Editor’s Preface

Dear Reader,

Welcome to “Introduction to Gnosis,” an enlightening exploration of Gnostic teachings penned by the revered spiritual guide, Samael Aun Weor. This book stands as a cornerstone of Weor’s works and serves as an exceptional entry point into the profound world of Gnosis.

Through “Introduction to Gnosis,” Weor offers us an accessible and immersive introduction to Gnostic philosophy and practice. This book transcends the realms of mere theory, providing practical guidance for spiritual awakening and self-realization. It invites you to journey inward, encouraging self-discovery through introspection and consciousness expansion.

In accordance with Samael Aun Weor’s wishes, we present this book, and those that will follow, free of charge. We are committed to making these illuminating teachings as accessible as possible, to light the way for spiritual seekers around the globe. However, due to limitations in our current digital publication process, we kindly ask for your patience as we painstakingly bring forth the wisdom encapsulated in Weor’s works.

While the digital publication of these works is a labor of love and commitment, we do appreciate any support you might extend our way. Your generosity, should you choose to offer it, can greatly aid us in our mission and expedite the process of making these invaluable teachings readily available.

Our aspiration goes beyond merely digitizing Weor’s teachings. Once his works are entirely available, we aim to create comprehensive texts on Gnosticism. Drawing from a rich history, we intend to present an in-depth exploration of this ancient tradition, enriched by our insights and understanding.

As you delve into “Introduction to Gnosis,” whether you are a beginner on the Gnostic path, an admirer of Samael Aun Weor’s teachings, or an experienced student of Gnosticism, we hope the wisdom you uncover aids your spiritual journey, inspiring and guiding you towards self-realization and enlightenment.

Here’s to the start of an illuminating journey of self-discovery!

With Light and Wisdom, H.G.

Preface

First Degree of Introduction to Gnosis

This is the introductory degree to the Gnostic philosophical studies or external degrees of Gnosis. It is natural that all students will begin with this degree and eventually continue with the first, second, third degrees, etc. One should keep in mind that these are not the esoteric Gnostic degrees. The esoteric Gnostic degrees, which are the authentic ones, cannot be revealed by anyone who has received them; this is forbidden. Whoever says: “I have so many degrees, so many Initiations,” is being dishonest.

If a person wants to become an engineer, lawyer, doctor, etc. he has to prepare himself for it. That person will go to school and study a great deal. After he has a good theoretical basis in the field he studied, he will begin to practice what he has learned. Practice brings about perfection. The great sages, professionals, scientists, etc. have not merely had a theoretical knowledge of their respective fields of study, but have also put this knowledge to practice. Theory by itself cannot bring about anything except an intellectual enjoyment on the part of those who understand it.

Study these lessons and study them with true incentive, with the desire to learn, with the desire of understanding the superior knowledge. But remember that you need to put into practice what you learn if you want to achieve the perfection of the work.

Lesson One: Success in Life

It is necessary to be successful in life. If you want to be successful, you should begin by being sincere with yourself; recognize your own errors. When we recognize our errors, we are on the path to correcting them. Everyone who corrects his own errors is inevitably successful. The businessman who daily blames others for his own failures and never recognizes his own errors will not be successful. Remember that the greatest criminals consider themselves to be saints. If we visit a penitentiary we will prove to ourselves that none of the criminals consider themselves guilty. Almost all of them say to themselves, “I am innocent.” Don’t make the same mistake; have the courage to recognize your own errors. Thus will you escape greater evils.

Whoever recognizes his own errors can make a happy home. The politician, scientist, philosopher, and the religious person, etc. that comes to recognize his mistakes can correct them and be successful in life.

If you want to triumph in life, don’t criticize anyone. Whoever criticizes another person is a weakling. The one who criticizes himself every moment is a giant. Criticism is useless because it hurts the pride of others and provokes the resistance of the victim, who then seeks to justify himself. Criticism provokes an inevitable reaction against its maker. If you want to truly triumph in life, listen to this advice: do not criticize anyone.

The man or woman who knows how to live without criticizing anyone does not provoke resistance nor reactions on the part of his fellowmen, and consequently creates an atmosphere of success and progress. On the other hand, he who criticizes others has many enemies. We have to remember that human beings are full of pride and vanity, and this vanity inherent in them produces a reaction (resentment, hate, etc.) that is directed towards the one who criticizes them. He who wants to correct others should best begin by correcting himself. This gives better results and is less dangerous.

The world is full of neurasthenic persons. The neurasthenic type is a faultfinder, irritable, and intolerable. There are many causes of neurasthenia: impatience, anger, egotism, arrogance, etc.

A mediator exists between the Spirit and the body: the nervous system. Take care of your nervous system. When your nervous system is irritated by something that exhausts you, it is better to flee from it. Work intensely but with moderation. Remember that excessive work produces fatigue. If you do not pay attention to fatigue, if you continue with excessive work, then fatigue is replaced with stress. When stress turns morbid, it becomes neurasthenia. It is necessary to alternate work with pleasant rest so as to avoid the danger of falling into neurasthenia.

Every employer who wants to succeed should be careful of not falling into neurasthenia. The neurasthenic employer criticizes everything and becomes unbearable. The neurasthenic despises patience and as employer becomes the executioner of his employees. Workers who must work under the orders of a neurasthenic and fault-finding employer end up hating the job and the employer. No discontented worker works with pleasure. Many times enterprises fail because the workers are discontented, dissatisfied, and do not work efficiently in such circumstances.

The neurasthenic, as worker or office employee, becomes rebellious and ends up being fired from his job.

Every neurasthenic worker seeks any occasion to criticize his employer. Every employer has pride and vanity and it is obvious that he feels offended when his employees criticize him. The worker who lives criticizing his employer ends up losing his job.

Take care of your nervous system. Work moderately. Enjoy yourself healthily. Do not criticize anyone. Try to see the best in all human beings.

An Exercise to Control Your Anger

Do you feel irritated or full of anger? Are you nervous? Reflect a little: remember that anger can provoke gastric ulcers. Control anger through breathing: inhale the vital air very slowly (do not inhale through your mouth; inhale through your nose, keeping your mouth properly closed), mentally counting 1-2-3-4-5-6. Hold the breath mentally counting 1-2-3-4-5-6. Now exhale the breath very slowly through your mouth, mentally counting 1-2-3-4-5-6. Repeat the exercise until your anger subsides.

Lesson Two: Health, Money, Love, and the Power of Concentration

A great author deduced that the human being needs eight important things in life: health and the conservation of life, nourishment, sleep, money and the things money can buy, life in the beyond, sexual satisfaction, the well-being of his children, and a sense of proper importance. We synthesize these eight things into three:

1. Health
2. Money
3. Love

If your really want to acquire these three things, you should study and practice everything that this course teaches you. We will show you the path of success.

The Power of Thought

It is necessary for you to know that is an immensely superior power greater than electricity and dynamite: that is, the power of mind. When you think of a friend or a member of the family, etc., mental waves escape from your brain. These waves are similar to those of a radio transmitter. These waves travel through space and reach the mind of the person you are thinking about. Scientists have already begun to experiment with the power of the mind. Soon, the telementometer will be invented, an instrument with which the mental forces of each person will be measured. In the future, optics will advance some more, and then the photomentometer will be invented, an instrument that will allow us to see and measure the mental force radiated by the human brain.

You must know that just as man has a mind, the entire universe also has a mind. The human mind and the cosmic mind exist. The earth is condensed mind. The entire universe is condensed mind. Universal mind waves saturate the infinite space.

The first thing that an architect who will build a house does is to create the project mentally. He constructs it in his mind, projects it on the plan, and lastly crystallizes it materially. Thus, every thing, every building, first existed in the mind. Nothing can exist in the physical or material world in which we live before having existed in the world of the mind.

