In the visual of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, there are two ways the Tree is traversed: Downwards and Upwards. At some ancient point in time, we’ve already traversed it downwards, from the etheric realms of God, falling in harmony with the manifested world below. This is the path of the flaming sword is the downward path, sometimes called the path of creation. It is, in my view, the path of the fallen angel. The path of Narcissus. In other words, it is the path of falling into the trap of the world. There is also a path of return, that upward path, which is the spiritual ascent into the Divine Source.
Both the stories of fallen angels and the stories of Narcissus have a theme of capture by the material world. The image of Lucifer falling from heaven, crashing into the world, is little different to Narcissus so captivated by his own reflection that he descends into the world of manifestation.
Yet there is a return and its path is one of letting go of the world, in order to ascend the lattice back to the Divine. As you fell on your own, so too is the path of return. There are guides, and help is offered to those who ask, but the trek is yours alone (as mine is mine alone). One can not take the path on behalf of another, if they could, they would usurp personal growth entirely. That growth is what clears the mirror of our soul, until the Divinity shines brightly within. Any shortcut, through the promise of a guru, saint, or god, that one simply bypasses growth and enters into the heavenly realm, is a path of the other’s light – not our own.
Consider the quote from the Japanese Kyoto Gorikai (teachings of Konko Daijin):
“They say you need someone to practice faith with. But this isn’t so. You can practice faith by yourself. If you needed someone to practice faith with, then you would also need someone to die with. However, no one is willing to die with you. Practicing faith is to live day to day eliminating the impurities in your heart.”
He that treadeth the snow-white Path, and followeth in the footsteps of the Crimson Pillar, shall never attain unto his abode unless his hands are empty of those worldly things cherished by men.
To me, the snow-white path is the Spiritual Path. The Crimson Pillar, the guide. Following in the footsteps, is following the guide along the path, but the hands must be empty of grasping, or attachment to the worldly things that hold one to the fetters that bind our attention.
You may have heard it said that a Group is required for spiritual attainment, as it fulfills the requirement of gain in some way. This espousal of truth comes often from emissaries of respective groups proselytizing and looking for new blood. An argument may be made that a group offers the waters of life that the aspirant needs to drink, such metaphors only disguise a real intention of gathering membership as there is little gain and significant hampering from the “group mind.”
I’ve been in plenty of groups. I can vouch for some as being good groups. Groups that didn’t make demands, or leech off one’s livelihood, but in all honesty these good spiritual groups are in the minority of my experience.
For the most part, groups set limiters and barriers. They create an artificial being (the “group”) which is yet another ego one must rise beyond.
A group may impose restrictions upon the adherent. For example, one group may state that pain killers are forbidden, as they cause mental/spiritual confusion. Another may attest that only vegetarians can truly be purified. Others still may say that being a vegetarian is not enough, one must become a vegan. Another group may determine that it is impossible to wield magic, still another group attests that magic is possible but forbidden due it’s inherent selfishness. These are all limiters, and this is the danger of a group.
A group that attests “truth,” that imposes a restriction is limiting yourself. Even if you disagree with the stated belief, the fact you remain a member or under the belief itself, imposes that belief upon you at a subconscious level. That subconscious belief becomes a controller, a limiter and it prevents you from achieving anything beyond it. Effectively you are under the control of the belief system.
This is why a person of a faith that believes magic is evil, has “evil” results when practicing magic – validating the belief. Yet another, without that belief, does not have said “evil” results.
The Gnostic view is one of solitude. Not just in the process, but in the influence.
This doesn’t preclude the reading of others. One must, however, keep their mind purified from contamination. If one falls too much under the influence of a group mind, the contamination will influence them to the degree of setting boundaries and limiters.
While I read the writings of the Bahai, Lao Tzu, Rijckenborgh, I must remain impartial. Like eating a fish, one must remove the bones (the areas of disagreement with the soul) and consume only the meat (that which aligns with the inner calling).
To be celibate, or a vegetarian, or a vegan, or a meat eater, such are the teachings found through the work of the inner soul – the Higher Self. It is truly individual in effort and no group can confer “truth,” no man can tell you “what it is.”
