NINE STEPS ON THE LADDER OF DEVELOPMENT BY VITVAN

INTRODUCTION

Our lessons begin with an image, a sketch which symbolically portrays the objective self-conscious state. The room in the sketch is painted a horrid, magenta color—a color which represents the state of an individual when limited to the objective manifold. Just as the person in the sketch is limited by walls, ceiling and floor (no doors or windows), so the individual in objective identification is also limited.

The physical body, as it appears to our physical senses, is a representation of the ensemble of qualities in the psyche. In other words, that which we call the physical body is a representation of the psycho-logical aspect of consciousness which we call the psychic nature. Where the consciousness of a given individual is identified with the body as a thing, one will experience his world—the world in which he has his existence—correspondingly. The feeling-thinking process and the qualities, or gunas, characterizing every feeling and every thought will reflect his state of consciousness. Therefore, upon the basis of that identity of physical body as a thing, he will see ‘things’ and ‘objects’ as separate from his own consciousness. He will give value to things. The accumulated effect of those values constitutes what we call the psychic nature.

When an individual comes into incarnation, he has no psyche. When he goes through that transition that the aristotelians call death, he quickly loses his psyche. After death, his psychic nature quickly disintegrates and disappears. Once objective identification as a phase in his ongoing has passed and been forgotten, there will be no psyche. The individual will be born into a configuration provided by the Mother and will develop to the highest level possible to individualization without any semblance of

a psyche. At that stage no value is given to phenomena; one may not even see phenomena. What one previously saw as ‘things’ or ‘objects,’ is now registered as units of energy configurated in patterns, patterns determined by each respective field. In other words, at that state of development, one will live continuously in the perception of reality.

Here is a tip. Avoid the tendency to look ‘beyond’ or ‘above’ to find reality. Reality is right here before us, veiled by phenomena, obscured by images in the psyche appearing substantive. Concentrate steadily on any given ‘thing’ until you can change the way you see it. Start here with the most familiar things and objects. In truth, I am the creator of the phenomena and of the values and of the reactions based on those values. So, too, I am the creator of the reality—according to the state of my creative ability. Get in touch with the power with which you create any ‘thing’ and you have found the power to create reality.

Return to the room in our sketch. It symbolizes the objective manifold. The individual has lived in that room a long time. We can readily appreciate that he liked it: “This is it; this is what life is all about.” But we have captured a particular moment in his life. He has lifted his head because he is no longer satisfied with his existence. He is beginning to look for a way out. We find him gazing at the hole in the ceiling. He is trying to imagine how he will escape from this room!

Imagine the room itself radiating that awful shade of magenta. Magenta represents the most destructive influence in the whole spectrum of colors, yet outside of the lower psychic world, there is no magenta color anywhere. Magenta is characterized by the introduction of foreign elements into the spectrum of psychic light. The clear gunas are adulterated by foreign elements and the result is magenta. Removed from the lower psyche, and independent of perverse feelings, thoughts and desires, there is no magenta in all of the seven rays. Experiments with color have revealed many disturbing effects upon a person exposed to magenta color to the exclusion of all others.

We have introduced this discussion of magenta to represent the fact that the objective manifold eventually begins to pall and become destructive. There is no better symbol for that destructive quality than the color magenta. Other qualities which can be included in this state are loss of purpose and disgust. Even the profit-pleasure motive begins to be questioned. This individual has lived in this magenta room for a long period without noticing the color. Everything appeared all right. But now comes the period when he stops and says, “What for?” Then disgust enters his consciousness.

As the man lifts his head, he is looking for something else—something which will bring joy, satisfaction and security. He is searching for a way to contact the consciousness of eternity, continuity and indestructibility. That yearning cannot be exaggerated. Everything based on the objective manifold of values culminates in loss and confusion. Can you see it in the slope of the shoulders and the upturned head? The man in the magenta room is filled with disgust and is yearning for escape.

Does this sound like moralizing? We are simply asking a question: Have you reached the point where you are disgusted with the objective manifold? We are not trying to save you from that experience. Go out and gather more experience if it still holds a charm. We are not penitential preachers hoping to turn you away. We know

that sooner or later you will discover that you are chasing images that lead to sickness and death. Eventually you will begin to yearn for loveliness and beauty and that yearning will begin your search for a way out. When one begins to lift his head and search he has reached a wonderful state. He is looking for a way out. Ultimately, the problem resolves itself into how to get out of this magenta-colored room and into the room above it, into a higher state of consciousness.

There is only one way out: to lay hold of the creative power. We might describe that creative force in a variety of ways, but, fundamentally, the basis of any way out is the conscious direction of the creative force. It is this discovery that we symbolize by the ladder in the room. Even in the darkness and confusion of the objective state, there is always the ladder, the one method of escape. By following the ladder the individual discovers the aperture in the ceiling, the door.

The term door represents what we call the conarial center. Baha Ullah says, “I am the gate.” In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted, “I am the door. No man cometh unto the Father save by me.” Other similar expressions are found in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhavagad Gita and the sayings of Lao Tse. When one becomes identified with the creative force, he speaks as if he were one with it. He speaks as if the creative force itself were speaking. (Our words reveal the level with which we are identified, as, on the objective level, we speak as if we were limited to the ‘body’ as a ‘thing.’)

Once contact with the creative force is made, it is universally applicable that the personality is put aside. Then we, too, can say, “I am the door.” The pivotal point in the structure of any individual is the conarial center. There is no transition, no connecting link between the lower room and the upper room other than the conarial center. That is the ultimate discovery. Searching for the way out will eventually culminate in the discovery of the one gate, the connecting link between the lower states of consciousness and the Mind level of the Self.

Here we must qualify and point out that we in the School of the Natural Order hold this opinion that there is only one way out. It has been said that various paths of development are similar to the various ways a mountain can be ascended to its peak. There is only one peak, but there are said to be many paths whereby it may be reached. We are of the opinion that there is only one way—laying hold of the power—and that the various paths must be considered as merely variations upon one central theme. Irrespective of the number of paths, the basis of each and every path to the mountain top will be direction of the creative force. There is only one way out and that is through the conarial center.

In the structure of the individual and in the function of the forces within that structure, no other point has been discovered that could be designated the “gate from the objective state.” These statements are based upon our knowledge of that structure. There is no structural point of contact between the lower states and the Light spheres except the conarial center. When we truly escape the objective manifold, we escape into ananda, bliss and joy. The conarial center constitutes the only door of transition.

Let us return to the ladder. As a symbol, it focuses our attention on the creative forces. As we use the creative forces, we come upon the aperture, the conarial center. The hole in the ceiling cannot be reached without using the ladder. While we are

identified with the physiological organism called the physical body, we cannot pass through the aperture. Relative to our objective state of consciousness, our bodies are too large and the aperture is too small. When we understand that the units of energy comprising the physiological organism maintain their relative invariance in the configurating pattern by reason of the state in which we are conscious, then by changing the state we can change the units of energy to fit through any aperture, no matter how small.

Here is another analogy. In addition to the label door, the aperture has also been labeled the “eye of the needle.” It is said that one must pass through the “eye of the needle” in order to reach the heavenly world. That symbol was apt when we lived in walled cities. Because of the danger to life and property, our early cities were completely surrounded by protective walls. After the business of the day was over, or whenever danger threatened, the gates of the city were closed, even to legitimate businessmen with their caravans of camels. But there was always one small gate available to late-comers. They could pass through that gate if they unloaded their camels, squeezed their packs and animals through and then re-loaded on the other side. These little gates were termed the “eye of the needle.” Hence the Scriptural quotation, “It is as difficult for a wealthy man to get into the kingdom of heaven as it would be for him to squeeze through the eye of the needle.”

If one comes to the point where he can unload all responsibilities for ‘things’ and ‘objects,’ he can pass through the eye of the needle. The purificatory process is only a process of unloading. When we are unloaded completely, we can pass through the needle’s eye, but we cannot go through with all of these packs on our backs.

Eventually the individual discovers the ladder, the creative power which can be directed and focalized. It is that creative force which the builders rejected that becomes the chief cornerstone of the solar vesture, the heavenly temple. Here is the point in our teaching where we must proceed with tact and discretion. Your teacher is not cautious because of any values on his part, but he knows that those who have identified the form of expression with the force which motivates the expression will remain in confusion about this point. That which is condemned, disparaged and rejected the most is called sex. On the other hand, that which is glamorized and caricatured the most is called sex. The form of expression is either identified as something dangerous or it is romanticized until, in either case, there is little hope of getting in touch with the creative force. But we in this school have a tool that we use called the process of conscious abstracting. We can learn to discriminate between the form and the force—the form of the expression and the force which motivates it.

Through the use of the structural differential and the other tools of semantics, we can clearly differentiate between ‘thing’ and wave-frequency. We can clearly differentiate between image and stimulus. We can differentiate between word and ‘thing,’ between image and configuration. In this way we are prepared to understand the word sex as something separate from the creative force which motivates it. The word is linked both to an image (an abstraction), and the form of expression. But the creative force which motivates that expression is not an abstraction; it is real.

Keeping this in mind we can avoid the pitfalls of identification. We designate the directing of this creative force (the ladder) as the only way out. It is like the serpent which Moses lifted up on the staff in the wilderness journey. Those individuals who

looked upon it were saved, and those who refused to look were destroyed. Those who look upon the force and direct it to the aperture will find the way out.

There are nine stages in the ascent of the ladder. It is our purpose in this discourse to clearly and accurately describe those steps. Each rung of the ladder will correspond to a specific stage of development respecting the use of creative force. In addition, I will describe an activity which an individual at that particular step can do, using the functions at hand, to cooperate with the process, if he chooses to do so.

Now let us describe the objective we are pursuing. Why are we taking the nine steps? What is the goal at the end of the process? I feel it is important to establish a clear description of the objective before we set out on the journey. In our diagram, there is an aperture in the ceiling. That is representative of the purpose and objective of these lessons. If we can set our sights accurately on the purpose, then all the steps will follow automatically. The objective is to direct the force through (not to) the conarial center. If we catch on to this, we can proceed with the description of the steps with more confidence.

The conarial center is a very small spot relative to our consciousness of our physiological organism. And when we begin to describe it, it must be described in terms of the physiological organism, although it does not pertain to that organism at all. When we review the concepts that our bodies are completely composed of atoms, that atoms are whirling bundles of energy and that those bundles of energy are at least 99.99% empty space, then we can conclude that our bodies are at least 99.99% empty space, void. So how can the conarial center be in this void, this empty space that we call our bodies? Simple. We are dealing with a state, not a body or a thing.

When we transfer over to thinking in terms of states of consciousness, then the question is answered differently. Where is the conarial center? It is ‘in’ the real structure. It is part of the overall field of consciousness.

When you begin to concentrate upon this center it is hard to find. Try to imagine a spot the size of a walnut about an inch below the crown of the head. Direct your attention to this spot. It is the door. (In the Orient they call this center the mouth of Brahma, or the cave of God. I’m not sure why the symbol mouth is used.) You must continue searching and searching until that spot is familiar and becomes easier to feel. Focus all your attention upon it.

I have worked on this myself for years and can share some of my experience with you. If I hold my attention to that spot (with no distractions, nothing else in my consciousness) and breathe a deep, full breath, slowly inhaling and exhaling, eventually I feel pressure on that spot. It is as if the breathing and focus of attention has activated the spot. As soon as the spot is activated, I can focus my attention on the activity and the inhaling-exhaling rhythm is less important. The activity is hard to describe in words, but it is simple to focus attention there.

As you become adept at holding the focus on that activity you will begin to feel the force being drawn out of the testicles or ovaries. That is the movement of the force out of the generative level. Then you will feel the force moving out of the solar (solar plexus) center, then the heart center, etc. Do not expect results too soon. This exercise requires sustained attention. If you look for results too soon you will become discouraged.

Breathe deeply and hold the attention steady until the force flows through. That is the important point—getting the force to flow through. The moment the force flows through, you are immediately protected from destructive forces in the race psyche. You will also feel a general rejuvenation throughout your entire body. Recall that what we call the body is a dynamic configuration of energy. Through ignorance we have accumulated conditions and entities while the force was centered in the lower psyche. But when we lift the forces through, we are immune to those influences. As a result, the configurating process that we call the body is immediately rejuvenated.