It is necessary to learn how to concentrate and project the mind with precision and great force. It is necessary for you to know that to concentrate the mind is to fix your attention on a single object. When you fix your attention on a distant friend, when you concentrate on that friend, you can be certain that your brain emits powerful mental waves that will inevitably reach your friend’s brain. What is important is for you to truly concentrate. It is necessary that no other thought be capable of distracting you. You should learn how to concentrate your mind.

You are studying this course and we believe that you want to succeed in life and have health, money, and love. Reflect a little: learn how to use mental power. Whoever learns how to use the power of thought proceeds to success with absolute certainty, as the arrow guided by the hand of the expert archer reaches its target. Remember that the world is a product of the mind. You are what you are because of the mind. You can totally change yourself by using mental power. The poor and miserable are like that because they want to be so; they keep themselves miserable and poor with their mind. The rich and powerful person is so because he made himself that way with his mind. Each person is what he wants to be with the power of the mind. Each person projects into the world of cosmic mind what he is and what he wants to be. The projections of the mind physically crystallize and we then have in the physical world our rich or miserable, happy or disgraceful life.

Everything depends on the type of mental projections that have crystallized. As the cloud condenses into water and the water freezes into ice, so does mental energy: first, clouds (projects), then water (circumstances, development of the project), and lastly, hard ice (the project converted into concrete facts or things). If the project has been well done and with enough strength, if the actions or the development of the facts and circumstances have been marvelous, victory will be the result. The perfect condensation of a project is victory.

The basic factors for the success of a project are three:

1. Mental force
2. Favorable circumstances
3. Intelligence

Mental Force

Without mental force it is impossible to achieve the crystallization of a project (commercial, etc.). It is necessary for our students to learn how to use mental force. But it is necessary for the student to first learn how to relax his physical body. It is indispensable to know how to relax the body to achieve the perfect concentration of the mind. We can relax the body seated in a comfortable chair or lying down in the corpse posture (with our heels touching each other, arms close to our sides, etc.). The second of the two positions (the corpse posture) is the better.

Imagine that your feet are subtle, that a group of dwarves escape from them. Imagine that your calves are full of small playful dwarves that leave one by one and that as they leave, the muscles become flexible and elastic. Continue with your knees, performing the same exercise. Continue with the thighs, sexual organs, abdomen, heart, throat, face, and head muscles successively, imagining that those small dwarves flee from each of those parts of the body, leaving the muscles completely relaxed.

Concentration of the Mind

When the body is perfectly relaxed, mental concentration becomes easy and simple. Concentrate on the business you have in mind. Vividly imagine the entire business, the people that are related to the work. Identify yourself with those people. Speak as if you were them; mentally say what you would like those people to say. Forget about yourself and change your human personality to that of those persons, acting the way you would like them to act. Thus you will define powerful thought waves that will go through space and reach the brains of the persons related with the business. If the concentration is perfect, success will then be inevitable.

The Law of Karma

This law is well known in the Orient. Millions of people in the entire world know of it because this law is universal. This law operates in the whole universe. If you misuse the power of the mind, the Law of Karma will fall upon you and you will be horribly punished.

Mental energy is a gift of God and should only be utilized for good purposes and with good intentions. It is just for the poor to better their economic situation, but it is not just to utilize mental power to harm people. Before doing a mental exercise to carry out the crystallization of a project, reflect and meditate: if you will use mental power to harm others, it is better not to do it because the terrible Ray of Cosmic Justice will inevitably fall upon you like a ray of vengeance.

Favorable Circumstances

Thought and action should always march totally united. Materialization is only possible when the circumstances are favorable. Learn how to determine favorable circumstances for your business. Freud, the great psychologist, said that everything that man does in life has two fundamental causes: (1) sexual impulse, (2) the desire to be great. Every human being is motivated by the sexual impulse. Everybody wants to be appreciated. Nobody likes to be despised. If you want to be surrounded by good circumstances for the crystallization of your business, then recognize the good qualities of your fellowmen; do not humiliate anyone. Do not despise anyone. It is necessary to encourage each individual in his job, office, or profession. By means of appreciation and encouragement, we can awaken enthusiasm in all those people who relate to us. Learn how to wisely praise your fellowmen without falling into flattery. People feel reassured with the food of esteem. Be gentlemanly; do not criticize anyone, thus you will form a favorable atmosphere for the crystallization of your business. The sincere appreciation of the merits of one’s fellowman is one of the great secrets of success.

It is necessary to abandon the bad habit of talking about ourselves at every moment. It is urgent to employ the word to strengthen and encourage the good qualities of our fellowman. The Gnostic student should abandon the extremely bad habit of naming himself and telling the story of his life at every moment. The man or woman who only talks of himself or herself becomes unbearable. Persons like this fall into misery because people become tired of them.

Never say, “I.” Always say, “we.” The term “we” has more cosmic power. The term “I” is egotistical and tires all those who come in contact with us. The “I” is egotistical. The “I” should be dissolved. The “I” is a creator of conflicts and problems. Always repeat: “we, we, we,…”

Every morning before getting out of bed, say with force and energy: “We are strong. We are rich. We are filled with luck and harmony; Om, Om, Om.” Recite this simple prayer and you will see that you are prosperous in everything. Have great devotion in this prayer. Have faith.

Exercise

Hang a silk thread from the ceiling of your room. A needle should be at the end of the thread.

Concentrate on that needle and try to move it with the power of your mind.

When developed, mental waves can move this needle. Work ten minutes daily on this exercise. In the beginning, the needle at the end of the silk thread will not move. With time, you will see that the needle oscillates and moves vigorously. This exercise is to develop mental power. Remember that mental waves travel through space and pass from one brain to the next.

Lesson Three: Tattvas, Prana, and Vibrations of Nature

The great lawyer Jose M. Seseras said the following:

There is no luck or misfortune, success or failure; everything is a vibration of the ether.

By learning the use of the tattvas one can favorably solve all matters in life. You need a precise and exact system to obtain money; a scientific system that never falls. You need to take advantage of favorable circumstances to achieve the crystallization of all your projects (commercial, etc.).

Remember: a tattva is a vibration of the ether. In this age of radio, television and teleguided missiles, it is absurd to deny the vibration of the ether. A great sage said:

Life was born from radiation, subsists because of radiation, and is suppressed by any oscillatory imbalance.

You have the right to succeed. Spirit should overcome matter. We cannot accept misery. Remember that misery is a property of failed souls. When the Spirit overcomes matter, the result is Light, splendor, complete success economically, socially and spiritually.

It is necessary that you learn the Law of Universal Vibration. The study of the Tattvas is very important. A Tattva (this is a Hindustani term) is a vibration of the ether. Now scientists say that the ether does not exist and that the only thing that really exists is the magnetic field. We could also say that matter does not exist and that energy is the only thing that is real. These are words, a matter of terms. The magnetic field is the ether.

All comes from ether; everything returns to ether.

Sir Oliver Lodge, the great British scientist, said:

It is the ether that gives place, through diverse modifications of its equilibrium, to all phenomena of the universe, from the impalpable light to the formidable masses of the worlds.

Prana

Prana is the cosmic energy. Prana is vibration, electric motion, light and heat, universal magnetism, life. Prana is the life that throbs in each atom and in each sun. Prana is the life of ether. The Great Life, in other words, Prana, is transformed into a very divine, intensely blue substance. The name of this substance is Akash. The Akash is a marvelous substance that fills the entire infinite space and when it is modified it becomes ether. It is very interesting to know that the ether, when modified, becomes what we call the Tattvas.

The study of the vibrations of the ether (Tattvas) is indispensable. Remember that business, love, health. etc. are controlled by cosmic vibrations. If you know the vibratory laws of life, if you know the Tattvas, you will be able to obtain much money. Remember that money in itself is not good or bad; everything depends on its use. It is good if you use it for good, evil if you use it for evil. Obtain much money and use it for the good of humanity.

