Why We Repeat Our Sufferings: Return and Recurrence, Hell, and the Pendulum
Inside the interior of the Earth, in its bowels, live the condemned ones... when they have fulfilled their 108 existences, then, they are no longer given a physical body, they enter the submerged devolution of the infernal worlds. There they devolve in time, until they reach the second death...
Consequently, Dante was not crazy. And whoever dares to say that Dante was crazy really is a fool. The world has recognized Dante and will continue to recognize him, the author of "The Divine Comedy", the good disciple of Virgil, the poet of Mantua. Therefore, the Florentine Dante, I repeat, was not mad. He described those infernal worlds in a symbolic manner, he did not speak crudely, he did not say it literally, because at that time he could not speak as we are speaking here now. If he had spoken it crudely, you can be sure he would have been burned alive at the stake of the Inquisition. He had to know how to say things, knowing how to write intelligently for those who understand. We are shown there, in the interior of the Earth, how those condemned ones turned to pieces, they turned to dust, he said that, and it is written and you can read it, there it is.
Religions are not crazy either, ladies and gentlemen. Do you believe, perhaps, that the Christian religion is teaching hell out of pure dogma, or do you believe that the religion of Mohammad or that of the Buddhists, teach hell out of pure nonsense? If all religions speak of a hell, it means that hell exists.
The infernal worlds exist as worlds within the planets, located in the nine dimensions of nature and the cosmos.
If the people believe it, let them believe it, and if they don't believe it, then let them don't believe it. What is, is. One could deny the Sun by saying that it does not exist, and it will continue to exist. One could say that the infernal worlds do not exist, and they continue to exist. One could say that this glass does not exist and will continue to exist. One could say what one wants, but what exists, exists. One can deny it, but what exists still exists...
A verification method: the one who manages to awaken the consciousness can visit the infernal worlds. Now if one learns to leave the physical body at will (as I taught them last night and the night before last), well, one can also afford to visit those worlds to be able to evidence them, to be able to verify them, to be able to touch them and see them...
When the 108 lives have been exhausted, then one enters those regions and goes through a process of "death" until disintegration, that is the "second death" that our Lord Jesus, the Christ, spoke of in the holy gospels, and of which the seer of Patmos also spoke.
After the second death, the free soul, without the ego, without the I, without those I's, is capable of coming to the surface, under the light of the Sun in order to enter the elemental paradises of nature. Then one goes through the extraordinary evolutionary processes again: one ascends from the mineral to the vegetable and from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to the humanoid, and when one reaches the humanoid state one is assigned 108 lives, so that one can self-realize, so that one can be divinized, so that one reaches mastery, so that one reaches the angelic state.
But if one fails again, well, the process repeats itself, and after all, there are 3,000 such cycles or ages. If someone reached the 3,000th spinning of the wheel and never became a master, never became an adept of the fraternity of the inner light, at last his soul, his pure essence, without ego, without any of that, is submerged in the ocean of the great reality. One becomes a "spark" of god who is dedicated to enjoying happiness, one will not be a master but a "spark" of divinity...
So, I want you to know, we can avoid the descent into Mictlán, into hell, and that is possible by destroying right now all these egos that we carry within; there is a need to change radically.
Why We Repeat Our Sufferings: Return and Recurrence
A man is what his life is. If a man does not change his life, if he does not transform it, if he does not work to modify it, he is miserably wasting his time. Death is the return to the beginning, to the original starting point.
When one dies one takes his own life to the other side and when one comes back one brings it back, one projects it again on the rug of existence. So, it is necessary to know that all of us, when we return, indeed, do nothing else, than to repeat the same events of the past.
