The
Gnostic Path is hard and difficult to follow. It is also known as the
Path of the Razor's Edge, narrow and very difficult to stay on - too
little effort you fall, too much, and you also fall. It is also
painful! To get rid of one's own imperfections, to build one's own
Philosopher's Stone - it is hard, it is difficult, it hurts.
If we work hard, and take the pain, and surmount the difficulties, we may reach the end of the Path. There are many ways of describing what awaits us there: we receive a transcendental type of knowledge, the Gnosis; we totally awaken our consciousness, we become Total men or women, we build the Philosopher's Stone, etc.
We should also remember that the merit is often found not only in the final destination, but in the actual fact of following the Path. We may take many years to reach the end of the Path, but during those years we shall improve much - if we just keep on moving along the Gnostic Path.
What is the Gnosis, the Knowledge? It is a type of transcendental, superior knowledge, answering the quest of man concerning matters such as creation, destiny, fall and redemption, first and last things, Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Those are the questions that can be answered once we have the Gnosis.
The word "Gnosis" implies, in the ancient Greek language, a type of direct, personal and active knowledge. A theme to which we shall return - it is better to know from direct experience than to believe what others tell you.
Gnosis implies a coherent, clear and precise series of fundamental elements, verifiable by means of direct experience.
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato showed us that, in order to be able to receive the Gnosis, we must develop new senses - our intellect or normal senses are not good enough for this work. The reception must be done by means of an awakened consciousness, as we shall see below. Let us remember Plato's allegory. As we can see in the figure, he asks us to imagine a race of men who are chained in a cave, in such a way that they can only look into the shadows appearing on the cave wall. Behind them there is a low ramp, and behind that is a fire. Objects move back and forth on the ramp, and the fire casts the shadows of these objects on the cave wall. The prisoners think that these shadows are the only reality. They - the prisoners - do not realize that they have three-dimensional bodies.
Suppose that one of these prisoners manages to liberate himself or herself from this state of subjugation, maybe by breaking a chain. This person would realize that the world is three-dimensional, that reality is vastly different from what was experienced before - this person would have developed a new sense, a new capability of perception.
In the same way, we must realize that our present perception, effected mostly by the mind and the senses, is sadly lacking in completeness - to receive the Gnosis we must develop new modes of perception, we must become Awakened.
How do we achieve all these objectives? By the Inner Path - we dive into our inner consciousness, and with the proper training we can come out as it were in another world - that of the Inner Worlds, where the Higher Beings reside from whom we can get the Gnosis and the means to awaken consciousness. Let us remember - we are a microcosm, and everything is inside us, and by means of meditative practices the whole of the Universe is at our reach.
In order to achieve all this, the searcher for knowledge and enlightenment must change. No higher Beings are going to teach the Gnosis to people in the control of his or her imperfections - what we call the "egos". No revelations or awakening of consciousness will take place to people not improving what they have - not trying to build the Philosopher's Stone!
We say that us searchers must work on ourselves. And this work constitutes the basis for the definition of the Gnostic Path, as we shall see below.
We can summarize the work in the Three Factors of the Revolution of Consciousness:
1. Death. We must kill our imperfections, our egos. By meditative techniques we can manage to invoke strong subconscious forces to help us in this task. It is necessary to learn how to have your Consciousness in charge - by applying the "first conscious shock", and then entering into self-remembrance.
2. Birth. We must build our Philosopher's Stone, achieve the Gnosis, become totally awakened. This is also achieved by meditative techniques.
3. Sacrifice for Humanity. The application of the techniques indicated above are hard and painful. We do this work -follow the Gnostic Path - as a sacrifice for the betterment of humanity.
We can at last describe the Gnostic Path.
Having made a transcendental synthesis of much long and hard work, we would say: First the Essence has to be liberated so that the light may shine inside us; then it has to be fused with ATMAN (the Being), to liberate ourselves from the mind; afterwards it has to be given to the ANCIENT MAN OF THE DAYS (the Father that is in Secret, the Monad), to become perfect and resurrected Masters. Finally the Essence has to be definitely absorbed in ISHVARA, the LOGOS, first emanation of the supreme PARABRAHAMAN (the great Ocean of the Universal Spirit of Life).
Samael Aun Weor, “The Mystery of the Golden Blossom”, Ch. 4
We have here a perfect description of the Gnostic Path. We start by trying to get rid of our imperfections, our egos, and then we try to build the Philosopher's Stone; mastership is achieved when the Intimate, Inner Being, Atman, is unified, conjoined with the Consciousness, the Conscious Will. This new entity may get together with the Divine; wholeness is then achieved, another name for Total Awakening, and for having built the Stone.
