Health, Healing, Awakening

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart [mano], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.” –BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, DHAMMAPADA 1

I want to talk a little bit about a basic need in life, which is to have something that we call “health.” 

In any type of system, there are laws, and there are energies. In order to thrive in any particular system, one needs to understand the laws that manage it, and work in harmony with them. If our interest is to develop spiritual life — to move beyond the mere physical level of existence and to experience something more profound — we need to understand how we can live in harmony with the laws that manage those realms. 

In this context, health has implications and meanings that are far beyond that which we usually think of as “health.”  There is much more to health than merely the physical aspect. 

In today’s discussion, I want to bring up some basic concepts related to a more expansive view of health, and invite you to analyze your approach to health, your understanding of health, and your moment to moment experience of health, so that you can increase it, improve it, and have greater health. 

The image above of Adonis and Venus represents a divine state of being. We see two symbols, archetypes, in an embrace. These archetypes come from a Greek tradition. They represent very elevated aspects of ourselves. We generally approach mythology thinking that the gods and heroes of mythology represent something in the ancient past or that people in the past made them to represent literal gods that dwelled in the clouds, but this is not the true meaning. These are archetypes or symbols represent states of being that we ourselves can reach, access and experience. 

To discuss health, we need to really understand, firstly, what that means and how our understanding of health is different from what we find in the world today. 

The topics that we discuss in these lectures are not the opinions of the instructors. What I say today will not be merely my opinion. My goal, like every instructor, is to open the door to an ancient knowledge that has nothing to do with the personality, ego, or the physical presence of an instructor. That door gives you access to a stream of knowledge, a continuity of knowledge that is eternal; that has always existed and has never changed. This is the key thing – the concept of health and healing and awakening that we will discuss in this lecture is not a changeable concept, like an opinion or a theory. The ancient knowledge has never changed. This is very different from modern society’s concept of health which changes, it seems, every other day. The so-called wise scientists and doctors of this era state emphatically that we must follow their advice, and they will fight to make laws to force us to follow their advice. Then a few months later, they will say, “Oh, no, no, we were wrong. It is actually this other way. Instead, you must do the opposite.” This vacillation back and forth, like the changes of fashion, has been going on for centuries in our “modern” medicine and science. When they create some new “wonder” drug or medicine, much later the truth comes out about its deadly side effects, or the real motivation behind it: enormous sums of money. 

On the other hand, the ancient, eternal knowledge of medicine and health has never changed. This is the knowledge of Hippocrates, Galen, Paracelsus, Raphael, and many others whose names we do not know today. It is the knowledge studied in the temples of medicine in the internal worlds, what we call “heavens.” That knowledge has always described the laws of nature, and given the same remedies. It is one truth, but it has been taught according to the mentality of the humanity that receives it. Gnosis, the knowledge that we study, is an eternal knowledge and it has come down to us from many instructors, through many teachings, many lineages, many traditions all over the world, and beyond this world. 

 

As such, we can have confidence in the tradition that they have provided. These instructors, such as the angel Raphael, are great masters of medicine, awakened beings who have insight, wisdom, and knowledge far beyond the medical knowledge of so-called modern science. Today, we will touch on some of the conceptual ways of seeing that, so that we can begin to then experience that difference.

What is Health?

Firstly, we have to discuss, what is health? What does that mean? What do we really understand by health? Obviously, in modern times, our definition of health primarily relates to the physical body. This has been that way for quite some time – centuries, that people have only thought of health in terms of physicality – in terms of how we feel; whether we are sick or not. 

Some doctors and practitioners of healing traditions have understood health to be a little more sophisticated than just the physical body. They have also understood that health includes the state of our minds – the state of our mental and emotional well-being. Yet, there is more to it.

There is a key difference in the concept of health between the modern and ancient sciences. The modern traditions relate health with an ideal physical body, and how close we are to physical death. Each of us has a mental image of a “perfect body,” and that represents “perfect health.” We are very hypnotized by appearances, and do not realize that the surface of the body, its external appearance, is not the full picture of our health.

Many traditions describe a perfect place in the ancient past; you may have heard of Arcadia, Eden, Paradise, the Elysian Fields, etc. On one level, these terms refer to ancient times far past any of our written records. In those ancient times, the humanity that existed in those times was not in the physical world. It was a humanity that was not yet in three-dimensional matter. They lived in more subtle levels of nature. That ancient humanity had perfect health. This is what we call now an idyllic civilization or an idealized past. Most people think this is just a fantasy, but if you really look into the histories and the mythologies and the traditions around the world, most of them preserve memories of a time in which humanity was perfectly healthy. That perfect state of health was a state of joy, not just physical health – spiritual health in which humanity had no suffering, no conflict, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically. They were in a state of peace, with no conflict in any of the kingdoms. To us, this sounds like a fantasy, because it is so far from what we experience now. But the fact is, even though modern traditions have forgotten, that is what we come from. 

So, while the stories of Eden and Arcadia are superficially about the past, the more important meaning is that they represent our true nature: the state of being that we came from, and that we can recover. For that, we need a remedy, a medicine, but it is not a pill or an injection. 

Eden represents the natural state of a human being – perfect health, equanimity, joy, peace, cognizant love, happiness for others, chastity. No war. No hate. No violence. No doubt. No despair. No depression. No anger.  We once had that. As you know from studying religion, we lost that. This state of being is recoverable. That is why we have a spiritual path. We have been given teachings by the great masters who have fulfilled those teachings and reached that perfect state of health. They have compassion for us. Because they know that they have achieved it, it is equally possible for us to achieve it. So, they provide the knowledge to us out of love. Our problem is we do not believe it. We have become so habituated to our suffering, we do not believe true health is possible. Instead we seek diversion from our pain in materialism, possessions, politics, sensations, in all of our futile pursuits. 

Nevertheless, let us make it clear: that perfect state of health, that primordial level of being, is impossible to reach with the bodies that we have now. This sounds very dramatic, but it is a fact. I state it explicitly to make it clear, so that we do not have any illusions. 

We know clearly what must be done to reach a perfect state of health: we must remove all impurities from our mind. The scriptures are full of instruction about this. The bodies that we have are not just the physical body; our psychological bodies are overrun with illness, which is why our physical body is not healthy. Within us we have psychological illnesses of such profound depth they cannot be healed. This sounds dramatic, and some might say negative, but it is not. This is how you find a cure. You first have to analyze the illness, then you can find a way to move past it. What I am telling you is actually quite hopeful, if you can understand it properly. But to understand it properly, you have to understand that true health is not determined by the physical body. The physical body was born of sin, is decrepit and decaying. It is not capable of a truly perfect state of health. It is flawed. It is imperfect. It is made out of impure substance. It is not capable of transmitting and sustaining the energy of a perfectly healthy being. There is a superior type of physical body that is not born of imperfection, but to acquire that type of body, first the imperfect one has to die. Jesus passed through that process, as did many other masters. 

 

All ancient traditions emphasize that to become perfect, first we need to die. That death is not physical, but psychological. It is the death of everything impure, so that the purity that we still have can be born anew, free. So the main type of death that we need is psychological death: the death of the ego. 

The body is going to die anyway. That is inevitable. And ultimately, it is better for us, because there are better alternatives, if we can earn them.

Unfortunately, the modern Christians think that they do not have to die to be born again. Jesus himself died in order to be reborn – to resurrect. This is precisely what is necessary for us to reach perfect health; truly perfect health. Yet, that death is not just the death of the body: we need the impure elements in our mind to die first. To die psychologically, to eliminate the ego, we need the physical body to be as healthy as possible, and to live as long as possible. 

To do the work required to achieve that psychological death, we need health. We do not need to die physically yet. We need to take advantage of what we have, cure what we can cure, and work towards that goal. This is a long process. 

Dying physically does not solve our problems. If we were to die physically today, our problems would remain the same, because the problems are rooted deeper in us than the physical body. Our problems are multi-dimensional.

The Tree of Life is mentioned in the Bible. That tree is not a literal tree – it is an approach to how nature functions. This symbol has many levels of meaning, but from the context of our own personal development, we need to understand it psychologically. This is the most important way for us to understand this image: psychologically. Later, as we develop ourselves, we get more and more meanings and more depth out of this symbol. The very beginning of the work requires that we understand it in relation with ourselves. 

The Anatomy of Our Health

The Tree of Life represents us. It displays our many internal dimensions, levels of nature.  We all know that we have physical bodies, and that our physical bodies have vitality in them – energy. Those two levels are the bottom two spheres or sephiroth: Malkuth and Yesod. 

Physicality is represented on the Tree of Life with this bottommost sphere that in Hebrew is called Malkuth, which means “kingdom.” Our physical body is a kingdom. We do not rule it, really. The body controls us, most of the time; when it is hungry, when it wants to sleep, when it wants to go somewhere, when it wants sensations of different kinds, we just follow whatever the body wants. We do not have control over our own physical body, much less anything else. We let the body control us.  That is why it is so hard for us to stay in shape, or to eat the right things, or to do the right things, because we are in a hypnotic state, and the sensations that the body feels are a big part of that hypnotic state.

What animates the physical body is its vital energy, which is represented in the next sphere up that is called “Yesod,” which means “foundation.” Yesod is the foundation of all living things – life itself, vitality. Yesod represents the energies that animate us physically. That, of course, is constantly changing. The amount of energy that we have fluctuates continually, especially if we have a lot of bad habits. Our energy goes up and down, and up and down. Then we need to take in substances to try to supplement that energy, such as caffeine, vitamins, drugs, different medicines, whatever it is that we rely on to keep us going.  When we were babies, we did not need those things. As adults we get worse and worse, because we abuse our energy more and more. 