United, then, to the law of return is the law of recurrence, which is that everything happens again just as it happened. This has an explanation; I'm going to tell you: let's suppose that we had a “fight” in a bar, let's suppose that it's clear that the “I” of that “fight” is alive within us. When the hour of death arrives, what? If, all the egos enter into the fifth dimension, likewise the ego of that fight, the anger... When one returns, when one regresses to this world, that ego of "anger" returns with us too; and when one is born, perhaps that ego, well, enters the body after a certain time, but at the age that the "fight" happened in the past existence, at that age, that ego finds a "fight" why? If the event happened when you were 30 years old, the ego of the "anger", in any case, is alive there and awaits the age at which the event occurred in the past life, that is, it waits to be 30 years old to go out again to form the "fight"; thus, when he turns 30 he goes to look for the bar, and to look for the guy he fought with. Telepathically, he gets in touch with the ego of that guy he fought with in the past existence and meets the guy again in another similar bar and the "fight" is repeated...
Suppose an individual at the age of 30 had an affair with a certain lady. The adventurer ego is alive, at the time of death the adventurer ego enters the invisible world; at the time that he is reborn, the ego of the adventure also returns to existence and waits there, deep down, waits for the age of 30 to come, for his time to come. When his time comes, he telepathically goes looking for the woman of the adventure, and the ego of the woman of the adventure does the same and at last they meet, the process is repeated, that is the mechanics of the law of recurrence: everything happens again just as it happened, plus its good and bad consequences.
The law of recurrence exists, some writers have cited it, but there are really few, or rather, rare is the one who knows how to describe the mechanics of the law of recurrence. That law exists. We live repeating exactly our same mistakes, we make that mistake of repeating our same mistakes. Then we carry within ourselves the same errors of the past.
Life is made of comedies, dramas and tragedies. For each comedy, for each drama, for each tragedy, "actors" are needed: one is the actor of jealousy, another is the actor of greed, another the actor of envy, another the actor of pride, etc., but if the "actors die”, where are the comedies, the dramas and the tragedies? If we manage to disintegrate those "actors" (which are the egos), what are all those comedies, dramas and tragedies? When that happens, repetition becomes impossible. Then we free ourselves from the law of recurrence, we become free and sovereign, we free ourselves, we become ineffable beings.
So, we need to work on our own life, transform it. It is urgent that we make our life a masterpiece.
Direct psychological self-observation allows us to know ourselves, to discover ourselves.
Here it is not about following this or that theory, or defending this or that school, no! What it is about here is to directly observe ourselves, to know ourselves, to know who we are, what we have inside, only so we can really work on ourselves and transform ourselves.
So emd my words, today Sunday.
Student: Well, now comes the opportunity...
Samael Aun Weor: But it is born exactly when the Capricorn era begins. And we have that Aquarius began on February 4, 1962, between 2 and 3 in the afternoon; And if we take into account that each one of those eras lasts 2,160 years with minutes and fractions of seconds, obviously, the age of the Aquarius comes to take place after the year 4000, in the year 4000 and some, that is, between 4000 and 4500, considering fractions of minutes and seconds and... ...are there any other questions?
Students: ...
Samael Aun Weor: What number of days?
Well, as for me, personally, my personal life I consider to be really worthless. Because it would be useless to know what life number I'm in. The interesting thing would be to know what life number each one of you is in, and this is only possible by exploring ourselves to know ourselves. Because you would gain nothing, brother, by knowing what life number I'm in, the important thing would be that you work on yourself, that you know what life number you're in, that would be interesting.
For these times when...
Students: ...
Samael Aun Weor: No!, by awakening consciousness you achieve it... In these times, in the name of truth, I have to say with my heart in my hand, that, certainly, all human beings are reaching the end of their cycle of existences: Some people are at 108, some are at 107, some are at 106, etc., etc., they're coming to the end of their cycle of existences right now. Now you will understand why the times of the end have already arrived; and what I am saying is general for everyone...
Regions of Hell
Students: ...
Samael Aun Weor: Well, individually, when you reach 108, obviously, the ego falls definitively into the submerged mineral kingdom, it devolves within the bowels of planet Earth, until it reaches total disintegration.
Now, if humanity massively reaches the end of its cycles of existence, unquestionably, massively they will enter (in large quantities) within that submerged mineral kingdom.
And I have to say, in the name of truth, and it is worth clarifying for you, that at this time there are many people who have already completed their 108 existences, they have already reached 108 lives.
