In our previous class, we talked about the Key of S.O.L: Subject, Object and Location; that is: how we can direct our Attention in order to assist our Consciousness (our Essence) to Awaken.

We also mentioned that: “Whosoever wants to awaken consciousness here and now should begin to comprehend the three subconscious factors called: identification, fascination, and sleep.” And we mentioned that the ‘flavor’ or ‘taste’ of the Esoteric Work is the inversion of our ‘normal attitude’ (or of our normal Internal State).

Our normal attitude is one of Identification and if we want to Awaken, then we need to change (or ‘invert’) this state into that of Awareness. This is why we want to divide our Attention into the 3 factors: Subject, Object and Location; because this will assist us to not fall into identification, which leads to fascination and then the sleep of the Consciousness.

So, let us consider what our ‘normal’ attitude or Internal State is and that we need to reverse or ‘invert’ it in order to awaken… Another important thing we mentioned was: The need to establish Order within ourselves, and within our Mind, specifically. Our Egos cause much disorder within and by comprehending & eliminating them, we are working to reestablish Order within ourselves.

Finally, we mentioned the Retrospective exercise and Conscious or Intentional Imagination vs. Mechanical Imagination. When we are working on an Ego, we can replay the scene (where it manifested itself) on the screen of our Mind so that we can see the associated factors. This is one of the most important parts of Comprehension: seeing the factors that contribute to the Ego’s existence, strength and manifestation.

And when we want to Eliminate the Ego, we work with the transmutation of the creative energy and prayer to our Divine Mother. These two factors: Transmutation and Elimination are what we want to begin with today as we study the Effort needed to progress in the Work…

 

A Special Emotion is Necessary and the 3 Types of Forces or Influences

“…transmutation by itself is not enough; it has to be ACCOMPANIED BY THE REMOVAL OF THE UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS that we carry within.

Effort is needed in order to be able to eliminate such undesirable elements, but an UPRIGHT EFFORT, that is to say, a Conscious Effort, not a Mechanical Effort, which is good for nothing.

One needs TO WORK ON THE EMOTIONAL CENTER in order to do something useful for oneself, because when we only work on the Mind, when we only work with the cold intellect, nothing ends up being done.

In any case, we must not ignore that in the world there are three types of Forces or Influences. ”

These are called: Type A Influences, Type B Influences and Type C Influences.

“… ‘A INFLUENCES’: are all of those prejudices of humanity, all those laws of the physical world, all of those businesses, all of that which is called “family”, “environment”, etc.

‘B INFLUENCES’ are different: They are formed by the currents of esoteric or occultist type schools, etc., etc., and there are ‘C INFLUENCES’ which are formed by, or belong to, what we could call, something completely different from Mechanical Humanity.

‘C Influences’ come directly from CONSCIOUS HUMANITY or from Divine Humanity, from those who have already achieved Self-Realization.

It is clear that these types of ‘C Influences’ would not be accessible to us if they were not first converted into type ‘B Influences’, because for most people, it is very difficult to truly understand a group of RESURRECTED ADEPTS… If most people came into a room where a group of Resurrected Adepts were talking, they would simply not understand them. Because, their way of being, their way they acting, etc., it is so different, since the form of knowledge they have is so different…”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Type ‘B’ Influences Help us to Develop that Special Emotion

“…This means that those ‘C Influences’, have to become ‘B Influences’ so that humanity can understand.

Then, when the student understands by themselves that there are not only “A” influences, when the student comprehends that there exist also ‘B influences’ and that they can be found in books, allegories, Medieval Alchemists teachings, or in pyramids, niches, millenary sepulchers, Sphinxes, monoliths, sculptures, paintings, the great masters’ music, etc., then the student begins the search for DIVINE HUMANITY, where, as we have said, ‘C influences’ originate.

‘B Influences’ awaken in the aspirant a very special emotion, a very intimate emotion which leads them to work upon themselves in order to achieve the AWAKENING OF CONSCIOUSNESS, and thus, some day they will get into the MESOTERIC CIRCLE and later on, to the ESOTERIC CIRCLE.

By studying and experimenting with Gnosis, there arises in us that special emotion and then the work turns out to be conscious; this is the way to work consciously. Thus, it is necessary for the students of this theoretical-practical course, TO FEEL EMOTION IN THE WORK. We are not talking about the mere intellectual or mechanical work…

All the work upon ourselves is done with the emotion, that is to say, it has to be emotional, it has to be a LONGING and an ASPIRATION, which is the same as SUPERIOR EMOTION.

