| PROGRAMMING PARTNER: 15TH GENE KEY | PHYSIOLOGY: CHEST (HEART) |
| CODON RING: THE RING OF HUMANITY | AMINO ACID: ARGININE |
| (10, 17, 21, 25, 38, 51) |
As one of the keystones of human individuality, the 10th Gene Key and its frequency bands point towards one of the deepest of all human issues — the notion of self-love. This intangible force within human beings begins life here in the 10th Shadow, where it brings continual focus on your own immediate environment, which is your body. This is one of the most primitive of all the aspects and archetypes within the human genome. At its shadow frequency it tightens all your life force and forces it inward, which in the long run makes it one of the most mystical of the 64 Shadows. It is here that the individual journey towards awakening and transcendence truly begins. However, this genetic centripetal force excludes other beings from your immediate concern and attention. In early hominids, this 10th Shadow ensured individual survival since it put the safety of its own vehicle before anything else. In humanity, to see a person give his or her life for another or for a higher cause is to see this 10th Shadow transcended, as its prime purpose is to put oneself first.
In our modern world, the 10th Shadow still governs us on a collective level, even though it is showing signs of awakening today. The emphasis of the 10th Shadow is on the individual, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Individual differentiation is the cornerstone of evolution itself. If we humans do not discover our own identity and uniqueness, we cannot transcend it and move our society to a higher level. The blessing is that the more different we each allow ourselves to be, the more we operate as a unity. This is one of the most beautiful of all human paradoxes — that only through our very diversity can we arrive at our unity. But there are forces that tug against evolution, and these forces, coming from within, keep us from experiencing our true uniqueness. The programming partner of this shadow is the 15th Shadow of Dullness, and since this 15th Shadow conceals a fear of being different, it shuts you down at a collective level. The 15th Shadow makes us into lemmings that follow the crowd, thus allowing our uniqueness to be over-ridden.
Just as the 15th Shadow puts your attention on everything but your own uniqueness, the 10th Shadow does the opposite — it makes you obsessed with your own uniqueness and how to find it and follow it. Thus in the world today we can see two main types of people — those who follow the crowd and those who try to escape the crowd at all cost. The 10th Shadow does not and cannot consider anyone outside oneself. Through this shadow, you become so self-obsessed that you no longer see or hear the feelings of those around you. This makes it very difficult for other people to relate to you, even though you may feel that you can relate to them. Even though you may have many relationships, the truth is that you really don’t have enough space within your psyche for the concept of others. Everything and everyone is viewed through your own subjective projection field and this loss of objectivity can lead to only one result — it creates havoc in all your relationships.
Through the lens of the 10th Shadow, all you see when you look at others is people you would like to change. Thus you find it extremely difficult to accept anyone else for their uniqueness. In psychology and psychiatry, such self-obsession is known as narcissism and in moderation it is considered to be an essential component of a healthy psyche. However, at the shadow frequency such narcissism, like the legend it is derived from, keeps human beings endlessly trapped by their own reflection. Ironically, the more of an expert you become in the subject of the lower self, the further away you travel from your higher self.
This self-obsession of the 10th Shadow is driven by fear, and it is a very specific unconscious fear — it is the fear of losing your identity. As one of the deepest of all human fears, this fear forces you into a pattern of trying to find out who you are in order that you might find some kind of permanent definition in life. This quest for your true identity is the greatest quest there is. It is the ageless journey of self-knowledge epitomised in the famous axiom cut into the stone above the door of the oracle in Delphi — “Know Thyself.” However, at the low frequency of the shadow level, this quest for self-knowledge becomes an obsession that actually keeps you from defining who and what you are. In your thirst to escape your fear, you create a journey that has no end, filled with drama and adventure perhaps, but ultimately one in which you never have to face yourself. This is the craft of the 10th Shadow — it tricks you into chasing the shadow of your own reflection, and your very journey towards your true nature becomes your own net.
