From Earth To 'Heaven' And Back Again

Human personalities have four lower vehicles: the dense physical body, the etheric double (vital body), the astral vehicle (emotional or desire body) and the mental vehicle.

In the ordinary course of events, after the moment of death the etheric, astral and mental vehicles of the personality are withdrawn from the dense physical body. The physical shell, deprived of the animating forces of the vital body, appears to the physical eye as cold and lifeless. As the masses of men do not have knowledge of the existence of the invisible worlds, grief and mourning ensue.

Meanwhile, the so-called 'dead' person is alive and well on the other side of the veil. In fact, it is almost certain that the first thought the so-called dead person has will be something similar to the following:

"Am I dead?"

Here is the classic example of the question that answers itself. For if one were 'dead' as some would have us believe, consciousness would cease and we would be rendered senseless. In wonder, the so-called dead person will perceive that he still has a body (although it is the etheric double he is now utilizing) even as he can view his own abandoned shell, lying where he left it. Eventually, the realization dawns,

"Well, I'll be darned...I'm alive!"

Yes, you're alive, buddy. And welcome to proof of the continuity of life. It's too bad that this truth could not have been embraced during the physical life. It would have left the personality a little better prepared for what happens after "death". Welcome to the reflection-sphere.

The reflection-sphere is what mankind calls "heaven". It is thus named because it is basically a reflection of life here in the physical plane. Also, it is said that events first take place in the reflection-sphere before manifesting or reflecting themselves onto the physical plane.

The reflection-sphere has varying planes of activity that correspond with the remaining vehicles of the so-called 'dead' personality. There is an etheric plane, an astral plane and a mental plane. The personality will ascend these planes in succession, experiencing for a time on the etheric plane before eventually discarding its etheric double. It will then take its remaining two vehicles (astral and mental) to the astral plane, where it will experience for a time and eventually drop the astral body before moving on to the mental plane. When its time there has expired, the mental body is dissolved. At that point, nothing is left of the personality, the John or Jane Doe who lived the previous life on the physical earth. Only the emptied microcosm remains, keeping within it the karma of the most recent personality and merging it with the accumulated karma of all the previous lives that inhabited the microcosm.

From the above, we can draw several conclusions:

- the true consciousness resides with the microcosm
- it is the microcosm that seeks reincarnation
- 'eternal life' in the 'hereafter' of the churches is a lie
- we are temporary images, image-bearers

As image-bearers, we are brought into existence for One Purpose: to assist the microcosm in awakening the Seed that lies at its center so that the True Man that sleeps within may be restored to Divine Life. If we do not accomplish that mission while in the physical, we will meet the fate outlined above: a few hundred years in the reflection-sphere and then dissolution. The microcosm will begin the task of seeking another personality that will, hopefully, succeed where we have failed.

The alternative to repeated turns on the Wheel-of-Death-and-Rebirth can only be found when one effects a fundamental reversal and succeeds in turning his or her focus in a completely different direction. There is a Path that leads to true immortality, but it is as narrow as a razor's edge and must be walked with one-pointed focus and devotion. It is the fivefold gnostic Path of Rebirth and is open to all who truly desire Liberation.

~ g
.

The First State-Of-Being

[QUOTING]

We have now considered two of the states-of-being on the Path, in connection with the Sermon on the Mount.

As we have seen, paucity of Spirit is related to the notion of the two nature orders, seeing that besides the world in which we live, there is another World Order which we do not know, although it exists within our planetary cosmos. As the pupil on the Path becomes conscious of such a distant, yet such a near Realm of Light, becoming aware of the "I" as to the blood, soul and body in this dark, fallen world order, he discovers that there is an alarming poverty in his being, a deep spiritual loneliness, a bankruptcy of life. He sees through the gruesome interplay of good and evil and though his entire being is riveted to the fallen world order, and because of his constitution he cannot live one second without the natural laws of this fool's paradise (in fact, to be able to live he must, from breath-to-breath, breathe in the oxygen charged with poisonous miasma), in principle he still undertakes to take leave of this sham.

Of course, he is in and of this world; he can neither lie away not dream away this world and its laws. But in awareness of his poverty and impotence he lifts his head, knowing that there is also another World Order. He goes on with a positive resolution pulsating through his bloodstream:

'I do not want to be of this world any longer'.

