Every law that you have on your books today, whether it’s a religious or a secular law, has come about because you’re trying to get somebody else to do something that will make you feel better.

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The Key of Wisdom

I, Thoth, the Atlantean,
give of my wisdom,
give of my knowledge,
give of my power.
Freely I give to the children of men.
Give that they, too, might have wisdom
to shine through the world from the veil of the night.

Wisdom is power and power is wisdom,
one with each other, perfecting the whole.

Be thou not proud, O man, in thy wisdom.
Discourse with the ignorant as well as the wise.
If one comes to thee full of knowledge,
listen and heed, for wisdom is all.

Keep thou not silent when evil is spoken for Truth
like the sunlight shines above all.
He who over-steppeth the Law shall be punished,
for only through Law comes the freedom of men.
Cause thou not fear for fear is a bondage,
a fetter that binds the darkness to men.

Follow thine heart during thy lifetime.
Do thou more than is commanded of thee.
When thou hast gained riches,
follow thou thine heart,
for all these are of no avail if
thine heart be weary.
Diminish thou not the time of
following thine heart.
It is abhorred of the soul.

They that are guided go not astray,
but they that are lost cannot find a straight path.
If thou go among men, make for thyself,
Love, the beginning and end of the heart.

If one cometh unto thee for council,
let him speak freely,
that the thing for which he hath
come to thee may be done.
If he hesitates to open his heart to thee,
it is because thou, the judge, doeth the wrong.

Repeat thou not extravagant speech,
neither listen thou to it,
for it is the utterance of one
not in equilibrium.
Speak thou not of it,
so that he before thee may know wisdom.

Silence is of great profit.
An abundance of speech profiteth nothing.
Exalt not thine heart above the children of men,
lest it be brought lower than the dust.

If thou be great among men,
be honoured for knowledge and gentleness.
If thou seeketh to know the nature of a friend,
ask not his companion,
but pass a time alone with him.
Debate with him,
testing his heart by his words and his bearing.

That which goeth into the store-house must come forth,
and the things that are thine must be shared with a friend.

Knowledge is regarded by the fool as ignorance,
and the things that are profitable are to him hurtful.
He liveth in death.
It is therefore his food.

The wise man lets his heart overflow
but keeps silent his mouth.
O man, list to the voice of wisdom;
list to the voice of light.

Mysteries there are in the Cosmos
that unveiled fill the world with their light.
Let he who would be free from the bonds of darkness
first divine the material from the immaterial,
the fire from the earth;
for know ye that as earth descends to earth,
so also fire ascends unto
fire and becomes one with fire.
He who knows the fire that is within
himself shall ascend unto the eternal fire
and dwell in it eternally.

Fire, the inner fire,
is the most potent of all force,
for it overcomethall things and
penetrates to all things of the Earth.
Man supports himself only on that which resists.
So Earth must resist man else he existeth not.

All eyes do not see with the same vision,
for to one an object appears of
one form and colour
and to a different eye of another.
So also the infinite fire,
changing from colour to colour,
is never the same from day to day.

Thus, speak I, THOTH, of my wisdom,
for a man is a fire burning bright
through the night;
never is quenched in the veil of the darkness,
never is quenched by the veil of the night.

Into men’s hearts, I looked by my wisdom,
found them not free from the bondage of strife.
Free from the toils, thy fire, O my brother,
lest it be buried in the shadow of night!

Hark ye, O man, and list to this wisdom:
where do name and form cease?
Only in consciousness, invisible,
an infinite force of radiance bright.
The forms that ye create by brightening
they vision are truly effects that follow thy cause.

Man is a star bound to a body,
until in the end,
he is freed through his strife.
Only by struggle and toiling thy
utmost shall the star within thee
bloom out in new life.
He who knows the commencement of all things,
free is his star from the realm of night.

Remember, O man, that all which exists
is only another form of that which exists not.
Everything that has being is passing into yet other
being and thou thyself are not an exception.

Consider the Law, for all is Law.
Seek not that which is not of the Law,
for such exists only in the illusions of the senses.
Wisdom cometh to all her children
even as they cometh unto wisdom.

All through the ages,
the light has been hidden.
Awake, O man, and be wise.

Deep in the mysteries of life have I traveled,
seeking and searching for that which is hidden.

List ye, O man, and be wise.
Far ‘neath the earth crust,
in the Halls of Amenti,
mysteries I saw that are hidden from men.

Oft have I journeyed the deep hidden passage,
looked on the Light that is Life among men.
There ‘neath the flowers of Life ever living,
searched I the hearts and the secrets of men.
Found I that man is but living in darkness,
light of the great fire is hidden within.

Before the Lords of hidden Amenti
learned I the wisdom I give unto men.

Masters are they of the great Secret Wisdom,
brought from the future of infinity’s end.
Seven are they, the Lords of Amenti,
overlords they of the Children of Morning,
Suns of the cycles, Masters of Wisdom.

Formed are not they as the children of men?
THREE, FOUR, FIVE AND SIX, SEVEN,
EIGHT, NINE are the titles of the Masters of men.

Far from the future, formless yet forming,
came they as teachers for the children of men.
Live they forever, yet not of the living,
bound not to life and yet free from death.

Rule they forever with infinite wisdom,
bound yet not bound to the dark Halls of Death.
Life they have in them, yet life that is not life,
free from all are the Lords of the ALL.

