has not explained the Second Jewel, even when the prolegomena of it is within its psychological Judo.
The Second Jewel implies the discipline of the mind, dominating, whipping, scolding it. The mind is an unbearable donkey that we need to tame!
Therefore, we need to count on several factors during meditation if we wish to attain the stillness and silence of the mind. We need to study disorder because it is only in this manner that we can establish order. We must know what in us is attentive and what in us is inattentive.
Always when we enter meditation our mind is divided into two parts: the part that pays attention, the attentive part, and the inattentive part. It is not upon the attentive part that we must focus our attention, but rather, it is precisely on what is inattentive within us.
When we are able to comprehend in depth what is inattentive within us and study its procedures so that the inattentive becomes attentive, we will have achieved the stillness and silence of the mind. But we have to be judicious in meditation; we have to judge ourselves, to know what is inattentive in us. We need to become conscious of what in us is inattentive.
When I state that we must dominate the mind, understand that the one who has to dominate the mind is the Essence, the consciousness. By awakening consciousness we have more power over the mind and thereby we become conscious of what is unconscious in us.
It is urgent and unpostponable to dominate the mind, to converse with it, to recriminate it, to whip it with the whip of willpower and make it obey. This didactic belongs to the Second Jewel of the Yellow Dragon.
My real Being, Samael Aun Weor, was reincarnated in ancient China. At that time, my name was Chou Li and I was initiated into the Order of the Yellow Dragon. Presently, I have orders to deliver the Seven Jewels of the Yellow Dragon to whosoever awakens consciousness by living the revolution of the dialectic and by achieving integral revolution.
First of all, if we truly wish to take the most advantage of the Second Jewel, then we must not become identified with the mind, because if we feel ourselves being the mind, if for instance we say, “I am reasoning! I am thinking,” then we are affirming an absurdity and we are not in agreement with the doctrine of the Yellow Dragon, because the Being does not need to think, because the Being does not need to reason. The one who reasons is the mind.
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 always been, and what shall always be. The Being is the life that throbs in each atom just as it throbs in each sun. The one who thinks is not the Being; the one who reasons is not the Being. We do not have the entire Being incarnated, but we have a part of the Being incarnated. This part is the Essence or Buddhadatu, that part of Soul that is within us, which is the spiritual, psychic material. It is necessary for this living Essence to impose itself on the mind.
The one who analyzes within us are the “I’s,” because the “I’s” are but mere forms of the mind, mental forms that we must disintegrate and reduce to cosmic dust.
Let us study something very special in these moments. There could be a case of someone that dissolves the “I’s,” eliminates them. It could also be the case that that someone (besides having dissolved the “I’s”) fabricates a mental body.5 Obviously this person will acquire intellectual individuality. Nonetheless, this person has to liberate himself even from this very same mental body, because the mental body itself (no matter how perfect it might be) also rationalizes, also thinks. But the most elevated form of thinking is non-thinking. Therefore, as long as one thinks, one is not in the most elevated form of thinking.
The Being does not need to think. He is what has always been and what will always be. Therefore, in synthesis, we must subdue the mind and interrogate it. We do not need to subdue other people’s minds, because that is black magic. We do not need to dominate the mind of anyone because that is witchcraft of the worst kind. What we need is to subdue our own mind and dominate it.
During meditation, I repeat, there are two parts, that which is attentive and that which is inattentive. We need to become conscious of that which is inattentive in us. Upon becoming conscious, we can evidence that the inattentive has many factors: like doubt, there are many doubts; many are the doubts that are in the human mind. Where do those doubts come from? We see for instance atheism, materialism, and mysticism. If we tear them apart we see then that there are many forms of skepticism, many forms of atheism, and many forms of materialism. There are persons who say that they are materialistic atheists, yet they fear spells, witchcraft. They respect nature; they know how to see God within nature but in their own way. Nevertheless, when one talks to them about spiritual or religious matters, they declare themselves materialistic atheists. Thus, their atheism is formulated in a very incipient way.