There are seven Tattvas that you should learn to use to succeed in life. No Gnostic student should live in misery. It is necessary that you know the names of the seven Tattvas. These names are Sanskrit terms. It is possible that it might be somewhat difficult to learn these names but remember that studying is well worth it to succeed in life.

The Names of the Tattvas

Akash is the principle of ether. Vayu is the etheric principle of the air. Tejas is the etheric principle of fire. Prithvi is the etheric principle of the element earth. Apas is the etheric principle of water. There are two secret Tattvas named Adi and Samadhi that vibrate during the Aurora (dawn) and are excellent for internal meditation. (Ecstasy or Samadhi is achieved with them). We will not expand on these Tattvas now because they are useful to advanced students only.

Tattvic Timetable

The vibration of the Tattvas begins at sunrise. Each Tattwa vibrates for twenty-four minutes in a period of two hours. The first Tattva that vibrates is Akash, followed in succession by Vayu, Tejas, Prithvi, and Apas. Two hours later, Akash vibrates again and the succession of Tattvas in the same order is repeated. The Tattvas vibrate day and night.

It is necessary to know the hour of sunrise. Bucheli’s Astrological Yearbook is one of the calendars that marks the time of sunrise in each country of Latin America. Some daily newspapers (especially in the United States of America) and magazines indicate the time of sunrise. Galvan’s Calendar is also good for this purpose. Those who would like Bucheli’s American Yearbook (in Spanish) can request it from the following address: Mrs. Elly de Buchelli, Casilla 1880, Santiago de Chile, S.A.

Properties of the Tattvas

Akash

Akash is exclusively good for meditation. We advise you to pray a lot during this time. Do not have business or love appointments during this time because you will inevitably fail. This Tattva causes us to make very serious mistakes. If you work during this period, you should then be very careful. (Artists should abstain from working in Akash). Everything that begins with Akash will fail. Akash is the Tattva of death.

Vayu

Everything that is velocity and motion corresponds to Vayu, the principle of air. Winds, air, aerial navigation, etc. are related to Vayu. During this period people enjoy speaking ill about their fellowmen, lying, stealing, etc. Usually, airplane accidents happen during this period. Suicides are stimulated by this Tattva. We advise you not to marry during this period because your marriage will be of a short duration. All kinds of simple and fast businesses are very good in Vayu, but businesses that are complex and of long duration result in failure. It is good to carry out intellectual works during this period. The great yogis mentally manipulate this Tattva and use it intelligently when they want to float in the air.

Tejas

Tejas is hot because it is the etheric principle of fire. During the period in which this Tattva is active we feel more heat. You can bathe in cold water in Tejas and you will never catch a cold. Never argue with anyone in Tejas because the consequences can be serious. You should utilize the time of Tejas to work intensely. Do not marry during Tejas because you will have constant quarrels with your partner. The most terrible explosions and accidents happen in the period of the Tattva Tejas.

Prithvi

This is the Tattva of success in life. If you want to succeed in business, do it in Prithvi. If you want to have good health, eat and drink in Prithvi. Marriages accomplished in Prithvi are happy for life. Every party, lecture, business or appointment done in Prithvi will be a total success. Prithvi is love, charity, benevolence.

Apas

Apas is the principle of water and is the opposite of Tejas (fire). This Tattwa is marvelous for the purchase of merchandise. It is marvelous for business and you will be able to earn much money if you know how to take advantage of this Tattva. Buy lottery tickets in Apas; journeys by water are good in Apas. Rainfalls that begin in Apas tend to be very lengthy and heavy. The Tattva Apas works in concentrating and attracting.

Remember that you need to know the exact time of sunrise to be guided by the Tattwas. Always have a good wristwatch or pocket watch and take advantage of the Tattvas in practical life.

Exercise

Sit at a table facing the Orient, rest your elbows on the table and proceed in the following manner:

Introduce the thumbs of your right and left hands into your ears. Cover your eyes with the index fingers, cover your nostrils with your middle fingers, and seal your lips with your ring fingers and little fingers.

Inhale slowly counting from one to twenty. Exhale slowly counting one to twenty. It is necessary to remove your middle fingers to inhale and exhale. But during the retention of your breath, the middle fingers should hermetically seal your nostrils. It is necessary for you to try to see the Tattvas with the Third Eye during the retention of your breath. The Third Eye resides between the two eyebrows. At the beginning you will see nothing, but after some time you will be able to see and recognize them by their colors. Akash is black and its planet is Saturn. Vayu is greenish-blue and Mercury is its planet. Tejas is red as fire and its planet is Mars. Prithvi is golden yellow and the Sun is its planet; it is also influenced by Jupiter. Apas is white and Venus and the Moon are its planets.

Lesson Four: Understand and Help Other People and Study Your Defects

In order to succeed in life, one has to become a fisher of men. Jesus chose his disciples amongst poor fishermen. They had to stop catching fish to become fishers of men. Do you want to obtain success, power, glory? Listen to this advice: “Put bait on the hook that will catch the fish.”

Do not talk with others about things of interest to you. Your business is your business. Unfortunately, the human being is egotistical and only wants to know things of his interest. If you talk to your fellowman about the things he desires and loves, you will influence him positively and obtain from him all that you need.

We need to learn to see the other person’s point of view and help to solve his conflicts; in this manner we solve our own problems. Become an altruistic and generous person. Help others with your advice; do your best to understand the point of view of others and you will fish in abundance. When we begin comprehending our fellowmen, we also begin to take the first steps on the path of happiness and success.

It is necessary to study and understand the mind’s functions. Whosoever knows the mental mechanism is in a position to control it.

Much has been said about mental power and many are the schools that teach how to concentrate the mind. Nobody can intelligently deny the power of thought. This force is made up of radioactive forms and waves that move from one brain to the next. We need to develop this marvelous power but we must warn here that thought and action should wisely be combined if we want to succeed in life. Mental concentration is miraculous when intelligently combined with actions.

Mental power achieves prodigies and marvels when based on sincerity and the truth. Do not attempt to deceive your fellowmen. Do not use mental concentration to deceive your fellowmen, because failure for you will be inevitable. Mental power achieves prodigies when used to help others. By helping others we ourselves benefit. That is the Law.

Exercise

Do you need to succeed in something important? Sit in a comfortable chair, relax your muscles, concentrate on the business you are interested in. Imagine the business in full prosperity. Identify yourself with your fellowman; try to understand your fellowman’s point of view; advise him mentally, making him see the advantages offered by that the business he is about to carry out with you. Thus, the mental waves will penetrate deeply in the other persons mind and will do marvels. One hour of perfect concentration is enough to determine success in a business.

Every merchant has the right to obtain money, but whatever you sell should be good, useful, and necessary to others. Do not try to deceive others, because you deceive yourself. Multitudes of peddlers travel the streets offering their merchandise uselessly. No one is interested in their merchandise. People become annoyed when they meet these peddlers. Their mistake is that they only think and talk about their wares. If they learned to see the point of view of others, they would inevitably succeed.

It is necessary to comprehend that all human beings have an “I” that wants to stand out, wants to make itself felt, to climb to the top of the ladder, etc.; this is precisely the human being’s weakness. You also have that weak side. Do not fall into the same errors of others. Never say “I.” Always say “we.” Whoever masters himself can also master others.

Intelligently insinuate what you want, but do not say, “I want.” Remember that others are not interested in what you want. Let others prepare your idea as if it was theirs. Provide the elements for that preparation; provide them very intelligently. Let others elaborate your ideas. People like to feel important; that is the weakness of the “I.” Exploit that weakness. Never feel important and you will be important. Try to dissolve the “I” and you will be truly happy.

