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"The Breastplate Of Righteousness"
[QUOTING]
Esoterically-speaking, the sternum, or breastbone, is a magnetic field. It has three attributes:
i) a radiative faculty,
ii) a power of attraction, and
iii) a neutral, observing faculty.
The sternum is also made up of three pieces of bone. As a result of the first attribute, the sternum radiates what the person is. His actual state of being can be read and observed in the area of his heart, from where it radiates outwards. On this basis, and with the aid of the second faculty, the sternum attracts compatible magnetic energies with which the system can be nourished. The third faculty reveals those matters, influences and forces to which the person is entirely indifferent and to which he is therefore insusceptible.
For example, if the third faculty clearly demonstrates that a person is indifferent to the world of duality, or to a certain aspect of it, it is quite impossible to attract magnetic forces from that world with the second faculty, and so it is impossible for such forces to enter one's system. So the third faculty of the sternum can rightly be called a breastplate, offering protection from the delusions of the fallen world if used wisely. This breastplate therefore becomes a decisive factor in the qualitative functioning of the other two faculties.
It follows, then, that the process of "hardening the heart", previously mentioned, also has to do with the third faculty of the sternum. The increasing hardness of our heart would mean our increasing indifference to the Gnosis, to the divine Life, as a result of which we would no longer be able to inhale the Gnosis via the sternum as a form of magnetic nourishment. All that would remain would be the ability of the consciousness to perceive via the very limited head sanctuary. Then the only assimilation that could occur would be intellectual, so that in essence, we would really have understood nothing. We would see, but not perceive; we would hear, and yet remain deaf, for true Knowledge and Right Understanding may only arise from the moral stirring that is the potential result of the rational touch. We must reach understanding via the experience that goes hand in hand with the moral stirring.
So it is important to determine the condition of our threefold sternum-activity, and in particular the condition of our breastplate, the third faculty. And it can hardly be otherwise than that we will observe a number of uncertainties with respect to ourselves. For however familiar we are with the Universal Doctrine, we are often still largely involved in the primary processes of the moral stirring. Just like so many other pilgrims who are faced with the inevitable trials to be found upon the True Path, we oscillate between hope and fear, for the most part observing nothing but unworthiness and wrong reactions. And this whole process of rational-moral stirring, this intense storm, is reflected in the activities of our sternum.
Many naïve seekers in the world today judge as to what is true and holy by how pleasant it makes them feel. However, it is out of the question that tranquility will descend into the heart of a fallen and damaged microcosm that comes into contact with the Gnosis for the first time. As long as there is no blood-certainty and the person concerned cannot therefore gird himself in the Truth, whatever seems best to the blinded consciousness of the person at that moment will be attracted or repelled by the sternum on purely speculative grounds. Generally speaking and initially, the vibration of the living Truth will definitely not be experienced as pleasant by the typical fallen microcosm in the nature of death!
We are exposed to many alternating voices owing to the conflict being fought out within us, the conflict between the state of death in the fallen world and the living State of the Spirit. Just as so many spiritual aspirants experience upon the Path, at one moment praising God, and the next moment cursing one's own fate and situation, without possessing a grain of certainty, so it is for ourselves amid the flashing, magnetic interplay of the dualistic sternum-activity. As long as this continues, one cannot speak of a breastplate of righteousness.
We know how it is with the human norms of right and wrong; they are subject to duality. They alternate - day and night, hot and cold, good and bad - and it is endless. What one person considers to be right and proper, another person vehemently rejects. Every human being is dragged along in the current of events, in the interplay of the pairs of opposites, and the wrong use of the breastplate, the third faculty of the sternum, is the cause of this. In the fallen world we constantly have to make adjustments to the dualistic state present within our microcosm. Tremendous amounts of human energy is tied up in this way, creating ether-bleedings that feed the archons and aeons, thus keeping us in chains.
So perhaps it is time for us all to ask, just as the biblical figure asked, "What is truth?", and we may similarly ask, "What is righteousness?" We may ask others, while confining ourselves as far as possible to the minimum requirements necessary to assure us of a positive result at the Harvest Time. But people cannot tell one another what divine justice is; they cannot speak about the essence of righteousness as it exists in Christ. They will never understand each other and will never achieve unanimity.
The true, divine Righteousness can only be approached and therefore comprehended via the process that we have discussed. Of course, one can approach divine righteousness philosophically to a certain extent. For instance, one can speak about the direction in which one ought to seek. We may say, 'This aim necessitates a certain way of life, a life of absolute action', and so approach the Path from an intellectual standpoint. Yet a life of unconditional purity in action is required of the person who is following the True Path. If such a person were to understand divine righteousness completely from within, he would then be able to perform this action. His inner realisation would enable him to forge the breastplate of inviolability.
But how and with what must he begin? He must commence by overthrowing his feelings of superiority. He must say farewell to the delusion that, 'I know it, I see it all quite clearly, I am doing it so well!'. He must realise with absolute certainty how opposites are constantly interchanging within him, and he must experience to the full the resulting inner distress, just as every pilgrim must do. And once he has dethroned his imaginary I-assurance, finding in himself nothing but uncertainties, no alternative will remain for him - when the cry of the blood drives him to it - than to thirst intensely, to hunger for divine righteousness. He will then have begun to gird himself with the Truth.
From "The New Gnosis"
[END QUOTING]
The sternum fills an important role in the awakening of the Rose of the Heart. When one has acquired sufficient insight into the reality of the two nature-orders and grasped the overwhelming futility of existence in this fallen, physical realm, a strong sense of yearning for escape should develop. A cry from within will well up and radiate from the seat of desire - the heart. This desire for Truth, for Liberation will be radiated outwards by the first faculty of the sternum and, because like attracts like, these desires, which are not-of-this-world will attract the touch of the Gnosis, which is truly not-of-this-world. It is this Touch that will stimulate the thymus to begin secreting a special hormone that will infuse the blood with the electromagnetic vibration of the Gnosis. That is how it begins.
The third faculty of the sternum - that of indifference - increases in importance as the candidate attempts to move forward on the newly-found Path. As he or she undergoes the endura, living each day in self-surrender, the things of the world which were once so important will gradually begin to lose their allure. The impulse to do certain things will continue to poke at the candidate, but, if he or she is traveling the Path in humility and sincerity, focusing only one the One Goal, those impulses will slowly lose their ability to gain entry into the personality-system. They will be met with indifference and die from a lack of attention. That is the power of the third faculty of the sternum, the Breastplate of Righteousness.
"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with Truth, and having put on the Breastplate of Righteousness" Ephesians 6:13-14
The human body has a high purpose. It was designed for a specific function. This is why it is a crime for people to abuse it the way they do. It is the height of ignorance. It is as if a man stranded in a life-raft, on high seas, were to take a pen-knife from his pocket and begin to idly poke holes in the raft. The only difference is that such a man would be insane. Humans are not insane, just ignorant.
"My people are lost for lack of Knowledge" Hosea 4:6
~ g
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