EXPANDING STATES OF SELF-AWARENESS

LESSON 15

I have often said that the greatest boon that can fall to the lot of any person is to find the Path. And the next greatest boon is to stay on it after you have found it. That takes some doing, to stay on it after you've found it. This lesson will be particularly addressed to the Treaders of the Path as well as to those who may become Treaders of the Path. It will also continue our description of the various states of development in the human phase of the evolutionary process.

Let me emphasize that to get into the real significance and dynamic meaning of this lesson and what it represents one has to completely abandon the objective manifold of values. This requires a kind of thinking which we have described in earlier lessons, so here is a very brief review.

Categorically we say that this world, not some other world, this world is an energy system. In ancient times, some of the Greeks knew that this vast universe was composed of atoms. Several thousand years before microscopes and telescopes and all of the other modern means of ascertaining microscopic and submicroscopic worlds were invented, how in the world did they ever find out that everything was composed of atoms? Nowadays it is common knowledge that every so-called 'thing' is a configuration of units of energy.

But how would you set up a referent for the word atom? It can be described variously. A modern mathematician could write a mathematical formula for it, because mathematics is merely a rigorous language used for communication purposes. In our School we describe what we mean when we use the word atom by saying that it is a knot, a whorl of lines of force, in which there are many band passes or octaves. One atom is composed of knots or whorls not in, but of the lines of force. These lines force describe fields which are studied in field physics. Think of any 'thing' to which you can point. Think of it as a configuration of units of energy - atoms - positive and negative knots, whorls of energy in fields. Then remember that an aggregation of atoms makes molecules - still energy systems. An aggregation of molecules makes cells, an aggregation of cells makes organs and organisms - still energy systems. Aggregations of organs, of organ systems, make what we call bodies, physiological organisms - still energy systems. That is how we begin to change our thinking to the realization of this world as an energy system.

On the basis of this we proceed to thinking of the forces, the energy labeled instincts, feelings, desires, emotions, lovings, thinkings, and describe each one as refinements in wave-frequencies of a vast, overall energy world. So now, what has become of the objective manifold of values-thingifying, objectifying, and giving values to things and objects? Where is all of that objective manifold of values? Drop it. Stop it - at least for this lesson. Then go back thingifying and giving values to 'things' and 'objects' if you must.

Just for the sake of this lesson, transfer your thinking processes to the recognition that we live and have our existence in an energy world. Notice I said existence, not being, because being is that which creates the activities called fields. This energy system is that in which we live, move and and have our existence comes from the

Latin root, exisistere, meaning to stand out. Think in terms of energy forces, because that is the way we function. We may habitually think in terms of 'things' and 'objects', but there is no one anywhere that can function in 'things' and 'objects'. We function according to energy forces, energy motivations. There is no other way that one can function - that we know of; I'll qualify it to that extent.

We have now reached number two on this chart, The Cleared Place, which has also been labeled the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Gods, the Garden of Aaruu. As you know, geting to this point was quite a long process. It was a considerable struggle to get the north half of the psyche cleared from all of the obscurations and hold-overs and tag ends from the animalized state of evolution. Those influences from the animal state hung over and were quite persuasive, particularly when we had to deal with old Mother Nature, the genetrix. Mother Nature has only one terrific drive: to create, create, create, and multiply, multiply, multiply. We would say politely "the preservation of the species." In its animal phase that drive had great value, because out of it evolved the human form of evolution. But it brought along into the human form of evolution a lot of holdovers, tag ends of unfinished business.

All of that constitutes a drag-back to one who has reached the cleared place in the development of his psyche. He has the north half cleared and enjoys living in it, but he has to be constantly on guard, awake or asleep, because if he lapses into sleep unguarded the drag-back down to the genetrix will ensue. So there is a the Battle of Armageddon that goes on and constant conflict, a stupendous tug-of-war, on. Those of you who have studied the Bhagavad Gita understand this as the Plains of Kurukshetra in which Arjuna, the one who has reached the cleared place, has to enter the battle, not run away from it.