We also find in ourselves that we have the energies and experiences of emotion, thought, and will. Those are represented here in the next three spheres – emotion (Hod), thought (Netzach), and will (Tiphereth). But these parts of ourselves we are less clear about. Some people cannot tell the difference between emotion and thought, and very few can identify their will. 

Mostly, what we experience are physical sensations coming and going (and our impulsive pursuit to repeat certain sensations), rising and falling energies, and a chaotic, continuously surging stream of very confusing emotions and thoughts that constantly contradict each other. This is our state of life. It is a chaotic mess.

From moment to moment, from day to day, from week to week, we are tossed on a sea of sensations in the body, driven by fluctuating energies of confusing emotions and thoughts, none of which we have any control over. 

We like to think we have control, but we really do not, and the proof is in the experience of it. Do you really think you have control over these four aspects of yourself? Very well: prove it right now.

A Simple Way to Measure Your Health

Make your body and mind perfectly still for a half hour. During this time, do not think or daydream. Instead, let your mind rest, without any thoughts whatsoever. Simply observe your body and mind without any distraction. During this time, your body and mind should be as still as a mountain. 

Observe: can you control your body and mind, or do your body and mind not obey your will?

You will probably find you cannot do this easily if you have never meditated. Your body wants to move, your vital energy wants to move. You twitch. You itch. You get pains. Your body does not want to sit still. Much worse, you cannot stop your thoughts or emotions. You cannot stop daydreaming. This is why when most people try to meditate, they cannot, because they have no control over themselves. Instead, their will is controlled by other forces.

Someone who has learned to exercise conscious will (Tiphereth) over their intellect, emotion, and body, is then capable of acquiring genuine health, because in that state of perfect stillness, they can use their consciousness (Tiphereth) in meditation to fully comprehend the causes of their suffering that hide deep within their subconsciousness, in the interior worlds that we call “hell.” The intellect cannot see that, neither can the physical senses. Without this ability, the defects that cause suffering will remain, and so will the illnesses they cause.

We have no real dominion over our kingdom (Malkuth). What is that dominion, that ability to be in control? That is willpower, which is related to Tiphereth. We do not have the willpower to control the aspects symbolized below willpower on the Tree of Life: thoughts, emotions, energy, sensations, instincts, etc. We cannot be still, quiet, at rest, at peace, even for a moment. It is rare for us to feel genuine peace on any of these levels. It seems that from year to year, it is getting harder, because it is harder and harder to survive. It is harder and harder to see anything clearly, because life is getting more and more complicated.

Regarding these upper two spheres, Spirit (Chesed) and Intuition (Geburah), people have a lot of theories about them, but very few have ever experienced them, even though they are a part of us. 

These seven aspects of ourselves constitute the seven lower sephiroth or spheres on the tree that make up who we are. Regarding the higher parts, the upper trinity, people today have no experience of them. There are many names for them, such as God, Allah, Buddha, The Self, but very few have ever experienced that, because That is utterly incompatible with our impurities. Since we are caged in impurities, we cannot experience that which is divine. It is as if you have a mouth full of vinegar and want to taste honey. 

We call divinity the Being. 

“The Being is not the physical body, nor the Vital Body that serves as a foundation for the organism’s chemistry. It is not the Sidereal [astral] Body, which is the very root of our own desires, nor is it the mind, a marvelous organism whose physical instrument is the brain. The Being is not the body of the consciousness [will], where all volitional, mental, or sentimental experiences are based. The Being is something much more profound.

“Very rare are the human beings who have comprehended what the Being is.

“The Glorian is the ray who “strikes His bell” when He comes into the physical world.

“The Glorian is the Law and the incognito root of the human being.

“The Glorian is the Being of the Being.

“The Glorian is the Law within us.

“When the human being obeys the Law (the Glorian) he cannot become sick. Therefore, sickness comes because of disobedience to the Law. When the seven bodies want to act separately as if they were seven “I’s,” sickness is the outcome.

“The physical [Malkuth] and vital [Yesod] bodies must obey the soul [Tiphereth]. The soul must obey the Innermost {Chesed], and the Innermost must obey the Glorian. Body, soul, and spirit must convert themselves into a very pure and perfect universe through which the majesty of the Glorian can be expressed.

“Let us look at a concrete and simple example: if we throw stones into the water, then inevitably waves will be produced. These waves are the reaction of the water against the stones. If someone casts an offensive word against us, then we feel anger. So, anger is the reaction against the offensive word, and the consequences could be indigestion or a headache or simply a loss of energies, which will be the cause of a future sickness.

“If someone frustrates a plan we have projected, then we are filled with deep mental preoccupation. This preoccupation is the reaction of our mental body against the exterior incitement.

“No one doubts that a strong mental preoccupation brings sickness to the head. Therefore, we must govern our emotions [Hod] with our thought [Netzach]. Thought must be governed by willpower [Tiphereth], and willpower by the consciousness [Geburah].

“Then, we must open up our conscious-ness as when a temple is opened, in order for the priest (the Innermost) [Chesed] to officiate at his altar, before the presence of God (the Glorian).

“We must dominate our seven vehicles and cultivate serenity in order for the sublime and ineffable majesty of the Glorian to be expressed through us.

“When all the acts of our daily life—even the most insignificant acts—become the living expression of the Glorian in us, we will then never be sick.” —Samael Aun Weor, Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic

To understand health, we really need to understand all of this, because all of these spheres relate to each other, they all interpenetrate each other, they all are part of one being, which is ourselves. 

Our health is related to the Tree of Life, because it is ourselves. Do you see these seven levels in yourself? 

If you really study it in yourself, you see it easily. 

We are in our physical bodies (Malkuth). 

Vitality (Yesod) is a little more subtle, but we can recognize it because we feel energy. Sometimes we have a lot of energy. Sometimes we have none, but we can recognize that experience. 

Emotion (Hod) is more subtle. But, observe how you feel. Our emotional state is highly variable, even contradictory.

Thought (Netzach) is similar. Can you observe the thoughts that are constantly chattering in your head?

Will (Tiphereth) is even more subtle. Can you observe your willpower in action?

Intuition (Geburah) and Spirit (Chesed) are beyond the range of perception for most people, because they are so subtle. 

What is interesting about this, and important, is that energy in nature flows from the top down. All things that happen flow from the top of the Tree of Life downwards. If you want to find out why you feel the way you do, and how to feel better, study the Tree of Life in yourself.

Observing the Origin of Health

When the universe was originally beginning, when this planet was created, when our physical body was created, all things that manifest, there is a light – a force that moves down this structure of the Tree of Life in order to give manifestation to that. 

Let us talk about a simple example. You are walking down the street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, without thinking about it, you get a brilliant solution to a problem that you have. The solution just came out of nowhere. That is intuition (Geburah). Then immediately you feel inspiration to do it, the will to do it. That is Tiphereth. Then comes the idea, the thought, the plan to accomplish it, which is Netzach. Accompanying that is the excitement, the conviction, the emotion (Hod). Then, of course comes a surge of energy to do it (Yesod). But next, you will actually have to do it physically (Malkuth). You have to act, otherwise it is all for nothing. 

You see, all that happens psychologically in yourself, and is mapped here on the Tree of Life.

Observe how much of that occurs in the subtle parts of ourselves. It is not physical until we act on it. But to act physically, to implement the inspiration… a lot of people get ideas. Everybody gets great ideas. How many carry them out? How many people create based on inspiration? All of us get ideas for a great novel, painting, symphony, invention, but how many do it? How many make it real, in the physical world? All of us have the idea, the inspiration to succeed spiritually, to create the soul, to become a realized being, an angel, a master, a buddha; but how many actually fulfill it? Yes, it is very rare. 

The important thing here to recognize is how these forces move through us. This corresponds directly to our health. 

Let us look at a simple example. Imagine a person is diagnosed with cancer. That cancer, of course, is visible in the physical body. There are symptoms. There are problems. The doctors are trying to treat it, but their powers are very limited because cancers do not originate in the physical body. It originates in the internal bodies. The causes of cancer are not physical, in the same way that our thoughts are not caused by our brain. Yes, there are physical substances that can deliver the causes of cancer to the body, in the same way that an envelope can bring you a message. That harmful substance carries the internal cause of suffering, in the same way that  your body carries your anger and lust. Those are not physical, but are “delivered” by the body from place to place. That harmful substance delivers it to whoever is vulnerable to it internally: not physically. That is why two people in apparently perfect health can be exposed to the same substance, yet only one contracts the illness: their vulnerability is internal, not physical. Their vulnerability is in Yesod, Hod, or Netzach, thus that is where the cancer begins, and it spreads downwards into the physical body (Malkuth). 

The doctors do not know about these internal bodies; they cannot treat them. They think what we are explaining to you here is rubbish.  

Furthermore, we can observe any group of patients that all have cancer, maybe all at the same sort of degree of seriousness, and taking the same treatment. Some die very fast. Some hold on longer. Some recover. Those people who had the will to conquer it – the will to live – the courage to do whatever they could to fight, they have a far better chance of recovering. People overcome the odds, because they were able to harness levels of power that are far beyond the physical. Willpower is more powerful than physical power.

Do you see what I am pointing at? Health flows from the top down. True health does not flow from the bottom up. 

There are many people in the world who, physically speaking, eat the best food available on the planet. They only eat organic. They do not eat any meat. They buy all of the best foods that they can get. They only wear organic cotton clothes and they are, really, physically doing everything that you can possibly imagine to take care of themselves. But they are very sick, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally. Why is that? Because, health does not flow from the bottom up. Health is not primarily determined by our physical state. Our health is determined by our internal state. 

This is the exact opposite of what modern science is saying. Modern science says, “Take this pill and you will be healthy.” “Take these vitamins and you will be healthy.” “Buy these products and you will be healthy.” “Do this diet, live in this way, and do this exercise routine, and you will be healthy.” There is no doubt that we need to eat well, exercise, and take care of the body. But that is not the primary source of health.