All success in life depends on the ability you have to deal with other persons. It is necessary to abandon egotism and to develop Christ-centrism. It is urgent to work for the common good. It is indispensable to dissolve the “I” and always think in terms of “we.” The term “we” always has more power than the egotistical “I.”

All the great failures of life are due to the “I.” When the “I” wants to make itself felt, stand out, climb to the top of the ladder, then the reactions of others follow and the result of such mental reactions is failure. Remember that the “I” is energetic. The “I” is desire. The “I” is memory. The “I” is fear, violence, hatred, wants, fanaticisms, jealousies, distrust, etc. You need to profoundly explore all the depths of your mind, because you have within you that which is called “I, myself,” the ego, etc.

If you want to succeed in life, you should dissolve the “I.” If you want to dissolve the “I,” you should disintegrate all your defects. If you want to disintegrate your defects, do not condemn or justify them; comprehend them. When we condemn a defect, we hide it in the profound recesses of the mind. When we justify a defect, we strengthen it horribly. But when we comprehend a certain defect, we disintegrate it completely.

When the “I” is dissolved, we are filled with plenitude and happiness. When the “I” is dissolved, the Being, the Spirit, Love, expresses itself within and through us. Remember that God, the Spirit, the Inner Self of each man, woman, and creature, is never the “I.” The Being is divine, eternal, and perfect. The “I” is Satan of Biblical legend. The “I” is not the body. The “I” is energetic and diabolic. In the “I” is the root of misery, poverty, failures, disillusionments, unsatisfied desires, violent desires, hatred, envy, jealousy, etc. CHANGE YOUR LIFE NOW! It is urgent that you understand the need to do away with all your defects, to dissolve the “I,” Satan, the cause of all failures. When the “I” is dissolved, only the Being, God, happiness, remain in us. God is peace, abundance, happiness, and perfection.

Exercise

A man, after having studied himself, discovered that he had twelve defects that were bothering him. This man said, “Just as the hunter who tries to catch ten hares at once will not catch any, so is it also impossible to do away with my twelve defects at the same time.”

This man arrived at the conclusion that it would be better to catch one hare and then another. First do away with one defect and then another. This man decided to dedicate two months to each defect. After twenty four months, this man no longer had the defects. He had done away with the twelve defects that hindered him from success. The result was marvelous. This man became the foremost citizen of the United States. His name: Benjamin Franklin.

Imitate this personage. Examine yourself and see how many defects you have. Count them, number them. Then dedicate two months to each defect, successively, until you eliminate all of them.

Sit in a comfortable chair. Pray to your Internal God like this:

You who are my true Being, You who are my Internal God, Enlighten me. Help me. Make me see my own defects. Amen.

Concentrate until deep sleep arrives. Try to discover all your defects. We advise you to read the Bible. The word of the Divine Master is found in the four Gospels. There you will discover the virtues that you lack. Wherever a virtue is lacking, a defect exists.

Lesson Five: Dependence on Money, Poverty, Envy, Convetousness

Money

Why has money assumed such an immense importance in our lives? Do we perhaps depend exclusively on it for our own psychological happiness? All of us human beings need food, clothing and shelter; this is understood. But why is it that this, which is so natural and simple for even the birds of the sky, has assumed such a tremendous and frightening importance and meaning?

Money has assumed such an exaggerated and disproportionate value because we psychologically depend on it for our well-being. Money nourishes our personal vanity, gives us social prestige, the means to achieve power. Money has been used by the mind for ends and purposes totally akin to those it has in itself, among which are to cover our immediate physical needs. Money is being used for psychological purposes; that is the reason why money has assumed an exaggerated and disproportionate importance.

We need money to have food, clothing and shelter; that is obvious. But when money becomes a psychological need, when we utilize it for different purposes than it has in itself, when we depend on it to obtain fame, prestige, social position, etc. then money assumes an exaggerated and disproportionate importance in the mind. This is where the struggle and the conflict to possess it originates.

It is logical that we have a need to obtain money to satisfy our physical needs (to have food, clothing and shelter). But if we depend on money for our own happiness and personal satisfaction, then we are the most wretched beings upon the earth. When we understand deeply that money only has as its purpose to provide us with food, clothing and shelter, we then spontaneously place an intelligent limitation on it. The result of this is that money no longer assumes the exaggerated importance that it has when it becomes a psychological need.

Money in itself is not good or bad. Everything depends on the use we give it. If we use it for good, it is good. If we use it for evil, it is evil.

We need to comprehend in depth the true nature of sensation and satisfaction. The mind that wants to comprehend the truth should be free of these obstacles.

If we truly want to free the mind of the obstacles of sensation and satisfaction, we must begin with those sensations which are more familiar to us, and there lay the adequate foundation for comprehension. Sensations have their suitable place, and when we comprehend them profoundly at all the levels of the mind they do not assume the stupid deformation they now have. Many people believe that if the order of things was according to the political party we belong to and for which we always struggle, that we would have a happy world, full of abundance, peace and perfection. That is a false concept, because none of that can exist if we have not previously individually comprehended the true significance of things. The human being is too poor internally and that is why he has a need for money and material things for his personal sensation and satisfaction. When one is poor internally, he externally seeks money and material things to complement himself and to find satisfaction. That is why money and things have assumed a disproportionate value and the human being is prepared to steal, exploit and lie at every instant. To this is due the struggle between capitalism and work, employers and employees, between exploiters and exploited, etc.

Useless are all the political changes if we have not first comprehended our own internal poverty. Economic systems can change again and again, the social system can be altered again and again, but if we have not profoundly comprehended the intimate nature of our inner poverty, the individual will always create new ways and means to obtain personal satisfaction at the expense of the peace of other people.

It is urgent to deeply comprehend the inner nature of this myself if we really want to be internally wealthy. Whoever is internally rich is incapable of exploiting his fellowman, he is incapable of stealing and lying. Whoever is internally wealthy is free of the obstacles of personal satisfaction and sensation. Whoever is internally wealthy has found happiness.

We need money, true. But it is necessary to profoundly comprehend our exact relationship with it. Neither the ascetic nor the covetous miser have ever comprehended our exact relationship with money. It is not through renouncing money nor coveting it that we can come to understand our exact relationship with it. We need comprehension to intelligently recognize our own material needs without disproportionately depending on money.

When we comprehend our exact relationship with money, the pain of detachment and the frightening suffering that is produced by competition ends.

We should learn to differentiate between our immediate physical needs and the psychological dependence on things.

The psychological dependence on material things creates exploitation and slavery.

We need money to cover our immediate physical needs. Unfortunately, needs are transformed into covetousness [envy]. The psychological “I,” perceiving its own emptiness and misery, usually gives money and material things a different value, an exaggerated and absurd value, than what they truly have. That is how the “I” wants to become rich externally since he is internally poor and miserable. The “I” wants to make itself felt, to dazzle its fellowman with material things and money. Nowadays, our relationship with money is based on covetousness. We always allege necessity to justify covetousness. Covetousness is the secret cause of hatred and the brutalities of this world. Covetousness many times assumes a legal appearance. Covetousness is the cause of war and of all the miseries of this world. If we want to do away with the covetousness of the world, we should profoundly comprehend that this world is within our very selves. We are the world. The covetousness of the rest of the individuals lies within us. Actually, all individuals live within our own consciousness. The worlds covetousness is within the individual. Only by doing away with the covetousness that we carry within will covetousness in the world end. Only by comprehending the complex process of covetousness in all the levels of the mind can we experience the Great Reality.

Exercise

First: Lie down in the form of a star, opening your legs and arms to the left and the right.

Second: Concentrate now on your immediate physical needs.

Third: Meditate. Reflect on each of those needs.

Fourth: Lull yourself to sleep trying to discover on your own where necessity ends and where covetousness begins.

