HRIDAYA

Hridaya

photo by Ibai Acevedo

Hridaya is a Sanskrit word that means “spiritual heart”. The translation stems from the root hri, meaning “to give”, da, meaning “to take”, and ya, which means “balance”. So Hridaya means that which gives and takes in perfect balance. That is the true meaning of Love, an energy of unification that exists beyond duality. It’s the ability to see all things as perfect and balanced as they are.

Hridya is not the heart chakra nor is it the physical organ or emotional aspect, but the heart as the central seat of consciousness, beyond body or mind. This spiritual heart is just to the right of the physical heart but transcends all physical and temporal limitations. It is the connection to Source. The God Spark in each of us.

When we are blocked it is usually because we are fixated in the mental sphere, which can create knots in the heart making it difficult to fully connect to this energy of the Creator within. These mental impurities are called sankharas. They are formations of the mind that lead to suffering. They are the bondages caused by our identification with body and mind, our ego identity and the pain it causes to ourselves and others that we all experience in the uncertainty of human existence. These knots consist of thoughts of  “I am that” or “this is mine” and  getting caught in the turbulent emotional dualities of the outer world, and all their complications. This ego identification with body and mind is the cause of karma and rebirth. It proceeds from lack of cognitive knowledge of our true Self or Atman that is one with the cosmic and transcendent reality or Brahman. It forms the basis of the subtle body that continues throughout the cycle of rebirth. Releasing the knots of the heart is also the dissolution of the subtle body and going beyond all karma. The more we can connect with the Infinite waters within the more karma we dissolve and the less we suffer.

When we are able through meditation to unravel the impurities of mind and conquer the over identification with the ego we can fully open up to the spiritual heart or the God Spark within. The energy of spirit is beyond duality and beyond desire. It’s a total unification so there is nothing lacking. All is One. This energy is flowing through everything, everywhere and it is available to us at all times. One need only to tune into its vibrational frequency. It is the Witness. It is the Supreme Consciousness and it is the destiny of every individual to awaken to it. In order to do this we must observe all our negativities and recognize them as emanations of ego consciousness. Accept them, Allow them but let them pass. We must see each person as a reflection of something within us. Each event in all of history and all the events to come as a perfect manifestation of Universal Source. All the goods and all the ills. Can we hold them both in equipoise? Can we accept and even dare to understand this polarity? Can we transcend the limitations of individuality and connect with Infinite Oneness?

photo by Ibai Acevedo

Everything in the physical universe is connected to this God Source to a greater or lesser degree. A rock has less God Source than a worm. A worm has less God Source than a bird because a bird is more complex in its nature. Similarly there are human beings who have more Source energy available to them than others because they have integrated more aspects of themselves and shed more of the mental impurities to allow more of this energy to flow through them. Perhaps they have been able to purify the karma of many lifetimes and reach a state of enlightenment and liberation. The more embodied we are the more magnetic we become. Similarly there are entities that are unseen that contain even more God Force than human beings. Some would call these entities Angels or Aliens or Spirit Guides. These entities exist in an unseen dimension beyond the physical realm and are available to us if we seek them out sincerely and for our highest good. We are never alone in our journey toward Source. The more Source energy we can let in the more we can transcend our physical limitations and finally transcend Samsara or the cycle of death and rebirth in order to move to other realms of learning and spiritual growth. There is wisdom in knowing that we will all make it and nothing is left behind. Every moment is an opportunity to elevate our consciousness and climb the ladder of spiritual awareness. May we all reach the final goal or liberation from the shackles of suffering. May all beings be happy.

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF MUSHROOMS

TYPES OF MUSHROOMS

All mushrooms are not created equal. Some can heal you and offer immunity. Some expand your consciousness and open you up to the spiritual dimensions. Some give you energy and focus. But some are poisonous and can kill you. So knowing what type of mushroom is best for your needs is the first step in choosing the right form of supplementation.

Below are a few types of mushrooms and the benefits they offer :

REISHI

More than 2000 years ago in the Han Dynasty, Chinese healers began using Reishi for it’s medicinal properties. It was know as the “mushroom of immortality” because of it’s immune boosting functions.

The reishi mushroom thrives on the base of deciduous trees in tropical and temperate regions of Asia, and is exceptionally rare in its wild form. It grows in a range of colors, with the red reishi being the most potent and well-known form. Modern healers use reishi mushrooms to boost the immune system, fight viral infections, and treat a long list of illnesses and health conditions, from heart disease to high blood pressure to HIV/AIDS. Some research indicates that reishi mushroom may be effective at fighting cancer, particularly prostate cancer by encouraging the death of cancerous cells and preventing their multiplication. It achieves this through compounds called triterpenes, which improve oxygen absorption in vital organs. The main cancer fighting and immune boosting properties are thought to come from the high concentration of water-soluble polysaccharides. In addition to being an effective immune modulator, it also acts as a nerve tonic, and hormone balancing herb that can bring harmony to the body-mind and spirit. There are several things to take into account when choosing a Reishi supplement. In order to preserve the polysaccharide compounds in reishi it needs to be hot water extracted. However, the anti-inflammatory properties known as triterpenoids need to be alcohol extracted. So it’s best to know what you’e looking for before choosing. The best would be a product that combines the two extraction processes into one supplement after the fact.

BENEFITS OF REISHI

• Detox - Studies suggest that Reishi mushroom can improve liver health by regenerating the cells more quickly

• Refresh the spirit- Reishi can help you deepen your connection to yourself. An enhanced mind, body, spirit connection has proven to benefit health.

• Boosts the Immune system- The immune system fights off infection and disease and cleanses the body of natural toxins. Disorders of the immune system result in autoimmune disease, inflammation, and cancer.  Reishi contains high levels of beta-glucans, one of the most  powerful boosters of the immune system. 

• Improves cognitive ability and energy levels-

  Reishi can help trigger nerve growth, which can boost memory and cognitive function.

• Improves Cardiovascular Health- Reishi has a beneficial impact on cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure. Research has proven Reishi’s ability to help fight against cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses with success.

• Tumor Modulating Impacts-  Many studies show positive effects of using Reishi in conjunction with chemotherapy to lower the negative effects as well as in modulating the growth of tumors.

• Improves Respiratory Health- Chronic respiratory illnesses like bronchitis and asthma as greatly helped when treated with Reishi. It has shown to help the immune system respond better to histamine reactions and help deter allergic reaction. It can be powerful agent of prevention and recovery of Covid-19.

Side Effects

In high does Reishi does have some very rare side effect that may include abdominal upset, dizziness, nose bleeds and dry mouth and throat.

*Please check in with a well-versed healthcare partitioner if you are planning on incorporating Reishi mushroom into your life especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a blood disorder, low blood pressure or will be undergoing surgery.

BUY REISHI MUSHROOMS HERE

CHAGA

Chaga grows mainly on the bark of birch trees in throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It appears as a dark clump of dirt and stands out because of it’s orange tissue. Chaga has many health benefits because it is dense with a wide variety of vitamins and minerals like vitamins B and D, as well as, zinc, copper, selenium, iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, amino acids and fiber. So you can see it’s basically jam packed with nearly everything you need to function properly. It’s a powerful superfood.

Chaga helps to fight oxidative stress and that can help to slow the aging process. So if you’re super vain and want to look and feel young then Chaga could be for you.

Chaga helps fight cardiovascular disease by lowering lipoprotein or LDL, the bad cholesterol. It also helps to lower blood pressure and aids in fighting the replication of cancer cells. Chaga has shown to slow the growth of breast, cervical, and lung cancer cells in a petri dish as well as in mice. Triterpenes, the compound found in Chaga and other mushrooms, causes cancer cells to self destruct according to this 2009 study.

Chaga supports the immune system by regulating the production of cytokines. It helps to fight inflammation in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and may even assist in depression caused by inflammation.

As an alternative to alleviating negative side effects for drugs like chemotherapy and other chemicals that disrupt the body, Chaga is your mushroom.

BENEFITS OF CHAGA

• To prevent and treat cancer
  Laboratory and animal studies suggest chaga may inhibit the progression of some cancers. Studies in humans are needed.

• To stimulate the immune system
  Laboratory and animal studies suggest chaga can activate some types of immune cells. Studies in humans are needed.

• To reduce inflammation
  Laboratory and animal studies suggest anti-inflammatory effects. Clinical trials for this use are needed.

• To protect the liver
  Although protective effects have been reported, these benefits have not yet been studied or confirmed.

DO NOT TAKE CHAGA IF :

• You are taking blood-thinning medications (eg, warfarin): Laboratory studies suggest that chaga may cause additional effects.
  

• You are taking diabetic medications: Laboratory studies suggest that chaga may also lower blood sugar, causing additional effects.

• You have kidney disease: Chaga is high in oxalates and may cause kidney problems in some individuals.

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LION’S MANE

Lion’s mane is a large white, shaggy mushroom that looks like the mane of lion as it grows. Lion’s mane mushrooms can be enjoyed raw, cooked, dried or steeped as a tea. Their extracts often used in over-the-counter health supplements. Many describe the taste as being almost like seafood in flavor. It has many benefits especially for the brain, gut, and heart. Lion’s mane can be a powerful nootropic mostly because of it’s powerful anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunostimulant properties. This is perhaps it’s most attractive feature. Animal studies show that lion’s mane mushroom extract may actually support brain health by stimulating the creation of two important compounds: nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). NGF and BDNF are proteins that stimulate the production of new cells and strengthen existing ones. NGF also plays an important role in forming myelin, the sheath around nerve cells that helps brain cells do their job. BDNF increases brain plasticity, which helps your brain cells stay resilient in the face of stress or aging. It actually helps you grow new neurons and keep the ones you have younger.

BENEFITS OF LION’S MANE

Boost Cognitive function -

In 2008, a double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial found that lion’s mane effectively improved cognitive function in a randomized group of 15 older adults. Rodent studies found that lion’s mane potentially may have protective effects on brain cells, improve memory and promote the creation of new neurons. Researchers also found that hericenones and erinacines from the fruiting body and mycelium of lion’s mane easily cross the blood-brain barrier to stimulates NGF. It also contains powerful antioxidant properties that help neutralize free radicals.

Improve Mood and Focus -

Reduced inflammation improves blood flow, which provides your brain with more oxygen. The side effect of more oxygen in your brain is better brain performance and mood. The antioxidants in lion’s mane may help promote learning and memory, possibly by strengthening your brain cells and stimulating the growth of new neurons.

Enhanced Gut Health

Lion's mane may help digestive health by fighting inflammation, which could be beneficial for people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The mushroom may also boost immune function and encourage the growth of good bacteria in the gut.

BUY LION’S MANE HERE

CORDYCEPS

Cordyceps is a parasitic fungi that grows on the larvae of insects. It actually consumes the host and sprouts long stems that grow from the body of the host. The remains are collected, dried, and have been used for centuries in Chinese medicine to treat sickenss, fatigue, and impaired libido. Cordyceps has been widely studied and has many benefits. It can boost athletic performance, increases strength and sex drive, improves heart health, and has anti aging properties. It is considered to be an immune modulator and adaptogen that promotes overall endocrine health, and it is used to support the liver and kidneys.

Boost exercise peformance -

Cordyceps increase the body’s production of the molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is essential for delivering energy to the muscles. It may help to deliver oxygen to specific areas that assist in generating muscle tissue for better recovery after strenuous workouts or sports.

Anti Aging Properties

Along with boosting strength and reducing fatigue Cordyceps is known to have anti aging effects. In animal studies, increased antioxidants in aged mice, helping improve memory and sexual function. Antioxidants are molecules that fight cell damage by neutralizing free radicals, which can otherwise contribute to disease and aging.

Decrease blood sugar levels -

Cordyceps has been shown to decrease blood sugar levels by mimicking the action of insulin. Some evidence suggests that they may also protect against kidney disease, a common complication of diabetes.

Side Effects

Cordydeps is generally safe. It might cause mild side effects such as diarrhea, constipation, and abdominal discomfort. People with bleeding disorders should use caution. Cordyceps might slow blood clotting and increase the risk of bleeding in people with bleeding disorders.

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TURKEY TAIL

TURKEY TAIL

Turkey tail mushrooms are multicolored fungi that grow on tree trunks and fallen trees in wooded areas.They’re abundant in many parts of the world including the U.S. Turkey tail gets its name from its unique appearance, which resembles the plumage of a turkey. It has many medicinal properties and is well known for enhancing the health of your immune system. It’s benefits include cancer fighting potential, stimulating gut health, and reducing oxidative stress.

Reducing Oxidative Stress -

Turkey Tail is packed with antioxidants that help reduce damage caused by oxidative stress. Oxidative stress results from an imbalance between antioxidants and unstable molecules known as free radicals. This can result in cellular damage and chronic inflammation. This type of imbalance leads to the formation of cancerous cells and heart failure. Turkey tail contains an impressive array of antioxidants, including phenols and flavonoids. Phenols and flavonoids help to fight inflammation while also stimulating the release of protective compounds like interferon-y and inhibiting pro-inflammatory enzymes cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX).

Immune Boosting Properties -

Turkey tail contains Polysaccharopeptides, which are protein-bound polysaccharides (carbohydrates). Krestin (PSK) and Polysaccharide Peptide (PSP) are two types of polysaccharopeptides found in turkey tails. PSK stimulates dendritic cells that promote immunity to toxins and regulate the immune response. In addition, PSK activates specialized white blood cells called macrophages, which protect your body against harmful substances like certain bacteria. This natural immune boosting potential makes Turkey tail a great cancer fighting agent.

Enhancing Gut Health -

A major factor on staying healthy and is to regulate and maintain proper balance in the gut. Gut bacteria interacts directly with immune cells in order to stimulate your immune response. Turkey tail contain probiotics that aid in stimulating this healthy gut bacteria. Turkey tail has been proven to increase populations of beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus while reducing potentially harmful bacteria, such as Clostridium and Staphylococcus. This enhances the immune response and lowers the risk of certain cancers.

Turkey Tail may also aid in treating HPV, improve athletic performance, as well as insulin resistance.



SHIITAKE

Shiitake mushrooms, primarily grown in Japan, are loved worldwide for their superb taste and coveted for thousands of years by those looking to boost longevity and reduce inflammation. What makes shiitake mushrooms so effective is that they are a great source of B vitamins and have antiviral and antibacterial properties. If you, like many of us, put on a couple of extra pounds during quarantine, you might be pleased to hear that a study published in the Journal of Obesity concluded that shiitake could help reduce and prevent body weight gain and the build-up of fat. Even more, a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that shiitake can help boost immune function, improve cell function, gut immunity, and reduce inflammation.

PSILOCYBIN

Psilocybin cubensis is a naturally occurring mushroom with psychoactive properties. It has been used in rituals by Indigenous tribes dating back thousands of years. There are theories that psilocybin containing mushrooms could have been a factor in evolutionary advances of humanity because of its ability to enhance vision and alter perception. Psilocybin works by activating serotonin receptors, most often in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain affects mood, cognition, and perception. Hallucinogens also work in other regions of the brain that regulate arousal and panic responses as well as time perception and geolocation.

Psilocybin does not always cause active visual or auditory hallucination. Instead, it distorts how some perceive objects and people already in their environment.

The quantity of the drug a person consumes, their past experiences, and their expectations of how the experience will take shape can all impact the effects of psilocybin. When consumed in high doses (2-5 grams) hallucinogenic effects are experienced along with euphoria and sensory distortion. These effects range from terrifying to supernatural to spiritual in nature. An expanded state of awareness can help heal trauma and foster a greater connection to nature and the divine. In low doses (50-300 mgs) an experience of elevated mood and focus is reported. A decrease in anxiety and depression and increased sense of presence make it an incredible medicine for healing these ailments. Many people find great benefit in microdosing, which is the practice of taking a small sub perceptual dose of a psychedelic as a way to enter into more of a flow with life as it is. There have been many studies that suggest microdosing as promising for treatment resistant depression.