The Strength of Willpower in order to do the work, where does this come from? It has to come from the Emotional Center; the Strength/Force in order to do the work can not come from the Intellectual Center.

…the one who gives the true value to the Esoteric Work is the Emotional Center; it is the one who gives value to the work, and CONSCIOUS WILLPOWER comes from this Center, which is what really counts. Only with that kind of Willpower can one persevere and succeed in this work.

So transmuting is one part and eliminating is another part.

The Medieval Alchemists used to speak of the ‘Dry Mercury of Alchemy’, that is to say, the various “I’s” or psychic aggregates that in their conjunction constitute the myself, the oneself.”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Conscious Effort, the Emotional Center and Overcoming Depression

“…in order to eliminate those aggregates, it is necessary for there to be Conscious Effort, not simply Mechanical Effort; Meaning that the Emotional Center has to work, not the Intellectual Center. As the brethren are informed about the work technique, they will work more efficiently; that is clear.

But it would not be enough to only be informed about the work technique; you have to do the work, because it is one thing to know the work, or to be interested in the work, and it is another thing to do the work. The most serious thing in the work is DEPRESSION.

When depression arises, then the work is suspended and if we let it take shape, then this will continue indefinitely.

In depression, the Five Centers of the Machine, we could say, sink into the water and no longer function; and then failure arrives.

But, how can one get out of depression? Through the REMEMBERANCE OF ONESELF.

Many will say that they always remember themselves. However, that is false!

An individual could live for twenty years locked up in a room, without going out into the street at all, and yet they have not remembered themselves for a single second, they have always been “away from home”.

So what is that which is called SELF-REMEMBERING or the “REMEMBERANCE OF ONESELF”? Well, simply “exhaust the thinking process”, even for a few moments, or exhaust all currents of desires, emotions, thoughts, sensations, even for a few minutes.

In that instant one has “remembered oneself”, one has come to realize that one is neither a thought, nor desires, nor emotions, nor passions, and that which is beyond all those things is the Being…

But it is rare for people, to suspend the stream of thoughts, desires, passions, etc., even for a minute; and for the Gnostic you have to do it daily: Remember yourself.

When one remembers oneself, it is obvious that the depression then passes, it is exhausted, and the emotion for the work arises again.

Depression is troublesome. In that state, one does not feel like working esoterically, and there is no other way but to remember oneself.

If you “remember yourself”, then the depression immediately passes…

You know brethren, we should not forget ourselves, in the MIRROR OF THE ALCHEMY.”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

The Esoteric Work and the Alchemical Mirror (Seeing ourselves in Others)

“The Work is like a mirror: One has to learn to look at others. This is very important: See yourself in others.

If we see a drunk on the street, “well, here I go, that’s how I am when I’m drunk.” If we see a “marijuana smoker”, “well, there I am walking, That’s me”. If we see an angry person, “thundering” and “lightening”, “what a face he makes: That’s me. But see how I laugh, how I blaspheme, how I gesture, how I scream, how I kick; That’s how I am”. And seeing oneself there, seeing oneself in others (this is something very important).

Do we want, for example, to stop arguing with someone, or to stop objecting? Let’s change for that person who wants to scold us; through Meditation, let us change our personality for that of the person who is against us; Let us feel that we are that person and look at ourselves as if we were someone else; Let us feel that we are the one we fight with, the one who appears to be the cause of our problems; Let’s see ourselves as them in all their forms, gestures, words, and ways of being; Let us feel ourselves, then, in Meditation, as that person.

If we succeed, then the desire to quarrel will actually disappear. In fact, we will then see ourselves as something strange and we will understand the other person, because we have felt ourselves as the other person, and when we understand them, then everything will have passed; since the desire to object or to quarrel is over.”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Change, Pain and Transformation

“Let us trace daily, for example, the desire NOT TO OBJECT, even if it is ONE HOUR DAILY. It’s not too much work, is it? Being able to stay an hour a day without objecting to anything or anyone, even if they are insulting us, even if they are ironic, even if they are bothering us. Later we can increase the time to two or three hours, and finally we will never again object to anything, we will learn to live in peace.