These people live in the infernal worlds even though they have a physical body, in fact, they are located in those infernal worlds and when they leave the dense body (at the time of the death of the dense body), they will find that they are already inhabitants of those infernal worlds, that they live in those infradimensions of nature and the cosmos.
Much has been said, for example, about what lies beyond. Certainly, each person has a definite psychological characteristic trait. At the time of death or in life, according to the psychological trait we have, we find ourselves located in this or that interior psychological country.
So, it is well worth knowing where we are located. We know that we are here, in this very serious house of culture, that we are among cultured people, we know that, but what remains to be known is where we are located psychologically.
It is obvious that each of us is located, lives in some psychological place of ourselves.
The wrathful will live in the "country" of anger, the greedy will dwell in the "country" of greed, the lustful in the "country" of lust. Those are zones or regions or abodes that exist in the higher dimensions of nature and the cosmos. Now you will understand why Jesus the Christ said: "in my father's house there are many mansions"...
I also tell you, in the name of truth, that in the infernal worlds there are many mansions within the nine Dantean circles. Unquestionably, each one will turn towards their corresponding abode.
Dante Alighieri in his "Divine Comedy" tells us the case of an avenging monk. He had fought with all his relatives and decided to plan revenge: he invited them under the pretext of reconciling, he invited them to a meal, and in the middle of the banquet he poisoned them all, at dessert time they all ate poison, because the poison was put in desserts.
Dante tells us in the "divine comedy" that at that precise moment the ego, the I...
...conditions it, and of course, and those others by others, and we all play a role in the question of weaving and unweaving of the destiny of human beings. But you see how he turned towards the ninth Dantean circle...
There is no doubt that such horrible crimes are paid for in this way. The irate, then, will go towards the fifth region, towards the fifth circle, unquestionably; the fornicators, naturally, who will have to turn towards the sixth circle. But the harsh reality is that in the infernal worlds they exist. There physical things exist...
I am practical at it. I've researched that, I've explored it. I have seen there, for example, that if one takes a glass like this, it is much denser, heavier than here, the matter there is coarser. A table here, then, is here very fine in relation to a table there, in the infernal worlds. In the infernal worlds all the things from here exist, but in a much more grotesque form. They are the infradimensions of nature and the cosmos.
Not long ago, a young man who was very close to us disincarnated. That young man was not exactly bad; he really liked the fight, yes, he always lived fighting. But, unfortunately, one day he had an accident: he was traveling in a Volkswagen on the Toluca highway and it seems that he wanted to avoid hitting an animal, a dog (according to some), the truth was that he overturned, killing himself.
That good young man disincarnated and since his 108 lives had already expired, he entered the fifth Dantean circle. There he lives in incessant fight; he was a fighter, well, he turned towards the world of fights, towards his world. That is his center of gravity and there he lives fighting; of course he will have to devolve in time until he reaches the second death, to his disintegration.
If one is not able to disintegrate the ego, nature comes to one’s aid; and entry into the infernal worlds, although it may seem criminal, is not. Deep down, hell has only one objective: to liberate the essence, to liberate the consciousness, to liberate the soul, so that it can go free and enter the elemental paradises of nature.
There is no crime, no matter how serious, that does not have its defined punishment. But one could not pay more than one owes, one pays what one owes, but one never pays more than one owes. In the infernal worlds what is owed is paid, but after it has been paid, well, one no longer have to be devolved there and the divinity, the divine justice removes one from there.
God is not going to be unjust, God is not going to keep one there forever for a crime one committed. If one committed it, it has its price and its price has to be paid; but after it is paid, why remain there? God is justice, God is love; and every crime, no matter how serious, has its price.
Student: Master, I could ask you a question here on behalf of the listeners and it is this: what would happen to a person who is going to complete his cycle of 108 lives, but who decided on the perfect path, of perfection, would he also does the same thing happen, or is he still alive?
