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Consciousness
Consciousness
“Wherever there is life, there exists the consciousness. Consciousness is inherent to life as humidity is inherent to water.” - Samael Aun Weor, Fundamental Notions of Endocrinology and Criminology
From various dictionaries: 1. The state of being conscious; knowledge of one’s own existence, condition, sensations, mental operations, acts, etc. 2. Immediate knowledge or perception of the presence of any object, state, or sensation. 3. An alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation.
The true purpose of religion, mysticism, and spirituality is to aid in the awakening and expanding of our consciousness. In Universal Gnosticism, the range of potential consciousness is allegorized in the ladder of Jacob, upon which the angels ascend and descend. Thus there are higher and lower levels of consciousness, from the level of demons at the bottom, to highly realized angels in the heights.
“It is vital to understand and develop the conviction that consciousness has the potential to increase to an infinite degree.” - The 14th Dalai Lama
Books about Consciousness
- Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
- Fundamental Notions of Endocrinology and Criminology
- The Great Rebellion
- The Perfect Matrimony: The Door to Enter into Initiation
- The Revolution of the Dialectic
- Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology
Articles about Consciousness
The Awakening of Consciousness
It is very difficult for a man who returns home after having traversed the entire city to remember in detail all of his thoughts, ideas, incidents, things, etc. Upon trying to recall, he will discover huge gaps in his memory, which correspond precisely to the most profound states of sleep. To be conscious of oneself is something very difficult, but one can attain that state by learning to live alert and vigilant from moment to moment. - Samael Aun Weor It is necessary to know that humanity lives with its consciousness asleep. People work asleep. People walk through the streets asleep. People live and die asleep. When we come to the conclusion that the entire world lives asleep, then we comprehend the necessity of awakening. We need the awakening of the consciousness. We want the awakening of the consciousness. Fascination The profound sleep in which humanity lives is caused by fascination. People are fascinated by everything in...
01: Aries
This is a transcription of the audio lecture Astrology 01: Aries, which you can download for free. Welcome. I am happy to invite you and welcome you to the beginning of our course on Gnostic Astrology. To begin, it is always helpful to understand the context of our studies. As you know, we will be discussing the science of Gnosis, and as many of you know, this term gnosis is Greek and refers to knowledge. It is the root of many words that we use in common, everyday language, such as diagnosis. The term gnosis does not refer to a simple intellectual form of knowledge or any kind of cultural or traditionally inherited knowledge, but instead it refers to a...
A Talk on the Mysteries of Life and Death
We will begin our lecture, and I hope everybody will pay the maximum of attention. Tonight, I am going to speak about the mysteries of life and death. That is the clear intention of this lecture. We will make a clear differentiation between the Law of the Eternal Return of everything, the Law of Transmigration of Souls, and the Law of Reincarnation. The time has come to analyze all of this, in order for Gnostic students to be well informed. It is obvious that the first thing that we need to know in life is, what is the reason of our existence? Why we do exist? What for? Obviously, if we want to know something about our destiny and about life itself, it is indispensable to know what we are. This is urgent and undeferable. The Physical and Vital Bodies The physical body by itself is not all there is to us. A body is made up of organs, and each organ is made up of cells; each cell is composed of molecules, and each molecule of atoms. If we divide any a...
Awaken
Oh, wretched intellectual humanoids! Wake up from your dreadful dream of Ajnana (ignorance)! Open your eyes and attain the complete and absolute knowledge of Atman (the Being)! Crown yourselves with the blessed laurel of poetry. It is important that from the golden amphora of wisdom we pour the sweet wine… In the name of Iod-Heve, the Father who is in secret, and the Divine Mother Kundalini, you and I, beloved reader, must talk… Ah! If you could comprehend what it is to be awakened… Listen to me, I tell you, about the Dhammapada, the sacred work of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama… “For the awakened one, forbearing patience is the highest austerity. Nirvana is supreme,” says the Buddha. He, verily, is not an anchorite who harms another. Nor is he an ascetic who oppresses others. The awakened ones who are intent on meditation, who delight in the peace of renunciation, such mindful perfect Buddhas even the gods hold (most)...
Clairvoyance
There exists clairvoyance and pseudo-clairvoyance. The Gnostic student must make a clear differentiation between these two forms of extrasensory perception. Clairvoyance is based on objectivity. However, pseudo-clairvoyance is based on subjectivity. Understand that by objectivity we mean spiritual reality, the spiritual world. Understand that by subjectivity we mean the physical world, the world of illusion, that which has no reality. An intermediate region also exists; this is the Astral World, which can be objective or subjective according to the degree of spiritual development of each person. Pseudo-clairvoyance is catalogued with imaginary perception, fantasy, artificially evoked hallucinations, absurd dreams, Astral visions that do not coincide with concrete facts, the reading of one’s own projected unconscious thoughts in the Astral Light, the unconscious creation of Astral visions which are interpreted later as authentic realities etc., etc. In like m...