There is another type of materialism and atheism. This is the incredulous, skeptical, Marxist-Leninist type. Something is yearned for within the very bottom of this type of materialistic atheist. Indeed, this type of atheist simply wants to disappear, to not exist, to annihilate himself integrally. He does not want to know anything about the divine Monad,6 he hates it. Obviously, upon proceeding in this manner, he will disintegrate as he wishes, this is his choice. Therefore, he will cease to exist; he will descend into the infernal worlds, towards the center of gravity of the planet. Since his choice is to self-destruct he will perish. Nonetheless, in the end, he will continue, because the Essence will be liberated. The Essence will return to new evolutions and will proceed through new devolutions. This Essence, through different cycles of manifestations, will return and will fall again and again into the same skepticism and materialism. In the long run the outcome of this conduct will appear. When? It will be on the day when all the doors will definitely close for him, when the three thousand cycles will become completed. Then, that Essence will be reabsorbed within its Monad and the latter will sequentially enter into the spiritual, universal bosom of life. Nonetheless, this will be a Monad without mastery.7
So what does this type of Essence really want? What does it search for in its atheism? What is its longing? Its longing is to reject mastery. Thus, rejection of mastery is what it wants within the very bottom of all of this. Therefore, it does not acquire mastery. This type of Essence does not develop its spiritual values and finally ends up just as a divine spark but without mastery.
The forms of skepticism are varied. There are people who call themselves Catholic, Apostolic, and Romanic. Nevertheless, in their expositions they are crudely materialistic and atheists. Despite this, they go to Mass every Sunday, they take the Holy Communion, and confess their sins. Therefore, this is another kind of skepticism.
If we analyze all forms of skepticism and materialism that have been, are, and will be, we discover that there is no single skepticism. The reality is that there are millions of forms of skepticism and materialism. They are millions simply because all of them are mental, they are things of the mind. In other words, skepticism and materialism are from the mind and are not from the Being.
When someone has gone beyond the mind, he has made himself conscious of the truth, which is not of time. Obviously, this person cannot be a materialist or an atheist.
Whosoever has at sometime listened to the Word,8 he is then beyond time, beyond the mind.
Atheism is of the mind, and belongs to the mind that is like a fan. All the forms of materialism and atheism are so many and so varied that they resemble a great fan. That which is Real is what is beyond the mind.
The atheist and materialist are ignorant. They have never listened to the Verb. They have never known the Divine Word because they have never entered into the current of sound.
Therefore, within the mind is where atheism and materialism are gestated. These are forms of the mind, illusory forms that have no reality. What is truly Real is what does not belong to the mind. That which indeed is Real is what is beyond the mind.
To become independent of the mind is important in order to know “That” which is Real, not to know it intellectually, but rather to really and truly experience it.
Thus, we can see different forms of skepticism, incredulity, doubt, etc., by paying attention to what is inattentive within us. Then when we see any type of doubt, we have to tear it to pieces, to submit it to a dissection in order to see what it truly wants. Once we have totally torn it into pieces, that doubt then disappears without leaving any mark in the mind, without leaving even the most insignificant trace in the memory.
When we observe what is inattentive in us, we also see the struggle of the antitheses within the mind. It is at this point that we have to tear apart those antitheses in order to see what truth they hold. One must also perform a dissection of memories, emotions, desires, and preoccupations that one ignores, which one does not know from where or why they come.
Within our meditation when we judiciously see that the necessity of calling the mind to attention is emerging (that is a critical point where one has become weary of the mind, that the mind does not want to obey in any manner) then there is no choice but to recriminate it, to speak to it forcefully, to deal with it face to face, as we would do with a strange and inopportune subject. One has to lash it with the whip of willpower, recriminate it with harsh words until one makes the mind obey. One must converse many times with the mind so that it will understand. If it does not understand, then one has to severely call it to order.
To not identify with the mind is indispensable. One has to whip the mind, subjugate it, dominate it. If the mind continues to be violent, then we must again whip it. Thus, in this manner we come out from within the mind and reach the truth. Certainly, the truth is that which is not of time.
When we succeed to reach that which is not of time, we can then experience an element that radically transforms. Thus, there is a certain transforming element that is not of time; that element can only be experienced, I repeat, when we come out of the mind. One must struggle intensely until one succeeds to come out of the mind in order to achieve the intimate Self-realization of the Being.
We need to become independent of the mind over and over again and enter into the current of sound, the world of music. This is the world where the word of the Elohim resounds. This is where the truth certainly reigns.
Hence, while we are bottled up in the mind, what can we know about the truth? Perhaps we know what other people say about the truth, but what do we know? The important thing is not what other people say, but what we experience ourselves. Our problem is how to get out of the mind. For this goal, in order to emancipate ourselves, we need a science, a wisdom. This science, this wisdom, is found within Gnosis.