If a student did not want anything else from these teachings, this exercise could be effective in attaining health and physical well-being. This exercise lifts the forces above the level upon which destructive influences operate. This simple exercise can also increase the power to think, if that is what the student wants. It is the key to higher attainment; it is the key to building the body of Christ. But long before those effects make themselves known, there is a release from the influences of psychic rapports. To be free from rapports is to be free from a great deal of misery and suffering. Whatever a student wants, this exercise is of extreme value.

But this exercise is also the key to all higher development. Learn to focus the attention on that spot near the crown of the head. Breathe deeply. Hold the attention. You will get results. Your forces will flow to that center and through that center. That is the goal toward which these lessons lead.

Before we get into the nine steps, we are drilling the exercise which leads directly to the goal. It is like sitting down to a wonderfully prepared meal. You do not need to know about the digestive processes in order to eat. Eat the meal and let the process go on without your knowledge. That is why we describe this exercise. Too much description of the steps may cause semantic blockages or confusion. These exercises are as simple as eating or breathing. This particular exercise is a pivotal point—the key to the teachings, the key to Self-development.

LESSON 1 RECOGNITION

There is a transformation in the consciousness of an individual which takes place

in order for him to escape from the room. This transformation also constitutes the first rung of the ladder. He must be careful not to identify the first rung with something outside himself. It represents a transformation from within. When the individual is identified with the peripheral appearance of those units of energy constituting the structure of the physiological organism, there is no possibility of making the passage and escaping the room. In discovering the ladder as the motivating, creative force, he experiences the effects of that force in a different manner. Instead of focusing on the neural effects of that force he begins to concentrate on the force itself and says, “I am this force. I am this activity.”

He must realize, of course, that his consciousness has been identified with the peripheral appearance for many incarnations. For this reason it may seem fantastic for him to say, “I am this force.” But this will help him: let him understand that 99.99% of the total volume of this that he calls the body is void. Then with what is he identified when he thinks, “This body is me?” Nothingness. The infinitesimal condensation of matter which lies at the heart of the physiological organism is too small to see without a microscope.

This body is a state, not a thing. To transfer consciousness to the activity of the power and then say, “This is me,” doesn’t seem quite so fantastic. It is only fantastic to the one who is holding to the hypnotic illusion that this body is a thing.

To step on the first rung of the ladder is to accept the dynamic, creative force as “me”—irrespective of the level of function or the effects which it motivates. “Shakti is me!” Step on the first rung of the ladder confidently. Step away from the image in the psyche appearing substantive and begin to register the reality of that force. When you feel the activity of the force do not turn away or try to deny it. You cannot pretend that it does not exist. IT IS. Feel it. Look at it. Be entertained by it. And then repeat, “This is me.” But sharply differentiate word from thing and the word from the expression of the force. That is where our training must begin—sharp differentiation between levels.

How long does this stage continue? That is very difficult to answer. When the force is first experienced it seems as though the force is centered in the body. Objective identity is still strong. The force is generally localized in a center—genital, solar or, sometimes, the heart center (very rarely). You can direct the force into any part of your body—hands, feet, etc. But the force is usually localized in a center which we imagine is inside the body. We must train ourselves to say, “This force is me.” When you continue to repeat this, you gradually become conscious of being the force instead of feeling like a body with a force in it. This is a transference of identity. You will feel like a force in your body. When that transference takes place you are on the first rung of the ladder.

How long will it take to make the transference? Not long, but you must make the first step. “This force is me!” That is the method through which we eventually learn to pass through the aperture. “That great force is me!” If there is a saviour, that is it—identification with that force. I know of no other way. As we mount the ladder we break more and more with objective identity until we have unloaded it entirely. Then we can pass through the eye of the needle. We unload our ‘body’ and squeeze through to the upper room.

Now in these lessons we are assuming that you can differentiate very sharply between the dynamic, creative force of the Genetrix and the form of expression of that force. We are dealing with the power, not the form of activity motivated by that power. The confusion which exists in the race psyche concerning this point takes on gigantic proportions. There has been no greater stumbling block in the history of the Occident for the past 1500 years. The expression of that force has been declared anathema and, as a consequence, great errors have been made, sometimes with the best of intentions. The most dynamic power that we know of is called the sex force. When the word sex is condemned and the power is confused with the word, it is also condemned; devastating confusion follows. Do you see the error?

It may be that the condemnation of this power was by design, but I attribute it more to dense ignorance than malicious design. But if a group of ambitious schemers wanted to throw the Occidental culture into darkness and confusion (for the purpose of exploitation), they could not have done it more effectively than by identifying the form of expression with the creative power. Once a person catches on to the fact that the creative power is separate and apart from any form of expression, he can turn his attention to the power alone. He can direct that power and develop his understanding respecting that power. As a result he can no longer accept an intermediary between his expanding, growing state and his deity, the Power-to-be-conscious. It then becomes obvious that “man must tread the winepress alone.” Each must work out his own salvation separately. That destroys any ecclesiastically-appointed intermediary! Does that sound like the confusion was by design? I remain extensional and attribute the confusion to ignorance. But the diversion of man’s attention away from the power, with the resulting condemnation of that power, has created an utter prostitution of it.

Let us proceed as if all that confusion is cleared up. The object of these lessons is to direct your attention to the power. That is the first step on the ladder. Leave behind any confusion concerning words and values pertaining to words identified with things. The first step is recognition and acceptance of the power. One must accept the methodology before he or she can use it.

In the allegorical story of the journey out of Egyptian bondage, Moses was leading the children of Israel to the Promised Land, the Noetic level. He held up the serpent on the rod and commanded them to look. He was telling them to recognize the creative power. The serpent has been used as the symbol for wisdom as well as for the creative power, but there can be no wisdom until the creative power has been lifted, directed to the Mind level. So Moses lifted the serpent up and said, “Look upon it!” That is the opposite of either condemning it or ignoring it. That is an allegorical approach to our first step called recognition.

In recent years there has been a gradual moving away from sexual repressions and condemnation of all things sexual. Modern literature and movies are devoted to

frank expression and almost lascivious enjoyment. But that attitude is merely the reverse side of condemnation—it is caricature. There has been very little in the way of true recognition.

In our work, recognition is pivotal to what we call development, attainment, etc. To lift one’s forces and then to orient one’s forces to the clear Light and the wisdom gained, one must first accept those forces and recognize them. Recognition becomes the first key to the whole process.

(If you ever teach another one, reserve this particular phase until your student can differentiate between word and thing. Give this instruction to those who can understand; do not give it promiscuously. When I speak in public I present everything in a dual aspect respecting this point in the teaching. Those who are initiated into understanding will catch it and the others will not. At all costs try to avoid confusion. There has been enough confusion for more than 1500 years.)

No matter how much is preached respecting peace and brotherhood it is all to no avail. When the pivotal point is left out all effort is asinine and futile. Predication about good will among men will only elicit emotional and devotional responses at best (and at times will only elicit racial taboos and fetish worship of various forms). But the objectives preached will never be attained. Observe this for yourself. No matter how artistic the predication, no matter how authoritative the scientific methods used, all is futile when the dynamic, creative force is left on the lower psychic levels (generative, solar or heart levels). If the creative force is ignored (hidden by all that beautiful verbiage), it can do no good at all. The result is just devotional orgies, and I am suspicious of substituted forms of expression.

For 1500 years (I place the date where theocracy, the rule of priests, came into power), the mind of Western civilization has been diverted away from the key. The devices have been many—condemnation, ridicule, suppression, caricature, etc. (Pardon me for going on at such length. Many of my students are better informed than I am on this point, but I think it serves a purpose to describe where we have come from.) It is time to leave that confusion and return to the original natural order process in this universe, both in the minute and in the great. Only in embracing the natural order process is there any hope for the individual, or for humanity as a whole.

Once we recognize the power, then simple statements are transformed into wonderful insights. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” “Thy will” can be described as the dynamic, creative force as it functions in the true structure of reality. If you retain the aristotelian outlook, you will always be mooning around waiting for someone else to tell you what to do. Instead, say “Thy will be done,” meaning “Let the dynamic, creative force be manifest in my objective consciousness (on earth) as it is ever manifest in the true Light (heaven) worlds.” The Mind level, the Light spheres or Higher Self are all synonyms for heaven.

This is the first step on the ladder—recognition. I apply this to myself many times during the day, but I say, “Thy will be done—in my own members, in spite of my stupidity and ignorance.” No matter how many failures (Who among us has not failed again and again?), no matter how much confusion, the power sweeps it all away like a whirlwind. Try to catch on to this thing. Do not look off somewhere in the stratosphere. See the dynamic force as the function in true structure. Say, “Thy will” until you

cannot register anything else except the dynamic force in the structure of your real Self.

Say, “Thy will be done,” over and over. The force is already functioning in the real world because if that dynamic power was not already released in the Mother, there would be nothing. So we can say, “Thy dynamic power is ever active in the Mother, in the real world. Now let it be active in my objective state.” That is why you and I are here: Recognition.

LESSON 2 RENUNCIATION

Let us begin this lesson by drawing your attention to the logo (symbol) of the

School of the Natural Order—the eagle carrying the serpent aloft. I think it was Zarathustra who first used the symbol of the eagle and the serpent as an inspiration for students on the path. The eagle, of course, symbolizes the courage to fly high, the power which is necessary for sailing into the empyrean realms. The serpent symbolizes the creative force which must be lifted and carried aloft. The eagle and the serpent go together in the effort. When one accomplishes the job of carrying the creative force through the conarial center, he will have a referent for the aptness of those symbols. It takes all the courage and strength one can muster to carry it through; it is a real job.

Our motto does not have such ancient origins. I adopted it because it represents fulfillment. Sortem suam quisque amet can be translated as “Let each one love his own destiny.” I meant it as a link with the Scriptural quotation, “I come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” I hoped to set the standard of the School as the fulfillment of the law, meaning the natural order process. But each one must fulfill the natural order according to his unique individualizing process within the cosmic process as a whole. The individual, using the cosmic process as a paradigm, fulfills in himself the prototype or archetypal pattern. That is the destiny we all share.

If the individual is an epitomization of the whole cosmic process, there cannot be any other destiny than the fulfillment of the law. Destiny is fixed, pre-ordained, not by any arbitrary creating power as a dictator, but by the nature of the cosmic process, by reason of its structure-function-order. And it is the nature of the process to love its destiny.

There are two ways of approaching the point of loving one’s destiny. We can take Paul’s attitude, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” (Acts 9:5) Each of us has discovered that there is a hard way to learn. When we rebel and kick like oxen against the goads, we learn that our own opinions do not mean a thing on a cosmic scale. We reluctantly learn to surrender. In the presence of an overwhelming power, we learn to surrender.

Or we can approach this point willingly and with grace. Love is characterized by utter forgetfulness of oneself. Love is real surrender, not surrender based on unhappy experiences. One who holds anything back does not love. When one is in the guna force of that which we call love, he cannot think of himself. Surrender involves the great doctrine of renunciation and that is the second rung of the ladder. I introduced our logo and motto in order to show you the natural order lead-in to renunciation

I am always chary, cautious, of treating this doctrine of renunciation. My caution comes from much painful experience. If one gives up any ‘thing’ or ‘object’ or person, if one gives up cherished beliefs, opinions, attitudes, etc. intending to accomplish

something else, the effort is in vain. Premature or arbitrary renunciation just does not work. It is far better for the person to hug his personal possessions to himself until experience has finished teaching him a lesson. Pride in ideas, attitudes and beliefs should be clung to as if your life depended on it. The time will come when you will not be able to hold on to anything as a personal possession. Hard experience will demand that you let go. But letting go in a spirit of ambition or of personal attachment to the ideal of renunciation is a vain effort.

To learn the proper practice of renunciation is one of the finest achievements. No one can adequately use ‘things’ or ‘objects’ or even opinions until he has first renounced them utterly. After renunciation is complete, then one goes back to ‘things,’ ‘objects,’ mental development, etc. and uses them with no attachment.

The process of learning to renounce is begun as we take the second step on the ladder of development. But we do not give up all at once. It is a progressive change in how we identify with things, objects, etc. As we take the first few steps on the ladder, it is difficult to accept identity with the Chrestos, the Ida-pingala force, which we are learning to lift. We make this step of renunciation very gradually, in stages. We begin at step two, but the process of renunciation is not really complete until much higher on the ladder.

