The following text was utilized as the basis for discussion in a lecture of the free online course about the real meaning of the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 2
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth..."
Which means:
"And to the angel (or Atomic Intelligent part of your Being) of (the cosmic forces congregated in the Chakra Ajna – Clairvoyant Center, which has the ability to perceive the radiant waves of light of the quanta whose momentum within the internal dimensions escapes the capacity of the eyes of the flesh, but clearly captured by the pituitary gland which is connected to that which in your spinal medulla is) the church in Philadelphia (that is related with the frontal plexus at the height of the forehead, where, Elohim with his Akasic breath blows the Prana of Life into your nostrils) write (reinforce with the Prana of life that descends from above, from the heavens of Urania through the two witnesses Ida and Pingala - by means of your willpower and imagination and by the willpower of the Cosmic Hierarchies - the Fohat of your solar and lunar atoms of your seminal system, and thus enliven and sublimate with Pranayama the Christic Energy throughout your spinal medulla); These things says he (the Christic Fire in the Sushumna Canal) that is (the) holy (Spirit), he (your Innermost) that is true (Fire), he (the Fire) that has the key of David (the Great Arcanum), he (the Fire) that opens (this chakra so that your Innermost can see and understand the mysteries of Daath), and no man (through hypnotism can) shuts (this understanding); and shuts (this chakra in the calumniators so that the Intelligence of the Elohim cannot be seen or comprehended by their Pharisaism), and (thus) no (Pharisee) man opens (this eye of Horus)..."
"I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."
Which means:
"I know (that) your (internal visions in the internal worlds are related with your own psychological) works: behold, I have set before you an open door (your Chakra Ajna, so that you can see and comprehend your own internal psychological development), and no (envious or jealous) man can shut it: for you have a little strength (in this frontal plexus developed by means of the practices of Meditation, Vocalization and Internal Initiations), and have kept my (divine) word (Om vibrating constantly in your forehead enlivened with the Om of your sexual Kanda), and have not (cast false oracles onto your neighbor or onto yourself and thus having) denied my name (and doctrine because of Mythomania)."
"Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee."
Which means:
"Behold, I will make them (to understand that those false oracles are made by their own Baalim or egos who tenebrously see through their protoplasmic mind or Jezebel who called herself a prophetess, the activities of those) of the synagogue of Satan (who in the internal worlds take the shape of Masters and also friends of Masters in order to perform horrible acts within the world of Klipoth), which (by utilizing the atoms of fornication, atoms of your internal secret enemy, develop a tenebrous clairvoyance to) say they (are illuminated Christified clairvoyants or that they) are Jews (children of the Lion of Judah, Bodhisattvas of Christ), and are not, but do lie (by calumniating the neighbor when becoming in contact with these disguised tenebrous beings); behold, I will make (by means of the comprehension of mystic pride and mystic vanity) them (those tenebrous atoms) to come (humble) and worship (the true God) before your feet (in the Forge of the Cyclops), and to know (through Daath) that I (the Innermost) have loved you (with chastity)."
"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
Which means:
"Because (of your sexual transmutation and insight comprehension of your lust in meditation) you have (acquire Om or intelligence and thus) kept the word (Om) of my patience (in Yesod), I also (with Aun or On, which is Aum or Om in Yesod) will keep you from the hour of temptation (through concupiscence), which shall come upon all the world (of Jezebel, the protoplasmic mind), to try them (who want to follow Christ and) that dwell upon the (tridimensional) earth. Behold, I (the Prana of Life) come quickly (as Christic Fire within the Brahmanadi of those who sublimate through Ida and Pingala their creative lunar and solar Fohats): hold that (understanding of my light) fast which you have (in your forehead because of fiery initiations), that no (envious) man (poisons your Chakra Ajna with mendacity and thus) take your crown (or splendor Pranic lights of the atom of the Father at the root of your nose that nourish you with intelligence and impersonal love)."
"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name."
Which means:
"Him that overcomes (calumny, public or private slander, defamation of honor, psychological threats, mystic pride, mystic vanity, superstitious delirium of persecution and mythomania, etc.) will I (as Fohat) make (of his spinal medulla) a pillar (of fire) in (order to dwell in his cerebrum-spinal-nervous system of) the (solar divine) temple (fiery body) of my (Inner) God, and he shall go no more out (from this Eden because I am the tree of life): and I will write (with fiery characters) upon (the forehead of) him the name of my (Solar) God, and the name of the (fiery solar) city of my God (To Soma Heliakon), which is the new Jerusalem (or the city of Heliopolis), which comes down out (from Daath) of heaven from my God (Eloah-Va-Daath): and I will write (with fiery characters) upon (the forehead of) him my new (fiery) name (from the Heptaparaparshinokh)."