This is very important, brethren; this work is about change. Is it painful? Yes! Change is not possible without pain. That is clear: Any true, intimate change has to be produced through pain. Without pain, changes are not possible. …This is what many brethren have not understood…”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

The idea of ‘Pain’ in this context should be understood it does not necessarily mean physical pain. The ‘Pain’ that the author is talking about is related with our attachment to an ego or “I” which corresponds to the particular situation we are going through.

Often this ‘Pain’ is what we have been avoiding and is an internal indicator of something we should address… We are talking about the pain of facing the hard facts.

As Maurice Nicoll puts it:

“It is always painful to realize that there is really anything wrong with oneself …to see it, direct and unmistakable, in oneself, is pain . This is real and a useful suffering, for all real suffering purifies the emotions.”

 
“You must understand that awakening is a very long process and a painful one. Awakening means becoming more and more conscious of oneself —of what one is really like.

…The Work says that a person must become passive to themselves. But it is very painful to go against the usual way one has reacted to life. You feel you are losing so much. Yet you are losing nothing real and after a time you begin to feel new forms of living passing into you.

You come back to the same scenes, but you are different. It is the same outer world but you take it quite differently. It is the same kind of thing, the same kind of events, but you are related to them quite differently. It is even the same people, but you see and feel them quite differently.

In passing from one level of being, and experience, to a new level, there is a gap that is painful. It is like leaving something familiar. However, If you hold on to the Work (and continue on), then after a time, you find that you can once more experience everything fully, but at a different level —that is, in a new way .”

-Paraphrase from ‘Birdlip, March 22, 1943 – INTERNAL CONSIDERING AND EXTERNAL CONSIDERING 5’ in
the Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings
of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
by Maurice Nicoll

 

Many times in life, we find it easier to talk ourselves out of the difficult path and take the ‘easy way out’ (or the ‘path of least resistance’ as Samael Aun Weor has called it). But the fruit of these choices is very often bitter and usually doesn’t show us that we understood why the ‘easy way’ is problematic, leading to bigger obstacles or problems (later on). So now, it’s time for us to consciously face what we have been avoiding or what we haven’t understood.

One of the most difficult things for us to face is our own attitude. We often have the wrong attitude when starting a project, when we are interacting with others, or even when we are just starting our day. And one of the most problematic attitudes we take is the one where we don’t feel like we can accomplish the task or achieve the goal that we have before us. This attitude is called “Defeatism” in Gnosis and we should understand it…

People often misinterpret what they read or hear in Gnosis and see certain statements as discouraging rather than redefining the scope of how we look at things, our self-imposed limits, and of what is possible. Remember that one of the most beautiful things Gnosis helps us with is how to see the world and ourselves in a totally different way because this allows us to orient ourselves along the Path.

 

Overcoming Defeatism

“Many people, when they start to hear about Gnostic concepts, have the fixed idea that the total annihilation of the ego, the absolute dominion of sex and the intimate self realization of the Being is something fantastic and impossible; However, they do not realize that this very subjective way of thinking is the fruit of defeatist psychological elements that manipulate the mind and the body of those persons who have not awakened consciousness.

People carry in their interior a psychic aggregate that is a great obstacle on the path of the annihilation of the ego and that is: Defeatism!

Defeatist thoughts handicap persons from elevating their mechanistic life to superior states. The majority of persons consider themselves defeated even before beginning the struggle or the Gnostic esoteric work. One has to observe oneself and analyze oneself in order to discover those facets that make up Defeatism.

Synthesizing, we say that there are three common Defeatist attitudes:

1.- To feel handicapped because of a lack of intellectual education.
2.- To feel incapable of beginning the Radical Transformation.
3.- To walk around with the psychological song: “I never have opportunities to change or to triumph!”

-Paraphrase from Ch 1.07 in The Revolution of the Dialectic [La Revolucion de la Dialectica]
by Samael Aun Weor

 

First Defeatist Attitude (To feel handicapped because of a lack of intellectual education)

“Some feel handicapped because of a lack of ‘formal’ education, but we have to remember that the great sages such as Hermes Trimegistus, Paracelsus, Plato, Socrates, Jesus the Christ, Homer, etc., never went to university because, in truth, each person has their own Master, which is the Being, who is beyond the mind and its false rationalism.