Then scoffers jeer and those who are so intelligent by the standards of this nature shake their allegedly wise heads, mocking this strange brother who does not wish to conform and who will not let himself be swept along in the currents of nature. One takes him for a fool. Isn't he just that? He wants a world nobody knows and about which he himself knows nothing. How impractical! How senseless! He is a fool, maybe pure, but then a pure fool like Parcifal.Thus he is lectured and told to five up his silly ideas.

Have you had this experience? You cannot just quietly sneak away when you decide to take leave of this nature-order. It is as if the powers of the world conspire to single you out and deter you. Your adversaries mobilize and sometimes they work through your own friends to keep you from departing. They make it very difficult for you. And then, out of this chaos of tensions and desperation, spiritual relief comes. The word from the Mountain resounds: 'Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven'.

The 'fool', as he is called, is ignited in the Light of Christ - the Gnosis. By this Grace he makes a positive, first-hand binding with the Realm of Light, so long divined but never seen. The Pilgrim becomes a possessor; this is the first state-of-being upon the Path of Regeneration. The pupil has come to the Source and from it he freely draws the Living Water for nothing.

And after this? For he still exists in this broken reality. Will he be liberated? Yes and no. Through his binding with the Light he is now a Blessed One, one who is liberated; but this Eternity, this blessedness, he must be able to experience in Time.

This means that since the static Divine Order now has a focus established in duality by means of the pupil, the pupil is being used to break up and renew the degeneration in all its aspects; that through him and his co-workers Eternity may break into Time as a Divine revolution which has to be carried out and fulfilled by human heads, human hearts and human hands. Indeed, in accordance with the cosmic order, God does not interfere with His creation, but His desire is that His creation should shine and triumph through his creature! Therefore, as seen from a higher point-of-view, it is a most happy situation when the pupil comes to the first state-of-being, that of being in this world, but no longer of this world.

However, be sure that you understand this expression correctly. For as soon as the pupil has consciously taken hold of Eternity in Time, a reversal takes place in hm. The one who takes leave of the world and becomes a stranger to it, will again turn towards the world and plunge directly into its midst. As the driller and the blaster hack their way into the dark depths of a mine, so the pupil will break his way through the world about him, engrossed in his mission which is to inherit the Earth by means of the new Goodness, Truth and Justice. Eternity must be built in Time and this lower sphere of sunkeness must be cleansed, if our planetary cosmos is again to join harmoniously in the symphony of the stars.

From "Blessed Are Those Who Mourn" - The Mystery of the Beatitudes - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

Awakening one's Divine Spark entails some effort, as one must somehow develop Insight into the true nature of things before one can realize that this nature-order is not where one wishes to be. Even more difficult than that is the actual walking of the Path while still having to exist within this fallen nature-order.

Difficult, but definitely not impossible.

~ g
.

The Temple

Your body is a Temple.

You've heard this many times, and perhaps have assumed that it was just an allegory or a metaphor. Well, it's not. It is literally true.

 tem•ple

[tem-puhl] noun

5. any place or object in which God dwells I Cor. 6:19.

Old English: "any place regarded as occupied by divine presence".

The Rosebud, also known as the Spirit-Spark atom, also known as the Rose of the Heart is the divine part of you. This tiny atom, unique among the billions and billions of atoms that make up your body, is the only part of you that is not of this nature. It is not composed of any of the ethers (chemical, life, light or reflecting ethers) of this material plane. It is composed of Divine matter. It is a Remnant, a Divine Inheritance that you carry within your microcosm. It is the pure Fire of God within your midst.

The Divine Spark is the immortal part of you. It is the proverbial Ancient of Days. It cannot be destroyed. It can only grow in Power and Glory. However, this growth can only take place under the right conditions. The Imperishable Seed within requires the right sort of nourishment in order to unfold. Asleep it lies, seemingly buried beneath the heavy weight of the coarse vibrations of this world. Waiting, waiting, waiting...

... for what? It is waiting for YOU to awaken from your Sleep of Delusion. It is waiting for YOU to shake off the cobwebs of a million-years-long dream and gain insight into the true nature of your imprisonment. It is waiting for YOU to tire of trying to make a paradise out of a dunghill and to begin yearning for salvation from this earthly vale of tears. It is waiting for YOU to surrender your "self" to the process of Rebirth. It is waiting for YOU to adopt a new attitude towards life. At the end of this fivefold gnostic Path ... Liberation.

Do you know what lies within this tightly-shut Rosebud? The seed of the True Man. The primordial, Original Man. It is that which is referred to as The Divine "Other One", who lies asleep, waiting to be re-born.