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
Which means:
"He that has an (awaken spiritual) ear (Chakra Vishuddha), let him hear what (the ssssssssssssss, the sound of the three Akasic breaths) the (Pranic, Solar) Spirit (that is blown into your nostrils) says (through Ida and Pingala) unto the churches (or magnetic centers of the Sushumna Canal)."
Lecture
To continue our series of lectures from the book of revelation, we follow the course of the second chapter, which is tracking the progress of the Fires of the Holy Spirit, or the Kundalini, up the spinal column through the churches of Assiah. And in today’s lecture, we reach the discussion of the Church of Philadelphia, which in Sanskrit is called the chakra Ajna.
To understand what is written in the book of Revelation requires practical work on oneself. Of the seven churches, it may be said that this Church of Philadelphia is the one in which we can start to work practically in the most immediate sense, because it’s concerned with an aspect of our own psychology and physiology which any one of us can confirm, can experience. When we read in the book of Revelation about the Church of Philadelphia, we have to understand that this church is related to certain physiological and psychological functions that we all have within. And in particular, this church is related to what in modern terminology is called the ‘third eye,’ which is a center of perception, latent in most of humanity. Or in other words, it is inactive in its full sense. However, because we all have the capacity to perceive, according to our own conditioning, we do have the capacity to understand how this center functions. And to some degree we can begin to experience that and understand that.
The function of this third eye, or this chakra Ajna, the Church of Philadelphia, is related closely to the endocrine system. This church is related most closely to the pituitary gland, which resides towards the front of the brain. The pituitary gland is closely related to the pineal gland. Of course the function of these two glands is known to a certain extent in medical science, but they do not really understand or study the true function of these glands. For that we have to look beyond materialistic science.
In truth, we understand that we have physical senses, which we all are using right now, and these physical senses afford us the opportunity to receive certain levels of vibrations, certain kinds of phenomena that are received through these senses and are translated, delivered into the brain, so that we have a sort of interaction, or relationship, with any given phenomenon. So, for those of us who have the capacity to see with physical eyes, we have then the capacity to interrelate with phenomena which are transmitted to us by means of light. And light is a vibration of energy. But visible light is a particular band, or a particular vibration, of energy. It is not the extent of all light. It is a very narrow slice of the light which exists.
If we take certain kinds of tools and use them in conjunction with our physical sight, we can extend the range of that sight. So for example, we have cameras and devices which can see infrared light. Our physical eyes unaided cannot perceive that, but with a tool we can perceive that. Likewise with ultraviolet light, which is a lower vibration; slower. Having understood that, even with those kinds of tools, we are still perceiving a very narrow range, very narrow band, of the light that exists, that is measurable in some form. We have within us the capacity to perceive other vibrations and other levels of light, and anyone who has had a dream knows what I’m talking about. To have a dream is to perceive another level, or another vibration of light, but not with physical senses. This is using other kinds of senses that we have that are separate from physical senses. So we are still perceiving, just not physically. In the same way, we have in this Church of Philadelphia the capacity to perceive a vibration, or range, of light which is beyond physical sight. However, in most of us, that capacity is latent, undeveloped.
This is closely related to two terms which are unfortunately the subject of a lot of contention in western mysticism. These terms are ‘imagination’ and ‘clairvoyance.’ The term ‘imagination’ is generally looked upon as fantasy. But in Gnosis, we understand that fantasy is only one aspect of imagination, it is the inferior aspect. We always say, as adults, that children fantasize, that they have imaginary friends, which are fantasies, and are thus not real. And as adults, we embrace our own fantasies, and we, in a sense, worship them. We have our daydreams and our fantasies about our own lives, which we feel are quite important. But when someone else talks about a fantasy or a daydream, we sort of look down on that.
Fantasy is really illusion, which is a projection of the mind. Imagination, however, is a polarity, like other energies and forces in nature. There is the opposite pole of fantasy, which is Conscious Imagination, which is the capacity to project conscious imagery, to work with imagery in a way which is not egotistical. So we need to understand this fundamental axiom. This is the critical basis upon which the understanding of this church is based.