This last process of Conjunction - based on the teachings of C.G. Jung - will be achieved by means of a process known as active imagination, a special kind of meditation. The conjunction is achieved by a confrontation in the astral, mental or causal plane, that is, it is a process associated with raised consciousness of the adept. First we aim at the conjunction of Consciousness with the Higher Being, the Atman, and the new individual thus formed aims at the conjunction with the Divine, in several steps. We repeat, once we have achieved this final step, we say that we have built the Philosopher's Stone.
We are going to try to answer in the next three sections a few questions that always arise when presenting this material. The first is related to the raising of the Kundalini, the second to our teachers, the third to our general approach.
The raising of the Kundalini
We have mentioned several times, that we undertake the work leading to conjunction and wholeness by means of meditative techniques, usually associated with the technique known as Active Imagination. This represents overwhelmingly the choice of most of our present members. There are other means, usually associated with the equivalent process of raising the Kundalini, explained in detail in the course on Meditation. It is interesting to quote Swami Sivananda, in "Kundalini Yoga" (Divine Life Society, 1994:
"Kundalini can be awakened by Pranayama, Asanas and Mudras by Hatha Yogis; by concentration and training of the mind by Raja Yogis; by devotion and perfect self-surrender by Bhaktas; by analytical will by the Jnanis; by Mantras by the Tantrikas; and by the grace of the Guru (Guru Kripa) through touch, sight or mere Sankalpa. Rousing of Kundalini and its union with Siva at the Sahashrara Chakra effect the state of Samadhi and Mukti. No Samadhi is possible without awakening the Kundalini.
For a selected few, any one of the above methods is quite sufficient to awaken the Kundalini. Many will have to combine different methods. This is according to the growth and position of the Sadhakas in the spiritual path. The Guru will find out the real position of the Sadhaka and will prescribe a proper method that will successfully awaken the Kundalini in a short period. This is something like the doctor prescribing a proper medicine to a patient to cure a particular disease. One kind of medicine will not cure the .diseases of different patients. So also, one kind of Sadhana may not suit all."
Our Teachers
In matters concerning general esoteric work, as well as magic (such as elemental magic) we follow the teachings of the Mexican sage, Samael Aun Weor; many of our practices originate in his teaching. In matters of conjunction and of building the Philosopher's Stone, we follow the teachings of C. G. Jung. In many matters we follow the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. In matters Cabbalistic, we follow the teachings of Dion Fortune, representing a British tradition going back to the Golden Dawn. In many matters, in particular Esoteric Christianity, we follow the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. In matters concerning ritual and mysticism, we follow the teachings of the German Rosicrucian, Arnold Krumm-Heller. Of course we have many influences, in particular from Hindu and Buddhist esotericism, as well as Sufi and others. There is a strong influence from Amerindian esoteric traditions through the teachings of Samael.
Of course, we are constantly helped in our work by those great Spiritual Beings, the Masters of the White Lodge.
Finally, we are going to go over once again a very important topic. Everyone is a star - we have an inner core, our Inner Being, Atman, the Jungian Self, who guides us in our spiritual trajectory, our quest for the Philosopher's Stone, our struggle to achieve Awakening... We strongly feel, therefore, that what we do at the Centre is merely to facilitate this process, to give the students the tools and abilities to be able to hear and follow their own message from the Being.
Every student that comes to us receives a copy of the quotations below. In particular, the reference to Rudolf Steiner by Rudi Lissau encompasses exactly what we wish our attitude and policies to be. Everyone follows the message from Atman, from the Being - not from us, not from our teachers - but from his or her inner spiritual core.
"GNOSIS
IS LIVED IN FACTS AND PRACTICES, IT WITHERS IN ABSTRACTIONS, AND IS
DIFFICULT TO FIND EVEN IN THE MOST NOBLE THOUGHTS.”
SAMAEL
AUN WEOR
“All theories are gray, and is only green the tree with golden fruits; and this is life.”
“Anthroposophy is not a doctrine, a coherent system of conceptual teaching; it is a gift which Rudolf Steiner made to individual people... The messages were given to help, not to instruct, to liberate and change human beings, not to amass occult knowledge as such... His insights were handed over in complete freedom for people to use, to grow and be transformed. The giver of these messages wanted to kindle us to find ourselves, and walk, freely and modestly, the path of transformation. He refused to become our guru, or to establish a common belief, or a common way of life.”
Rudi Lissau, writing about Rudolf Steiner.
“Gnosis is a teaching of a transcendental type, and it leaves the dogmas to the believers; instead, it inculcates in the individual the need to find, by his or her own efforts, and by all means, his or her own happiness.”
Julio Cabrera, leaflet, Toronto GIA.