What I am about to say will help immeasurably when the state is reached when the conflict between the content of the upper half and the lower half of the psyche occurs. There has been inculcated in the race psyche in we are each integrated the concept that there is an all-pervading Power, Light, Spirit, God, Infinite Mind, Divine Intelligence, etc. By reason of this, one will pray, meditate, struggle, and agonize - particularly when one reaches this cleared place - trying to make a contact with that Infinite, Divine Power, Intelligence, Mind, God, Tao, Allah, call it what your will. This attitude of appealing to someone or some 'thing' superior, infinite, divine, etc. is all utterly and completely futile. For one at this state that concept has no validity whatever. Please withhold judgment until I am through, because I know I am creating an enormous reaction with this idea. But the statement which follows will substantiate how utterly futile and offside such a notion is. Nothing is real to you, (a given person) except that which you are conscious of being.

How does one grow into the consciousness of any given 'thing'? How does one become conscious of a higher state, a higher level? By developing the instrumentality and the faculty and the organization whereby consciousness can function and become conscious on that level. To help us understand this, let us use analogy. Take an embryo - chicken, animal, man - embryo. And let us suppose we could talk to the embryo, mentalize with it. (That is what we are doing now with lots of 'embryos'.) "Embryo, do you know what a fully developed and mature man is like?" "Man? - blink," because it has no referent, no consciousness. "Yes, there is fully grown developed, mature man. Don't you know what that is? Well, you must believe it. Just believe it." All right. We'll not argue with you whether there is or is not such a grown and developed mature man. Our point is that the embryo is not conscious of any fully developed, grown, and mature man. But he has been shown all sorts of pictures and told all sorts of myths about that fully developed mature man, until his psyche has picked up all those suggestions. Then, when the embryo got into difficulty in its embryonic state of development it began to pray. It began to invoke, to meditate, and to pray, "Fully developed mature man, come help me, come help me!" What should the embryo have done? It should have turned itself upon itself and developed the ability and faculty and potentialities inhering in it to be conscious of itself as a fully developed and grown man.

That analogy highlights what I said about the utter futility of such an idea. "Oh, but don't take my God away from me. I want to pray to that God!" you might say. Well, go ahead. No one is stopping you from emoting in your psyche. The more you emote in your psyche the more you will develop your psyche, but that is all you will do. Just emote strong enough and you will develop your psyche.

Please be careful with this part of this lesson, because you could misquote me and say that I don't believe in God. "Here is a man who doesn't believe that there is a Divine Wisdom, an Infinite Intelligence." I never said anything of the kind, and I never made an intimation of that nature! What I did say was what you are conscious of being is real. Are you conscious of it? Then it is real. And if you are not conscious of it, it is non-existent-as far as you are concerned. You can resort to your myths and your beliefs, which have no other validity other than exercising the psyche. Of course, you must exercise your psyche in order to develop it, just like you exercise a muscle. What I am trying to put over to you is simply this: Turn your thought to your own potentialities. As those potentialities are brought out and become actualities, you become conscious of what was heretofore potential, then you can describe what you understand and what you see and the way you function.

We can summarize all of this by saying, "Why stand ye gazing? Heaven is within you." But that has been shouted at us for two thousand years and we haven't registered it, simply because that power and force have not yet developed the instrumentalities and the faculties with which to register. So it resolves down to an individual proposition of working for your own awakening, growing, and developing the instrumentalities and faculties with which to function in the knowing.

Another point which is particularly germane to this clarification of the upper psyche, where one becomes conscious that he is on the Path, is this: In this cleared state he has moments of greater or lesser duration, in which he sees the way things ought to be, according to the orderly process of growth and development and evolution. He has moments of clairvoyance, clear seeing, of how things ought to be. But as he looks around him he sees such a terrific distortion and perversion - a topsy-turviness of the way things ought to be, according to the natural order which he clearly envisions at that state. I want to highlight the "clearly envisioned" as distinct from utopianism, distinct from flown-away virtue, idealization, or any flight from reality. That is why I emphasize "clearly envisioned" as distinct from impossible idealization or altruism, impossible flights of fancy, etc., when one gets that cleared vision of what could be. He looks around and sees all the turmoil in the world, in his family, in his little group that he runs with, and everyplace. When he sees that in contrast to his clear vision, he sees how unnecessary, how unnecessaary, it all is. I could launch out, and I am tempted to do it, about the devastating wars, where the best of our young manhood are sacrificed and wiped out. And after it is all over, ask the survivors, "What was that all about? What did we get into this thing for?" "Too deep for me, I don't know. My country ordered me to go."