Forth from them came forth the Logos,
instruments they of the power o’er all.
Vast is their countenance,
yet hidden in smallness,
formed by a forming, known yet unknown.

THREE holds the key of all hidden magic,
creator he of the halls of the Dead;
sending forth power, shrouding with darkness,
binding the souls of the children of men;
sending the darkness, binding the soul force;
director of negative to the children of men.

FOUR is he who looses the power.
Lord, he, of Life to the children of men.
Light is his body, flame is his countenance;
freer of souls to the children of men.

FIVE is the master, the Lord of all magic -
Key to The Word that resounds among men.

SIX is the Lord of Light, the hidden pathway,
path of the souls of the children of men.

SEVEN is he who is Lord of the vastness,
master of Space and the key of the Times.

EIGHT is he who orders the progress;
weighs and balances the journey of men.

NINE is the father, vast he of countenance,
forming and changing from out of the formless.

Meditate on the symbols I give thee.
Keys are they, though hidden from men.

Reach ever upward, O Soul of the morning.
Turn thy thoughts upward to Light and to Life.
Find in the keys of the numbers I bring thee,
light on the pathway from life unto life.

Seek ye with wisdom.
Turn thy thoughts inward.
Close not thy mind to the flower of Light.

Place in thy body a thought-formed picture.
Think of the numbers that lead thee to Life.

Clear is the pathway to he who has wisdom.
Open the door to the Kingdom of Light.

Pour forth thy flame as a Sun of the morning.
Shut out the darkness and live in the day.

Take thee, O man! As part of thy being,
the Seven who are but are not as they seem.
Opened, O man! Have I my wisdom.
Follow the path in the way I have led.

Masters of Wisdom,
SUN of the MORNING LIGHT and LIFE
to the children of men.

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Karma 2: sowing and reaping

Everything: you, your family, your skin color, the way you smile, the way you talk, the greed you feel, the happiness you feel, the city you live in, the friends you have… and this is true of everyone, all of us: everything is a manifestation of karma.

The scale of this is unimaginable, unacceptable to our minds. It’s a little like contemplating infinity: the mind cannot hold it. The mind we have now is finite and very narrow. These concepts can never be fully understood by this intellectual mind, the sensual mind.

So in order for us to try an approach this law in some practical way, in order for us to begin to grasp the depth and magnitude of Karma, we will focus on one aspect of it, the part of it that concerns us the most.

How do we create karma?

What do we do, each day, which creates our future? Because really, everything we do is planting seeds that will grow into something in the future. If we are planting flowers everywhere we go, all the time, then in it’s due season we will be surrounded by a fragrant field of beautiful colors. But we must make the effort to plant those seeds. So how do we live now, and are we doing that?

It is vital for us to be very honest with ourselves, very sincere.

Firstly, we need to understand that the term karma is used in different ways. The Law of Cause and Effect is called the Law of Karma.

The result of harmful action, the consequence of that act that returns to the one who performed it, is called karma.

The result of upright action, the consequence of that act that returns to the one who performed it, is called dharma.

A result is created for ALL action, not just “major” things. You don’t have to murder someone to accumulate karma. Neither do you have to give away a million dollars to accumulate dharma.

Drop by drop, little action by little action, you are planting seeds, you are making little deposits in your cosmic account. It is like a savings account. Many people do not save money because they feel that $5 here and $10 there will never amount to anything. So they save nothing. They spend it all. They think that only if we can make a lot of cash can we save something. But really, wealthy people often became wealthy because they understood that things don’t really work that way. I was once told that the rich are only rich because they do not spend their money. And this made a lot of sense to me. Do you understand? They become wealthy by a process of accumulation, by not spending, and saving a little here, and little there. Nor do they become rich by suddenly inheriting a lot of money: most people become wealthy OVER TIME, slowly, by a process of intention and willpower and hard work. It is exponential, and karma works in a similar way. As you plant a little here and a little there, those seeds can grow into huge trees, provided that the conditions are right. Karma ripens when the conditions are right. So it may be that you have planted good seeds in the past, but if your environment is really negative and your actions are really negative, those seeds cannot sprout.

Desire

We live life thinking that life is an unlimited thing, as if we have 100 years or more to do whatever we want, and that there is no real consequence for anything that we do. So we party, and we do whatever we feel like doing, and we spend every paycheck that we get, and we overeat and drink too much and basically do whatever we must to try to satisfy all of our desires.

We think that this is what life is about: the satisfaction of desire. The pursuit of happiness, as interpreted by modern culture. To get whatever sensations from life I want. This is the “American way.”

Anything pleasant and desirable becomes our focus, our goal, our definition of life, and anything unpleasant should be avoided at all costs, and denied. If we are unhappy at work, we say “Work is not my life, my life begins Friday night.” Somehow, even though we spend 50-60 hours a week at work, we don’t think that is really “our life.” And we desire so much to be away from work, to be off work, to be out with our friends or out doing sports or shopping or playing around doing this or that, whatever it is. “THAT is life. That is what life is all about.” Of course, all the advertising these days supports this: life is a big party, everyone is beautiful and desirable, and it’s all about having as much fun as possible, having as many toys as possible, looking good, feeling good, being young, being hip…

And when anything happens that we don’t want, we say we “don’t deserve it.” When we lose our boyfriend, we say we never loved him anyway. And when our friend turns on us, talking bad about us to everyone, we say they are the bad one, we are innocent. When someone hits our car, we blame them for everything, even if we made a wrong turn. They should have been paying more attention. When we are sick, when we are injured, we complain, we suffer, we want to escape from it, we want to feel good again, and we resist it.