Genuine health comes from within. It comes from superior levels, far beyond this physical body. In order for us to understand that, we need to go deeper. We need to understand that these other levels that we have in ourselves, beyond the physical level, are also levels of matter, energy, and consciousness.

When we talk about our physicality and our vitality, these are different dimensions in us. Our physical body is in the third dimension. Our vitality is fourth dimensional. It is not entirely physical; it is more subtle. The way that the energy moves between the two is very specific. Likewise, between emotion and physicality. For us to feel emotions here, physically, that energy comes from somewhere else. Emotion is not created in the body. Thought is not created in the body, in the brain. It comes from elsewhere, and is simply reflected into the brain. Thought comes from a more subtle level. The physical body is the outer layer. It is the densest layer. But really, we are multidimensional. Energy can move between these levels of ourselves because of what are called “chakras.” 

Transformers of Energy

Our physical body is alive because of the energy that sustains it, and that energy enters the body through subtle transformers that in Sanskrit are called “chakras,” which means “wheels.” Chakras are simply transformers of energy. They simply move energy from one level to another. That is all. Everybody nowadays thinks that chakras are a big deal. Everybody wants to “awaken their chakras.” But they have been very poorly taught about the chakras, unfortunately. You see, in all of us, energy is moving between these dimensions. The problem is that it is moving badly. The problem is that these chakras only move the energy that they are given. The energy we move through ourselves, psychologically and physically, is generally poorly transformed, because it is charged with anger, pride, lust and fear, envy and jealousy, all of which are negative, and all of which result in illness. When we move clean energy through these chakras, healthy energy – light — they also become more effective. As they become more effective, they will awaken, and they have benefits that they provide to us. 

To achieve that, we have to first work here and now, studying ourselves, understanding how we move energy. 

Here, in our physical bodies, we can sense and experience a thought. This is nothing unusual. We relate thought with what we call the intellect or the intellectual brain. That is centered, of course, in the physical brain. But a thought is not the brain. Thought is the energy that moves through the brain. The brain is simply a transmitter. The brain is simply a machine that processes energy. It does not create the energy. It does not originate the energy. It simply processes it. So, our experience of that relates to our health, what we all call “mental health”. In recent centuries, there has been a greater interest in mental health. But, unfortunately, the common approach has not grasped the full picture of what the mind is, what the intellect is, and how energy moves within us in the form of thought. 

This brain centered in our head as a transformer of energy simply receives the energy it is given and processes that energy. We experience this as thinking. Just like the chakras, all it can do is transform the energy it is given. If it is continually being given poor quality energy, all it can give us is poor results. Like any machine. If you take your car, and you put the cheapest parts and cheapest fuel in it, you will get the worst results. In the moments you really need it to perform it will fail. The same is true of our intellect. If what we put in that intellect is of poor quality, the result will be poor. 

The same principle applies to the next aspect of the psyche called emotion. We have an emotional brain, which is in our heart. Here, in our heart, is where we handle our emotions. This is where we experience like and dislike, anger and love, indifference and partiality. 

If we always put poor quality emotions in our heart, the results will be poor, our life will be poor quality. It is very obvious, is it not? But how many of us have contemplated that? 

If you study our society, you will see immediately that this is a cause of many of our problems. We might want the best quality food, but we do not exercise that critical judgment over our thoughts and emotions. We also do not have such critical judgment in other areas of our lives.

Humanity is devoted to many ridiculous pursuits that only generate enormous suffering. So much of what our society values as “important” is actually just garbage. Most of our pursuits, theories, concepts, and beliefs and ideas have no bearing at all on anything of importance. Yet people dedicate their lives to pursuing stupid things in complete, willful ignorance of the actual state of the world. 

Let us give some simple examples. There are people, who with their intellects, are seeking to craft the most cunning, devious ways to get your money; to get your vote; to get your signature, by any means necessary. By tricking, by lying, by fooling. By making you think you are getting something for nothing. The world is filled with that mentality. People selling products, creating concepts, ideas and theories that they want you to accept. Meanwhile, all around them, the world is falling apart; people dying, people suffering. Is it not astonishing, to anyone, that so many people are studying the details of the lives of celebrities, knowing everything that is going on with celebrities and feeling this emotional connection with people they do not even know, and will never know, reading all the magazines and watching all the shows… And what about becoming addicted to dramas, video games, gambling, politics, sports... For what? Such addicts are hooked on emotional sensations, and willfully ignore the suffering in their own families, the sufferings of their colleagues and communities. Why? How can that be? That is not a state of health; that is an emotional illness. Observe our world: there are millions of examples like this. People are fighting each other, even violently, about things that only exist in their minds.

Health is not just physical. Emotional and mental health are not only concerned with schizophrenia and depression. These are strong illnesses in the psyche, but all of humanity is sick. Look at the world we have made, that is the evidence. This is not a healthy, happy world, because the individuals within it are not healthy and happy. 

We are sick intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Our illnesses, truly, are profound. 

We have a third brain, which is in the body. You can call it the motor-instinctual-sexual brain. The motor aspect is related to movements that we learn. The instinctual aspect is related to survival mechanisms. The sexual aspect is related to reproduction. Unfortunately, none of these operate properly in us, so we are sick in this part of our life, too. 

We have habits that are fundamentally flawed, and cause suffering. Our motor center has been trained — usually by imitating others — to repeat behaviors that cause pain. What habits do you have? Are you sure they are harmless?

Many of us have instinctual illnesses; behaviors on an instinctive level that hurt others and hurt ourselves. 

And naturally, this whole planet is very sick sexually. This is actually the cause of what is wrong with this planet – sexual illness. It is the cause of why things have gotten so bad, here and now. It is why humanity left Eden in the first place. 

The most powerful force that we have access to is our sexual energy. It is far more powerful than the intellect, emotions, any motor or instinctual habit. That is why when our sexual power is manipulated by bad habits, harmful thoughts and emotions, we end up suffering so much. Nothing else can ruin our lives faster than sexual energy. On the other hand, that power can be harnessed by our willpower to totally transform our lives for the better. It is the power to conquer suffering. But for it to work, we have to elevate it on the Tree of Life. Our sexual power is the key to the most powerful medicine that we can ever find. 

To understand all of this better, we are going to study a little passage from a very important scripture from Buddhism. It is perhaps, world-wide, the most common, most important scripture that Buddhists study. In the Pali language it is called Dhammapada. This scripture has been widely translated. It is widely available. It is very beautiful, but like all scriptures, people study it literally. They do not study esoterically. They do not, really, look at the deeper meaning, because they are not trained to do so. Today, I want to give you a few indicators so that you can start to look at this scripture, and others like it, in a deeper way. 

This image represents the Buddha Shakyamuni, who is credited with bringing Buddhism to the world. 

Firstly, it should be noted that he did not come in order to establish a religion; that was not his intention. His intention, as he stated very clearly, was to uncover the causes of suffering and to give people a way to change it. 

Secondly, he stated clearly that he did not invent anything. He stated that what he taught was the ancient path that was walked by other masters before him. It is the same thing that we say here: we are not inventing anything. None of this is my opinion, or the opinion of any instructor here. We are teaching what was always taught and what will always be taught. 

Even though we say this image represents a man from many thousands of years ago, really it represents part of ourselves. The word buddha is not a personal name, it means “awakened.” That is our goal in spirituality, to become awakened, to become like the Buddha Shakyamuni. To follow his footsteps. To identify the causes of suffering and to change that. To not suffer anymore. What does that mean? It means to achieve a state of perfect health. 

This passage is the first sentence in his most famous teaching, the Dhammapada. In Pali language it is short, only twenty words, but those words do not exist in English, so to really explain the meaning of it makes it quite long in English. 

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart [mano], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.” –BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, DHAMMAPADA 1

“Mind-heart” is translated from the Pali word mano, which relates to Sanskrit “man” or “manas.” Manas can mean:

"imagination, intellect, inclination, will, excogitation, temper, understanding, intention, mind, spirit or spiritual principle, mood, perception, opinion, intelligence, breath or living soul which escapes from the body at death, desire, sense, reflection, thought, affection, conscience, invention, spirit."

So it is not simple. 

“Manas (mind) is said to be of two kinds, the pure and the impure. That which is associated with the thought of desire is the impure, while that which is without desire is the pure. To men, their mind alone is the cause of bondage or emancipation. That mind which is attracted by objects of sense tends to bondage, while that which is not so attracted tends to emancipation.” —Amritabindu Upanishad

Manas is derived from the root मन् man, "to think." So, Westerners “think” this means intellectual thought, but that is not accurate. Similarly, Westerners think “man” means “masculine,” but that is also inaccurate. Mankind is not male. The word man does not convey gender, it only conveys “to think.”

So mano in the scripture is often interpreted as mind, but In Asian culture, mind is not intellect. That is why when you study Buddhist and Hindu scriptures, they do not differentiate between the intellect and emotion. You do not find passages where they specify that emotion and intellect are different. They are considered to be at the same level. If you look at the Tree of Life, they are: Hod and Netzach are side by side. 

More specifically, because we have not created the soul yet, we have not elaborated that level of being: the solar astral and mental bodies. We only have mind-heart , the lunar, protoplasmatic “mind.” The word “mano” here is very significant in that way.  

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart [mano / manas], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.”

Simply put, this passage is saying manas comes first. Before anything happens or exists, manas is there first. 

Now, if you really meditate and contemplate on that phrase, it will turn you upside-down. 

It is saying that existence is the opposite of the way we believe things are. 

We think that everything exists just the way we think it is. We believe that everything outside of us is just that: separate from us. So, the universe around us exists first, and then we see it. This scripture is saying the opposite. 