In the modern western world, self-obsession is everywhere. People are obsessed with how they feel and how they look, with what they wear, what they own and where they live. As long as you are looking at yourself you cannot see around you, and there is the rub. Until you come to recognise your own self-obsession you cannot transcend it, which is why it is a necessary evil. All inner journeys begin with this self-obsession and it can truly become an endless labyrinth. Even when self-obsession takes the form of a spiritual search, it can become a trap. In fact, in many ways the spiritual search for truth that is gripping so many individuals in our western world today is the greatest self-obsession of all. The path itself easily becomes an addiction that keeps you from truly being yourself. The more you look for your own true identity, the more ephemeral it becomes.
All circular paths do eventually arrive at breakthrough. Those who tread the path of self-knowledge (the ancient Chinese name for this 10th hexagram of the I Ching is Treading) will eventually escape the treadmill once they realise that what they are seeking cannot be found. This is a spontaneous revelation that can occur only when you have been well and truly lost in the mazy pathways of the self. No one can say how long it will take for such a revelation to dawn, since it differs from individual to individual, but it cannot be faked. The true revelation that comes through the 10th Shadow leads inevitably to the creative explosion that emerges through the 10th Gift of Naturalness.
The introverted nature of the Shadow of Self-Obsession is to deny oneself altogether. This kind of reversal of the energy of self-obsession becomes entirely centrifugal and focuses on everything and anything but oneself. These are people whose lives are lived for others and through others. However, such martyrdom does not have a positive spin and cannot serve evolution. These lives are made up entirely of compromise in which those who deny themselves become like zombies for the collective. Although this kind of language may sound shocking, a huge majority of the world population lives like this — with no real self-love and no true centre or heart within themselves. These people are the prime targets for the great world religions. Their self-denial does not allow them to recognise the Divine within themselves, finding it far easier to project such an authority outside them.
When the self-obsessive force is externalised through the reactive nature, it becomes truly narcissistic in the sense that it excludes all others. Just as the repressive nature denies its own existence, the reactive denies the existence of others. These are people whose lives are based entirely around themselves. The fear within them lives as anger — they project their fear of losing their identity onto others and onto society in general. Such people cannot yield any part of themselves to others. They live in paranoia that the world or others will somehow rob them of their right to freedom. The reactive nature finds relationships the hardest of all, since they are essentially locked in a love affair with themselves, but not with their true self. The true self is everywhere and in everything, since its nature is love. However to realise such a concept, one has to drop the very thing that gives one the illusion of safety — the illusion of individual identity.
The Gift of Naturalness is a Gift that waits within every single human being. It is the centre of your being and only through this centre can you express your own creative uniqueness. The life of every individual human being is a journey through the frequencies of this 10th Gene Key. To be natural means to be yourself. We are all trying to be who we are, but many of us have been conditioned to be other than who we are. It has been this way throughout our history, ever since we began to develop the complex neo-cortex. The moment the mind was equipped to reflect on itself, the primal question Who am I? was born. Prior to this question, human beings did live in the state of naturalness, but only in the sense that they were more a part of the animal kingdom and had not yet fully developed into homo sapiens. Even so, it is still interesting how much we can learn about this 10th Gift through the animal kingdom, whose normal state is naturalness.
The human journey, of course, is unique and is obviously different from that of the animals. We have to solve the conundrum of having a mind that can look at itself. The primal question Who am I? has to be answered before the Gift of Naturalness can once again be realised. There are so many paradoxes in this 10th Gift — the main one being that you cannot be who you are as long as you think you are someone, but you still have to set off and search for this someone in order to realise that they do not exist! There is much tension inherent in this simple little question Who am I? and it is the releasing of this tension around your identity that is the essence of the 10th Gift. The 10th Gift of Naturalness can dawn only when self-obsession exhausts itself. The first great revelation that comes from the journey into your own unique nature is that you cannot be defined by any kind of label. Once you understand that you are neither your name nor your actions, feelings, thoughts or beliefs, you realise that human nature is something far greater and wider than you ever suspected.