The Pendulum

There is a pendulum in all of this: we are constantly craving pleasant things, and avoiding unpleasant things. We spend our entire life believing that somehow, some way, we must avoid everything that is unpleasant, and we must gather up as much pleasure as possible. “Whoever dies with the most toys wins,” right? But really, in terms of karma, whoever dies with the most toys dies, still dies, and with the largest debts. Death is no escape from karmic payment.

Life for us, for our modern ethic, is defined by DESIRE. Everything we do, we do from desire. We desire to look good, we desire to satisfy our lusts, we desire to fill ourselves with particular foods, we desire to be perceived a certain way, we desire to feel certain sensations. This DESIRE is one of the key components to understanding the truth of our lives.

Remember in the Bible that Adam and Eve were sent out of paradise because they went against the law, they acted out of desire, out of self-will. And their karma was severe. This is an allegory about us. This is how it started for us. In the past, we acted out of desire, and we broke the law. And we were removed from paradise. And of course, today, we still live this way. We have not learned the lesson.

In constantly trying to keep ourselves in pleasure and out of what is painful or unpleasant, we are keeping ourselves in constant struggle, and avoidance, and are constantly acting out of ignorance. Death cannot be avoided. Pain cannot be avoided. Suffering cannot be avoided. This is life. Life contains pleasure, and life contains pain. This is the truth. And yet, we never accept this. We do everything we can to avoid seeing it.

This constant pursuit of illusion, the pursuit of unending pleasure, is ignorance. It is blind. We do it because we do not know another way, but it is a way of blindness and ignorance. Ignorance means to ignore: we are choosing to ignore the facts. We know that death is inevitable, but because it is a great uncertainty, and because we are so full of fear and attachments to life, we cannot deal with it, so we run the other way: toward filling ourselves with pleasure, in order to hide from the facts.

It is evident that if our attitude towards daily life is fundamentally mistaken, if we believe that everything must turn out well, just because it should be so, then we are going to be disappointed…

People want things to turn out well “just because it should be so,” because everything must go according to their plans. However, the crude reality is different. As long as one does not change internally, whether one likes it or not, one will always be a victim of circumstances.
- Samael Aun Weor, Revolutionary Psychology

Ignorance

It manifests from moment to moment. Even now, as you studying this knowledge, do you feel uncomfortable? Do you feel resistance to this teaching? Do you feel resistance about talking about your own death? That resistance is precisely what keeps you in bondage. Do you feel resistance to seeing your own anger, your own lust, your own greed? That resistance is precisely your worst enemy.

This resistance to see the truth of your life, the truth of your mind, the truth of your desires and resistances, the truth of your hatreds and jealousies: this resistance to seeing is your worst enemy.

We all believe we are good people. We believe that we do what is right and good, and that we are good in our hearts. We all have good intentions, right? But karma is the Law of Action: Intentions do not count. Action is what determines the nature of our life.

The road to the Abyss is paved with good intentions. – Samael Aun Weor

What counts in life are our actions. The Law of Karma is the Law of Action and Consequence. Good intentions mean nothing if the results of our actions are disastrous.

We may mean to help but instead do harm. How do we avoid making this mistake? By acting with complete consciousness. This, however, is not easy to do. Yet to act without making the effort is act without complete knowledge of what we are doing: and to act in this way is to invite disaster.

Therfore, it is imperative that we learn to act with complete awareness.

To acheive complete awareness in our actions, we must have complete awareness of ourselves.

We don’t like to hear that we have anger. We don’t like it when someone thinks badly of us, and we don’t accept it and tell ourselves and others that it is the other person who is wrong, they don’t understand us. We do not like it when our ugliness shows itself, and as soon as possible we cover it up, we mask it, hide it.

And when we do questionable things, we certainly don’t want others to know about it, And in our covering up, we may lie so well that we ourselves believe the lie.

We ignore that which we really are. We do not allow ourselves to see who we really are. We blame everyone else. We blame our parents, our teachers, our friends, our spouse: and we take absolutely no responsibility ourselves.

We ignore the facts. We ignore our own psychology. We do not see what is really happening inside of our minds and hearts. And we choose this, because we are always chasing after “the good life” and we cannot stand the taste of the bitter truth. We habitually seek to avoid the unpleasant and seek the pleasant things. So we avoid what is unpleasant about ourselves, and we focus 100% on what we like, what tastes good to us.

This is the habit of our minds. We have a very limited way of perceiving life, and it is entirely based on what is most convenient to our sense of self.

We refuse to see anything that questions our sense of self.

Have you, sometime in your life, ever thought of what you like or dislike the most? Have you reflected on the secret causes of action? Why do you want to have a beautiful house? Why do you desire the latest model car? Why do you want to always be wearing the latest fashion? Why do you covet not being covetous? What is what offended you the most in a given moment? What is it that flattered you the most yesterday? Why do you feel superior to this or that fellow in a specific moment? At what hour did you feel superior to someone? Why do you feel conceited when you relate your triumphs? Couldn’t you keep quiet when they gossiped about a known person? Did you receive the goblet of liquor out of courtesy? Did you accept smoking, although not having the vice, possibly because of the concept of education or out of manliness? Are you sure that you were sincere in that chatter? And when you justify yourself, when you praise yourself, when you boast about your triumphs and do so repeating what you have previously told others, did you comprehend that you were vain? – Samael Aun Weor, Revolutionary Psychology

This ignorance controls us because we are so identified, so habituated, to this way of perceiving life. We perceive life through this filter, this particular pair of psychological glasses, and we don’t realize that really, these glasses that we are so used to wearing, are in fact completely distorted and flawed. They make everything in life skewed and unbalanced, and everything that we see is twisted and wrong.