‘Clairvoyance’ is a fancy term that was invented by some occultists in order to mask what they were really doing, which was simply working with imagination, but in another way. Clairvoyance is from the French, which means “clear seeing” – claire voyance – to see beyond, to see clearly, to see something special.
And we understand in this tradition that what we are discussing here is related to the esoteric meaning of this term Vipassana, which means “special insight.” Vipassana is a certain aspect of meditation taught in Buddhism, which is related to analytical meditation and the use of the imagination, or understanding how to analyze phenomena with the imagination, but in a positive way.
This Church of Philadelphia is the magnetic center where images are projected and received. Understanding that, we then need to see in ourselves how we imagine, how we use our capacity to imagine imagery, to perceive imagery, but not necessarily simply with physical sight, but in our imagination, in our mind.
In Gnosis, we understand that there are actually five kinds of clairvoyance, five primary types. Really these fives types can be grouped as two groups, related to these forms of imagination, conscious and fantasy, or conscious and unconscious. So we would say these two broad types are ‘conscious imagination’ and ‘mechanical imagination,’ the two polarities of how to perceive imagery. And within those two forms, there are actually five types. The two conscious types would be simply conscious imagination, or conscious clairvoyance, and a second type which would be supra-conscious, or even beyond mere conscious clairvoyance. Then we have three inferior types, and these are related to the three levels of our own subjective mind, or animal mind. These are subconscious, unconscious, and infra-conscious clairvoyance.
This becomes important for the student, for the initiate, for the reader of this Book of Revelation, because in attempting to activate and open these churches, the initiate is activating and opening parts of the psyche, aspects of the soul, ways of interrelating with phenomena which are different from our physical senses.
As we are now, we perceive imagery in accordance with our conditioning. In Gnosis we understand that our consciousness is currently trapped within the subjective mind, or the animal mind, which constitutes about ninety-seven percent of what we are, meaning that ninety-seven percent of our available consciousness is trapped in subjectivity, in other words, the ego. It is trapped within pride, fear, laziness, envy, etc. What this means, in practical terms, is that it’s more likely for us to perceive imagery in an egotistical way than it is for us to perceive imagery in its true way, or to see the fundamental reality of any given image.
On the physical level, we know this is true because in our interrelations with one another, we tend to receive the images of our daily lives and react to them. So, for example, we may see our boss behave in a particular way and we interpret that behavior in accordance with our own conditioning, or the conditioning of our mind. We may not be perceiving the actual reality of the phenomenon, but we react according to our conditioning. So if our boss makes a certain kind of comment, being a little bit irritated, we may interpret that because of fear or of pride, paranoia, as our boss doesn’t like us, maybe our job is questionable, maybe we are going to get fired, maybe our boss is out to get us. This may or may not be true, but if we interpret things in that way, according to the conditioning of our mind, we react and we suffer. We may then begin to pursue a certain line of action as a consequence of that transformation.
What we may not realize is that this is related to clairvoyance, because in the moment we receive the impressions of our boss behaving in that way, those sensations, those images and sounds are received by our senses and translated by our own mind, but our mind, which is conditioned, according to the egos that are there. So if it’s our pride, or our shame, or our envy, or our fear, or paranoia that receives those images, then we react according to that conditioning. Those egos perceive that imagery clairvoyantly. This is an example of one of the three inferior types of clairvoyance, in other words, fantasy.
Now you might say, “Well I’m not fantasizing in this situation. I’m observing something that’s happening and I feel a reaction.” The fantasy is happening on an egotistical level, on a very subtle level. This requires a great deal of awareness to perceive, to catch. Now I’m bringing this up at this point, because this is at the physical level that this happens, where we react and respond mechanically to phenomena on an ongoing basis. The antidote to this is quite simple: pay attention. Pay attention. Do not identify with the reactions of the mind.
In Buddhism, there is a master from many, many years ago, an Indian Buddhist master named Chandrakirti. Chandrakirti taught that there are three primary factors that we can apply in order to understand if what we perceive is true or not. Is our perception true? Is what we perceive real or not? The three factors apply right away on the physical level, and we can apply these as we relate to each other and as we go through the process of our own lives. But these three become even more important when we are working in the stages of initiation, and we are starting to work with the awakening of this chakra, this Church of Philadelphia, because we then begin to perceive imagery in a new way, new kinds of imagery. And if we do not have the capacity to question what we see, to be able to discriminate and differentiate, then we can fall into error and make mistakes.
