Events and conditions have a source or origination but not a cause. The concept of'cause' limits comprehension to content only, whereas, in reality, all content is subject to context. This is the very crux of the understanding that allows consciousness to jump from 499 to the 500s.
Neither God nor Truth can be found within the limitation of content only for, by simple observation, content is only definition or description whereas context supplies meaning, significance, and concordance with the reality of existence itself. This is important to comprehend not only in spiritual work but also in everyday social and political policies.
To fail to properly contextualize content has historically been the basis for the slaughter of millions of people in every century throughout human history. To ignore context is the greatest source of catastrophe for every generation of man, and it continues on in the present time with the same catastrophic consequences. There is no greater lesson that needs to be learned to reduce human suffering and bring ignorance to an end.
Q: If the concept of cause is so misleading, how else can phenomena be explained?
A: That is the most important and critical single question to examine. All observed phenomena arise out of the totality of the evolution of Creation as it unfolds to perception as progressive observation. Nothing arises solely of its own but only within the field of context. What appears to be change is the emergence of potentiality out of essence into manifestation (calibration level 750).
Context means prevailing conditions that are ever changing and unfolding. What was legal, sane, normal, acceptable, ethical, and appropriate two hundred years ago is no longer the same today. What we consider 'normal' today will again be discredited, ridiculed, and considered abhorrent a century or two from now. Thus, context includes all of life and civilization, the state of the world, and even the universe.
Q: How does this apply to everyday life?
A: The cause' of anything is always the same. It is the
totality of all that exists now or ever has existed throughout history. Context is the total universe. We can find a source and an explanation but not any specific, identifiable, hypothetical item that can be credited with the implied power or faculty of being termed cause'. The 'cause' of anything is not an identifiable single element but always a composite which constitutes the actual source that accounts for an observed phenomenon. Events are the products of propensity, facilitation, timing, probability, potential, likelihood, alignment, momentum, promulgation, selection, randomness, condition, control, favoritism, public sentiment, the weather, economic conditions, morale, political climate, availability, supply, need, affordability, emotional climate, social morality, etc. To ignore the composite of context is to invite disaster, as history has demonstrated over and over.
Q: How does this apply to specific individual behavior?
A: The belief in linear causality results in naive presumptions about the supposed 'causes' of behaviors. In popular psychology, for instance, it leads to looking to a person's childhood for explanatory 'causes'.
The activation of certain behaviors is a result of a person's psychological constitution as it exists in the present and not how it was or might have been in the
"MIND" 223
past. For example, abuse in childhood does not 'cause' criminality in the present; instead, the same energy field of consciousness that favored abuse to the child is now favoring the selection of criminal behaviors.
In understanding human behavior, the most important factors to consider are the influence of the prevailing levels of consciousness of both the person and the locus in society. These factors outweigh all others in degree and extent of influence on choice and outcome. Only by inner spiritual growth and choice can an individual transcend the influence of the prevailing personal as well as the social level of consciousness.
Q: Then the 'karma* or collective consequences of past actions is primarily the determinant of choices, actions, and events?
A: That is exactly the answer. Both content (i.e., an individual choice) and context (social conditions) are in accord with their calibratable level of consciousness. The social phenomena that we observe on a daily basis are the result of interaction of dominant energy fields having characteristics that profoundly facilitate as well as limit concordant freedom of choice or behaviors and that are dependent on prevailing conditions. These are the product of multiple factors that reflect the history of the universe and are the ongoing source of prevalent energies.
Q: It is simple to see that if the same attractor field holds dominance, then behaviors will not change.
A: Let us say that an infant at birth calibrates at only 90. As a result, it is born to abusive, neglectful parents who calibrate at 90 and who live in a community ridden with poverty and crime. As an adolescent, the child gets involved in street crime as well as drugs and adopts the prevailing antisocial, anti-educational, and anti-responsible attitudes, which also calibrate at 90. After arrest, the individual is incarcerated in a very low energy field with
others who constitute a subpopulation of like-minded antisocial persons calibrating at 90. After release, the personal alliances and group loyalties of the low energy field prevail (still calibrating at 90). Recidivism is therefore the rule rather than the exception. (It is often seventy-five to eighty percent, or even higher.)
The sociopathic personality is unable to learn from experience, is unable to control impulses, and has a genetic defect of the frontal cortex so that the threat of punishment does not have a deterrent effect. Therefore, prison terms merely result in the criminal's expending greater effort to avoid detection rather than ceasing criminal activities.
The nature of criminality is why the California "Three strikes and out" policy has reduced so much crime. It takes the career criminal off the streets. What the protesters of the policy fail to realize is that criminals are really only arrested and convicted for a very small minority of the crimes they actually commit.
The publicized case of convicts' doing life for 'just stealing a bicycle' ignores that the ostensible Victim' of an 'unfair' law has actually been committing crimes in the hundreds, going back to early adolescence. The flagrant defiance of lawfulness by that type of criminal is why police stop people for improper tail lights. They know that criminality is a chronic lifestyle.
A recent study in a medium-sized southwestern city found that an amazing eighty-five percent of hitchhikers had criminal records. Sexual predators have usually molested scores or even hundreds of children before their current arrest. The same pattern is seen in drunken drivers or rapists who finally get caught.
Thus, to ignore context leads to supposed but futile solutions because the problem stems from long-standing patterns that reflect the influence of a dominant energy field of consciousness.
'MIND" 225
Q: The examples clarify the importance of understanding the relationship between content and context. Seemingly different events are not coming from separate Causes* but all can have the same current ongoing source.
A: The expression of events is facilitated or hindered by prevailing conditions that affect probabilities. Choices and decisions are not determined ('caused') by the past but by the totality of conditions in the present. The major importance of chronologically past experiences is the degree to which they are still currently operative. The past does not 'cause' the present; instead, the same conditions (i.e., level of consciousness) currently present potentiate the likelihood of recurrence. Thus, the common human admonition to "learn from experience" implies a willingness to evolve and change for a greater satisfaction and a higher degree of happiness.
Q: How does one best apply the understanding of the relationship between content and context to serious spiritual endeavor?
A: The self (ego) focuses on linear content and specifics and identifies with form and limitation. Spiritual work involves withdrawing attachment to or identification with content and then progressively realizing that one's reality is context. The briefest explanation is that 'self is content and 'Self is context.
We can see by the basic dualistic structure of thought itself how the belief in a separate self (ego) arises, which is then reinforced by parents and society. There are a subject and a predicate connected by a verb that states or implies 'cause'. Therefore, all action implies a central causal agent—the personal T of content which is the personal self reinforced by having a name and being the recipient of reward and punishment.
This same identity builds up to be imagined as the thinker behind thoughts, the doer behind deeds, and the
actor behind actions so that all which occurs becomes self-referential. It then becomes imbued with emotional attitudes and gradations of judgmentalism. The personalization focuses all attention on the inner self which becomes progressively energized as a supposedly independent, sole entity.
The process of mentation reflects the concordant level of the evolution of consciousness. At the level of lower mind, emotions color vision and dominate or influence thought. At the level of higher mind, emotion is transcended and intellection becomes subject to evermore abstract, sophisticated accuracy, precision, and reliability. Eventually, the pretence of the mind's alleged capacity to 'know' anything is transcended by the progressive inclusion of context so that intentional content is replaced by gnosis, which is the spontaneous effulgence of the Presence as Self.
In the Reality of the mystic, there is no space or room for the ego to edit or distort as the knower and the known are one and the same. Radical subjectivity is thus the source of Truth by virtue of the fusion of Self with Divinity and the Allness of Reality. That is what is meant by the Sanskrit term "Purusha," which is the source of the knowingness of the enlightened sage or teacher.
The oneness of Self-identity is the substrate of the phenomenon known as Revelation or Realization. Enlightenment is the finalized state that ensues and is unconditional, total, and complete.
Q: This explanation brings with it a feeling of satisfaction and completion. We note that the recitation calibrates at 999.9. What does that mean?
A: There is a loss of 0.1 percent in the process of the Unmanifest becoming Manifest as form in consciousness, yet the formless is innate and constitutes the very source of form.
"MIND" 227
As an analogy, one could use the process whereby an exposed photographic film contains the potentiality for form which only appears when the film is submersed in the developing solution. The nascent form becomes manifest as a consequence of the favorable condition of intentionality, which is a function of the will and choice. This in turn would be reflective of context, such as karmic potentialities.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CONSIDERATIONS
Q: What are the knowable facts about physical death?
A: The fear of physical death underlies many other human anxieties, and some clarification of what it is all about is therefore helpful. There are two important facts not widely known that are really quite important to know.
The first is that one does not really experience one's own physical death, for at the moment of the body's expiration, the experiencer/witness/awareness faculty instantly and painlessly leaves the body and one immediately feels free and greatly relieved. The surprise is the discovery that one isn't dead after all, but quite alive. The former body is witnessed as not even being attractive or desirable. The reborn self now becomes entranced with its rediscovery of immortality and the new potentialities to which one awakens. The body was like a cage from which one is now liberated. The body was never the source of the sense of T or existence but merely part of its identification with content.
The second interesting and liberating fact that eliminates a lot of anxiety about death is that the time of physical death has already been karmically set. Although the timing has been determined at birth, the nature and circumstances surrounding the event are not preset but are influenced by other factors and choices. These may involve psychological processes, such as the underlay of guilt, the choosing of symbolic mechanisms of death, risk taking, health decisions, cultural patterns, and,
importantly, belief systems held by the ego/mind.
Just to know that one does not and, in fact, cannot experience one's own physical death, and that the time is already preset, relieves a lot of needless worry. The only real 'death' which is actually possible to experience is the final death of the sense of self as the ego. Even that ordeal need not be experienced because it can be refused for as long as one wishes, and even that actual death cannot occur without one's inner consent.
Because the ego presumes it is a body, it believes that 'nobody has ever survived death to tell us what it was like'. That is a fallacious belief which disappears beyond consciousness level 600, where previous incarnations and physical deaths are not only easily remembered but the circumstances and significance of each death are recalled very clearly.
In general, if the consciousness of the entity is below 200, death may be the occasion for reactions of grief, anger, resentment, or loss. Above 200, death represents a learning opportunity that serves to uplift awareness. At the higher levels, death presents an opportunity for major leaps in awareness.
It is not the physicality of prior lifetimes that is important but the spiritual lessons that were learned. In looking at a sequence of lifetimes, one can see the evolution of consciousness through its various stages of learning.
It is said that after physical death, it takes the average soul approximately three days to completely disidentify with the body and detach from it, including working through the stages of denial, grieving, and letting go of attachment. Therefore, a wait of three days is generally recommended before burial or cremation to avoid interruption of the separation process. In each case, the appropriate time can be determined by kinesiologic testing.
CONSIDERATIONS 231
If we state in general with kinesiologic testing that "It is wise to wait three days before disposing of the body," the answer we get is yes. Less evolved souls generally take longer to make the transition than do those that are more highly evolved.
Q: The core of the ego is often identified as selfishness, whereas the spiritual goal is selflessness. Are these opposites?
A: All seeming pairs of opposites are the illusion of polarity that arises automatically from a positionality. What determines the nature of an act is intention. The intention of selfishness is that of getting and gain, and its purpose is survival, whereas the purpose of selflessness is serving and giving. In considering these contrasting motives, one needs to avoid another positionality, that of labeling selfishness as wrong or bad and selflessness as good or right. They merely represent different degrees of the evolution of consciousness and are alternatives, not opposites.
The origin of selfishness is seen in the animal world and functions out of the residual animal-brain structure inherent within the human brain. It becomes overtly expressed in young children. It is part of the survival instinct that seeks gratification of wants and desires as well as appetites and biologic drives. These drives extend in human life as they do in the animal world to food, water, territoriality, boundaries, possessions, mates, etc. In the adult, these become expanded into acquisitions, symbolic prizes, and the endless seeking for gain and advantage. In excess, they become defined as greed and being driven, and one sees the display of the animal-pack mentality in rivalry for the position of the 'alpha male' or 'alpha female'.
From a biological and psychological point of view, there is a healthy self-interest that is essential for survival and self-esteem, but it becomes pathological narcissism
when the ego is self-reflective in that all actions are self-referential. The basic premise of selfishness is "I want." This wanting can escalate to obsessive craving and addiction.
As consciousness evolves, like the infant, it learns to give up the infantile illusion that the ego's wants or its hypothetical rights and expectations have to be met in order to thrive successfully. The infantile, narcissistic ego then moves from the level of the baby and its relationship to the mother and discovers that survival and success depend on giving up infantilism and learning cooperation. In return, the ego now receives love and approval for learning how to share and be patient, and the transition is supported by the reward systems of adequate and responsible parenting. If that type of parenting is lacking, infantilism persists, along with concomitant resentments, anger, and self-pity. Maturity means that one has learned to find gratification from the nonlinear domains of meaning and love. There is then the discovery that happiness is not an external gain but an inner self-satisfaction so that at full maturity, gratification stems from what one has become, not from what one has or does.
The infantile ego hopes to gain by grasping and getting. Later, it learns to gain by performance (good grades in school, etc.), productivity, and the inner pleasure that accompanies the fulfillment of nonlinear spiritual values. As it progresses, it becomes more independent and stops trying to control others.
Egotism and selfishness are very vulnerable and lead to endless defensiveness and desire for approval and agreement. The more mature ego becomes increasingly independent and finally learns that its source of happiness and security stems from within. With this realization, spiritual goals tend to become increasingly important and integrity becomes the yardstick of happiness. This leads to the evolution of consciousness in which the
CONSIDERATIONS 233
ultimate goal becomes the perfection of one's relationship with God.