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart [mano / manas], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.”

We also think that things are always just happening, separate from us, outside of us, and then we experience or see them. That is, we think everything is already happening, and we see it after it is happening. But that is not what the scripture says: it says whatever happens did so because of manas. 

This is saying, first, we are there, and then everything else. Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, which means that the mind-heart is there before the phenomena is there. That means, you are there before anything else is there. This is a profound implication. It goes further to explain: 

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.”

This is simple cause and effect, and an extension of the first sentence. It is stating simply: what you experience is the result of the state of your psyche, how you perceive, how you behave, how you act. Further, it says:

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.”

The proof of this is in your life. 

Who among us is being pursued by suffering, continuously? No matter what we do, we are continually having problems. Is there anyone here, like that, who are just continuing to have problems, no matter what we do?  We find spiritual teachings, and think, “Now I am on my way! Everything is going to be better, but things just seem to get worse”. “Now, I got this great job, or I graduated from school, and now things are going to be better”. Or, “Now, I am married, I got a spouse and things are going to be better”.  Anybody find that they just keep getting more tense, the suffering is still there? It is true for everyone, is it not? There are two things to point out here. Firstly, who is it that thinks that we are going to get to someplace where there is no suffering? Who is it in us that thinks that way? If you really reflect on that, you realize that you always thought that way and it has never happened, but you continue to think that way.  “Well now I found these lectures or these classes, now everything is going to get better”. No, it does not happen! Or, you move to a new city, or you make new friends or whatever the status of your physical circumstances; the sufferings continue to follow you. Why? It is right here: “If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you”. 

This word “suffering” is significant too, in Pali it is dukkha.  That suffering is not simply physical illness. It is any imbalance in our health from top to bottom. We have a lot of imbalance. We have physical suffering, of course, especially as we get older, especially if we get sick. Both of these are inevitable for everyone. All of us are going to get older, and all of us are going to get sick. 

As grave as physical suffering can be, the more profound suffering is in the mind-heart. Remember, those levels of experience in dimensionality; the higher up you go the more powerful it is. Physical suffering can be intense, but emotional suffering is worse. Maybe you have not experienced that, but it is true. Physical suffering has a beginning, a middle and an end. It always ends. It may last some specified period of time. It might be intense, but it always ends, even if it ends with your physical death. Emotional suffering does not die. When the physical body dies, the emotional suffering does not die. When the physical body dies, the mental suffering does not die. They are not physical. They are more profound. They are more lasting. They are more afflictive. Thus, they are more important. Those are the types of suffering we really need to address. Those are the type of suffering produced in this way – with our will. 

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.”

You see, if you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, why do you do it? Because you want to. Because you will it. When you are angry, that anger controls your willpower. Is it not true? When you become really angry with somebody you want them to suffer. What you say and what you do is an expression of that anger. The will of that anger. Your willpower is trapped in that anger and the result of that is suffering, for the other person and for yourself. Anger can never create peace, neither can lust or pride or envy or jealousy. They can only create suffering, they are afflictions. They are illnesses, diseases, psychologically speaking.

If you speak or act with a mind-heart filled with pride or anger or envy or lust or greed or gluttony or laziness, any of these discursive afflictive qualities, suffering will follow you. This is the first most basic statement of Buddhism, but who gets it? Who understands it? Who lives it? Who among us that loves Buddhism or studies Buddhism lives that in our experience from moment to moment? We do not, because the diseases we have, the afflictions we have are too strong. 

The antidote, the medicine, is here: 

“If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you”. 

That happiness is a type of contentment that is the natural state of the consciousness. It is that image of Arcadia, Eden, a primordial untouched, unblemished, perfect joy, which is our natural state, and can be accessed by anyone.

Here the antidote is quite simple, “speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart”. Bright, is the key word, a beautiful word related with light. Let us see what that means. Firstly, how do we use our mind-heart? How do we experience being, existing, living? Through perception. We know we are here now; we know we are alive. We know there is existence because we perceive it. No one can deny that. Our experience is the interaction between the internal and the external. That is true also, right? So, what causes that? What creates that? What allows that? It is perception. It is the way the energy moves from inside to outside. From the soul to the world and from the world to the soul. From outside manifested phenomena to the internal. It is the senses that provide that. Now, physically, we all have learned as children about the five senses. We know they are, taste and touch and smell, hearing and sight. We do not think about that anymore, we just say, “Oh yeah, there are five senses, okay”. In reality we need to learn a little bit more than that, because that is not the full picture.

In Buddhism, it is explained that we have six senses. Most people think, “Oh the sixth sense, I want that. That must be some spiritual power.” That is not what we are talking about. The sixth sense in Buddhism is the way we perceive in our heads. They call it “mind,” and we always think it is intellect, but it is not. It is perception of thought and feeling.  What we experience inside is another form of perception. The proof is very easy to see. All of us, right now, can experience those five senses externally and we can recognize them very easily. You can also recognize internal perception. Do you have a thought? Are you thinking? That is an internal perception, related with imagination by the power of perception, insight. If I suggest to you that you imagine a big beautiful cake, you can easily imagine that cake. That is that sixth level of perception. The sixth aspect, which is related with the psyche, with the mind-heart. 

Now, how does that happen? Because energy is moving, from outside to inside and inside to outside. Constant fluctuation of energy that is moving in us. The bulk of it, is happening through our head, which is why we use this image. On this image we see the Hebrew letter “Resh (ר)”, which is related with our head (There are lectures about this so you can study this). If you look and really feel and become aware of yourself here and now, you realize that your center of perception is really up here. When we feel ourselves, and become aware of ourselves, it is really all rooted here in the brain. This is why we all think that our self, our identity, is here in the brain. This is wrong, of course, because we are not centered in the brain. It is just that our perception is rooted in our nervous systems, so we have that impression that we are the brain. 

This is all related to how energy moves through us. The way we perceive, the way we see inside and outside, is like how we see anything. We see with energy that is moving. So, those of you who are in front of me as I talk, can see me. That means that you are receiving a vibration of energy through your eyes. Those who can hear me, are hearing the sound of my voice, through a vibration that moves into the ears. This is very obvious. Very simple; but none of us are really cognizant of that. Now, that vibration is simply a modification of energies that are in nature; in manifestation already. There are a lot of deep studies on how those energies are transformed and moved. What we need to study is how we are transforming that energy from moment to moment. The first step of that is to observe it and become aware of it. We call this, Self-Observation. Once you become aware of it, you then need the ability to transform it  consciously. This is a very difficult art to perfect, but it is the art of awakening. It is to know how to receive impressions and to know how to transform them, so that you are not consuming garbage. Instead, you are taking the wisdom, the knowledge, the insight out of every perception. 

Many people mistakenly think that the only way that they can acquire spiritual teaching is to go off to India or Mexico or the Nordic lands, or some other place, in order to get that knowledge. The fact is that reality, truth, is in each moment, right here, right now, if you are simply willing and able to acquire it. Every perception you have contains knowledge, if you can access it, if you can transform it and get it. The one who is really transforming impressions, is never bored. Is never seeking some distraction to entertain them, intellectually, emotionally or physically; because in every perception they are acquiring knowledge of how things function in their own being in relation with nature. 

Phos: The Light That Gives Perfect Health

This image, here, represents for us how we are transforming energy from moment to moment. What is energy? Spiritually speaking, we only use one word for energy – Light. Not physical light, but the Light that radiates from the Absolute. That light that is in every atom. That light that gives rise to everything that exists. Jesus gave a very beautiful teaching about that light. He said, 

“The candle of σῶμα [soma, body] is perception: therefore when thine perception is of a good nature, thy whole σῶμα also is φωτεινός [phōteinas, full of light]; but when thine perception is of a bad nature, thy body also is full of σκότος [skotos, darkness].” – JESUS, LUKE 11

He is saying exactly what the Buddha Shakyamuni said in the Dhammapada. 

That light is that energy of the absolute. That light is what provides health. It is that highest energy on the Tree of Life that is flowing down to give rise to all things. Thus, it is the source of pure and perfect health. That is the light that fills all things. That is the light that created Arcadia and that perfect state. That light is flowing into us, in all things in all moments, into our nervous systems, and we are transforming that light according to our current condition. 

That transformation is resulting in our current experience. If our experience is suffering, it is because we are transforming the light in the wrong way. 

This Greek word soma means “body”. Do not read that literally, like this is kindergarten. This is a teaching from Jesus, Yeshua, a great master. What he is teaching here is extremely profound, not simple. So, do not think you can read this in the same way you read a magazine. This meaning is extremely deep. That word soma applies to the many levels of our being. Soma means body, but has many levels of use. 

"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

“There are also celestial σῶμα (soma, bodies), and σῶμα (soma, bodies) terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory...

“It is sown a ψυχικός σῶμα (psychikos soma; soul body); it is raised a πνευματικός σῶμα (pneumatikos soma; spiritual body). There is a soul body, and there is a spiritual body." - St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 15

All of us, in our current state, have soma, but it is animal. We are not really human beings. We are living at a very animalistic level, so our soma is animalistic. In Judaism and the Kabbalah, this is called nephesh, “animal soul.” 

We need to develop and raise our level of being, we need to create new bodies, new levels of soma, until we create what we call celestial or heavenly bodies. This is what St. Paul talks about when he explains that there are many levels to these types of bodies. The body of an angel is also called soma. However, their bodies are nothing like ours, because they are clean. They are not filled with impurities, like we are. 

So, when Jesus stated: “When thine perception is of a good nature, thy whole soma is also full of light”, and we compare this to the teachings of the Buddha, we see that, really, they are saying the same thing. Our perception and our transformation through our mind-heart is what is creating our experience. 