These three factors are quite simple. The first one is that the phenomena we perceive should be confirmed by physical reality, by physical facts. It means we need to compare what we see with what we know is true physically. Now obviously, this is very similar to what Samael Aun Weor indicates for anyone who is learning how to interpret dreams or visions. We must always wait, analyze, and comprehend, comparing our dreams and visions with the facts of what is happening in life. If our visions do not correspond to the facts of what is happening in life, then the vision remains questionable. However, even if what we see conforms well with the facts of physical life, that does not mean it is true. There are two additional factors that we have to apply to confirm the reality of the vision, or to confirm our interpretation of the event.
In the case of our boss, if our boss is behaving in a certain way and we feel our job is in danger, we have to apply this first tool. Are there any other facts that support our interpretation of his behavior? Or are we just reacting to a face he has made or a comment he made? Are there any other facts to support it? If there are not, then we should wait. We should not be worried, we should not react. We should wait, and analyze, investigate. Now if we find there are numerous facts to support the notion that perhaps our job is in danger, for example, other people may have noticed, or there may have been something written, a memo or an e-mail, or other comments were made, or perhaps we broke a rule, or we failed to perform some particular task upon which our job is dependent. If there are other facts such as these then we need to look at this more seriously.
The second factor in analyzing a dream or a vision, in analyzing our interpretation, is that our interpretation, or the nature of that phenomenon, must relate with the conventional truth, or conventional reality. Here is what this means. Perhaps in dealing with our boss, we got this feeling because he made a certain kind of expression, or made a certain kind of comment. So to apply this second factor, we should then analyze: is that expression, or that face that he made, universally understood as meaning what I think it means? Or, for example, does he have a different culture? Maybe in his culture, in his mind, in his upbringing, that expression, or that face, doesn’t mean what I think it means. It may be that he was irritated by something entirely unrelated. It may be that he was not irritated at all. Maybe he was being sarcastic; maybe he was telling a joke; maybe he was talking about something else. So to understand this in the level of conventional truth is to understand it in the sense of a common understanding. Does this relate to a cultural understanding, or to a societal understanding?
The third level is the ultimate level, the third factor. That is to understand the phenomena from the sense of Right View. That is from the point of view of emptiness, or interdependence. We may have reacted to our boss and felt, “He hates me. He’s out to get me. He’s a terrible person.” What we need to grasp from the point of view of emptiness, of Right View, is that that reaction is resting on a particular foundation, and the foundation is this: the boss we perceive as having a certain quality, which is persistent, which is “he does not like me;” the second aspect is we see ourselves as being un-liked, as being the one who’s abused, or the one who’s being mistreated. And the fundamental point of view that we are holding is that this is an unchanging phenomenon, that this exists inherently, that I’m suffering simply because of this other person. This view is obviously untrue. The Right View here is to understand this is impermanent. The situation exists because of certain conditions, certain causes, and it will change. Our boss may have a particular point of view, but it is not permanent, neither is it immutable. The next day he may love us, and maybe the day before, he did. So to have Right View, is to keep in mind, to become aware, to perceive in a deeper way that the situation is impermanent, the other person is impermanent, I am impermanent. This sense of self that feels abused and mistreated is an ego, is an “I.”
So by applying these three criteria to the interpretation of imagery, we can begin to reach a proper method of discrimination when we start to develop the power of conscious clairvoyance, or we start to work with this chakra Ajna.
When we study this chapter from the Book of Revelation, the chapter is very clear: there is a great danger that lies within us. The danger is that we are easily deceived by our own mind. We as a consciousness are confused and bewitched by the projections of our own mind, in other words, the Baalim, or those forces which work under the guidance of Jezebel, our own animal mind.
In order to discriminate, and be able to distinguish when a vision is true, when a dream is real, when it has objective truth, we have to apply these three forms of criteria. We have to analyze; we have to understand; we have to investigate. Unfortunately, the student, being so hungry for experiences, tends to take their inner visions and their dreams as truth. The one who learns to meditate has their first experience, their first insight, their first clairvoyant vision, and they immediately assume this is a vision from God, and it must be true, and it must be good – and this is a mistake.
The perception of imagery occurs in levels. At this moment if we close our eyes and we try to visualize a flower, we really see darkness, and we have to concentrate and struggle in order to formulate the image of a flower in our imagination. This is the level of clairvoyance that we currently have: we see blackness. And the reason is because we do not have light inside illuminating this church or chakra. But with meditation, we begin to train and develop this capacity. And when we raise the fires of the Kundalini, and we fill this chakra with flame and fire, the force of the Holy Spirit, this capacity becomes possible for us with meditation. In those instances, the darkness clears and imagery appears, more clearly and more beautifully than physical sight. And the mistake is that we will then assume that what we see is supra-conscious clairvoyance. And this is false.