Let each one love his own destiny. How do we learn to love? When one is attached to ‘things,’ ideas, beliefs, etc., that attachment is based on a sense of separation, a state of consciousness in which it is taken for granted that one is separate from his group, his family, his race, etc. Fundamentally, this state of consciousness is based on a profound sense of separation from the great World Mother. When one lives in that state, one lives in the idea of personal possessions, attitudes, etc. The attitude of possession is the representation of the state of separateness.

When the power of love enters our consciousness, then the basis of all action is surrender. When a woman truly loves a man she does not hold back in any way. The same is true when a man loves a woman. It is not just a fancy phrase in a ceremony; they truly live the words, “With all my worldly goods I thee endow.”

Motherhood is the finest example of surrender. I think men can attain to this same level on occasion, but it seems as if they never live in utter forgetfulness of themselves as a mother can. A woman surrenders everything, even to the bones of her body and the teeth out of her mouth. Do not idealize this surrender. It is actual. When it is done consciously and gladly, then it is love.

If that surrender is forced upon an individual, he or she will rebel. There can even be rebellion in a woman if motherhood is forced upon her. One must wait until the force of love for wisdom has been sufficiently awakened before beginning to practice renunciation. I have always been careful about preaching a doctrine of renunciation because of my own personal experience. I practiced asceticism, renunciation of the world, possessions, etc. in a way which was spiritually ambitious. My renunciation was premature. The swing of the pendulum goes too far to the other extreme when the force of personal possession has been repressed.

I’m of the opinion that what is called the predatory-wealthy class of individuals is made up of those who practiced renunciation in former incarnations. When they surrendered the world and practiced renunciation prematurely, they were unconsciously reaching for higher status and personal power. Through fanaticism they

achieved great power in the spiritual realm but they retained their pride of personal ownership. When repressed force is released it goes to the other extreme, and they became merciless pirates. That, in turn, caused rebellion and a dislocation of the natural-order, cooperative effort in well-regulated society.

I have witnessed this in myself and others. It has made me chary of talking about renunciation on the chance that someone might start practicing it prematurely, arbitrarily, or with some concept of higher attainment or spiritual pride. Leave it alone until the sense of separateness is completely gone. Wait until the force of love is real and undeniable. Wait until your love for bliss and wisdom, for peace is greater than any other force. Then comes the natural order surrender. We are not really surrendering anything at that point. We a giving up a ‘lesser’ for a ‘greater’ state. We are giving up an illusion of separateness, a release from personal possession, which emerges naturally. We are surrendering the ignorance for the reality.

We are on the second rung of the ladder. We begin to let go at this stage. First we learn to let go of our objective sense of separateness, the illusion that our bodies are separate and apart. Then we learn to let go of our physical possessions, our egotistically held opinions, our most cherished beliefs. When we have mastered the first stages of surrender, we are given temporary custody of money, land and resources, only to have them taken away. Our sense of surrender is deepened and expanded.

Next we learn to use the ‘things’ and ‘objects’ which we have surrendered. When you have made the grade, so to speak, of surrendering and have developed a deep love for reality, then you have real freedom. You are no longer enslaved by your possessions. Only after renunciation do you feel the freedom. You realize that even the possessions which are legally ascribed to you as personal property are really not yours at all. You are the custodian. You realize that possessions are to be used temporarily within the manifold of values which the race psyche has developed. You realize how easy it is to abide by the laws of the land simply because you function way beyond that sense of separate ownership. At that point you have reached your freedom and you are able to handle possessions effortlessly and without attachment.

One who has reached that state where renunciation is natural is likely to be misunderstood. He will work as hard as anyone in objective identification to gain possession of a piece of land, a sum of money, etc. But he can just as easily lay it down with no reaction, no sense of tragedy when it is gone. He is free of the illusion of separate ownership and he is cheerful in his surrender when his days as custodian are over.

Just remember to differentiate between frequency registered and ‘thing.’ Recall how deep the aristotelian sense of objective identification goes. Do not get confused by identifying the ‘object’ with the frequency registered. By the nature of what we call the cosmic process, there is only one destiny. To love that emerging destiny is to surrender, to renounce.

“Let each one. . .” That phrase contains the germ of true democracy. You give every other one the right that you reserve for yourself. There are two sides to democracy. You defend each person’s right to pursue his destiny because he loves it, and you also have the courage of the eagle to prevent anyone else from restricting you. You give liberty and freedom to all others, but if others do not give it to you, you

have the eagle’s courage to preserve your right. So, love your destiny and at the same time grant everyone else the freedom to pursue his destiny, even though he may be doing it the hard way. He may have something to learn.

That is what we mean by renunciation. Learn to let go. But do not begin unless love motivates the letting go. Love your own destiny. You are destined to fulfill the law, the prototype. By your nature you will create your destiny according to the law.

LESSON 3 REDIRECTION

So far we have described two steps on the ladder: first, recognition of the Power

and, second, breaking with or renunciation of objective identification. The third rung on the ladder can be described succinctly: take the Power out of the generative center.

The lack of conscious abstracting concerning this power has caused more tragedy and confusion in the world of human actions than any other subject of which I have any knowledge. In the Occident, this confusion has taken one form; in the Orient, another.

We could go back to the earliest era of the Christian cults when so many men fled from association with women. They went to the deserts of North Africa, out of Alexandria and what is now called Cairo. They left civilization to set up communities in the desert. (Have you read the novel Thais by Anatole France or heard the opera based on it by Massenet?) Those communities practiced grotesque mortifications of the flesh. They denied the force of generation and lacerated the flesh. Their consciousness was identified on the objective level. They could not differentiate the word from that which the word symbolized. The identity of word with process caused all the trouble. They denied the process along with the word. They tried to flee from the flesh.

That was a tragic period in history, but the effects of that confusion are still with us. Gradually that attempt to flee from ‘generation’ was modified to what we call the Victorian Age. During that period we tacitly ignored that women were bipeds. We put ankle-length skirts on them; thus, they had no legs! The tragic effects have been amply documented in recent history—hypocrisy, guilt, insanity. And now we swing in the other direction—another tragic period of waste and devastation. All this is based on the inability to differentiate a dynamic process from a word. When will the riddle be resolved in the race consciousness?

Let us proceed with care. The third rung is a representation of the decision to live no longer in the forces of generation. To say this publicly produces confusion even today. We need to train our students in conscious abstracting when we put forth such a concept. We need drill work with our structural differential to ensure clarity of thought and action on this point. We are not denying generation. We are not advocating compensatory and substituted forms of expression. Neither, on the other hand, are we advocating the indulgence of all forms of sexual gymnastics, which sometimes poses as psychotherapy. It would require volumes to adequately describe all that is implied in those statements, but they stand as an incentive to someone who will come later to fill in the details. Substituted and compensatory forms of expression result from attempts to deny the generative forces. This statement comprehends much of what we today call psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

Let us pause now to see how our first three steps all tie together. The recognition of the power comes first. This step demands a certain amount of conscious abstracting. For some it is very difficult to accept the fact that the dynamic, creative force of generation is the key to the whole thing. Then to begin functioning according

to our intellectual understanding is another aspect. But everything else is futile until that force is recognized and accepted.

Then, the next step is renunciation of the objective manifold of values. Here again we must apply conscious abstracting. In order to break our attachments, we need to practice using the tools of semantics. Many of our values are bound up in words, words identified with things, or words identified with processes and events. But no man or woman will renounce the objective manifold until he or she can take the force out of generation. I want you to see that all attachment is bound up with the creative force expressed in generation. The third step—withdrawing the creative force from generation—follows from the other two. In many ways the three steps cannot be separated.

Sometimes we hear, “I don’t express it. I never express creative force in generation.” Well, we know there is a substitution. As long as one is on this planet there is a substitution. If one does not practice sex in a physical relationship, then he is compensating in some other form of expression. It may be sublimated, or a second-hand form of expression, but there is either actual expression or compensatory substitution on the emotional or mental levels.

Do you understand the structure and function of an individual in generation? One with clear vision looks upon religions, almost without exception, as a substituted form of orgies and orgasm. Sometimes it is easy to see when the thrill and ecstasy take the form of trembling and paroxysms of shaking. The Shakers and Holy Rollers and all sorts of sawdust-eating thrills are derived from this tendency as well as the more decorous and refined modes of religious enjoyment. We look upon the whole spectrum of religious activities as living in generation in a substituted or compensatory way—all due to some sort of denial.

Suppose we were raised differently. Suppose all our forefathers and their forefathers all the way back to tribal times were raised differently. Suppose we were raised to look upon each ovum, egg, as embodying the whole Mother principle and to look upon each sperm as embodying the whole potential of the Father principle in the universe. Suppose we were taught to look upon the uniting of ovum with sperm as exemplifying the eternal natural order of the whole cosmos. Eventually, we would understand the enjoyment we have in flowers as the enjoyment of the genitals. We think of our enjoyment in terms of color or shape or symmetry, but actually we are moved by union of positive and negative in the form of the genitalia of the flowers. That deeper response does not come from artificial structure or form. We are censored from that direct enjoyment.

It took years of work in dream analysis to begin to break that censorship, but as a race we have not yet come into a full understanding. Still, suppose we had been brought up to be frank and naive in the enjoyment of the genitals until we were totally innocent in our enjoyment. What history could have been written!

Think of those hair-shirt days and the debasing of humanity. What should have been natural was denied and repressed. The real point was lost. The recognition (the first step on the ladder) was denied. And what was lost is the only thing that can carry us onward and upward into the natural order process of development! (How I wish I could make these words sing!)

In every attempt to go up the ladder in some other way you become a “thief and a robber.” It simply cannot be done in another way. Each must go back to the symbol of the serpent on the staff being raised in the wilderness. Each must go back to the first step on the ladder because there is no other way. And I believe that, because there is only one way, the time will come when that force in generation will register in the consciousness of mankind as a veritable apotheosis. When that time comes there will be no destruction, but real safety, etherealized wholesomeness, etherealized stability.

Go to the second rung. No one can renounce attachments respecting the objective manifold—things and objects—until he is willing and ready to lift his own forces out of generation. His renunciation goes hand in hand with recognition of the forces by which he is motivated. The first recognition involves the generative level. And renunciation includes lifting the force out of generation because attachment is based upon the expression of force in generation. Do you see the tie-in? All three steps are related. This doctrine of non-attachment cannot be experienced, entered into, practiced, etc. until the force in generation has been directed toward regeneration. As the forces are directed to regeneration, then, and only then, can non-identity, non-involvement with thing and object in the objective manifold be really experienced. Reflect and think until you see that man works for things and objects as long as all forces are centered in expression in generation.

Together the first three steps carry the individual out of that level that we call generation. Recognition, renunciation and redirection—they are all tied together. And together they constitute the steps that take the force out of that motivating powerhouse—generation.

If we choose to take these steps, we must pull all of the vagabond force of our ensembles into and through the generative center. If that is not our conscious intent as we take the journey, we are liable to fall into other paths. For generations we have been trying to sneak up some other way, but it cannot be done. We have to pull all the vagabond forces that have gone into all sorts of substituted forms and compensatory outlets to the front. It must all be awakened and focused. It must be brought through the generative center. That is the first part of the process, if we choose to take these steps.

Remember that we do not encourage anyone to take these steps. If you like to talk about the journey, make beautiful maps and decorate them, that is perfectly all right. But, if you want to take the journey, you must pull out all the lost, vagabond forces. It requires a hunter and a tracker to ferret out all the compensatory outlets because the force has been hidden for a long, long time. You must dig it out and bring it to the light of day. Each, for himself, must get it all out from under cover. Draw it in, and draw it up. Only then are we finished with the third rung of the ladder. What are we doing on the ladder?

We are directing creative, dynamic power out of generation. We are clear and open about it. We do not condemn generation; we direct the force out of it. As those three steps are resolved and finished, the next three open up, each one bringing us closer to the hole in the ceiling. What joy and peace and freedom to be out of Egyptian bondage!

LESSON 4 DESIRE

As we describe the functional steps leading toward self-development, our focus is

on the means whereby the forces by which we are motivated can be contacted and redirected. We are not giving exhaustive description of the forms of expression connected with force at different levels, as important as that may be. It is not relevant to our present description.

Do not take this description personally. We are describing a hypothetical person who, at this point, has taken the third step and has directed his force out of his generative center. Step number four directs the force into the solar plexus, or navel, center.

