EXPANDING STATES OF SELF

The psychic nature is divided into two divisions called the lower psyche and the higher psyche. The Egyptians several thousand years before the Christian era, who understood this very well, symbolized the two parts as the south half and the north half. We have reached a point in this course of lessons where we are describing the particular state which we call the clarification of the north half.

Every one of us functions on one or more of four levels, four states, or four divisions of one overall state of consciousness. To avoid confusion, keep those levels sharply differentiated. Do not lump them all together and identify them with any one level. The highest of those four levels is an individualizing process going on on what we term the Mind Level, the lowest level of Light's Regions, where the intrinsic Power-to-be-conscious is becoming conscious of itself on its own level. In Christian terminology that would be called the Spirit, the Individual Spirit, the Immortal Principle. That is the only part of the consciousness that continues from cycle to cycle, from age to age, from incarnation to incarnation. Everything else disappears. It is like a deciduous tree that cyclically puts forth leaves, flowers, and fruit, and then sheds them. That intrinsic life force, life energy, withdraws, indraws. All the sap goes down to the roots and the tree goes dormant. Then the next time round, the next spring, the next cycle, it puts out leaves and flowers and fruit once again.

Let us liken the leaves to a new body, a new configuration. Let us liken the flowers to the psychic nature, and let us liken the fruit to the totality of the result of experience in the body and in the psyche. We reap the results of our experiences. We try this, that, and the other thing. We get all enthused over this or depressed over that. We work and strive until we exhaust experience, but the result of experience goes deeper than the physiological organism, the configuration. It goes much deeper even than the psychic nature. It goes into building the True Individual, the Immortal Self. Please catch that. No one is immortal until he has developed the consciousness of immortality and the representation, the vehicle in which the consciousness of immortality can be expressed, can become functional. Only that of which one is conscious is real to that one. So if a given person has no consciousness of immortality, he has no immortality. It might be potential, but it is not actual until it is developed. How? By the result of experiences. I'm talking about individualized immortality, not that which is individualized, the Logos, the overall consciousness in a cosmic sense. That means nothing to you or to me until we are conscious of it. Then it becomes actual. Do you catch the difference? Relative to our present racial evolutionary status, the level on which this individualizing process is going on is the highest level upon which anyone can function.

THE VEHICLES OF THE "SON OF MAN"

4 - Mind: Autonomous Field

3 - Psyche: Higher Psyche Lower Psyche

2 - Configuration: Etheric Body Somatic Structure

1 - Private World: Thingification Abstractions

The next level below that is called the psychic level. We describe the psyche as the ensemble, the synthesis of the forces which motivate our feelings, our desirings, emotions, our lovings, and our thinkings. Each of those constituents is characterized by a wave-frequency and is represented by a definite energy-substance. In the individualizing process that substance is described as Light. When the individualizing process is completed no longer does necessity bring us back again and again into the configurational and psychic vehicles. We are emancipated from the "wheel of necessity" of returning, and when the individualizing process is completed, on that highest level one has a body of Light, the Solar Vesture. Little by little we build that vehicle as the result of our experience. So experience is very valuable, because we learn what is enduring and what isn't; we learn what we can take with us and what we can't. We learn that that which we can take with us and bring back again is of the highest value. The transitory and ephemeral has less and less value for us as consciousness grows into that which is more valuable, the "treasures laid up where rust cannot corrupt or thieves break through and steal," etc. That's all in the individualizing process motivated by the Power-to-be-conscious on Mind Level.

So the next level on which we function is the psychic nature. Whether we know we have a psychic nature or not, we still know we feel. We don't feel with the physiological organism. An anesthetic or hypnotism will dissociate the psyche from the 'physical'. Then you will find that the physical doesn't feel anything. You don't feel with your 'body'. You can act with it; I say strike attitudes. But it is in the psyche that we feel. Nor does the configuration desire. Desire does not reside in the neural system. The neural system is like a telephone exchange, a means of communication. It resides in the psyche and the motivating forces and the qualities thereof. And your loving-love is something far deeper than body, although the force of love might drive your body to act affectionately. But the force of love doesn't reside in any body. It resides in the psyche. Thinking also resides in the psyche. The ensemble of all those forces is what we call the psychic nature. If you do not like the word psyche, just substitute a synonym: the personality and the personality pattern. If we break down the constituents of the psychic nature we have the pattern, the personality pattern. Then comes the next level, the configuration in which we act.

The fourth level is that which we abstract from those first three. From our abstracting we develop an intellectual, mentalized private world, and there are as many private worlds as there are persons. Each one of us has a private world that may conform to the reality, life facts, or it may not. So much for the four levels.