Virtues and Defects
Samael Aun Weor: Well, if the person is going to turn 108... And let's put something worse, let's suppose that he did turn 108, but that he listened to the teachings and resolved to destroy the ego. Obviously, when the destruction of the ego begins, then, that person is liberated from all the aggregates of it. Because who is it that goes to the infernal worlds, isn't it perhaps the ego? But if we destroy the ego, if we put an end to all those egos, who is going to go to the infernal worlds? The one that had to go and it's over. So, who is sent?
So, the important thing is to destroy the ego, and we must do it here and now.
There are forms of virtues that really have to be understood, many people, for example, want to be chaste, they say: "abstinence is the best"..., but inside they are burning with the flames of lust, that is, they are imitating chastity but they are not chaste, one thing is to imitate a virtue and another thing is to have a virtue...
There are people who say "I'm going to put an end to anger, I'm going to be serene"..., but one thing is to really have the virtue of serenity and another thing is to imitate the virtue of serenity...
A person can say “I am going to stop being cruel”, and yet continue to be cruel, because one thing, really, is to put an end to that ego of cruelty, and another thing is, really, to possess the virtue of mercy.
That is to say, when one eliminates a defect, a virtue is born, but the defect must be eliminated.
If one says: "I'm not going to be angry, now I'll put up with it, whatever they say to me, I'm not going to fight with anyone"... his guts twist, but in truth he has not yet acquired the virtue of serenity. The ego of anger has him alive, and the least expected day that ego jumps and explodes, rips his clothes, and thunders and flashes.
So I advise you not to imitate virtues, what you should do is kill the defects, put an end to the egos, because if you disintegrate the egos, the precious gems of the virtues are born in their place...
Is there any other question? ...You can speak here, the young man...
Christ
Students: ...
Samael Aun Weor: I'll answer that first, so that later I can pose the other. For now I will answer you first that one; I think we should be organized, right? Well, you can sit down, brother. In any case, I am going to tell you the following: we have to understand that the Christ is, in himself, beyond the personality, beyond the ego, beyond individuality. Christ is the logos, perfect multiple unity.
The cosmic Christ expresses himself through any human who is duly prepared. One day he expressed himself through the great Kabir Jesus; another day shone through Gautama, the Shakyamuni Buddha; no one can deny that John the Baptist was also a manifestation of the lord; no one could deny that he expressed himself with all his vigor, manifested himself with all his power in Hermes Trismegistus, the thrice great ibis god of Thoth. We Mexicans also have here our historical Christ, I want to refer emphatically to Quetzalcoatl...
When a human really works on himself, in an intimate way, he receives Christmas in the heart. Uselessly the Christ will have been born in Bethlehem, if he is not born in our heart too; uselessly he he will have died and risen, if he does not die and rise again in us too (Jesus Christus)...
“Jesus” is from “jeshua” in Hebrew, and “jeshua” is “savior”. Obviously, Paul of Tarsus rarely mentions the great kabir; Paul of Tarsus always cites the inner Jesus Christ, Christ himself, who is our deep inner savior.
When a man, I repeat, is sincerely working on himself, he goes through the Christmas of the heart. When a man receives the Venustic initiation he goes through the Christmas of the heart.
Then the intimate Christ, the interior Jesus Christ, because the Christ is "Jesus-savior", manifests himself within such a man, is born as a child among this "stable" that we have, full of the animals of desire, and as the child is growing, within our interior, it is manifesting itself more and more.
The Lord, within us, takes charge of our own thoughts, takes charge of our own feelings, of our sexual and volitional processes. The lord, the savior, fighting within ourselves, becomes a human among humans.
The Lord, struggling within us, has to go through all the temptations. He has to eliminate the egos in himself, he has to overcome the darkness in himself. And as he grows and develops, he expresses himself better.
And finally, there comes a time when the Lord, within ourselves, has to go through all the cosmic drama; the Lord, within us, has to live the whole drama of the Gospels; the lord within ourselves has to suffer the torments of passion. The Judas of desire incessantly betrays him; the demon of the mind (which is the second traitor), incessantly washes his hands. Who does not try to justify himself? Who doesn't try to evade his mistakes? Who does not always seek apologies? And the demon of ill will that each one of us carries inside, always, incessantly, hates the Lord...