If there is one localized point in the psycho-physical structure which connects us with the race psyche more than any other, it is the point which we call the solar center, meaning the center in the region of the solar plexus. In this center resides the preponderant force of desire. When the force is localized here and identified with objects of desire, there is an accumulation of tension which eventually seeks outlet again in generation. The totality of force focused in the solar center is represented by the dragon in the Apocalypse—a red-eyed monster.

In the Restored New Testament, by J. M. Pryse, we read, “And Behold! A great fiery red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads seven diadems.” (Chapter XII, 3-6) And, in another place, “I saw rising out of the sea a Beast, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads (seven) names of profanities. The Beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like a bear’s feet, and his mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave him his force and his throne and great authority.” (Chapter XIII, 1-4)

There is an important point here. Many students are overwhelmed when they discover the deep ties which bind them to the race psyche. It is difficult for them to understand (and admit) that functionally they are connected to the race psyche through the force operating in the solar center. The force of that center has been absorbed by a host of invisible existences which each of us carries with us while we are being motivated by that center. The recognition of this fact can be overwhelming, but each of us has gone through it, is going through it or will go through it.

The host of existences which we carry as extra baggage cannot be dignified by the label beings. I think of them as entities in the surrounding psycho-etheric field. There are vast numbers of invisible entities which feed upon the frequencies flowing from the navel center. They draw their sustenance from the forces, or emotions, flowing therefrom. The newly awakened student comes up against these entities along with the affinities he or she holds with the race psyche. This makes a difficult combination of invisible forces for the unpurified psyche to cope with—the accumulation of unconscious tendencies fortified by the solar powers.

In the face of this combination of drag-backs, progress on the path is difficult. What started as a simple exercise of directing the force to the “mouth of God” is suddenly a giant tug-of-war. Those entities have been fed for eons through our unconscious ties with the race psyche. When they kick up their heels there is an accumulation of tension directed toward sexual expression through the genital center. This fourth step is a most difficult period, indeed.

This description may seem exaggerated and over-stated, but I think it is important to point out all the details for those of you who will need to cope with this in the future. Moreover, if you ever attempt to help another one, you will need to know what you are up against. You may not now be particularly interested in teaching another or helping another through, but once you have been through this, you will discover the keenest desire to help others out of it when you find them in it.

Let us consider the factors involved here. Through our study of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, we have built quite a picture of the “content of the unconscious” in the unregenerated, unpurified nature. (Later, the content of the psyche will be characterized by brilliant, reflected light.) First, we mentioned the invisible forces or entities in the surrounding psycho-etheric field. Then, the affinity with the race psyche which acts as a drag back. This combination feeds on the psychic effluvia on the solar level and is fortified by the individual’s own unpurified psyche. All that concentration of force upon a given individual at this point in his or her ongoing represents the difficulty encountered.

The fourth step on the ladder is the method by which a student rises clear and free from this level, the method whereby the forces are lifted out of the solar center. It is futile to advocate using the will, for the next three steps beginning with this fourth step are designed to develop the will. We cannot attack with the will, frontally or immediately; it is not organized into a faculty yet. For every one in this state who wants to get out of it there are ninety-nine hundred and ninety-nine who simply do not want to get out of it. We leave all those others alone. We try to be diplomatic and hide our own light and understanding from them if we must be in contact with them. We just visit with them casually and “let sleeping dogs lie.”

There is so little understanding concerning the force of will. Even for the one who is ready to step out from among them, it is only a word. There is no way, in the state we have described, that the struggling student can “use his will.” This fourth step must be described in terms which can be grasped at that state. The predominant characteristic of that state is desire, so we utilize that term to describe the method.

We can say then that the fourth step represents the desire for Light, the desire for liberation, the desire for understanding, the ardent desire to know God. Focus all the yearning in the solar center on a desire for Light. Desire it ardently and honestly. Desire it more than any other thing or object. That is the fourth step.

Recall the story told in the Orient of the young man who pestered the master for knowledge and wisdom. The master kept brushing him off like a fly. Finally, the young man pleaded, “Master, you must take me and train me. I want wisdom.” The master still told the young man to go away, but he kept coming back. One day the master grabbed him, took him into the river and held his head under water until he nearly drowned. As he let him up, the master asked him what he wanted most while he was under water. “Just air,” the young man answered. The master said to him, “When you

want wisdom the way you just now wanted air, then come back to me.” The one at the fourth step must pant after the Light like a dog chasing a rabbit. Ardent desire is the method of the fourth step.

On this point, Sri Ramakrishna said, “Can you weep for Him with intense longing? Men weep jugfuls of tears for children, wife, money, etc., but who weeps for God? So long as a child is engrossed in play with its toys, the mother engages herself in cooking and other household works. But when the little one finds no more satisfaction in toys, throws them aside and loudly cries for its mother, she can no longer remain in the kitchen. She perhaps drops down the rice pot from the hearth and runs in hot haste to the child and takes it up in her arms. Wherein does the strength of the aspirant lie? He is a child of God and tears are his greatest strength.”

So, we say to students, “What do you want?” When they want this Light, this understanding, this bliss and peace and freedom, then we can help them. At this fourth step our emphasis is on desire. “With all of thy getting, get understanding.” How? By desiring it more than you want anything else.

LESSON 5 FEELING

The fifth rung of the ladder of development we call feeling, and we cultivate the

finer qualities of feeling in a way similar to cultivating the finer desires on the fourth rung. Recall that we are dealing with forces—motivating forces of the psyche. Whether we are describing desires or feelings, we are dealing with forces. When those forces are not channelled, they flow according to the influence of the race psyche. Any motivating force or energy can be characterized by its guna, or quality. So, in this lesson we deal with feelings in order to feel our way into knowing.

Feelings can range from the light, buoyant feelings of happiness and joy to the dark, dreary feelings of melancholia and depression. Between the discouraged, blue feelings and the brightest feelings of exhilaration there is a spectrum containing many different shades of feeling. The Sanskrit words tamasic, rajasic and sattvic are used to describe the three major divisions of that spectrum. Gunas, or qualities, are roughly grouped into three categories: the coarse and lethargic qualities are called tamasic; the brighter, active qualities are called rajasic; and the lightest, most subtle and quiet (but very powerful) qualities are called sattvic.

At step four, we described how we refine our desires by consciously rejecting those qualities called tamasic and electing those we call rajasic. In the same way, we are describing step five in terms of choosing to cultivate feelings which are rajasic. When we channel our feelings and use them for our true development, we begin by cultivating rajasic feelings and slowly we grow into an understanding of sattvic feelings. Eventually we can feel our way into knowing.

For the sake of the record, I suggest reading lessons ten through thirteen, on the Tao, from our book The Natural Order Process: The Basic Teachings of the School of the Natural Order, Volume I. By reading these lessons from our fundamental work, we can see to what extreme feelings can be developed into the ecstatic qualities. We can move ahead gradually into a high appreciation of beauty in the furtherance and function of reality. That is how we describe the Tao. You will get that deep appreciation of the beauty of reality if you read those lessons.

But we do not start with that elevated point of development. We start by feeling our way into the understanding of our respective selves. We go to knowing through feeling, not through thinking. We have said that for years and will continue to reiterate that point. We go to knowing through feeling. The more you think, the less you know. Thinking is the greatest stumbling block to realization. Why? Mentalization, the use of the mental or cortical faculty of the psyche, grows out of the identification of consciousness with images appearing substantive. Since the cortical activities have been developed out of identity with images appearing substantive, they cannot function outside of that level.

You may accumulate information and manufacture a lot of concepts, but that is not a sign of knowing. We must cultivate feeling our way into knowing. When we are at the beginning stages of that process, we use the rajasic qualities and practice channelling rajasic qualities. We are like children experimenting with a new faculty. Start with what you have and gradually add in more and more. Focus on rajasic

feelings. If you cannot or do not focus, your feelings will flow in all directions, or else your attention will revert to the objective level.

Here is the legend concerning the discovery of the written alphabet. The Egyptian God, Theuth, made a great discovery whereby the speech of man

could be recorded and, therefore, preserved. He invented a sign (alphabet) for the various sounds made in speech, which, when combined, could symbolize a spoken word.

When the God took his new invention to the wise man, Thamous of Thebes, and boasted of it’s providing an aid for the memory, an aid for the further knowledge of mankind, Thamous answered that the invention of writing was more likely to make man neglect his memory and would produce forgetfulness of his soul. Thamous felt that man, with a crutch like the alphabet, would rely on the written word instead of keeping his memories alive. The result of the new invention would be sham wisdom instead of true knowledge.

That legend is apropos of what I am trying to get across. Thinking is not the exalted tool which our culture constantly holds up for our admiration. In many cases, thinking will not do. We have learned to depend upon it for nearly everything in our commercialized, materialistic world. The question is, what have we sacrificed as we developed our cortical faculties? Is our cortical development side-tracking us from true development?

The next question is, how do we regain a healthy openness to our feelings? How can feeling be cultivated? It is very easy when dealing with children because their feelings are fresh and active at that stage in the process of development. But after cortical functions have been brought forth and made active, and creative force has been diverted into those activities, how can one go back and cultivate feeling? It is quite difficult.

One must begin with his or her own forces and the effects thereof. Although I do not think that this can be adequately described and that an accurate description of the process of feeling must remain on the non-verbal level, I do think it can be intimated in various ways. We can imagine how another feels and try to put ourselves in his frame of reference. Our mothers often helped us to develop this ability when they would ask us, as children, “How would you feel if somebody did that to you?”

Often children must be reprimanded until they learn to empathize with animals. If you have no ability to transfer your feelings to animals you come in close contact with, you might very likely be cruel. But as children most of us were taught how to feel with the animal. After some coaching, we developed an awakening feeling for all animals. Turn your attention upon yourself. Try to feel what is happening within yourself. If that exercise seems difficult (and it seems to be nearly impossible for some students), put your finger on your pulse. Feel the force and strength, the rhythm of the pulsating blood. Cultivate that feeling of force. Then expand into other areas of your feelings until you can sense the force of your own feelings.

Suppose that a new student really cannot get the feel for the pulse beat but only imagines that he feels it. Imagination is a powerful teaching instrument. Let him psychologize himself. At least there is a shadow of force awakened. Once that force is fully awakened, you never need to guess or psychologize yourself. It is so powerful

and dynamic there is no room for guessing. Cultivate and use the creative imagination until, through feeling, you become acquainted with yourself. If you do not start with yourself and focus on the self, your forces will run out into objective identification and other outlets not under your control. Practice feeling where you are. Feel the activity of forces or the neural effects thereof, etc.

Later on in the process I have found it very desirable to read fine poetry, where the cortex is not necessarily involved. You can only “get it” through feeling. I recommend the Song Celestial by Sir Edwin Arnold or Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. As an example of feeling instead of thinking one’s way into understanding, I read the Song of the Sannyasin (in the back of our booklet The Veil of Maya). Poetry like that stimulates feelings of power and glory, force and beauty within us. So, as a fifth step on the ladder of development, cultivate feeling.

INTERLUDE

I am of the opinion that the times will come when education will be designed to further the individualizing process—the curricula of our schools will be patterned after the natural order process.

I use the word education to stand for and represent the process of invocation. To educate is to invoke, to lead out (of darkness), to awaken memory. If you can awaken memory, you have education. And I think this description of the steps on the ladder of development could be very useful in awakening memory both in the child and in the adult.

We should surround the growing child with that force, that frequency, that atmosphere (and suggestive words during training) which will awaken memory, for the individual that we call our child has had many, many ‘lives,’ i.e., has experienced the palingenetic process over and over again. It may be that the child is much ‘older’ than his parents; i.e., what we call child has been through the palingenetic rhythm many more times than his parents. At the close of an old cycle, the older ones come in again to participate in the dawning of the new cycle. So the chances are even greater that the child is older than the parents during a transition period such as this.

The true art of education is to learn to counteract the objective manifold system of what is commonly called education and to design a process to awaken and quicken memory, to bring out latent potentialities. The stilted and mechanistic form of education that we have today does just the opposite. Our aristotelian system inculcates the idea of success, and the yardstick upon which success is measured is relative to the objective manifold of values. Our schools teach our children to gain possessions and money and influence, power and recognition and social standing. It puts much debris over the real educative process. Under the burden of all that, how can we develop, or unfold, into awareness and realization?