Look at this, in the context of Jesus. If we look inside of our soma (physical body, vital body, emotional body, mental and causal body), what do we see? If we all close our eyes and really try to look into ourselves, what do we see? Darkness. When you close your eyes and look inside, can you see light? Can you see as well, or better than you see with your physical eyes? Did you know that it is possible to see with your physical eyes closed? That is what is called “clairvoyance”. It is to be able to see non-physical phenomena. This is what the chakras provide, when they are filled with light. You need light to see! The chakras are the points of connection between the different parts of soma. When they are active, even in a negative way, they provide vision internally. 

Clairvoyance, internal vision, can be positive or negative. A sorcerer, a witch, can see internally. That person can close the physical eyes and see clairvoyantly. Just the same as seeing physically, but with the physical eyes closed. That is called clairvoyance. That is that type of perception, which can be negative or positive. Prophets also see that way. That type of vision, when it is properly developed, is clearer, more real than what you see with your physical eyes, as there is more light. Again, if you remember the dimensions, the higher you go, the more powerful, the more light there is. Yet, there are different qualities of light, and different qualities of sight. 

“The candle of σῶμα [soma, body] is perception: therefore when thine perception is of a good nature [pure], thy whole σῶμα also is φωτεινός [phōteinas, full of light]; but when thine perception is of a bad nature [impure], thy body also is full of σκότος [skotos, darkness].” – JESUS, LUKE 11

 If you look inside of our bodies, our soma, which again is physical, emotional, mental, and we sense and feel darkness – it is because our perception is of a “bad nature.”  There is no one to blame for our suffering, except ourselves. Jesus is stating this with perfect clarity. We cannot blame the government or the church or the mayor or the president or the military or the corporations or our parents or our spouse or anyone. Our experience, our perception, is our own; self-generated. So, our health is also self-generated. If we want to transform our overall health, let us transform our perception, and learn to see properly. 

“Take heed therefore that the light [φῶς] which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth enlighten thee.” – JESUS, LUKE 11

This word light in Greek is φῶς phos. We have given some lectures about that word already. Phos is a very profound word. 

Phos is the light that is in us, the light that gives us life. All of us have phos. It is the very energy of living, being alive. That light is modified, however, according to our state of being, and according to how we transform impressions. It is changed by the state of our psyche.

The state of our psyche determines the state of our physicality. The condition of our mind determines the condition of our life. 

“This boring repetition of dramas, comedies, and tragedies will continue as long as we carry in our interior all the undesirable elements of anger, covetousness, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony, etc.

“What is our moral level? Or better said, what is our Level of Being?

“The repetition of all our miseries, scenes, misfortunes, and mishaps will last as long as the Level of our Being does not radically change.

“All things, all circumstances that occur outside ourselves on the stage of this world, are exclusively the reflection of what we carry within.

“With good reason then, we can solemnly declare that the “exterior is the reflection of the interior.”

When someone changes internally—and if that change is radical—then circumstances, life, and the external also change.” —Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology

In his book Esoteric Medicine and Practical Magic, Samael Aun Weor said:

“Every sickness has its causes within the interior universe of the human being.” 

Someone can eat the best food, drink the best water, and breathe in the best air, but be very sick. That is precisely because of not dealing with the root of illness, which is not physical but internal. The causes of illness are related with the state of the mind, heart, willpower.

To really address the causes of illness, to really achieve health, we have to learn to transform energy. The more subtle the forms of energy we can access, the more profound that transformation will be. Therefore, we need to know about energy and its relationship with consciousness.

Types of Energy

“Within us there are various types of energy which we must understand:

First, mechanical energy;

Second, vital energy;

Third, energy of the psyche; Fourth, mental energy;

Fifth, energy of the will;

Sixth, energy of the consciousness; 

Seventh, energy of the pure Spirit.

No matter how much we might increase our strictly mechanical energy, we will never awaken consciousness.

No matter how much we might increase the vital forces within our own organism, we will never awaken consciousness.

Many psychological processes take place within us without any intervention from the consciousness. However great the disciplines of the mind might be, mental energy can never achieve the awakening of the diverse functions of the consciousness.

Even if our willpower is multiplied infinitely, it can never bring about the awakening of the consciousness.

All these types of energy are graded into different levels and dimensions, which have nothing to do with the consciousness.

Consciousness can only be awakened through conscious work and upright efforts.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Great Rebellion

There are many people who approach spirituality in their physical bodies, and think, if they simply do yoga every day, they will awaken consciousness and raise the Kundalini and become masters. It is sad that they think that way, because it is completely mistaken. Awakening is not produced through physical action. 

You can do a million mantras, and they will have absolutely no impact on you spiritually if your consciousness is not active, and there is no vital energy to harness. If your emotions and your mental state are afflicted with problems, and your willpower and consciousness are distracted, unfocused, those yoga practices will have no effect. If, however, by conscious focus, a still mind, heart, and body, and harnessing the vital energy and directing the sum of all of that combined energy into that mantra, you can then access any level of consciousness that is on the Tree of Life, immediately. The science to do that is meditation. 

Likewise, people think that by harnessing merely the vital energy, that they can awaken consciousness and become masters. They ignore the afflictions of their emotions. They ignore the state of their mentally. They are absolutely mistaken. These types of people study Kundalini yoga, Reiki, and other types of practices where they manipulate energy, but ignore their own psychology. They ignore their consciousness. They are asleep, and dreaming of awakening.

Likewise, there are people who only approach spirituality emotionally; they think by devotion to God, by prayer, through song or dance or art, that they will awaken consciousness and unify with the Absolute, but they are wrong, because likewise, they ignore the condition of their mind: they do not deal with the ego. They ignore how their willpower is trapped in affliction. 

Then there is the mental approach: intellectual people think that by memorizing scripture; memorizing the teaching and being able to debate the teachings and having all that stored in their mind, that they will reach God. They are also mistaken. 

The genuine path unifies all of these: 

• Physical action
• Emotional action
• Intellectual action
• Unified under conscious will

That is why we call this the “Fourth Way”. It does not merely rely on one of these lower aspects. We need to harness all of our abilities if we are to get ourselves out of this mess. 

The true way is as Jesus said, 

“Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee, be not darkness”. 

The path is to transform our darkness into light. How? By studying the darkness that is within us. We study ourselves. This is the first thing. We also need to study the teaching intellectually. We need to have devotion to God and prayer. We need to work with the vital energy. We need to work with the physical body and keep it healthy. None these alone can accomplish the work; we need all of them.  

What accomplishes the work is to transform our darkness into light. And he said how to do that, here; 

“If thine whole body, therefore be full of light…” 

Remember that soma, body, is not just the physical body. It is all these aspects: emotional, mental, vital, physical and will. All of that has to be filled with light. 

“If thine whole body, therefore be full of light having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light”.  

Notice it says, “the whole shall be full of light.”  Interesting, right? What is the whole? It is the whole Tree of Life. The whole of everything. The whole of one’s Being. Not only that, but the whole of the world. What happens when a true master is emerging?  As Jesus stated, they cannot hide their light, they transmit that light to everything. They inspire everyone, simply by their example. Many people want to be a great spiritual teacher and a master, etc., without working on themselves first. They have really got it backwards. 

When we really develop light, it shines. Just as he said, when the bright shining light of a candle enlightens us. 

“...wash thine heart from רע [impurity, pollution], that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” - JEREMIAH 4:14

This phrase from Jeremiah is in perfect agreement with Buddhism, since it is saying that mind and heart are interdependent. 

This word רע is very important in the Bible, but it is poorly interpreted, since the translators did not know the Kabbalah, the basis of the scriptures. 

“But of the tree of the knowledge of goodness and רע [pollution, impurity], thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” —Genesis 2:17

Humanity left Eden (happiness, health) because of eating of the forbidden fruit; by doing so they became impure, and thus could not remain in Eden. To return to Eden, we must remove the impurity within us. 

“Woe unto you, scribes [intellectuals] and Pharisees [fanatics], hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead bones, and of all uncleanness.” –JESUS

The real work is within us, not in our appearance or visible behaviors. The real work is to uncover our hidden agendas, secret desires, rotting resentments, etc. since all of them are causing suffering, ill health, imbalance. 

Origins of Illness

“All sicknesses have their beginning in some of three substances: Salt, Sulphur, or Mercury; that is to say, they can have their origin in the world of matter [Malkuth / Yesod], the sphere of the soul [Hod, astral], or in the kingdom of the mind [Netzach, mental].” –PARACELSUS

These three elements are central to Alchemy, the science of purifying “lead to make gold,” which is a symbolic way of describing the work to eliminate our psychological defects (“lead”) to reveal the radiant pure gold of human consciousness. 

Let us compare this:

“Phenomena [sufferings] are preceded by the mind-heart [Hod and Netzach], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.” –BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, DHAMMAPADA 1

All illnesses originate in different parts of ourselves. The most powerful ones come from the deeper levels. 

To cure them, we need a medicine that is more powerful than they are. 

The most profound medicine was explained by Paracelsus. This is beyond psychology and physical medicines. 

“The Tincture of the Philosophers is a universal medicine that consumes all diseases, by whatsoever name they are called, just like an invisible fire. The dose is very small, but its affect is very powerful. By means thereof, I have cured the leprosy, venereal disease, dropsy, the falling sickness, colic, scabs and similar afflictions. Also, lupus, cancer, noli-metangere, fistulas, and the whole race of internal diseases, more surely than one could believe”. 

Modern readers may find this seems very proud and boastful. However, the truth is that Paracelsus is a great master. He is saying this as a statement of fact, not of pride. It is a statement of what he was able to do in the time that he was known physically and active visibly. He continues with:

“For when the seed is once made sound, all else is perfected. This, therefore, is the most excellent foundation of a true physician, the regeneration of the nature and the restoration of youth. After this the new essence itself drives out all that is opposed to it. To affect this regeneration, the powers and virtues of the Tincture of the Philosophers were miraculously discovered and up to this time have been used in secret and kept concealed by true Spagyrists.” 