There are warnings however, especially anyone who has a history of schizophrenia in the family or severe personality or dissociative disorders. While it can certainly aid in healing trauma by helping to view it from a different perspective, anyone with severe PTSD should exercise caution with higher doses so as not to do any further damage. Starting with smaller doses and working ones way up to confront the trauma gradually is always preferred. Having a dedicated spiritual practice like meditation or yoga is encouraged before embarking on a relationship with these compounds.

BENEFITS OF PSILOCYBIN

Increased mood

Decrease in anxiety and depression

Expanded state of awareness

Sense of oneness/flow/spiritual connection/awakening

Healing of past traumas

euphoria/ peacefulness

RISKS

depersonalization

confusion

delirium

agitation

increased fear to the expanded state

experiencing buried trauma too rapidly and without proper preparation

psychosis

Incorporating these powerful compounds into your daily life can have tremendous health benefits and increase spiritual awareness. Mycelium is the neural network of the Earth, connecting all plant life across the planet in a vast underground network. As above so below. As within, so without.

How Evil Serves Good

How Evil Serves Good

To incarnate into this realm of experience is a real bitch. Of course there’s all sorts of joys and pleasures and excitement but there’s also pain, and terror, and the antithesis of all that is Good, the thing we call Evil. This negative polarity is the source of so much suffering that our minds have difficulty fathoming its larger significance. So in order to contemplate this concept it’s necessary that we attempt to define Good and Evil in simple terms.

From a certain perspective it can be said that good stems from absolute virtue, integrity and all conditions, powers, forces and circumstances of all that is best and proper. To be without sin, virtuous, and kind. A good life is one where a person can look back and not be outraged by their conduct. One where the conscience is clean and without stain or regret. This is not to say that we must be absolutely perfect because no life is without mistake but to live in such a way where the good deeds outweigh the missteps.

Evil, on the other hand, is simply the absence of good, just as darkness is the absence of light. This means that evil is not an active force in the world, but rather a lack or vacancy of something positive. It’s the negative polarity and necessary for good to exist. Evil serves good by providing contrast. Without the concept of evil, the good would not be as apparent or appreciated. So good and evil are not opposites, but complements. They are two halves of a whole, and it is only through the experience of both that we can achieve balance and understanding.

Most of the things we call Evil are simply ignorance to the truth that we are all connected to Infinite Source and this emanation is overflowing with love and creativity. Our sense of separateness from this Source is represented by our ego and is the reason we suffer. The ego is a necessary part of individuated consciousness and while it’s our pilot through this realm of experience, it sometimes thinks it’s running the show. When we respond to life from a place of selfishness and egoic unconsciousness then the negative polarity is ignited and the potential for evil increases.

When we strive towards good we sometimes find that an adversary to that goal appears. As if some imaginary force begins to apply constant pressure in opposition to our will. In this way, Good and Evil are inherently linked but this connection brings up some challenging questions. If these things exist then what is the cause? Is there a Source of these emanations? Is a deity the cause of this? Can a supreme being prevent Evil and if such a being exists shouldn’t it ultimately serve Good?

The Haywain Triptych (upper left section) by Hieronymous Bosch

Let us assume that if a Supreme Being exists then it would have to be all powerful and to be in that state it must be beyond polarity, that is to say it must exist in a position of Oneness that is above the duality of Good and Evil. So the concept of Good and Evil is conceived by man because of his faculty of the mind and its propensity towards comparison. We may believe that we have the capacity to judge what is Good and what is Evil but in reality we have no real means to make this determination. Good and Evil are really man’s way of attempting to bring some meaning to the misunderstanding surrounding the concept of infinite life.

If we take this further we can try to imagine a state of being beyond such concepts or duality. Let us envision a place beyond material reality, a place that exists in a superposition of Infinite Oneness. We can call such a place the realm of Spirit. In this dimension we are beyond time and space and exist in a state of pure consciousness with an unfiltered connection to Source. Let’s assume that in this state there are no limitations of any kind. Spirits are expansive and creative and boundless. All is perfect and flowing. A condition of omniscience prevails and we are one with all there is. If this is a place of pure love then needless to say it must be an experience of absolute bliss. But to be in this state for eternity could become boring and repetitive and we might want to test ourselves. We must also recognize that a state of eternity is impossible to even fathom because in that condition all exists simultaneously so the experience of infinity is transcendent beyond comprehension. Let’s say that from this position we decide we’d like to have an experience or an adventure, like playing a game. So a machine is constructed that will help us test our merits. We’ll call this machine Physical Reality. Physical Reality is bound by laws of duality and these constraints allow for there to be a pushback against this loving, creative principle of Spirit. In order for this experiment to work you would have to forget that you’re an omniscient Spiritual entity so you could enter the machine and experience the constricts of Time. Entering Space Time suggests not knowing what’s ahead so we could develop our faculties of patience and test our ability to develop a skill and put it to use through our labor. This would be the only way to experience glory and triumph by testing your resolve through difficulty. This forgetting comes with a consequence however. We run the risk of missing the point of this machine of separation. We may become addicted to this realm and the experience it provides. If we become too concerned with our own separateness we might not realize that we’re all connected and this selfishness can result in harming another and in many ways that is the definition of Evil. This is where the Laws of Karma come into play. We are gifted with Freewill but it comes at the price of karmic retribution so we can learn from our choices. So in this sense, Physical Reality is like a maze that distorts perspective and the proper  navigation of the labyrinth can return us to Ultimate Truth.

This is where the pushback comes into play. As a separate entity with a goal you must meet an adversary to that objective along your path otherwise there would be no point in the pursuit and that adversary will appear as an external event or another individuated form of consciousness. Of course underneath it all is this immense spiritual Oneness, but inside the game we’re shattered into billions of fragments each with a purpose, each with an agenda and a goal. Perhaps one person’s agenda is to create resistance to your goal of becoming an award winning pastry chef. Maybe you’ve made a deal in the spiritual realm with another spirit to provide this pushback for you out of love. Why even endeavor to become a badass pastry chef if there isn’t some kind of hurdle en route to this dream. In this realm, that hurdle manifests as an individual that tests you and you consider to be your enemy but in the Spirit realm you’re homies and you’ve asked this of each other. I think this is what Jesus meant by the phrase “Love your Enemy” because they may be providing necessary resistance to achievement of your life path. Of course that’s only one way to look at it.

Another way is the view held by the Gnostics. They believed that the True Creator invented a machine that created Physical Reality. They call this machine The Demiurge. Somewhere along the way the Demiurge became confused and because it was imbued with the power to create Physical Reality, it mistakenly believed that it was the True God and turned away from the love of the Creator and in this distortion, Evil became possible. In his blindness, the Demiurge is unaware of the higher spiritual realm and acts as a tyrant, trying to keep humanity trapped in the material world and ignorant of their true divine nature. In a sense, The Demiurge can be looked at as a larger metaphor for the Ego. It’s like the Ego of God. The Creator needed a way to understand itself through reflection. It needed to feel a sense of other through separateness, the opposite of Oneness. Each of us is part of the Oneness of the All but we feel like we have a sense of self that is singular and to a certain extent that’s true. We have a personality and a name and the story of our life. That’s the mask we wear to help the Creator know itself but if we feel like it’s only about us as an individual then we might do something that harms another because we are not seeing that we’re all connected at the core to this great Source. In this way, sometimes our pursuit of Good can result in Evil, like when someone bombs an abortion clinic killing people to save the unborn or a suicide bomber takes out a passenger jet in the name of God. For the Gnostics, the Demiurge makes this possible.

Mithra in the Form of the Leontocephalic Kronos by J. Augustus Knapp

Ultimately, we all face adversity in life and we all face challenges on our path and some of those difficulties are unimaginable and excruciating and beyond reason and can only be considered Evil. But perhaps there is a larger significance to these machinations that we cannot comprehend from our limited view. There’s a necessary purpose in the negative polarity that helps us to identify and appreciate its opposite and through facing and overcoming challenges, we can find balance. Maybe we’re just playing a part in a play that is designed for the growth of individuated consciousness and in order for the advancement towards all that is Good and Loving, we must come up against all that is considered the absence of it. This thing we call Evil.

The Fall of the Damned by Peter Paul Rubens

Reincarnation

Reincarnation

The cycle of life in the physical realm of existence is a great mystery. Each of us must come to terms with the fact that we do not know what happens when we die and this ignorance is the cause of much anxiety throughout life. Among this uncertainty is the problem of Good and Evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? And perhaps more perplexing, why does it seem that evil doers escape retribution? Only one thesis can truly solve this quandary and that is the law of karma and reincarnation. Karma itself is simply the law of Cause and Effect. As you sow, so shall ye reap. But reincarnation is somewhat more complex in that it incorporates a kind of evolution of individuated consciousness. There is a compensatory aspect to the law that goes beyond a singular incarnation.

In Sanskrit, the word samsara translates to reincarnation. The word reincarnation means, quite literally, to ‘incarnate’ again, to be re-embodied, or more accurately to return after death to the physical world in another physical body. In the East, this concept has deeper implications. Buddha taught that all living things, animate and inanimate, must pass through countless re-embodiments until all imperfections have been removed by experience. That leaves us with the question, what exactly is being re-embodied? In order to have an understanding of this process we have to determine what “the self” actually is. 

The divine part of man, or the aspect that is immortal, is often referred to as the spirit. It is the energetic expression that animates the physical body and survives after its death. In Buddhist philosophy, this aspect of the self is called sattva. The self, sattva, or spirit is impersonal and although it breathes life into individuated personalities in the phenomenal world, it shouldn’t be confused with those personalities. Seldom is a personality reborn fully constructed. We may have certain soul memories from previous incarnations but each time we are born anew with a different set of personality constructs. It is also important to differentiate between the Spirit and the Ego. Ego means I, or selfness. It is the term used to distinguish creatures that have become aware of their individuation. Personality is a construct of the ego based on its catalogue of mind, emotion, sense, and form. Both ego and personality are extinguished at death leaving the spirit free to inhabit another form in its quest of purification. In this sense, living a life can be viewed as an experience gathering mission for Spirit. The individuated sense of self is a temporary cloak we wear in the ever changing illusion of physical reality. The experiences and lessons are transmitted to the spirit but the attachment to a personal “I” is dissolved.

photo by Rob Perri

After death, we separate from our physical vessel and our etheric body travels through the four higher sub planes of the physical. This is the plane of existence that is most commonly visited when people have out of body experiences and can see their physical body from above. A silver cord connects our etheric and astral bodies to the physical during life so we can travel out of the body but still return to the material realm. When we die that silver cord is severed and the etheric and astral bodies are free to roam. Many Near Death Experiencers have been able to recall events happening in the room where they had died. When they returned to their bodies they were able to verify what they saw in the out of body state from those who were present at the event. Many also claim to have been shown a “Life Review”, a sort of holographic representation of the life just lived, when in this afterlife realm. This appears to be a crucial factor in establishing the Karmic path for the next incarnation. While they all report having the assistance of “guides” ultimately it’s we who decide to return. We can certainly debate whether or not this is a trick to keep us imprisoned on the wheel of rebirth or if it’s part of a loving system that is helping us to evolve. The possibility that both concepts are true is quite probable..

The Subtle Body by Rob Perri

The etheric body, which is like an energetic double of the physical, also begins to disintegrate as we move into higher planes of awareness. This disintegration is known as the “Second Death” where we finally shed the remaining personality constructs leaving just the astral body or “Soul”, which transports our life experience to Spirit. The etheric plane exists as an energetic double to the physical. Everything in the physical has it’s equivalent in the etheric. Clairvoyants can often pick up on these etheric energies with their expanded sense of awareness. The astral plane is more of a dreamland that is populated by consciousness itself. There exists a complex afterlife arena made up of various levels, some of which are close to the physical and others in higher planes. Departed spirits may find themselves in a hellish landscape or a heavenly one based on their consciousness at the time of death. Some spirits incarnate immediately after death while others linger in these realms for an extended period, although this is difficult to quantify as we’re dealing with a timeless realm of experience post mortum. 

Reincarnation has a rich history and has been included in many of the ancient religious texts throughout antiquity. Although there is no mention of reincarnation in the  Indian “Vedas” they do mention a concept similar to the early Greek idea of the soul departing a body to wander in the Underworld. The concept of Metempsychosis first came about in early Hindu and Greek traditions and simply refers to the transmigration of spirit into another form, either human or animal. The latter parts of the Vedas known as the Upanishads clearly state that all beings will be reborn again and again until they are able to transcend their material bonds and physical realms and see themselves as part of the infinite. Most informed Hindus insist that they do not believe that it’s possible to be reborn in any creature less than human but I suppose a definition of “less than human” would have to be agreed upon.

The Wheel of Life

Buddha taught that Reincarnation was the apparent solution to the inequalities of life. Without the law of rebirth existence would be meaningless, purposeless, and absurd. There is no escaping the result of action. The law of Cause and Effect is inevitable. The Lamas of Tibet also hold this doctrine sacred. They believe a reincarnating Buddha is re-embodied immediately and a delegation sets out to search for the new embodiment. In the Koran, one passage states “God generates beings, and hence they return to him.” The founder of the order of the Mevlevites also known as the “whirling dervishes”, writes :

A stone I died and rose again a plant,

A plant I died and rose an animal:

I died an animal and was born a man.

Why should I fear.

Many Native American cultures held no distinction between the spirit of man and that of an animal. To the Cherokee all the kingdoms of nature shared a common immortality. Even Jesus taught reincarnation although any mention of it has been scrubbed from the Gospels during the Council of Nicaea, where the Roman Empire hunted down and killed all the Gnostics and edited the teachings to fit their system of control.  In the Gnostic Gospels, specifically the “Apocryphon of John”, he states :

“When they come forth from the body, such a soul is given over to the powers created by the rulers, bound in chains, and cast into prison again. Around and around it goes until it manages to become free from forgetfulness through knowledge. And so, eventually, it becomes perfect and is saved.’

In order to more fully understand the mechanism of reincarnation we should uncover why the Romans found it so dangerous. The power structure of the Roman Catholic Church relies on the priests as intermediaries between God and their followers. The power structure is necessary for control of its practitioners. The priests are their doorway to salvation. With reincarnation, it seems to be our own spirit that dictates the trajectory of growth through lifetimes of experience so a human intermediary is completely unnecessary. It’s our own higher self that leads us to salvation through countless human embodiments. This concept renders the entire power structure of the Church useless so it was buried and anyone who held this belief was systematically murdered. 