Although, at first, God may be believed to be 'without', the source of life is simultaneously sensed to be 'within', and finally, the Presence reveals itself as the Self, which transcends any differentiation between 'inner' and 'outer' but is All Present. The Supreme is simultaneously immanent and transcendent.
We could call this evolution of consciousness, which tracks the patterns of the ego, as the 'self pathway to God (in which the progressive relinquishment of the narcissistic core of the ego leads to the discovery that the real source of happiness, fulfillment, and joy is the Self). The many expressions of the ego, including its vanity of ideas, beliefs, etc., can be viewed as an expression of grandiosity in that it clings to the insistence that its thoughts are valuable and its positionalities are correct and important. Selfishness is the basic underpinning of vanity and illusion.
Q: It is usually stated that selfishness, desire, and greed stem from lack.
A: That statement could be turned around to its opposite, that selfishness results from an excess of vanity and wanting. There is no lack of expectations or demands. Excessive desire creates the illusion of lack, just like seeming money problems are created by spending faster than income.
Desire based on a realistic need leads to a feeling of completion when it becomes satisfied. It is a feeling of fulfillment and peace. In contrast, the person who is driven by cravings is unable to reach satisfaction, and we say that they are 'being run by their solar plexus', because wantingness as a predominant level of consciousness cannot be satisfied.
Aside from the usual greed for wealth, position, and possessions, desire can focus on many other things, such
as new experiences, novelty, relationships, sex, excitement, fame, winning, admiration, credit, power and control over others, anda multitude of symbols.
Q: What is the difference between normal self-interest and self-esteem from selfishness?
A: Healthy self-interest includes concern for the welfare of others, whereas selfishness disregards others. Self-interest is not destructive to others and is therefore integrous and increases self-esteem. Egotism is separatist and seeks gain at a cost to others, leading to a loss of inner self-esteem. It is therefore vulnerable, nonintegrous, and an illusory self-inflation that leads to loss of self-respect.
An illusion that drives desire and craving is that the object of desire has become imbued with an exaggerated importance and significance, resulting in an inflated value and attractiveness. Once the object has been acquired, it loses its magical aura and that seductive image is now projected onto the next object of desire. This is well-known in the area of sexual relationships where conquest is the goal and the attractiveness of the desired object of infatuation quickly fades.
The object of pursuit, therefore, does not exist in Reality, and what is pursued is the illusory promise of inflated value. The seductive glamour of attraction is a projected inflation from the ego that uses the desired object as a source of happiness. As the true source of happiness stems from within, the wantingness or desire cannot be satisfied because it is a constant projection of specialness onto the external and is therefore the pursuit of a fantasy. As one desire becomes fulfilled and satisfied, the focus then moves on to the next object of desire in an endless procession, like a carrot on a stick.
As consciousness evolves through progressive surrender of positionalities, the mechanism of desire eventually subsides and gratification arises from the realization of
CONSIDERATIONS 235
inner goals. The feeling of self-sufficiency replaces neediness when the source of happiness is found to be within. What need to be surrendered are not the objects of desire but the quality of desiring and the imbuing of the objects with the magical inflation of value. Upon investigation, this inflation will be discovered to be merely an animal energy. For survival, the animal is constantly seeking externally. The majority of supposedly human behaviors does not differ from the display one can observe in any primate community. The main difference one will see is that although primates vocalize, they rely more heavily on body language for communication.
Q: Of what value are breathing exercises?
A: These are especially useful upon the realization that one is 'stuck' on a lower level and too much energy has accumulated in the lower chakras. To utilize breathing exercises, it is necessary to have some simple understanding of the etheric body and the chakra energy system. Sexual energy can accumulate in the base chakra. Hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge, and spite are energies in the spleen, while ambition, gain, control, aggression, and selfishness are energies centered in the solar plexus.
The heart is the center for love and forgiveness. The throat relates to communication, expression, and creativity. The third eye or brow chakra relates to spiritual vision, and the crown chakra relates to God-consciousness.
The basic spiritual/life energy is usually referred to as "chi," or kundalini energy, and runs not only up a special channel in the spine but also along the body's acupuncture and nervous systems and down the twelve main meridians that eventually supply life energy to all the body's vital organs. These energies and acupuncture points are simultaneously related to all the specific muscles and muscle groups. This is the basis for clinical
kinesiology, which is used both diagnostically and therapeutically. The distribution of the energy flow is altered by attitudes and mental positionalities. In clinical kinesiology, the weakness of a muscle group reveals which organ is being pathologically affected and relates to a specific acupuncture point. The negative attitude or belief system is uncovered by further kinesiologic testing and a reparative affirmation is prescribed.
Overall, the energy level of the spiritual/acupuncture energy system is mediated by the thymus gland, which lies just behind the upper sternum. The function of the thymus is to support the body's immune system. It produces so-called 'killer cells', or T-cells, which destroy invading organisms. The energy of the thymus is depleted by internal and external stresses caused primarily by negative emotions and attitudes that calibrate below level 200.
The most basic, simple, and effective breathing exercise consists of breathing the spiritual energy up the spinal channel, through which it flows from the base or lower chakras, up to the heart, the Third Eye, or the crown chakra. This is the basic technique used in many spiritual schools in which one simply pictures the energy flowing up the spinal channel with each inhalation. At the same time, the energy is willed to flow to a higher locus. The practice is often used during the initial phase of formal meditation but it can, in and of itself, constitute the meditative practice.
As one pictures the light of consciousness as energy flowing up the spine to the higher chakras, one will almost immediately feel a shift of energies and a change of inner sensation. In addition to the traditional bodily chakras, there are spiritual energy bodies above the crown chakra. One can pull the energy up through the higher chakras and picture it going through the crown to the higher spiritual bodies and on up to God. The energy is usually pictured as light or illuminated love energy of divine origin.
CONSIDERATIONS 237
More intricate and specialized breathing techniques are taught by the various spiritual schools. Before these are chosen (e.g., pranayama), they should be checked by kinesiologic testing to determine their calibrated energy level and suitability for the practitioner.
Q: The existence of the spiritual energy system and breathing techniques may sound foreign to Westerners. Are they really of practical value to the aspirant?
A: Yes, and generally, they are beneficial. There are also specific problems where breathing exercises can be very useful. For example, a person who is obsessed with sex may find relief by breathing up the energy from the base chakra to the higher energy centers. Similarly, a person caught in seemingly unsolvable hatred, jealousy, blame, resentment, or revenge will find relief by breathing up the excessive energy which has become blocked in the spleen chakra. The overly ambitious, materialistic, or greedy person will benefit by decompressing the energies that have accumulated in the solar plexus. The heartsick will get relief by breathing up the energy from the heart to the third eye or the crown chakra so that the energy of personal love (where the loss has been perceived) is transferred to the love of God, which can never be lost. The person who lacks spiritual comprehension, awareness, or vision needs to breathe up more energy into the brow, or third eye.
There are the classical and time-honored techniques (the classical yogas, not hatha yoga) which depend almost entirely on breathing-practice meditation. There are many interesting books on the subjective experiences that arise from these techniques which influence the so-called kundalini (spiritual) energy.
All spiritual practices are inherently more powerful than the naive seeker realizes. They should be approached with respect and the seeker should obtain adequate preparation information. There are a multi-
tude of spiritual practitioners and healers of every variety. The dictum "caveat emptor" applies and should be heeded. The naive seeker is often pressured by enthusiasts to participate in faulty practices and to visit charismatic, so-called healers, psychics, aura readers, channelers, spirit birthers, transmediums, prophets, and spokespersons for famous dead celebrities.
There are also persuasive invitations to join various exclusive sects, mystical cults, and the like, and become an initiate, thereby being privy to ancient secrets and mystical powers. It is important to remember the high teaching "Swear not nor take any oaths, nor make any pledges or binding commitments, nor commit any other bondage, for there are within them hidden, unseen consequences and karmic entrapments." Remember that allegiance is due only to God, to one's relationship with God, and to purity and holiness. No organization has any special favor with God, and all organizations as such are based on ego premises and illusions. To bind oneself to illusion can have unseen karmic consequences. These are detainments and pitfalls to be avoided by the wise. It is obvious on the face of it that the purpose of an oath is to bind. The ego is already laden down with commitments and bondages to a multitude of illusions and does not need to be impaired by another one.
Groups that require oaths of fealty or the swearing by oaths (some of which include description of demonic consequences if the oath is broken), promise a specialness and an exclusiveness, such as secrets or an inside track to God and special favors. It is important to realize that there are no special secrets or favors to be granted. All that needs to be known is already available. God has nothing to hide nor does the avatar. The enlightened sages, the advanced spiritual teachers, and the saints have nothing to hide. The pure in heart and the honest have nothing to conceal.
CONSIDERATIONS 239
Secrecy is the cloak, the tool, and the modus operandi of the 'forces' that calibrate below consciousness level 200. Truth has nothing to fear and therefore has no reason to hide. That which is purposely hidden is obviously not in integrity, and the motive of secret information (mantras, symbols, rituals, etc.) is, frankly, to sell it for a price, which is either monetary or power over other people.
The organizations that promise specialness are merely appealing to the vanity of the ego. The ego will stop at nothing for it respects no boundaries due to its narcissistic core. Throughout history, monarchs and dictators have willingly demolished their own populations to satisfy the ego's vanities. The ego's megalomania chooses suicide rather than to admit it is wrong.
People are very resistant to modifying their views. In fact, the last president of the Flat Earth Society just recently died. Organizations are slow to adapt to change because change implies that their previous position was wrong.
The Buddha taught that the basic attachment was to the senses, sensation, and the objects of the senses, including thoughts. Therefore, asceticism is common to many spiritual disciplines that emphasize the value of being free of possessions and worldliness.
Q: Sex and money are the temptations that are emphasized by many spiritual groups as the traps to be avoided.
A: That tradition has value but also ambiguous results. First, it creates an aversion and a sense of sin or guilt about the issues. It also inflates their importance, thereby creating a fear. It is not sex and money that are the problems but the attachments to them. In the nonattached state, there is neither attraction nor aversion. Teachers such as Ramakrishna forbade both sex and money to his young male students. He held that
they could be contaminated by even just the energy of sex or money.
Inasmuch as greed and desire calibrate below 200 (they are at 125), avoidance was an attempt to forestall attachment. However, the desire for sex or money stems from within and can remain within the ego, even though it is not indulged in or acted upon. At beginning levels of spiritual training, avoidance may well be the best course because desires are so strong. The mere willingness to sacrifice sensual pleasure or worldly gain is already of value in learning how to transcend attractions and instinctual drives, and the intensity of spiritual commitment is enhanced.
Throughout history and up to the current time, there have been a number of well-known 'gurus' who became addicted to sex, power, and money, and who covered up their actions with clever rationalizations. Those who exhibit wealth, a veneer of spiritual trappings, and who approve of sexual acting out attract many followers.
The basis for this paradox was revealed through spiritual research. Often, the early writings of a famous or popular guru calibrate quite high (usually in the high 400s to middle 500s). Then, after much success and acclaim, the calibrated level of the guru drops precipitously, sometimes to even below 200. Thus, it is not uncommon for there to be a wide disparity between the early writings of a teacher and the teacher's later level of consciousness. In some cases, both recent and current, the resultant misbehaviors create scandal and dismay, and residual followers have to resort to denial to rationalize their continued obedience to a cult or group of adherents. Although the erstwhile guru's own calibration may have fallen significantly, the calibration of the original writings remains the same.
Devotion to the now fallen guru personally, however, is obviously deleterious. This fact may bring about painful
CONSIDERATIONS 241
dismay to former devotees, but the pathway to enlightenment is strict. Devotion is due to God and not to personalities. As the Buddha said, "Make no images of me."
A most curious and highly significant example is that of the Islamic prophet Mohamed who calibrated at 740 when he wrote the Koran. The Koran calibrates at 700. At age 38, Mohamed's calibration suddenly dropped to 130, and he took up the sword. Interestingly, almost as soon as Islam was established, its fundamentalist militant sector became an aggressive invader of other nations and slaughtered 'infidels' by the hundreds of thousands. This began during Mohamed's lifetime when he was a participant and leader of this faction.
To this day, Islamic nations calibrate very low and their societies are characterized by misogynistic repression, overt cruelty, and hatred. It is to be emphasized that that which is truly holy and of God brings only peace and love. Thus, Mohamed and some branches of Islam were captured and dominated by the satanic form of negative energy.
The basic danger of the fundamentalist branch is its attraction to the lowest elements of society that desire the ego-inflationary sense of instant empowerment when they become a warrior of Jihad and are given license to kill in the name of Allah. Thus, the gun becomes the social symbol of God's favor and religious fervor, resulting in the spiritual absurdity of the 'holy killer'.
The progressive fall of Islamic culture has been studied and documented by modern scholars (B. Lewis, 2001; P. Watson, 2002; McGeary, 2002). Even a child can see the absurdity of slaughtering people in the name of "Allah, the All Merciful." In contrast, as mentioned previously, the Koran calibrates at 700. Therefore, it is spiritually integrous to follow the Koran but not zealots who subvert its truth for political power.
Q: The ego and society are beset by innumerable traps. It seems as though success at spiritual purification is arduous or even discouraging; the array of obstacles seems imposing.