That word, Spagyrist, is a term referring to a specific class of alchemist.

The first sentence of this is very important: 

“For when the seed is once made sound, all else is perfected”. 

That sentence reveals the whole science of Gnosis, all the mysteries of the Jewish tradition; what is called, Daath.  In Asian traditions, it is called Tantra. To know what that means, one has to be educated. You cannot guess, you cannot assume, you cannot find it on your own. You have to be given that knowledge. Traditionally, as he states, it has been kept secret, kept concealed by the true practitioners of that knowledge, which by his tradition, is called Alchemy. That knowledge explains how to take a seed, which is the beginning of a being, and make it perfect, so that the outcome of that seed is perfection. Perfect health. Simple in concept, but difficult in practical work.  We have given courses about that and there are many books that you can read to study alchemy. 

There is no medicine more powerful, in terms of something you can access with your physical body and apply to yourself and have it affect your whole psyche, your whole being. 

“If thine whole body, therefore be full of light having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light”.  

That medicine is hidden inside each of us. It is latent, it is lying in wait, ready for its development – waiting for us to access it, cultivate and perfect it. For centuries it was hidden behind myths, allegories, cryptic images. Now, it is revealed openly: of course, it is related to sexuality.  It is the most profound energy we have access to physically, much more powerful than atomic energy. 

Sexual energy creates life. No scientist has done that in a laboratory. They have modified and copied life, but they have never created it. The only way they have done that is to go home to their husband or wife and make babies. 

Sexual energy is what provides the seed, the root element, that when perfected, becomes the tincture of the philosophers, the universal medicine. That medicine applies not only to our physical health, but also to all the levels of our being. It is hidden there. Everything that we explained in the rest of this talk about healing, about health, depends on that. 

When discuss sexual energy, remember what we explained about the many levels of energy:

• First, mechanical energy;
• Second, vital energy;
• Third, energy of the psyche; 
• Fourth, mental energy;
• Fifth, energy of the will;
• Sixth, energy of the consciousness; 
• Seventh, energy of the pure Spirit.

Sexual energy has all seven levels. It is not just physical. Sexual energy is the creative power of divinity: your sexual force has a physicality, vitality, emotion, mind, will, consciousness, and spirit. That is how and why it can create human beings, and it can create angels or demons.  That energy is multi-dimensional, not merely physical. 

How to Begin Healing

We need to first understand what health is. Health is not what is depicted in magazines and on television. Health is not having perfectly chiseled muscles, perfect hair and looking like someone that everyone envies. That is not health. That is external appearances. Those are illusions. There are people who go and get surgeries to make themselves look healthy. They are just liars. True health is psychological, mental, emotional and physical. When we really want to start understanding health, we have to look at Arcadia and Eden; that primordial state of humanity. What are the defining characteristics of that state of health? Peace, harmony and the experiential knowledge of the Divine. The humanity of Arcadia did not believe in angels or gods. They did not need to believe, because they walked and talked with the gods. They knew the gods directly, personally. They could go up to those gods and interact with them, talk and get teachings from them. We do not have that. That is a very significant sign of our state of health. We often do not even believe that can happen. So, when we analyze our health, we need to start with that point of view. What is my relation with the Arcadian level of being? Do we exist in a state of peace and innocence, able to talk to masters and gods whenever we wish? DO we have control over our inner kingdom, and can come and go from it to travel in the internal worlds whenever we wish? 

Do we know our inner divinity personally, directly, face to face?  Can we receive teaching and guidance from our inner divinity, personally, face to face? From the point of view of divinity, if we do not have those capabilities, then we are not healthy. 

One cannot heal unless one first recognizes the illness and its cause. For this, we need self-observation. This is to impartially observe oneself, like a doctor observing a patient. To understand an illness and its cause, one needs facts, not opinions and guesses.

To observe oneself and gather facts, we need from moment to moment to observe our:

• Mental states
• Emotional states
• Physical states

On the most basic level, if we are already physically weak or sick, we need to deal with that. It is necessary to have good physical health. 

If you have an injury or a sickness, this is an impediment to effective living. It can interfere with everything in life. You can apply whatever medicines you have access to. On that note, let me state that in this tradition, we view all things in order to take what is useful from them and reject what is not useful. If you become sick physically and need medicine, take your medicine. We do not accept or reject any tradition in particular. We have medicines in our tradition, but we also rely on the medicines of other traditions. We know that Gnosis is in all traditions, in all places. Some of us go to Eastern doctors and some to Western doctors. That is up to you. The main thing is to preserve and continue your physical health as best you can.

As debilitating as physical illnesses can be, they are less powerful than illnesses that are emerging on the internal levels. Also, often less noticeable. 

Any of us, if we were asked; “Do you know if you have cancer”? Or, “Do you have, this or that illness?” We would say, “I really do not have any idea”, and we would have to go to some specialist to get a machine or test to look into our body to tell us. Right? We have no way of assessing that. If we cannot even look inside of the physical body to see what is wrong with it, how are we going to look into the more subtle levels of ourselves in order to diagnose our illness? If we cannot see into the most dense, most superficial level, which is the physical level, how are we going to diagnose the other ones? Do you see the difficulty? 

It is especially difficult to recognize an illness when you have had it for a long time. It is hard to recognize that what you believe to be your normal state is actually a sickness. You have nothing to compare it with; no experience that you remember, that tells you, “Wait a minute, what I am feeling now is actually wrong. This is actually an illness; it is not normal.” We become so accustomed to our illness that we do not even recognize it as illness.

To learn is how to diagnose our illnesses, we need to study the teachings and study ourselves. When we study the teachings, we learn about our true nature. When we study ourselves, we learn to recognize what is true and what is false within us. 

To really know how to study ourselves begins with our three brains: intellect, emotion, body. It is necessary to look at and understand what is happening to us, continually. 

How we are transforming our impressions through our intellect and through our thoughts? Are our thoughts characterized by certain trends? Do we find that there are certain patterns within us psychologically? We should be finding that, because we all have repetitive patterns. Everyone of us. In fact, it is stated in this tradition that at our level 96% of thoughts are harmful. They are negative. These are the same thoughts we had yesterday, and the day before that. They repeat every day. In that way, we should be able to find those patterns easily, if we really observe ourselves. 

Secondly, we need to do that with our emotions. To really be able to observe the patterns that we have emotionally, the states that we experience emotionally, the qualities that we experience emotionally, we have to recognize them and look at them as if we are a doctor observing a patient. We need to be studying our emotional illnesses.

Of course, physically, we have to observe that as well, along with our habits and our tendencies.

Dangerous Infections

All of us know when flu season comes around, or there is some kind of infectious organism moving in our community, we have to take precautions. We have to wash our hands. We should not eat or drink after someone who is sick, because we could contract that virus, bacteria or whatever is causing that illness. We all know that, even if we do not do it. We really do not maintain cleanliness to the level we should. We do not realize, however, that there are emotional and mental infections that are millions of times more dangerous than any physical infections. Millions of times more dangerous! The flu is unpleasant; any sickness is unpleasant. But, as I stated earlier, they come and they go. Sometimes they kill a person. With the death of the physical body, the illness dies as well, and that person goes on is usually born into a new body. Right? So, they start over without that illness.  However, they carry with them the mental and emotional ones. Those do not go away with physical death.

Part of the observation of ourselves has to be, not merely what we are experiencing physically, although that is important; but how we are being influenced and affected by our environment, by our colleagues, our families and people we interact with emotionally and mentally. We will quickly discover that many of the things that we think and feel, we really do not want to, think and feel and are quite negative and harmful. That is because, we are taking in impressions without transforming, without selecting what we take in. All you have to do is put the radio on certain stations or the TV on certain stations, or read certain websites to be infected by hate, by fear, by greed, envy, by lust. If you observe yourself, you will note that you have a certain state, physically, mentally and emotionally. Then you go and turn on that channel, you start hearing the words and start to get angry. Or, you start to get afraid; or start to feel envy, “I want that, why don’t I have that”. All these new feelings and states come into you, and you are infected and do not even realize it. We make life changing decisions from those infections. 

One angry person can infect the entire world with his words. Watch the news, hear the words of the politicians, the words of those who are cultivating and spreading fear, anger, blame and you will be infected by that. You will say, “Yeah, he is right, we need to overthrow the government”. Or, “Yeah, he is right, we need to ban that corporation”. Or, “We need to change the political system”, or this and that; all said with anger or with fear. We did not feel that before. You have lived twenty, forty years without feeling that way, and all of the sudden, somebody said a few words in your ear and you become a radical. We all do this, and it also happens with spiritual influences. It happens with TV shows, books, with any type of materials that we can ingest through the senses.

That is what is happening all over the world. It is what the cunning people take advantage of; the weakness that humanity has. The cunning ones make use of this weakness to continue with their power and control. It is a very simple thing for them to do.  All that is needed is for them to give us a few toys, some alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and we will not complain. We will just give them all our money and all the power, then they continue to do what they want to do.  Then we die. That is not the way. We need to learn that our basic health is determined by how we ingest, not just physical substances, but emotional and mental ones. We need to choose good impressions to ingest. 

If you want mental and emotional health, take in good substances not just with your body, but also with your mind and heart. Substances that vibrate in harmony with your goal. If your goal is spiritual development, self-realization and the full expression of the being in yourself, to restore that Arcadian level of life in which you have harmony with the Divine and with everything; then take in substances that correspond with that vibration.  That means that you should not read gossip. You should not watch garbage. You should not ingest poison through your senses, mind, heart and your body. 