Simply learning and developing the capacity to see imagery is good, but it does not mean what we see is true. It does not mean that what we see is real. We are still trapped in the ego. So it becomes doubly-important to apply these criteria, to discriminate what we see.
In the Book of Revelation, we understand that those who have the Key of David can open this capacity. And the Key of David, of course, is the Great Arcanum, it is the knowledge of White Tantrism and the science to harness the fires of the Holy Spirit in order to enliven the chakras and to awaken the consciousness in the right way. In doing so, we open these chakras in order to receive the guidance of our Inner Being. That is really the purpose of developing the forces of clairvoyance in the right way. It is so that our Being can show us our own mind. We are not given this gift, this capacity, in order to spy on other people’s lives. We are not given this gift, or capacity, in order to know other people’s intimate matters. We are given it so that we can see our own filthiness, and we can see our own mistakes, and change.
Unfortunately, the ego loves to take advantage. The ego loves to take a dream or a vision and interpret it according to its own desire. This is the great difficulty of working with this science. Being ninety-seven percent, more or less, trapped in ego makes it very difficult for the initiate to perceive objective truth. That is why we have to lean to the side of prudence. We learn to practice meditation. The basis of our meditation practice is to learn how to discriminate between the Being and the Ego.
Now when I am saying ‘meditation,’ I am not talking about concentration practice. I am not talking about vocalizing a mantra, concentrating on your breath, or concentrating on any object. By the term meditation, I mean ‘Dhyana.’ I mean the capacity to not think, to observe without thought, to have a silent mind, to move through Pratyahara and beyond. That state is the classroom where we learn how to discriminate imagery in the right way. We train ourselves on a daily basis through self-observation in order to prepare for those moments when we step into that classroom. Life, in this sense, is the antechamber. Our daily activities to develop self-observation and self-remembering, to be present, to be watchful, is all preparation for those moments within which we descend into our own mind in order to observe it and analyze it.
If we live our lives identified with our pride, and with our fear, and with our envy, being very much concerned with the business of other people, being very much concerned with how people perceive us, then in those moments of meditation, we will have a predisposition to behave in the same way, as well as in our dreams. We will have that same predisposition, which means that the visions that we have, the imagery that we perceive, we will interpret with that same predisposition – the predisposition to gossip, to criticize, to feel envy, to feel pride.
Proper meditation is to be conscious without being enveloped in the “I,” and in that state, one is then able to perceive without the interference of the “I,” which means that imagery appears as it is. Then proper interpretation can occur; proper understanding can occur. Unfortunately, because we all have that Pharisee ego, we have mystical pride. We have a sense of self that believes very much in itself; we tend to misinterpret. Meditation is the technique we need in order to strengthen the consciousness in its capacity to interpret imagery. This practice is strengthened by transmutation, by vocalization, by self-observation, self-remembering.
The important thing to keep as a foundation is to always remember your Being. Whatever imagery arrives, whether physically or internally, remember your Being. Remember your Being. When we receive images, when we perceive things physically or internally, we have to discriminate. In the Book, it says, “Behold, I will make them (your egos, to understand that those false oracles are made by their own Baalim, or egos, who tenebrously see through their protoplasmic mind, or Jezebel).”
Physically, when we interrelate with life, with others, with situations, we are receiving imagery. And those images produce reactions in the mind. If we go along with those reactions, then we are agreeing with the interpretation that our mind makes. So if someone criticizes us and we feel hurt, it is because on some level we have an ego which feels that reaction and we are agreeing with it, we are accepting that, we are feeling that. The question is: do we act upon it? Do we proceed to allow that to live inside of us?
That type of interpretation is given under the influence of Jezebel, which is our own animal mind. And of course Jezebel is a prophetess, a part of us that calls herself a prophet, meaning unconscious clairvoyance, subconscious clairvoyance, infra-conscious clairvoyance. It is the mind, the animal mind, the consciousness trapped within the ego, which sees clairvoyantly and believes in its visions.
Jezebel is the voice in our head that believes in all of its interpretations of life. Whatever we see and experience, we are constantly evaluating and reacting: Jezebel is the one who is telling us what everything means. In daily life, this is happening all the time, but we make the mistake of believing that “we” are doing the interpreting. So let us look at an easier example.