A person is what his life is… Looking at this matter from a strictly psychological point of view, any day in our life is really a tiny replica of the totality of our life. From this we may infer the following: if a person does not work on himself today, he will never change. When someone claims that he wants to work on himself, and he does not do it today, postponing it until tomorrow, such a claim will be a simple scheme, and nothing more, because within today is the replica of our entire life…. This is very similar to a certain sign that some merchants put in their stores: “Today, no credit, but tomorrow, yes. – Samael Aun Weor, Revolutionary Psychology

Consciousness

In order to change this situation, we need to know what the problems are. We need to know ourselves.

In Gnosis we learn the technique of Self-observation. In this technique we learn to separate ourselves from our thoughts, feelings and sensations, and we learn to observe them, as they happen, without reacting to them. We learn to have a sense of inner separation. On one side we have the experiences of life, whatever is happening outside of us in any given moment, and on the other side we have the reactions of the mind, our feelings, and the sensations of the body. In the middle, observing everything, is pure awareness, pure consciousness.

To know and to observe are different. Many confuse observation of oneself with knowing. We may know that we are sitting on a chair in a living room, but this does not mean that we are observing the chair.

We know that in a given moment we are in a negative state, perhaps thinking about a problem, or perhaps we are worried about this or that, or are in a state of uneasiness or uncertainty, but this does not mean that we are observing it.

The observation of oneself, which is one hundred percent active, is a way to change oneself, whilst knowing, which is passive, is not.

Certainly, knowing is not an act of attention. Attention directed within oneself, towards what is happening in our interior, is something positive, active…  – Samael Aun Weor, Revolutionary Psychology

This must become a way of life for us, a new way of living and perceiving, if we want to seriously begin to live in accordance with the law of karma, and if we want to seriously make changes in our life.

So make a resolution for yourself: make the effort to remain aware of yourself, aware of your feelings, thoughts and impulses, aware of your environment, while you continue to study this course. Do not relent in your effort to consciously direct your attention.

We need to understand that going through life in the way we do, without awareness, daydreaming, reflecting on the past, imagining the future, fantasizing, doing all of this while we are driving and eating a hamburger, we are in fact deeply asleep to the reality of the moment. We are living a fantasy life in our heads, and our real life is passing by, moment by moment. We do not realize it, but we are losing our lives in that.

Life is only lived IN THE MOMENT: anything else is a fantasy, a lie, an illusion.

This is why life seems to go by faster and faster,… when we were young, we were much more interested in life, in what was happening in the moment, and the days were long and full of wonder… but as we gathered experience, and got bored with mundane life, and began to live more in our thoughts and feelings, then we lose interest in the immediate moment, and we began to think about the future, the future, what are you going to do for a living, where do you want to live, and we fantasize and dream and imagine… and suddenly we are out of high school and then we are married and have kids and a mortgage and one day we wake up and say, “What happened to me? How did I get here? I didn’t want to do this!!!”

We fell asleep… Psychologically asleep. Our consciousness was put to sleep.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.  – Proverbs 4.23

Sleep

One Gnostic student and his wife took their two children to the doctor, and the mother went in with the one who needed to be treated. This was a serious situation, and so the father was concerned and really fretting over the potential outcome of this visit. So he wasn’t really paying attention to the other child. And naturally, this child was enjoying the freedom of the moment, and began to really get out of hand. In the waiting room was a woman who become very irritated with the child. And she couldn’t take it anymore, so she told the father in a rather rude and judgmental way that he should control his child. So he did. He grabbed his child and went outside. He was upset by what the woman said. And as he thought about it, he began to pace back and forth. And he began to tense up, and grind his teeth, and his mind began to race, thinking that this lady had no right to be that way, she was really rude and mean, and he should go back in there and correct her behavior, she doesn’t understand that this is a life or death situation… His wife came out and saw her husband, bent over, his shoulders tense, pacing back and forth like a caged tiger, fists clenched, jaw tight and grinding…

What happened to him? Do you see? Now he was saved by the bell in a sense, because when his wife came out he was reminded of his practice and was able to immediately see that he had lost his awareness of himself, and he was following his mind down a habitual road: a road that was only taking him into deeper suffering.

This exercise, this effort to be present, to be in the moment, to observe ourselves, is the effort to become more aware of our own reality, to become more aware of what we are thinking and feeling, and why we are doing the things that we are doing. It is the effort to see what our reality is: not what we think it is, not what we would like it to be, not what we would like others to think it is, but what it REALLY IS.

And this is not easy. We have a lot of resistance to this. We don’t really want to see who we are. We prefer to have a positive self-image, and tell ourselves good things about ourselves… and yet, we can’t seem to change these painful patterns in our life, our relationships are just painful, our job is painful, our anxiety, our fear, these things keep coming up, they won’t leave us alone… or maybe we don’t experience these feelings, but we have so much ambition, and we are driven to perform and perform and perform, and we drive ourselves to exhaustion… for what? For some elusive goal in the future, because even when we accomplish something, it isn’t enough, and we set another and another and there is no end to it all…

So we in Gnosis learn: when these things come up, we learn to observe them, to study them, to understand them. The first benefit of this: when we learn to stop reacting to the thoughts, feelings, and impulses that manifest in us, we stop creating harmful actions which in turn bring us suffering.