In our growth and development, in the evolutionary natural order processes, consciousness expands. Let me dwell with this word expands just a moment. As consciousness expands from one identification to another, it does not leave the former identification behind. It only adds to it, expands and comprehends a larger sphere in which it functions, which larger sphere incorporates the former, but changes it by the relationships and comparisons with the added extension. For illustration: Two men can stand on a promontory. One has the power of sight to see two miles, that's his limit. The other standing right beside him has the power of sight to see four miles. The one who can see four miles sees everything that the other one that can only see two miles sees, but he sees it differently. Get that "differently." The second man's evaluations about the first two miles undergo a radical change by reason of the fact that he has more relationships and comparisons in his two more miles larger sphere or vision. Keep that idea of expanding consciousness. What you've gained through the eonian past and the evolutionary process to this moment, you're going to retain-in the most minute detail. That memory will eventually be quickened until you can see yourself from an insect, and a reptile, an animal, etc., all the way through in one consciousness and beyond anything we are conscious of now. It's all there all the time. You are all things unto all men, and no flight from reality, no rolling up your eyes like a dying calf saying, "Heaven is my home. This earth is not my home." That is stuff and nonsense! Then you get way off. You can't function here and you can't get in there. That's what I call metafizzling.

The evolutionary process is nothing like that. It works by synthesis, so far as I know anything about it. That's the way it is perceived by true perceivers. When you reach that understanding you are balanced and normal; you're not high nor low, good nor bad, not better nor worse than anyone anywhere. You have a consciousness of oneness and unity. Oneness, unity, and if you would go back into the intrinsic and essential factor which motivates everything from the insect on up or down, you would find that that consciousness of unity is the Oneness that we call God. He's not out there in the stratosphere. He is that Light-energy that motivates and brings into expression and manifestation the creative process, all that is, everywhere. Isn't that a wonderful thing to see and function in and understand? We learn to function in it, not mentalize about it, or worse, verbalize about it-except for communication purposes (that lets me out, you see), trying to share it-with the other parts of yourself.

Now let us turn our attention to the clarification of the north half. I want to emphasize this: In the evolutionary process of growth and development we work from identification of consciousness with the objective world (which is only our private world), until we an see this world as a dynamic process, the configurational aspect of it. Then we move into conscious functioning in the psychic world as the next step.

I want to present to you two methodologies for moving on into the consciousness of the psychic nature, the next step in the evolutionary process from that state of objective identification, thinking "This body, as a thing, is me." One method is to ignore the psychic nature and the centers through which energy focuses itself in the functional processes of the psychic nature. That is, one can just ignore it, pay no attention to it and simply devote himself to a mental and intellectual understanding of the orders of higher functioning. Or if one did not want to devote himself to the orders of higher functioning, he could just maintain a higher aspiration, read the best of literature, associate with the best thought, listen only to the best music, and woo and cultivate the higher cultural qualities, etc. Then the forces in the psychic nature would take care of themselves and would develop. That's one methodology. An Oriental can do that. He doesn't have to inquire into the structure, function, and orderly processes. He can ignore it.

This second method is more suitable to the peculiar quality in most Occidentals. They want to know what makes it work. And I'm one of them! When I've traveled at sea and they started the foghorn, I wanted to be out on deck. I wanted to see what's going on, and if anything happened I wanted to see it. I didn't want to below deck. Well, I have geared all of my teaching to that proclivity, that propensity of wanting to see. I want you to see and understand the functions and the structure of man, because in understanding it one can more intelligently cooperate with the process-instead of going against it, even with the best of intentions. (I see so many 'good' men and women doing devil's work, with the best of intentions, trying to be 'good',) "With all of your getting, get understanding"-of the structure, function, order, the orderly processes in this evolutionary developing world, universe, in which we are integrated. The clearer your understanding of it, the more intelligently you can function with it. That makes progress easier as well as giving one tremendous satisfaction. He knows instantly when he is on the beam and when he gets off the beam. And if one does not understand the way he is put together, on all levels, he might get off the beam and get dogmatic about it, and lose valuable time and incarnations to get back. He may create a great deal of karma in doing it, and mix himself up generally-and with the best of intentions.