If we perceive, have a dream for example, about our friend, and we see that our friend is having an adulterous relationship with someone else, how do we react? Or if we perceive our friend performing some works of black magic, how do we react? If we are identified with our sense of self, with our pride, then we say, “I’ve seen So and So doing this and that. How terrible. They must be a really bad person.” We may even go so far as to publicly discuss this information. This is a crime and it shows a lack of understanding of those three criteria. Firstly because we have no physical evidence; secondly because there’s no conventional comparison, there’s no situation within which that could occur, potentially; and third because we are not allowing for impermanence, we are not understanding the true nature of that person, we are not having compassion for them.
We do not understand what we see. We might be seeing a projection of our own mind. We might be seeing our own fantasy. We might be seeing something from the past. We might be seeing something symbolic. How do we know? And to make the foolish assumption that what we see is the truth is a gross example of pride. More than that, we may have dreams, or visions, of masters, of angels, of great enlightened beings who come to tell us things, to teach us things.
In the Book of Revelation it says, “I will make them of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews, but are not, but do lie.” ‘The ones who say they are Jews’ means those who say they are children of the Lion of Judah, in other words, Bodhisattvas, those entities which appear to be angels or masters, but they are in fact of the synagogue of Satan, in other words, our own egos.
This is a grave danger for the initiate who is practicing these teachings, practicing meditation, and working with the fires. Our own ego will take on the form of a prophet, of a master, in order to come to us to try to give us teachings, to try to tell us things. Are we sufficiently trained, are we sufficiently prepared, to perceive that phenomenon and see it for what it is? Are we sufficiently prepared to meditate, to see a splendorous vision of a great prophet from past ages descending out of the clouds to give us a beautiful teaching, and yet actually be our own ego? Do we have the powers of discrimination to recognize that? This requires great discipline. It requires the ability to maintain a sense of separation from what we see, to recognize that all arising phenomena are impermanent. All manifested things are impermanent. All perceptible phenomena are illusory at the ultimate level. In that sense, we cannot take visions, dreams, or perception for granted. We cannot take our initial experience as the full truth. We have to go deeper, we have to investigate, we have to analyze.
We may be surprised to find that we have had numerous experiences which we assumed were beautiful, positive, wonderful experiences, which were in fact our own egos deceiving us. And the chances are, everyone who walks this path, if they are serious and persist, will find that. Many experiences that we believe are real and true are in fact not. If we make the assumption they are true, then we may never discover it.
To stay on the Path, to remain true to the Light, is extremely difficult. It requires that we make no assumptions, and it requires that we learn to discriminate. We must not believe one way or the other. We must know.
In every case, we have to analyze these dreams, and experiences, and visions from the point of view of how they make us feel about ourselves. Chances are, if a dream, or an experience, or a vision, is making us feel better than someone else, then we have a problem. If we have a dream, or a vision, or an experience, that gives rise to criticism of another person, then we have a problem. If we have a dream, or a vision, or an experience, that gives rise to negative feelings about ourselves or someone else, then we have a problem. We must analyze those dreams and ourselves.
To develop this church in the right way of course requires the Three Factors that we know very well in these teachings: Birth, which is the use and development of the sexual forces towards the creation of the soul; Death, which is the use and development of those sexual forces towards the destruction of the ego; and sacrifice, which is the use and development of those sexual forces in the service of others. These three factors are really one work, which is learning to walk in the steps of all the great Christic Masters, but those steps are made from moment to moment. Those steps are made in the very way we interpret phenomena.
Birth, Death, and Sacrifice are not mere actions physically. They are an attitude. They are Right View. They are a way of perception. Right View in itself is Birth, Death, and Sacrifice. And that is the fundamental purpose of this chakra Ajna. This chakra affords us the capacity to perceive deeper levels, to perceive a greater range of phenomena. With that power comes danger, comes responsibility, but also comes greater access to truth, greater access to wisdom and understanding. So the awakening of this church is necessary in order to comprehend ourselves and in order to understand life. But with that gift comes the necessity to develop Right View. To perceive clearly requires right perception.
That is to say, if we develop this capacity through meditation, through our practices, to activate the Church of Philadelphia, are we activating it in the right way? Even black magicians work with this chakra. Even those who are walking on the wrong path work with this chakra. They develop the capacity to perceive clairvoyantly. However, their perceptions are filtered. Their perceptions are modified, but they do not realize it. This is the danger.