Right Action

When we are yelled at, normally we yell back. We say hateful things. But when you can observe yourself, and observe the feelings that come up, the thoughts that come up, you can choose to respond differently. And you can choose not to react. You can choose to be peaceful, to walk away. And maybe, you will understand why the person was yelling at you in the first place. Perhaps they were hurting or suffering, or perhaps you did something you should not have done.

When they yell at you, and you observe yourself, you can see: the body becomes tense, there is pain in the body, the heart hurts, heat in the chest, the mind is stunned, shocked, and then a flood of negative thoughts, cursing, vengeance… and all of that, in the past, would have made you react immediately, cursing… because in the past, out of habit, you would have reacted to all these unpleasant sensations, you would want to avoid all this unpleasantness, make it go away… and in that, in identifying with those sensations, with the specific effects of that situation, the energy of that situation becomes trapped, fixed, it becomes a chain that binds you…

Understand that this is not repression. Self-observation is simply the observation of an internal state and an external event. It is pure awareness, which gives one the ability to choose one’s actions.

Only by having the choice can one perform what is right.

If we behave mechanically, automatically, then who is choosing for us? What in us is making our decisions?

Creating Karma

When we react to situations without consciousness, karma is created. When we go through life the way we normally do, thinking all the time, daydreaming all the time, then we are not fully present in the moment, and we are distracted, and we act from habit, from habits of the mind. And the mind is a mess. The mind, even though we love it and idealize it, is not helping us very much. It is, in fact, making life more complicated.

When you see an object that you desire, and you stare at it, feeling the desire for it, the greed for it, you are giving that desire, that greed, a lot of energy. You are feeding it. This is karma: because you are strengthening your desire for something, you will want it more and more… that desire is not going to go away. It may switch to wanting something else, but as long as you feed and water it, it will grow and grow… And when you get what you want, the desire is not abated: it is even stronger. Because soon, you want something else, and this cycle goes on. You are never satisfied. You cannot be satisfied, because in each situation, you are feeding the desire, and doing what it wants, which makes it stronger. This is karma.

The energy of that desire becomes trapped in our subconsciousness, crystallized. That formation contains trapped energy: energy which, under the right environmental conditions, will manipulate you, will impel you to feed it, to let it act, in the only way it can: the way it was created.

So: if you are in a fight, and you hit someone out of anger, the explosion of that action not only produces pain for the person you have struck, but it reverberates inside your own subconsciousness, and the anger becomes a formation in the mind, and traps energy there. If you have a lot of anger, and you keep reacting out of anger, then you are steadily building up a stronger and stronger storehouse of energy, energy that was formed out of anger and whose critical mass will provoke more and more anger, which, obviously, only feeds it more and more…

So little by little, step by step, you are creating a monster in your own mind.

This is why those who are angry cannot simply stop being angry. Nor can those who are addicted easily drop their addictions: they have created a lot of karma for themselves: karma in the form of energy trapped in the subconscious.

So, an addict, someone who is addicted to alcohol, drinks because of sensations. The drug is used because it creates sensations. And because we want so desperately to escape the realities of life, and merge forever in pleasurable sensations, the addict becomes a slave to those sensations: they do this out of desire for sensation (which is avoidance of what is unpleasant, perhaps painful emotions or circumstances) and out of ignorance, psychological sleep, unconsciousness. The more they feed the habit, the stronger it becomes. The more they sleep, the more they ignore, the deeper the unconsciousness…. and the more dangerous they are, the more depressed, the more chaotic….

This is very sad. It is very painful. But each of us, in our own way, with our own style and flavor, are similar. There are things we are addicted to, so much so, that, like a drug addict, we do not see that there is a problem. We do not recognize that we are addicted to some negative psychological habit, some terribly self-destructive patterns of thinking…

We do not see that we are hurting ourselves in the way we think, the way we encourage certain types of feelings. We do not see it. We are blind to it.

So out of this place of blindness, of suffering, we react. We react to the circumstances of life, and we create more karma for ourselves, deepening our suffering, deepening our problems, and bringing everyone else down with us.

We continue this cycle of self-destruction from lifetime to lifetime. If we never awaken consciousness, then we pass from life to life in an asleep state, always longing, always suffering, tossed about by the chaos of karmic energies that we have set in motion and that we persist in intensifying…

We create karma by all kinds of selfish actions. As we said, the story of Adam and Eve is an allegory for us, about us, and their problems began, all the problems of humanity began, when we acted out of desire for what WE want.

So the first thing we must understand is that we are psychologically asleep. Are you still aware of your body? Have you managed to maintain that awareness completely, without a moment’s distraction? No? Then you can see it for yourself: it is very difficult for us to be conscious of ourselves. We are not very aware. We must come to see this. We must come to recognize that we do not pay attention.

From there, from this place of seeing that we do not see, then it becomes possible to change. Then it becomes possible to see the truth.

Meditation vs. Karma

All the problems in your life, all the suffering you experience, all your pain and difficulty, all your questions and uncertainties and insecurities, all your pride and vanity and fear and arrogance: everything you experience in life is dependent upon your mind. So it is in your interest to begin to observe your mind, to get to know your mind.