Man has no conception of what he carries within his microcosm, situated approximately in the area of the upper right ventricle of the heart. He has no idea that his microcosm and his body combine to form a great Temple.

"any place regarded as occupied by divine presence".

In ignorance, we abuse our bodies. We glorify our bodies. We neglect our bodies. We disregard our bodies.

In selfish indulgence we fail to control our emotions. We wallow in our emotions. We constantly over-stimulate ourselves in the name of "enjoyment".

In complete unknowing, we allow our thoughts to run rampant. We think erroneously and allow error to enter into our mental realms. We fail to realize that thought is a creative power, and we misuse it. We then try to live with the sinful creations that we ourselves have manufactured.

What is the result of this mindless desecration of the Temple? We burn out. We crystallize. Because we do not live with Right Purpose, we die.

But The Spark lives on. As death overtakes us, the physical body disorganizes into dust and the subtle bodies disintegrate over time. Yet, the microcosm persists, and with it, the Divine Seed that stands at its center. There it will wait for the next personality to inhabit the Temple. There it will wait for another opportunity to Awaken.

Don't waste your incarnation in frivolity and useless striving. You are here for a much grander Purpose than trying to squeeze happiness out of the dry apple we call "life'. You are here to awaken the Rose. You are here to give Birth to The Other One.

Abandon delusion. Embrace your destiny. Embark upon the Path.

Complete The Great Work.

~ g
.

Always Rise

There is nothing harder than the Great Task that is set before each and every human being.

a. undergo birth in darkness and forgetfulness

b. suffer a living-death in ignorance and confusion

c. despite this struggle, he or she must somehow manage to hear the Call...and answer correctly

d. having awakened the Divine Spark, the Rose of the Heart, he or she must nurture It

e. in humility and with purpose, he or she must follow the Path of Return to its Glorious Conclusion.

Answering the Call is not an instant panacea. Life doesn't become flowers and seashells overnight. Indeed, things are apt to become more difficult for the candidate. Why is this? The primary reason behind the great difficulties that confront those on the Path is the fact that they are now living two lives.

Although the candidate is now engaged in trying to build the New Soul, he or she is obstructed at every turn. Again, why? Because although there is a Divine metamorphosis taking place within the microcosm of the candidate, the old, earthly personality is still there, still living in the natural world, still of the earth, earthy. The physical body, as well as the emotional and mental vehicles are still attuned to the nature-of-death. As a result, the candidate will continue to find himself or herself attracted to the old temptations, the old allures, the old glamours.

The pull of physical nature is strong. We've been attracted to it for millions of years, for thousands of incarnations. Now we are attempting to break free from the nature-order which has become our prison, to which we are attracted like moths to a light, mindlessly flitting about the bright glare until our wings are singed by the heat of the lamp and we fall, helpless, to the ground.

The path of least resistance is to give in, to allow the old habits to hold sway "just one more time".  We take a fall. And after the fall, we feel miserable, guilty, dejected, unworthy. "What's the use", we say to ourselves. "I will never be able to walk this Path to its end. I will never be able to achieve Liberation and Immortality. I may as well give up".

All candidates reach this point of despair. Not once, but many times. What are we to do when this happens? How do we respond?

First, we must realize that the "give-up" voice we are hearing is the voice of our nature-born Ego, our I-being, as it tries to dissuade us from pursuing our True Purpose. The I-being will do everything in its power to coerce us into quitting, for it knows that if we triumph in our Quest it will cease to exist. So we must learn to ignore that "give-up" voice.

Secondly, pay heed to the following:

"Always build diligently on your own life. Even if you fail time and again, never give up".

Never...Give...Up.

~ g
.

The Silence

[QUOTING]

In one of the most ancient wisdom scriptures, we read:

See the life that permeates all
it is veiled in deep mystery.
Who can grasp, who fathom
which language can herald its essence?

No eye has ever seen it,
no ear has ever heard its voice;
The Soul alone can understand it,
when seeing and hearing stand in silence.

These wonderful words from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the jewels of Indian wisdom, reveal to us something of the secret of True Life. It is, first of all, about the rediscovery of the Soul, the Soul that has the capacity to understand the Voice of the  Silence.