At the Gift level of frequency, there is a huge releasing of energy through your being and out into your life as all attempts at defining who you are begin to subside. The usual manifestation of this energy is an intense creativity coupled with a new sense of playfulness. You lose your sense of identity and simultaneously begin to feel centred in a wider context. The Gift of Naturalness cannot be practiced, copied or systematised. It can only emerge through a rising sense of inner freedom and spaciousness. This sense of increasing ease and relaxedness in your life tends to follow an age-old archetypal sequence that appears to be universal. As we have seen, this process — which Jung called individuation — begins with the question Who am I? This question, which may also appear in different guises such as Why am I here? or Why am I doing this?, kick-starts a process of inner questioning about the purpose and meaning of your life.
The second phase of becoming natural tends to be a deep inner questioning and questing in which you isolate yourself in some sense from your previous responsibilities and give time and space to understanding your own nature more. For most people this phase lasts a long time and it is also the phase during which most people become stuck in the lower frequency of self-obsession, falling in love with the endless quest for self knowledge. At a certain point however this phase gives way to a natural collapse and a subsequent letting go of all searching as you realise the futility of trying to find something that is clearly indefinable. This realisation marks a huge transition point in your life and represents the release from your self-obsession. It can also be a very challenging time as you let go of all the constructs and techniques with which you may have identified and from which you derived security. Fortunately this third phase swiftly becomes consolidated and integrated into your being, and you enter a new dimension in which you become more and more deeply relaxed. This fourth phase is something like a rebirth as you externalise what is truly inside you for the first time in your life. It is a time of deep joyousness and purpose and it is only as you find this sense of relaxedness that you begin once again to feel truly natural.
The fifth and final phase of the process of becoming yourself manifests as the flowering of your individualised differentiated self. This is when you hit the peak of your own mythology and bring something entirely new into the world based on the high principle that has always lain latent within you. This final flowering of your inner being manifests as a challenge to the current norm, since your true nature is always found at the cutting edge of evolution. The idea, whatever it may be, represents the true beauty within the individual finding expression in the world.
Throughout this work there are references to the hidden chemical pathways within our DNA. These genetic networks are known as the 21 Codon Rings, and they contain many mysteries. The 10th Gene Key belongs to a chemical family known as The Ring of Humanity which includes the 10th, 17th, 21st, 25th, 38th and 51st Gene Keys. As one of the most complex codon groups, this chemical family holds the keys to the great mythic story lines from all cultures. These six Gene Keys encapsulate all the mythic elements of what it means to be a human being. Wounded from the outset (25), you must do battle with your shadows (38), overcome the limitations of your mind (17), surrender your need to control life (21) and find your true self (10) before you can awaken (51). You can see from this very profound grouping how deeply bonded we humans are by the same basic dramas. There is great beauty to be discovered here, and when you find it, you will finally realise that naturalness is the simplest thing of all. It is simply there inside you the moment you decide to stop arguing with life!
When the differentiated self has manifested its highest expression in the world through the 10th Gift, one final surprise lies in store. There is a sixth phase to the process of becoming yourself that brings an end to the whole notion of self-knowledge. In a sense it is a return to the stage before you asked the fateful question Who am I? This sixth phase is the 10th Siddhi of Being. When the 10th Siddhi dawns in a human being, then for that person even evolution itself has ended. In the 10th Siddhi, the differentiated self spontaneously dissolves in a higher mirror of the third phase in which the constructs of your search for self-knowledge end. However, at this siddhic level, everything dissolves — self, not-self, mind, form, purpose and meaning. The only word that even gives a hint of what the 10th Siddhi holds is the word Being. In the expressions of the mystical traditions, this is sometimes known as the I Am consciousness, although the very use of the word I can be misleading. In the 10th Siddhi there is no sense of I — there is only pure consciousness expressed as being.