When we begin this effort, there are certain things that will help us. Because really, in order to understand the mind, in order to deeply comprehend the nature of our own mind, and thus the nature of our own life, we must first stop agitating the mind so much. We must let it settle.

Hand in hand with Self-observation is Meditation. The true and original purpose of meditation is the awakening of the consciousness. The mind, as it is now, out of control and full of surging thoughts and feelings, is a raging sea of chaos. By the practice of meditation we begin to allow the mind to settle, to calm, to become clear and open, and then insight begins.

By combining these techniques, Self-observation and Meditation, we cultivate the ability to choose our own destiny. Hand in hand these two techniques take us to intuitive, direct knowledge of ourselves. Step by step, by gradual cultivation, the technique of meditation begins to sharpen our concentration and our ability to stand calm in the midst of confusion.

Because we are developing the ability to act consciously, to choose how to respond to situations, to choose how to act. No longer do we act out of habit or custom: we act out of a conscious choice.

Thus, we begin to stop the creation of burdensome karma.

Now, in order for us to be successful in this effort, we need a lot of help. We need to know what creates karma, and how to avoid wrong action. Obviously, what we are seeking to do is to reinvent ourselves, to live by a new whole method, and to begin to turn the ship around. The ship, which is the weight of your karma, may be very slow in turning, if you have a lot of karma. It may take some time. It may take a lot of patience. But it can be turned. Drop by drop. Step by step. Little by little, we can turn this wheel that is in our hands every day: this wheel of action, this wheel of energy, and as we turn it, we can begin to turn the direction of this big ship that we are in. It is possible. But it takes effort, every moment, every minute, every hour, every day.

To keep a guard again and yet again
Upon the state and actions of our minds and bodies-
This alone and only this defines
The sense of mental watchfulness.

All this I must express in action;
What is to be gained by mouthing syllables?
What invalid was ever helped
By mere reading of the doctor’s prescription? -The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life by Shantideva.

Dharma, Ethics & Morality

Dharma is a Sanskrit term, a term that has several meanings. It means Law. It also can be seen as positive karma. When you perform a good action, a genuine sacrifice for someone in need, for example, then you accumulate dharma. This means that you earn the right to be helped.

So Dharma is both the law and the benefits of acting in accordance with the law.
There are, in truth, two Laws:

The First Law: received by those who have reached the Fifth Initiation of Major Mysteries; the direct commands of our own inner divine Father. The First Law is synthesized in the Twenty-two Arcana of the Tarot and the Twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The Second Law: the written law, which is given for all of those who are struggling to reach Initiation. This is from “deutero” which means second. This is the Ten Commandments.

The First Law supercedes the Second Law. This is why certain prophets and great masters were able to kill, to move from one wife to another, and to perform many actions that seem to contradict the Second Law. The Will of God (our own inner Father) is the Law.

For those who have not reached their own inner Father, each religion, each mystical tradition has a set of guidelines, a set of ethical or moral codes. Most people see the Ten Commandments or the Precepts of a monk or nun as a big drag, as limitation on our behavior, or a rigid and strict rules that have no real purpose, and we only invented to keep people under control.

But in fact, these guidelines have a very definite purpose: to help us avoid creating terrible karma for ourselves, and to help us stay in balance with the forces of the universe so that we can reach the First Law.

It’s easy to see, actually: if you kill someone, you send tremendous energies through your own mind, energies of violence, of selfishness, of animalistic passions, of anger, etc. etc. These things not only become lodged in your subconscious, but they agitate the mind, and make it impossible to see anything clearly. Someone who has murdered will be deeply disoriented psychologically.

Likewise, if we drink alcohol, we are sending negative energies into the mind, we are becoming attached to certain sensations, and as a result of the chemicals we begin to act without any sense of judgement or caution. So we drive drunk, we sleep with people randomly, etc.

All of this creates very harmful effects in our mind, and sets up negative circumstances for the future.

So these rules are in fact help to us, because they show us what kinds of things disturb the mind and make it difficult for us to be in balance. And they help to us avoid creating more karma for ourselves.

It must be understood, however, that the ethics of the Path to the Self-realization of the Being have nothing to do with terrestrial ethics. Ethics and moralities are a slave of time; in each culture, morality is based upon subjective reasoning. What is moral in one place is immoral in another. The initiate who strives to free himself of suffering must act in accordance with the morals of the consciousness, which are beyond any terrestrial law. These ethics are taught to everyone who enters into the conscious revision of his own self through meditation and the positive awakening of the consciousness. True upright ethics are determined by the Being, in accordance with the Laws of the Cosmic Christ.

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Karma 1: cause and effect

The Law of Cause and Effect

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. – Galatians 6:7

The true and practical meaning of this word Karma is completely unacknowledged in our modern society, much to our detriment. Karma, in fact, may be the least understood aspect of spirituality in the west. What is most surprising about this is the undeniable importance of Karma in the Christian religion, a teaching most of us are familiar with. But, in fact, the principles that the Law of Karma requires us to live by are completely ignored, in spite of the clarity with which Jesus taught them.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. – Matthew 5

Karma is the universal law in all of creation: the law of cause and effect.

There are three eternal things:

1. Space
2. Karma
3. Nirvana

The universe arises and falls in cycles of birth and death. These are cosmic days and nights; great periods of manifestation and rest. Through out the birth and death of worlds and suns and cosmic systems, KARMA is the Law which equilibirates everything.