A: There is a solution which is common to all. Simply find the underlying positionality, illusion, or drive; surrender that underpinning, and the many seeming problems fall away The common drive, or the ego's attraction, is basically the desire for pleasure. It is therefore not the egotism or vanity which is the problem but the pleasure that is derived from egotism in its expressions as vanity, self-righteousness, being right, success, feeling superior, etc. It is not vengeance and hatred which are the problems but the pleasure and satisfaction gained from these attitudes.
At the level of nonattachment, desire and anticipation or need for gratification no longer are a pressure. Physical enjoyment arises spontaneously out of the activity itself as a passing pleasure and can be interrupted and instantly dismissed without a feeling of loss or disappointment because each moment is total and complete within itself. If the music stops, it is not a disappointment, nor is incompletion experienced as a loss. It is irrelevant whether an experience continues or not. The presence of the Self is complete, permanent, and totally fulfilling. It has no needs. Everything occurs spontaneously as an expression of its intrinsic essence. There is nothing and no one to 'cause' anything to happen.
As an example, when one watches the combatants in the Middle East attack and counterattack, one can see the immense pleasure and satisfaction that are derived and which continue to feed the endless conflict and mayhem. There is a covert glee in hating, punishing, getting even, and killing one's enemy because one can, at the same time, feel superior, virtuous, and even as a martyr. There is secret pleasure in provoking an attack
CONSIDERATIONS 243
so that one can bask in being the innocent victim. Hatred is then guiltless because it is justified and glorified by patriotic, psuedo-religious or nationalistic slogans.
Q: For sheer excitement, glamour, and seduction, how can such a 'rewarding* package of motives be refused?
A: The combination of factors, plus historical precedent, lead to an addiction in that the egos feed off the conflict and have a need to propagate it. The egos of those involved in social conflict are fed on both sides and inflated by media attention. Publicity adds fuel to the fire of fanaticism which reaches its dramatic height and absurdity through acts of suicidal attacks. These truly constitute the 'theater of the absurd'.
It can be seen that peace would be a threat to this melodrama and all its conscious and unconscious payoffs. Peace would also be a threat to the leaders and the multiple gains involved (money, publicity, importance, etc.). The polarization is therefore carefully nurtured by both sides, and when peace threatens the game, one side or the other is driven to cite another outrageous provocation, with the usual outcries and calls for retaliatory action. All this melodrama exploits the gullibility of the general public and the media, which feeds the emotionalism by giving detailed, graphic attention to the endless atrocities that have actually been deliberately manufactured to manipulate public sentiment through sensationalism.
The tragic video shown of the dead infant child and the wailing mother is practically routine. The whole melodramatic scenario is a gross manipulation that is an orchestration designed to inflame passions and escalate the drama. It is theatrics on a grand scale that, in the end, are self-defeating because of the lack of inner integrity.
Q: That was a detailed description and analysis.
A: Yes, because it exhibits on a grand scale exactly how the ego works so that one can identify the same phenomena within the secret plans and plots of one's own ego. Its surreptitious gains are essentially the same as this external drama. The ego gets a grim pleasure and satisfaction from suffering and all the nonintegrous levels of pride, anger, desire, guilt, shame, and grief. The secret pleasure of suffering is addictive. Many people devote their whole life to it and encourage others to follow suit. To stop this mechanism, the pleasure of the payoff has to be identified and willingly surrendered to God. Out of shame, the ego blocks out conscious awareness of its machinations, especially the secretive -ness of the game of Victim'.
The coin of the realm of the chronic loser, martyr, innocent victim, and hopeless sufferer of endless catastrophes and maladies is repetition of the same disasters. Prisons are populated by recidivists. People rebuild homes as quickly as they can after the water drains away from the flooded plain. They rebuild on the paths of the volcanoes and on top of earthquake faults, on the hurricane-swept beachfronts and on the mud-slide slopes, and on the waterways below the dams. Dangerous jobs do not lack workers nor do extreme sports or sky divers lack enthusiasts. There is an endless procession of mountain climbers climbing to their deaths or creating a need for their rescue. The negatives, therefore, are pleasurably attractive. That perversity is one of the ego's strange twists by which people become addicted to the pleasure and excitement of risk and the pleasure of the fear of death and injury. The secret pleasure of horror is an attraction to the ego to which such endeavors have become imbued with a larger-than-life magical quality or meaning.
CONSIDERATIONS 245
Q: Then the programs of the ego do not continue unless they are secretly pleasurable?
A: That is the secret about secrets. The payoff is a gain of a pleasurably satisfying reward. The ego has learned to be very clever in order to survive. It is capable of resorting to any lengths or ruse of self-deception and camouflage. The world we witness is merely the drama of the collective egos acting out on the perceptual stage of form and time.
For endless centuries, the human drama has been a maudlin game built on the secret pleasure of the nonintegrous game of falsity. This would be likely when one realizes that the consciousness level of mankind was below 200 for many centuries. Now that the level is up to 207, the falsity of the game begins to reveal itself. Until now, mankind did not have even the most rudimentary capacity to tell truth from falsehood. The great con games of human life are now subject to exposure.
In the early 1990s, the egos of eighty-five percent of the world's population fed off of and perpetuated negativity, but by the year 2003, that percentage has already dropped to only seventy-eight percent, showing that the replacement of falsehood by truth is inevitable.
Q: The negative lie game is self-perpetuating?
A: That is the very reason for its prevalence and duration. The majority profit in both gross and subtle ways. The satisfactions of the ego are more pleasurable and addicting than the preservation of human life, much less dignity. Characteristically, all that is required are a few parades, some bombastic rhetoric by a demagogue, plus an appealing slogan. In response, we can watch forty million people enslave themselves and march off naively to their deaths and destruction. This involves not only the destruction of their personal selves but also their homes and families.
To 'die for the cause' is the call of the Pied Piper who leads the blind mice over the precipice. Unfortunately, fanatics are willing to sacrifice not only themselves but take others along with them. Recently, a female revolutionary was asked whether she felt any guilt about all the innocent who were slaughtered in the mayhem, and she remarked, "Unfortunately, some have to be sacrificed for the good of the cause" (cause meaning 'her' cause). Every dictator is only too happy to have his populace sacrifice their lives for some popularized slogan. As yet, the world cannot differentiate between a true leader and a megalomaniac dictator, nor between a statesman and a vain politician.
Q: How can such calamities be prevented?
A: By adhering to the spiritual truth that obedience,
allegiance, and surrender are due only to God. Because the mind is incapable of telling truth from falsehood, following this dictum is the only safety that it can rely on.
Q: What perpetuates illusions of the world?
A: The pleasure of profit, power, prestige, and money of the charismatic, politically savvy game players who have learned how to manipulate the egos of the populace and play on human ignorance perpetuates the illusions. This is facilitated by the mastery of the media, which is the latest game board on which image is used to control and seduce. The media have discovered that it is not even necessary to have any reality whatsoever behind images. The so-called 'nonlinear' (here used differently than in the foregoing) imaging techniques simply bypass reason and the intellect and directly program the mind of the populace without any interference. Reality is now considered to be irrelevant. (In current discussions, it is bantered about whether an objective reality even exists.) By Pavlovian conditioning, the naive mind is quickly
CONSIDERATIONS 247
programmed and does not even realize that it is being programmed. To the nonintegrous, such values as peace, honesty, caring, genuineness, and love are merely images to be exploited. Distortion is currently the most favored manipulation in which images bypass reason.
Q: That sounds pernicious.
A: No, it is merely a reminder of where society has been until the very recent past. It is only recently that any large-scale level of integrity is being discovered as having an intrinsic and reliable value that sizably shows up on the bottom line. Many very successful corporations, however, have known this all along and have been built on integrity and honesty. They have a long and respected tradition of their own.
In Power versus Force, Wal-Mart was cited as an example of the successful implementation of integrous values in the everyday world of retailing and corporate management. These values were established as pragmatic operating standards by Wal-Mart's founder, and the accuracy of the statements made in Power versus Force was confirmed through correspondence with Sam Walton himself. Now, some years later, Wal-Mart, with over one million employees, has become the largest and most successful corporation in the entire world. Its success, therefore, is a demonstration of the consequences of integrity as a standard of business.
In contrast to Wal-Mart (which calibrates in the high 300s), there is the concurrent, woeful example of the collapse of multiple corporations that were apparently run by greed, deception, and disregard for the welfare of employees, shareholders, and the public (They calibrate at 90).
The striking example of these contrasting businesses succinctly demonstrates the practical, 'real life' impact of spiritual values that are acted upon and put into practice. Such an example certainly seems to offset the
criticism that spirituality is "airy-fairy," impractical, or just idealistic wishful thinking. Integrity shows up on the bottom line.
In contrasting these corporations, it can be seen that it is not necessary to employ judgmental terminology or terms such as good/bad or right/wrong. Simply stated, integrity is strong, 'works', and is constructive and successful, whereas its opposite fails. Integrity is therefore practical; its absence leads to weakness and collapse.
The concept that integrity is a strength worth pursuing is slipping into government agencies which are currently going through various cleanup campaigns. The chicanery that can prevail at consciousness level 190 is no longer acceptable nor is it so easily hidden at a consciousness level of 207. (For example, realize the significance of the fact that federal agencies routinely 'lose' billions of dollars.)
In the past, the yardstick of success was gain or profit, and morality or ethical principles were sacrificed to the all-important 'bottom line'. The new measure of worth, however, is integrity by which corporations, government agencies, schools, and public officials are now being rated and examined. This is a consequence of the level of consciousness of mankind rising from 190 (pride) to 207 (integrity). The demand for integrity is toppling public figures and changing the operations of many social institutions, from accounting firms to bureaucracies, and even the Catholic Church. Even the media are being called upon for more balanced reporting and greater social responsibility.
Q: Social phenomena and history are often cited in these discourses.
A: Yes, because they are very informative. Society is merely the collective ego in action. It is easy to observe and study for it is really the externalization and dramatization of the ego. One can more easily identify error if it is
CONSIDERATIONS 249
considered to be 'out there' rather than 'within; however, with awareness, information, and compassion, the same errors can be discovered to be within without undue guilt or shame. The ego is merely the human condition. It is simply a construct and not really personal except to the degree that one identifies with it and terms it 'me'.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KARMA
Q: Elsewhere you gave an explanation of karma. Can you elaborate on it?
A: The entire universe and all that it contains operate as a unitary, karmic unfoldment of God Manifest in that each and every element in it becomes the fulfillment and expression of its own essence. Thus, the experience of life is the interactive dance of all these fields, which is the consequence of the divinely ordained capacity for existence.
That which has existence may also be created with the capacity for life and thus become a 'being'. 'To be' is to exist with the consciousness of life itself as the light that illuminates the capacity for awareness.
Inasmuch as the entire universe and everything in it is a karmic unity, the Allness of Reality is the realization of enlightenment. If all is a karmic unity that originates from the same source, then to see any separation is an artifact of perception. In Reality, the one and the many are the same.
Anyone who is familiar with kinesiology can easily answer all questions about karma. In essence, individual karma is an information package (analogous to a computer chip) that exists within the nonphysical domain of consciousness. It contains the code of stored information that is intrinsic to and a portion of the spiritual body or soul. The code represents a condensation of all past experiences, together with associated
nuances of thought and feeling. The spirit body retains freedom of choice, but the.range of choices has already-been patterned.
It is obvious that propensities would tend to recur but, at the same time, afford opportunity for change; for example, to transcend the paradox of opposites. The soul may choose physical reincarnation, become a discarnate, or explore the astral realms and thus struggle in hells and purgatories or, more hopefully, follow into the heavens because of the support of and surrender to Love, Truth, God, and/or a Savior.
The choice between pride or humility has a considerable bearing on one's karma. With kinesiologic questioning, it was clarified that the purpose of the Buddha was to teach enlightenment. In contrast, Christ came as a Savior to the souls of all those who had not accepted their spiritual reality. The Buddha taught enlightenment and Christ taught salvation.
Without the understanding of karma, earthly life appears to be unjust and cruel. To the naive, the wicked appear to go "scott free" while the innocent are slain. Therefore, faith is the crutch relied upon by most people to explain this paradox. Faith is the conviction that there is a divine reality beyond appearances. From our own research and experience, it is well-founded.
Q: Why can some people recall past lives?
A: Below consciousness level 600, there is usually amnesia for past lives because of the identification with the body/ mind as the reality of'I-ness'. This amnesia can be transcended in altered states of consciousness, out-of-body experiences, dreams, hypnotic states, near-death experiences, and spontaneous flashbacks. The clinical practice of past-life regression is well-known and can be very effective clinically for uncovering past-life traumas and errors that manifest in this lifetime as illness or psychological problems. The therapeutic use of past-life
KARMA 253
regression can indeed produce spectacular healings and results. In addition, young children also speak spontaneously about past lives, and some even recall their prior existences in verifiable detail.
Above consciousness level 600, past lives are accessible because the identification of self is with the witness/ experiencer/awareness of consciousness. With recall, one can see that there is a concordance with major significant spiritual events of past lives and the events, attitudes, and psychological configurations of this lifetime. Upon reflection, a pattern emerges that reflects what might be called the journey of the soul.
The Buddha recalled numerous past lifetimes, but this awareness is not part of traditional Judeo-Christian tradition, although it is a major understanding of other world religions that stretches back into antiquity. Spiritual research reveals that although the Buddha had many past reincarnations, Jesus Christ did not, and He did indeed 'descend from Heaven' without having any prior human lives.