It is obvious, if an athlete wants to compete at the highest level, to go to the Olympics, or what competition is the highest level for them, they cannot eat junk food. It will reduce their performance. It is so obvious, but it is equally obvious for the spiritual aspirant. The one who wants to achieve the highest levels of spirituality, should not eat garbage with their mind and heart and the body. Yet, everyone does. All of the so-called spiritual seekers continue with the bad habits they always had: watching their favorite shows, playing their favorite games, pursuing their old pursuits. Thinking that somehow magically the Being will take them to the heights of development. That is a lie that we tell ourselves. 

This path is radical, it is revolutionary and that revolution is inside, psychologically. Everything about us has to change – if we want change. If you do not want change, do not change, and nothing will change for the better. It will just get worse. 

Healing Methods

• Transmutation of sexual energy (alchemy)
• Meditation 
• Eucharist 
• Prayer 
• Incense
• Mantras, Rites, Runes 
• Plants, teas, diet, etc

We have many methods that we use to help with our healing. The most important is alchemy. For that we have many books and courses you can study. 

To supplement that transformation of energy, we have many other techniques. The most important one is meditation. There is no comparison with its importance. 

As we explained in the course on alchemy, alchemy is about transmutation. That word “transmutation” means to change thoroughly and that is on all levels, not just physically or sexually; but emotionally, mentally and spiritually, as well as our willpower. Meditation is the way we do it. The transformation of sexual energy provides the energy, but meditation is how we use that energy. You can transmute every day for forty years and you will not achieve self-realization if you do not meditate. If you do not become a master of meditation, you will not advance. That is why our teacher, Samael Aun Weor, stated in his book, The Spiritual Power of Sound:

“It is completely impossible to experience the Being—the Innermost, the Reality—without becoming true technical and scientific masters of that mysterious science called meditation. It is completely impossible to experience the Being—the Innermost, the Reality—without having reached a true mastery of the quietude and silence of the mind.”

If you want spiritual development, then master meditation. There is no avoiding meditation. We need mastery over ourselves. We acquire it through meditation. 

We also need to learn prayer; we learn mantras and rites and runes. 

Specific to every tradition is a type of eucharist, a type of transformation of substances, that are also necessary in order to nourish the soul, the consciousness. That is where you learn how to ingest a little bit of grain and a little bit of juice and accompany it with prayer. Your prayer charges those elements and connects you to Divinity. It provides you a type of fuel for the soul. This is, really, essential. 

Finally, we have other healing techniques with plants and teas and changing our diet. 

The main thing is to learn about the Arcadian state and understand that this is really what health is. That state is recoverable, but everything in us that is impure has to die. This is a radical transformation. It is a transmutation, a complete and thorough change.

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart [mano], ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart.

“If you speak or act with a corrupted mind-heart, then suffering follows you— as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

“Phenomena are preceded by the mind-heart, ruled by the mind-heart, made of the mind-heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright mind-heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.” –BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, DHAMMAPADA 1

Questions and Answers

Audience: Earlier you mentioned that we are not the brain. Samael Aun Weor stated that the Atlanteans became experts in transplanting brains. (unclear)

Instructor: That is right. I said, we are not the brain. Of course, in ancient times, the science was learned how to transplant the brain and other organs into other bodies. Scientists are trying to do that now. You might be surprised as to who is funding all of that. There are people now in the world, who are trying to transfer human consciousness into machines.  This is a thread that has been developing for about a hundred years.  A lot of money is being put into trying transplanting a brain, and not just the brain, but many aspects of the physiology into a new organism.  Scientifically, that is possible to do, but it is an abomination. It is a corruption of nature. That is why that group that learned that back in the Atlantean era was punished quite severely as it was not in harmony with nature. It is possible. However, our psyche is intimately related with our atoms on all levels. Every aspect of a body has that multiple dimensionality. The brain itself, because it is so intimately connected with the Mental Body and how the Soul interacts with that, if you move it to another body, that connection is also moved. You can see that in any kind of transplant. We know stories of people getting heart, limb or organ transplants and their behaviors change. You heard of this? There are celebrities that have gotten, for example, a heart transplant now they have a pig heart instead of a human heart. Their behaviors change. The personality changes, because the atoms of the other being is brought in along with the psyche - the psychology of that other being.  That type of transference is possible, but it is really bad. It mixes things in a really harmful way. 

Audience: (Unclear)

Instructor: Yes, and as you study his books, he explains that illnesses have a psychological component and that is what he is talking about. Many of the illnesses that we experience, not all, but many are rooted in our psychology. Some of those are related to the Causal “I’s”, which are deep tendencies within our psyche. Patterns of occurrences that happen, where you get certain illnesses over and over. It is because of those illnesses that are in the body. When you think about it, it makes sense. If you have a certain type of mold in your house and you clean it up everywhere, but the mold is originating under the floor, it will keep coming back. You will never get rid of it. It is the same thing with the psyche. If you do not address the source of it, it will keep coming back. So, in that sense it is a Causal “I.”  It is something that is producing that illness again and again, because the root has not been cleaned. 

Audience: You said about suffering, that you want to do away with suffering. Is there more than one type of suffering? (Inaudible) … can suffering also be a sign of health?

Instructor: There are many types of suffering, but one of the main causes of suffering is simply cause and effect. We performed harmful actions in the past, and those catch up with us and we need to pay those debts. Moreover, to pay those debts often we have to suffer through certain experiences, in order to become cognizant of why we should not do that particular thing. There are many aspects of that concept and it is quite a delicate subject. We do not have time today to explore that in detail. 

Do not have the misperception that as soon as you enter into the teachings that you will become perfectly healthy and you will be like that from now on. It is not like that. We have karma, we have to pay our karma, and certain karmas are paid through illness. Simple as that; the body will die.  Generally speaking, on this type of path, you can call yourself whatever you want, but if you are really walking the spiritual path, the death of the body is usually produced by some type of difficult illness. Or, a form of suffering that helps you purge and pay the karma. This is necessary, and the one who is walking the path, does not seek to avoid that. All of us are terrified. Right?  We do not want that. We do not want to go through that experience of getting a cancer or some really awful illness. Or, like Joan of Arc, be burned alive. However, that is what was necessary for that initiate in order to pay the debts that they had. It will be different for everyone. It is not the same for every initiate. Everyone will pay according to their own particular debts. 

On that note, let me explain, as well, when we are working in this type of teaching, our goal is health. What I am trying to express to you is that you will not achieve it until you die and resurrect. On the way, the best you can do is achieve a relative degree of health. Enough health that you can keep working.  You can keep moving. This is what we need. We do not want to become fanatics of exercise or diets.  Or fanatics of doing whatever type of ritual or practices we think gives health – NO. Our focus needs to be on meditation, self-observation and prayer. Putting in motion those three factors: we are dying psychologically, growing spiritually, and serving others, all with our eyes on resurrection. 

It is a long work. Along the way, we will suffer. When we do, whether it is through a physical, emotional or mental difficulty, whatever the experiences that we have, we have to learn to transform that suffering. To accept, in the cases where we need to accept it. In the cases where we need to transform it – transform it. This is an artform; not an easy thing to get through. How do we do it? Who is the real physician? Who is the real doctor? It is not us. It is our Being. The divinity that we have within us is the one who heals and guides us. As it says in all of the scriptures; the one who heals us, is our inner divinity. It says here in Exodus:

“And [יהוה] said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of יהוה thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his precepts, I will put none of these sicknesses upon thee, which I have brought upon the “Egyptians”: for I am יהוה that healeth thee.” –EXODUS 15

Sometimes healing is painful. Sometimes, what we need to go through in order to become healed, is painful. For example, physically, for certain things, you have to get a surgery. Sometimes, for example, if someone breaks a bone, it might not have hurt that much, but setting the bone can be excruciatingly difficult. However, it is needed to heal properly. So, the cure was worse than the injury. It is true, that it can happen in this way. Spiritually speaking - psychologically speaking, we need to be aware that to pay our debts, to become healed, can be unpleasant. It is not an easy path, where we are just treading through flowers and the angels and birds are singing to us. It is not like that. It is more like Dante’s Inferno. We have to go into the depths of our own inner hells and really perceive the depths of suffering that are within us and within humanity. That is very difficult and very painful.  To do it consciously; to do it willingly is to transform that into something beneficial.  It is to go into that experience, knowing we are doing that, excepting that and transforming it. This is what is required here. To rely on our innermost to guide us through these experiences. 

I focused today on self-generated sicknesses, which are the vast majority of our experiences. Most of the things that we experience in terms of our sufferings physically, emotionally and mentally will be our own responsibility. That is what both Buddhism and Christianity and all the great traditions emphasize, but there are illnesses, problems and sufferings that others can inflict on us. Firstly, unconsciously. If we have friends who love to go drinking and if we choose to go hang out with them, we will start drinking. Furthermore, we will take that bad impression, that bad influence and we will create problems. That is a choice we made, accepting an influence from something that is harmful. The same with those family members or co-workers who love pornography, or any type of degeneration.  If we take those negative influences into ourselves, they will influence and infect us. More subtle, and potentially more powerful, can be those who may intend us harm and may want to interfere with what we are doing. Someone who may have resentment against us or envy, fear or desire to conquer us. Whatever their motivations maybe, they have evil will. They utilize whatever means they have available in order to impede us. Sometimes they do that unconsciously. They do it through their resentment and anger. Through talking about us to others. Through spreading lies or gossip about us. That can affect everyone, including ourselves, as that can produce resentment. That becomes an obstacle for us. Worst, they can do those things consciously. Even worse than that, they can do that with magic, witchcraft, where they utilize substances, rituals, mantras and different techniques they have available to influence us and affect us on the physical, emotional or the mental level. 