Naturally, the Law of Karma is well understood in the East, in Hinduism and Buddhism. In those teachings, the Sanskrit term ‘karma’ is defined as “the law of cause and effect,” or “the law of consequence.” Karma is derived from the root work Karman.

Karman: (Sanskrit) an act.

Obviously, for every action, there is a result. This is well understood in materialistic physics through Newton’s Laws of Motion:

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. – Newton’s Third Law

In Gnosis we understand that the physical world is inferior to many other dimensions or levels of reality. Scientifically, we understand that light has many levels of vibration. With our physical senses we only perceive an extremely narrow band of vibration.

Through the knowledge of Kabbalah we come to understand that the range of light we perceive physically corresponds to the world of Malkuth: the physical world. But above the range of visible light is a huge expanse of light: thise range corresponds to the superior worlds of the Kabbalah, or in other words, the Heavens. Likewise, the range of inferior vibrations, which is also extremely wide, corresponds to the inferior worlds of the Kabbalah, called the Klipoth or the Hell Realms.

To some degree, we can all perceive the results of action in the narrow band of physical action.
We do not perceive the results of action in the expanse of the ultra- and infra- regions.
All the vibrations of light interpentrate without confusion.

At this moment, we are surrounded by light corresponding to every range of vibration.

When you move your hand, you see the physical action and its results. But you do not see your hand moving in the ultraviolet. You do not see your hand moving in the infrared. It is possible to perceive these realms if we have the means. However, we do not refer to physical technologies, which are merely an extension of the physical senses: we refer to psychological technologies, which traditionally are called meditation, clairvoyance, and dream yoga.

All action has results throughout the range of worlds. The movement of your hand produces results that you cannot perceive with the physical senses.

Karma, cause and effect, is universal and all-penetrating.

The true meaning of the Law of Karma is devasting to the mind. The true activity of this law, the reality of this law, is something that the mind cannot contain. Because the law of karma is real, it is the very fabric of this entire existence around you and within you. In a way, you yourself ARE karma, and everything you think, feel and do is karma.

You may think you can grasp this. You may think, “Yes, I understand that karma is the law of cause and effect and that if I do something bad then something bad will happen to me.”

Yes, that is true. If you hurt someone, then you will be hurt. It is the function of the law to balance all action. The law of karma is the law of the scale.

This law is present in everything. For everything we do there is a reaction, a response. And perhaps some of us DO get this, and we try to behave well.

But the true depth of this law, the profound reach of this law, is something that none of us truly understand. Because if we did, we would not live the way we do.

What would happen if we really understood that everything we think creates karma?

Every thought!

Every single, solitary thought that enters your mind, that processes in your mind…

This is to say nothing of our feelings, our intentions, our fantasies, and our actions! Thought alone can create karma. That means that our thinking is creating something. Our out-of-control mind, that runs and thinks and considers and imagines without control and without awareness is generating a constant stream of energy, an energy that will inevitably have some effect.

In us, by far the majority of our thinking is self-concerned. Most if not all thoughts are about us and what we want. Most if not all thoughts are coming from selfish desire, from concern about MYSELF, ME, WHAT I WANT. And we cannot control it. We cannot stop thinking. Those of us who try to meditate face this tremendous reality everytime we sit. Thoughts are happening on many levels of the mind, both subtle and gross, and they are manifesting without a conscious choice on our part.

This is a wellspring of suffering for us. Because we are ignorant of the effect of this way of living, we persist in deepening our suffering.

This is not a matter of opinion. This is not a matter of what one doctrine says or what another teacher says. This is a matter of life and death, of pain and suffering. The full understanding of this law is vital no matter what tradition you believe in, no matter what you want to do with your life, because whatever you do you are subject to the law of karma and if you remain ignorant of this law, you will create nothing but problems for yourself and others.

Many of us may think that this Law only applies to things like stealing or murder. But really, it applies to everything in life. Remember the words of the Master Jesus, when he said:

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgement.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, “You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire. - Matthew 5:21

Jesus is giving us a tremendous clue in this wisdom, that we should understand the law with our conscience, and know that we can kill with a word, with a glance, with our will. We can kill without a knife or a gun. And he tells us that even these actions, that seem so normal, so acceptable, are cause for judgement and punishment. He is saying what he said over and over: that we will reap only what we sow in life. As we do, so shall we receive.

And if we continue day after day nursing resentments against our spouse, our co-workers, and continue feeding our anger toward our father and mother, and continue generating anger toward people on the street, in the grocery store, on the freeway, what do you think you are sowing in the field of your life? What seeds are you planting there? And what do you expect that those seeds will grow?

It’s obvious, isn’t it? If we plant the seeds of anger, then happiness will not grow there. It’s impossible. Yet we expect this. If we plant the seeds of greed, then contentment will not grow there. It cannot happen that way! If you want to grow green beans you cannot plant a thorn bush, and yet this is exactly what we do, everyday.

Once we deeply comprehend this fact, we can see that we are responsible for the state of our life, we are responsible for the well being of others, we are responsible for everything that we experience in life. But for us, who do not comprehend, we blame others, we blame everyone else, and we never recognize that the primary person who is at fault for our problems is OURSELVES.