These are the qualities and lines of thought which I have in mind when I imagine a school of the future. Whether we are teaching children or adults, we need to counteract the objective and mechanistic overlay of influence relative to the maya. All that must be set aside in order for the individual to emerge. All that must be discarded and eradicated before the individual can become aware of the fundamental and basic factors respecting the structure, function, order in the universe, in organized society, and in each of our respective selves.

You will have noticed in our lessons so far that we are utilizing the guna or the quality of the force. In the process of directing the force, we focus on that quality which is the next most refined, the next highest frequency. For instance, when we took up the subject of desire we showed how the individual begins with the realization that his desires are channeled into the manifold of the race psyche. To move upward on the ladder of development, we suggested cultivating desires of a higher guna. When a child is undirected, his forces will align with the prevailing attitudes and influences in the race psyche. The race psyche, as of now, is built out of, and rests upon, objective identity. The yardstick of achievement is possessions and personal success. As a result, the child’s desires will ordinarily be channeled toward personal possessions. But at the very point a quality is active, that same quality can be utilized. The quality

called desire can be redirected (from attention on possessions) into a desire to know, a desire for wisdom, a desire to advance (in development), to achieve awareness of That which is birthless, deathless and changeless. It is the redirecting of desire into a finer guna that we need to stress in our school. There is no greater work, in my opinion, than to create a little group which may become a paradigm, a prototype of the natural order process.

I am trying to suggest here that each of us carries a responsibility. Some of us feel that responsibility and are working consciously toward a very definite pattern and design. I want to put that pattern and design into the minds and hearts of all our students. I am suggesting that pattern when I describe this school for children. If we could maintain harmony and participative endeavor in establishing a little model school here, with organic gardening and the integration of consciousness with the soil as the Mother, the love of growing plants, the feel of growing things, the feel of life and energy, then we would attract blessings and support for our work from many different levels. If we could establish an educative program patterned after the individualizing process and cooperation therewith, we would begin to truly live up to our name as a school. In order to build something of extraordinary merit, which would attract attention from all quarters of the world, each of us carries a great responsibility, a very great responsibility, to maintain harmony and peace. It is our responsibility to live according to the larger view and wider vision that we are working for in our school.

LESSON 6 HUMAN DETERMINATION

So far in our description of the steps on the ladder of development we have made

no attempt to correlate the steps with the transition of force from the lower levels, the lower chakras (centers) to the conarial center. But functionally speaking, the first three rungs of the ladder deal with the extrication of force from the generative center. The next three steps deal with the extrication of force from the navel (solar) center. In other words, these developmental steps follow the movement of the force through the lowest two centers.

It requires much more effort to extricate the force from and move it through the lower centers than it will to move it through the higher centers. After the generative center is clear (three steps) and the force is extricated from the clutches of the dragon (the solar center) as described in the Apocalypse, progress becomes much more rapid. A much greater effort is demanded during the first six steps, but the force will eventually flow into the heart center (anahata, in the Sanskrit). From that point on success follows success. The challenge is to sustain the effort while the force is still identified with the generative and solar centers.

Following that introductory note, we are ready to describe the sixth step. Like the fourth and fifth steps, the sixth step deals with the quality of the force in the solar center. We must introduce the quality as the function intrinsic to any given level of reality. In other words, in Light’s Regions there are forces intrinsic to various levels. These forces, or qualities, are reflected into the psychic world. The only quality we can work with during the fourth, fifth and sixth steps is the rajasic quality of desire. That is the force manifested on the psychic level when the solar center is opened. We are not trying to get hold of something impossible. We are simply using what is available at a certain state. The only force available at the solar level is that rajasic force of desire, but that force is only a reflection of the function intrinsic to Light’s Regions.

In the fourth step, we used the rajasic quality of desire in order to cultivate a higher quality of desire until it becomes a new way of functioning, until it becomes a habit to desire Light, truth, etc. Now I want to introduce the intrinsic quality on the Mind level which we could not introduce then. On Mind level, that quality is described as “allness.” When we move down to the psychic level we express the same idea in the words, “The I AM is a jealous God; thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Or, It might say, “I want all of you, not just a part. I am a jealous God; I want all or none.”

When you begin to awaken the force in generation and move it through to the solar center, it is like kindling a fire. “When the fire is kindled, who can put it out?” That force is a dynamic ‘something’ which, when started, cannot be stopped until it fulfills itself. On the highest levels we describe this as “allness,” but on the psychic level we experience it as a rajasic desire for Light. That desire is our response to the command, “I want all of you, and I will not stop until the whole dynamic process is fulfilled.” We use the only force available to us to get in line with the forces released from Mind level.

While we are in identity on the psychic level we see only a reflection of the force intrinsic to Mind level. The reflected force can be characterized as ‘human,’ personal desire. (We could not bring in the intrinsic quality of the higher levels too soon in our description because it would not have meant anything.) At this point in the description we still do not stress “allness,” but we do stress the force which is available. We must use something functional to direct the force to the higher centers.

In a similar way, on the fifth step, we stressed the ‘human’ side of feeling. On Mind level, that force might be described as Self-awareness, Self-knowing in the utter quietness of the Self. (We need to go slowly in describing the intrinsic forces which are fundamental to reality. These forces are easily misunderstood.) But watch how that force is reflected into the psychic level. Take as an example a person who has not yet developed the ability to think, but who is rajasically strong in his feelings. While the thinking principle is undeveloped, the passionate, violent feelings can reign. Since we can only use what is available at that level, we direct the force of that rajasic feeling into feeling our way into knowing. This whole process might be described as directive. It is not a matter of how much force, but in what channel that force is directed.

So, for the person with little cortex and great feeling, the problem is to train that force into a feeling of longing for reality. We cultivate the feeling for ‘home,’ the forlorn feeling of being cut off from the thrill, the ecstasy, the joy of it. Remember, there is very little cortex developed in this one, so he probably does not know what “it” (reality) is, but he trains his passions to long for truth, reality, etc.

At this sixth step, we still cannot adequately put into words what we mean by will, atma. The quality of will has meaning only on the level intrinsic to reality (Mind level). However, in the psychic world, the world of reflected forces, we can now talk about a rajasic feeling of strong determination. This is the force in the psyche which can be used in the purification of the psyche. We fortify ourselves with strong desire, passionate feeling, and now we add ‘human’ determination. “By the great horn spoon, I am going to make contact with fundamental reality, or else!” That determination marshals force in the psyche which enables us to carry through.

How is that determination a reflection of the quality called will? The operation of will is described as utter and complete stillness. The effect of will (on the Noetic-mind level) is described as a breath of bliss, peace and joy. It is so ineffable but so dynamic! The reflection of that quality in the psyche can be described as “a rod of iron in the spine.” Use the strength of human determination to set the jaw and brook no interference. If anybody stands in the way of that determination, too bad! Back in the old rajasic days, your teacher used to say, “I am going to do it, regardless!” Those who develop that quality in the psyche make good martyrs. They can be thrown to the lions and they will not flinch. It pays off. Cultivation of that quality truly puts iron in the spine.

When you develop that human determination, you will make a wonderful discovery. The forces which you now think are titanic and overpowering will suddenly appear as weak, negative will-o’-the-wisps. Perhaps you have struggled with the force of generation and the force of love. All you wanted was love and affection, but you were dragged back into generation, culminating in sexual intercourse. You think, “Will I ever get out of this?”

Or perhaps you are confronted with the force released in the solar center. When that force is identified with the sensations, feelings and desires motivated by the solar center you feel helpless in the face of a colossal opponent. Trying to handle that force seems too great a task.

But when you develop that iron in the spine, you find out how quickly they turn from a fight. They immediately begin to slink away with their tails between their legs. Those forces have you hypnotized. When you shout loudly enough, with enough determination, they disappear. It comes as a shock to discover how relatively puny and negative these titanic, colossal forces of nature really are! When that discovery comes, we know human determination, and we are on the way to discovering the quality called will.

Go back to our exercises and do them again, with determination. Get your teeth into it and bring that force up to the hole in the ceiling (the conarial center. Remember?) Bring that force out of the lower chamber. Keep up the effort, sustain the discipline; the force will obey you. When disciplined (and it loves to be disciplined), it is a highly constructive force. When you have no control, it turns destructive in the extreme. Think of it as a spirited team of horses. You cannot slack on the reins for a moment.

This may seem like a powerful statement, but indecision means death to all that is beautiful, noble, desirable and constructive. Do not make the mistake of treating this force in a loose, uncontrolled manner. When undisciplined, it can drag you back into generation until you are exhausted. Your brain will turn to mush. Your esthetic responses will vanish. Even your physiological organism will begin to disintegrate. So, determine to get that force up and through. It takes great effort to move through the solar center, but the struggle is worth the prize. Once the sixth step is taken and human determination is developed, then progress is more rapid and the rewards are indescribable.

LESSON 7 LOVE

There are two factors which should be remembered in considering the seventh

step on the ladder. The first factor is this. Irrespective of the level of functioning of a given individual, his conduct is motivated by forces which are not derived from objectivity. That is, a person’s deportment, his functions, the quality of his values, the character of his reactions, etc. are not derived from his ‘physical’ level nor from his psychic level. A person’s conduct stems from the forces by which he is motivated—forces originating in the individualized, or differentiated, field in the World Mother. In other words, it is the operation of the activities of the World Mother in the differentiated field which can be considered the source of energy by which a given individual is motivated. This is true irrespective of the level on which one functions, the level of functioning being determined by the state of consciousness.

This is analogous to a motion picture projection machine. There is the pure, white light which could be likened to the force or energy; and there is the film which could be likened to the guna-color-quality which determines the ‘manifestation’ or representation.

There is a Power in union with the Mother in each differentiated field and it motivates the activity of that field. That activity is described in terms of wave-lengths and frequencies of energy. All that energy and activity is integrated into the energy system we call the world. If you study physics today you will quickly discover that it is a study of wave-lengths and frequencies. There is almost nothing else to study in the area of physics. They have passed beyond the ‘objective world,’ as such, into the study of the energy world, the atomic and sub-atomic worlds, etc. In the Einsteinian Age, when we say activity, we set up a referent in terms of wave-length and frequency.

But our point now is that no individual originates the force or power by which he is motivated. He does have complete control, consciously or unconsciously, over the image on the film through which that light (power) will shine. That is his province—to awaken from unconscious synchronization with the race psyche. He must separate himself from his unconscious affiliation with the race and complete the individualizing self-awareness already underway within his consciousness. That means controlling the quality which he allows into his world.

He has only created the film, so to speak. He has created his state (image) and the quality (color) of the film, but he does not create the power which shines. He is the creator of his world but not of the Power which manifests that world. When he consciously identifies with that Power, then he is both the Power and the creator of the quality, too. But until that point of conscious identification, he can only control his world.

In our mantra we say, “The I Am which is my True Self is the Power with which I am conscious of my world.” The referent for the phrase True Self can be described as the individualized sphere, the differentiated field in the Undifferentiated Light. By undifferentiated light we mean the World Mother as the negative substance which gives birth. Why does it give birth? As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “By my nature I create, O Arjuna; by my nature I create.” By the Mother principle fields

differentiate, by the Mother principle. All is brought forth by the Mother principle and is sustained by the Mother principle. That is the only wisdom I know.

“The I Am which is my True Self. . .” is a differentiated field of the Mother. The True Self can be understood as the activity of the seven streams of energy (combined and recombined), functioning in the differentiated sphere. My Real Self is the Power with which I create my world. Each of us creates his own world by using the Power. We determine the quality of the image on the film. That quality becomes our world, the representation of our creation. How simple and easy! How elementary! There is nothing else to it.

We have traced the Power with which the individual is motivated from its awakening in the stable and the manger, the animal nature, through the waters of the lower psychic world, to the point where it is resident in the heart center. Now, we have outlined the first factor to keep in mind. The motivating power is sharply differentiated from the quality of the state.

The second factor must be described in terms which are polar opposites. The power does not ‘enter’ from somewhere ‘outside’ the individual. Nothing extraneous can change any individual. The process of development is intrinsic, ‘within’ the structure of the individual as a differentiated field in the World Mother. Therefore, we cannot look to another one, or to anything ‘objective,’ for that power. We can only derive it by invoking it from within, stirring it, awakening it.