Fifth: If your exercise of concentration and inner meditation is done correctly, through internal vision you will discover which are your legitimate necessities and which are covetousness. Remember that only by profoundly comprehending necessity and covetousness will you be able to establish true foundations for the correct process of thinking.

Lesson Six: Make a Good Impression on Others, Preserve Your Strength

It is necessary that you have three things in life: food, clothing, and shelter. We should not be hungry: we need to eat. We should not be poorly dressed: it is necessary to dress well. It is not fair to live our entire life paying apartment rent: we need to have our own good home. Reflect on all this. It is urgent for you to comprehend the need to live better without falling into the sin of covetousness.

In our previous lesson we said that it is necessary to distinguish between necessity and covetousness. It is necessary to know where necessity ends and where covetousness begins.

You need to learn how to make a good impression on other people. This is a very delicate art. Many ladies dress very well, sometimes with excessive luxury, and wear very valuable rings on their hands and yet, in spite of everything, they do not make a good impression on others. Many gentlemen wear very expensive suits and use the latest model cars and yet they fail many times because of not knowing how to make a good impression on people.

The President of Colombia, Dr. Olaya Herrera, controlled his people with his eternal smile; every smile of the president represented millions of dollars. We, the men, know that the smile of a woman is worth more to us than all the furs and diamonds that they use. A woman with a captivating smile causes a great impression among men.

The smile of sincerity and the perfume of courtesy achieve true miracles in the business world. It is urgent to distinguish between the smile of sincerity and the mechanical smile. The smile of sincerity comes from the very bottom of the soul. The mechanical smile is hypocritical and evil: it is the gesture of the devil.

In man there are two factors disagreeing: the soul and the devil. The soul is divine. The devil is malevolent. Every good action is of the soul. Every bad action is of the devil. When you knock on a door so that it will be opened, the head of the house can ask you many times, “Who is it?” Then you answer, “I.” This “I,” this myself, is precisely the devil in us. Clairvoyants see this “I” as a very horrible fluidic entity that lives within the human body. This entity also leaves the body during sleep and travels very far, wherever it is taken by its desires and passions.

The soul is not the “I.” The soul is the Being. Distinguish between the Being and the “I.” The Being is the soul. The “I” is Satan within us.

Your body does not think or desire. The body is only a suit, a robe. You think with the MIND. The mind is a vehicle of the soul. However, when we are evil, the mind becomes a vehicle of the devil. The diabolic mind wants wars, creates conflicts, problems, wants vices, alcoholic drinks, adulteries, fornication, covetousness, hypocrisy, etc.

The bee enjoys working. The ant is happy working. Learn to enjoy and derive pleasure from your job. When a store employee enjoys his work, he radiates mental waves of success and progress. Then the sales increase and the employer is happy with his employee and does not want him to leave. Be concerned about the success of the business where you work. It is necessary that you win over your employer’s love. Learn to smile sincerely. Learn to enjoy work. If you want people to feel happy with you, it is necessary that you feel happy with others. If you do not feel happy with your job, if you do not want to smile, we advise you to listen to good music. Remember that music does miracles. Thus, you will also be able to change your character. When we listen to good music, when we spend long intervals listening to good music, we elevate our mind to higher levels of consciousness.

The mind radiates waves that travel through space. These waves pass from one brain to the next. A proof of the reality of these waves is found in telepathy. How many times do we walk on the street and all of a sudden the memory of someone strikes us and it so happens that we meet the very person we remembered? That is telepathy. That person’s mental waves have reached us and we, at the same time, have received them.

We have an authentic wireless system in our organism. The pineal gland, situated in the posterior part of the brain, is the thought-transmitting center, and the solar plexus, situated in the umbilical region, is the receptive antenna. The pineal gland is the seat of the Soul, the window of Brahma. The soul enters and leaves the body through this window. The pineal gland is a small reddish-gray organ. This gland secretes a hormone which regulates the development of the sexual organs. After maturity, this gland degenerates into a non-secreting fibrous tissue. The pineal gland is the jigsaw puzzle of the wise, the thought-transmitting center. This pineal gland is developed in the great geniuses of science, art, philosophy, etc. It is totally atrophied in idiots. Great businessmen and individuals who usually have great success in their business commonly have this gland well developed.

The pineal gland is intimately related to the sexual organs. The strength of the pineal gland depends on sexual strength. The man or woman who foolishly wastes his or her sexual energy fails in business because their pineal gland becomes atrophied. A weakened pineal gland cannot forcefully radiate mental waves. The result is failure.

Be prudent. Do not waste your sexual energies foolishly. The Bible says:

Thou shalt not commit fornication.

Fulfill this Sixth Commandment; save your sexual energies. By this means, you will fortify your pineal gland and inevitably succeed. In this manner, you will be able to radiate your mental waves with strength, power, and glory. These mental waves, after having arrived at the receptive center (the solar plexus) of other people who come in contact with you, will give you the success that you seek. Be triumphant. Always smile full of sincerity. Live happily. Work with pleasure and happiness and the world will be yours; luck will smile on you from everywhere.

Exercise Before the Mirror

In front of a mirror, contemplate your face closely. Then pray as follows:

My Soul, you should succeed; My Soul, you should overcome Satan; My Soul, take over my mind, my sentiments, my life. You should keep the Guardian of the Threshold faraway from me; You should overcome him; You should take power over me totally. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Say this prayer seven times and then observe in the mirror your eyes, your pupils, the center of your pupils, the retina of your eyes. Imagine them charged with light, strength and power. It is necessary that you try to mentally penetrate the interior of your eyes reflected in the mirror. It is necessary for you to try and see with your imagination, the center of those reflected eyes, the beauty of your soul. It is necessary for you to exclaim: “Oh my soul, I want to see you, I want to see you, I want to see you.”

Intensely persevere, daily, with this exercise. Do your exercise every night before going to sleep. With this exercise you will develop clairvoyance. Practice for ten minutes daily. That is all.

Clairvoyance

It is necessary that you know that a sixth sense exists in us. That sixth sense is clairvoyance. This faculty resides in the pineal gland. When you develop clairvoyance, you will be able to read thoughts like reading from an open book. When you become clairvoyant you will be able to see the soul of people. When you become clairvoyant you will be able to see the “I” of people. Then you will comprehend that the soul is not the “I.” The “I” is Satan in us. Clairvoyance allows us to see what lies beyond death. You will develop clairvoyance totally with the exercises that we give you. You should practice these exercises. We want you to write to us, communicating all your impressions to us.

Lesson Seven: Solve Problems with Mental Peace and Meditation

Man faces innumerable problems in life. Each person needs to know how to solve each of these problems intelligently. We need to comprehend each problem. The solution of every problem is in the problem itself.

The time for us to learn how to solve our problems has arrived. Many problems exist: economic, social, moral, political, religious, family related, etc. and we should learn to solve them intelligently. The important thing to remember for the solution of every problem is to not become identified with the problem.

We have a certain tendency to become identified with the problem, and the identification is so intense that we, in fact, become the very problem. The result of such identification is that we fail in the solution because a problem can never solve another problem.

One needs much peace and mental calm to solve a problem. An uneasy, battling, confused mind cannot solve any problem. If you have a very serious problem, do not become identified with the problem, do not become a problem yourself; retreat to any healthy recreational place: a forest, or a park, or the home of a very close friend, etc. Distract yourself with something different, listen to good music, and then, with your mind tranquil and calm, in perfect peace, try to comprehend the problem profoundly, remembering that the solution to every problem is within the problem itself.

Remember that without peace you cannot do anything new. You need calm and peace to solve the problem that presents itself in your life. You need to think in a completely new way about the problem that you want to solve and this is only possible by having tranquility and peace. In modern life we have many problems, and unfortunately, we do not enjoy peace. This is a true jigsaw puzzle because we cannot solve problems without peace.