A pathway that excludes awareness of karma must then rely heavily on faith or there would be no other spiritually integrous way of explaining the events of human life. The downside is that if faith or belief are lost, the disillusioned spirit is then vulnerable to either sinking into despair or latching onto a substitute for God. In the Western world, this is a very common occurrence and accounts for the fact that the intellect, in its expression as reason/logic/science, is now the main hope for the betterment of life. When this occurs, the mind and reason become deified and treated as though they were a religion. People become dedicated with great fervor to social and political causes and intellectual positionalities that are then elevated to become the new supposed saviors of mankind. That proclivity is characteristic of the consciousness levels of the 400s, which are rarely transcended.
We see that ninety-six percent of the world's population never transcends consciousness level 499. Intellect, however, need not totally displace spirituality; thus, many people in the 400s, although they place great faith in the intellect, are simultaneously involved in religious or spiritual pursuits. The wise know that the intellect can take one only so far, and beyond that, faith and belief must substitute for knowledge.
Q: What are the various karmic potentialities of consciousness after death of the body?
A: They calibrate as follows:
Consciousness = Various Levels of Hells and the Lower Astral Domain
Levels below 200 Consciousness
Levels 200-240 = Consciousness
Levels 240-500 = Consciousness
Levels 500-600 = Consciousness
Levels 600+ =
Inner Astral Planes
Higher Astral Planes
Celestial Realm
Heavens; Persistence of Form
= Higher Heavens (Nonform)
Research reveals that the heavens are the destiny only of souls that calibrate over 200 and that there are multiple heavens which reflect different spiritual groups and their belief systems. Historically, various religions have specified certain 'requirements' necessary to 'get into heaven'. It is as though each group then goes to 'its own' heavenly region but naively assumes that it is 'the only one'.
It is reassuring to discover that there are multiple provisions for spiritual destination. That each 'goes to its own' is in accord with the overall characteristics of consciousness. Faith and dedication bring their own rewards. To recognize that there are multiple heavens and that each is in accord with its own adherents means that religious conflict and rivalry could be dispensed
KARMA 255
with out of respect and humility. It is the naive claim to exclusivity that results in the discord between religious groups.
All the great teachers proclaim the seriousness of 'avoiding sin', which means to avoid behaviors, attitudes, and affiliations with the energy fields that calibrate below 200. They teach that these are the pathways to the spiritual realms of great suffering which are therefore called "hells." Hells refer to spiritual torment and despair, and most of the people in their current earthly lives have already experienced at least some of the upper levels of the 'hell' of despair, depression, fear, terror, loss, and anxiety.
It seems obvious that guilt would result in a penitent realm of suffering in which one can reach great depths. The levels of hell were accurately depicted by Dante. Artists such as Hieronymus Bosch generally illustrate the upper levels of hell in which form predominates. Much more grim are the lower levels of hell which become, paradoxically (like the upper levels of consciousness), increasingly formless and finally sink into timeless, insurmountable, nameless dread and hopelessness.
In the lower regions, time stops and suffering is experienced as eternal and never ending. Thus, as one enters the lower levels of hell, there appears the knowingness that may be visually experienced as the sign "Abandon hope for all eternity." There the soul goes into the infinite hell of timeless despair as though being shut off totally and forever from the Light of God.
In this lifetime, such was the actual experience. Somehow, out of the formless, timeless depths of hell, some aspect of the spirit survived and prayed "If there is a God, I ask Him for help." This was followed, mercifully, by oblivion. After an indeterminate period of temporal time, consciousness returned, but it now entered a completely different and stunning realm of splendor in which all prior sense of self was replaced by an Infinite
Divine Presence. The mind was silent in awe of the splendor of the revelation of Divinity as the source and essence of all that exists. Spiritual truth shone forth with profound clarity. All sense of a separate personal self had been obliterated, and the only reality that remained was the Infinite Allness of the Presence. Many years later came the recall of the Zen saying that "Heaven and Hell are only one-tenth of an inch apart."
The power of the experience took thirty years to integrate in order to be able to even speak or write of it. There was nothing to say and nothing that could be said until the work occurred that allowed for an explanation, which resulted in the writing of Power versus Force.
Prior to the transformation, there seemed to be a central self which the ego assumed to be the cause of actions. This was totally wiped out by the Presence, and subsequently, the illusion of cause disappeared and was replaced by the awareness that all is occurring spontaneously as a result of its essence as created by Divinity. All is happening spontaneously because of its own innate nature interacting with the innate nature of everything else. There is no cause' of anything. Action is an interactive dance of the responsiveness of life.
Explanation
The statement "There is no 'cause' of anything" calibrates at 999. The Buddha's Law of Dependent Origination or Interdependent Co-creation calibrates at 965. The Buddha's law pertains to the evolution of form or existence, that is, the Manifest. However, the Buddha stated that the Ultimate (the Void) was beyond form and there was nothing that was permanent (i.e., the Law of Impermanence, or Anatta). The soul is the nonphysical residual of the ego, and as the ego dissolves, even the personal soul, with its karmic propensities, dissolves into the Unmanifest Oneness of the Ultimate Reality. Inas-
KARMA 257
much as no separate 'things' exist in the Nonlinear Reality, no explanation such as causality' is necessary. By analogy, once a drop of water falls into the ocean, it becomes one with the ocean.
Q: Why were these extreme states at both ends of the spiritual spectrum never shared with others?
A: There was no context in which they could be explained. To speak of such matters to others would have been meaningless. There was once a spontaneous meeting with a stranger on the streets of New York City in which the enlightened awareness of the truth of the Self was wordlessly exchanged and mutually recognized. Some years later, there was a brief encounter with Swami Mutkananda, and sometime after that, there was a lengthy exchange over several days with Ramesh Balsekar. This entailed discussion on the significance of transcending the opposites of existence versus nonexistence. Ramesh Balsekar had become enlightened as a result of being Nisargadatta Maharaj's translator and close associate for more than twenty years.
Q: Was the state of awareness that presented itself as the Presence stationary?
A: It was stationary for some years during which there was a relearning of how to be in the world. This was occasioned by the fact that there was now nonattachment rather than detachment. Had there been detachment, there would have been no return to the world. With nonattachment, the personality is free to interact. It has no effect on the state of awareness.
Years later, however, consciousness began to evolve again and progress. This required leaving the ordinary world for many years. Seemingly abstract dualities of advanced spiritual awareness presented themselves. Any impediment to the advancement of consciousness was accompanied by an intense, burning pain that was experienced as an incessant torment. Once the gates of the paradox were transcended by a higher recon-
textualization, the distress disappeared. It became apparent that these were some of the seeming 'demons' that had 'attacked' the Buddha. They represented the collective energies of the lower ego states that had accumulated in consciousness over great expanses of time. It is as though the very foundations of the ego are strongly defended, and the defense increases in intensity as its survival is threatened.
The psychic opposition to spiritual progress became extremely intense. It then progressed, and each progression was accompanied by a recurrence of what could be termed 'psychic attack' by the seeming opposite of the more advanced truth. It was as though dominions were being threatened by the advance of truth.
On one occasion, there was no worldly presence, but on the consciousness level, there was an encounter with a more rarified luciferic presence that promised great power if one went into agreement with it. When this was refused, it retreated. This occurred at what might be analogously referred to as a high-altitude fail/pass test. One could see and know that Christ had passed through that temptation and had also refused it.
It was also obvious that not every entity that had reached this fail/pass test had refused the temptation. In itself, the temptation was craftily presented nonverbally as an understanding that "now that you realize that you are beyond all karma, you are free, without any consequence, to reign with great power because there are no consequences for your actions, and no longer are you subject to consequences."
It was clear that the great avatars had passed purely through this temptation, and it was also clear that it was at this point that a number of aspirants had fallen. Thus, this consciousness countered, with an absolute declaration, that the condition could never be used for gain. With the rededication of the power of that level to the service of God, the tempting energy/entity/conscious-
KARMA 259
ness disappeared. (The luciferic error is that although a spirit has evolved beyond ordinary human karma, it is still subject to the karmic laws of the universe and God.)
The luciferic temptation that occurs at this level is subtie and sophisticated. It plays on advanced but as yet incomplete spiritual knowledge and understanding. The presentation is as follows: "Now that you are released from the attachment of love and realize that all karma was only based on illusion and that there is no fearsome, judgmental God or any others' to be encountered, and now that you are beyond form and therefore beyond karma and totally free, your power is unlimited. Own that power as yours." The offer is to join the power for power's sake and reign in the luciferic domain. The temptation is to the spiritual ego to obtain God's power but to reject God's love.
Historically, Jesus recounted that Lucifer requested him to bow down before him. Then he would own the power over all the world. The meaning generally inferred by Jesus' description was to surrender to Lucifer instead of God. The Buddha also described similar temptations. The realm of Lucifer is devoid of love.
The absence of love is also a requisite for membership in the high ranks of the satanic realm. This surfaced visibly in the training of Japanese soldiers in Nanking during World War II, and also again in Cambodia during the reign of Pot Pol. Sympathy or compassion for the defeated enemy or captives was reviled. The supreme demonstration was by a soldier who gleefully bayoneted an infant to death in its mother's arms. It is the satanic energy that surfaces as torture. The conversion to the ranks of evil' are complete when the recruit gets pleasure and satisfaction from the pain, agony, and suffering of others, especially if they are innocent and helpless. War is the ultimate recruitment center for satanic beings who are also lured by rape, pillage, arson, and mass destruction.
What can be explained about the so-called astral realms?
There are an infinite number of universes that exist in infinite dimensions. The world is merely one possible expression of Creation which we call physical from the positionality of the human point of view. Because the world as viewed from this human positionality, with its innate human egocentricity, is considered real, it is then considered that other universes are fantasies, or unreal.
We now have a reliable method to investigate these areas of uncertainty. Historically, sacred scripture has not said that such realms are unreal but has, instead, warned us to avoid the supernatural and other realms. The astral realms are domains that are dangerous to humans for a variety of reasons. They are invisible and cannot be verified by consensual validation and are domains that are unknown to the average person. They are occupied by entities whose energies and intentions are unknown. They are extremely clever and able to seduce innocent humans to yield to their influence. The lower astral realms also include extremely dangerous entities that have the capacity to 'take over' the consciousness of weaker humans. The lower astral domains contain an endless number of energies that sound pious and spuriously claim to be spiritual guides, with names such as "Master," "Baba," "Brother," etc. The human is gullible because of the thought that anything nonphysi-cal, mysterious, and mystical must be 'spiritual'.
There are an infinite number of astral planes that claim spiritual authenticity. Innumerable channelers have made contact with them and written many books about them. Each of these domains typically has a spiritual hierarchy, some of which even claim to include Jesus Christ. They also include trainings and initiations and are cult-like in their exclusivity and possessiveness. Some of these realms claim to impart 'ancient mysteries' or state that their teachings originate from ancient mystics,
KARMA 261
prophets, Biblical characters, Egyptian priests, etc. Many include heavy reliance on mystical symbols and rituals.
To the naive, all these claims sound impressive. The seduction here is one of glamour and specialness, such as to become an 'initiate' in an ancient mystery school. Even if this were so, one finds an instant difficulty here in that these entities are in a dimension different from that of the human. Even if their claims were valid, the fact is that you as a human are not going to become one of them at all. These entities are living on obscure astral planes. They may give some accordance to this fact and invite, instead, that one's soul 'travel', with promises of meeting the god of their domain who frequently has a somewhat bizarre-sounding name. Then one discovers, if one continues, that beyond the great god', there are other, more vast domains, infinite in number, each of which is again ruled by another entity with a mysterious-sounding name. The requirement is often an oath of secrecy, plus a substantial monetary fee. (Note that in Reality, the Supreme is beyond name and form.)
In researching this phenomenon, something rather interesting was discovered. The lower astral planes are inhabited by entities that have refused and hate God. They are jealous of God and have learned how to mimic human personalities, ambitions, and spiritual teachers. Their ploy is to control humans and divert them to a deliberate pathway on which they are blocked from access to God. During this research session, it was not asked why they had refused God, nor were further inquiries made. It is known that many entities on these planes are experts at deception and that their favorite target is a genuine spiritual seeker or even a relatively evolved aspirant who falls for an astral entity that claims to be higher than Jesus Christ.
It is also known from widespread media publicity that extremely negative demonic energies do, in fact, temporarily inhabit physical bodies, often resulting in gro-
tesque criminality and serial killings. It is not uncommon at all for mentally ill or intoxicated persons or people who have had recent brain injuries to publicly proclaim that they hear Jesus Christ or God telling them to act in ways that are obviously the opposite of all verifiable spiritual teachings, exemplified by the current 'religious' terrorists.
It seems then that to be born a human is a great gift and opportunity, for humans do have access to salvation, heaven, and enlightenment. It appears that this progression is not a spiritual possibility for entities in other dimensions. Apparently they have created alternatives to God that lack spiritual reality, such as the devil, Satan, Lucifer, or a variety of spurious gods' who reign over their limited domains as demigods.
It appears that no real benefit can come to a human who dabbles in the occult or astral and supernatural realms. In fact, serious harm can result. Observe the fact that even in the ordinary world of human life, the human mind cannot tell truth from falsehood, even about simple matters. If so, what chance does the human mind have to discern the truth or falsehood of unknown entities with hidden agendas?
The conclusion of the investigations into the matter therefore arrived at the same conclusions as those of spiritual tradition: Avoid (and that means to not even 'dabble' with) the supernatural by whatever name it calls itself. Let us realize that this world has been blessed indeed by very great spiritual teachers and teachings, all of which are complete and total, and there is no need for any psuedo-teachings from 'other realms', no matter how impressively, piously, or seductively presented.