The only way you can accurately diagnose these things, is if you are consistently studying yourself and the teachings and really understand how these things work.  A lot of students study this material and as soon as they start having nightmares or other problems, they immediately assume it is witchcraft and start panicking. They go to the instructor saying, “There is a witch, or there is a sorcerer”, not realizing that in the vast majority of cases, they are generating their own problems. Their own fears, angers and lusts, are afflicting them. In other cases, yes, there are black magicians. There are witches and sorcerers, who do things. 

 No black magician can harm you if you have no vulnerability. Those who are afraid of black magic or witchcraft or these other types of things, do not focus on those people. Ignore them, if they want to do that, leave them alone. Do not go after them. Instead, change what is in you that is vulnerable to what they may attempt against you. You know why they cannot bring down a master or an angel? Because that master or angel has no lust, no pride, has no fear. If you purge yourself of those elements, those black magicians cannot touch you. They cannot do anything to you. Those are the tools they use against you.  They use your “self” against you. This is why we need to analyze ourselves so rigorously. When we start to see that we have doubt, fear or resentment, anger hate or lust; discontentment, we are not happy with something in our lives. Those are precisely the things that others will use against us, to hurt us and try to gain power over us. So, if you change those things, they cannot do anything.  

In context with that, we need help, we need to rely on our Being, our Divine Mother, and we need to use certain practices to defend ourselves. We have given a course about that called Defense for Spiritual Warfare. We have several books relevant to this topic, including, The Divine Science and Esoteric Medicine; there are also other techniques in Igneous Rose. 

Audience: I just want to clarify something that seems like a contradiction. You said that health begins at the top, from the higher levels down. Then you said, when you are looking at the Three Brains, the Intellectual, Emotional and Sexual, that health begins with the Sexual.

Instructor: Yes, where does the sexual energy come from? This is the answer. Who provides that? It is provided by God. The power in the sexual energy is Divine.  It comes from Divinity. Even though we see physical representations of that in the sexual organs and the substances that are sexual in the body, the power that is in it is not physical.  It is more subtle. The energy – that force – the substance is there, multi-dimensional, as well. By appearance there may seem to be a contradiction, but if you really look into it, there is not one. 

Audience: We talked a lot about the causes of sickness, but there are really debilitating illnesses that are preventable just by physical things. Polio, for instance, the doctor comes and gives you a vaccine.  He is not a wizard doing something to your internal body, but he is doing something to your physical body, and now your physical body is not afflicted by that illness. Do you still have the polio even though it does not manifest in the physical body?

Instructor: The medicine is not physical it is just coming through a physical mechanism. For example, your body is the vehicle for subtle forces, in the same way, medicines, physically, are vehicles of subtle forces. When you ingest a plant, you destroy the body of that plant to get subtle forces that are hidden within it.  The same with medicine. You are taking that medicine in order to get subtle forces hidden inside that medicine. The doctors, like the pharmacists and medical practitioners who craft medicines, are manipulating physical substances to get at the subtle forces that are hidden in there. Whether it is vital or astral or mental or causal, however deep the substances will penetrate.  It appears that the doctor gives the medicine to the child and the child becomes healed; but the healing was facilitated internally. We are blind to that. We do not see that the actual healing did not happen physically, it happened because of the subtle, internal substances that are delivered through that mechanism. This happens in the same way with organ transplants. When someone gets an organ transplant, the matter is just the bearer of the subtle forces.  The matter itself is irrelevant; it is just a vehicle – a vessel. What is interesting about that is there are medicines that do not exist physically, but you can take them. That is where the real medicines are, they are internal. We can access those medicines through spiritual practice. For instance, a mantra has no physical component. You can say a mantra with your mouth and make a vibration with your throat, but the efficacy of that medicine is in the internal worlds, in the fifth and sixth dimensions. That is where the real power is. You can get a more powerful effect from the mantra if you say it silently, with perfect concentration in meditation and receive the medicine of that mantra and that will affect you physically. Anyone can prove this for themselves. Find a prayer or mantra that you love. Sit in perfect silence and meditate on that prayer.  You will find that after a certain period of time, everything about you has transformed.  Even your physical presence is different; is that, not right?  You go to your temple or church to pray, when you come out you are different. That is because of the medicines that are transmitted internally. Does that make sense? So, the physical aspect is the least important. Sometimes it is needed to transmit a medicine, but it is not always needed. 

All of this also applies to poisons. We are also infected internally by consuming “harmless substances” in the physical world. For instance, many popular drinks are nothing more than a way for cunning people to infect the drinker with psychological influences. Physically, the drink is just a few chemicals, but internally, it has substances that destroy our spiritual longing, that fortify our lust and materialism, etc. This is easy to observe in those who drink such things constantly; many of them won’t even drink water or other natural fluids. 

Audience: (Unclear)

Instructor: The light never changes. It only becomes modified, so, its appearance is different. However, it is the same light on all levels of existence. It is the same fire, that force and this force we also call, Christ. On whatever level that light is present it simply perceived in a different way. 

Here is an example of that. Right now, we are in a dark room. If you were to immediately go outside, you would not be able to see, as your eyes need to adjust to that light. There is light in both places, but the light is different. It is the same light, but it is a different intensity. Conversely, if we were outside in the bright light and came into a dark room, we would not be able to see even though there is light there. In the same way, in everything, there is light. It is a matter of being able to perceive it. Once perceived, transforming it. However, transformation is the harder part. 

The perception of the light is not that hard. Awakening in order to see light is not difficult. Like awakening clairvoyance. It is not difficult. There are simple methods that you can learn to see clairvoyantly, it is not a big deal. It is actually our natural state. What is difficult is to transform those impressions and to see objectively. 

The only way to see the light as it truly is, is if there are no filters between the perceiver and the perceived. We have a lot of filters. Those filters are what we call pride, anger, greed and gluttony. All of that, which is our sense of self. To see the light objectively, requires that there is no boundary or barrier between the perceiver and the perceived, between the one who is seeing the light and the light itself. That is what this is pointing at in that quote from Jesus. We need to really become that light. 

The path that we study is the path to become nothing. To die in every way, so that we become a transmitter of that light. That is how we know the light, perfectly. If someone is awakening in the negative way, they are seeking to become “something.” That is the difference.  They want to be something. They want to be a master. They want to be respected. They want to be a leader. They want to be feared. They want to be envied or admired. They want to be followed. They want to be “something.” All their perception of the light is filtered by that desire. Consequently, they do not see the light clearly. They see, but not the truth. They see what they want to see. 

Opposed to that are those who really are following in Jesus’ path, which is the path towards resurrection, and in that context, we seek to become the light itself. To not be anything but a vessel for that light to move through. That means the purge of all desires. Even the desire for spirituality, to be an angel or a master. All that has to go away, so that we become perfectly empty of all things. 

Audience: (Unclear) … The Dalai Lama …you do not want to live in a world with suffering.

Instructor: Knowledge is infinite. The consciousness is infinite. Really, we have no concept of the heights that the consciousness can reach.  The levels in which we are, where suffering is so pervasive, is an extremely narrow band in a very dense level of manifestation of nature.  For us, with our perception and our way of seeing things, we cannot imagine that there is anything beyond this, but there is.  We have this sense of self that expects that everything that we perceive is a model for everything that exists. We think that the way we see must be that way everywhere; in every world, in every universe, but it is not. In fact, it is the opposite. The way we perceive and the way we are is completely abnormal. 

Audience: You talked about organ donations or organ transplants. You mentioned that our psyche is embedded in our acts.  If my organs go into someone else, does that mean that my consciousness or my ego goes with that person? 

Instructor: That is a good question. In your atoms, physically speaking, everything about you has your “signature.” Your body was all produced by your past behavior. The relative degree of health that you have and the state of being that you have is produced by everything you ever did throughout time. So, if you took a part of your body and put it into someone other person body, they would be influenced by the idiosyncrasies of that new karmic stream. That will be an influence, in the same way that you can influence someone with your presence, words, thoughts, language or behaviors. You make a friend and you are really into a certain sport and they see that you enjoy that, so they want to try it too, and start doing that same sport; that type of influence.  That influence is transmitted through the emotional, mental and the physical behavior, because he perceived all of that. However, if you were to take part of your body and put it into that friend, he would receive even more of an influence. It is not that he would receive your specific karma. He would receive the influence of the atmosphere that you cultivated up to now. He might start to think differently. Or, feel emotions a little differently. Or, to behave in ways that you behave. This is what we find in transplant cases. Someone that gets a transplant all of the sudden, has different interests. They can even adopt certain characteristics in their speech, language, personality; all these things change. That is because of that astral signature that is present in all the atoms of the transferred material. 

Some people have interpreted this to mean that through transplants, blood transfusions or sexual activity, we absorb the egos and karma of others. So, if someone killed, and we take their organ or blood, then we have the karma of murder.  That is ludicrous, impossible. 

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” - Galatians 6:7

“You cannot receive the consequence without committing its corresponding action.” Tsong Khapa, Lam Rim 

Each of us receives according to our works. If you commit a crime, then you answer for that crime. Another person cannot answer for that crime. You do, that is logical.

Audience: (Inaudible) … in sexual alchemy …

Instructor: This is the most profound transfer of elements, and you see this very easily.  In the sexual connection between any two people, there is a very powerful transfer of behavior, tendencies and ways of thinking. We call it an atomic exchange. It does not mean physical atoms; it is the atoms of all the levels of a person. Anyone can see that. You go out and look at a couple that have been together for fifty years, they look the same. They eat the same. They talk the same. That transference of influence is very strong. It is not an exchange of karma. If the husband does something wrong, he will suffer for that, not the wife. She did not do it. If he commits a crime, the law will come after him, not his wife, because he did it. That is how it works. The blood transfusion, organ transplants and all of those types of transfers of matter, transfers only psychological tendencies.