We need peace and we should study this in depth. We need to investigate the principal factor that puts an end to peace inside and outside ourselves. We need to discover what causes the conflict. The time has arrived to comprehend in depth at all levels of the mind the infinite contradictions which we have within, because that is the principal factor of discord and conflict. By comprehending in depth the cause of an illness, we cure the patient. Knowing in depth the cause of the conflict, we do away with the conflict: peace is the result.

Within and around us, thousands of conflict-forming contradictions exist. Truly, what exists within us also exists in society, because—as we have said so many times—society is an extension of the individual. If there is contradiction and conflict within us, then these also exist in society. If the individual does not have peace, society will not have it either, and in these conditions all the pro-peace propaganda becomes, as a matter of fact, totally useless.

If we wisely analyze ourselves, we discover that a constant state of affirmation and negation exists within us. What we want to be and what we actually are: we are poor and we want to be millionaires, we are soldiers and we want to be generals; we are single and we want to be married; we are employees and we want to be managers, etc.

The state of contradiction engenders conflict, pain, moral misery, absurd actions, violence, murmuring, lies, gossip, etc. The state of contradiction can never bring us peace in life. A man without peace can never solve his problems. You need to intelligently solve your problems, and therefore it is urgent that you have peace constantly. The state of contradiction impedes the solution of problems. Each problem implies thousands of contradictions. “Shall I do this? The other? How? When?” etc.

Mental contradiction creates conflicts and frustrates the solution of problems.

We first need to solve the causes of the contradiction in order to end the conflicts. Only in this manner will peace arrive, and with it the solutions of the problems. It is important to discover the cause of contradictions; it is important to analyze this cause in detail. Only in this manner is it possible to do away with the mental conflict. It is not correct to blame others for our internal contradictions. The causes of these contradictions are inside of us.

Mental conflict exists between what we are and what we want to be, between what a problem is and what we want it to be. When we have a problem of any type—whether moral, economic, religious, family-related, marital, etc.—our first reaction is to think about it, resist it, deny it, accept it, explain it, etc. It is necessary to comprehend that with mental anguish, contradiction, worry, conflict, it is not possible to solve any problem. The best way to react before a problem is silence. I am referring to the silence of the mind. This silence arrives by not thinking about the problem. The silence arrives when we comprehend that nothing is solved with conflict and contradictions. This silence is not a special gift of anyone, nor the capacity of a certain type.

No one can cultivate this silence; it arrives by itself. It arrives when we comprehend that no problem is solved by resisting it, accepting, denying, affirming or explaining it, etc.

From mental silence is born intelligent action, the intuitive and wise action that will solve the problem, no matter how difficult it might be.

This intelligent action is not the result of any reaction. When we perceive the event, the problem, when we notice the fact without affirming, denying, or explaining it, when we do not accept the fact, nor reject it, then arrives the silence of the mind. Intuition flourishes in silence. From silence the intelligent action that totally solves the problem bursts forth.

Only in mental silence and calm is there freedom and wisdom.

Mental conflict is destructive and harmful. Mental conflict is a result of opposed desires: we want and we do not want, we desire this and the other. We are in constant contradiction and this, in fact, is conflict.

The constant contradiction that exists within us is due to the struggle of opposite desires. There is a constant negation of one desire by another desire; one determination is replaced by another. A permanent desire does not exist in the human being; every longing is temporary. He wants a job and after he has it, he desires another job. The employee wants to be a manager; the priest wants to be a bishop. Nobody is satisfied with what he has. Everyone is full of unsatisfied desires and wants satisfaction.

Life is an absurd succession of fleeting and vain desires. When we profoundly comprehend that all the desires in life are fleeting and vain, when we understand that the physical body is engendered in sin and that its destiny is to rot in the grave, then true peace of the mind is born from that profound comprehension. Contradiction and conflict disappears.

Only the mind that is in peace can solve problems. Peace rests in the silence of the mind.

Contradiction surges from obstinacy: when the mind clings to one single desire, when it wants its desire to be realized whatever it may cost, it is logical that there must be conflict.

If we carefully observe two people who are discussing a problem, we will be able to confirm that each person clings to his desire, each person wants to see his desire satisfied, and this naturally creates mental conflict. When we resolutely see the vanity of desires, when we comprehend that desire is the cause of our conflicts and bitterness, true peace arrives.

Exercise

Seated in a comfortable chair or lying down in your bed, close your eyes. Then concentrate on your interior, studying yourself, investigating your desires, your contradictions.

It is necessary for you to comprehend what your contradictory desires are, so that you may know in this manner the causes of your internal conflicts. Peace of mind comes from the knowledge of the causes of the mental conflict. Practice this simple exercise daily. It is necessary that you know yourself.

Lesson Eight: Alcohol, Intoxication, and Meditation on the Inner Self

Alcoholism

This vice has three perfectly defined aspects:

1. Initiation
2. Intoxication
3. Death

Initiation

Some people begin this horrible vice during adolescence, others during their youth, others at maturity, and a few during old age. There are many causes that lead people to the vice of alcoholism. The adolescent that is initiated into this horrible path does it because he wants to feel like a complete man. He has a false concept of manhood. He believes that being a man means to be a drunkard, smoker, fornicator, adulterer, etc. The youngster reaches the crude vice of alcoholism, seduced by his friends or embittered by sufferings. Many times an amorous deception or a difficult economic situation tends to be the basic motive for initiating the fatal path of alcoholism. The mature man who joins this horrible path of alcohol does it, as usual, moved by the spring of his own bitterness; probably the death of a loved one, an amorous deception, a divorce, the loss of his job and his fortune, etc.

The human organism rebels against the first drinks. At the beginning the organism is not yet intoxicated and it is obvious that it strongly rejects the harmful ingredient of alcohol to which it is not accustomed.

Vomiting, an upset stomach after the huge drinking sprees, etc., are ways that the organism uses to eliminate the noxious ingredient. The fight of the organism is usually very violent but our malignant will proposes to violate it, and achieves it.

There is not a drunkard without his moral tragedy. The already intoxicated drunkard secretly guards his tragedy. The drunkard who is initiating himself in the vice always exteriorizes his tragedy, but when he comprehends that people do not understand him, he prefers to be silent.

Intoxication

Alcoholic intoxication comes once the defenses of the human organism have been overcome. On arriving at this second phase, the organism no longer feels well without alcohol. The intoxicated doctor can no longer carry out a surgical operation without his favorite drink; his pulse shakes, and if he carries out the operation, the results are very bad. The businessman can no longer do business without alcohol; he feels timid, nervous and fails. The worker is already incapable of working without his drink, he feels weak. Alcohol becomes a necessity for the intoxicated organism. The intoxicated one drinks and drinks, stimulated by the secret spring of his moral tragedy.

Some drunkards eat and drink; these last longer. Others do not eat so, as they say, “to not lose the intoxication”; these die very soon. Food favors the entire digestive system, but the lack of food definitely leaves the organism totally defenseless: the result is quick death.

Death

Every alcoholic intoxication concludes with death. Death can result from an ulcer or from cirrhosis of the liver or generally from any bad aspect of the liver, stomach, etc. It has been clinically proven that the drunkards that live longer are those who eat while drinking and that those who live short lives are those who do not eat while drinking.

The death of a drunkard is very horrible. They become very nervous in clinics and hospitals due to the lack of alcohol. They exclaim, shout, demand the bottle of alcohol; their desperation is frightening. Some die vomiting blood, others with terrible bloody diarrheas, etc.