The danger of groups is simply their influence, and under that influence comes the boundary and limits that hold a person back from their potential.
In the Bahai tradition there is a Holy book called the Kitab-i-iqan and it was written by the founder of the faith. When I began to read it, I felt a purity in the words and so I will copy them here as they have spiritual impact.
No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth.
I know that detachment is the key. It is the theme of the Tao Te Ching, and many other mystical writings. It is also a difficult subject to master. Often, detachment is thought in the way of letting go of the negative fetters that bind us to pain and suffering. However, here the author writes that we must detach from all that is in heaven and on earth.
Perhaps the attachment to heaven is like the spiritual materialism of the modern age. A path of seeking powers, authority or grace. Removing the desire for heaven, one is simply here, now. There is no demand to be this or to be that. One simply seeks by the act of non action.
Non Action
Heaven and Earth are polar opposites.
The place of balance rests between. This is the path of non duality, either being all, or being none.
Cleanse
THE essence of these words is this: they that tread the path of faith, they that thirst for the wine of certitude, must cleanse themselves of all that is earthly—their ears from idle talk, their minds from vain imaginings, their hearts from worldly affections, their eyes from that which perisheth.
In some spiritual traditions this period is one of fasting, or changing the diet. It may also include giving up something of the world, or spending time in spiritual contemplation throughout the day (denying the pleasures of the day, in favor of the spiritual edification.)
To each must the meaning be given through contemplation. I do not trust in the words of men to explain the spiritual truth. But I feel that truth is in these words as it is in alignment with my feeling of the spiritual essence of the Divine One.
In the Bible (Matthew 6:24) is a quote from Jesus regarding duality and masters:
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24
Each of us has likely felt the depth of Spirit. It could be in a religious service, in meditation, in quiet contemplation. It is a feeling of interconnectedness with the Divine Source. That feeling, can often be described as an expansion – a sense of expanding beyond one’s earthly nature.
Divine connections like this are very subtle. Disturbances of flesh can quickly shut down that expansive feeling. For example, someone who is in a state of spiritual reverie and then walking past a TV to hear about a violent tragedy, will likely snap back to the body awareness. Likewise, a person in a state of spiritual reverie, who then feels the pull of desire, is snapped back to the body.
The body hormones create stimulations, due to emotions and mental states, that snap our conscious awareness back to this anchor – this prison. Pain is also a factor. Body aches and pain will snap conscious awareness to the point of pain in the body.
For this reason, I contend that the body is one master, and the Spirit another. Your Higher Self is calling your consciousness to ascend beyond body awareness, while the ego is calling your consciousness to descend into body awareness.
What is being pulled is your consciousness. Consciousness is not relegated to the body. It can ascend beyond the confines of the body prison. This can happen with intent (as some call the Astral Projection experience) and it can happen without one’s intent (Near Death or other out of body experience).
Some religions warn against practicing Astral Projection – but I think their fear is in the conclusions that might be drawn – that consciousness is already capable of leaving the body. Dogma drives people to hold onto old paradigms that one must believe, without direct experience.
In my personal life I had an out of body experience during a near death event. I was aware, while not in body. This drove my investigations into the subject of spirituality. Later on I consciously had an out of body experience. What this taught me was that consciousness is fluid and can move in and out of the body prison.
When we quiet the mind, the ego stepping down, we can better attune to the Higher One within us. Giving enough momentum, our push can move our consciousness into a field of union with that Higher One. This is our consciousness EXPANDING beyond the body, and interacting with the Higher One.
When the body or ego has a drastic event of pleasure, pain, fear, or worry – consciousness snaps back to the body home for safety. Until we fill comfortable and safe in the Higher Realms, the lower will always draw us as the abodes, as it is our daily experience. Therefore, I believe it is the spiritual path to think less of the body, and more of the spirit. This is the true DAILY DYING, to let go of the carnal aspects that pull us to the body experience.
I’ve spent some time with a Rosicrucian organization that follows a philosophy of literal transfiguration – the idea that the human body will become perfected in some spiritual process. Or said perhaps another way, that the human body must be purified in order to collect spiritual gains. Certainly I think there is merit in the ideas of purification, renunciation and the idea of “dying daily”. Yet if one fixates on the body, I believe it leads to the prison and not the source.