One could extrapolate that spiritual evolution is coincident with physical evolution of life on this planet. Even dense matter in the mineral world has a spiritual component to it that is replenished and recycled. Plants clearly have an innate intelligence and a rudimentary spiritual essence that disintegrates after dissolution of its physical form. A step above the plant kingdom is that of the animal. Animals have a group soul and like the plant kingdom are not subject to the laws of Karma. The difference between human and animal is its metaphysical structure. The human being has an ego or individuated sense of self and because there is an awareness of personal action then the laws of Karma apply. This does not take anything away from animals or plants for that matter. All animate and inanimate bodies in the physical realm are ensouled by the same divine principle. It was the Buddhists who first created hospitals for animals and looked upon them as our younger brothers and sisters. This may be part of what we give to them when we care for animals as pets. We’re helping them graduate towards individuated consciousness. It stands to reason that we were once part of an animal soul group that finally branched out in search of more personal awareness in a human incarnation. This may also give us some insight as to why human beings are at varying levels of spiritual understanding. A human soul on its first incarnation may be fresh after leaving an animal soul group towards individuation. The soul memory of fight or flight and predator/prey mentality may still be quite strong and therefore the human incarnation is filled with violence and imprisonment. But this is all part of that particular soul growth. This is also why it is not our place to judge. We don’t know what mechanism is behind the unfoldment of this spiritual destiny. Anyone who has journeyed into the realms of universal oneness is certain to report the unimaginable beauty and perfection of it all. It’s a mystical unity that is beyond all possible human comprehension. In that state of wholeness all is absolutely perfect and as it should be. So perhaps we should trust in this process. There is most likely many realms of experience in the universe of which Earth is just one form and as we journey as spirits we take on countless incarnations in many dimensions as we climb the ladder towards unification with the Creator. We can look at this process like notes on a scale. Dense matter in the mineral kingdom is a form of sleeping consciousness and the first note on the scale. As we ascend, more and more awareness is provided along with more personal responsibility for our actions. It takes many human incarnations to transcend this matrix and move into other dimensions of spiritual exploration. The evolution of spirit continues even after Earthly incarnation in realms of experience of a higher order. Higher and higher we ascend until unification with the Creator is achieved and then perhaps… we start over again.

The Great Central Sun

The Great Central Sun

Everything in the material sphere has a corresponding yet hidden spiritual component. Another way to think about it is that everything has a soul. Everything has an animating principle, an invisible, ethereal portion that is connected to the Creator. Everything from dense rock, plants, animals, human beings, all the way up to planets and stars has a spirit. This concept is one that Scientific Materialism refuses to deal with even though their own experiments prove it to be true. If we have a “science” that’s concern is only to catalogue what can be measured objectively with our senses then we are missing out on  95% of what’s happening in the Universe. Through meditation, psychedelics, out-of-body experiences, psychic events, and altered states of consciousness of all kinds we’re given a glimpse into what’s possible in this vast and eternal spectrum of oneness. The scientific issue is that these are mostly subjective experiences, even though there have been many studies that verify the existence of ESP, science requires objective reasoning so there’s a paradox at play. How are we to bridge this gap between the supernatural and the propensity of “science” to ignore the mystical?

The Universe is a giant mind and it’s connected by a neural network, just like our brains, as above so below. It’s comprised of distinct energetic patterns held at particular resonant frequencies that interact with each other. This process is so vast and complex that it’s impossible to grasp its enormity with our brains because we’re a fractal of the larger whole. This network is held together by a system of Central Suns. They are massive hubs of consciousness that govern a specific range of frequency where sub-levels of creation can take place. These Central Suns are conglomerates of consciousness that offer light and love to lower levels of awareness and experience. 

In this sense. Suns are like the batteries of the Universe. The wattage of each Sun has a different resonate power and frequency that’s right for the level of learning that its particular solar system needs for growth. Each Sun is inherently connected to the light of Source energy so stars, Suns, and Central Suns are energetic portals that help to illuminate their portion of the Universe with the Creator’s loving light. It’s a point of integration between Spirit and Matter in the cosmos. Each Sun has its own Spirit that resides in another dimension containing millions of elevated consciousnesses.

These Suns are like a filtration system for the loving awareness of the Creator. They help sustain life and feed the growing levels of consciousness of the substrata that they govern and cultivate higher levels of awareness in the evolving life in its system. The power of Source is so tremendous that it will vaporize any consciousness whose resonate frequency is at a low vibration, so the Suns and Central Suns help to transmute this light into more manageable frequencies enabling lower levels of awareness to grow towards this immense vibration of love.

In our solar system, our Sun is part of a larger network of Central Suns. Our immediate Central Sun is Alcyone, the brightest star in the Pleiades cluster in the constellation of Taurus. It’s part of the grouping we call the Seven SIsters. It’s about 6 solar masses or 600 % of our Suns mass. It’s also 10 times the size so it’s gigantic. Our Sun is in constant communication with Alcyone. It’s like a cosmic dance that the two engage in as a way to pass information, energy, and insights on to the development of ascending collectives in this part of the galaxy. When our Sun gets closer to Alcyone consciousness ascends. As it moves further away, a period of darkness results.

This process is part of a 26,000 year cycle where our Sun, and solar system, completes a full cycle in its orbit around the Central Sun. It’s also connected to a larger 500,000, and 2,000,000 year cycles as we return to our source back to the Creator. As our Solar System makes its way through the Universe it passes through various energy fields in space. We are closing in on one of those energy fields now known as the Photon Belt. This is an incredibly spiritual field and is part of the even Greater Central Sun in our galaxy, Sirius. Photons of light emanate from the Central Sun and bathe our planet as we pass through it. It’s a process whereby the darkness of egoic unconsciousness is illuminated and upgrades in awareness transpire. It’s a process of synchronicity where our Sun, the Central Sun, and the Greater Central Sun align at the galactic center. This system is part of the Yuga Cycle, a cyclical pattern that initiates the decline and expansion of consciousness. We’re seeing a spike in awareness as more people wake up and darkness is exposed.

Sirius is roughly 26x brighter than our Sun and shines like a shimmering diamond in our skies. Many of the fixed stars in astrology are sending us beams of information and it can be beneficial to identify and communicate with them in the night sky when the opportunity arises. To have a planet or point in your chart at the degree of a fixed star has great meaning and effect on the life trajectory for better or worse. Regardless, the fixed stars are powerful portals of information transmission.

Think about the enormous force that our Sun exerts in our little corner of the galaxy. It takes immense power to hold 9 planets and thousands of asteroids in it’s orbit. Then contemplate the task of the Central Suns in holding entire solar systems in it’s grasp and we can get a sense of the magnitude of this galactic system of spiritual enfoldment.

The Grand Central Sun is the connection to source energy for all conscious existence within our universe. It’s like a giant battery that filters energy from Source and parses it out to other Central Suns so conscious awareness can grow in lower levels of experience all the way down to dense matter. So we are all connected to Source. Everything in the Universe is connected to this great Mind, all layers of consciousnesses up the ladder to our universal consciousness. The Universe is like a machine that absorbs conscious experience had by its lower-frequency components (all galaxies, systems, planetary realms, and incarnate beings) and shares that wealth of experience back to Source.

Everything is light. The entire Universe is comprised of the light of the Creator but at present our senses and instruments of measurement cannot detect the frequencies of light that fill the void. One of the purposes of this matrix dreamland is to shed the distortions and projections and open up to the light within us. It’s like a maze where at the center is you and you are made up of loving awareness. But we must use the illusion of the matrix to awaken. This is what Jesus meant when he said “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.” It’s not in this external material sphere we call reality.

The nature of the Sun is giving. It radiates light, heat, and energy and asks nothing in return. This is what we are all striving towards. To become beings that radiate life force energy with great power and wisdom. As we move towards the Central Sun it sends messages and vibrations that upgrade consciousness. If it feels our love it feeds it. If it feels our fear it sends us experiences that open us up to love and sometimes these can be difficult and full of upheaval. In the light, we can see the mirror’s reflection. We should all be striving to shed ourselves of ignorance and move towards the realization that underlying literally everything is an immense vibration of loving awareness. Coming into alignment with the Central Sun means opening the doorway of the heart and transmuting fear into love. We can move into a higher dimension where fear does not exist, our hearts burning with the fire of the Sun. So ultimately there’s nothing really to worry about. Even though ignorance and darkness seem real on this plane of existence, it’s all trending towards the light. We’ll all make it there one way or another, it’s just that the ride may be bumpier for some.

Bless.

The Great Conjunction

The Great Conjunction

In astrology, a conjunction is when two planets meet at the same degree of the zodiac and the energies of the planets involved become momentarily fused. It’s a concentration of power colored by the degree of the zodiac where the event is occurring. It also represents a “New Moon” phase in the cycle of the planets concerned. A New Moon is for new beginnings. A new paradigm that holds the flavor of the sign and for us personally, the house, where we find the conjunction. The conjunction is the beginning of a longer cycle that unfolds over time through crisis (squares) and culminations (oppositions) or Full Moon phases. On December 21st 2020, we’ll experience what is known as A Great Conjunction because it involves the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. These two planets have conflicting energies. Jupiter is optimism, expansion, and abundance, while Saturn is maturity, restriction, and hard work. When they meet we’re faced with a powerful fresh start in how we use these energies in the area of life that they are affecting for us personally based on the house placement of the conjunction. It’s about putting in the slow and steady work in order to achieve greatness. This aspect is known as the “king maker” for obvious reasons and often coincides with massive shifts in political power. People with this conjunction in their natal chart often have tremendous power at their disposal to manifest things and reach a high station in life. While this conjunction happens every 20 years, this is the closest these planets will come to the Earth since 1623. These conjunctions happen in patterns occurring in a certain element for approximately 200 years. For the last 200 years these conjunctions have been occurring in Earth signs save for in 1980 when these planets met in Air signs giving us a taste of what we’re about to experience. Earth energy is concerned with material resources and security and is resistant to change. But now a major shift happens as we enter 0 degrees of Aquarius and begin 200 years of these planets meeting up in the element of Air. The Air signs, Aquarius in particular, will bring disruption to the collective. Massive shifts in communication and the established order of things awaits us. Air signs are more free and open to artistic, intellectual, and innovative ideas.

Aquarius is the sign of the rebel and the visionary. There’s great potential for activists and revolutionaries to organize and truly create a more dynamic world. Saturn’s structure, limitation, and crystallization combined with Jupiter’s ability to multiply ignites powerful possibilities for systemic change.  

There are two sides to this however. Aquarius is also the sign of technology and technological advancement. So we are also going to see the rapid expansion of structural machines. Robots, mechanical beings outfitted with Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, and Virtual Reality are going to explode and seem to come out of nowhere. While some of this maybe fascinating and helpful there are many pitfalls here. We must be careful not to become enveloped by the illusion of digital worlds, getting lost in realms that may seem fascinating but are ultimately artificial. We must be vigilant in resisting the urge to fully merge with technology and completely turn away from nature. There’s a dark path that can lead to total enslavement if we’re not properly discerning. 

One thing is for sure however. The old way of doing things is crumbling and it’s up to us to decide what we put in it’s place. Will we create a society truly for all, where there is equal access to the resources of survival and medicine or will the Technocracy imprison the collective in its grip of surveillance capitalism? It’s all about how we use these energies.

Saturn is strong in Aquarius as it is the ancient ruler of this sign. The modern ruler of Aquarius is Uranus and we’ll see a clash between Saturn and Uranus in 2021 so we can expect changes that we don’t want at first. There will be financial upheavals as new types of banking and colossal monetary shifts occur. Cryptocurrency will explode and nations will scramble to make their own digital currency. China is already way ahead with their version of a coin that is backed by gold. 

Jupiter, while less powerful than Saturn in this sign, is working to bring expansion and growth. The wisdom is to work within the limitations of Saturn to achieve the abundance of Jupiter. No shortcuts. Slow and steady up the hill towards enlightenment, joy, and freedom. Innovation that inspires spiritual oneness are great possibilities for the future if we avoid the pitfalls.

It is incredibly significant that this conjunction is happening at 0 Degrees of Aquarius as it is a critical or “anaretic” degree meaning that there is karma associated with it. But the first degree of any sign is fresh, undiluted energy so we must embrace the true nature of Aquarius. We must strive for equality, individualism within the collective, and a massive shift in consciousness. It’s time to bring Christ Consciousness to every individual in order to ascend to the higher planes of existence. As we move into this exciting and novel change we may see disclosure of Extraterrestrial life interacting with our planet. This could be shocking and, if we’re not vigilant, another way to ignite war or erode personal freedoms. 

Image by Todd Carter

I encourage everyone to get out there and witness this event of great significance. Look up at these two planetary bodies and say a little prayer. Invite in all the positive changes you’d like to see in the world and release whatever no longer serves. Individually, and depending on where this conjunction is happening in your natal chart, we can use this time to release old ways of doing things and baggage that we’ve held onto for too long so we can advance towards our soul’s mission unfettered. Utilize this energy to build structures that unlock your full potential. You can truly make your dreams into a reality. We can do this… together. 

The Yuga Cycle

The Yuga Cycle

The destiny of humankind is a long and cyclical process that incorporates epochs of light and darkness. There are golden eras of enlightenment and dark periods shrouded in egoic unconsciousness. In ancient Indian culture this is known as The Yuga Cycle. It’s a method of calculation that incorporates astronomy and a long count calendar system as a means to understand  cycles of spiritual evolution. It has a correlation to the Mayan Calendar and the precession of the equinoxes, which measures the gradual shift of the Earth’s polarity as it moves though the constellations. It’s like a giant clock that takes 2,160 years to move through one constellation and approximately 25,920 years to complete a full cycle around the zodiac. Each “age” brings with it a new paradigm of human endeavor, spiritual enfoldment, and consciousness. The larger cycle is known as “A Great Year” and is broken up into four eras known as “Yugas”. The Yugas correlate to humanity’s ability to perceive the larger context of our non-material spiritual universe. 

1. Satya Yuga — The Golden Age

The Golden Age is a time when truth and love are valued above all else and a period of peace, harmony and balance reign on planet Earth. Mankind’s spiritual faculties are at their peak and an ability to perceive the non-material realms is available. It’s when humanity is at its spiritual and technological apex.

2. Treta Yuga — The Silver Age

The Silver Age is a time when humanity is capable of sensing the subtler energies like electromagnetism. Telepathy is possible as well as synthesia. Paranormal phenomena are regular occurrences. It’s a time when the interconnectedness of all things is recognized. It’s an age of thought where our ability to manifest is extremely high.

3. Dwapara Yuga — The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is an age of energy, where all sorts of technological advancements occur. There are new religions, philosophies and scientific discoveries. It’s when the issues of time and space are conquered through technological advancement but people are self interested and selfish during these times.

4. Kali Yuga — The Iron Age

The iron Age is an age of darkness filled with conflict and struggle as people drift further away from the Divine source. It’s a time of chaos and war resulting in destruction and ultimately transformation.

These Yugas are broken up into descending and ascending cycles. There is an ascent out of a dark age of ignorance towards a Golden Age of enlightenment and then back down again and supposedly, this corresponds with the return orbit of our Sun’s binary twin. This is the concept that our solar system is itself on a trajectory, corkscrewing through the universe around another Sun. The orbit is elliptical so we are literally like a slingshot around this second Star. The proximity of our solar system to the greater Sun has a corresponding effect on our spiritual awareness and it is a cyclical process that waxes and wanes over long periods of time like the structure of a Torus. As we move closer to our Super Sun, we grow in conscious awareness and experience an awakening of peace and love. When we are further away from it, we plunge into darkness and ignorance.

Currently, we find ourselves in the ascending Dwapara Yuga as we enter the Age of Aquarius. So while we’re moving towards technological advancements, and new philosophical thought and away from a terribly dark period, we’re still in a time where much self centered behavior remains. But, as we can see by the tumult of change that is happening around us, a paradigm shift is under way and a new spiritual understanding will come along with it.

However, in order to fully contemplate these cycles of evolution we first have to reevaluate our position concerning our own historical record and this is something of rigorous scientific debate. There is on the one hand the concept of slow, incremental evolution with various states of collapse along the way and yet the other, highly contested idea that a flourishing advanced civilization existing 16,000 years ago was wiped out by a cataclysmic event around 11,900 B.C. known as the Younger Dryas. Evidence of such a civilization in the form of fossils, tools, and records have not been uncovered as of yet.  But there is much mystery and speculation.