I could go on and on about how unnecessary it all is. The clear vision sees that it is all unnecessary. There is plenty for everyone. Abundance. Every healthy man and woman could work four hours a day and overproduce more in the world than all of us could consume according to economic statistics. So what is all the turmoil about? Here is another instance: Work with a little group. Work and work to bring them up to a higher vision. Then someone in the group gets into a personal reaction about some 'thing' or 'object' and disrupts the whole works! Two weeks afterward someone might ask, "What did you create all that disturbance for?" "Why, I don't know - I have forgotten." Only two weeks, and he can't remember what the emotional outburst and disturbance was all about! It happens more often than we would like to think.

I could go on and on and show you how when one reaches this cleared place he sees clearly what could be in contrast to what is going on. Then his eagerness and his happy expectations take hold of him, and he wants to take a flight into Christ, into Mind, into higher worlds, the Light, and abandon everything else - just leave it, deny it, expurgate it, and destroy it. "I am on my way out to realms of Light and bliss and peace in the arms of God." Have you ever experienced that-longing to just take a flight out of it all, or go to the south seas or a desert island to get away from it all? That is another form of getting out of it.

But that simply cannot be done. That is a dogmatic statement, so I'll say, "According to the School of the Natural Order, according to the way we see the situation, it can't be done!" Why? For only one reason. The Mother, Nature, which gave us birth, must become the bride. The Power-to-be-conscious cannot exist in a world by itself. It must co-exist with the negative, the polarization of its positive self.

Let us use another analogy. Let us say that the little proton within an atom reached the cleared space. So he says, "I'm going to get out of all these electrons. I'm going to get out of the Mother, and I'm going to get away from it all and live by myself." It can't live unless it is polarized to the negative. The negative and the positive make the unity. That unity has the only reality, so he cannot take this flight. In India they have tried to do that very thing for several thousand years and haven't succeeded. We of the Occident have no idea what Oriental fanaticism means. In that Oriental fanaticism they put all they have and all they can develop in willing themselves out - out of Nature, out of the Mother, out of the genetrix, out and beyond everything. 'Pure Spirit' in a spiritual world all by itself, is one of the highest order of all high order abstractions. Students of semantics understand that there is no such thing anywhere, nor can there be any such thing anywhere as 'pure spirit' in its own wonderful spiritual world alone. After having reached the cleared place one must turn right around and bring up, transform, regenerate, re-metamorphose every part and parcel of his own instrumentalities in which he has functioned and in which he must function to maintain his consciousness, even of the Light.

What does all this mean? It means time. I mean it just like that. It means time to do two things simultaneously. First, he must polarize to the Power, Light, bliss, and peace of the Christos. Here is the referent for the word Christos: the Power-to-be-conscious conscious of its own Individualized Self. Refer to the chart. Come back down to the psychic world, below the double line where we haven't made the Second Crossing yet. There is an abyss, a chasm, between the highest psychic development and the Mind Level, which I am going to talk a great deal about later. Come back down to the cleared place in the psychic consciousness, the psychic nature, the personality. In that cleared place one must polarize to the Christos, the Power-to-be-conscious conscious of its own Individualized Self.

This is not a flight from reality. It is turning the attention and the consciousness to the next higher level of your own Triune Self. Don't think out beyond the cloudbanks or out in the stratosphere; don't look to Infinite Mind and Divine Love. Nothing like that at all! One must develop that potentiality which is on the eve of becoming actuality. By turning attention to it and polarizing one's consciousness to it one enhances and develops it. Then, as recognition is given to it, that higher level of one's own Triune Self becomes actual.

This is most important, because you need to turn within instead of out or up or looking to an Infinite Power and Light, and the all-pervading Mind, Intelligence, or God. That is impossible-at this state. But it is not impossible to turn one's attention to the Power-to-be-conscious until one becomes polarized. Let's use analogy to understand what we mean by polarization. Take a common compass. Release the needle on its little pivot. At once it begins to swing and line itself up with the magnetic streams of force on the surface of the earth, magnetic streams of force that are flowing to the negative pole. It is polarizing to the magnetic pole. That is, it is polarizing according to the lines of magnetic force.