So I elect the second method-understanding how the psyche functions instead of just intellectualizing, mentalizing, and developing higher aspirations, and trying to keep polarized to the highest and best and let the psyche function on its own. It will. But I think a far more intelligent way is to understand it and cooperate with it. That is why we need to study this chart, The Four Somatic Divisions of Man. Somo- means man, in the physiological sense. Those five psychic centers (described in former lessons) are likened to the five wise virgins in our Christian scriptures who preserved the oil in their lamps. Lamps-psychic centers. If one exhausts the energy which motivates the functions on any of these five respective levels, he cannot function adequately. One cannot function without that energy, therefore the need for the preservation of the oil in the lamps. Then when the bridegroom (the force in the sacral conarial axis) comes, when the True Individual on Mind Level, your and my highest state, is developed, "when the bridegroom comes," one can go into the wedding and the wedding feast. What becomes of those foolish virgins who spent all of their energy, dissipated it and wasted it? They are cast out into outer darkness. "I know ye not." Understanding the psychic nature and these centers, the foci through which energy from the higher level percolates, becomes of high importance to us. That energy flows down, focuses and is distributed in functional activities in the psychic nature. Now we must learn to reverse it. Learn how that is done and cooperate with the process.

(Please remember that I am only describing various states, not admonishing you to do this or that. If you have passed this state you understand what I am talking about. If you have not reached this state, when you do, even the mental and intellectual understanding will stand you in great stead, because you will remember it. But please do not apply these lessons to yourself unless they fit your state. Just keep them on a sort of mental shelf. "Well, when I get there I'll prove it or disprove it sort of attitude. I must put this in because some students attempt to practice every lesson. I am not trying to tell you what to do or what not to do. I am describing each stage in an evolutionary process. )

We have reached the point in our description where there is a sharp dichotomy that takes place at the heart center. Above the heart center is called the north half. Below the heart center-the solar and genital centers, is called the south half. At this point a sharp dichotomy takes place between the north half and south half. What causes that sharp dichotomy? When Anahata, the heart center, is opened and the force is released for the first time in the psychic-configurational organization, it is analogous to fire. For the first time in the evolutionary process one strikes fire. You can experience that and you can prove it if you will sharply discriminate between desire and love. Love is like warmth, heat, and fire when you awaken it. And the entities, substances, which we have cultivated or acquired in the past cannot stand the fire. They attempt to get as far away from it as they can and they retreat to the south half, below the midriff. They cannot stand that higher dynamic fiery force that we label love, that tremendous drive to give, not to get.

We label that urge to share, to pour out, love. Love is a synonym for the word God. "God is love." Experience that release of power, of light, of fire, in the heart center, which we label love and then use the synonym, Love is God, "God is love." In the release of that power in the heart center we come close to the presence we call God. "Why stand ye gazing?" It is within you, potential or actual, not an abstraction somewhere in the stratosphere. If it is potential, awaken it, make it actual, experience it. Those things we have cultivated and acquired in the ignorance and stupidity of the past and have assembled in the substance of the psychic nature cannot stand that fire. They recede and retreat and that is what causes the dichotomy, the division. Then comes the Battle of Kurukshetra. One becomes an Arjuna. If you have studied the Bhagavad-Gita you know that here Arjuna is born, and he has to fight. There is no Pollyanna, no sweetness and light about it. It is a fight. Arjuna enters his chariot, the configuration, and Krishna becomes his driver and counselor. Krishna: the Individual Being on Mind Level. The Mind Level the Christ, the Christos, Krishna are all labels for the influence of that Power. It is the Spirit, the True Be-ing, the Immortal Principle, the Higher Self in man.

Now that Power enters the chariot, enters the configuration. You become conscious of it, and that is a powerful magnet and focalization of the Logos, the overall, the Infinite Mind. That is the overall Greater Self, not Higher Self, the Greater Self, the overall Spirit of God. That is the higher triad, Atma-Buddhi-Manas on Mind Level, drawing the individual, like a magnet. And that Power operates through a multiplicity of Logoi. To understand that word Logoi let us quote Paul, "the Principalities and Powers, things seen and unseen," in the higher levels of Light's Regions. It means the Hierarchy and the representatives thereof in Light's Regions.

If you are conversant with Oriental philosophy and the labels that they use, instead of saying Angels, Archangels, Principalities, and Powers say Chohans, and Mahachohans. Those are just different labels for the same Higher Beings. Those who are conscious of being at one with the Logos, the creative Word, the creative Resonance, the creative Power, are called the Logoi. That is the magnet that draws the individual into Itself in the picture on page 87 in the last lesson. Do not think that all those forces and entities down on the lower levels that we used to cultivate quit. After the dichotomy they are arrayed against the individual. They are waging a war. I call it the tug-of-war. That is what the diagram shows. We have the True Individual, the Christ, Krishna, and back of that the Logoi, the representatives of the Logos, allied on our side. But on the other side we must battle all that we used to cultivate and be proud of. We regard them as our loved ones, and we don't want to fight them. And Arjuna says, "I just won't fight them." Krishna has to admonish him that it's a fight; he must fight it out. So the tug-of-war, the battle between the south half and the north half is joined. That battle goes on in every one of us. That is the true Battle of Armageddon, the true battle on the fields of Kurukshetra.