While it’s difficult to say for sure whether such an advanced civilization actually existed, researchers like Graham Hancock have put forth compelling arguments, one of which surrounds the site known as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. The site was built around 12,000 years ago and features huge stone tablets carved from limestone and placed in a pattern of astronomical significance, a feat that seems inconceivable for a culture of hunter gathers. 

In ancient Greece, Plato and Socrates both spoke of the tale of Atlantis, an island that historians claim is allegorical and not an historical treatise. However, there is compelling evidence that civilizations like Atlantis and concepts of the lost continent of Lemuria are more than just fictional stories. One of the most interesting discoveries surrounds water erosion on the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The only possible way that water could have damaged these structures is if they existed prior to the Great Flood 12,800 years ago, which would mean that these incredible structures were not built by the Egyptians over 4,000 years ago. 

One can also contemplate the mystery of how these primitive civilizations were able to construct highly complex architectural designs that also align with certain celestial configurations, most notably the stars in Orion’s belt known as the Three Kings. Pyramid structures can be found at various locations across the globe, like Mexico and China, but… how did groups of people that were separated by vast oceans manage to build these complex structures with this type of precision without the possibility of sharing knowledge?

Also is there evidence of Pyramids off the coast of Portugal as well as in the Atlantic Ocean in the area of the Bermuda Triangle? Could this possibly be the sunken city of Atlantis and could that explain the bizarre electromagnetic anomalies and disappearances throughout history in this area? 

There are many interesting questions to contemplate but most importantly… Is there more to our history than we are currently led to believe?

Are we part of a larger spiritual control system that is cyclical and measurable by astrological activity? If so, what is the mechanism of control and who is the governor or this system?

Will human beings many years from now wake up on a planet with two Suns? 

The Bicameral MInd

THE BICAMERAL MIND

Humanity has a destiny of which each of us is an important and integral part. However, the physical and spiritual evolution of human beings is such an incredibly vast and long process that it is difficult for the mind trapped in this fragment of time to comprehend the totality of it. Consciousness, and the manner by which self awareness manifests, is a process of awakening that appears to have a cyclical mechanism of enfoldment. As we move through the ages we are meant to learn the lessons of that particular time frame, so a clear understanding of each period is essential if we are to ascend to higher levels of spiritual awareness. All of evolution has but one purpose and that purpose is to overthrow the shackles of material confinement and awaken to Spirit. We are meant to transcend the world of form through the fragmented self that perpetuates the illusion of separateness. Transcendence is attained by conquering ignorance with the realization that the animating principle of you is connected, and a part of, everything that exists. This Source, which many call God or the Prime Creator or the Universe, cannot actually be named and is impossible to fathom because it literally is the energetic flow that fills the cosmic void. You cannot make it an object. You ARE it. You cannot NAME it. You can only BE it. In fact naming things, as we’ll come to see, creates the separation that perpetuates the illusion. Anything that stands in the way of this truth is simply ignorance. All forms of hatred, racism, domination, and suffering are caused by this ignorance and are usually born out of identification with an egoic mind state that is addicted to the world of form. The ego is the point of separation from the Source. It is the thing that differentiates us. It creates the SELF that is separate. While it may seem trite and simplistic to simply state that All Are One, even if that may be the truth, we should take a closer look at the ego in evolutionary terms so we can come to a deeper awareness of it’s function. The ego has a purpose that needs to be understood in order to be transcended. In a larger context, humanity is coming to the end of a long period where the ego has dominated the collective and caused great destruction and disharmony. 

We’ve already looked at how balancing the energies of Lucifer & Ahriman is the key to awaken the Spiritual Principle that lies within each of us in order to attain Christ Consciousness. Now let’s look at these ideas through the lens of Julian Jaynes seminal work The Origin of Consciousness in The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It’s an incredibly dense and powerful work that purports a still controversial thesis that “consciousness”, which he exhaustively attempts to define, is a process that is ever evolving in the human being through the separation of the two hemispheres in the brain. According to Jaynes, the early human mind operated in a state whereby one hemisphere of the brain would ‘speak’ to the other via auditory hallucinations. The right hemisphere, for most people, would hear voices that would then be translated to the left hemisphere, which would listen and obey. He cites countless examples throughout historical literature like Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey, as well as much of the Old Testament. Many aspects of early religious doctrine came from men who “heard God talking to them”. The reason for this state of being at this point in history stems from the right hemisphere of the brain being more dominant and the left hemisphere, the area of the brain associated with language and self awareness, being less developed. Before the self awareness aspect of consciousness arose, Bicameral Man was guided by the mental commands of external ‘gods’ who dictated to or admonished the individual. Many of the ancient myths, legends, and religious accounts feature this type of exchange. The breakdown of Bicamerality marks the beginning of introspection, self awareness, and the consciousness we know today.

Scientifically, Jaynes posits that although the left hemisphere is relegated to speech and the written word, both hemispheres understand language. The areas in the right hemisphere that correspond to the left hemisphere’s Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area would organize admonitory experience and code it into 'voices', which were then 'heard' over the anterior commissure by the left or dominant hemisphere. It’s precisely this area of the brain which allowed bicameral man to “hear the gods”. When this area was electrically stimulated in modern experiments, the subjects often reported hearing voices and other types of auditory hallucinations like music. It’s a misconception to assume that the areas of the right hemisphere that correspond to Wernicke’s area lack function. It’s true that in surgical experiments where these areas of brain tissue have been removed the subjects experienced little to no deficit in mental functioning. But, it simply suggests that we live in an age of left brain dominance where our ability to connect to the larger spectrum of experience has been lost or deadened. It’s extremely interesting to consider the idea that language, and writing in particular, corresponds with the emergence of self awareness and a sense of separation. In order to have a “story” one must have a name and a self that exists as a character to be identified with. 

The Old Testament is a fascinating glimpse into our Bicameral past. Let’s take the biblical story of Abraham and Issac as an example. According to the verse, God ‘tells’ Abraham to take his only son Issac to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him as a way to show his allegiance and true faith in God. Abraham complies with the directive, marching Issac up Moriah agonizing over what he has been commanded to do. But, right before he is about to commit this act of filicide, a ‘messenger’ intervenes and tells Abraham to spare his son and that his faith had been proven. Many Old Testament stories feature this narrative including God dictating the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. 

Painting by Valentin de Boulogne

We can also look at the idea of the Fall of Man through this lens for more context. When Adam and Eve eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and become like the Elohim, the voices of the gods they were previously hearing, they suddenly begin to “see” themselves, which is something that can only happen through subjectivity.

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise by Alexandre Cabanel

Prior to that, Yahweh or “He Who Is”, is the commanding presence and the voice of God. But this “God” of the Old Testament is bizarrely narcissistic, commanding worship and full of wrath and vengeful attitudes. Does this sound like the voice of a loving God or that of a frightened ego? It’s certainly something to contemplate further. When we look at The Old Testament from this perspective we can see it as a symbolic document of the birth pangs of subjective consciousness. With this in mind, the hidden symbolism in Michelangelo’s masterpiece “The Creation of Adam” also becomes illuminated.

The Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo

The loss of this Bicameral function occurred over the course of the first millennium B.C. and more specifically the 3rd and 4th centuries Before Christ. The written accounts of this time period reflect the change from bicameral to subjectivity. Chinese literature jumps into subjectivity with the teachings of Confucius. In India, the Vedas favor a bicameral tone while the Upanishads move towards subjectivity. Greek literature is a series of stepping stones from the Illiad to the Odyssey and across Sappho and Solon into Socrates and Plato. While Egypt is relatively silent, save for the vast collection of pictoral knowledge, The Old Testament is perhaps the greatest evidence documenting this change from bicameral to subjectivity. 

The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth can be looked at in a new context given this insight. Before Christ, Bicameral Man was at the mercy of an external voice that guided his actions. As those voices ceased and a subjective self emerged from the void, a new type of spirituality was needed. An entirely new paradigm of religious thought is necessary for a conscious subjective individual. For Bicameral Man, it was enough to engage in ritual sacrifice and community punishment for sin. But now, each individual must be held responsible for his own actions. A psychological deliverance is necessary for redemption of Spirit. Going within for the kingdom of heaven is the teaching rather than blood sacrifice to an external entity. This revelation is perhaps the best evidence that our evolutionary path is part of a spiritual control system.

Jesus Preaching on the Mount by Gustave Doré

One reason for the emergence of this new type of spirituality stems from the rise of treachery. Treachery by definition is a type of deceit that plays out over time and requires the invention of an analog “I” that exists underneath the face one wears outwardly to the object of their deceit. It’s impossible to be treacherous if you do not already possess a sense of self that you can utilize to deceive. This function may have emerged as a survival instinct. When a village was overrun by some invader, a man who obeyed the internal voices might strike out and be killed immediately, whereas one who could mask his hatred behind the face of compliance had the potential to survive. It stands to reason that death would come sooner to those who impulsively lived by their unconscious habits or who could not resist the commandments of their gods. Self awareness then became a desirable trait for natural selection and had to be learned by each new generation. Those biologically most able to learn it would be those most likely to survive. In fact, as Biblical evidence supports, many children who exhibited Bicameral tendencies were simply murdered during this period.

It’s interesting to note that in the Bicameral period there was a visual component to the hallucinated voices. Yahweh was often a visual physical presence, the duplicate of his creation. He’s present at the sacrifice of Abel by his brother Cain and even shuts the door of Noah’s Ark with his own hand. In other instances, ‘He-who-is’ exists as a burning bush, pillars of fire, or black clouds of thunder and lightning. Many of these visions have a correlation to the psychedelic experience, where access to the right brain’s connection to expanded awareness is gained.

Cain and Abel by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti

In the breakdown of these hallucinatory experiences in the Bicameral period, what was once spoken had to be written on tablets and become law, something that was unchanging and universal to all equally. This has great significance to the emergence of subjective consciousness. The commands that were heard are now silent and carved into stone to be taken in visually, shattering the auditory into a fragmented reality. The most famous instance of this being the 10 Commandments. In this example, we can glimpse how language, and more specifically the written word, further locks humanity into left brain dominance and perpetuates the separation of Spirit from all things external. Another fascinating component is the appearance of divination in this period. When the voices ceased, methods of prognostication like drawing lots, tarot, and astrology arose in the absence of an omnipotent voice.

Descent from Mt Sinai with the 10 Commandments by Ferdinand Bol

Today we can see the vestiges of our bicameral past in misunderstood psychological diagnosis such as schizophrenia. People who are gifted with psychic capabilities and those who are naturally in tune with the subtler vibrations of the universe could also fit into this category. A major factor in triggering hallucinations in schizophrenics is stress just as it was for bicameral man. The decision making process itself could be considered as a contributing cause for the onset of the condition. Great insight into the alien abduction and shamanic experience can be gained by viewing it through this lens as well. This dormant part of the brain appears to be a portal of access to this hidden dimension. Messages that come from other dimensions have long been the ideas that find their way into a religious or spiritual context for the masses over time and are a further indication that material reality is a control system for spiritual enfoldment.

We know from laboratory studies that the right hemisphere processes spatial and pattern information. It’s also better at fitting parts of things into a greater context. It gives us a sense of how we fit into the larger scheme of things, our connection to the All that is, the Source of everything. It sees parts as having meaning only within a larger whole. The left hemisphere separates and codifies things. It looks at the parts themselves. It does this mostly by naming things as a way to gain some type of control over them. Subjective consciousness itself utilizes linguistic metaphors in service of an illusory “I” so that a personal narrative can emerge. It’s the story of you, or me for that matter. This personal history feeds the sense of self and the more identified with it, the stronger the ego, and the more separate from everything one becomes. The ego is actually the voice of this entity that is extremely attached to this sense of separation. This is so significant when it comes to psychology and the healing of trauma. It’s also why meditation and psychedelics are such powerful modalities for curing these mental aberrations. 

When we meditate or take a psychedelic, blood flow to key areas of the brain that are involved in critical thinking, our geolocation, and our sense of time are greatly lessened. It dissolves the sense of self, both spatially and temporally, granting us access to the timeless dimension where we are connected to and a part of all that there is. As part of this process, we often come up against, and have to work through, the mental components that are propping up this sense of self in the form of trauma, resentments, and blocked energy. When these erupt, we may experience what some call a bad trip or what’s known as a storm in meditation. This is an important and integral aspect of healing however. By connecting with the stillness within, the silent observer, a certain coherence occurs in the brain between the two hemispheres. Normally, the left hemisphere and the default mode network, has a strangle hold over the rest of the brain and it keeps trauma buried so we can perform our daily responsibilities without being overcome by this energetic disturbance. When we meditate or take a psychedelic, we suddenly have access to this buried information in the form of sensation that turns into emotional content. We can then connect it to the left hemisphere’s “story” about the trauma and that correlation allows us to release it and move towards forgiveness and ultimately healing. It’s why you can be in talk therapy for years intellectualizing about the story that your babysitter molested you without any relief. In fact, repeating the story over and over only strengthens the ego’s sense of self as someone who has been victimized. On top of that, most pharmaceutical drugs only serve to further mask the pain associated with the traumatic event. But, it’s only when the actual pain as a sensory experience can be faced that true healing can occur. In addition, when we relinquish the “story” of our past, we can free ourselves from the restrictions that burden creates. In other words, we must strive towards experiential knowledge of the self in order to taste liberation from it, hence the famous maxim, “Know Thyself”. How can one know oneself unless an analog “I” exists as a narratizing figure to be analyzed? It’s here where we can begin to gain some modicum of insight into the purpose of the ego as a tool towards conscious spiritual awakening in each individual. To “know oneself” is the first step in awakening Spirit through subjectivity.

It is an unfortunate circumstance of this age that the functional purpose of the ego has been greatly distorted. Instead of utilizing the ego as a tool for spiritual growth, we have collectively identified with it to such an extent that we have caused economic and racial inequality as well as environmental collapse. This is clearly the result of an imbalance in the functioning of the hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere’s tendency to separate things through language results in the constant attempt to dominate and control everything outside of the fragile ego that exists in a perpetual state of lack and fear. The ego never has enough and it is never in the present moment. It is constantly judging and forever criticizing and categorizing. It’s obsessed with status and hierarchies. It rates others and pigeonholes them in a ridiculous fashion as a way to perpetuate it’s illusory sense of itself. The ego is always looking at other egos as either a threat or a potential to propel itself to higher status. This type of thinking cuts reality into lifeless fragments and only destructive action can result from this distorted view of reality. This imbalance is the plight of our current reality and appears to have taken hold long ago.

It seems that during the breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, where self awareness begins to arise and a new form of spirituality erupts, an Institution of oppression also emerged. This institution suppressed the Sacred Feminine causing women to be reduced to child bearers and the property of men. The feminine principle was once revered and respected, especially in the Pagan traditions where human beings were seen as a part of and in harmony with nature. During the formation of the Roman Catholic Church and especially during the Inquisition, these ancient wisdom teachings were considered demonic and their symbols subjugated and encoded into the new paradigm in a distorted manner. It was enough for a woman to be seen walking in nature, showing a love for animals, and using plants and herbs in a medicinal fashion to be branded a witch and burned at the stake. This is the reason why the Mystery Schools remained in secret and the teachings only available to dedicated initiates. Up to the present, the suppressed sacred feminine has become internalized and is felt by many women as emotional pain. Eckart Tolle refers to it as the pain-body. The accumulation of this torture and enslavement of women manifests as a collective female pain-body, which surfaces during menstruation and in the suffering of child birth. Women who identify with the pain-body can succumb to the trap of becoming locked in their ego through identification with the suffering but as a result of their connection to the body, they also have a greater potential to awaken because of it. Men tend to be more mind identified than women and therefore find it more challenging to transcend it. The left hemisphere is more masculine and governs our cognitive processes while the right hemisphere is feminine and connected to our feeling nature. In the same way that it’s necessary to balance Eastern and Western philosophical ideas, and keep the energies of Lucifer & Ahriman in equipoise, so too must we find the balance between the hemispheres of the brain and the expressions of gender. Men must awaken to the Feminine Principle inside themselves and connect with their feeling nature and by the same token, women must transcend the collective pain-body and connect with the outward directed Masculine energy inside. Both of these energies have become greatly distorted and misunderstood at present. Until the feminine is brought back into balance, we’re in danger of global catastrophe.