There is a great deal to be said respecting the second factor. No one who accepts this idea can tolerate any interference concerning his individualizing process. One can never subscribe to a totalitarian or dictatorial form of government. One who accepts this factor must fight, to the death if necessary, to individualize himself.

If it is my own intrinsic nature that I am going to preserve, then I will recognize no gift. It must emerge from within. I will create my own god, just as I have created my own world. I am a jealous god who will not tolerate any extrinsic force. If I elect, I will create my own hell. But I will not alibi, either. I will accept the consequences of my own actions even if they seem worse than hell. And, finally, when I get fed up I will learn to create my own heaven world. The preservation of that individualizing process is my description of democracy. I want the right to individual myself and awaken my consciousness to my own Being.

We will not lend ourselves to any ideology unless it be an aid to the process of individualization. The moment it departs from that process, we abandon it. We love company on the journey, but if we must go it alone, we will—and be sorry that you can’t come along. But we will maintain our focus and our goal!

Now we are ready to describe the force as it enters anahata. At the ascent of the power to the heart center, we are faced with a reversal of roles, another paradox of the kind we often meet on this journey. When the force was resident in the solar center we enumerated the passions, desires and feelings associated with the quality of the film we projected. Let us group all those qualities under one term—desire. Even though we used the rajasic quality of desire to desire wisdom, Light and understanding, we should have noticed the ego-centralizing force in the background. “I desire wisdom. I desire Light. I desire knowledge.”

With the ascent of force to the heart center, we find a reversal of the quality. The urge by which the individual is now motivated is the urge to give. To that degree he loosens the grasp of that ego-centralizing tendency. We learn to lose ourselves in the giving. That is the paradoxical power of love.

If we use the word love to describe any urge which involves getting and not giving, we are using the wrong term. The term love must be reserved for that force characterized by self-surrender. We must be careful to fully delineate our thought here because of the peculiarities of the English language. In the Greek language, from which our New Testament was derived, there are five words for the various aspects of the force of love. In English, we have to use adjectives to describe the level or particular characteristic we wish to describe. We always remind ourselves that if there is any tendency to get something then we are not correct in using the word love. If there is a hint of a feeling of acquisition or expectation of return—even a secret, unconscious tendency—then we know that the motivating force is desire and not love. Love is a force characterized by forgetfulness in giving. In our giving we never stop to measure what we will get out of it. We learn to lose ourselves in the giving.

Upon careful reading of some of the accounts of war, we find an underlying motivating influence of self-sacrifice. For many soldiers the term patriotism did not mean anything, but they developed a group consciousness with their buddies. Under battle conditions some of them spontaneously threw themselves into a position where they were killed. That action constituted a pure act of sacrifice, total loss of self in the protection of one’s group—not of one’s country—with no stopping to ask what will I get out of it. And on that level it was an act of love.

Eventually that consciousness of self-sacrifice grows until one is motivated by a continuous urge. He then works for the common good even when there is no emergency to call it forth.

You can readily appreciate that we are describing a gradually developing process. We are not going to jump out of the world of desire into the highest level of self-sacrifice in one leap. But eventually we become conditioned to the power of love just as we were once conditioned to the motivation of desire. The force of love passes into the heart and core of our being and we are no longer conscious of it.

We are building up to a point where I can describe how to use the power of love to take a step on the ladder of development. But I have to bring in another factor. While we are living in generation, it is quite difficult, if not impossible, to discriminate functionally between the impersonal, motivating forces and the personalized forms of expression. We accept the point intellectually that the motivating force is different from the forms of expression ordinarily referred to as sex, but the question is, “Can I differentiate sharply on the functional level?” Most likely that differentiation will prove to be impossible except on the mental level.

Let us consider the thoughts, feelings and experiences of a given individual. While under the influence of the force of generation, he expresses himself in the building and release of tension called sexual attraction. Intellectually he may be able to describe that motivating force as an impersonal force of the Mother. “It is not me that is feeling this. It is the activity of the Mother.” My point is that our identification with sex is too strong to allow clear perception of that differentiation. It is only mental.

There comes a point when that differentiation is possible. We begin by creating a mental construct of the force as a pure, white light. We conceive of the state of consciousness as an image on a film through which the light shines. We think of the quality of consciousness as the colors in the film. It is not difficult to build this mental construct, but it is very difficult to make the differentiation on the functional level. We are too identified. When I say we are too identified, I mean that the functions of the individual are bound up with values, reactions, etc. given to the terms sex and biological urge and the forms of expression connected therewith.

If we had a fan connected to an electric motor, we could easily say that the current in the motor is different from the activity of the blades. If we wished to stop the blades we would not put our hand out to grasp them; we would turn off the current in the motor. But when it comes to the generative urge, no such easy differentiation is possible. The force is almost completely blended with the activity and no clear differentiation is possible.

The implications of this idea are momentous. Our culture has shifted from one dangerous extreme to another. In our Victorian past we condemned the expression of the generative power. We are now enduring a period of caricature where the expression is given artificial importance. In condemning the form of the activity, we condemn the power. In other words, we crucified the Christ, the Christos. When I make a statement like that, I am likely to be misunderstood. I am not preaching sex. I am not advocating promiscuous expression. I only preach, I hope teach, understanding.

I’m trying to establish a basis for overcoming the condemnation of the power. I want to impress you with the idea of the power as saviour. If I preached anything, I would preach the apotheosis, the glorification of the power, not the forms of expression. This power will save you if you understand it. Both the condemnation and the caricature of the power is a crucifixion of that which will be the redeemer. The Christ, the Christos Power must be lifted up. It must become the saviour. (See our book The Christos for further delineation of this point.) But the difficulty of separating the Power from the form of expression is too great while we are in generation.

The same difficulty applies to the solar center. When the psyche is motivated by desire, it is nearly impossible to separate the motivating force from the ensemble of thoughts, forms, entities, etc. gathered together in the lower psyche. We may accept the fact intellectually that we are channeling an impersonal force, but functionally we act as if we are acquiring things for our own sake.

When the force reaches the heart center, this difficulty does not obtain. There are many reversals at this point, including the reversal of this great difficulty. An impersonal force motivates all the thoughts, feelings and actions characterized by the term love and this force is somehow much easier to separate from the activities it motivates. At first, when the thought is still identified with the objective manifold, we think that love is a personal force. When we give, we retain the idea of the ego doing the giving, but that is only a passing phase. Also at first, one motivated by love is likely to get pulled back into generation because of identifications with the ‘physical body’ and the values given to it. But that phase wears out quickly when it is love which is motivating us.

Many a man who truly understands the force of love in its impersonal, universal function will function in generation because of the need of another. Likewise, many a

woman will continue to function in generation long after she has contacted the motivating force of love because, out of love, she thinks her husband still has to have this form of expression. At that stage, love will pull a person back into generation because love is still identified with that ego-centralizing tendency. Again, this is only a passing phase.

In the next phase, one begins to concentrate on the force of love as universal and impersonal. The Mother is functioning through the power of love, and the Mother in any differentiated field is impersonal and universal. (We are approaching the point where we can take the seventh step on the ladder.) Love now becomes an impersonal force that is not particularized in respect to any individual man, woman, child, dog, cat or canary bird. One becomes assuaged to the unlimited flow of this force which cannot be harnessed, confined or limited. Love flows! One must accustom oneself to thinking this way because that is how it functions. Love flows—not to any individual but to everything.

Here is the most wonderful step on the ladder! We love wisdom and Light, and when we focus our attention on the force of the Christos, we love the Christ. Then we turn that love into an impersonal force respecting everything. That step constitutes the seventh step on the ladder of development.

There is so little understanding of this force. If I love you, it does not mean that I cannot love anyone else. In loving all, I do not love you the less. It is an impersonal force, a marvelous power that we can learn to channel. At that point the idea of sex has completely disappeared. We learn to differentiate force from the form of expression because we now recognize that it is the force and power of the World Mother. We can experience ourselves as channels for that power of the World Mother and our only reaction is, “Glory be!” The ups and downs of emotionalism, the excitement-depression cycle is over. When that impersonal force is discovered, our only reaction is, “GLORY BE!”

When that force of love is contacted, it simply flows. What are you going to do when that force is organized in your heart center? What will you do if someone asks you to love him or her in an exclusive relationship? How are you going to stop the nature of that love? It simply flows. You have no alternative to jumping overboard and just loving—the air, the trees, the cats, dogs, the sunshine—everything. You will simply say, “All right, Mother, I will just channel your love force, and you become the great lover.”

If you love the wisdom, if you love the love, if you love the Christos, you will discover that the force is unlimited, impersonal and unbounded. It is so great that many teachers have instilled it in their followers as a method of attainment. I am thinking now of the Sufis, the Bhakti Yogis, etc. They have made the love force a path to the heights. We do not advocate that in our school. We consider this the finest step in the process, but just the seventh step. There are important steps following this one.

(Let us imagine that we could bring our children into a world where this power surrounded every aspect of their lives. Imagine that they could be taught the great beauty and power of love from their earliest years. Imagine they could be guided naturally into an acquaintance with that power in themselves. They follow naturally as long as we do not curb their spontaneous, natural honesty.)

Whoever first used the symbol of Venus in Libra to represent the power of love most certainly stood in the clearest perception. What could be more beautiful than Venus, the brightest planet shining in our sky? What better quality to associate with love than the brilliance of the evening or morning star?

What symbol could be better than Libra, the balance? Get the feel of that symbol! When love enters your consciousness, you do not need intellect or cortical development. If you obey love as the balancer you can put anyone into the scales and immediately determine his or her substance. The scales cannot be deceived. Love knows; it has the wisdom to know. You do not need anything but Libra to come to a decision. But we do not remember that.

We forget and weigh everything with the cortex. We use ratiocination and justify what we want, or what someone else wants, and we fall back and get balled up. And all the time we know in our hearts that we will go wrong. We need to develop the courage to use the scales and then follow what we know to be the truth. The weighing power of love cannot be deceived, but we forget and do it the hard way. We follow the cortex and then we pay. We learn the hard way, if we don’t elect the easy way. That is why we have two more steps on our ladder. The force must be taken on through to the head centers.

Our point is this: bring the force up, guide it, direct it to the heart level, and then meditate often on the universal power released in that center. Impersonalize your concept of it. Recognize that power as the Mother loving all her creation through you. Then turn your love towards the Light, the wisdom, the truth about reality. This is the seventh step on the ladder of development.

LESSON 8 CULTIVATION OF THE LOGOS: REORIENTATION

For this lesson, I want the term Logos to represent reason plus speech. Because the term Logos can represent such all-encompassing meaning and

because it can, therefore, open up realms of inquiry into the most absorbing and fascinating avenues of research, I have great difficulty in confining myself just to clarifying the referents for the terms reason and speech.

Many students have become confused when studying various books and teachings about the Logos. Because of this, I have registered far more confusion than clarity from them when I use the word, especially where they’ve had no precise or perceptive understanding for the use of the word. Let us now clarify understanding respecting the meaning which we want the word Logos to represent.

I’ve divided the description into two parts: one, on reason, the other on speech. Then I’ll describe what we mean by the combination of the two words—reason plus speech. Only by clarifying understanding of meaning respecting these two words can we understand what is symbolized by the word Logos and, of course, what we mean by the eighth step on the ladder, the cultivation of the Logos.

At this stage or state in the individualizing process, there are many assumptions which must be taken on faith. Later, these axioms or assumptions will be clarified. But now, so that we may appreciate the validity of using assumptions or axioms, or at least be reconciled to the use of them, I want to quote from a section called Foundations of Mathematics, under the general heading Mathematics in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.

“No proposition of mathematics is considered to be established until it has been proved, that is to say, logically deduced from other propositions previously established. But obviously this process of proof must begin somewhere; we must make some assumptions in order to start at all; and the problem arises, ‘What are the fundamental assumptions or axioms from which all the propositions of the subject can be deduced?’

“With regard, for instance, to Euclidian geometry, this problem has been solved; it is found that all geometrical terms, such as circle or parallelogram, can be defined in terms of a few indefinables, such as ‘point’ and ‘straight line,’ and all the propositions of geometry can be deduced from a relatively small number of axioms about these indefinables, such as that through any two points passes one and only one straight line. When this has been done, we naturally want to discover whether these axioms are true. The answer to this question lies with the physicist. (All of the axioms upon which the Euclidian, Aristotelian and Newtonian mathematics rested were completely superseded when a new set of axioms and assumptions had to be established in the space-time continuum of the Einsteinian discoveries and findings; not that one set of axioms was disproved, they were found to be exceptional cases within the general.) All that the mathematician can say is that if the axioms are true, then all the rest of geometry will be true also.