We, being trapped in ego, are also perceiving filtered imagery, conditioned imagery. We need to understand that from the very beginning. To perceive imagery is nothing special. To meditate, and to have experiences in meditation, and to have visions in meditation, is nothing special. To discriminate the true nature of that imagery, that indeed, is something profound, but that is not easy, and it does not come automatically. It comes by learning to discriminate the difference between the presence of the “I” and the absence of the “I.” And since our consciousness is ninety-seven percent trapped in the ego, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight.
Furthermore, the Master Samael Aun Weor has indicated very clearly, very explicitly, that conscious clairvoyance is only possessed by those who live awakened in the superior worlds. This is a very bold statement, and if we analyze the five types of clairvoyance that we outlined before, we understand that supra-consciousness is beyond conscious clairvoyance. Supra-conscious clairvoyance is the capacity of a Buddha, of Jesus, of Krishna. This is a form of clairvoyance that is far beyond anything that we can imagine. The door of entry to that level is conscious clairvoyance, and conscious clairvoyance is possessed only by those who live awakened in the superior worlds. So where does that leave us, who are asleep? That leaves us in the three inferior forms of clairvoyance: subconscious, unconscious, and infra-conscious.
This is a bold thing that Samael Aun Weor has stated, but unfortunately very few Gnostics, very few students, seem to grasp this. Most seem to assume that any vision, any dream, that they have is conscious, and so it’s positive. This is wrong. We should instead assume that our dreams and visions are unconscious, subconscious, infra-conscious. We should never assume that they are conscious images, that they are pure and clean. We should never assume that. The instant we make the assumption that what we see is true, we deceive ourselves. We immediately restrict ourselves from seeing the true nature of that image because we make an assumption. We should investigate instead. We should wait. We should analyze.
To make that kind of an assumption is pride. The typical student learns this science, learns about Gnosis, makes the attempt to practice, and in a subtle way develops pride. The typical student feels proud of knowing about Gnosis, feels some pride to have access to this wisdom. And then upon receiving an experience in meditation, that pride becomes fed, becomes fat. That pride gets strong, especially if the imagery perceived in that meditation, or in that astral experience, has some kind of heavenly quality, or visions of some master or some angel. Then the pride of that student becomes even more inflated. The unfortunate result is that that student becomes hypnotized by his own experience, by his own dream. Even if, on the rare chance, that dream or vision were positive, it has now had a harmful effect, because that dream or experience, instead of giving the right information to that student, has instead inflated their pride and made them a bigger ego, created a problem for them. Now you have to ask yourself sincerely, would your own Inner Being do that intentionally? Would your Being give you an experience knowing that it would feed your pride? I doubt it. So work to reduce pride.
Demonstrate the capacity to discriminate imagery, and your Being will communicate with you. And your Being will do that through this chakra, through the Church of Philadelphia, in your meditation. But if you start responding to these visions with pride, feeling good about yourself, feeling superior to others, feeling like you are something special, your Being will not give you those experiences any more, but your ego sure will. So you as a student will continue on, believing that you are still having experiences. And yeah, you might be seeing things, but what are you seeing? This is how many, many, many people become diverted from the Path. And eventually they start proclaiming themselves to be "Master So and So, Master Such and Such." And of course, they all have very impressive names.
The development of this Church of Philadelphia can be most effectively enforced with the daily practice of meditation. Meditation is the primary tool to develop the chakra, the Church of Philadelphia. A good mantra to use in order to feed this psychic center is the mantra “Om.” O-M, or A-U-M. This is why in the illustrations of this chakra, we see the character from Sanskrit for Om. And this is that primordial sound, or verb, or word, which is God itself, this vibration. And this vibration activates and enflames this chakra.
I’ve not gone in detail through the chapter because it requires careful study and in this lecture I wanted to give you a good foundation from which you can study it. There are a lot of details in the chapter that I think are better suited to study and meditation than to a lecture, so I felt it would be better for us to discuss some practical aspects in the lecture today.
Questions and Answers
Audience: Being the sixth in the Tree of Life, number six is Geburah, which is the Divine Feminine Soul, which is also significant with imagination, correct? What can you tell us about that?
Instructor: The question is: How is this chakra, which is the sixth, related to the Tree of Life?