When we think that the mind is quiet, when we believe that it is in silence, nonetheless no divine experience comes to us, it is because the mind is not quiet or silent. Deep down, the mind continues struggling. Deep down the mind is chattering. Then we have to confront it, to converse with it, recriminate it through meditation and ask it what it wants. Tell the mind for instance, “Mind, why are you not quiet? Why do you not leave me alone?” Then, the mind will give some kind of answer and we will respond to it with another explanation. This is in order to convince it; however, if the mind does not want to be convinced, then there will be no other remedy but to subjugate it by means of recrimination and the whip of willpower.
In meditation, the dominion of the mind goes beyond the struggle of the opposites. In this manner, for example, when a thought of hatred or an evil memory assault us, then one has to try to comprehend it, try to see its antithesis, which is love. Thus, if there is love, why is hatred there? What is the purpose of that hatred?
For example, if the memory of a lustful act surges forth then one has to pass through the mind the sacred chalice and the sacred lance.9 One has to say: “Why do I have to profane the sacred with my morbid thoughts?”
If the memory of a tall person surges forth, one must then see him short and this would be correct, since the key is in the synthesis.
Therefore, to know how to always find the synthesis is beneficial, because from the thesis one has to pass on to the antithesis. Yet, the truth is not found in the antithesis or in the thesis because there is discussion when in front of the thesis and the antithesis. Affirmation, negation, discussion, and solution is what is really wanted. Affirmation of a bad thought, negation of it through the comprehension of its opposite, and discussion: one has to discuss what is real within one and the other arriving at wisdom, thus leaving the mind quiet and in silence. This is how one must practice.
All of this is part of the conscious practices related with the observation of what is inattentive. Nevertheless, if we simply say: it is just the memory of a tall person and we put a short person in front of it and we finish there, then this is not right. What is right would be to say: tall and short are nothing but two aspects of the same thing, however what matters is not what is tall or what is short, but what is the truth that is hidden behind all of this, because tall and short are just two illusory phenomena of the mind. Thus, this is the way in order to arrive at the synthesis and the solution.
What is inattentive in oneself is that which is formed by the subconsciousness, by that which is incoherent, by all the amount of memories that emerge from within the mind, which are the memories of the past that assault one now and again, by the debris of the memory, etc.
The elements that constitute the subconsciousness must neither be accepted nor rejected: we must simply become conscious of that which is inattentive within us. Thus, in this manner, that which is inattentive becomes attentive in a natural and spontaneous way. This is how the inattentive becomes attentive.
One has to make of daily life a continuous meditation. Meditation is not only that action of quieting the mind when we are at home or in the sanctuary. Meditation also encompasses the thread of daily living so that life instantaneously becomes a constant meditation.
The mind in itself is the ego. Therefore, it is urgent to destroy the ego. The outcome of its destruction is a mental substance with which the human mental body can be fabricated. However, this mental body will still be mind. Therefore, what is important is to liberate oneself from the mind. Thus, when one becomes free of it, one must learn how to function in the world of pure spirit without mind. One must know how to live in that current of sound that is beyond the mind and is not of time.
Ignorance is what is within the mind. Real wisdom is not within the mind, it is beyond the mind. The mind is ignorant. This is the reason why it falls, and falls into so many grave errors.
How foolish are those who make mentalistic propaganda, those who promise mental powers, those who teach others how to dominate other persons’ minds, etc. The mind has not made anyone happy. True happiness is very much beyond the mind. One cannot come to know happiness until one has become independent of the mind.
Dreams belong to the unconsciousness. When one awakens consciousness, one leaves behind dreams. Dreams are nothing but projections of the mind.
I remember a certain out of body incident that I experienced in the superior worlds. It was only an instant of carelessness. I saw how a dream came out of my mind. I was about to start dreaming, yet I reacted from within the dream that had escaped from within me for one second. Since I became aware of its process, I quickly walked away from that petrified form that escaped from within my mind. Nevertheless, what would have happened if my consciousness had been asleep? I would then have had to stay there, fascinatingly entangled in that mental form. However, when one is with his consciousness awakened, one immediately knows that in a moment of inattention a dream can escape from within. Thus, one can remain entangled all night long until the next morning.
Hence, what is important in us is to awaken our consciousness in order to stop dreaming, in order to stop thinking.
This process of thinking is cosmic matter, it is of the mind. Even the astral body itself is nothing but the crystallization of the mental matter, and the physical world is also condensed mind. Therefore, the mind is matter and it is very gross, whether it is in a physical state or in that state called astral or manasic, as the Hindus state. In any case, the mind is gross and material whether in the astral plane or in the physical plane.