“It is therefore clear that the mathematician asserts the propositions of geometry, not as absolute truths, but merely as implied by the axioms; and that, regarded as a branch of mathematics, geometry has no essential reference to physical space. (‘Physical space’ is a mental construct based on assumptions. V.) For we can say, not only of physical points and planes but also of any classes of things which we may call points and planes, that if they obey the axioms of geometry, they obey the conclusions also.

“So the mathematician regards geometry as simply tracing the consequences of certain axioms dealing with undefined terms, which are really variables in the ordinary mathematical sense, like x and y. And he demands of his axioms, not that they should be true on some particular physical interpretation of the undefined terms, but merely that they should be consistent with one another. If they were inconsistent this would probably appear from contradictory consequences being deduced from them; but although we had not as yet deduced any contradictory consequences (until Einstein), we could not therefore be sure that the assumptions were compatible with one another; for the latent contradiction might only become manifest after more elaborate deductions. The only way to provide positive proof is to find an interpretation of the undefined terms which will make the axioms true, since, if there are actual things for which they are true, the axioms must certainly be consistent. The things used for this purpose must not be taken from the physical world, or our proof would be subject to all the doubts and reservations of the experimental method. In fact, if the proof of consistency is to be a mathematical one, the entities which our undefined terms are interpreted to mean can only be taken from some other branch of mathematics. In the case of geometry we use the real numbers of algebra and analysis; for, if ‘point’ be taken to mean ordered triad of numbers (x,y,z) and ‘plane’ to mean set of such ordered triads satisfying a linear equation, and so on, it follows from the theory of real numbers that on this interpretation the axioms of geometry will be true, provided the theory of real numbers can be assumed.”

For the sake of our understanding, I wanted to establish this point: if we, in our work, assume or place faith in a few axioms, then we can see from the preceding quote that we are in good company and on ‘solid grounds,’ particularly when the axioms which we now accept on faith will later be established as indestructible reality.

There are certain fundamental factors in the structure, function, order of reality which are called reason or which represent reason and from which derivative ‘facts’ are abstracted. The word reason is used here in a causative sense—that which causes, that which is the fundamental cause for subsequent eventuations, such as, a given configuration or the phenomenal appearance abstracted from a given configuration, etc. These subsequent eventuations rest upon caustive factors as the reason for them. Reason, as thus described, represents a phase of that referent which we symbolize by the word Logos.

This use of the word reason differs from Immanuel Kant’s Pure Reason wherein he described it as the power of synthesizing into unity by means of comprehensively presenting the concepts provided by the intellect. Kant called this synthesizing power pure reason to distinguish it from the action which he called practical reason or ratiocination.

Our use of the word reason also differs from that which is called deductive reason (from the general to the particular, the implicit to the explicit) and inductive reason (from particular facts to the general, from the parts to the whole) as both deductive and inductive reason are based on premises which represent abstractions. Further, the term reason, as used by Plato, is synonymous with the term Nous, the power or faculty which apprehends, which we call intuition.

So our use of the term reason differs from Kant’s and even Plato’s. (This sounds terrible to me because I am figuratively on my knees before Plato all the time in appreciation of his work, and I don’t like to take exception.) But I am using the term differently. (In academic circles a distinction is made between a reason for acknowledging a fact and a reason for the existence of this fact.)

A lengthy dissertation on the various meanings for the word reason would not serve our present purpose. There are many books available containing the theories, epistemological dissertations and concepts about the faculty or power of reason. I have sufficiently indicated most of the concepts which are in general use so I may offset from them and set up a different referent. So far, our referent must rest upon axioms accepted on faith with respect to reason—causative factors for subsequent eventuations.

Before we further describe the way we are using the word reason, I would like to indicate the way we will use the word speech as the other aspect of our referent for the word Logos. Sounds called speech are basically and fundamentally related to or integrated with fundamental causes or reasons. To comprehend this requires research into the psycho-logical bases of the first sounds. This study reveals that the modulations, inflections, timbre, etc. of the first sounds were rooted in basic states of self-awareness. Imagine yourself removed from all cortical, reflexive tendencies respecting this point. Work your consciousness into that primitive, elementalistic state in the growing, expanding, evolving, individualizing process where cortical influence was nil. There you will find the particular timbre, the particular resonant quality representing definite psycho-logical feelings and fundamental impulses. Two illustrations show the effects of how that process grew and developed into the spoken word, or speech, in two different cultures.

First, in the Chinese language there is no “R” sound because there is no war-impulse in the Chinese consciousness and the “R” comes from the growl. You will find in races where the language is more guttural that there is more of the impulse to combativeness and war. So, research in philology, anthropology, ontology, etc. will trace back every sound and find its psycho-logical and fundamental basis.

Second, in the Japanese language there is no “L” sound because there is no love force, no love, no milk of human kindness in the consciousness. When the Chinese try to use a word with “R” in it, they substitute “L,” and when the Japanese try to use a word with “L” in it, they substitute “R.” If we read contemporary history, we find that the Chinese don’t know how to fight, although they may be able to do it on the verbal or psycho-logical levels. So you see, language develops according to the state of consciousness of a given race. Now I can make the following statement.

In the higher levels of the individualizing process there are seven streams of energy comprising what we call the Mother Substance. Each of these streams of force of (not in) the Mother has its own distinctive sound. These seven sounds become

synthesized in the word AUM. As the seven streams synthesize into three (sattvic, rajasic, tamasic), so the three are then synthesized into one—AUM. During the outpouring, the one becomes three which, by their combinations, become the seven gunas or qualities of energy. Blending the seven produces everything there is.

In both the Greek and Hebrew languages there are seven vowels representing the seven fundamental sounds. (We may note that there are only five vowels in the English language.) These vowels represent the resonance, the quality in any given frequency when incorporated into a language. The consonants provide the intervals in the resonance. They give certain shadings, but the vowels represent the resonant, vibrating quality of the fundamental sounds of the great World Mother Substance.

We in objective identity hear through the psychic nature. That is the instrument of hearing in the objective manifold. But in the Pythagorean school, advanced students were trained to hear these sounds on Mind level as well. They could hear the fundamental sounds comprising or representative of the seven streams of energy that we call the Mother Substance. From this came the idea of the “music of the spheres.” Do not infer that the music of the spheres refers to the vibration of the configuration or any other mass as objectively perceived, because then it becomes poetic imagination or a cliche. But once the prototype of the ‘physical’ and psychic senses has been awakened and developed, the reasons for the patterns and configurations will be heard and sounded forth in creative activities and work. So that eventually, reason plus speech, when understood, becomes that which we label Logos.

This all sounds a little recondite, a little difficult as the eighth step on our ladder. But I assure you it isn’t. It is very simple. We are using the activities at this point in the individualizing process just as we used the rajasic qualities of desire or feeling and just as we used the great power of the Mother—love. So, now we are using the force from the heart level in our individualizing process. If the force is not directed through the educative, awakening process we are proposing or encouraging in our school, it will take substituted forms of expression. It will go willy-nilly into over-accentuation of cortical activities. So, now we have to deal on this higher level with this chittakasa; i.e., the force which motivates thinking. We either utilize that force in cultivating the Logos or it will over-accentuate itself in intellectualizing or in substituted and compensatory forms of expression. These over-activities are just as reprehensible and off-beam on this level as personalized love on a lower level or over-accentuated feelings and desires on a yet lower level.

(On this journey of Ulysses in the Argonaut, we have to steer between Scylla and Charybdis to accomplish our pursuit of the Golden Fleece, the Solar Vesture, the body of Light on Mind level.)

Our danger at this point is in allowing the force to flow into the cortex and activate mentalization, intellectualization and over-accentuate the mental process (which I call rat-killing).

How do we avoid that? Just as we did on the so-called lower levels—we channel the force. At this step, we channel it into the cultivation of the Logos. How do we cultivate the Logos? By accepting certain axioms on faith and later having them overwhelmingly substantiated by perception or knowledge of the structure, function, order on Mind level. Thus, we will never run into the disappointment experienced by

those mathematicians who based their work upon Euclidian, Aristotelian or Newtonian assumptions.

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There are three factors common to each rung of the ladder. Factor one. Attention has been focused on the “door” which alone gives

entrance to reality. This is true regardless of whether the steps were taken with conscious effort or as part of the natural order process in the individual consciousness.

It has taken me the better part of forty years with much study, meditation, concentration and perception for me to add those two words which alone to that statement. I will qualify those words to this extent. It is my opinion that irrespective of the path, of the philosophical system, of the religious persuasion, of the times, date, age, etc., and comprehending all possible future teachings, doctrines, religions, etc., the creative, dynamic force must ascend. The structure of the individualized Self determines the pattern, the channels, the function whereby the dynamic, creative force of Self must ascend and find its way through one definite, particular point we are calling the “door.” In other words, irrespective of the doctrines, philosophies and religions pursued, there is only one natural order method whereby force ascends to perception of reality.

I could devote hours to justifying that last statement and how I got on to it. But it was mostly due to the understanding of space and time. There is nothing spatial about the statement even though the word ascends is used. The activity occurs in more-than-three dimensions, and the word ascends, and even the phrase space and time, is a concession to our three-dimensional understanding.

To repeat factor one: for one reason or another, attention has been focused on the door.

Factor two. There is an educative process involved. Remember how I used the word educate—to awaken memory. This gives us a peculiar attitude respecting the whole work—that not by blind faith, not by unreasoning fetish worship, but by a definite bringing-forth, awakening, invoking, educating, we achieve ‘solid,’ dependable results.

Factor three. Self-discipline and self-training. We have learned that the creative force will seek the line of least resistance. So, like electricity, it must be harnessed; it must be channeled. It will not harness nor channel itself. If we ignore it, if we refuse to look at it, it will destroy us. If we acknowledge it, if we look upon it, it will save us. Creative power must inevitably become disciplined. I’ve found in all my studies that if the force isn’t disciplined and trained, it is destructive—ultimate death on all levels.

At no point will the force direct itself, take care of itself and then take care of you. That was true up to the point of differentiation from the animal group soul, but with the advent of objective self-awareness, responsibility came in. We might say that in the natural order, man was placed on his own, at that point. He was honored as a

cooperator, a conscious assistant, a definite helper; and whether he is conscious of it or not, it became his dharma to accept the responsibility which goes with greater understanding and which distinguishes him from the animal. In addition, for him there is the dignity of inviolability as well as nobility. Through nobility the individual becomes a cooperator with the greatest of the great. By being advanced to that status, he earned the right to responsibility. So, therefore, he must give recognition to that dynamic, terrific force, that power, that fire.

You know the story of Prometheus and how mad Zeus was that he gave man—the animal—the divine fire? Think of the labels we give to it: libido, Id, creative force, fire, shakti, etc. Now we must recognize it. This force will go anywhere when it is not channeled. (And to me it is desirable for children to be trained throughout their early lives that they must not let it go willy-nilly.) So, the third factor common to all steps is self-discipline, self-training. If you don’t do it yourself, it isn’t done. You can’t eat the food to energize another’s system. No matter if one died on ten thousand crosses and shed seven million gallons of blood, you still have to channel your forces for yourself. I do not subscribe to blood atonement. I believe that every tub must sit on its own bottom, that everyone must tread the winepress alone and squeeze his own force through the hole in the ceiling. Where undisciplined force doesn’t create imbeciles, it creates rebellion, and both are negative, destructive.

Since objective self-consciousness was born, we have had identity in generation, psycho-logical identity, mind identity with feelings and thoughts and images appearing substantive, etc. Further, we have identified with desires and objects of desire and with the ensemble of values and reactions to values given to the images appearing substantive. We sum up this combination of identifications under the one term identity. The forces engendered by identity have been so tenacious through all the steps on the ladder that they have held on and held on until, with the completion of the eighth step, the final break-away occurs. We call that reorientation or complete orientation to reality.

Consciousness is now automatically focused; you don’t have to sustain effort. It is automatically focused on the structure, function and order of reality, and that carries the dignity and nobility of being an individual point of Light and Power. What a wonderful point this is when, finally, without any conscious effort, the whole evaluation of living, acting, feeling and thinking is based on the orientation to reality. That came about through this eighth step—the culmination of causative reasons for everything else.