The Infinite Supreme is the same for all mankind throughout all time. The God of all human religions is one and the same and transcends all the tribal gods of old. God is both transcendent and immanent, both in heaven and within us. The realized Self is the
KARMA 263
knowingness of God Immanent, which is in accord with Christ's teachings that heaven is within us. The infinite, timeless Reality has also been historically referred to as the "Buddha Nature," "Christ Consciousness," the "Supreme" of Krishna, etc.
The naive initiate needs to know that there are false pathways and clever deceivers who stand to gain by engaging the unwary. Christ warned to "beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing." That is a distinction that can now be made with certainty and consensually validated verification. This research is therefore dedicated to that teaching.
Q: At the time of the publication of Power versus Force, some of the calibrated estimates were done in 1994. Have any changed since then? For example, at that time, there were only twelve persons on the planet who calibrated at 700, while eighty-five percent of the world's population calibrated below 200.
A: As a result of the progression of the consciousness of mankind, these figures have changed. At this time, only seventy-eight percent of the world's population is below 200. That is indeed a huge advance, with profound implications. Another change is that the number of individuals calibrated at 600 also increased.
The information obtained is not the result of mathematical calculations but of spiritual awareness and consciousness research. As consciousness evolves, entire nations or cultures are undoubtedly going through transitions. These movements affect the consciousness of the whole of mankind.
It is necessary to transcend the illusion of separation and realize that all humanity is one, and that those endowed beings who calibrate over 600 belong to all of us; they are part of us. They are simply the peaks of the waves on the ocean. Those who do calibrate over 600 identify themselves as all of humanity, which they see as
beloved and sacred. Their energies are available to all. Out of all-inclusive, unconditional compassion comes the healing of all mankind.
Q: Does karma determine the soul's destiny?
A: The soul gravitates to the realms which it has chosen by its own actions. Every act of the spiritual will is strongly determinative. An analogy is that all acts of the will are entered into the computer-like consciousness (comparable to data bank/memory file/floppy disk/CD), which is a permanent track in the soul body within the universal consciousness. These are minute frequency patterns. It was estimated that their energy content was extremely minute by worldly standards (e.g., log 10 to the minus 400 microwatts, etc.) These figures were arrived at by kinesiologic testing and not by mathematical means or experiments in a physics laboratory. (They were reconfirmed in September 2002.)
People are familiar with the term "watts" because they pay their electric bills based on megawatts consumed every month. The purpose of the figures and references is merely analogous to denote in a comprehensible way the registering of actions in the nonlinear domain. The physics and mathematics of the Newtonian paradigm do not apply to the nonlinear domain, and it is naive to try to inappropriately apply the tools of one domain to another.
Although, in Power versus Force, some means were provided to straddle the two realms, the tools of one domain are not strictly applicable to another because different realities stem from different contextual origins. Thus, a questioner said "Nothing could be smaller than a photon." What he meant to say was that nothing smaller than a photon could be found in the physical domain where measurability is a significant concept. In the nonlinear, nonphysical domain of spirituality, such a statement has no significance or reality since the nonlin-
KARMA 265
ear is, by definition, nonphysical, beyond form, nondefinable, nonmeasurable, and beyond Newtonian mathematics.
Perhaps the closest approximation of the crossover from the microscopic, Newtonian, measurable world to the submicroscopic, invisible, underlying Reality is afforded by Quantum Mechanics in which 'observables' are subject to influence and change by the mere act of observation (the Heisenberg principle). The infinite quantum potentiality deflects the interaction of consciousness and the substrate of matter, namely, the wave/ particle potentiality and unpredictability in space or position. 'Observables' replace 'measurables' and are therefore seen to be selections of the intuition of the observer rather than a self-existent, fixed, 'objective' reality. (See Appendix D.)
If a thought is smaller than a photon, obviously it cannot be measured in Newtonian terms. However, the fate of one's soul rests completely in this realm of unseen power in which all that is or ever was stands trackable beyond time. The Unmanifest is not subject to the laws of the Manifest. On the contrary, the Manifest unfolds according to the infinite potential of the Unmanifest, which one might call the Laws of Creation.
Although the calibrated figures derived through kinesiologic testing are not measurable in terms of traditional science, they are clinically experientially reliable, internally consistent, and replicable over time by numerous investigators. The impact on a person's present life and the destiny of their soul is profoundly altered by the change of calibratable consciousness energy; it is therefore more powerful than any temporal physical condition. All that is worldly turns to dust.
It is essential to understand that the nonphysical spiritual reality cannot be understood in terms of ordinary intellectualization or reason. The linear and the nonlinear arise from different paradigms and different
contexts. The great value of kinesiologic testing is that it is the only discernible means discovered thus far for crossing over from the linear to the nonlinear because it records and responds based on the invisible, innate quality called 'life'. All scientific instruments, devices, and concepts are by necessity extraneous to the essence of life itself. Science looks at life's consequences and its form. When 'life' is present, the heart beats and brain waves occur. When 'life' is absent, these phenomena stop. Both the heartbeat and the brain waves are merely the consequences of the presence of life; they are not life itself, which is intangible.
When 'life' leaves the physical body, we can still track its presence and state and ascertain that the life of the life energy goes right on, uninterrupted. Life itself is not subject to death. If we track the life energy as it leaves the body, we note that it continues on at its calibratable level, the same as before. The human imagination assumes, of course, that it goes 'elsewhere'. In Reality, there is no 'elsewhere'. Outside time, location, and temporality, there is neither 'here' nor there'; there is neither 'now' or 'then'. If the ego still predominates, the soul will think it is 'located' in a specific realm in accordance with its calibratable level of consciousness. It will therefore 'find' and experience its own definition of reality in a nonphysical realm.
The soul has its own karmic 'buoyancy'. We call its destination the 'inner (nonphysical) realms'. Consciousness is capable of the subjective experience of'reality' at any level. As we see from the preceding chart, the realms of consciousness beyond physicality are still capable of appearing as form. Form can only be explained by consciousness itself, which is intrinsically beyond form. Form can only be experienced by that which is innately formless. Form can then continue to be experienced as a reality after physical death. There are an infinite number of such nonphysical 'realities' encompassing all possible
KARMA 267
levels of consciousness. This is in accord with man's collective wisdom throughout the ages. To be enlightened merely means that consciousness has realized its most inner, innate quality as nonlinear subjectivity and its capacity for awareness.
Q: Is there such a thing as 'collective karma'?
A: Our research indicates that such is actually the case. Throughout history, mankind has participated in and identified with many group activities by an assent of the spiritual will. History is replete with invasions by great hordes of conquerors, armies of men, occupational choice, and other group identifications. We are subject to that with which we identify. The vibrational pattern of choice and identification is recorded in the field of consciousness itself. To ascribe to a group potentiality subjects one to the karma of the group. Thus, entire groups appear and disappear over time and then reappear later in different garb and social expression.
The influence of the context of consciousness attracts and repels certain behaviors or proclivity to be reborn into certain tribes, nations, classes, gender, races, occupations, etc. We see that over time numerous disasters simultaneously befall groups of individuals who share the same karmic destiny.
Q: What is the subjective reality of the sage?
A: The Self is beyond, yet innate, in all form—timeless, without beginning or end, changeless, permanent, and immortal. Out of it arise awareness, consciousness, and an infinite condition of at home-ness'. It is the ultimate subjectivity from which everyone's sense of T arises. The Infinite Reality does not even know itself as T but as the very substrate of the capacity for such a statement. It is invisible and all present. In ordinary terms, it is more like a quality that is devoid of any innate content but is capable of any content. It is the quality that makes experiencing or
witnessing possible. The source of the Self is the reality of Divinity. Although it is the, source of existence, it is not subject to it nor is such a term applicable.
Q: What is the meaning of the term "God's grace"?
A: God's grace could be understood as the absolute certainty of the karmic coherence of the entire universe in all its expressions as realms and possibilities. Grace is the provision within the realm of consciousness for the availability to use all the means to salvation and absolute freedom. By choice, one determines one's own fate. There are no arbitrary forces to be reckoned with. Love chooses love and goes to love. The mechanism of forgiveness affords that very forgiveness. The entire universe is encompassed by compassion, which is available to all. Prayer is effective. God does not 'decide' in some arbitrary manner. The innate qualities of Divinity are mercy and compassion. There are no favors to be sought. It is only necessary to accept that which already exists as a given. Grace can only be accepted or denied. An individual soul may deny acceptance because it does not feel it deserves it, but "'Judge not,' sayeth the Lord." Otherwise, one would be at the mercy of the positionalities of the ego.
Q: What about Judgment Day?
A: Man extrapolates the ego's qualities to God and then fears God. Judgment Day is every day; it is already here and is constant and unending. (The calibrated level of this statement is 999.)
Q: In a physical life, when does karma begin?
A: An interesting fact that is probably of great importance for some people to know is that the human soul or spirit does not enter the embryo until the end of the third month of gestation. Consciousness research has verified this fact repeatedly. The embryo is like a house that is
KARMA 269
being built for a later occupant. Until the end of the third month, there is no intrinsically human occupant as such. If the embryo aborts or dies in utero, the soul has to find another viable embryo in which to incarnate.
Q: Recent science predicts that eventually there will be an end to this universe. If so, what will become of human destiny?
A: This physical universe is only one of an infinite number of dimensions. Because of the ego's identification with physicality, time, and place, it imagines its reality is limited to this perceived universe.
Q: That the spirit does not unite with the body until
around the end of the third month of gestation is very interesting. When then does the soul leave the physical body at the end of physical life?
A: If death is sudden, it leaves instantly. If death is slow, it starts to leave before actual physical death. In cases of senility, Alzheimer's Disease, or progressive, severe disability, the aware aspect of the spirit departs and begins to locate in the spiritual dimensions. Anyone who has worked in nursing homes has observed this phenomenon as commonplace. The family will also say that the person "isn't there anymore." The etheric energy body still remains with the physical body until the end of the physicality, but the mental consciousness is no longer dominant.
When consciousness begins to depart from the physical body, there is a progressive loss of memory, orientation, and the capacity to recognize family members. Cognition and comprehension no longer function. Prior to or concurrently, there may be a period during which the person has 'cat naps', and they report visiting various heavenly realms. The majority of dying persons exhibit a profound sense of peace.
Q: You said before that people do not actually experience their own death.
A: That is true because the sense of T dissociates from the body and the body's death can only be witnessed, if at all. The body is only a past memory, and the awareness of a new reality takes its place. The body is merely forgotten and ceases to be an existent reality of any interest. The new reality at death is overwhelmingly absorbing. This is also confirmed by near-death or out-of-body experiences.
It is reported in spiritual tradition that it takes the spirit approximately three days to complete the total relinquishment of the body. This fact is also confirmed by kinesiology testing. Therefore, it is traditionally advised to wait for three days after death before cremating the body in order to allow the soul to complete the separation process without residual longing, grievances, or loss.
When the sense of T no longer includes the physical body, there is the cessation of the fear of survival. A multitude of vulnerabilities disappears and is replaced by a profound sense of safety and well-being. A whole myriad of defenses and mechanisms is no longer needed and is therefore dropped, with great relief. In addition, that basic, underlying, unconscious, ever-present fear of physical death that has plagued one's life has gratefully disappeared. The loss of the ego's identification with vulnerable physicality and the illusion that it was the source of existence brings peace.
Q: What reality is there to real death? Is there such a thing?
A: Death means loss of what one identifies with as self. Thus, there is actually a hierarchy of possible deaths. Most basic is the fear of death of the body, subsequent to which is the fear of loss of sensation, memory, and one's life story. Then there is the fear of loss of the emotional body, and so on. The real death that underlies all these, however, and which is actually feared by the ego, is the loss of the ego as
KARMA 271
a separate, autonomous entity. Unlike transcending the identification of the sense of T with the body, the loss of sense of the reality of the ego as T is experienced as death. In fact, it is the only actual death which can occur.
In this life, although the transition in temporal time probably took less than a minute, when it happened, it seemed to occur at such a profound depth and was beyond control or recall. Like the collapse of a building or an earthquake, once the process started, it progressed of its own momentum and brought with it an associated temporary feeling of terror. It was as though the very structure of all that had been the core of reality was disappearing. But then, in its place shone forth the great wonder of the Infinite T of the Self. For a split second, the last remnants of the disappearing ego were struck dumb with awe. All was wordless and silent in the infinite, all-powerful stillness of the Presence. All existence shone forth as an expression of Divinity, and the truth of God obliterated all illusion and pretense of thought. It was complete and total.
Q: Is all fear of death then actually the fear of death of the ego's sense of T?
A: That is true. It is formulated by the mind as the fear of death of the body, which, however, is just a screen. The ego actually fears loss of its own life and identity as T, and the basis for its anxiety is its awareness of its own vulnerability. If the ego were based on an absolute reality, it would be beyond fear for it would know it is timeless and invulnerable. In contrast, the knowingness of the real T includes the awareness of the absoluteness of Infinity. The personal T is 'content', whereas the T of Reality is context. By analogy, the cloud is subject to change and dissolution, but the space of the sky is intrinsically inviolate. Weather comes and goes but the sky itself remains unchanged. Enlightenment is merely the shift of identity from the cloud to the sky.