This Divine Soul is a hidden dimension in us! It corresponds to a spiritual plane that was once within man's reach and to which man belonged to in his entirety and to which he must return. This is the real meaning of his life and his True Mission. The Pure, Original Soul still exists in man as a Higher, Spiritual Principle - yet, it is as if it were in a state of sleep, withdrawn in itself, hidden, imperceptible to man who is only linked to his physical senses, and whose senses are exclusively directed on the outside world. Yet, even in our superficial, chaotic, restless world and through it, a Higher Energy that constantly renews Itself shines incessantly, coming forth from the Original Kingdom.

THE PRIMORDIAL SOUND

There is light - vibration - sound, born from the stillness of the Eternal. This sound is the primordial sound that brings forth Light and Life. It transmits its vibrations - its Call - into the world and seeks resonance from the Sleeping Seed in man. The Spiritual Force in the universe seeks contact with the Spiritual Seed in man. Only when man has become silent to the depths of his heart, then a response from the Spiritual Seed that lies in his heart will resound. Resonate means to re-sound, to reflect the sound, to vibrate in response.

By silencing, that is, the fading, the slowing down of consuming passions and desires of our self-centered thoughts and self-assertive will, the hidden, dormant Spiritual Principle in us can unfold again. It can begin to "breathe" and resonance is possible. Therefore, the basic prerequisites to achieve Inner Perception and a possibility to "respond" is to produce an empty space in oneself, an empty space that is born out of silence, yes, that is silence itself. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu says:

"If the heart is in non-being, that is, free from all earthly desires  and orientations, you can behold the mystery of the spiritual essence of Tao"

From the deepest depths of our purified heart, "something" emerges, something New comes into our consciousness. When, in this way, the hidden, Inner Voice within us begins to speak again, it creates a motion, which we experience at first as a certain restlessness. It is something urging, exhorting, a calling that sends us, so to speak, on a quest to fathom the mystery of our existence:

What am I doing here in this world?
Where does this life lead me?
Who am I?
What is the meaning of our transience, and where is the Ever-lasting?
Is there something Eternal in man?
Is there a true, Spiritual Self in me that is able to attune completely with a level of Life that knows no war, no guilt, no entanglements in all earthly things, limited and imperfect - and how can I find it?

So man gets to the point where all happenings, experiences and knowledge of this world no longer satisfy him and he searches for sense and meaning.

THE SILENCING OF THE SENSES

One begins to detach oneself from appearances and searches for the Cause of All Causes. He longs for Knowledge, not knowledge in a worldly sense, but for True Wisdom -- for the Gnosis.

In the 12th Book of the Corpus Hermeticum, Hermes Trismegistus says:

'...the Gnosis of the good is both divine silence and the silencing of all the senses'

Lao Tzu describes this ideal state of silence as:

"Whoever has reached the highest emptiness preserves an imperishable state of peace He will remain in Perfect Peace while the opening and closing of doors goes on"

Peace, which stems from the Emptiness, from becoming void, from finding the Inner Space, is the goal of the man who has come to the realization that his earthly existence is not his real life as willed by God. He feels that the world rotates in eternal, unchanging repetitions and that he cannot find true satisfaction in life here. He looks for a way out of the narrow, binding corset of his own limited ego-existence. The searching man, yearning for the True state-of-being, will soon realize that he needs to create space within himself, that he must become a Vessel in which change, transformation and renewal can take place.

The Silence is this space!

From "The Power of Silence" - Pentagram - the Journal of the International School of the Golden Rosycross, Lectorium Rosicrucianum - Volume 35, 2013, Number 4

[END QUOTING]

Nourish the Treasure that lies asleep in the region of your heart. The Kingdom of God, the Divine Kingdom, lies within you! Do not look outside of yourself for that which lies within.

"Silence" does not just refer to the absence of the myriad sounds that reach our physical ears. It goes deeper than that. We must silence the wide array of vibrations that prevent us from hearing the Silent Call of the Divine Spark within. We must silence our chaotic and misleading thoughts, our lustful and self-focused desires. These are the thick, coarse vibrations which, by their constant activity, overpower and bury the sweet, subtle Call that is constantly being emitted by the silent Voice of the Heart.

If we allow the cares and sensations of this world to remain our focus, we will never hear that Call. The alchemical potential within us will withdraw and wither away. We will go the way of all flesh. But if we can neutralize our thoughts and desires, being neither for nor against anything, living not for self but for other-selves, we will not fail to attract the Breath of Life that can awaken our dormant Spark and set us firmly on the Path to Liberation and Immortality.

~ g
.