The 10th Siddhi is destined to be deeply misunderstood by all those who do not live in its embrace. Along with its programming partner, the 15th Siddhi of Florescence, it inspires one of the great metaphysical paradoxes of all time. This paradox is well expressed through a phenomenon particular to Buddhism — that of arhats and bodhisattvas, the two externalised manifestations of the highest state of enlightenment or self-realisation. Without getting weighed down in hefty Buddhist dogma, these two expressions of human perfection can be understood as representing being and becoming respectively. The arhat is of the 10th Siddhi representing pure Being — a state in which evolution no longer exists or matters. For the arhat, once he or she is enlightened, the whole universe is also enlightened, so there is nothing more to be done. For the bodhisattva, who is of the 15th Siddhi, there is no end to life, which is a continually evolving state of flowering. Thus the bodhisattva takes a vow to deliberately hold back their enlightenment in favour of helping evolution complete itself in the form of guiding others towards the state of liberation.
These two expressions of human perfection — the arhat and the bodhisattva — have caused a great deal of confusion in mystical circles. The way of Being is represented strongly by the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, one of India’s oldest spiritual streams. Through the 10th Siddhi, a great lightness is born, and a great humour concerning life itself. To experience life through the 10th Siddhi is to see everything that normal humans think of as important reduced to a game or illusion. To the arhat, life is meaningless, time is an illusion and therefore evolution itself is a game. Because this viewpoint is generally viewed by the unenlightened as selfish and threatening to their ongoing identification with evolution, the arhat has been mostly eschewed in favour of the bodhisattva. Thus flow the politics of enlightenment! To those outside these states, they appear utterly contrary to one another, but to the being manifesting them, both poles are experienced together. The only differentiation between them is the language that the person uses to describe his or her experience or revelation. The arhat has nothing left to do in the world whereas the bodhisattva has a deeply focussed mission to help others.
The 10th Siddhi is truly a beautiful expression of consciousness coming through the human form. These are people whose awakening encompasses all existence. The intense focus on oneself that comes through the 10th Gene Key finally breaks its identification with form and experiences everything as Self, with love as the fluid in which the multifarious aspects of the Self are floating. You can see how easily misconstrued the message from this 10th Siddhi can become — especially in today’s world, in which we humans are being called to participate more and more in our own evolution. The 10th Siddhi is a reminder that it is all but a game, a leela or play, in which even our loftiest ambitions are ultimately meaningless. Obviously if everyone held this view, evolution itself would stop in its tracks, since this view represents the ending of evolution. The 10th Siddhi sees the beauty of the game of evolution but has no alternative but to undermine it. Being undermines everything — it does not allow identification with anything outside the wonder of the present moment.
To the person who has entered the mystery of the 10th Siddhi, the two poles of being and becoming are one. It is their revelation to rest in the true nature of being and at the same time bear witness to the effervescent flow of form becoming more and more complex through evolution. The outer destiny of each person is governed by the Primary Gene Keys that are genetically wired inside them. Thus it is the Primary Siddhi that determines the language and style of a particular enlightened manifestation. It is perhaps understandable then, and also a little sad, that the 10th Siddhi has been judged so unfavourably by metaphysicians for some time now. The powers that be do not want people to sit idly by and dream away their lives in the divine laziness of Being. Those quieter days of the arhats have been superseded. The modern-day view that holds favour is that of the evolutionist. Today we are obsessed by evolution — by where it is taking us and whether we can control our own direction as a species. At times of potential crisis, like the time we are moving through today, Being is seen as doing nothing. If we are to survive the next few centuries, there are things we must do.
To the one within the 10th Siddhi, there has never been anything to do because there is no one to do it, so why all the fuss about our future? Being is the nature of consciousness in form, and it has no agenda or direction. It simply is. In that simple statement lies a power beyond all comprehension, and it establishes the 10th Siddhi as the sleeping giant within the human genome. Nothing has more power than being itself. We would each do well to remember the nature of being that rests behind all the dramas of the world and our individual lives. To rest unattached in the supreme state of being, whilst at the same time participating in the adventure of our evolution is quite possibly the greatest task that the humans of the future will have to master.