When we analyze the Tree of Life and we count from the bottom upwards, we arrive at Geburah, which is related to the Divine Soul, or the divine consciousness, which is the feminine aspect of our own soul. This is the spiritual soul, and it is closely related with the imagination and with the wisdom of the Being, how we receive the wisdom of the Being. And what this reminds me of is actually Yesod, the ethers of the vital body. For us to perceive, even on a physical level, we rely on the ethers of our vital body, or the subtle body.
Those ethers, there are four types, but the two superior ones, the luminous and reflective, are related both to perception of imagery and memory. In us, of course, because we’ve wasted and abused the energies that we have within, those ethers are depleted. So our capacities to perceive imagery are reduced and our capacities for imagination are reduced, and our memory is reduced. Due to that, our connection to Buddhi, or the Divine Soul, is also incapacitated. The imagery of the Being, the wisdom of the Being, cannot be transmitted to us because there’s no vehicle for that transmission. Our inner psychology is deflated, the structures of our soul. So through transmutation, through right use of energies that we have within, through pranayama, and through the use of the Great Arcanum, we nourish the ethers of the vital body. We meditate and we restore the capacities of the luminous and reflective ethers to interrelate with phenomena in a harmonious way, in a clear way.
And meditation is very transformative for the etheric body, for the vital body. It causes those ethers to become very clean, very clear. So the imagery of memory and the imagery of perception become sharper. By that, we then are able to receive the wisdom, the insight, the understanding, the help of our own Divine Soul in a more direct way through the interrelationship and transmission of the wisdom of the Being into us.
It’s also closely related with the number six in the Tarot. Of course the number six is the card of the Lovers, or the card ‘Indecision.’ And in that card, we see displayed an initiate who is trapped between two women, a whore and a virgin. Of course, the virgin is closely related with Buddhi, the Spiritual Soul that we have, our Divine Mother. The whore is, of course, Jezebel, which is our own animal mind. So in the development of this chakra Ajna, the Church of Philadelphia, we are truly in this crossroads of making the decision between cultivating and developing a relationship with our own Divine Soul and with our Divine Mother, or remaining a servant of Jezebel, the whore which is our own animal mind. Does that answer your question, more or less?
Audience: Yes.
Audience: Can the ego cause things to light up electrically with color that can be something that wakes you up, or this of the Being imagery.
Instructor: Honestly, I’m not sure I understand the question.
What I can say is that the ego is a shell, a filter, which traps the consciousness inside. It is the consciousness that has the powers of perception and the powers of clairvoyance. The ego simply filters that perception. So if the consciousness has the power to perceive or project a given image, so does the ego. But the ego does it according to its own conditioning, to its desire. That means that, in as much as your Being has the capacities to show you imagery, to teach you through imagery, your ego has the same capacity, but egotistically.
So your ego will teach you and show you things to feed itself, to develop itself. That capacity is not restricted to in dreams and in visions. That capacity is active in us on a daily basis, from moment to moment.
Audience: Even the Master said that vanity is a charlatan, and pride is silent.
Instructor: Right. The example is given that the Master Samael Aun Weor said that vanity is a charlatan and pride is silent. This is true. Vanity is the charlatan who puts on the show, who’s always demonstrating. And this is the power of the ego, using the power of the consciousness in the wrong way in order to show itself. Pride is doing the same thing, but silently within the mind, silently within the heart, but still using the powers in the wrong way.
Audience: The Master says in one of his books that the masters of Nirvana have ego. They like to undress themselves like whores. They like to show their powers. They have ego, very high, subtle ego.
Instructor: Right. So another example given that the Master also indicated that the Nirvani Buddhas, the Pratyeka Buddhas, like to show their powers, like to demonstrate their abilities, which is really like a whore undressing herself, showing herself, demonstrating herself. And this is a form of ego. This is not well-understood in the West. People in the West tend to think that if someone is a Buddha, then they are clean and pure and perfect, and this is not true. In Eastern traditions, it’s well understood that Gods have ego that is not the same as what we have. So the Nirvanis are beings that have a certain level of development, but they are not perfect. They have problems; they have attachment, and this is reflected in the Buddhist Wheel of Samsara: there is a realm of Samsara related to the Gods, which is where they have development in the consciousness but they remain with pride, with attachment, with envy, anger. And that is a misuse of the powers of the consciousness. And of course those Gods have clairvoyant capacities, but they are misused.
Audience: What is polyvoyance?
Instructor: That’s the next lecture. But in synthesis, “poly” means “many.” That will give you a hint.