The prison is the body itself. Encased in muscle, fluids, hormones and skeletal tissue the body has little to offer us, other than a vehicle to navigate the grossest of matter. Not unlike the old diving suit, that allowed a person to explore underwater depths at greater pressure than human flesh could normally withstand, our Higher nature that calls us to spiritual action can not navigate these murky waters of material life – This is where a body is required.
Why is the navigation of material life required? I can’t fully answer that. What we all know, is that we’re here and the world here is filled with problems. Seekers look for a way out, or a way to resolve the world outside. Some look to escape, while others are looking to change this malleable prison.
What I do know, and I think I can offer each reader a way to prove it unto themselves, is that purification of the body is not the only way to our Spiritual Calling. From the Rosicrucian perspective of Max Heindel or Rijckenborgh, one should let go the personality self through purification work (eating a vegetarian diet, refraining from wearing leather, and so on). The idea is that when the body is purified, the clarity with which one connects to the Greater Source is more refined. In time, that work transforms the physical body, and a full transfiguration occurs.
My view differs from the body identification, to the spiritual. I view the body experience as separate and opposite to the spiritual experience. Much like Russian Nesting dolls, there’s an idea of expansion and contraction. At any moment you and I are either expanding our consciousness OUTWARDS towards the greater, or contracting down into the meat of body identification. In general people tend to align with the meat body, calling that “home,” but when they separate from the idea of the body, the mind can GO BEYOND.
Looking at the image above, we can see the tiniest of the dolls. This is our lowest form of self-identification – the body. It’s here that we are the victim of biology. We suffer pain, or reach heights of joy. The body is prone to immediate panic, fear, worry, and the correlating feelings of anger and hatred.
If we expand our concept of self from the lowest form of individual, to something a bit bigger (another person, a family unit, etc.) then we start to take on a subtle identity shift. We take on the pain of our family, as well as their joys. What if we expand a bit more? Perhaps to a race or nationality? Again, the needs and pains of the greater group affect us like it happened to us directly. Nationalism, is an example of this level of expansion. This is still very limited and small.
The spiritual experience ALWAYS is a product of EXPANSION. When one is in a state of spiritual tranquility, it is a state of expansion beyond the cares of the world. One allows the world to be as it is, allows the body to drop off, and simply is in the present moment.
To be fair, this point is also raised by Rosicrucian movements, warning the seeker of direct involvement in changing the world, or even their own personality. But the same groups also seek a bodily purification, which leads to a focus on the body. They might tell you about the details of some spirit-body connection that requires a change of diet, or other activity. Some eastern groups, for example, become celibate – as they believe celibacy to equate to spiritual harmony. Thelemites tend to revere certain body fluids as holy, and some Christian mystics equally hold human blood and organs in great importance (to the extent of not having blood transfusions or forgoing organ donation/reception).
Don’t Sing it, Prove It
Is the body this powerful that one must forgo marriage, or not take/give an organ? That’s the question that only the individual can remedy, but I said I had a proof for the reader and here it is:
If you can achieve a state of spiritual revere, then put attention to reach that state of consciousness. Use whatever process at your disposal to make this connection (meditation, mindfulness, etc.) Once in this state of consciousness, feel that connection and observe the subtleties it conveys.
While in this spiritual state, what happens when the body is agitated? If you are suddenly bombarded with an aggressive piece of news (a murder, a school shooting, details of a war or other tragedy), where does your consciousness go? What happens if you were suddenly in pain in your knee or elbow? Where does your consciousness go? What happens if you become sexually aroused? Where does your consciousness go?
Spoiler Alert
It’s best you ask yourself those questions and answer them yourself, putting aside all personal bias. But I’ll take a shot at answering it, as I’ve experienced these states, as well as seen it in the lives of others. It is so common that comedians have joked bout this very topic!
In the 90’s TV sitcom, “Mamma’s Family,” there’s an episode where the family comes back from church on Sunday afternoon. At first everyone is happy and full of love. But then, little by little, they get on each other’s nerves and by the end of the 30m episode they are in a full on physical fight. The joke being, how quickly people lose that “touch of God.”