Just as the Bronze Age collapse of the 2nd Century B.C. caused mass migrations and unexpected stresses that led to the breakdown of Bicamerality into subjective consciousness as we know it, so too are we at a tipping point of historical significance in our modern history. We are entering a new phase of evolution that is crying out for a revolution in conscious awareness and a new type of spiritual awakening must emerge if we are to survive. We are standing at the precipice of a New Age. The shift from Pisces into Aquarius. It’s time for each of us to rediscover the Divine Mother within. The wisdom of the Sacred Feminine must be brought back into balance, yet we also have to ensure the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in the other direction. It’s imperative that we always strive for equilibrium. Resistance against an opposing force will always serve to strengthen its response. This is why each individual must awaken to their own spirit. By uncovering the hidden aspects of ourselves, we can begin to heal our own trauma and bring into balance the Masculine and Feminine energies that exist in every individual. Each of us must work out our own salvation. As we do this, the collective shadow will emerge and it will be ugly and unpleasant to behold but we must embrace it as part of ourselves. It’s part of this egoic delusion. We must ask ourselves with each action we take if we are bringing healing into the world or perpetuating pain. If we sort out our inner worlds first, the outer world will magically shift. It’s the law of nature. An awakened populace would never create an economic system of oppression and racism. An awakened populace would never poison their environment and enslave, torture, and murder animals and other human beings. This is all a product of the sickness of separation. Billions of shattered and frightened egos that must dominate and control nature as a way to protect the illusion. It’s apparent in our destructive forms of agriculture and industrialized slaughterhouses as well as in the technology we create in order to clean up the mess of a previous technological advancement. The chaos and disorder of the present moment can bring on collapse and destruction or birth an awakening into a New Earth. Of course it’s possible that both will occur. But, true spiritual awakening will not come from technological salvation. Nor will it come from a violent over throw of the government or from a disproportionate swing of political ideology. These are traps that will bring about a polarity shift to the opposite side of the spectrum and continue to serve unconscious egoic delusion. You can’t argue with the unconscious ego. Doing so will only serve to strengthen it. We have to awaken by our own volition, one by one. A shift in consciousness that integrates the hemispheres of the brain and balances the masculine and feminine polarities in each individual is the only way to create a sudden and massive spiritual awakening on a global scale. We need an awakening that integrates the realm of Spirit through the lens of the material to take us beyond binary concepts of all kinds. It’s time to acknowledge The Infinite Waters from which all things flow. If we can see this as the closing of an Age, one that has been filled with ignorance and darkness, then we can activate our enormous potential and move on to the next phase of our evolutionary journey. If we continue to stay locked in the identification with form identity, we risk annihilation. The choice is ours. Yours and Mine.

Lucifer & Ahriman

Lucifer & Ahriman

In continuing our exploration into the integration of conflicting influences let us look into the work of the great mystic Rudolf Steiner and his ideas on the Incarnations of Lucifer and Ahriman. According to Steiner, in order to to achieve Christ Consciousness we must hold in balance the energies of Lucifer and Ahriman, which are opposing forces that work towards destruction symbolized by Sorat or The Antichrist. It’s a renewal of the ancient teachings of “The Golden Mean” or The Middle Way between opposing extremes. The diagram below is an illustration of the diamond/cross pattern of these influences.

Supposedly, Lucifer was a powerful spiritual entity that incarnated into human form 3000 years Before Christ. Lucifer is known as the Light Bringer. He is responsible for teaching humanity meditation and the power of plant medicine. His incarnation lead to a revolution of consciousness. It brought about the wisdom of Pagan culture that saw the human being as part of the flow of nature and inspired individuals toward Gnosis. Although he is not evil, Lucifer’s goal is to take man out of his body into the ethereal, into the realm of Spirit. This was an essential teaching for mankind at the time but only spread through the Mystery Schools and was largely hidden from the majority of the people. 

Then, as a correction to Lucifer’s tendency toward strictly mystical experiences, Christ was introduced on the physical plane through the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. This was seen as a balance but it would not have been understood without the Luciferic principle. At present, humanity is being prepared for the incarnation of Ahriman. A swing towards the opposing pole. In contrast to Lucifer, Ahriman is only interested in the physical plane of existence. Whereas Lucifer draws human beings away from earthly embodiment, Ahriman drives the spirit out of the vessel, hardening the human organism into material existence. We see this in the modern Materialist Scientific paradigm, where only what can be measured with the five senses is considered and anything “spiritual” or “metaphysical”, for lack of better terms, is ignored. 

Of course, it’s not necessary to believe that these are actual Spiritual Entities that are taking human form. I am of the opinion that no belief in anything should be taken on until a direct experience can prove it as a personal truth and even then we may realize that even greater levels of understanding are possible that challenge or expand upon our previously held beliefs. The importance should always be placed on ascertaining spiritual truths on the experiential level and never through belief in what someone else says. We may glean truths in someone’s words or philosophy but we should always strive towards direct experience and away from blind faith. In terms of Lucifer and Ahriman, we can look at these energies as metaphor that point us towards specific epochs of human spiritual evolution and cognitive development. It’s possible that these “ages” maybe programmed physical manifestations that are beyond our control and are in place as a test. Almost as if existence is part of a much grander scheme of spiritual unfoldment through its interaction with the world of form.

So while Lucifer is flighty and warm, it’s an unstable influence that inspires human fanaticism and false mysticism. We can see this in the egoic spirituality that is all too pervasive in this day and age. It’s apparent in the tendency to want to leave the material realm in search of hallucinatory pleasures. There are many spiritual seekers who become addicted to the experience of the astral realms that are possible through many of the plant medicines out there. This is not a condemnation of these teacher plants because great healing can occur in communion with them, but stepping into those realms too often and without proper protection and guidance is not without peril and can drain you. People who have journeyed into this territory often find that the plants themselves will tell you that you must stop coming to them for answers. That’s why meditation is such a key component to spiritual development and wisdom. It’s the slow and methodical way to gain discernment. By focused, disciplined concentration one can experience what the Buddhists refer to as the jhanas, or The Formless Dimensions. Without proper insight, these dimensions can be confusing, potentially hazardous, and a hindrance to spiritual growth. In the plant medicine experience, we are often launched naked into the jhanas and encounter many fantastic and otherworldly fascinations without the proper context or wisdom. Learned shamans can help to guide the experience but without a daily spiritual practice these experiences can leave one scrambled or worse. Their spirituality can become part of their ego and used to strengthen their sense of self, which is a phenomenon that we’re seeing today where anyone who takes Ayahuasca is suddenly a “light worker” or healer. There’s nothing wrong with being called in that direction but if the ego has not been properly transcended the Luciferic energy can become unbalanced and lead to destructive impulses.

In contrast, Ahriman is cold hard and mechanical. He’s rigid and materialistic. The effect is to reject Spirit in place of the physical, to silence the living principle within in favor of the world of fixed forms. Ahriman promotes the illusory concept that matter is the basic reality. The only reality in fact. It’s Ahriman’s wish that humanity stay asleep and he works on the unconscious population in many ways, one of which is through technological innovation on the material plane. He’s in direct opposition to increased consciousness but vigorously promotes hard intelligence and science. Much of the scientific thought of today is generated toward crushing anything that questions the idea that consciousness is a by product of human evolution instead of the other way around. Ahriman also works in the political sphere as fervent nationalism and identity politics, hardening everyone into boxes that only strengthen the ego’s sense of self and look at any challenge to it as an affront to their survival. I don’t think we need any examples of how this is playing out in today’s culture and political landscape. Ahriman is also interested in promoting the blind acceptance of statistical analysis and this is evident in the explosion of algorithms and reduction of human behavior to the realm of cold data and numbers. The destruction of the Earth as a result of the compulsion towards growth in capitalist dogma is an Ahrimanic impulse as well. In essence, it’s the reduction of human beings to a mechanical cog and the control of all life through microchips and technological manipulation. This is a danger that should be taken seriously because at its core is a fundamental error, which suggests that matter is the ultimate reality devoid of the Creative Principle that animates it. 

We are entering this New Ahrimanic Age now and it is coincident with the coming Jupiter/Saturn conjunction on December 21st 2020, also known as a Great Conjunction. It occurs at 0 Degrees of Aquarius, which is highly significant and I believe signals the true beginning of the Age of Aquarius. Aquarius is the sign of the collective but it is also the sign of the future and technology. While Saturn’s passage through here is evident in the social distancing protocols we’re seeing currently, it will be joined by Jupiter, and this combination will expand technological innovation and initiate the Age of the Robots. Mechanical beings, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality will explode during this time and we must stay vigilant so as not to get sucked into the false mysticism of digital transcendence or the hardening of the human vessel into a cyborg. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. We can calculate these epochs of human spiritual evolution through the approximately 2160 year transitions through the signs of the Zodiac. For instance, in the Age of Taurus there were cults that worshiped the bull deity Apis, and when Moses came down with the 10 Commandments he witnessed some of his followers worshipping a golden bull. He instructed his people that these worshippers should be executed and in doing so sacrificed the Bull. This act effectively ended the Age of Taurus and ushered in the Age of Aries, which is why Moses is often depicted as blowing the Rams horn and many other references to this symbolism. Next was the sacrifice of Jesus, the “Fisher of Men”, signaling the change from Aries into Pisces, the two fish. A deeper understanding of the crucifixion and it’s symbolism is needed in order to uncover it’s greater meaning through the context of Astrology and Pagan symbolism, especially as we’re set to enter the Age of Aquarius. The Water Bearer can be the pouring of spiritual waters into every human being for a great Awakening or the Great Flood that sends all the fish out onto the land without the ability to breathe. It could be Chaos and Collapse or Transcendence and Evolution or quite possibly both.

Salvador Dali

In the Christ impulse we are being shown the Middle Way. The path towards spiritual transcendence lies in holding these conflicting energies of Lucifer and Ahriman in balance, in awakening Spirit through the body, through the world of form. If we look at the symbolism of Christianity, it is clear that most of the mythology has been lifted from previous incarnations of Solar Deities. The Virgin Birth, 12 disciples, and Crucifixion are all in line with nearly 13 previous World Teachers throughout the ages including Zoroaster, Ra, and Buddha. Much of this mythology was appropriated and attributed to Jesus by the Roman Empire in an attempt to fold the remaining Pagan’s into the Roman Catholic doctrine as a way of increasing hegemonic control of the population. In doing so, the true meaning of much of this Pagan Wisdom was lost and a good portion of knowledge pertaining to astrological cycles and the rhythm of nature along with it. If looked at through a different lens, the entire mythology is ripe with astrological significance. It’s been well documented that the historical Jesus was born in April. The reason Christmas is celebrated on December 25th is because that is the day that the Sun “rises again” after being “dead for three days” to move towards ever increasingly light when the days get longer as Spring approaches. The 12 disciples that the Sun travels around with represent the signs of the zodiac. The Three Kings following the Northern Star towards Bethlehem can be seen every year at this time as the stars that make up Orion’s belt, also known as the Three Kings, form a line with Sirius and point to the exact area on the Earth where the Sun will rise on December 25th after it’s descent into darkness. This is not to say that there isn’t Spiritual Wisdom encoded in the mythology but they are shrouded and we shouldn’t confuse it by worshipping human sacrifice. 

The cross of the crucifixion can be viewed as the zodiac through which every human being must pass on it’s journey into the physical plane. The image of the tortured Christ is symbolic of the suffering that one must endure by incarnating into the world of form but it also represents the spiritual transcendence that’s possible for every human being through the recognition of the Vertical dimension of Spirit through the Horizontal portal of Time. The Transfiguration of Spirit through the vessel of the Body. This is part of the key to unlocking the Mystery of Golgotha. 

Salvador Dali

The path towards this goal is the destiny of each and every human being and in order to achieve this objective we must learn to hold the energies of Lucifer and Ahriman in equipoise. These influences can be viewed in simpler terms, where Christ Consciousness is simply Awakening to Spirit, and the mishandling and imbalance of Lucifer and Ahriman lead to Sorat, or egoic unconsciousness. In the face of the coming incarnation of Ahriman on the physical plane we must adopt a more objective stance concerning our impulses and a far more subjective one where the external world is concerned. It’s about gaining an understanding of the world of Spirit through the lens of Science. Not giving ourselves up completely to mystical experiences but instead noticing the unfolding of the mystical through the physical. This is essential to our survival as a species on this Earth. It is the pathway toward Gnosis. It’s the doorway into true Spiritual Transcendence.

BALANCING THE EAST AND WEST

This blog is the first in a series that seeks to illuminate some very basic spiritual principles and then take a deeper dive so that an integration between personal and collective can hopefully occur. In order to get into it, we must have an understanding of the 7 Hermetic Principles, the first of which states that the Universe is Mental. The All is Mind. This principle recognizes the existence of a Universal Consciousness and places it as the genesis of existence while highlighting the idea that we are all connected by this source. Everything flows from this Law, including all the Laws that follow like Polarity, Gender, Vibration, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, as well as Correspondence. As above, so below. Correspondence is the concept that the Universe is a macrocosm of which the human being is a microcosm. It speaks to the fractal nature of reality. The idea that each part contains the whole. It’s why we see similarities between galaxies and neural circuitry in the brain, Mandelbrot sequencing, the mathematics involved in conch shells, the spirals of a pinecone, and so on and so forth. These geometric patterns are often seen in the psychedelic experience or under the influence of powerful plant medicines, where the holographic nature of reality is revealed as if offering some insight into the way it functions by dissolving the ego for a period. To those that are attached to their sense of self or their separateness, this process is often terrifying. To those who are more awakened, the experience tends to bring freedom and relinquishes the fear of death.

These ideas are important in terms of how it relates to the current crisis involving the viral pandemic that is causing so much disruption and fear. In order to understand these challenging times more completely we must sift through several dichotomies and paradoxes, one of which concerns the differences between Eastern and Western philosophy through the ages. In Eastern philosophy, the teachings and disciplines are directed at shedding the masks of individuality and destroying egoism, which is considered the true enemy. The objective universe, the ego, the gross and subtle body, are all seen as unreal and imagined by the mind. The “I” is the part of us that “wants” and is desirous of pleasure and dedicated to the avoidance of pain. Self mastery is found in the shedding of these concepts as a way to dissolve into the All that is. The idea is to connect with the part of the self that is aware of all these undulating thoughts and feelings rather than identifying with the thoughts and feelings themselves. To be a Buddha, or Awakened One, is to become conscious of the identity not of the body but to the knower of the body, nor with thought but the knower of thought. In this way, one can step outside the self and connect with pure consciousness and then radiate the power of this Light. Of course, Buddha would then say to take it a step further and disconnect from the Awarer as well. 

In direct contrast to these concepts is Western philosophy, which values the individual above all else and with it the ideas of personal rights, freedom, and self-hood. With this comes all the outward directed tendencies of this philosophical mindset. Accumulation of knowledge. Manifest Destiny.  Scientific Materialism. The principles of the East are completely absent from any religious doctrines found in the West. In the Western ideologies, God made the World, God made man, God made Nature and none of it is considered identical. In fact, anyone who has suggested this idea has been crucified. Jesus said “I and the Father are One” and look what happened to him. Similarly, the Moslem mystic Hallaj uttered a similar sentiment 9 centuries later and suffered the same fate. 