Here is the highlight of this lesson. We begin to win the battle by clarifying the north half, until we feel the love, joy, happiness, and freedom-literally freedom-from desire and the motivating forces of desire. We begin to feel that freedom in our higher psyche, in the north half, we are beginning to get the upper hand of this dragon. I'm going to come right out and label him-sex. That is the dragon trying to drag us back. Do not be deceived by half-baked psychoanalysts that this drag back or this resistance to the drag back amounts to repression, and therefore compensatory and substituted forms of expression and psychosomatic maladjustments will develop. That might be true up to the time of the awakening of the heart center, but when the force awakens in the heart center, when the presence of God, the presence of love, infiltrates and permeates the whole being, all the forces are drawn into that love expression and there is no such thing on that level as repression. No such thing as a repression and the results of repression can occur.

I challenge the best of the psychiatrists and psychoanalysts to show me one case where the force is focused in the heart center and love has pervaded the being and is flowing out in marvelous forms of expression, free from the dragon of the south half, where repression can develop. It is only when one drops down to the solar center and desire comes in, when one mentally fights desire and represses the creative force, the drive in desire, that's when the force will seek a substituted and compensatory outlet. On that level all sorts of psychosomatic maladjustments, sicknesses, and diseases can be created. But when the force is awakened in the heart center with the power and beauty and force of love it is impossible.

There is one step more in clarifying the north half. We haven't conquered all of the denizens of the south half-yet-because Krishna has not yet taken hold. The Power that we call Christ, has not come in yet. Not until it comes in will we conquer the last vestige of the dragon of the south half. Before then, we clarify the north half. The rabbis of old called that clarification of the north half Ardath, which literally means a cleared space, pure love without desire. The Egyptians called it the Garden of Aaru. It is the meeting place of those who have reached a higher state with the one who has developed this state of growth, development, expansion of consciousness on the ascending arc. Those higher ones will not contact anyone below that level, will not make their presence known to anyone below that opening and development of the heart center and the clarification of the north half, the state of the Garden of the Gods. Now why? For the person's own protection, they cannot contact them. Because if the influence of a Higher One comes into an unpurified psyche that's infiltrated the north half, these denizens of the psyche would create such a disturbance that it would precipitate chaos in the person's existence.

A higher developed one has to stay away from the unpurified to protect the unpurified against the content of his own unpurified psychic nature. If a Higher One would come into the presence of the unpurified psychic nature in another, those entities would create a hate and animosity toward that One, toward the Higher One. And they would have to do away with him some way or other. They would have to crucify him or kill him or get rid of him, because he is like a mirror in which they can see themselves for the first time. They see the content of their consciousness, of their psyche. On that lower level, relatively speaking, one is never to blame. Somebody, something, you know, something other than me, I'm not to blame. Someone else is to blame-objective identification at work. See? He has to have a goat, an excuse, an alibi, in order to save face. So what? "Do away with him!" Enemy number one to our way of life. So what? Look into the mirror, and you don't like what you see. All right. Take a hammer and smash the mirror. Don't see it. So the Higher One has to stay away; he has to isolate himself.

I've had so many say to me, "If there are masters of wisdom, why don't they come down here and help us poor mortals in our struggle for light and understanding?" Why, you'd crucify them so fast you'd have them in the hoosegow overnight. Yes, and you'd do away with them so fast. So they cannot do it. You drive them out! We drive them out, let me say, because we cannot stand to be exposed to ourselves. But here in this process we must expose ourselves to ourselves and have the courage to look at it. And say, "Did I cultivate you, little worm? Did I cultivate you, louse? Did I cultivate these things? Did I cultivate this dragon that now tries to drag me back?" It takes a little courage, doesn't it? "Yes, I did."

All right. The tug of war begins. When we get that cleared state, we contact the Higher Ones, the Garden of the Gods. In that garden we can meet, and fraternize, and know as we are known. I testify to the truth. I know them. I've worked under them. Their definite orders and directives. You can too, and there are others that I know who have accomplished it. Work for that beauty and loveliness of a clarified higher psyche, the state called the Garden of the Gods.