Thus can the sage say "I am that which is before all universes were born and will remain so and as such after they have all disappeared. Timeless am I the Absolute, no longer subject to death or rebirth."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE FINAL DOORWAY
Historical Background
Throughout eons, consciousness has evolved as the 'soul'. It reincarnates in a successive series of lifetimes, physical or otherwise, which are recorded in the awareness level of consciousness as karma. The interaction of the karmic patterns with the totality of the universe is expressed as the details of an identified lifetime. Once the nonlinear Reality becomes manifest as existence, consciousness identifies with the form as the locus of T of a seemingly separate individual. This self claims authorship and believes it is the source of its own existence. As the consciousness of the soul evolves, it eventually seeks to identify and reunite with its true source. Like an orphan who searches for its parents, the orphaned ego/self longs to return to a home but has lost the way.
Although the ego identifies with the linearity of form and time, its source of life stems from the nonlinear. This is intuited as an ephemeral, intangible, indefinable reality or ultimate Source. As civilizations advance, the source is at first thought perhaps to be a specific cause, located in the sun, the stars, or the moon. Later it becomes intuited to be supernatural and invisible and is identified as spirit. Various conceptions of powerful spirits then evolve to a heavenly god who, however, has anthropomorphic, human-like characteristics. In some cultures, whole pantheons of gods and goddesses evolve with specified domains, such as gods of war, gods of fertility, etc. These gods were arrived at by both conscious and unconscious mechanisms.
The myths and legends of man that evolved over time were definitively studied by the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, who located their origins in man's unconscious mind and their use as symbols. Many deities turned out to be projections from the unconscious mind and later were given expression in fables and folklore. Man also discovered spiritual entities by other means, such as through dreams, visions, spiritual quests, and the psychic revelations of peyote and other herbs. People also had out-of-body and near-death experiences, shamanistic visions, and altered states of consciousness by communication with other realms and entities who could be contacted only in the trance state.
The collective experiences of mankind summed up to the awareness that there were realms other than just the physical, and that influences from these other realms played a part in human life. The next step was to try to entreat these entities and spirits by chants, worship, prayer, sacrifice, incense, smoke, dance, garb, and ritual. Mankind was like a naive explorer without a compass or a map. Therefore, superstition, and then various forms of magic and ritual practices emerged. Formulations became codified and segregated people into religions, sects, and cults.
The naivete of the explorers precluded the awareness that multiple realms were being discovered. The entities that held dominion over some of these realms turned out to be very unpleasant and, in fact, quite fearsome; some were even demonic.
The gods were held responsible for earthly and human events. They were believed to cause earthquakes, floods, fires, famine, and pestilence. Primitive man, therefore, understandably assumed that the gods were angry and redoubled the efforts to appease them with sacrifices of virgins and warriors, food and gold. Guilt and penance gained ground. It seemed that the gods had been affronted.
Even with the advent of monotheism, the anthropomorphic projections from man's unconscious guilt and fear persisted. With monotheism, instead of a whole raft of gods to be ap-
THE FINAL DOORWAY 275
peased, now there was just one super-god. But even this monotheistic super-god had all the basic human failings of the ego—jealousy, partiality, vanity, wrath, vengeance, and judgmentalism. Therefore, the monotheistic god, like the ego, and as a result of the ego, was seen to be limited by positionalities and dualities. It partitioned the wicked and the good, the deserving and the undeserving, the chosen and the condemned. This partialized, impaired super-god then had favorites of chosen races, nationalities, and ethnic and geographic boundaries.
While this monotheistic super-god ostensibly had a good side (love and mercy), that good side was only conditional and actually could not be depended upon. The monotheistic super-god was therefore an admixture of human virtues and faults. At that level, God's love was seen to be conditional, that is, it calibrated below the level of 540, but God was capable of love and therefore calibrated at least at the level of 500.
Inasmuch as the consciousness level of all humanity over the centuries was quite low, the fallacious beliefs easily held sway over the majority of mankind. The god of wrath and destruction seemed believable. Throughout these centuries, only a few enlightened mystics were able to fully comprehend the real nature of God. Their understandings were heard and recorded, but they did not prevail throughout society. (As previously mentioned, the consciousness of mankind at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ was at approximately 100, and at the time and place of the Buddha, it was at approximately only 90.)
Through meditation and insight, advanced spiritual seekers discovered a far different truth of the nature of Divinity than had the masses. While an occasional mystic found favor and schools of teachings survived, many who reached enlightenment stayed in isolation and were unknown to history. Courageously, a very few 'went public' and became the celebrated great avatars of history, out of which arose the world's great religions. Despite the purity of the teachings of the great avatars and enlightened sages, the derogatory depictions of God held sway. Progressively, these contaminations of the ego
crept back into the scholarship of the scriptures and obscured the truth.
Because the negative aspects of these distortions of the nature of God were close to the common human experience of the times, they were easily seized upon and exploited to subserve the motives of worldly power and gain that ensued from threat and intimidation. Although the core of truth remained, the ecclesiastic authorities of the times interfered so that the purity and simplicity of the essential truth were distorted and demeaned by being proximate to and included with dissertations that proclaimed the opposite of the truth. Dualistic monotheism was included and portrayed destructive images of God.
For centuries, dark negativism pervaded the Western religions, with the historic period of the Inquisition as its apex. Because of the horrors of the times, secularization of society then became progressive. The destructive positionalities that had been attributed to God had found a ready conversion into the righteousness of nationalism and 'holy' ethnic massacres. Despite the deaths of millions and the destruction of cities and nations, the basic positionality still operates and is reflected in today's endless social and political conflicts. 'Righteousness' is still the basic tenet of totalitarianism, communism, self-rule, religious persecution, ethnic slaughter, racial strife, class struggle, and zealous political groups. These socialized expressions of the dualistic positionality of either/or continue to impair the life of every citizen who has eventually come to accept the loss of freedom, without protest.
Modern civilized societies tend to calibrate in the 400s, which is the level of education, science, and technology; therefore, the intellect is the main arena of focus. Whereas, in an earlier century, the expressions of the ego's dualistic positionalities resulted in barbaric massacres, in a more evolved society, the same ego mechanism persists. To the skeptical intellect, spiritual truth is illogical, unprovable, and therefore irrelevant, in spite of the fact that to the more mature, advanced, and educated intellect, religion and spirituality con-
THE FINAL DOORWAY 277
tinue to have an important and legitimate place in life.
The United States Constitution was brilliantly crafted (it calibrates in the 700s) in order to clearly define and separate spiritual truth, upon which the nation is founded, from religion. This document reaffirms the validity of spiritual truth yet precludes political domination by any religion, and in so doing, actually ensures the freedom of religion. This was a subtle discernment in that the founders recognized that past theocracies had always brought suffering and disaster, whereas spiritual truth brought freedom and peace. This was indeed a very enlightened understanding.
The purpose of an historical review is to recontextualize the position of the aspirant who has traversed all these awesome levels of consciousness by spiritual endeavor and has arrived at the very last doorways to enlightenment.
The Final Moment
The last confrontation arises unannounced, and, therefore, it is never too early to be prepared. It can happen to a seeming novice, a 'spiritual idiot', or even an atheist at the point of death. It can happen to a lowly sinner in the depths of hell; it can happen as the car rolls over the cliff from a fatal impact; it can happen just as a devotee is about to give up; and it can happen after decades of seemingly futile spiritual practice.
The 'final moment' opens up in a split instant as an overwhelming illumination, realization, and presentation. The last step can be the consequence of the elimination of all that previously stood in its way by virtue of diligent spiritual practice. There are often preliminary warning flashes of advanced insight, or satori—sudden unbidden moments of absolute stillness and peace in which time stops and the perfection and beauty of Creation shine forth.
The underpinnings of the ego are its illusion that it is a separate self and that the perceptions which its positionality produces are real. When these structures are transcended, the ego brings up its last reserves. These consist of the threat of
death or the threat of facing the total void of nothingness or nonexistence. When this arises, it becomes rapidly clear that one is now forced to make a decision and choose. Into this gap in the flow of consciousness there will arrive, beyond conscious recall, the knowingness of the Sage, the Bodhisattva, the Teacher, the Avatar, the knowingness of the Enlightened beings of all times. Instructions will be known: "Hold back nothing; completely surrender life itself to God. Be willing to experience death. Refuse the Void, for it is merely another illusion of the ego and has no reality. Truth has no opposite." Faith in the teachings of those who have realized the truth is crucial. They spring forth into awareness and strengthen the willingness to surrender to and experience the death that is simultaneously the birth of the Self.
By invitation and surrender, death becomes an experiential reality. It can be fearful and intimidating for a brief moment. It is not like the physical deaths that occurred in previous incarnations when one left the body with great relief. This is actually the first and also the last time that real death can be experienced. Therefore, it need be gone through only one time ever. With the courage of conviction and the inspiration of the Self and its teachers, one surrenders to the plunge. For a few moments, the last great fear erupts and one experiences what it really means to die completely as the great door swings open to the Splendor, beyond all comprehension.
The Presence reveals that the Infinite Splendor is actually one's own Self. Innate is the knowingness that one's reality is beyond all lifetimes, beyond all universes, total and complete. One knows the Allness because one is the Totality. There is nothing left to know nor anyone to know about it. The Presence obliterates all but Reality. One is 'home at last'.
In the sudden silence, if karmically destined to do so, the body persists. Amazingly, there is no me' to run it. It is discovered to be autonomous. The universe runs it without any help. It proceeds on its destined course and performs on its own, although for a time it may need help from others in order to survive. Whether it does or not, however, is of no interest or importance.
THE FINAL DOORWAY 279
If the body is destined to survive, it is seen to serve some divinely ordained mission. Intuition infers that there was some prior commitment or agreement to that destiny which is, however, beyond recall. The power of the love of God as the Presence precludes any possibility of resistance. Although a return to the world is not likely, when it does occur, it is provided with unbidden assistance that presents itself as though orchestrated to do so.
Q: To the beginner or even the relatively advanced devotee, these instructions may seem too advanced, yet they must be important and relevant or they would not have been provided at this time.
A: It is never too early to hear the truth. One should not embark upon the journey without conviction and courage. It will require all the strength one can muster. The seeking of enlightenment is not an undertaking for the faint-hearted.
To transcend the levels of consciousness, one rejects negativity and thus arrives in the spiritual domain proper at consciousness level 200 (courage and integrity), and then goes on to develop steadfastness, indus-triousness, and the capacity to focus, perform, and produce. At consciousness level 350, willingness predominates, along with the capacity for acceptance and the re-owning of responsibility. Intelligence, education, and the tools of logic and reason are helpful in mastering the world of form. Although the intellect was a useful tool, it now becomes the barrier. However, the inquisitive intellect becomes interested in and discovers a higher reality. Love and spiritual values replace materialistic goals. Although love is conditional at first, one is no longer satisfied with the barriers and the goal becomes Unconditional Love. At this level, the presence of God as Love begins to transform all life, and spiritual inspiration beckons one onward to the full realization of the Reality that is already present as the Self.
At any phase of this progression of consciousness, the doorway may suddenly present itself. It can open suddenly, even to thosewho calibrate well below the level of 200, in the realms of hopelessness, depression, and fear, as well as the various levels of hell and suffering. It is therefore important to hear of what may seem like premature information. A description of that final doorway may seem formidable and even intimidating to the ego; however, without advance instruction, confrontation of the doorway by those who are unprepared may indeed lead to two important, serious mistakes.
Although it takes serious commitment to reach the final door, the willingness to surrender one's life to God may falter. To turn back at this moment may precipitate a very profound sense of guilt, failure, and serious depression. The feeling that one has failed at the ultimate human endeavor can be crushing. At this point, the ego rushes back in with a full-scale, retaliatory attack. Any remnants of the ego become resurrected. If commitment survives, much help may be needed; however, the inner pain again drives the motive of transcendence and recovery is thus possible, but unfortunately, it can be long and painful.
When the ego has been cleared of identifiable programs, it then faces dissolution since its software or tapes have been erased. However, it has one trick still remaining, a great trap into which even famous spiritual adepts have fallen. This is the great confrontation with the supposed reality of the abyss of the 'Void'. That this is merely a product of the ego rather than Reality is already known to students of these presentations. They will remember that there is no opposite to theAllness of God. Nothingness is neither a possibility nor a reality. It is the ego's last desperate bid for survival.
The groundwork for the acceptance and believability of this error has been laid by misunderstanding the teachings of the Buddha. The correct translation of the
THE FINAL DOORWAY 281
Illumined State as "void" actually means "devoid of content, not containing any thing or form." It was misconstrued as meaning "nothingness" as the supposed opposite of Allness. Using reason as a tool, it can be seen that nothingness cannot exist, or be, or represent a valid option.
The paradox of the void of nothingness versus the reality of Allness is the last great positionality to be transcended. Were it not for the presumed authority of certain misinterpretations of the Buddhist teachings, it would have fallen away as an error that is resolvable just by reason. If the nothingness of the Void were the absolute reality, then there would be neither a seeker nor a void to be found. To be truly void, even voidness would not be a realizable option as there would be nothing to realize and no one to realize it.
The Void is not to be feared but refused. The Void is a trap for the aspirant who follows the pathway of negation. It does not present itself as an option to the pathway of affirmation, for to such a pathway, voidness would present itself as total non-love.
Allness versus Nothingness is a classical duality and is the ultimate pair of opposites to transcend. When one follows the strict pathway of negation, the state of Void as such does indeed present itself. This results from the error of avoiding love due to the misunderstanding of love. The attachment to love is really the trap and the barrier to enlightenment. In Reality, love is freedom, but attachment to love is a limitation.
Another error of the pathway of negation is the teaching that one should release all beauty, perfection, and joy. Here again, the attachment to these is the barrier. In actuality, these are the attributes of God. To negate the attributes of God is to facilitate the arrival of the option of the Void.