Something as simple as seeing an add for a cologne you’re craving, or a low price on a computer/car/tv, it starts that shift – that pull away from the greater aspect, moving one into the more finite materialism. It’s going from the large Russian doll, to a smaller. The change can be drastic, or subtle, but in time it will shift us none-the-less.
When our body becomes agitated with desire, fear, anger, worry, lust, pain – it draws our conscious awareness into a more finite experience. It isn’t your body doing this. No, it’s not the liver filter out some spiritual hormone from your blood, as you can re-enter the spiritual state or leave the spiritual state without the influence of the liver!
Not the Body – but the Consciousness
This process is entirely metaphysical – that is, it is a process outside the scope of the human body. You can be a meat eater, vegetarian, vegan, and connect to God. The path to God must be followed as it is revealed to YOU ALONE. This is the shift in consciousness.
The inner calling starts as a subtle force, and in time builds in strength. It may culminate in direct communication, or stay as an impulse. When it is analyzed as the True Source – the One Within, that Holy, Higher Self, then you can grow accustomed to its feeling – its vibration. Tuning in and then OBEYING the requests of Source allows one to grow deeper in the work.
This is how we build the connection. It is our devotion to the Holy One (by whatever name, or no-name we may think of it) that creations and solidifies the bond. Our consciousness shifts (not the brain, but the esoteric mind), expanding outwardly. Spiritual expansion is rapid. As we quickly expand, we can quickly shift back to the low state, due to agitation.
In time, through the work of consciousness, we can achieve a separation of from the gravity of the body. Where the body’s pull doesn’t hold sway over our lives as strongly as before. We can also carry the Holy One, that Higher Self, as our conscious being, throughout the day.
For me it is not the work of transfiguration, but rather the work of GOING BEYOND the body.
I know we are all working through our issues, and it isn’t right to judge where another person is at on their journey, but recently I had a realization about many of my online connections. The news has been talking about a submarine that ruptured killing five tourists on board. I hadn’t been on Facebook in weeks, and when I logged in I was stunned at all the jokes, memes, and cruelty towards the victims.
People seemed to justify their jeering, and laughing at the deaths of these people because the tourists were rich. I saw someone write, “this is what the real shark tank should be,” and a reply, “I don’t care about them. let them die. they are all billionaires and likely scumbags.”
The venom. The hate. I wasn’t prepared for it.
These same people on social media, mourned, not memmed, when Robin Williams (rich as he was) took his own life. How is that any different? Pain is shared equally from the rich to the poor, from the healthy to the sick.
Jesting and jeering, and even calling for the death of people we don’t know, there’s something very dark about that. It’s not worth getting angry about it, but it is somewhat sobering.
Out of my abstention from collaborating in the existence of the outside world comes, among other things, a curious psychic phenomenon. By abstaining internally from action, taking no interest in Things, I can see the outside world, when I look at it, with perfect objectivity. Since there is nopoint, no reason to change it, I do not.
While my thoughts on this topic are subject to change, I do feel some valid points should be mentioned regarding this topic. About a year ago I posted my thoughts on Organ donation and spirituality. In some spiritual circles (such as Max Heindel’s groups) there is a belief that a spiritual silvery chord binds all your organs together and integrates that into the spiritual model of being. From this point of view, taking or exchanging an organ can disrupt the spiritual process. A year ago I felt this wasn’t solid ground. I was on the fence regarding this topic, but today I am a bit more certain of a personal view that I’d like to share in this article.
Above is my previous article on Organs and the Spirit. I was still on the fence regarding the topic, and thought science was a toss up on whether or not personality changes occur due to liver transplants. After reviewing more data on the subject I’ve come to the conclusion that mental alterations – which I interpreted as “personality shifts” are not what I thought they were.
Mental alterations occur with liver transplants, up to 70% of the time. That does not mean that Jim becomes James or Steven becomes Sarah. The Id, or Ego, is not being exchanged for something else. Instead the mental alterations described in the previous article were related to people having new livers who suffered from previous issues of alcoholism. Going from a shot liver (due to alcohol) to a clean liver can have a psychological affect on the patient. There are also mental issues of anxiety over transplants (post surgery) as well as depression that sometimes occurs over the realization that someone died so the recipient could get a heart or liver.