Whatever affliction may visit you is for what your own hands have earned.
- Qur’an 42.30

We all say, “If I had a better job” or a better husband or a better car or, “if I get this new computer or this new book or if I can make a little more money or move to a different city, then and only then will I finally be contented and happy and then I will start to do good for others. I’ll do some charity once I have everything I need.”

We all say, “my boss is making me miserable, my sister is making me angry, my wife is making me anxious, my friend is making me jealous,… and if they change, then things will be better for me. If my husband changes, then I can be a cheerful person. But as long as he keeps being the way he is, then I can’t do it.”

Whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind can do one far greater harm. – The Buddha Shakyamuni, from the Dhammapada, 42

We are hurting ourselves. It is not my bosses fault that I am miserable at work. It is my reaction to it that creates my suffering. And really, it is karma: if someone is making me suffer, it is my responsibility to see how I have made others suffer in the same way.

Confucius said:

In vain have I looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself.

We must begin to examine our lives, and our minds, in order to see why we are in the situation we are in. And what are we doing in response to it all?

Our habits of thinking, habits of feeling, and habits of action are all self-centered. None of us have selfless habits. And really, this is a tremendous clue to us, a way for us to determine when and where we are acting in an out of balance way: we must begin to recognize when we are acting out of self-will. That is, seeking to satisfy our selves, our sense of “me,” our attachments, our desires, our wishes, our rules, our requirements, our demands, our dreams, our passions. When we are concerned only with feeding ourselves, or our own interests, WHO ARE WE STEALING FROM TO DO IT? Who are we hurting in order to serve ourselves? What imbalances are we creating? Observe the state of the world, the imbalances from culture to culture, and observe this in our city, in our families… It is quite evident that the state of our world is a result of this habitual fascination with “me, myself and I”…

Suffering begins the moment we act from self-will. Remember the story of Adam and Eve: mankind was cast out of perfection when we acted from desire, and went against the Law. Thus, we began to pay for our actions. Previous to that, we were in balance with the Law, with Creation.

It is urgent for us all to recognize our responsibility for our life. Everything in our lives is ultimately our responsibility, whether we like it or not. And the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can change things. It is only by recognizing that we create our own lives that we can begin to create a better one.

Dreaming does not work. Mind control, positive thinking, etc are nothing when compared to someone who knows how to act in accordance with the Law.

I have heard and realized that bondage and salvation are both within yourself.
- Acarangasutra 5.36

The law of karma is in activity in your life every day. Every moment. And in every moment, in every action, in every thought, in every feeling, we are creating something.

If you push against an object, it will fall over. Likewise, if I scream in anger at you it will have an undeniable effect on you. Even if I feel anger toward you, you will sense it. And even if I think angry thoughts about you, it will affect you. But the most profound thing is that each of these stages, from intention, to feeling, to action, affects me far more powerfully than you. It is as if my anger was a handleless sword, and in trying to cut you, I am cutting off my own arm.

This is so because everything we feel, think and do is energy.

Consider this: it is known in western science now that everything we see is an illusion, because everything is made of energy. Mass is not really solid, nor is it lasting. All mass becomes energy and all energy becomes mass. This is something that was understood long before western scientists “discovered” it, of course, but even now it is something that none of us can really grasp.

At bottom is this fact: everything in the universe is energy. Energy is manifest as vibration, and is characterized by constant transformation and change. Nothing is still or stagnant: everything is moving, and changing.

We ourselves are undergoing constant transformation, though we are ignorant of it. Our bodies change dramatically every day, but we do not have the capacity to observe it.

Our bodies, our minds, our feelings, our thoughts, our dreams, our desires, our intentions, our wishes, everything is energy. A thought is energy. A feeling of love is an energy.

Wherever we are at this moment, there is a tremendous exchange of energy happening moment to moment. There are powerful atomic processes happening all the time, but we do not have the capacity to observe it.

As someone speaks to you they are sending energy to you. As you receive it there is a transformation that occurs in your psyche, in your mind, and hopefully, if you are present and aware and not day dreaming, there is a transformation in your consciousness.

Likewise, as you think and feel there are energies that are being processed: all of this exchange of energy is a process of creation and destruction.

In transformation, there is birth and there is death.

When you think, something is created.

When you feel, something is created.

So karma then, does not concern mere physical action. It concerns the entirety of life, from the first moment to the last. Every moment is a moment in which something is created. And in every moment, something is destroyed.

This is not just a theory or an idea. This is not a dogma or a belief. This is a LAW. IT IS. Ignorance does not excuse you from the law. Neither does opposition to the law. You may not believe the government is just in its laws, and you may oppose the laws, but if you break them, then you will pay for that. You can park in a fire lane, but you will pay for it. Likewise, you can break the Law of Karma, you can do whatever you wish, but you will pay for it. And payment is not pleasant.

So it is better to be fully educated with regard to the Law of Karma.

The Law of Karma is the Law of the Balance. The Law of Karma seeks to keep everything in the universe in balance. That is all. It is not a law of punishment or vengence. Nor is it merciless. In fact, as you will see later in the course, it is deeply compassionate.

And most importantly, the Law is not “out to get you.” Law without mercy is tyranny, and God is not cruel and unjust. Just as your actions have created effects, then you can act further, in a different way, to create different effects, and cancel your debts. You can work with the Law, to be in accordance with the Law, and be in harmony.

The Lion of the Law is combated with the scale.

If you wish to untie a knot, you must first understand how it was tied.  – Buddhism. Surangama Sutra.

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