The Void is indeed very, very impressive. One is beyond karma and all programs. This state appears to be infinite,
endless, nonlinear, and forever. It is so profound that it precludes any thought. It is a nonlinearity, devoid of any content. Importantly, however, there is something missing, and that is the presence of Love. This state presents itself as 'beyond Love', and therefore believable to the pathway of negation.
In the experience of that state of Void, simultaneously present was the knowingness that if the Void, or nonexistence, were the ultimate reality, then what still existed in order to witness the nothingness? If the Void were the ultimate, there would be no survival to claim its authenticity. The benevolence of the Self seemed to be the source of the call, but to respond to it took prolonged and intense endeavor.
This final duality of whether the Ultimate Reality is existence or nonexistence had first presented itself in this lifetime at age three. This soul had gone that way before and, as a spiritual adept, had chosen the Void. Thus, at each physical death, consciousness went into the Void because of its belief in its reality, and then it was shocked and surprised to finds itself back in another physicality. If the Void were the Ultimate Reality, no return to consciousness would have been possible. There is no 'knower of the Void' for such a knower would also have been voided. Because the Void is an illusion and not a reality, one cannot stay in the Void. When one realizes the error, one recognizes that what had been experienced had been oblivion. (The calibration level of this explanation of the Void is 1,000.)
Oblivion is not an unwelcome desire of the ego; in fact, many people consciously look forward to the supposed oblivion of death (meaning no more possible suffering). One can be sympathetic to that wish, but Reality is insistent that one return to consciousness, awareness, and the continuation of evolution.
To repeat, there is no opposite to the Allness, Love, and Totality of God. Unless one is unreservedly willing to
THE FINAL DOORWAY 283
surrender one's very life and die for God, then spiritual purification should be the goal of one's endeavor instead of enlightenment.
Q: This brings up an often quoted saying, "Nothing is impossible to God!"
A: That is a paradoxical absurdity. It is not possible for God to be non-God, for it excludes the meaning of the word "possible." It is usually quoted in the context of an argument to justify some positionality. Like the hypothetical proposition, it has no basis in Reality and is merely a semantic game. When used correctly, the quotation does try to explain the unlikely or miraculous, but it is meaningless unless correctly contextualized. The miraculous is a true possibility and therefore does occur. Most often, however, the miraculous occurrences are known only to the participants.
Q: What seems to be the meaning of "The Second Coming of Christ"?
A: Because the unenlightened person believes that they are a separate physical body, the expectation, therefore, is of a physical reincarnation of a Christ with historical connection to that appearance of Jesus two thousand years ago. The term "Christ," however, generically refers to the ultimately possible level of consciousness on this plane. The conscious awareness of the Self as Divinity manifests as Christ Consciousness, which calibrates at 1,000.
The prediction is that Christ Consciousness will prevail upon the earth. It could be that, inasmuch as the consciousness of mankind prevailed for many centuries at 190 and only very recently jumped to 207, this signals the beginning appearance of the dominion of Christ Consciousness on Earth (calibrated as "true"). Whether or not a physicality is necessary to confirm that reality may be seen as relevant or irrelevant. The need of the
majority of humans for a real human personage could be a 'necessity' capable of-.being granted.
There is always difficulty in interpreting scriptural quotations as to the level of meaning intended, and, therefore, the use of the kinesiologic test for truth can be very informative. For instance, when Christ said to build this church upon this rock, did he mean a physical rock, St. Peter, or the rock of his revealed Truth? A physical rock is only transitory and subject to time, but the rock of Truth is forever sublime and transformative. One would presume that even if a physical rock was referred to, it was meant to be symbolic of the solid ground of certainty. Again, does the word "church" mean a religious organization, business corporation, or an architectural edifice, or does it mean a body of teachings of truth, such as the Scriptures?
Q: Aside from the traditional practices of spiritual purification, others are recommended, such as the method of self-inquiry taught by the sage Ramana Marharshi. Is this effective or spiritually practical?
A: The teachings of any sage are valuable. The teachings of Ramana Marharshi calibrate in the 700s. Another value is that he lived in recent times and his sayings, like those of another enlightened sage of his time, Nisargadatta Maharaj, were recorded verbatim. Marharshi taught that there are two main avenues open to the spiritual initiate: (1) Surrender oneself and the will completely to God, or (2), by the practice of self-inquiry, realize the Self. This latter method depends on the spiritual seeker's keeping ever present in their mind the question "Who am I?" The focus of attention is to be withdrawn from the world and directed inward to discover the Inner Presence as the Light of Consciousness. (It may be more effective to inquire "What am I" rather than "Who.")
To use his analogy of the movie projector, the bulb is the light of the Self that shines through the figures on the film, which are the contents of the ego's perceptions,
THE FINAL DOORWAY 285
positionalities, and beliefs. The movie is then seen on the screen of consciousness, and the unenlightened believe that they are the figures in the movie.
Marharshi spoke of the importance of locating and being aware of the inner spiritual heart, which is a fruitful focus for meditation. He also taught that it was not necessary to physically withdraw from the world but to practice the method continuously as one went about one's usual daily business. Although he did not go into an analysis of the anatomy of the ego, he did describe the seven spiritual sheaths or bodies that make up the human aura. If a devotee failed to make satisfactory progress, Marharshi frequently sent them off to visit Nisargadatta Maharaj, who was then still teaching and whose style was more brusque and confrontational.
As elsewhere mentioned, when Maharaj became enlightened (he calibrates at 700), he walked away from his business and family and proceeded to walk from Bombay, ostensibly to reach the Himalayas. Along the way, however, he was persuaded by others to return home where he met with visitors in a small attic room above the Bidi Shop. He died in about 1986. His spiritual practice was based on a complete and total faith in the truth of his guru. Interestingly, his translator and close associate over the years, Ramesh Balsekar, became enlightened and later authored a number of books.
At the time of his enlightenment, Ramana Marharshi was not a spiritual devotee but merely followed his ancestral religion to an average degree. Suddenly, while still in adolescence, he felt he was dying, and after experiencing his own death, he was surprised to see that the body was still alive. He did not, however, speak for two years and was kept alive by friends. During the time when he was silent, a local quasi-guru claimed to have been his teacher and apparently signed up a number of followers. During the remainder of his lifetime, Ramana Marharshi never left his ashram. He died in about 1958.
Q: These examples demonstrate that the final doorway to enlightenment can open unceremoniously and unexpectedly at any time.
A: The two sages mentioned above survived successfully. Those who have failed to make it through the door have remained silent. Their experiences, however, would have been helpful to others had they been described.
From consciousness research, we discover that eighty-four percent of those who arrive at the final doorway to enlightenment fail to successfully make the transition. It is therefore in the service of serious students that these teachings are provided and the nature of the condition is described in detail.
Therefore: Be resolute on the level of absolutely no reservation. Avoid the lure of the astral realms. Beware of the wolves in sheep's clothing for they are attracted to the devotee who is making significant progress. Do not accept anyone into your life who does not pass the calibratable level of Truth. Keep your spiritual goal ever in awareness, no matter what the activity. Dedicate all endeavors to God. Remember the true nature of God and avoid any teaching that states otherwise.
All the truth that is necessary to know has already been spoken by actual beings on this planet. All great teachers proclaim the same truth for there is none other. The radiance of the Self within beckons one on and provides spiritual inspiration and strength. The presence of God within is the Source of one's existence; therefore, to seek one's source is in accord with God's will.
The desire to search for God or enlightenment is already evidence of having been spiritually inspired. As the ego vacates, the radiance of the Self uplifts and inspires. Henceforth, it is not possible to be alone. At the critical moment, spiritual commitment and dedication bring forth the unseen help of the great beings who are no longer in physical bodies, yet their energy stands at the great doorway of the final moment when one is
THE FINAL DOORWAY 287
sustained by the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the teachers of Truth.
SECTION FOUR
THE TRANSCENDENCE
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE INNER PATH
Instruction
The straightest way to enlightenment is through devoted introspection, meditation, and contemplation of the inner workings of the ego so as to understand consciousness. The process is energized by intention, dedication, and devotion, and the total effort is supported by spiritual inspiration. The dedication is focused on the process itself as a surrender to God. The focus needs to be intense, and it is energized by fixity and deliberateness of intention. The process is one of discovery and becomes progressively self-revealing.
Every period of focus and practice is equally valuable. Eventually, the tool of'one-pointedness of mind' becomes perfected, which in itself is quite an accomplishment that requires devotion to the task. The devotion becomes self-fulfilling and rewarding.
The actual focus, as explained elsewhere, can be either context or content, that is, central (like focusing on the eye of a fly) or peripheral. Context is all inclusive of the totality of the person and the process—the mind, the body, the style of the practice, the person, the setting, the room, the building, the city, the county, the state, the continent, the world, the sky, the planets, the galaxy, the universe, and the mind of God. With practice, either style becomes familiar. In fact, one could try both to see which is the more natural. It is also possible to become equally adept at either focus (central or peripheral).
Under ordinary life circumstances, the automatic functioning of the ego/mind is taken for granted and not subject to
scrutiny. The very process of studying the mind already begins to diminish the ego's grip. The sense of self begins to shift locus, and the feeling of one's inner T begins to progress through the layers of consciousness.
This simple drill/process/praxis will reveal evermore rarified levels as the ego's 'gravity field' of fascination with mental content, thoughts, feelings, and dialog is transcended. The layers or fields move from the literal, concrete 'thing-ness' and form of the linear domain and begin to shift from specifics to context.
The Progressive Fields of Realization
Content Context
Form Awareness
Register Observer/Witness
Recognition Light of Consciousness
Watcher/Experiencer Manifest as Allness/Self
Unmanifest (Godhead)
As observation moves through the levels, the sense of T and self-definition move with it. The easiest transition is the realization that one is not the focus or content of the mind but the unchanging experiencer/witness/observer. Although the story of life changes, there is always an aspect of consciousness continuously watching and, on a slightly different level, experiencing. The sense of T moves progressively from content to context.
To recapitulate the primary steps: The mind notes a subject of interest that is constituted by form as thought, image, concept, etc. These are registered in consciousness and then trigger the field of memory processes and emotional responses. One will note that memory is filed in its areas of the memory bank according to prior feelings and judgments, such as good/ bad, pleasure/pain, okay/not okay, etc. The registration triggers associated emotions that are experienced at the level of the watcher/experiencer. As one positions the observer thusly, it
THE INNER PATH 293
will be found that the sense of T is identifiable as an impersonal quality that functions automatically to merely 'experience'. The shift of identity to this inner experiencer reveals that it functions automatically, no matter what the content of life may be.
The next step (an easy one) is to notice that the source for experiencing is a field called awareness, which is a priori to the ability to experience. If awareness is lost (as in sleep or anesthesia), or medically ('going unconscious'), none of the lower fields operates. Without the awareness of the witness/ experiencer, there is amnesia, blankness, or oblivion.
The next step is more subtle in that it is the observer/witness who knows whether awareness is present or not. At the level of awareness, thinkingness becomes replaced by the knowingness of the observer/witness as an impersonal function of consciousness. These faculties occur as a function of their own essence and not of a personal self.
The next step is again more subtle. It is important to note that at all times there is the Light of Consciousness, the total field in which awareness is possible.
The final and most subtle step of all is the revelation of the Self as the ultimate Source of Consciousness. The Self then shines forth and reveals its essence as the manifestation of Divinity which, in turn, presents itself as the effulgence of the Godhead—the Unmanifest—the nameless, infinite, supreme, ultimate Source that is infinite context and therefore infinite potentiality and infinite power. The source of Creation is obvious as the manifestation of God as Creator, out of which arises the Light of Consciousness as the Source of life.
The sense of T is an identification and a knowingness that are qualities of the Inner Presence which enable the capacity to know the T as Self. Stripped of all pretenses, the inner sense of 'I-ness' merely knows Itself without any content.
In the state of Oneness, there is no separation between the Presence and the Self, and the self disappears as the light replaces the darkness. The sense of'I-ness' is one with all existence at the very core of its Source.
Truth is revealed from within as an absolute certainty because that certainty is innate to.the Presence. It is radically subjective as the very source and primary core of absolute knowingness. It has no content because there is nothing to know since one's Reality is All That Exists. It is therefore totally silent and devoid of images, words, or concepts.
In its totality, it is the ultimate extreme of pure subjectivity which obliterates all mental functioning. No concepts are possible in the Infinite Light of the glory of God. There is a profound peace, safety, and at-homeness. Completion has finalized. There are no ripples left for they have been dissolved in the infinite gentleness that is innate to the essence of the Presence. To the infinite context, out of which all Creation arises, a multiplicity of universes is only a passing thought, so minute as to be equivalent to a barely discernible fleeting speck. Completion as Perfection and Beauty radiates from the all-present Divinity which is the infinite source of existence.
History and time are products of the ego. In the realm of the Absolute, there is nothing to record.
Q: This recitation is indeed most profound. We calibrated the level of this information at 999.9. The question arises, if the Absolute is beyond time and form, then how does karma become recorded and therefore trackable by kinesiologic research?
A: The highest level of the Manifest is Consciousness, which is formless yet capable of registering form. It can only register that which is real and has existence because that which is false is unreal and has no existence; therefore, it fails to register. The kinesiologic test can only recognize and respond to truth. It has no response to that which does not exist or has never happened; thus, it cannot be used to predict the 'future'. The kinesiologic test is not a "y es / no " but only a "yes" response because to that which is untrue, it has no response. In everyday language, we call the lack of response a "no"; in reality, it is merely the absence of a "yes."