In this orientation to reality, it becomes the natural tendency, both conscious and unconscious, to evaluate from the basis of causative factors. One recognizes the blending and reblending of the energy streams, gunas, qualities of energy, as causes, reasons for everything, until it becomes the whole basis from which you think, act, move, live and evaluate.

One at this state is reasonable and balanced and is unaffected by the group hypnotism. He lives alone. We stress this point a great deal: we bring the force to different levels to incorporate the whole man. We develop just enough on each level to fulfill that level and then we synthesize all levels into one. But if Tom, Dick and Harry have been hypnotized and they have illusions and are following their images, the

awakened one won’t recognize that. He doesn’t even see it, as a level. So he remains balanced, on all levels.

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Now here are a few assumptions or axioms that we can accept on faith. Many think that faith is strange, vague and ephemeral and that they must have something more definite to focus on, whereas every act of every day in their lives is an act of faith. (Read our booklet A Treatise on Faith for elaboration of that statement and to see what a dependable substance faith represents.)

“Self alone is real.” “I am That.” “The Power-to-be-conscious is.” (It is, before there can be anything else of which

it is conscious, i.e., in sense of separation.) “The Power-to-be-conscious is that which is conscious and that of which it is

conscious.” (That of which it is conscious is itself so, in this case, one cannot say before. In the absolute sense, the Power-to-be-conscious is that which is conscious and that of which it is conscious; but in the relative sense, the Power-to-be-conscious is before there can be any act of consciousness.)

“The I Am which is my True Self is the Power with which I am conscious of my world.”

“Self is Positive Power and Negative Substance (energy) in One.” (I know that I am using the “is” of identity, and I am doing it deliberately because this is the level of reality. In our studies of semantics, it is the only level where I have found the use of the “is” of identity permissible.)

“Consciousness of my differentiated field in Mother Substance, and complete identity therewith, is called the Son and represents the Second Birth.” (The first birth is to be born into objective self-consciousness; if we want to symbolize it, it can be called the birth of Jesus. The second birth is identity with differentiated Self-awareness in Mother Substance. It is to become identified with the individualizing power, Self, in Mother Substance. If we want to symbolize it, it can be called the birth of Christ. Birth, as used here in both instances, has no reference to the physiological level. It has reference to the activity of consciousness in the natural order process.)

LESSON 9 NON-IDENTITY

Here we are at the ninth step on the ladder. Isn’t it wonderful that we have made

it? I have called it non-identity because I have tried to use labels for these nine steps which would suggest what a given individual can do by conscious effort in order to cooperate with the natural order process in development and reorientation to the Mind level. Therefore, our label for the ninth step suggests what a given individual can do by conscious effort. Yet, I urge you to remember my statement (given in the Introduction) that if steady concentration of attention is maintained upon the conarial center, all of these steps and the intricacies described will be achieved, accomplished, whether one is conscious of the process or not. Remember our analogy of ingesting food. One does not have to know all the intricate steps of the breakdown, the chemicalization, the extraction of energy, etc. of the food in order to gain the energy therein. The process goes on whether we know the details or not. So it is if focus is maintained on the conarial center.

All of those who have gone before us on this path, whom we call the Great Ones and to whom we pay such deference, are agreed that the natural order process can be immeasurably shortcut through the steady concentration of attention upon the force, raising it to the conarial center and through consciously practicing the steps of this ladder as we have been describing them.

It is through cultivation of the Logos that complete non-identity with the psychic activities and the representation of those activities, the ‘physical body,’ is achieved.

I am using the word non-identity simply to mean that we divorce ourselves from using the activities of the psychic nature and the physiological organism as the basis for evaluations and eventuations. This way we can bring about changes through the cultivation of the Logos. Imagine one who has accomplished the cultivation of the Logos to the point where he can function in the forces for and the reasons for every ‘thing,’ including all kinds of psychic- and objective-level activities. He can achieve non-identity through re-evaluation of his old objective manifold of values and through the building of a new manifold of values based upon a different causative level. This is the ninth step.

At this point I offer a little note of comfort: do not think that this can be accomplished immediately. That is merely the impatience of the psychic nature. The wisest thing to do is eliminate as far as possible any time factor for the accomplishment of the process. If possible, just live relaxed and content in the joy of doing and keep the idea of a time factor, particularly of our illusory sidereal time, out

of it. Then one is released and can enjoy, because there is much enjoyment in the doing.

Let us see what eventuates in the consciousness of the individual who is taking the ninth step. What is transpiring within his members in respect to the creative forces with which we have been concerned? Events occur rapidly. Let us give the description in symbolical terms first.

In the New Testament of the Christian Scriptures, we find that John the Baptist symbolizes the ascent of the force through the psychic centers and the channels connecting the centers one with another. And it was said of him, “Of all men born of women none is greater than John the Baptist, but the least in the kingdom is greater than he.” So we use John the Baptist as a symbol to represent the forces which ascend from the center of generation to the pituitary center (ajna). In so doing, the forces complete the lunar (psychic) cycle. This is also symbolized, in the Eleusinian mysteries of the early Greeks, as the ascent of the Chrestos power. The heirophant who officiated at the lesser mysteries, at the lesser rites, the lunar cycle, was called the Chrestos (as opposed to the later state called the Christos). So, Chrestos equates with John the Baptist. This is also called the ascent of the Ida-Pingala currents in the Hindu religion.

The phrases “the moon under the feet,” “the standing on” the lunar cycle, at that point mean that one is, figuratively and symbolically speaking, ‘above’ it and the whole lunar cycle is “under one’s feet.” If there was nothing else to the process, even that would be marvelous—such exhilarating freedom to be in control of those forces and not be controlled by them!

I emphasize this point—freedom to be in control—because I notice that, after all of the training given in the School of the Natural Order, I still find students with “hairshirt” tendencies. If I say freedom, then the student thinks he will be free from it. No!! You want to be free in control of it, whatever it is. You are not trying to get away from or above something or other or trying to get it out of you—that is still “hairshirt,” still crucifying the power. That isn’t the kind of freedom we are after; that would throw you back. We are not trying to get away from this power in the psyche. We want to reach the apotheosis, the glorification of it and its representation, the body. This is a delicate point because, during the purificatory phase of the process, certain tamasic qualities are eliminated from one’s nature and, in a sense, one is free of them. But true freedom is being able to face those same qualities in another and work with that other one without being affected by the qualities.

After completion of the lunar cycle, the power is called the Christos in the Greek mysteries, and Christ in the Bible. Part of the symbolism of John the Baptist is he who goes ahead and prepares the way for a greater One to come after. Also in the Eleusinian mysteries, the Chrestos comes before the Christos.

Now, in the Bible, Christ was described as giving the teaching, after which he was crucified, he rose from the dead and ascended to some ‘place.’ These last three steps are not representative of the natural order process, according to my perception of it. (See our books The Christos and Six Days of the Creating Process.) So, irrespective of how it is given in the Bible, I am going to describe the process as it is experienced after the ascent of the force to the pituitary center. I’ll also give the symbols as they

should be used to represent what transpires in respect to the force in the centers and, therefore, in the consciousness of the individual.

Let us assume a given individual in whom this Chrestos power has ascended to the point where the pituitary center in the forehead (ajna) is energized (symbolized by the last supper—the last “meal” on the psychic level). In actual fact, while the attention has all the time been on the conarial center, where it should be, these processes have been going on, motivated by the force itself. When the force reaches ajna, it divides into three streams. One turns right, one turns left, and one goes up to the conarial center where the attention was focused. The first two streams descend so that part of the force is going down while another part is simultaneously energizing the conarial center—in preparation for the ascent of the speirema (kundalini).

Those who have practiced this work enough to have a conscious referent for this process will have observed that while the force is active in the conarial center, you can feel the force descend and energize the other centers. During the ascent, all of the force possible to each center was not released. There is a deeper stratum of force latent in each center. During the descent, this is released as the force continues on its way to the sacral center.

What happens next is an operation that is repeated endlessly throughout Nature. A bolt of lightning cannot strike a point on the earth unless there has been a magnetic pathway made from the earth to the cloud first. We now know that the magnetism rolls through the earth, like a negatively charged force, and will keep rolling along under the earth’s surface, following a cloud, until there is a favorable pathway for the negative charge to reach up to the positively-charged cloud. Then—bang—the lightning strikes.

In Nature in all respects and on all levels, the negative energy precedes the operation of the positive. With respect to the force in the individualized field, it still obtains. The force is brought up until ajna is highly charged and then, to make the analogy hold, it descends to the sacral center, the equivalent of the positive pole. The negative force descends and makes the pathway for the speirema to ascend. The negative force (Chrestos, John the Baptist or Ida-pingala) has very gradually wormed its way upward to the pituitary center and then descends relatively fast to the sacral center. It is the descent to the sacral center that completes the analogy of the magnetic flow from the negative earth to the positive cloud. The negative goes ahead in all respects; it precedes and prepares the way—“makes straight the way for there is one who comes after…” It is the Mother and the activity of the Mother that is first in evidence—before the Positive Power becomes evident. Still, the Power is ‘behind’ the Mother motivating all her activities. The awakening of the speirema in the sacral center is like the bolt of lightning. When it is released it immediately hits the conarial center. This is the opening of the hole in the ceiling. Now you can go through. The main stream (the Sun-God seated) goes through, branching into twelve streams (the twelve powers before the throne) variously symbolized.

To return to the symbolism: the Christos has been buried in the tomb. The stone is now rolled away; he comes out and ascends. The rolling away of the stone represents the release of the speirema; the term ascension symbolizes that force rising through the conarial center. Between the rolling away of the stone and the ascension, that

which is symbolized by the label resurrection transpires. The coming forth from the tomb, the resurrection and the ascension rapidly follow one another.

The Noetic Mind has always been symbolized from antiquity as Heaven, the New Jerusalem, Nirvana, the abode of God, Mount Olympus, Devachan, etc.

With respect to the symbolism of the last supper, you will recall that two of the disciples were sent ahead to the place where three ways meet. There they were to prepare the supper because “He who has been with them” (“them” representing all twelve powers on the psychic level) is now going to leave them. Judas plays a marvelous part in this drama, because he knows this power, how to leave the psychic level. He is of the greatest assistance in the Master’s leaving the psychic level, which is the reason for the Last Supper where the so-called betrayal is enacted. Judas is far more a hero than a villain in the story. But the others, on the psychic level, are loath to have the Master leave them, and they weep, etc. But it was only the One who could depart, the one who could “put his hand in the sop.” When the greatest of the twelve in the drama does depart from them (the ascension), it leaves them bereft on the psychic level.

Now comes the great results. Through the release of the Christos by the opening of the tomb and the ascension of the power to another, different level from the one upon which it had heretofore functioned, the lunar cycle and all that it represents (the psychic world symbolized by the moon) is complete. That One stands securely above the psychic world. Now comes a reorientation from the Mother to the Father-principle. The negative power, the Chrestos, symbolized by the woman, because of its heretofore negative aspect, is now clothed by the Sun, the symbolical representation of the reorientation to the Positive Power. He becomes the Christos.

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Now we approach something that is always difficult: the attempt to describe Mind-level function. Plato, with all of his writing and teaching, brought the description of the process up to this point, and suddenly he went silent. Patanjali, with all of his marvelous sutras—the greatest ever given—came up to this point and stopped, saying little of the struggle he had with it. When I finished the course of lessons which we call The Natural Order Process, a description of our basic teachings, I brought everything right up to this point in that course. I actually struggled with myself for days whether or not to describe what eventuates after this Second Crossing. I decided then not to do it. Now I am at the same point in these lessons.

How easy it is to describe the steps on the ladder, how familiar it all is—even the symbols. But now we pass over into something else for which we have no language, for which we have no words. Therefore, no referent can be set up. That is my great difficulty. Where there is no referent, how can there be description? In the objective manifold, with feelings, desires, mentalizations, mental constructs, etc., we can utilize description and set up referents. But once we make the Second Crossing into the Noetic-mind world, there is no way a referent can be set up. Hence my hesitancy: inability to set up a referent. This description of the nine steps of the ladder is so obvious to everyone because each one has some referent. But that doesn’t happen

after the Second Crossing. It is just symbolism. It is just a lot of nothing, and, therefore, I am now through speaking.

That is the way perceivers have always done it, because there is nothing there.