Psychology of the Drunkard

The totally intoxicated drunkard spends everything on the vice. When the drunkard does not have anymore to spend, then he becomes a beggar, thief, swindler, or in the better of cases, nothing more than a simple slave of alcohol, a beggar of alcohol. The intoxicated one loses all concept of honor, dignity, responsibility, etc., and only one thing interests him in life: drinking. Alcohol becomes a vital fundamental necessity for the intoxicated person; that is all.

The serious things of life do not have any value for the drunkard; he is completely irresponsible. The intoxicated alcoholic is immoral in the most complete sense of the word. Dignity, word of honor, virtue, etc. have absolutely no importance for the intoxicated alcoholic. The hardhearted drunkard laughs at all those human qualities and even feels infinitely superior to his fellowmen.

Campaign Against Alcohol

The true effective campaign against alcohol is achieved by explaining with every detail the three defined aspects of this horrible vice, these three aspects of the path of alcohol: Initiation, Intoxication and Death. They should be pointed out at home, in school, at the university, in academies, temples, lodges, ashrams, sanctuaries, etc. This is the best way to effectively campaign against alcohol. Dry laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol are useless because drunkards then astutely invent their methods of making intoxicating drinks in a clandestine form. This does more harm than good to society. Only creative comprehension can save people from falling into this horrible and frightening vice. The audio-visual system of teaching is marvelous to combat the vice of alcohol.

The Home - True Education Begins at Home Parents who drink set a bad example to their children, and lead their children down the fatal path of the Abyss. Children should be taught at home what this horrible vice is, the three aspects of this horrible path, etc. This type of teaching, accompanied by a good example, is radical in warning the new generation against the vice of alcohol.

Whatever is learned well at home is never forgotten.

Meditation and Intoxication

Meditation and intoxication are the opposite poles of the same force. Meditation is positive. Alcoholic intoxication is negative.

The Rosicrucian Gnostic should drink the wine of meditation in the sacred chalice of concentration. It is necessary to keep far away from the negative aspect. It is necessary to not fall into the negative aspect of the mind. The drunkard submerges himself into the atomic hells of nature and becomes lost in the Abyss. It is better to drink the wine of meditation in the sacred chalice of thought concentration. Let us concentrate our mind on our Inner God. Let us meditate on him for entire hours. In this manner we will reach Samadhi, the ineffable ecstasy. Then we will be able to converse with the Gods and penetrate the Great Mysteries of Nature. This is better than the “delirium tremens,” which allows the drunkard to penetrate the atomic hells of Nature and be with the demons of the Abyss. The visions of the “delirium tremens” of drunkards are actually real; that which they see in their visions really exists. They see larvae, demons, and horrible monsters that really exist in the Atomic Infernos of Universal Nature. They penetrate the abyss and see the beings of the Abyss, perverse beings that live in the Atomic Infernos of Nature.

Alcoholic Larvae

Every human being carries around with him an atomic atmosphere perceptible to clairvoyants. These larvae live in the fourth dimension. By the way, we must say that modern physics already begins to admit the four coordinates, the fourth dimension, the fourth vertical. The drunkard carries in this ultra-sensitive atmosphere alcoholic larvae that stimulate him in the vice that gave them life, inciting him to drink. Said larvae only disintegrate with the fumes of sulfur.

Osmotherapy

Perfumes [incense] combined with mental power constitute a marvelous healing system. Drunkards can be healed by wisely combining these two elements.

Treatment

Do you have any loved one who is a victim of the vice of alcoholism? When he is asleep, hold his hand with your right hand. Make him smell a delicious perfume, a rose extract, and then talk to him with a soft voice as if he was awake. Advise him, explain to him in a detailed way what the horrible vice of alcoholism is. Remember that when the body sleeps, the ego leaves the body and travels in the fourth dimension.

The words you utter to the sleeping person reach the ear drum, go on to the brain’s sensory center and are then transmitted to the ego even when the latter is far away from the physical body. On awakening, the ego returns to the physical body and if he does not remember what you told him, you can be certain that all you have said has remained in your loved one’s subconsciousness. These words produce their effect little by little and the day finally arrives when the patient is cured of the horrible vice of alcoholism.

Exercise

Lie down and remain calmly in bed. Open your arms and legs to the right and left to form the flaming five-pointed star. Relax your muscles properly. The process of relaxation is easy if combined with imagination. (Practice the exercise of relaxation in Lesson Two.)

Mental Relaxation

Once the relaxation of the physical body has been obtained, it is necessary to relax the mind. Mental relaxation is also obtained with the help of the imagination. Observe all the thoughts that come to mind, all the memories that assail you, all the worries, etc. Study them to find out their origin. The study of all this will reveal many things to you: it will make you get to know your defects, your errors, etc. In this manner, you will know how your “I,” your ego, works.

Analyze each defect. Try to comprehend each defect in all the levels of the mind. Study each thought, memory or emotion which assails you. Comprehend each thought. Then imagine a profound abyss. Throw each studied thought, each memory, worry, etc. into that abyss.

In this manner, your mind will become silent and still. In the silence and calm of the mind you will be able to see and hear the Inner Self. He is the Internal Master. He is your Internal God.

Concentration

When the mind has achieved absolute calm and silence, it can concentrate on the Inner Self. This concentration is done with the help of prayer. Pray to your Inner Self. Try to converse with your Inner Self. Remember that praying is conversing with God. You can pray without formulae; in other words, talk to God: tell Him what your heart feels with infinite love.

Meditation

Whoever achieves perfect concentration can meditate on his Internal God. Reflect on your Internal God, identify yourself with him, and live in him.

Contemplation

Whoever learns to calm the mind, to concentrate the mind and pray, can practice perfect meditation and reach the heights of internal contemplation. On reaching these heights we are in ecstasy. We can talk face to face with the ineffable Gods, study the marvels of the infinite cosmos and travel through the infinite in Spirit and Soul. In that state of ecstasy the physical body remains asleep and abandoned. Now you will comprehend why it is convenient to practice these exercises during instances of drowsiness. Sleep is a faculty that should be taken advantage of to consciously achieve ecstasy.

Lesson Nine: How to Use and Take Care of Your Mind

The Universal Mind

Social living is based on the functions of the mind. It is necessary to profoundly explore the diverse levels of the mind. The sphere of thought that man lives within is never locked up within the limited circumference of the cranium, as is generally supposed by the ignoramus and even the illustrious ignoramuses of the world. If such a man existed as those people believe, he would, of course, be the most unfortunate man in the world. A man with his mind imprisoned in his cranium could not see or perceive anything, he would be a complete idiot, living in the most profound darkness. That unfortunate creature would not see the Sun, the moon, stars, the Earth we live on, people, things, nor light. Nothing that has existence would exist in the mind of such a man; this is explained by the fact that man can perceive nothing that does not exist beforehand in his own mind.

In his Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant said, “The exterior is the interior.” The entire universe exists in the cosmic mind. The mental sphere of each person extends throughout the entire cosmos and reaches the most faraway stars. This is the cause of seeing, hearing, and feeling all that is created. This is the reason for seeing the most remote stars. Our thoughts are not locked up in our cranium. Our mind extends throughout the entire cosmos. Our mind penetrates everywhere: worlds, suns, people, and things; everything is within the mind of each man.

The mind is universal energy. The mind vibrates and sparkles in all creation. The cerebrum is not the mind. The cerebrum is only a receptive center, a radio-telegraphic office which receives the messages of the mind. The cerebrum does not think. The one that thinks is the mind, and it is is not the cerebrum.

Religions say that the human Soul has a body of flesh and bones. The Theosophists maintain that besides the body of flesh and bones, the soul has a Mental Body. All the Oriental and Occidental schools dedicated to the study of occultism teach their students how to use the Mental Body. The Soul dressed in the Mental Body can transport itself to other planets at will and see what happens there.