This is not meant to condemn all of Western thought and ideology in favor of Eastern concepts. Each has their positives and negatives. What we so desperately need is to find an integration, a balance of these polarities. Western freedom of thought in the Age of Enlightenment brought about reason and science and is a necessary function of our evolution. The dissolving of the ego to the point of submission has lead, at times, to totalitarianism in the East. 

But as it concerns the recent viral outbreak, Eastern countries response of containment had the power of their government agencies to aggressively enforce lockdown, hampering the spread of the disease. Not making a case for totalitarian regimes, just highlighting the idea that Eastern countries, because of their age old philosophies, are more easily able to subjugate the will of the individual for the sake of the collective. On one hand, it’s anathema to human freedom and on the other it has the potential to show us that we are all one. Western philosophy’s egocentrism sees forced quarantines as an affront to personal freedom, which is why we see such irreverence towards containment here in the states, as well as the “me first” attitudes inherent in hoarding. Currently, these dichotomies are very apparent and yet obfuscated at the same time. In the face of this threat, we must make sure to not give away our civil liberties and yet, it’s necessary to quarantine in order to save the lives of people we love dearly. We must use our reasoning capabilities and listen to science and yet we also must also be still enough to connect with our intuition.

The disciplines of Western philosophy have given us science and technology. They’ve made our lives easier and increased our life spans. But we’ve suffered dehumanization and environmental collapse. The individual has been reduced to a cog in the machine of an Industrialized Technological society that has wreaked havoc on every other living thing on the planet, including the planet herself. We’ve lost the deeper meaning, instead, opting to send rockets deep into space searching for an understanding of our place in the scheme of it all. These are the consequences of identifying too heavily with the ego, separateness, and scientific materialism. By contrast, the disciplines of the Orient are by nature inward pointing, mystical, and psychological. The journey inward into the self produces meaning, the ultimate realization being the connectedness of all things. If all individuals (Western) were to embark on this journey inward through discipline and a quieting of the ego (Eastern), then a balance could be established. 

We are entering a New Age that requires a new type of awareness, not the youthful fantasizing of technological transcendence, but a return to the wisdom of the ages. A merger of the eastern and western philosophies is necessary to face the challenges of the future. An understanding and integration of the individual as well as the collective. We mustn’t look outward for salvation through technology, robots, and AI, although these could be useful tools in the hands of an enlightened population. Instead, we should go deep within and unlock the power of personal salvation. Then and only then will we have the spiritual equivalent of our technological powers.

Astrologically, we are about to see Saturn enter into Aquarius, which is the sign of the collective. Saturn by nature is restrictive and requires hard work and maturity to master its lessons. So, at first, there will be constraints and regulations such as social distancing, containment, and quarantines. There will be losses of freedom until we are mature enough to recognize our collective identity. A period of growing up to the understanding of social responsibility needs to occur. We may also begin to see hard work being directed towards more pervasive technology as well as efforts placed into humanitarian aid. So you can see the themes of enslavement combined with a form of social consciousness. This is the beginning of a New Age that is not without its perils. A new beginning signals the end of something else and this change will see our religious symbols begin to crumble and lose their meaning. What will replace them?

A little over a century ago, when the railroad industry cut across the plains, the wheat planting settlers killed all the buffalo herds in order to make way for the Iron Horse. They were also depriving the buffalo hunting Indians of their food supply, which forced them to submit to life on the reservations. These devastating developments offered two conflicting scenarios for the plains Indians. One was a type of enslavement. The other was a new relationship to religion. For all primitive hunting peoples, as well as the plains Indians, their relationship to the animal community that provided food and clothing was central to their religion. With that suddenly gone, a new relationship to their spirituality had to be born and within a decade, the peyote and mescal cult erupted from Mexico as a type of psychological rescue. 

In the Biblical story of Eden and the Fall of Man, we find that Man is against God, Nature is against God, and Man and Nature are against each other. In effect, all three are at war. God’s own likeness (Man), God’s own Creation (Nature), and God Himself are separate and in conflict. Whereas, in the Eastern philosophies, Nature is but the bosom with which we are born and die. Man comes out of Nature so they cannot be separate from one another. We are in Nature and it is within Us. God, or the Creative principle in the Universe, is flowing through it all, giving it life and breath. As soon as we put a name to God, or anthropomorphize Him, then He becomes separate and outside of all of existence. In the West, we have named this God and placed Him high above us and outside of us in a way that has become dangerous and obsolete. In the East, the journey is inward into the self towards actualization of the presence within and the disciplines are directed towards this aim. God is meant to be awakened within and not only is God within us but flowing through everything that exists and has ever existed. It’s an important distinction and speaks to the destruction we have levied upon Mother Nature and it’s inhabitants including ourselves. 

We’re entering a time of transition, where many outdated religious symbols have lost their meaning and people are adrift. Just like the plains Indians, we are in need of a new relationship to our spirituality. Perhaps this is why the West’s destruction of the rainforests have unleashed the power of Ayahuasca and a host of other Ancient teacher plants from the Amazon. Psilocybin mushrooms and LSD are being recognized for their healing potential. For many, this is a time of chaos and confusion that could certainly lead to enslavement if liberties are relinquished. But for others, it is a call to return to ancient wisdom and awaken to the power of Love that is contained within each of us. This is not meant to discredit the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth but to further point out what he was really preaching. The Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is not an external Godhead figure to be worshipped and that stands outside of yourself and Nature. It is not the fetishization of human sacrifice. It is an energy that moves through everything at all times. It is the Father and our Universe is the Mother. It is the Creative Force and our precious Earth is it’s container. A synergy must occur. I believe this is what is meant by the Second Coming of Christ. It is not an external personage that comes back to judge the living and the dead but a resurgence of Christ Consciousness in the individuals who awaken it within themselves through mediation, discipline, compassion, and Love. In this way, individuals that choose this path become beacons of pure consciousness and light. This power will emanate from them in ways that will help to illuminate this innate intelligence in others and one by one the world will be ignited in this glowing Spirit. 

THOUGHT FORMS

THOUGHT FORMS

As we progress spiritually, we naturally enter into states of expanded awareness. It’s from this perspective that our view of the world increases and new paradigms of thought must be contemplated. Materialist Science is only concerned with what can be measured by the five senses. However, anyone who has experienced altered states of consciousness easily recognizes that there is a much larger realm of experience available to us and that science should endeavor to measure and codify these states and include them in our scientific model of the universe.

With that in mind, let us contemplate an idea concerning Thought Forms. When we meditate, we are becoming aware of our breath and the sensations that flow through the body from moment to moment. Another observation that we can make involves our mental processes or what we refer to as thoughts. Just as we rarely care to take notice of our breath, we also rarely care to make ourselves aware of the thoughts that are rapidly emanating from our brains. By the same token, we often don’t see the connection between our thoughts and our emotional content and how that affects the sensations in the body. During meditation we are becoming aware of this process and in practice, we are able to gain insight into this mind/matter matrix. Our thoughts affect our body and produce sensations just as sensations in the body can result in thoughts. In this way a feedback loop is created and this makes up our general state of being. Let’s say we are plagued by a memory from the past where someone inflicted pain on us. Naturally, this is unpleasant and will trigger negative sensations in the body. Perhaps we experience heat or pressure in the chest or loss of our natural way of breathing when this thought arises. This thought may fill us with anger and if we are not aware we may release that anger on someone else who does not deserve it. We have lost the balance of our mind, it has created an unpleasant sensation, and we have compounded that misery by inflicting abuse onto another. This is why awareness is so important. In meditation, we can connect the fleeting thought with the sensation and through the practice of non-reaction sit with anger until it passes. We can practice this with a wide variety of emotions and in doing so change our behavior patterns, which in turn will change our lives for the better. It bears mentioning that thoughts, for the most part, are things which take us away from the present moment. When we have a thought it has certain characteristics that move us away from now. A thought can be focused on the past, like a pleasant memory or maybe a trauma or abuse. It can be a hope for the future or a worry about something that may or may not happen. It can be focused on the self or onto another. These are the four places our mind can go to take us away from the present. The past. The future. The Self. The Other. If we contemplate this idea further we can see how our thoughts affect our reality.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1487-88, by the young Michelangelo,

Let’s conduct a thought experiment to illustrate how this works. Let’s consider that our thoughts are energy and that when we have a powerful or persistent thought it gives birth to an entity that we will call a Thought Form. Thought Forms are not necessarily physical but are energetic beings that live on the astral plane. They are not eternal like us, but naturally have the instinct for survival. In order to live they need food that is provided to them by their creator, which is us. Their food is our emotional content. So let’s say we have a persistent thought about the future. We are worried that we cannot pay our rent or that some type of catastrophe is on the horizon. A thought form of worry is then born and we have filled it with fear. This thought form, god bless it, wants nothing more than to survive. It wants like any other entity to live and to thrive so it comes back to it’s creator for more food. It comes back for more fear. In order to secure this food it torments you with worry and triggers more fear and anxiety. The more you give it the stronger it gets and the more power it has over you. It’s like a demon constantly hovering around you siphoning fear and terror and consequently ruining your life. But this is something that you have created, something that you have chosen to feed and water and allow to grow. By the same token, we may have a thought for the future which is positive and filled with hope. This is less dangerous but if we have hope for something that doesn’t materialize we risk disappointment which can then result in misery. So it’s through meditation that we can begin to gain some modicum of control over these thought forms. By practicing awareness we can easily see these thoughts arise and pass away from an objective point of view. We view them with equanimity. We don’t feed them and consequently they lose their charge. The more we practice the more we begin to clear the cache of thought forms. Without their food, they wither and die off and this clears our path forward. There are no impediments to our direction forward and we can enter a state of flow. Try it, you’ll like it. I swear.

FLOW STATES

The Science of the Flow State

Most of us live in a very restricted circle of our potential being. We make use of only a very small portion of our possible consciousness and of our souls resources in general. However, through the use of breath work, meditation, and psychedelics, specifically microdosing, we can make an attempt at contacting a greater awareness. This state of being is often referred to as a flow state. In this state of consciousness we silence the executive functions of the brain and greater connectivity of more divergent parts that the executive areas keep from speaking to one another results. This allows for a feeling of oneness and connection with everything. It also stops the chatter of the ego mind, which is constantly in a state of judging and codifying everything around us as a way to control our environment. It’s a paradox but we’re trying to let go in order to gain more control.

When we reach a flow state, we’re contacting our intuition. The inner voice. Our spiritual guidance. We’re connecting with the quantum field where all events exist as a probability and where all ideas are housed. Let’s imagine that ideas don’t come from the brain performing an operation but that symbols and ideas populate a place that exists outside of space time to which we all have access. All we must do is quiet the monkey mind and our entry is granted. When we accomplish this task our senses are heightened, our awareness is sharp, we are one with all that there is, and are psychically attuned to the universe at large.

The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain where thinking occurs. It’s the place where we take simple ideas and add layers of complexity to them. However, and this may seem counterintuitive, “flow states” occur when this type of thinking is absent. Decisions are clear and automatic. It is the opposite of thinking. It is a kind of knowing.

The superior frontal gyrus is the part of the brain that produces our sense of self. It provides us with self awareness and that introspective feeling. Again, it sounds counterintuitive, but this is not always a useful thing. Jung described depression as the ego punishing itself. Depression is a state where we have begun to take everything personally. It’s when our sense of self becomes so introspective that it’s debilitating and our ability to properly function is severely diminished or non existent. By decreasing blood flow to the areas that govern the sense of self and releasing it’s stranglehold on the rest of the brain, meditation and psychedelics can offer a cure for these introspective depressive states. Curiously some forms of exercise such as intense biking or marathon running where the “runner’s high” is achieved can also produce the same results.

Another part of the brain that is deactivated in flow states is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is an area of the brain best known for self-monitoring and impulse control. Self monitoring is that voice of doubt, our pesky inner critic. The one who keeps questioning whether we are good enough. By eliminating this doubt we are liberated from this vacillating voice and we can just act with confidence and without hesitation of any sort. Creativity flourishes in this state. We take risks without worry or fear and there is no second guessing. Problem solving is automatic. This voice of doubt is the mortal enemy of the flow state.

One area of the prefrontal cortex that is stimulated in the flow state is the medial prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain associated with creative self expression. This allows us to retain our individual creativity and why such novel ideas are brought out in the process.

Another aspect of flow states is time dilation. Time is no longer relevant when you’ve connected to this heightened awareness. It seems to slow down or stand still. Moments that last milliseconds seem to go on for an eternity giving you what feels like ample time to process all the information that you’re rapidly taking in. Temporal awareness in and of itself is a construct of our minds, where various areas of the brain work together to give us a sense of time. It’s a summary judgement that we’re making, almost a democratic conclusion reached by the executive areas of the brain, proving that time is a completely relative phenomenon. Take for example the simple mathematic equation of your age. When you are 2 years old a year is half your life, and we experience years when we’re younger as feeling longer to transpire as opposed to when we are 60. A year at this age is 1/60 of your life and why we feel like the years are just flying by. In a flow state, energy that is normally allocated for temporal processing is repurposed for attention and awareness. We’re taking in more data per second and processing it more completely. All of this data processing elongates the present moment so the more information we’re processing, the longer the moment appears to last. Processing more data allows us access to sudden insights and the quality of that data will lead to a more creative solution.

Still another aspect of the flow state is a feeling of oneness. The brain scans of Franciscan nuns and Buddhist monks who were in deep states of meditation revealed that these intense moments of concentration not only alter our sense of self and distort our sense of time but they impact our relationship to space. The area of the brain associated with spatial relationships is called the superior parietal lobe and is located further back in the cortex and has been dubbed the orientation association area (OAA) because of it’s ability to orient us in space. It’s a navigation system of sorts granting us the ability to judge angles, map distances, and keep track of our body’s location in space. It literally tells us where the self is. A lot of energy is expended in figuring these calculations out and a ton of information is constantly being transmitted to this area of the brain to geolocate us in the world. But in these moments of intense focus our senses stop sending data to this area and the OAA stops performing these tasks because it quits receiving these constant signals. With no data to process it becomes temporarily blind and once this happens we are no longer able to differentiate where “I” ends and the rest of the world begins and the brain concludes that you are “one with everything”. When this occurs, surfers report feeling one with the wave, rock climbers become one with the rock, and meditators become one with God. This is significant especially for those of us who have experienced this magnificent feeling. It’s also why there is an explosion of these states in action/adventure sports. One need only look to the giant leaps forward by Danny Way, Laird Hamilton, and Alex Honnold, in their respective endeavors to see that contacting these states of consciousness can lead to impossible feats that are positively superhuman.

One of the main issues to to consider when trying to induce a flow state is our relationship to fear. Fear is what stops us from taking action. It can cripple us. But fear is grounded in a sense of self, time, and space. When we obliterate these concepts we are liberated from doubt, worry, and anxiety and without these hindrances our main fear, the fundamental fear of death, also vanishes. It’s quite a simple equation: If there’s no “you” in “timespace” you become an infinite, atemporal being so there is no possibility of death. This is the ultimate state of being.