THE INNER PATH 295
Consciousness exists as an energy field without innate form, yet is inclusive of it. Its power is available to the life that it energizes. The amount of power available varies like the intensity of a light that depends on local conditions. By analogy, the closer one is to the sun, the more intense is the light and the energy of radiation.
Spiritual purification is a process whereby obstructions to the light are removed and its unity with the Self is revealed. The analogy of light and darkness is apt. Mankind intuitively understands that meaning. Enlightenment reveals that the Source of existence—the Light which had been sought elsewhere or later—is shining at this very moment.
Q: There is some variation in the depictions of the Ultimate Reality (God) among the world's religions and between them and the great mystics, enlightened teachers, and avatars. How can these variations be reconciled?
A: If properly recontextualized, any differences resolve
through understanding the levels of consciousness. If we look to the avatars, great teachers, and enlightened sages throughout history, their descriptions of the Ultimate Reality (God) are the same. There is an absolute concordance that Divinity is infinitely compassionate, loving, peaceful, silent, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and benign. It is obvious to all that the essence of God shines forth as Creation and is the Infinite Totality and Source of all existence. Divinity is without parts or division.
Any depictions of God that depart from these universal truths stem from lower understandings which are products of lower levels of consciousness. The most frequent is the anthropomorphic error in which aspects of the human ego are projected onto God. These distorted views can be easily calibrated and tracked to their historic origins. Because God is the ultimate context of nonlinear Reality, that reality precludes divisions or positionalities.
Within nonduality, positionality is not possible; thus, dualistic perceptions stemming from positionalities are the source of the misunderstandings about God for which, unfortunately, mankind has paid a great price.
From the above, it can be seen quite clearly that God does not act' or have purposes' and is free of positionalities and programs. Action is a linear concept that requires a subject, an object, and a verb, plus a motive, a means, and an end. If God is beyond action, then there is no basis for the fear of God, who is Essence and not form.
It is to be remembered that the evolution of the consciousness of mankind has been progressive. Many early religious doctrines lacked accuracy, much as navigation did before the advent of the sextant or compass. The real error was in not realizing the limitations of the ego. Because much of ecclesiastic doctrine resulted from positionalities, it lacked inherent authority and substituted authoritarianism. That which is arguable is fictitious because within the realm of Truth, no argument is possible.
Q: Is all religious argument therefore based on misinterpretations and lack of awareness of the limits of the intellect?
A: That is so. The dedicated student of today, however, has immediate access to higher levels of truth and, by kinesiologic test verification, can reach their own conclusions. All that is truly of God brings peace, harmony, and love and is devoid of all forms of negativity. A spiritually aware person realizes that they can only carry the message for it is the inner truth that is the teacher.
Q: Is there some uniform agreement among all religions?
A: All the great religions are monotheistic; that truth is also confirmed by the absolute, subjective reality of enlightenment.
THE INNER PATH 297
All spiritual truth stems from within as a revelation. It is not pronounced from without. Its character is that of a profound knowingness. The Infinite Awareness of the enlightened being arises of its own essence and is never received as information or messages from elsewhere or others'. All information emanates from the intrinsic Divine state itself (the classical 'Purusha' of the sage), which needs no external information.
Q: The world is not very sophisticated or educated about religion or spirituality. In fact, it cannot even differentiate between the two. Does that hinder spiritual progress and the advance of the evolution of the consciousness of mankind?
A: That has been true historically, but it is changing in a positive direction at this time. Until very recently, society lacked the capacity to differentiate a true religion from a fallacious one, such as a cult. Even now, this brings about political conflict when splinter groups take on a political positionality and become a threat to society. This even results in confrontations in the courts of the world's major countries.
Recently, France passed a law to "stop abuse of the state of ignorance or a situation of weakness" because French law sees that it has a responsibility to society to deter perpetration (spiritual rape) by self-serving cults (a cult calibrates below 200). The falsity of supposedly religious yet violent cults is obvious to everyone.
Q: What is the basis for schism within a true religion?
A: Different interpretations arise from ignorance or
positionalities that stem from the lack of awareness of the nature of consciousness or from which spiritual body the comprehension arises (i.e., higher mental, Buddhic, Atmic, etc.) and from which chakra of the predominant spiritual body (heart, throat, third eye, or crown chakra). An historic example is the Christian
dialogue and argumentation (which split the Catholic Church in half) over the validity of the concept of God as Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). This concept confirms that God, the Father/Creator is the transcendent reality. It also recognizes that the Ultimate Reality is capable of incarnation and, therefore, God is immanent in human consciousness as God, the Son/Christ consciousness. Not only is God transcendent and immanent but also available to the human soul as the Presence of the Self, or Consciousness (the Holy Spirit).
From our prior discussions, it is obvious that God is not dividedly triune but that the principle of the Trinity makes that which is difficult to comprehend more understandable.
Other religions have approached the same subject, for example, Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva; or as in Buddhism, Avalokiteschvara (the compassionate one); Amitabha (savior); and Siddhartha Gautama (the historic Buddha).
Q: How can error be prevented or corrected?
A: First, one needs to be aware of the qualities that must be inherent for Divinity to be Divinity and to be the Infinity called God, that is, beyond form; beyond duality; beyond human attributes without parts, actions, or motives; complete and total; beyond time and space, without beginning or end, and lacking in nothing. Out of this Supreme arise infinite compassion, stillness, silence, and peace.
Second, one must have a knowledge of the ego, its mechanisms and its structure, which all rely on form and duality. Then, when any variation arises from what is known to be true, as described above, the origins of the error can be diagnosed to a specific ego function which is calibratable.
Third, the veracity of all teachings is subject to confirmation with the method of kinesiologic testing and
THE INNER PATH 299
calibrating the levels of truth. Thus, these errors can be tracked to their origins, which are specifically positionalities and the true bases for the errors.
Fourth, adequate explanation of the teachings of higher truth need to be presented in sufficient detail to prevent misunderstanding. Errors in history have been due to inadequate depth and breadth of explanation, and therefore, the expositions of truth lack the protective buttress of understanding.
Errors arise from concepts because of a lack of clarity about context. They are also purposely promulgated for ulterior motives and control over others. Ultimate truth is realized as pure, radical subjectivity. It is self-revealing and beyond argument.
Finally, of great value would be a reassessment of scriptures and spiritual teachings through the use of kinesiologic calibration research. Deviations can then be explained and resolved.
Q: What is your advice to a spiritual aspirant who is serious about realizing the state of enlightenment?
A: Spiritual commitment simply means to recontextualize the goal and meaning of one's life. This needs to be done totally, all inclusively, so that life does not become segmented into spiritual work versus ordinary life. All life now becomes spiritual practice because context becomes the priority that encompasses every act, thought, or moment. This poised point of view already results in a degree of nonattachment.
From this viewpoint, the emphasis in practice is to observe all the content of evolving life without making any comment, criticism, or judgment. The prevailing attitude can be stated as "That is how it seems to be." The observer/witness becomes detached from commentary about life and is then capable of transcending opinionation, likes, dislikes, aversions, attractions, arguments, or objections.
Life unfolds of its own and does not need commentary. The habit of editorializing, about what is witnessed needs to be voluntarily surrendered to God.
Although nonattachment may seem like a point of view, it is really not a positionality but a nonpositionality. We see from the chart of the stratified levels of awareness that the observer/witness is already a step beyond the confines of the ordinary ego. This practice quiets the mind and also results in the progressive withdrawal of the ego's habit of projecting the 'me' into everything that happens. When this is accomplished, life then reveals that it is impersonal rather than personal.
This practice results in a progressive withdrawal of ego involvement in the details of life into which ordinary mind gets trapped and entangled. Peacefulness results from being aware yet uninvolved, and the sense of T moves from identification with content to the experiencer, and then to the observer/witness.
Q: Does that not lead to indifference?
A: It does indeed lead to what has been called 'Divine indifference'. The peaceful mind has no thoughts or opinions. Because the knowingness replaces thinkingness, it will be discovered that no commentary is required to successfully fulfill the requirements of life, and that what had been believed to be necessary (thoughts) is actually superfluous. The spectacular beauty of a sunset or beautiful music is diminished by mentalization.
The prevalence of inner silence is the threshold of the dawning realization that everything is happening of itself and that nothing is causing anything; one becomes aware that such constructions are merely mental entertainment.
Q: When mentation stops, does one not feel lost or unfamiliar?
A: On the contrary, one feels 'found' and at home because the mind lives only on the surface of life. When the mind stops
THE INNER PATH 301
talking, one is aware that one is life. One is immersed in it rather than being on the surface, talking about it. Paradoxically, this enables full participation. With dimunition of egocentricity, the joy of freedom and the sheer flow of life sweep one into total surrender. One then stops reacting to life so it can be enjoyed with serenity.
Q: But isn't one supposed to take positions in life, such as protesting injustices, etc.?
A: The mind of the aspirant has to bypass and refuse
temptations. Later it will be seen that nothing was lost as that temptation was merely another illusion. The aspirant gives up the vanities of opinionation and the duties of saving the world. One's inner spiritual evolution is of greater value to society than any form of doingness. The level of compassion radiates out and contributes silently to mankind's wisdom.
Q: By nonpositionality, the sense of self moves out of the 'movie' of content and withdraws from its identification with it. It still recognizes form because of the awareness of the observer. How, then, does one transcend identification with the observer?
A: The ascent of the sense of self progresses through the layers of perception to awareness to the realization that consciousness itself is the screen upon which everything is reflected. It is the innate primordial substrate that illuminates the faculty of awareness/witnessing/observing. It is seen as an impersonal, automatic capacity that is ever present and not subject to editing or volitional alteration. It is the formless faculty which just 'is' on its own. It is unaltered by experience or concepts.
Like the surface of the pond, it reflects but is unaffected by that which is reflected. The surface of the pond makes no selection. When the intrusion of thoughts, positionalities, and opinions stops disturbing the surface, it reflects impartially. The surface does not act
nor does it have purposes or goals. It exhibits no favoritism or oppositions. The reflecting surface does not edit or distort but is always silent and peaceful. It cannot suffer loss or profit from gain. It is the reflecting Light of the Self.
The sense of T is then taken over by the Self as its own. This is beyond volition and emanates of its own accord. The Presence is the Revelation of that which allows for the sense of Self as the priomordial T and is the basis for all subjectivity. Upon the reflecting surface, there is neither subject nor object. The Reality that is the very source of existence is not subject to existence. Its own substrate is the Unmanifest, out of which arise existence and life. The absolute truth of Reality is self-evident; it is beyond is-ness, beingness, or am-ness.
Q: We hear the phrase "That which is looking is the same as that which is found."
A: Actually, that is not correct. Only the self can look. The Self does not look. When the obstacles of the ego are resolved, the Self is revealed; it cannot be sought or found. The clouds evaporate into the sky and the sun shines forth, but the clouds do not unite with the sun.
Q: It now becomes clear why the Buddha did not speak of God.
A: Quite so. There is only the Infinite Reality which is self-revealing in the state of enlightenment; therefore, he strictly taught the way to that state itself. Traditional religions have numerous descriptions, attributes, and qualities ascribed to God so that the Ultimate Truth gets lost in the adjectives. To search for such definitions of God would lead one astray into theology and ecclesiastic doctrines. One then gets enmeshed in lengthy discussions and mentations, such as "Is God just," or the claim of exclusivity to some particular name for God, which is not even a possibility in the Truth of Reality.
THE INNER PATH 303
All kinds of positionalities can arise and lead to tautologies, for the only source of Absolute Truth is subjective verification. Thus, the Buddha was a radical realist. No descriptions of sweetness, for instance, can substitute for the actual experience.
To follow the strict pathway to enlightenment is a specific discipline and commitment. It is not the same as practicing a religion. While there are many tenets of religion that support the search for enlightenment, there are also many that do not and actually constitute a hindrance. To be pious is one thing; to be enlightened is quite another.
Religions usually have a traditionalist faction as well as a liberal one. The conservative wing is usually authoritarian and doctrinaire and tends toward rigidity, and it can also be aggressively judgmental. The 'liberal' wing tends to be more humanitarian and therefore strictly spiritual in the true meaning of the term. Consequently, it is more compatible with the realizations of enlightenment.
Traditionally, dedicated spiritual seekers have formed their own groups and styles of study and meditation. These are usually formed by the followers of a specific teacher or group of similar teachers who reflect the truth of the inner path.
Truly spiritual groups usually have a library available containing the works of the world's great enlightened sages. Although seemingly somewhat slightly different, they are really all the same for there is only one great truth, and the same Self shines forth through each bona fide teacher. There is no doctrine to be followed or forced on others.
With great good fortune, and perhaps as a result of karmic merit, such a committed spiritual group may even have a living, enlightened sage, but that is extremely rare. Truly enlightened sages are few in number and even fewer are accessible.
Q: Is the experience of the actual presence of such a living sage important to the seeker of enlightenment?
A: Actually, it is of very great value. The Self of the enlightened sage radiates the energy field of the Presence. The spiritual aura of the seeker receives into itself the power of the field. Historically, the event is termed the "grace of the guru." It is also a karmic documentation, with unseen benefits.
Over time, the Presence, as a Radiation from the enlightened teacher, has been artistically represented as a halo which emanates from the teacher's crown chakra. With research, one discovers that the energy of the halo always calibrates close to 1,000. For instance, at the Last Supper, the transmission of the Divine Spirit to the disciples is recorded as having been the occasion of the receiving of spiritual vision, which then enabled them to see the transfiguration and the spirit of Christ ascending.