The entire universe is within the human mind. All minds are within all other minds. We mutually live in the thought sphere of others. The economic and social problems of each person live in the mind of everybody: no one is alien to another. We are all in the mind of everybody else. The beggar lives within the mind of the rich individual, and the rich one lives in the mind of the beggar. We are all submerged in the ocean of the universal mind.

Imagination and Will

Imagination and will are the two poles of the mind. The imagination is feminine; the will is masculine. The key to success is within the imagination and will united in vibrant harmony.

Mental Action

The inventor conceives with his imagination the telephone, the radio, the automobile, etc., and then with the will gives it shape, converts it into facts, into concrete reality. Parisian designers dictate fashions just as they conceive them in their imagination.

Mental Epidemics

If a man thinks in both a good and a bad sense, the waves that emanate from his mind reach the Mental Body of each individual. Mental waves are propagated in all places. When the waves are those of wisdom and love, they benefit all those who receive them.

When the waves are permeated with devotion and veneration towards God, they carry peace and comfort to all those in suffering. Poisonous mental waves harm the minds of others. Mental waves of hatred, envy, covetousness, lust, pride, laziness, gluttony, etc. produce mental epidemics. Perverse mental waves poison many weak minds with their radioactivity.

The case of “rebels without a cause” is a good example of what mental epidemics are. The “rebels without a cause” have become an evil and harmful plague. The cause of this mental epidemic should be sought for in the ill-used imagination. Movie theatres show movies of bandits and gunmen that are then recorded in the minds of young people. Parents give their children guns, war trucks, tiny cannons, soldiers, toys, machine guns, etc. All of this is forcefully reflected in the imagination of children and adolescents. Then follow the magazines and comic books of police and robbers, pornographic magazines, etc.

The result of all this does not make itself wait; shortly afterwards, the child, the adolescent, actually becomes the “rebel without a cause,” and later, the robber, the professional thief, the swindler, etc.

Mental Hygiene

It is necessary to practice mental hygiene. A preventive medicine is urgent. Develop wisdom and love. Pray a lot daily. Select works of art: we suggest good music, classical music, good paintings, the works of Michelangelo, the great operas.

Avoid spectacles harmful to the mind, such as bloody spectacles like boxing, wrestling, bullfights, etc. These kinds of spectacles produce mental epidemics. Take care of your mind. Do not permit evil thoughts to penetrate the temple of your mind. Be pure in thought, word, and deed. Teach your children all that is good, true, and beautiful.

Origins of the Universal Mind

The great Divine Reality surged from its own bosom in the aurora of this solar universe in which we live, move, and have our own Being. The Great Reality does not know itself but, contemplating itself in the living mirror of the great imagination of Nature, it then comes to know itself. In this manner, a mental vibratory activity is created by which the Great Reality knows its infinite images that shine marvelously in the cosmic scenery.

This activity coming from the periphery going towards the center is called the universal mind.

All of us beings live submerged in the infinite ocean of the universal mind. Therefore, we all live in everyone else. No one can separate mentally. “The heresy of separateness is the worst of heresies.”

The intelligent activity of the universal mind proceeds from a centripetal force and, since every action is followed by a reaction, the centripetal force, on finding a resistance in the center, reacts and creates a centrifugal activity called the Cosmic Soul. This vibratory Cosmic Soul turns out to be the mediator between the center and the periphery, between the Universal Spirit of life and matter, between the Great Reality and its living images.

A great master said:

The Soul is the product of the centrifugal action of the universal activity impelled by the centripetal action of the universal imagination.

Terms

• Centrifuge: is the force that tries to move away from the center. The force that goes from the center to the periphery.
• Centripetal: the force which is attracted by the center. The force that flows from the periphery to the center.

Every individual can fabricate a Soul. When we know the technique of internal meditation, when we direct mental power to the interior of our own divine center, the resistance that we will find internally will cause a reaction, and the more vigorous the centripetal force we apply, the more vigorous will be the centrifugal force that forms. Likewise do we fabricate a Soul. In this manner, the soul grows and expands. The strong and robust Soul incarnates and transforms the physical body: transforms it into more subtle and elevated manner until it also converts into Soul.

Exercise

Learn to use your imagination and will, united in vibrant harmony. Lying in your bed or seated in a comfortable chair, imagine a faraway place that you know well (a house, a park, an avenue, a city, etc.). Lull yourself to sleep with that image in your mind. When you find yourself falling asleep and with that image in your mind, fulfill that imagination. Forget the place where your body is: put your willpower into play and, full of self-confidence, walk in the imagined site. Walk in the imagined place as if you were there in flesh and blood. If the exercise is done correctly, you will leave your physical body and your soul will be transported to that place, where you will be able to see and hear everything that is happening there.

Physical Nourishment: Eat a Balanced Diet for Spiritual Growth

The physical body is one of the marvelous instruments which man possesses to express himself. Considering this body from a strictly physical point of view, it is what we could call a machine, food being its combustible. The machine works and serves as an instrument according to the kind of combustible that is used.

Many times we meet people who radiate an attitude of bliss, happiness, health, optimism, sympathy, love, etc. These people win the friendship of everyone: they possess a force of attraction, a “magnet”; they are irresistible. Others are weak and lack that “magnet” which is so marvelous. They fail when they try to receive the help of other people, and when they are owners of a business their clients gradually leave them.

Psychology has discovered that a person’s character depends on his internal state. Character does not develop in the physical body, but it expresses itself through it, and if the physical body is not in a good state, then our internal side cannot express itself efficiently.

It is indispensable that each person be nourished sufficiently. When nutrition is imperfect, the blood weakens and becomes poor, this being the reason why the cells also weaken. One of the best ways of obtaining complete nutrition with our customary food consists in perfectly masticating the delicacies. Food partially ingested loses a great part of its nutritional value.

Another point of great importance is the irrigation of the body: the proper use of water for the organism’s benefit. The minimum amount of water required daily is two and a half liters. If water becomes scarce, then certain glands cannot function efficiently; the body does not eliminate all the wastes of the organism properly, the liver does not function well, etc.

Vegetarian Diet

The majority of people believe that food without meat is incomplete. Nothing is more erroneous because science has demonstrated that nutrition obtained from vegetables has a greater sustaining power.

All animals carry within the poisons of putrefaction. The venous blood is full of carbonic acid and other noxious substances. These harmful and repugnant substances are found everywhere in meat and when we eat these foods we fill our bodies with these toxins.

Abundant proofs exist which demonstrate that a carnivorous diet stimulates ferocity. Let us observe the ferocity of the beasts of prey and the cruelty of the cannibals, and compare them with the prodigious strength and docility of cattle, of the elephant, of the horse.

However, let us not jump to the conclusion that everyone should give up eating meat once and for all and dedicate themselves to vegetarian eating. It would be crazy for a person to change his ordinary diet which he has been using for years and which is nourishing him adequately. To eliminate meat from the ordinary diet of the people accustomed to it would completely undermine their health. The only sure way to proceed is by first experimenting and studying things.

You should be very careful with your nutrition. We do not ask you to give up meat once and for all but we do warn you that meat, when consumed in large quantities (for example, everyday), are like poison for the body. Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller, Professor of Medicine of the University of Berlin and great Gnostic doctor, sustained that man should consume twenty percent of his food as meat.

We have verified that some foods such as wheat, eggs, avocados, etc. can substitute meat. Cereals, in general, are of great nutritive value. The protein of cow milk is marvelous. Milk from soybeans is very nutritious and its chemical composition is similar to that of cow milk.

Foods should be used in a balanced manner so as to obtain the best nutrition. Avoid eating white bread. White flour is harmful and does not contain any nourishment. Eat black bread, plantains, and corn flour instead of white bread and white flour. Eat many vegetables; remember that vegetables are fountains of great nourishment. Vitamins are found in vegetables.

May peace be with you!

Samael Aun Weor