In doing further research since then, I can not find any conclusive evidence that transplanting a liver, transplants the personality. Why this matters is over the scope of belief. If the spiritual assertion is correction, that the personality is seated in the liver, then a liver transplant would come with a different personality – nearly 100% of the time.
This just isn’t the case from what I can see.
I find it difficult to believe that the body is the gatekeeper to the spiritual experience. Ideas that 5 physical fluids within the body need to become purified, or that the ego resides in your liver are brittle concepts. They might work as analogies, but as some form of material claim, it’s a very weak foundation. These ideas are rooted to the marrying of the spiritual to the material, and spiritual people often lack scientific (non-biased) inquiry. Science is great at material examination, and when science proves that such a relationship doesn’t exist, then the house of cards we built our beliefs upon begins to crumble.
For this reason I don’t like to paint myself into a corner using materialism tied to spirituality. Anytime material aspects are used to justify or relate spiritual truth, there’s a risk of not correctly understanding the material and therefore misrepresenting the spiritual path.
Examining the Literature
Max Heindel and his modern lineage teach that organ’s are very integral to the spiritual body. From their website they describe the relationship of a heart transplant as follows:
The original seed atom of the recipient of a transplanted heart, we believe, would remain with the etheric counterpart of his original heart, which continues a part of his vital body…. We believe it likely that, once a heart transplant has taken place, the angelic Beings in charge of such matters would transfer the recipient’s seed atom to the apex of the donor’s heart, which now is pumping blood through the recipient’s body. (Rosicrucian.com)
In the case of Heindel and Rjickenborgh Rosicrucians, though, the “Spirit Spark” (essence of the Divine) is within the physical heart. Rjickenborgh refers to it as being in the Right Ventricle of the heart and this designation is not analogies, but anatomically specific. Unless research has been done in blind cases, across a dozen years or more, I can’t see how he arrives at such a conclusion. This is no longer the subject of spirituality alone, but of scientific inquiry – which most mystics lack.
This desire-essence is thus the inner nucleus of our dialectical, material existence; it is the ‘I’, the blood-I, the earthly soul. Its seat in the body can be localized as the liver-spleen system. This location is to be understood not merely in a figurative, but also in a literal sense. The liver, the spleen, the kidneys and the adrenal glands plus the solar plexus (the pelvic cerebral centre) form the realm of the blood-I, the desire being.”
The Coming New Man, pg 40-41
In Rjickenborgh’s quote above, he writes about the cycle of liver-spleen systems and how they are the home of our desire body. These systems, he contends, clean out any influence to separate from the desire realm. Like a prison, these systems guard any change or vision outside the material desire realm.
If this spirit-spark atom can be touched by the infrared light of the gnosis, a wonderful effect begins in the thymus, an organ of endocrine secretion situated under the sternum. For, in this state, the spirit-spark atom begins to vibrate vigorously and touches the thymus with its light impulses, which then starts to secrete a hormone into the stream of lesser blood circulation.
….As soon as the blood, loaded with this particular hormone, reaches the head and consequently touches the brain, the most wondrous thoughts, namely those characteristic of the true seeker, arise due to the effects of the blood in the brain centers. One can say that, due to these wonderful effects, the image of immortal man in its embryonic state has already been conceived, entirely beyond the influence of the desire-being, the blood-I.
…The thymus hormone, however, which caused all this is of course led downwards again through the blood circulation, and the agency of the desire body then causes this inimical substance to be removed from the blood by means of the kidneys. In the liver and kidneys the blood is cleansed of all substances alien to the I-nature.
Ibid. pg 43-44
This is a very detailed representation of what is happening in the body, without any evidence to back it up. When we deal with the material aspect of this world, we must do so without bias, and with scientific inquiry and scrutiny. After all, anyone can attest that the spleen does something that is unmeasurable, as is being done here. I could write a book and claim that the Light of God forms in your gut lining and reflects undesirable digestion of carnality… but what evidence is there to say I’m right? This is the problem of “masters,” they rarely provide evidence for their words. It is then up to us to decipher them within our own systems, in order to discern truth.