Most of us have experienced one or all of these states at some point in our lives but these phenomena tend to be rare and fleeting. However, through sustained meditation and the use of psychedelics we can reach flow states with more frequency, for longer periods, and with greater attunement. These modes of experience can take the ordinary into the extraordinary. The normal human to a superhuman. All with simple and ancient techniques completely void of any modern technological enhancement. The future is these states of being. Transhumanist fantasies are a dark path that will harden our nature and lock us into the material realm cutting us off from spirit. Now more than ever we need a return to the most basic and traditional forms of spiritual atonement, especially as we’re reaching an age of colossal technological upheaval. We’re about to unleash a torrent of technological advancement that is so formidable that it has the capacity to dwarf our understanding of it. If we do not cultivate an equal moral and spiritual enlightenment then these advancements will surely result in our ultimate destruction.

A SHORT GUIDE TO MICRODOSING WITH PSILOCYBIN

A SHORT GUIDE TO MICRODOSING WITH PSILOCYBIN

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound found in nearly 200 species of mushroom. It can produce varied effects including euphoria, visual and mental acuity, changes in perception, spiritual experiences, and in high doses, hallucinations. While it’s possible to build up a tolerance there is very low risk of toxicity and no danger of overdosing. However, extremely high doses will produce very powerful psychological effects and hallucinations that can result in physically dangerous situations so set and setting is important whenever one chooses to consume a psychedelic and these compounds should be treated with the utmost respect. Anyone struggling with mental illnesses like schizophrenia or have a history of mental illness in the family should avoid taking psychedelics. In addition, anyone who is currently taking SSRI’s, Lithium, or other tricyclics should not take psychedelics without the permission of their physician.

STUDIES

Contrary to popular belief there have been many published clinical studies investigating the benefits of psychedelics for the treatment of PTSD, addiction, depression, social anxiety, as well as end of life anxiety in cancer patients. The findings suggest that Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity and help to connect different parts of the brain. It can also trigger neurogenesis by actually growing new neurons. Psilocybin has a similar chemical structure to serotonin, which is involved in regulating mood, and therefore can have therapeutic effects for depression and anxiety. Outside of the curative properties, the data suggests that taking psilocybin can boost creativity, mood, and out of the box thinking. Many users find that addiction to alcohol and other substances decreases significantly and their productivity and social interactions soar.

MICRODOSING

Microdosing is the process of integrating a sub-perceptual dose of psychedelics into your weekly regimen for higher levels of creativity, energy, increased focus, and improved relational skills. Moderate doses can change the function of the brain in a way that is very similar to what is seen in flow states. Since everybody is different the dosage may vary based on body weight, sensitivity, interactions with other substances and environmental factors. Sub-perceptual means that there is no physical sensation that results from consuming the drug. The effects, however, are cumulative in nature. After several weeks the users may feel a boost in mood and social interactions, find that their creativity and ability to think outside the box is elevated, and their addictions significantly decreased. Dosages can range anywhere from .05g to .25g and finding the right dosage is often a process of trial and error. The protocols for taking the microdoses also vary. The best way to start is to take your first microdose on a day off work to measure the effects. Then take two days off and repeat the process by taking it one day on and two days off. The second protocol is take one dose everyday for five days then take two days off and repeat. In addition, stacking with other compounds is a great way to tailor the experience for specific types of outcomes. Experimentation with dosages and combinations is the best way to find what works best for you.

SIDE EFFECTS

The goal of microdosing is to increase desirable states and outcomes. Ideally, we want to be more creative, more open, less anxious, and more productive. We’d like to be more coordinated and have greater empathy. However, in some cases and from time to time, we might encounter undesirable states and outcomes because we have taken the wrong dose or taken it at the wrong time and place. Some of these side effects may include nausea and panic attacks. In these cases, we may find that we have difficulty concentrating and that there is a loss of productivity and focus. We may experience an overload of emotions that impact our relationships and ability to concentrate. These states are often the result of blocked energy or suppressed emotions that the psychedelic is working to dislodge. While it’s potentially uncomfortable and challenging it is often to our benefit to face these troubling side effects as a way to move towards greater healing.

10 Basic Rules from Manly P. Hall

10 Basic Rules from Manly P. Hall

Much of what I’ve learned, and some of the most trusted spiritual material you can come across has come from one incredibly learned and insightful man whose writings have informed a great number of spiritual seekers throughout the years. That individual is Manly Palmer Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990). He was a Canadian born author and mystic. At the young age of 26 he published perhaps his most famous work The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosphy.

To say this man was prolific is an insult to the definition. Over his career he delivered over 8,000 lectures across the globe and authored over 150 books and pamphlets, while creating The Philosophical Research Society, a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of providing resources for the study and research of the world’s wisdom literature. The PRS still stands as one of the worlds foremost libraries for research into the occult and Mystery Teachings throughout recorded history and beyond. Recently the PRS has opened their catalogue online in order to spread this knowledge to a broader audience. We all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the legacy of this great man and his spiritual advice is worth paying attention to. That being said, below are Manly P. Hall’s “10 Basic Rules for Better Living.” I assure you that even attempting to put just a few of these into practice will result in a betterment of life’s circumstances. Give it a try. You are bound to be successful.

1. Stop worrying

The popular idea that a worrier is a thoughtful and conscientious citizen is false. The Egyptians realized this when they included worry among the cardinal sins. Do not confuse thoughtfulness and worry. The thoughtful person plans solutions, but the worrier merely dissolves in his own doubt. If you think straight, you will have less cause for worrying. The worrier not only suffers the same disaster many times, but undermines his health and annoys all others with whom he comes into contact. There are many things in this world that require thoughtful consideration, but there is really nothing to fear but fear.

2. Stop trying to dominate and posses your friends and relatives

Each of us likes to feel that he is running his own life. The moment we recognize the rights of others to seek life, liberty, and happiness according to their own dreams, hopes, and aspirations, we begin to conserve our own resources. It is very debilitating to give advice which is ignored or rejected, and equally disappointing to attempt to posses and dominate persons who immediately resent and combat our dictatorial tendencies. We are hurt when they do not see things our way. If we save advice for ourselves and those who seek it from us, and who are therefore grateful, all concerned will be the better.

3. Moderate ambition

There is a tendency to overlook natural and simple blessings while we plunge on toward distant goals. Each individual has certain capacities. If he can recognize his own abilities and work with them, he can attain personal security. If, however, he is constantly seeking that which is not reasonably attainable, he can never know happiness or contentment. The wise man observes the disastrous results of uncontrollable ambitions, and chooses moderation. It is not necessary to be famous in order to be happy, nor must one be the leading citizen in the community in order to gratify ones social instinct. The ambitious usually pay too much for what they get, and are the more miserable after they get it.

4. Do not accumulate more than you need

There is no real distinction in being the richest man in the graveyard. Many earnest citizens act as though there were pockets in shrouds. We are supposed to have outgrown the primitive belief that we should bury a mans goods with him so that his spirit might enjoy them in the afterworld. Here, again, the middle course is the wisest. Let us reserve some of our energy for enjoyment, and not give all of ourselves to the task of accumulation. Many a man who has made millions has not lived to spend it. A rich life can be more practical than a monumental bank account.

5. Learn to relax

Great tension is an abomination. The more tense we become, the more stupidly we are likely to act, and, according to the old Buddhists, stupidity is a cardinal sin. Today, many so-called efficient people are perpetually on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This is not so likely to be due to overwork as to unreasonable driving impulses from within themselves. Some say that they are overtaxing their resources to keep their jobs or to maintain extravagant families. Whether you believe it or not, you are a better producer and a better provider if you do not collapse from psychic exhaustion at some critical moment when you are most in need of good health. If your associates do not realize this, they may be in need of practical counsel.

6. Cultivate a sense of humor

As never before, we must brighten and lighten the corners where we are. The more seriously we take ourselves and our responsibilities, the duller we become. It is a saving grace to realize that, although living is a serious matter, we can take it too seriously. Also bear in mind that genuine humor is not bitter, cynical, or critical. It is the ability to laugh with the world and not at the world. If we must laugh at someone, let it be ourselves. Humor is a spice to living. It adds flavor to work, zest to play, charm to self-improvement, and proves to others that we have a security within ourselves. A sincere, happy laugh, like the joyous rippling of children’s laughter, relieves tension and restores good nature. Incidentally, it makes friends and inspires confidence.

7. Find a reason for your own existence

Unless you believe in something bigger than yourself, have some purpose more vital than accumulation or advancement in business or society, you are only existing, not living. A simple pattern is to realize that the laws of Nature that put you here seem to be primarily concerned with growth. You are a success to the degree that you grow, and you grow to the degree that you become a wiser, more useful, and more secure person. In other words, we live to learn, and by this very process, we learn to live. Broaden your horizon, develop an interest in all that is fine, beautiful, and purposeful. Great internal good comes from the love for music, art, great literature, broad philosophy, and simple faith. Strengthen the inside of your nature, and the outside will be better.

8. Never intentionally harm another person

Never by word or deed return evil for good, or evil for evil. Weed negative and destructive thoughts and emotions out of your personality, or they will ultimately contribute to your misery. As we look around us, we see the tragic results of individuals and nations that harbor grudges or nurse the instincts for revenge. The harmless life saves those who live it from many of the mortal shocks that flesh is heir to. Our critical attitudes and our long memories of evils that others have caused only reduce our present efficiency and endanger health and vitality. Even the selfish man realizes that he cannot afford to keep a grudge, and the unselfish simply will not permit grudges to accumulate because they know better and they believe better.

9. Beware of anger

When ill-temper controls us, we are no longer able to control ourselves. In a moment of anger, we may create a situation which will require years to remedy. Why should we spend our time trying to recover from our own mistakes? If we disapprove, let us state our case simply and quietly, and remember that we should never try to correct another when we have already committed a fault as great as his. A quick temper is a serious handicap in business or in the home. It is useless to say that we cannot control anger. This is as much as to admit that we have lost the power to control ourselves. If we resent the unkindness of others and the collective irritability of this generation, let us make sure that we are not one of the irritating factors.

10. Never blame others for our own mistakes

It is hardly necessary. Each of us seems to have an incredible capacity to do things badly and select unwisely. Actually, we are in trouble because we have not made constructive use of the power and abilities which we received as a birthright. Others can hurt us only while our inner life is too weak to sustain in the presence of trial or test. Instead of resenting misfortunes, and seeking to excuse our own limitations, we must face the facts. Either we are stronger than the problem and can solve it intelligently, or the problem is stronger than we are, and the only solution is to increase our own strength. Others are not to blame for our unhappiness. Each man must seek his own peace of mind, and, as the Arabian Nights so well expressed it, happiness must be earned.

How To Set Intentions

10 Intentions you can set TODAY

Setting Intentions can be challenging. Some of you might ask why this is so considering that all you really have to do is write down some things that you want to manifest into your life and then direct your will towards those goals. However, we can often work at cross purposes to our intentions because we haven’t fully integrated aspects of ourselves that are hidden or beneath the surface of our consciousness. Ancient wisdom suggests that our destiny is shaped by our deepest intentions and desires, which is where this gets tricky. Sometimes our subconscious fears and insecurities can block our intentions or our deepest desires are born out of mental impurities and unchecked passions. Since we all have these deep rooted aspects of our personality it can be a complicated landscape to manage. This is one reason why I suggest meditation as a daily practice. The more you practice mindfulness, the more you will come to know the truth about yourself and the more mental impurities you will eradicate. Meditation also calms the mind and puts you in touch with your higher self or a state of pure consciousness. You are contacting the quantum field of possibilities and that’s where anything is possible. After meditation is the best time to set your intentions because you have quieted your ego mind and reached a state of stillness within. Once you set your intention then it’s best to release it, forget about it, and do your best to detach from the outcome. I find this to be the most difficult aspect. Sometimes you want something so powerfully and you’re holding on so tight to the outcome, that it presupposes an underlying fear that it might not become a reality and it’s that unconscious fear that ends up blocking you. This is why new age nonsense like The Secret often fails people. While there are kernels of the truth in the concept, like many spiritual teachings, those truths are buried in mindless poppycock that tells people they can have whatever they want even if the desire is based in needless want stemming from lack, insecurity, and greed. It’s a good practice to remember that you are already whole and avoid setting intentions from a place of lack or need. In fact, eliminating the terms NEED, CAN’T, and TRY should be on the top of everybody’s list. Below are examples of 10 intentions you can set for yourself that will hopefully grow over time and blossom into your life in a powerful and meaningful way.

1. My intention is to cultivate loving kindness to all things living and non-living, visible and invisible.

2. My intention is to use Spirit as my guide with the knowledge that despite the existence of evil, everything is trending towards Love.

3. My intention is to connect with Spirit so that my true life purpose can be fulfilled.

4. My intention is to create a balance between my work, leisure, and personal relationships so that I can grow spiritually from each experience in a measured way.

5. My intention is to attract wealth and prosperity in unlimited abundance so that I may share that wealth with others in a manner that continues to nurture and develop higher levels of awareness and consciousness.

6. My intention is to attract wealth and prosperity in unlimited abundance and allow it to flow through me in a way that is kind, compassionate and in continual alignment with Spirit.

7. My intention is to eliminate self-negating thoughts with the realization that I am connected to all of Creation.

8. I intend to substitute love and compassion for feelings of superiority or inadequacy. 

9. My intention is to eradicate as many mental impurities as this lifetime will allow.

10. I intend to cultivate loving relationships with family, co-workers, and the general public so that all my interactions will become more harmonious.

A good primer into setting intentions can be found in Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way. It’s a little fluffy at times but ultimately when I pick it up and read just a few passages, I feel pretty damn good and I think you will too. Check it out.

You Have to Accept this Reality

You Have to Accept this Reality.

I have to admit that although I believe that the path toward any spiritual insight must begin with the concept that nature and the universe is ultimately trending towards good, I often find myself teetering on the edge of oblivion. The serious questions of: Why is there evil in the world? Why does an innocent child go hungry? Why is my life not turning out as I planned? And Where the hell are my damn car keys? Will always seem to confound and frighten us. However, it's in these very concepts of dread where we may find our larger view of the world and our place in it. It's difficult to know the mechanism in place that places one incarnating soul in a garbage dump in Mumbai and another on Park Avenue. It's also even more confusing to realize that the person coming into the world on Park Ave. is often times more miserable than the person in the garbage dump. Pondering these larger issues of existence often make normal people's eyes gloss over and cause them to check out intellectually but that doesn't deny the fact that there is something real and Karmic about each of our individual life paths and once you start to recognize that there is a reason that you are who you are in this life the better you will be able to cope with it. So I encourage all of you to take this larger view. While we'll be covering these topics in greater detail in future posts, right now I'd like to bring your attention to one of my favorite writers, Charles Bukowski. The first book I read by Bukowski was Ham on Rye and it's about his earliest memories into his 20's and it's honest, heartbreaking, and incredibly funny. At one point he discusses the painful boils he developed on his face and back, a form of acne vulgaris that are obviously a result of the awful physical and emotional torment he suffered at the hands of his abusive father. His description of how he had to have them drained with a needle is particularly heart wrenching. However, it's his ability to convey his particular reality in an honest way that also doesn't take it too seriously that I find comforting. That's why I'd like to highlight him in this post. Take a larger view of your life and most importantly accept it. Accept who you are for better or worse. You're here to learn some shit and this is the vessel you've chosen to do it in. So get on with it. Here's a poem from Bukowski to help you along, it's called be cool, fool and I think it speaks for itself.

Charles Bukowski: be cool, fool

you have to accept this

reality

whether you

sit at a punch press all day or

whether you

work in a coal mine or

whether you come home

exhausted from a cardboard box factory

to find

3 kids bouncing dirty tennis balls

against the walls of a

2 room flat as

your fat wife sleeps while

the dinner burns

away.

you have to accept this

reality

which includes enough nations with

enough nuclear stockpiles to

blow away the very center of the

earth

and to finally liberate

the Devil

Himself

with his

spewing red fire of liquid

doom.

you have to accept this

reality

as the madhouse walls

bulge

break

and the terrified insane

flood our

ugly streets.

you have to accept terrible

reality.