Thus, the mind is physical or metaphysical matter; it is always matter. Therefore, the mind cannot make us happy. To know authentic happiness, true wisdom, we must get out from within the mind and live in the world of the Being. This is what is important.
We do not deny the creative power of the mind. It is clear that all that exists is condensed mind. But what do we have to gain with this? Has the mind perhaps given us happiness? We can do marvels with the mind; create for ourselves many things in life. The great inventions are condensed mind. However, these types of creations have not made us happy.
What we need is to become independent, to come out of that dungeon of matter, because the mind is matter. We have to come out of matter, live in the role of spirits, as beings, as happy creatures beyond matter. Matter does not make anyone happy. Matter is always gross even when it assumes beautiful forms.
If we search for authentic happiness, we will not find it in matter but in the spirit. Therefore, we need to free ourselves of the mind, because true happiness comes to us when we come out of the dungeon of the mind. Again, we do not deny that the mind can be the creator of many things, of inventions, of marvels and of prodigious things. However, do any of those things give us happiness? Who is the happy one among us?
Consequently, if the mind has not given us happiness, we have to come out of the mind and find happiness somewhere else. Obviously, we will find it in the world of the Spirit. But, what we need to know is how to evade the mind, how to liberate ourselves from the mind. This is the objective of our exercises and studies that I have delivered in the Gnostic books and in this treatise The Revolution of the Dialectic.
There is three percent of consciousness and ninety seven percent of subconsciousness within us. This is true. Consequently, that which we have of consciousness is what must direct itself to that which we have of unconsciousness or subconsciousness in order to recriminate the unconscious part and to make it see that it has to become conscious. But it is necessary for the conscious part to recriminate the subconscious part. This task, that is, the conscious part directing itself to the subconscious part, is a very important exercise that can be practiced at dawn. Thus, this is how the unconscious parts become conscious, little by little.
Probationism
Probationism is the science that studies the mental essences that imprison the soul. Probationism is the science of esoteric ordeals.
Probationism is the internal wisdom that permits us to study the prisons of understanding.
Probationism is the pure science that permits us to know in depth the errors of individual minds.
The human mind must be liberated from fear and appetites. The human mind must be liberated from the eagerness towards accumulation, liberated from attachments, hatreds, egotism, violence, etc.
The human mind must be liberated from the processes of reasoning that divide the mind in the battle of the antitheses.
A mind that is divided by the depressing process of options cannot serve as an instrument for the Innermost.
We must exchange the process of reasoning for the beauty of comprehension.
The process of conceptual election divides the mind, thus this is how the mind gives birth to erred action and useless effort.
Desire and appetites are obstacles for the mind. Those obstacles lead human beings to exert all kinds of errors that result in karma.
Fear exerts over the mind the desire for security. The desire for security enslaves willpower, converting it into a prisoner of definitive self-barriers within which all human miseries are hidden.
Fear brings all types of inferiority complexes. Fear of death causes human beings to arm themselves and assassinate one another. The human being who carries a revolver at his waist is a coward; he is fearful. The brave one does not carry weapons because he does not fear anyone.
The fear of life, the fear of death, the fear of hunger, the fear of misery, the fear of cold and nakedness, engender all types of inferiority complexes. Fear leads human being towards violence, hatred, exploitation, etc.
The human minds live from one prison to another. Each prison is a school, a religion, an erred concept, a prejudice, a desire, an opinion, etc.
The human mind must learn how to flow seriously, in an integral manner, without the painful process of reasoning that divides the mind with its battle of the antitheses.
The mind must become like a child in order for it to be able to serve as an instrument for the Innermost.
We must always live in the present, because life is just an eternal instant.
We must liberate ourselves from all types of preconceptions and desires. We must move only under the impulses of the Innermost. Covetousness, anger, lust, have their den in the mind. Covetousness, anger, lust, lead souls towards the Avitchi.10
The human being is not the mind. The mind is merely one of the four bodies of sin.11 When the human being becomes identified with his mind he falls into the abyss.
The mind is merely a donkey upon which we must ride in order to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.12
Therefore, when our mind besieges us with useless representations, let us talk to it in the following manner, “Mind, remove from my inner sight these representations, I do not accept these from you. You are my slave and I am your lord!”
Thus, when our mind assaults us with representations of hatred, fear, anger, cravings, covetousness, lust, etc., let us then talk to it in the following manner, “Mind, remove these things from my sight, I do not accept these from you; I am your master, I am your lord. You must obey me because you are my slave until the end of time!”
Now, we need human beings with Thelema,13 human beings with willpower, who do not let themselves be enslaved by their mind.