Do not Sing It, Prove It
The writer makes some bold claims, yet provides no evidence. To review: Rjickenborgh claims
that spiritual inspiration secrets itself as a hormone in your blood.
This, then, circulates the spiritual inspiration into the brain and then through the lower parts of the body via the blood’s natural flow through the circulatory system.
In time, however, the author contests, that the spleen, kidneys and liver will remove any alien influences (spiritual hormones) from the system.
This leaves the seeker carnal once again, and requires regular doses of the spiritual hormone.
Had Rjickenborgh simply used a vague language to describe the general Light of Gnosis awakening us from carnal sleep to spiritual aptitude, there would be no issue. We could each interpret this as our personal awareness and Gnosis dictates. Or, had Rjickenborgh talked about this process as an analogy… the analogy of a liver-spleen-kidney system, representing our carnal nature that pulls the Light from our grasp… again we could easily say, ok an analogy is being made with our body so we can understand something deep and profound. However, by making this process a literal biologically event, he paints himself into a corner due to two primary problems: EVIDENCE and REPLICATION.
Evidence
I feel that this type of analysis becomes pseudo-science. It talks of a hormone, which should be easily testable in a laboratory. Yet, of course, we have no such scientific evidence. For this to be scientific, multiple agencies and laboratories would have to conduct a blind study on him, testing his blood when he is “not awake spiritually” and when he is, and isolate said hormone that is introduced. This, over dozens of repeated tests, all aligning with statistical significance (over a 95% success rate) would solidify the situation. Of course, such robust scrutiny is omitted, as it doesn’t exist.
Such statements may captivate, but when you bring a concept down to a material statement, something that can be scientifically tested, you paint yourself into a corner. Science is much better at data analysis than a spiritualist or mystic.
Replication
But this is the rub… the same frustrating rub with Star Wars episode I (ha!), if you can isolate the hormone you can also recreate it! Star Wars switched gears from Episode IV, V and VI when they wrote episode I. In episode I, the spiritual essence was brought down to blood: the midi-chlorians. No longer was it spiritual effort, but a biological component as well. Once you establish that idea, you have to face the problems it produces: If it’s in your blood then I can take it for myself or others.
Following Rjickenborgh’s logical premise, if we drew the blood of a true saint (one in unity with their Highest Self) and injected it into a sinner the sinner would become enlightened with the Light of the saint’s blood. This type of physical manipulation is unreasonable to me. If the Light manifests as a spirit hormone, then it can be isolated and duplicated in a lab and then introduced into people’s lives through various forms of injection. But this is NOT the spiritual path. Spiritual effort can not be granted by another. It must be worked out by ourselves through our own isolate work. Therefore it can NOT be biological, as biological can be cloned, replicated or inserted into another.
My Thoughts on Light and Carnality
Putting aside any pseudo-science (something unprovable, but sounding scientific), there is Truth to the notion that the carnal man is constantly swayed by the material world. The Light of Truth begins to awaken the a person from the slumber of their carnal nature, as this fills the proverbial sails of the aspirant’s consciousness.
In other words, as the Light is focused upon through spiritual practice and effort, the seeker becomes more like the Light. Rjickenborgh is correct on the idea that what thoughts you feed, are given more strength over your life.
Do we feed the animal or do we feed the spiritual with our attention?
Remove the body from this concept. The body has no sway or power over spiritual man.
When you look at the body to make way the path of the spirit (such as introducing a hormone) is it any different than a Thelemite seeking spiritual enlightenment through sexual activity? Both are flawed due to the fetter to the body. Therefore it is not the body that is holding you back, it is your attention.
The fight is not with your diet, unless of course your Higher Self guides you to a specific diet. There is no rule to say, “thou shalt eat this, and drink that.” Instead once must clear the mind of it’s material essence. This is done through Gnosis and Gnosis works at the level of each person differently.
Imagine the sad reality of a man who forgoes a kidney transplant and dies, because he is worried it will reboot his spiritual progress. People staking their lives on a claim that isn’t backed by the very science of biology being invoked.