How To Become Enlightened

How to Become Enlightened

The Ten Perfections towards Inner Light

As previously mentioned in our post on The 10 Hindrances on the Path of Enlightenment, taking steps toward becoming Enlightened is no easy task with many challenges ahead. When people are asked about their religious inclinations we often hear people say, “I’m not religious but I’m very spiritual.” Let us ponder that phrase and try to understand what it truly means to live a “spiritual” life, one that is backed by a standard of moral principles and dedicated to a spiritual code of action. We must also stress that this is a “life” lived by these principles and not just a few weeks of instruction by this guru or that supposedly spiritual person who has made contact with positive alien beings and has urgent news about the state of our planet. We are speaking about a lifetime lived honestly and intelligently. An individual is not spiritual because they read spiritual books or study with some famously enlightened person, even if that person is legit. They are not spiritual because they meditate in silence often or chant while doing difficult yoga poses. They are not spiritual because they drink plant medicines with some Peruvian shaman in the jungle or because they have been initiated into some cult or another. A person is spiritual when day after day and year after year they strive to live an honest and balanced life dedicated to selfless service to others. A spiritual life is not something that you rub on, there’s no organization you can join, even if they have advanced views concerning Karma and Reincarnation. There’s no special sauce, no mechanical process nor are there any particular affirmations you can repeat that will make you a spiritual person. A spiritual life offers nothing except the gradual improvement of the individual by a constant course of self-discipline and a program of intelligently directed effort. In the ancient Mystery Schools, an individual would not even be considered for instruction unless they had already proven themselves to be of the highest moral standards and even after that their discipleship would consist of a rigid discipline without any reward or promise. No one who seeks the study of the metaphysical realms in order to line his pockets will ever advance along the path no matter how twisted the ancient teachings get by the modern metaphysical charlatans. Jesus did not preach a doctrine of wealth and excess, he asked his disciples to leave everything they owned behind. Buddha left a mansion and riches to walk the streets with a cup in his hand. Mohammed sacrificed a fortune to go on the run weaving his own clothes. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like meditating on a “new Mercedes in your driveway” or intending on receiving “millions of dollars in your bank account”. The spiritual life strives to give more to others, to make others happy and in the process leaving less and less for the self. That is not to say it’s unspiritual to been financially well off. In order to serve others we must come from a strong base. We often hear repeated the ridiculous belief that God wants all men to be healthy, wealthy, and happy whether they live well or not and this is simply not true. In fact, it appears that the universe cares very little about the happiness of mankind, much the same way that you can give a shit if the population of water beetles that are living under your sink and come out at night to terrorize your family are feeling particularly fulfilled this calendar year. If we look at nature as a whole, human beings are a terribly troublesome and destructive creature whose selfish interests have taxed this planet to its maximum then, on top of that, we have the sack to ask for more. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree comes to mind. Try reading this one with fresh eyes and you might think about placing it in the horror section at the bookstore.

If humans want to be happy then they should strive to live well, to be honest with themselves and conscious of the purpose of this particular life. If we are able to live a noble and intelligent life and use our minds to achieve inward perfection and for the assistance of others then we can be sure that we will reach a modicum of happiness. This concept encompasses the problem of wealth as well. Nature does not believe that man must be wealthy. Nature stores only what it needs, it’s man who accumulates more than he can possibly ever use and is wasteful beyond measure. If the Law of Karma decides to bestow wealth upon an individual, it becomes a problem of responsibility. Wealth can be a tremendous burden on a life and if not exercised properly can work towards accruing more Karmic debt and who needs that shit? Those who have accumulated wealth or have been born into it in this life have an opportunity to use it in a manner that is in line with the highest principles of good and whether they continue to have wealth in subsequent lives depends on the manner in which they make use of this abundance of wealth. Buddha very wisely observed that the misuse of wealth would surely result in a life of poverty in a future life.

The true practice of metaphysics is concerned with Universal Law and extends far beyond the material sphere. The man who is wise does not wish to escape from this law but instead to live in perfect harmony with it. The basic teachings have been laid down by a series of enlightened individuals who have walked on the path and because of their relentless pursuit of service to others, created a foundation for anyone who wishes to embark on this journey. These great doctrines already exist. You don’t need some New Age bozo with a funny haircut to translate them. You needn’t look any further than Plato or Buddha, Jesus or Lao-tse, to find the way forward. Only a foolish person would try to twist the wisdom of the ages to fit some personal agenda. That brings us to the reason for this post. Below are the 10 Perfections or rules of conduct that are a prerequisite for entrance towards a mystical and philosophical life. The sages of India called them Pāramitās or pāramīs. I hope this knowledge will assist you along your personal path towards enlightenment.

THE TEN PERFECTIONS

1. Generosity (dana)

This is the quality of unattached and unconditional giving and letting go. Giving leads to being reborn into happy and wealthy states while stinginess and lack of giving leads to unhappy states and poverty. By giving without seeking something in return the wealthier we will become. Giving need not be monetary only. The giving of ones time and a simple generosity of the spirit that comes from the heart is truly what this is about. So volunteering, connecting people with similar interests, sharing of knowledge, and psychological assistance fall under this category. Without charity there can be no virtue, without virtue there can be no wisdom; and without wisdom there can be no inner life. I recommend serving a Vipassana as a way to exercise the merit of Dana.

2. Moral conduct (sila)

This refers to the overall principles of ethical behavior and an action of intentional effort towards the purity of thought, word, and deed. Many of us often display only some of the virtues and wonder why there is a disconnect between our inner and outer worlds. Sometimes an individual may have right speech and right actions but their thoughts are all negative and they secretly wish harm on others with their mind even though they may be quite outwardly generous. This is why it’s important to do your best to cultivate these merits by eliminating as many mental impurities as you possibly can.

3. Renunciation (nekkhamma)

This is about letting go and freeing yourself from lust, craving, and desire. One need not live a totally ascetic life without any joy but one should come to the realization that any type of clinging to the pleasures of the senses will ultimately result in some type of misery. Meditation is an excellent way to begin to understand the connection of physical sensations in the body and mental states of agitation.

4. Wisdom (paññā)

This can also be translated as Understanding or Discernment. Wisdom does not come from reading books or listening to lectures by enlightened people. It comes from direct realization of the truth about yourself and the Universe. This is not an intellectual pursuit but rather knowledge brought about by serious contemplation and direct experience through proper and sustained meditative practices.

5. Energy (viriya)

This one is about sustained effort in the direction of overcoming the hindrances on the path, like indulging in sensuality, ill will and harmful behaviors. It’s not necessarily physical strength but more a strength of character and a persistence of effort towards the service of others.

6. Patience (khanti)

The merit of Patience can also be extended to forbearance and forgiveness. One should try not to look at it as some oppressive state that one must adhere to but rather a conscious choice to actively practice mindfulness and patience especially in situations that may not necessarily deserve it. Also the practice of metaphysics is a science not easily mastered. It may take years and even lifetimes before any progress is made. So patience and a willingness to wait is a prerequisite to any sort of spiritual illumination.

7. Truthfulness (sacca)

In having developed the aforementioned merits one can begin to speak with an outward truthfulness especially in situations when people do not want to hear it or it is unpopular. The ability to speak truthfully comes from deep self-knowledge, integrity, and honesty and is incredibly difficult to attain. Another challenge to the practice of truthfulness is the ability to be open to the truth when it is spoken. Always leave room open in your mind for new understanding even if it clashes with your present knowledge. We are constantly learning and growing.

8. Determination (adhitthana)

This is the backbone of any spiritual practice because the road is long and often void of significant rewards. Without persistence and a strong determination it is impossible to continue on the path and the risk of returning to various states of misery are always waiting in the wings. Striving is not a frantic running around or a desperate panting after power but a gentle inevitable force that never acknowledges defeat and moves slowly but surely towards Enlightenment.

9. Loving-kindness (metta)

After sustained practice and patience this merit is to be extended to all beings, living and non living, visible and invisible. We should aim to cultivate loving kindness to all creatures even if they have harmed us or wished us ill will. This is especially challenging but I always try to remember that after Jesus was tortured and pinned to a cross in the sweltering heat, he looked up to the heaves and said, “Forgive them. They know not what they do.” That’s some seriously loving kindness right there. I’m not saying that we all can be like Jesus of Nazareth but he is a pretty good example of what to strive for.

10. Equanimity (upekkha)

This merit allows us to see things impartially, divorced from the proclivities of the self. When we free ourselves from our passions and various likes and dislikes then our ability to see the truth in all things becomes greater and we are less likely to harm others or act in a way that will bring misery to ourselves or anyone is spitting distance.

How To Become Enlightened

HOW TO BECOME ENLIGHTENED

The 10 Hindrances on the Path

On this blog you will often find many posts that are fun, frivolous, and humorous, but one thing I take very seriously is the idea of spiritual practice. The Star Science aims to really cut through the philosophical fluff that is prevalent in a lot of the New Age dogma out there and though sometimes I delight in taking the piss, there are times when I truly aim to relay some centuries old and philosophically sound spiritual advice.

This is one of those times.

Embarking on the path towards spiritual illumination is no light task and everyone is at different levels of development. Each of us must work out our own salvation no matter how many lifetimes it may take but one thing is for sure… There are no shortcuts towards Enlightenment. Anyone that tells you that is certainly a liar or a charlatan. Many times you’ll hear some guru or supposed keeper of spiritual secrets telling their discipleship that there is some quick and easy method toward progress in all things spiritual and in just 3 installments of $39.99 all their Karmic debt will be wiped clean and they’ll be cleansed and shine like a brand new penny hot from the mint. However, it’s useful to remember that there is no escape from Universal Law, which is as enduring as the changing of the seasons and inevitable as the course of the stars. “As you reap, so shall ye sow.” What you earn comes to you and what you have not earned can never be yours, and neither the gods nor man can alter the quality of these facts. The Law of Cause and Effect is as inescapable as death and the Buddhist Wisdom that all matter is impermanent and constantly changing goes hand and hand with this fact. Any effort to avert these truths will surely result in misery.

To walk on the path of spiritual development is a massive undertaking that is not for the faint of heart. Think about it. You are attempting a study that has burdened the greatest collection of intellects throughout the history of mankind. If you are seeking out the study of metaphysics and spiritual insight in order to increase your income, or cure your headaches, or raise your vibrational energy so that you can “Ascend”, then you are bordering on absurdity and possibly even sacrilege. Choosing to walk this path is often wrought with pitfalls so it is of the utmost importance that we start with the most noble of intentions. The other rub is that you may make little progress towards your goal of spiritual enlightenment in this particular lifetime, which is enough to send most Westerners toward the exit. We’re not here to condemn anyone but simply to offer some Ancient Wisdom that has been passed down from the sages of antiquity so that you may incorporate it into your life in a way that best allows for your own personal spiritual growth.

Ancient Wisdom puts forth the notion that there are 10 Perfections that one must acquire if they are to reach Enlightenment and we will cover these in a separate post but for now we’re going to discuss the 10 Hindrances or obstacles on the Path of Enlightenment. The following can be a tough pill to swallow for anyone living in a human body, but I hope that by pointing them out, each of you will be able to further progress on the path you have chosen.

THE TEN HINDRANCES

1. The belief in a permanent personality / ego. (sakkāya-diṭṭhi)

This first one is one of the most difficult and also the one that most of us in Western society suffer from. In fact, our whole system of finance is based on this ego centric way of viewing the world and is perhaps one of the main reasons we have reached this advanced stage of environmental collapse. If we act in a very ego-centric way we fail to recognize that we are connected to everyone else and all of creation. When we don’t see ourselves in others we can become selfish and that leads to suffering.

2. Doubt / extreme skepticism. (vicikicchā)

Doubt is very common in Western thought mostly as it pertains to scientific materialism but it can also mean personal doubt on your own spiritual path because maybe you are not progressing as fast as you would like. This can lead you to abandon your spiritual practice all together for a life of cheap thrills and gadgets that occupy your attention every waking moment in an attempt to fill the emptiness with distraction.

3. Clinging to rites, rituals, and ceremonies. (sīlabbata-parāmāso)

As we see in many of the organized religions of today, the practice of rites, rituals, and ceremonies is often an empty and useless endeavor. How many Christians that attend mass every Sunday and receive Jesus in the form of a circular wafer leave the church and continue to do things that Jesus Christ himself would find utterly appalling? How many weddings have you attended that end in bitter and ugly divorces where lives are ruined and children embittered? There is no solace in empty rites, rituals, and ceremonies.

4. Attachment to sense desires. (kāmacchando)

This one is often difficult to explain to spiritual seekers who are just starting out and even more difficult for advanced individuals to maintain. An attachment to our sense desires means that we are a prisoner of our human vessel. Addicts in particular experience this because they are in constant need of another fix to satisfy the cravings. However this is not limited to just addicts. We see this all across the board, not just with drinking and drugs, but with food cravings, internet and smart phone compulsions, pornography, and the constant need for entertainment. This does not mean we should become a recluse who lives a totally ascetic life. On the contrary, an enlightened individual enjoys many things but simply remains unattached to their pleasures by recognizing it in the moment with the realization that it is impermanent and not something to cling to. By the same token, when something unpleasant arises, an enlightened individual does not push it away or avert it. The term for this state of being is equanimity and is said to be the state of true happiness.

5. Ill-will / anger. (vyāpādo or byāpādo)

Anger and the wishing of harm to another are mental impurities that should be eradicated from the mind. In addition, your thoughts have tremendous power upon the physical realm, so just imagine the repercussions negative thoughts can have for yourself and others. If you cannot control your anger you are basically saying that you have no control over yourself and without proper self control you cannot embark on the path towards inner light.

6. Craving for existence or existence in the Form World. (rūparāgo)

This one highlights the tremendous problem of craving. Again, it’s difficult for individuals that are new to the path to understand the idea of releasing yourself from wanting to be a part of the physical world and to engage in the circus of life. However, it’s inevitable that an enlightened person comes to the realization that any attachment to the sense world is ultimately going to bring misery of some form.

7. Craving for non-existence or existence in the Formless World. (arūparāgo)

This one highlights another troubling problem that has to do with a craving towards actual spiritual enlightenment and to an incarnation in some heavenly afterlife and all the pleasures contained in realms of this nature. This is especially challenging and certainly something that I admittedly struggle with a lot. An escape from the shackles of material existence can seem incredibly appealing to a spiritual seeker but can ultimately lead you in the wrong direction.

8. Conceit. (māna)

You might think that you would find this one higher on the list but this one can be quite tricky. The idea of superiority especially in matters spiritual is a hindrance that can arise in even the most spiritually advanced and is something to be on guard for. Try to remember that we are each at our own level of spiritual understanding and are advancing at the rate that is best for each of us. No spirit is left behind. We will all make it. Someday.

9. Restlessness. (uddhacca)

Another one I struggle with in the sense that I tend to do things to the extreme. It’s best to follow the middle path, like Socrates said, “In all things, not too much” applies here. We are to cultivate patience. We mustn’t be lazy and apathetic but also we shouldn’t be striving towards enlightenment with reckless abandon in a puritanical way either.

10. Ignorance. (avijjā)

The final hindrance is that of Ignorance and it encompasses all the others. It’s the ignorance of the true nature of reality itself, which includes no permanent self, suffering, and the Law of Impermanence. In order to eradicate this one you must experience reality at the deepest level. Mystics of all practices regard this as the Universal Truth and is the key to experiencing true Enlightenment.