Do not confuse education with wisdom and knowledge. The specific knowledge of the mysteries of life, of the Cosmos and of Nature is an extraordinary force that allows us to achieve the Integral Revolution.”

-Paraphrase from Ch 1.07 in The Revolution of the Dialectic [La Revolucion de la Dialectica]
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Second Defeatist Attitude (To feel incapable of beginning the Radical Transformation)

“Those who have been conditioned or programmed by materialistic science feel at a disadvantage because they do not feel ‘capable’ and we should analyze this in order to understand it.

The intellectual animal, because of the influence of a false academic education that adulterates the values of the Being, has established in the sensual mind, two terrible Egos or “I’s” which should be eliminated: The fixed idea: “I am going to lose!”, and laziness to practice the Gnostic techniques in order to acquire the knowledge that is needed to emancipate ourselves from all mechanicity and come out, once and for all, from the defeatist tendency.”

-Paraphrase from Ch 1.07 in The Revolution of the Dialectic [La Revolucion de la Dialectica]
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Third Defeatist Attitude (To walk around with the psychological song: “I never have opportunities to change or to triumph!”)

“The thinking of the mechanical human is: “Opportunities are never provided for me!” Yet, let us remember that the scenes of existence can be modified. One creates one’s own circumstances. Everything is the result of the Law of action and consequence but with the possibility that a superior law transcends an inferior law.

The elimination of the “I” of defeatism is urgent and undelayable. It is not the quantity of theories that matter, it is the quantity of super efforts that are exerted in the work of the Revolution of Consciousness. The authentic human being fabricates, in the moment that they wish, the opportune moments for their spiritual or psychological growth!

-Paraphrase from Ch 1.07 in The Revolution of the Dialectic [La Revolucion de la Dialectica]
by Samael Aun Weor

 

The Type of Effort needed in the Work

“The work, then, is difficult, but not impossible. Effort is needed, that is obvious. But there are two kinds of effort: there is MECHANICAL EFFORT and CONSCIOUS EFFORT.

One type of Mechanical Effort, for example, is that of the circuses, who carry out a series of efforts that are useless, absurd people (high wire acts, etc.), who are developing themselves in a way that has no importance in terms of the Esoteric Work.

Conscious Effort is different. For there to be Conscious Effort there must be a definite purpose and full knowledge of what you want to do. It is not enough to only know or study, we could say, the Body of Doctrine. That is a part of the Work, but it is not everything. It is necessary to reach the union, we could say, of the Doctrine or the Doctrinary Principles, that is, of Knowledge with Being.

When Being and Knowledge are integrated, then, from there, Conscious Effort is born. How does one know that a person possesses Knowledge, or rather, that they actually possess COMPREHENSION? From the union of BEING and KNOWING comes Comprehension.”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Comprehending the Esoteric Doctrine

“Comprehension is the medium that connects Being and Knowing. A person can have Knowledge, but if they have not implemented it (uniting Knowledge with Being), then they will not have Comprehension. And how does one know that a person has Knowledge, but does not have the corresponding Comprehension?

Very Easy: Those who only have Knowledge, do nothing but repeat it, memorize it; but if a person (who has that Knowledge memorized) is required to expose it in very diverse ways, and from different angles, spontaneously and naturally, they will not be able to do so; they will be content with repeating, more or less, what they have accumulated in their memory and that is all.

But whosoever possesses Comprehension can consciously speak about any part of the Doctrine and explain it from the most diverse angles. Why? Because they have Comprehension, they have reached Comprehension, and this Comprehension results, as we have already said, from the union of Being and Knowing; that is clear.

Thus, there is a need to unite this Knowledge (what one learns), with Being with what one experiences. But how could that union be achieved? Through the FORCE OF LONGING, through INSPIRATION. Only in this way could Being and Knowledge be united.”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Working through Conscious Effort

“When one is comprehensive, when one comprehends the Teaching, then one can truly work consciously; making Conscious Efforts to manufacture the Philosophical Stone… Mechanical Efforts are useless.”

There was a saying of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages:

“FEAR LOSING YOUR STONE, IF YOU LOSE IT, YOU FAIL…”

What is this Stone? This refers to the Cubic Stone of Yesod, to the control of our Creative Function, to the Rock upon which Christ’s Church is built. It is also known as White Tantra: Sex without Orgasm.