Thus, the intimate Christ has to be betrayed by these perverse egos that we carry within; and it is these egos who shout: “crucifixia, crucifixia, crucifixia”! And finally, the Intimate Christ ascends to Calvary.
The intimate Christ must be crowned with thorns and must receive lashes within us, and he climbs Calvary for us... This happens there, within our depths, in the living depths of our superlative consciousness.
The last thing the Lord does with his death is to kill death, that is why it is written: “swallowed is death with victory! Where, O death, is your sting? Where, oh tomb, your victory? ...
Thus, the intimate Christ, the intimate Jesus Christ is our Jeshuá, our savior... who else is going to save us? We need help. Who else is going to give it? This is how the Christ comes to save us: he saves us from within.
The great Kabir Jesus, who came here nearly 2,000 years ago, in the holy land., is still revered by us, because he was, the one who brought us this teaching. He referred to the intimate Jesus Christ of each one of us. Isn't it true, perhaps, that Gautama Buddha also taught the Hindus everything that is the intimate Buddha? Likewise, Jesus Christ, that great Kabir, taught us the doctrine of the intimate Jesus Christ of each one of us, of the cosmic Christ in us, of our secret Christ.
He comes to us with the Venustic initiation; speaking in Kabbalah I will say: he comes to us in the Tiphereth initiation. But you have to work, work hard. You have to tread the path of chastity; it is necessary to transmute the creative energies, in order to receive the advent of fire. Only in this way, transmuting our creative energies, treading the path of perfection, being truly chaste, in thoughts, words and deeds, will we be able to truly receive the Venustic initiation.
That is the explanation in relation to the great Kabir Jesus and the reason why we respect him. How can one not respect his master, the one who taught him this doctrine? Would any of you speak out against his master, or would you be so ungrateful that he would cast you into oblivion? He is the instructor of the world. The intimate Christ is the instructor of the world. Because the intimate Christ is the one who speaks through the prophets, he is the one who speaks through the avatars, he is the one who manifests himself through those who have shown the path of liberation...
Here, our brother... .
Student: I want to clarify this: I also studied Christianity, Catholicism and I realize what the world admires and venerates; what the world has known the historical Christ. It is clear that this man, who was Jesus, said it through the gospels and traditions... Here we are going to meet the inner Christ that exists and beats in the very depths of our own creative energies. Something totally separate from that historical Christ that we know. That is the one you are going to meet there, that is our savior, that is the one who changes us, the one who transforms us! So, the confusion is that people speak of the historical Christ, we speak of the living internal Christ that is within each one of you and that is latent in sexual power. So this is the clarification that, more or less, comes to give a difference between the two aspects...
Samael Aun Weor: Any other opinion? You may ask, brother...
Student: Well, I want to ask about the holy spirit, is it the awakened consciousness?
Samael Aun Weor: The holy spirit is the third logos; in kabbalah it is Binah. Unquestionably the holy spirit lies at the bottom of sexual energy. It comes to us, it comes to us as we tread the path of chastity. When we receive it, it enlightens us and radically transforms us; that's all.
Polarities on the Path
Student: ...in addition to that, there is a certain reality... ...in its magnetic principles, in its vital principles, among them that of polarity, which tells us that everything has two poles... ...that love and hate are the same thing... ...how to know which is the exact path: good or evil? Because being that they are the same thing, according to the principle of polarity... ...if we are at one extreme, we can experience good or evil... ...The opposite of good is evil, the opposite of the positive is the negative. How to know which is the true path: the good one or the evil one?... ...because if it is true that Christ was a master, in one sense, the Marquis de Sade was also another master, in another sense, and the two sought their cause of perfection, being on such dissimilar paths, and yet... ...the one of good or the one of evil?
Samael Aun Weor: I will gladly answer this question. Obviously, Jesus the Christ showed us the way to liberation, he taught us the doctrine of the interior Jesus Christ, the fundamental basis of the epistles of Paul of Tarsus.