Consciousness
People confuse consciousness with intelligence or with intellect, thus, they qualify a very intelligent or intellectual person as a very cognizant person. Undoubtedly—and without fear of deceiving ourselves—we affirm that within a human being the consciousness is a very particular means of apprehending internal knowledge and is completely independent of any mental activity. The faculty of consciousness facilitates the knowledge of ourselves. The consciousness grants us the integral knowledge of what is, where it is, what is really known, and what is certainly ignored. Revolutionary psychology teaches that only the individual by himself can know his own self. Yes, only we ourselves can know if we are or are not cognizant at any given moment; only by oneself can one know about one’s own consciousness, and whether it was active or not at any given moment.
Gemini
When someone accepts that he is asleep, it is a clear sign that he is already beginning to awaken. - Samael Aun Weor Identification and fascination lead to the sleep of the consciousness. For example, you are walking quite calmly down the street, you suddenly encounter a public demonstration; the masses vociferate, they talk about the leaders of the people, the flags wave through the air, people seem to be crazy, everybody speaks, everybody yells. That public demonstration is very interesting; because of it you have already forgotten everything you had to do, you become identified with the masses, the speaker’s words convince you. The public demonstration is so interesting that you already forgot yourself; you become so identified with that street demonstration, that you can no longer think of anything else, you are fascinated, you now fall into the sleep of consciousness; mixed with the shouting masses, you also shout a...
Happiness
People work daily; they struggle to survive. Somehow they want to exist. However, they are not happy. The word happiness is like 'Greek' to people, as we say around here. However, worst of all is that they know this. But amid so much bitterness, it seems they do not lose the hope of achieving happiness one day without knowing how or in what way. Wretched people! They suffer so much! However, they want to live and are afraid of dying... If people understood something about revolutionary psychology, possibly they would even think differently; but the fact is that they do not know anything. What they want is to survive in the midst of their misfortune, and that is all. There are pleasant and enjoyable moments, but this not happiness. People confuse pleasure with happiness. Parties, bar hopping, drinking sprees and orgies are brutish pleasures, but they are not happiness...
Heaven, Hell and Liberation
This is a transcription of the audio lecture Heaven, Hell and Liberation, which you can download for free. Heaven, hell and liberation are three fundamental terms that are used often in most every religion. In Gnosis, we use these words differently then you might have encountered in the past. When we begin to study Gnosis, we carry with us the assumptions and definitions that we acquired previously. When we begin to study Gnosis and try to comprehend what Gnosis is, we have to go through a process of conceptual revision. This is related with the third state of consciousness, and is a process through which we review, revise, or renew the concepts in our psyche. Without this essential review, our understanding of the path can remain...
Imagination and Fantasy
It is necessary to make a distinction between voluntarily directed imagination and mechanical imagination. Unquestionably, directed imagination is conscious imagination; for the wise, to imagine is to see. Conscious imagination is the clear means through which the firmament is reflected, the mysteries of life and death, and of the Being. Mechanical imagination is different: it is formed by the debris of the memory; it is fantasy. It is worthwhile to investigate it profoundly. Obviously, people with their fantasy, with their mechanical imagination, do not see themselves such as they are, but according to their forms of fantasy. There exist many forms of fantasy. Unquestionably, one of them consists precisely in not seeing oneself as one really is. There are very few who have the courage to see themselves such as they are, and with the crudest realism. I am absolutely sure that those here present have never seen themselves such as they are: mechanical imagination makes...
Inner Self-remembering
It may seen incredible, but when the student observes himself, he does not remember himself. Aspirants, without a doubt, do not feel themselves; they are not conscious of themselves. Improbable as it may seem, when the Gnostic aspirant observes his way of laughing, speaking, walking, etc., he forgets himself. This is incredible, but true. It is essential, however, to try to remember ourselves while observing ourselves. This is fundamental if we wish to awaken our consciousness. To observe and to know ourselves, without forgetting ourselves, is terribly difficult, but is urgent if we wish to awaken our consciousness. What we are saying seems foolish. People ignore the fact that they are asleep and that they don't remember themselves even when they are looking at their whole body in a mirror, not even while observing themselves in minute detail. This forgetting of self, this lack of self-remembering, is really the causa causorum of all human ignorance. When a person arrives at a deep...
Intelligence
In the Gnostic tradition, we rely on the study of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge in order to understand the laws that govern nature and that govern our psyche. In order to comprehend the nature of these two trees, or the function that they represent, it is necessary to first understand what is intelligence. Intelligence is a unique characteristic, a unique functionalism, which, unfortunately, in these times, has been sadly misunderstood and confused. The clue to understand the nature of intelligence is displayed in the Tree of Life (Kabbalah). The Tree of Life is a map or a symbol that consists of ten spheres. The top three spheres form a triangle, which represents the force that is called the Logos. Logos means “Word.” The third sphere of the Logos is called Binah, which, in Hebrew, means...