We can polarize to the Power-to-be-conscious without any flown-away virtue and without getting offside. As we polarize to the Christos, the highest level of one's own Triune Self, in this cleared north half in the psychic process of development, we also focus the power 'down', back to the Mother, matter. Let us pause now and set up a referent for Mother, because if we don't you are going to go off into some other Divine Mother, Blessed Mother Mary business. Be careful not to take another flight into some Madonna, Mother, Mary mythology. I am not trying to advocate anything like that. When I say focus upon the Mother, matter, mater the referent is energy metamorphosing to cytoplasm, protoplasm, cellular structure, etc., and all of the organization composed thereof. Plasm means form building. The true referent for matter is that which builds forms, form-building plasma, building and configurating.

The psychic nature is built of it. Of what? Plasm, Mother substance, mater, matter. The etheric structure is built of it. These vehicles vary only on degrees of fineness. The physiological organism, your body, is built of it. That is the mother that gave birth to this Individual on the Mind Level. There was no Spirit before it was born. There is that man who grew up to become that fully developed, mature man, from the embryo which gave it birth. Be very careful with this lesson. Otherwise you may think I am going to take your God away from you.

When I gave a lesson like this before a very large class in New York City, a dear lady came up after the class and said, "Vitvan, I just don't believe you believe in God." "Why," I said, "I don't. I stopped that silliness long ago. I know Him." Believe in Him-why, no, I know Him. How? When the power of Love is released through the heart center, that is His presence, and you can know Him; you don't have to guess about it. When that power is released it is the most motivating force of all motivating forces. But perhaps I was taking her belief away, just as I am trying to do for you here now, because it won't get you anywhere! Just watch. After eighteen hundred years of preaching it and hearing it, what is taking place? Crime, juvenile delinquency, hatred. Children shooting, killing, murdering, stealing, ganging up, even on the policemen. Look around you. After eighteen hundred years of shouting that stuff about a God 'up there' and believing, praying, and agonizing. How many mothers have agonized over their sons going off to war, being killed in the streets, etc. - for centuries! Look around you. I say it is getting you nowhere, simply because it isn't anything that has any validity.

But this does have validity. This is power I am describing, and the way to get that Power into the consciousness is to polarize to that individualizing process in your own Triune Self. Polarize to it, invoke it, help it come. Give it birth. Then, as we are polarized to it turn, and focus its Power into mater, the Mother. As soon as its Power is focused into mater, the genetrix, a transformation begins to take place within mater. This simply means that a transformation begins to take place within your vehicles, in your own members, in your psychic, etheric, and physiological levels. The forces of darkness are driven back. How? Praying and beseeching an Infinite, Divine something or other? No! They are driven back because we are focusing the Light, the fire of the higher principal, of our own Triune Self, down into the organisms composed of matter, until the re-metamorphosis, the transfiguration, the change, begins to take place. You can actually watch the change taking place. You can notice the differences in the way you function.

What you have heretofore called vile, low, animal, is transformed into a veritable apotheosis of beauty emerging in the function. In all the functions it becomes so beautiful and wonderful. It becomes full of joy and light and life, until the body itself becomes full of light. Notice the difference between taking flight and getting away from it all, getting out of it, and turning and transforming the Mother, the matter of which your vehicles are composed. You transform the matter into the bride, the beautiful bride that will go with you, with the Power-to-be-conscious in you, into pure, sheer beauty - beauty as a thing in itself with which we endow everything else. Oh, my! At this stage we endow the impossible with beauty! We endow everything with loveliness with beauty. And what a price we pay! But we still do it - and still have to do it - when we have that Power from higher level of Self focused even into the matter in which we function, until it is transformed, re-metamorphosed, transfigured, by the Power. Then the Mother becomes a virgin and enters with the bridegroom into the marriage. That marriage is marvelous, indescribable, on the unspeakable level. That is the yoga, the union. That is the Oneness. There is no other oneness. Don't run away from it. Don't try to take a flight from reality; because nature, your nature, my nature, will bring us back and back and back, until we have effected the Oneness, the union with the bride, with the Mother, with nature.

-Vitvan, Tape series dated 1955 - 1956 Marj Coffman, ed. 1998

Lesson 16

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