We do not deny that the quotes from the Marquis de Sade (the antithesis of Christ) obviously taught the "path of liberation" through evil. The Marquis de Sade wanted to teach perversity and he practiced it; The Marquis de Sade believed that through evil one would come to exhaust desire. That is to say, the exhaustion of desire through the satisfaction of vice... ...we would say to document the Marquis de Sade, that it is clear that the wicked submerge themselves in the infernal worlds and thus pass through the second death. The essence then comes out again without ego. But that free essence is not a master essence, because it has not achieved mastery. He has become an elemental of nature but has not become a master. So, the doctrine of the Marquis de Sade does not lead us to adepthood, it leads us to failure.
But let us place ourselves on the plane of the intimate Jesus Christ and of the great Kabir Jesus. Unquestionably, within us there are egos of evil, of course. But this does not mean that the egos of good do not also exist within us. There are egos that know how to paint beautiful pictures, there are egos that have magnificent customs, there are egos that know how to do charity, there are egos that know how to heal, etc. So what?
We need to dissolve the evil egos, but we also need to dissolve the good egos. Because good egos do good, but they don't know when to do good. Many times we do good when it shouldn't be done, and we have to know how to do good...
Let us remember that the fire inside the kitchen is useful, it is good, but the fire outside the kitchen, in the living room, burning the curtains, is bad. Let's remember that the water in the sink is good, but the water invading the room is bad...
So "good" is everything that is in its place; “wrong” is everything that is out of its place. We need, after all, to eliminate the egos of good and evil, to free ourselves from both good and evil, to go beyond good and evil.
We need to wield the sword of cosmic justice and become terribly divine beings, beyond good and evil.
On one occasion, a friend who owns a pants factory told me, "Well, and if I then dissolve the ego that knows how to make pants, which is a useful ego, then, is the factory going to end, who will makes the pants?"
I answered, "No! Are you believing, perhaps, that Being is useless? The Being has many parts, and if that ego that makes pants is eliminated, in its replacement there remains one of the autonomous and independent parts of the Being, which knows how to make them and will make them more perfect."
Thus, when one dissolves the egos, one does not remain defenseless and useless. Because the Being, with the various parts of it, is not useless, it is perfect.
Now, we need to become independent of good and evil, we need to eliminate the good egos and the bad egos. Make self-cognizance, wake up; that's obvious.
The Law of the Pendulum
Unfortunately, people always oscillate in this pair of opposites of philosophy. Let us remember that life is governed by the law of the pendulum: at one end of the pendulum there can be good, at the other end of the pendulum there is evil.
It is not about getting into that pendular movement. We must place ourselves in the center and the center is the Being; and the Being will tells us when good should be done and when it should not be done. Giving alms, for example, to a marijuana addict so that he buys marijuana is absurd; or giving alms for example to a drunk so that he continues with the drunkenness is a stupid thing...
Thus, we must not live between the oscillation of the pendulum, we must place ourselves in the center, where the rod of justice is, the rod of righteousness, which is the Being.
We need, therefore, to understand that the law of the pendulum (which takes us from here to there, and from there to here), causes us pain; It leads us nowhere.
Unquestionably, if one takes hold of the center, one becomes independent of both good and evil.
At one end of the pendulum we can find all the schools of the type, let's say, spiritual, pseudo-esoteric, pseudo-occultist (or whatever you want to call them); At the other end of the pendulum are the atheists, the enemies of the eternal one, the materialists. But really, the truth where is it?
The truth is not found at either end of the pendulum. We should not be interested in what people say or stop saying, what they write or stop writing. To us, the only thing that should interest us, really, is the Being.
We have to immerse ourselves within the Being, within the neutral force that is at the bottom of each one of us, that neutral force, the force of the holy spirit.
We need to immerse ourselves in the Being. The Being will instruct us, the Being will teach us. Of course, we need to disintegrate the egos to establish correct relationships with the Being, because only the Being can give us true sapience...