Introduction to Awareness
For the lecture today I want to read from a scripture and make a few small comments about the text. Normally when we give a lecture in Gnosis, we pick a particular topic and explain that topic or discuss it at some length, but given the context of this retreat there is a particular text that is very powerful and I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce it to you. It is a scripture that you will be able to study throughout your life because it is so profound. However, being an ordinary person my own insight into it will be very limited. The text comes from Tibetan Buddhism-or at least the version that I am going to read to you-but its actual age is unknown. It is very ancient. The text is most known as one of the scriptures in what Westerners call "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" but that is not the actual name of the scripture; it is much older than that particular title (which was given to it by the first to translate it into English). I will explain the actual title...
Key of Sol
Unquestionably, the most important thing in life is the realization of the inner Being. Once, I interrogated my Divine Mother Kundalini, as follows: “How is it that the path that leads to the resurrection is extremely long?” She answered me, “It is not that the path is too long; rather, the work with the philosophical stone is very hard: it must be worked, chiseled. It is necessary to give the brute stone a perfectly cubic shape.” Our motto is Thelema, meaning “willpower.” We must begin by awakening the consciousness. Obviously, all human beings are asleep, and in order to see the path it is necessary to be awakened; thus, what is essential is to awaken here and now. Unfortunately, people sleep; it seems incredible, but this is how it is. We wander in the streets with the consciousness asleep; we are in our house, in our job, in the body shop, in the office, etc., with the consciousness profoundly asleep. We drive our car and we go to the factory with the consciousness...
Knowledge and Being
In the world as we know it, most of us have lived in accordance with the idea that we improve our lives, we become happier, by accumulating things: money, knowledge, power, or various types of experiences. And usually we seek knowledge first: making money takes a certain type of knowledge, or to travel or to become a famous musician. So in one way or another we believe that knowledge is the key to success in life. We believe that those whom we admire or envy "know something" that we need to learn. Bill Gates must know a lot more than us, and that must be why he is who he is. We believe that once we know a certain thing then we will be able to do something that will make us happier than we are now. For example, if we learn to speak Spanish or to use a computer than everything will change for us. Or if we go to school to learn a new career, then that emptiness we feel inside will finally be gone. Really, we could expand this term knowledge to include experience of all kind: we all...
Meditation
Intellectual information is not a living experience. Erudition is not experimentation. Essays, tests, demonstrations, that are exclusively tridimensional, are not unitotal, nor integral. A faculty superior to the mind has to exist that must be independent from the intellect, capable of granting us knowledge and direct experience of any phenomenon. Opinions, concepts, theories, hypotheses, do not signify verification, experimentation, and complete consciousness of this or that phenomena. Only when we liberate ourselves from the mind can we have the living experience of the Truth, of that which is the Reality, or of that which is found behind any phenomenon in a potential state. Mind exists in everything. The seven cosmos, the world, the moons, the suns, are nothing but crystallized and condensed mental substances. The mind is also matter, although more rarefied. Mental substances exist in the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms. The unique...
Method of Gnostic Dharma
The methodology of the Gnostic Dharma is based in practical science. To understand what the Gnostic Dharma is we have to understand the meaning of the words. Dharma is from Sanskrit and carries many meanings. It can be interpreted as law or truth. The word Dharma can be used to describe the way something works in its fundamental basis. Dharma is an essential truth, the essential nature of how phenomena occurs. This is the root meaning that we are most interested in. It is the use of the word Dharma in relationship with truth, or how reality actually comes to be, is sustained, and is understood. Of course, we also use the word Dharma to talk about the nature of the teachings. So you will often hear about "the Dharma" in reference to any teaching that is grounded in the practical use of the consciousness. That leads us to arrive at our own personal experience, our own direct conscious knowledge of the way reality truly is. And this is where we arrive to this word...
Right Mindfulness
This is a transcription of the audio lecture Right Mindfulness, which you can download for free. Mindfulness is taught in every great religion, for mindfulness is the very basis of spiritual understanding. Without mindfulness, there can be no "religion" - re-union with the divine. Mindfulness is the activity of our very essence. When we understand what mindfulness is, then we understand what it is we are trying to awaken. What is right mindfulness? Here a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent ... He abides contemplating consciousness as consciousness, ardent ... He abides contemplating mental objects as mental objects, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief...
Suffering and Right View
This is a transcription of the audio lecture Suffering and Right View, which you can download for free. Many students struggle when they begin to study the Gnostic teachings, because the scope of this wisdom is vast and very deep. This is because the presentation of Gnosis, such as is given in the series of lectures that we have been delivering to you, always comes from the point of view of the Absolute. So when we give a lecture here, we begin by discussing the Absolute or that profound Unknowable. We see that symbolized in the Tree of Life, at the very top of...
The Consciousness
This is a transcription of the audio lecture The Consciousness, which you can download for free. Gnostic psychology is a precise form of science combined with philosophy and mysticism. This is what makes it complete and effective. The term Gnosis is related to direct knowledge of the consciousness, rather than theory or belief. The word psychology relates to the psyche, which is the soul in Greek. Ology or Logos is Greek for “the Word,” or in other words God, the creative impulse. In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with Theos, and the Logos was Theos. - John 1 In studying Gnostic psychology, we are trying to understand the direct experience (Gnosis) of our own soul (Psyche) in relation to that...