According to Gnostic Philosophy, we need to transmute our sexual energy for a long time in order to develop that “Philosohpical Stone”. But when we “spill the cup of Hermes” then we “Fall into Temptation” and we can lose all the work we have done prior to that point. This is how we stray from the Path. That is why we need to be careful during the Tantric Practice and move slowly.

Now the Alchemist’s saying makes more sense:

“FEAR LOSING YOUR STONE, IF YOU LOSE IT, YOU FAIL…”

Let’s continue with the quote:

“Sure, it takes a lot of work to fabricate the Stone and losing it is one of the biggest follies, right? So we believe you are understanding … It is obvious, then, that in order to make the Stone, “TANTRISM”, “TANTRAS” are necessary; And it is necessary to eliminate the undesirable elements, the entities of the Ego, etc.

One could not, truly, manufacture the Stone if one did not eliminate the entities that constitute the Ego. That is clear, all that must be known and understood… The work, then, is usually difficult, but not impossible.

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

 

Alchemical Symbolism and Gnostic Psychology

When we study the Ancient Alchemists, we may notice some symbols that show up repeatedly:

“It has been said, for example, that “we have to eliminate the DRY MERCURY and the RED SALT daily” … What is that “Dry Mercury”? It is: the inhuman elements that we carry within. And the “Red Salt”? It is the same thing that is also called ARSENIC SULFUR, or the wrong use of the Fire, let us say, the Fire of the Kundartiguador (opposite of the Kundalini).

All that must be eliminated … But the works must be done consciously. Efforts must be conscious. Efforts should not be made when it is not necessary, or efforts should not be made (in this or that sense) beyond what is necessary. When efforts become mechanical they are no longer useful, and that is something we must never forget…”

-Paraphrase from “Basic Rules of the Precious Gem” Lecture #128 in El Quinto Evangelio
by Samael Aun Weor

And that work to eliminate the undesirable elements which we need in order to awaken our consciousness (since our consciousness is trapped or bottled up inside the Egos) is not always an easy task…

There are many factors that we often do not take into account that affect our psyche. There are factors related to our conditioning (our education – formal, informal and otherwise), to our culture (the values our society has and our relationship to them), to our perception of ourselves, and even additional factors related to influences beyond just our planet Earth…

All of these things (and more) need to be studied and analyzed so that we can understand them integrally, extracting what is useful and getting rid of what is useless.

We must constantly bare in mind that our conditioning or programming can be VERY deep. Included in that is the idea that astrological, occult or esoteric influences are make-believe and/or psycho-somatic. And yet, this is something we need to decide for ourselves neither accepting, nor rejecting, but instead: observing, studying, reflecting…

Within us, we have the Being (our Inner Divinity), who can guide us and orient us along the Path. Yet, how will this be possible if we do not remove our interior obstacles…

 

The Work to Stop Being a Psychological Robot

“The intellectual animal is similar to a robot programmed by mechanical wheels, or, one could think of it as similar to a clock because it keeps repeating the same movements of past existences.

The human being is a psychological robot who cannot do, and with whom everything happens. But, within us, we have the Being. The Being is the only one who can do. The Being makes whatever it wants appear because it is not a mechanical entity.

One has to cease being an intellectual robot, because a robot always repeats the same thing (it does only what its programming tells it to do), and it does not have real independence. The psychological robot is influenced by the laws of the Moon: Recurrence, conception, death, hatred, egoism, violence, conceit, haughtiness, self-importance, immoderatation, covetousness, etc.

One has to work with sexual super-dynamics in order to create a permanent center of gravity and to become independent of the Moon. In order to cease being a psychological robot, it becomes necessary to dominate oneself. Faust achieved it, but Cornelius Agrippa did not achieve it because he set himself to theorize.

People are interested in exploiting the world but what is more important is to exploit oneself, because the one who exploits themselves dominates the world.

The psychological robot who wants to become a real human being and then a superhuman, should develop the capacity of sustaining the notes. When someone really wants to cease being a machine, they have to undergo the first crisis: MI – FA, and then undergo the second crisis: LA – SI.

The key of triumph in order to pass through the crisis and to cease being a psychological robot is choice, change and decision. The entire Work is done in seven scales…”

-Paraphrase from Ch 1.23 in The Revolution of the Dialectic [La Revolucion de la Dialectica]
by Samael Aun Weor

 

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