Secret Path of the Heart

Written by Gnostic Instructor

Category: Beginning Here and Now

Created: 23 July 2013

New to Gnosis
 Whether we've studied a spiritual teaching for some
number of years, or if it's something new, regardless of
the tradition, we always go back towards the very root,
which is the direct experience of the truths contained
within religion. This is why we say that Gnosis is a heart
doctrine; it is a doctrine of the heart. It is not exclusively
intellectual, for while we study and accumulate
knowledge, a robust spiritual culture, of different
scriptures and different writings, really what we look for is
the practice. What we seek is the experience. And this is
why we say that Gnosis is a Dharma of the heart.

When we say that it relates with the heart, it has to do

with certainty, the fact that we know from experience, for
its one thing to read about spirituality, about the different
realms of the universe called the Sephiroth in Kabbalah,
different modalities of Consciousness, out of body
experiences, experiences in which one may find oneself
conversing with the Gods. It's one thing to read about it;
it's a completely different thing to experience it. And this
is why we say Gnosis relates with the heart; it is what we
live palpably within ourselves.

So whether we've be studying for a long time, or if we

are new to this teaching, this is what we always come
back tothe fundamentals, to question what it is we truly
know from experience, that which we have lived within our
flesh and our bones, within the very atoms of
our Consciousness. And it is this type of experience which
really shows us that all religions are unanimous, that there
really is no distinction or conflict between them. This
knowledge is about activating the very latent potential to
become something superior, to become a being that is a
living incarnation of God, and we do this through practical
efforts, practical work.

This knowledge has been given many names, and in

this lecture, in speaking about the Heart Doctrine or the
secret path of the heart, we're going to delve into the
many different schools, the foundations and structure of
religion, how the heart develops in accordance with
initiation and stages of the path, and really that it is a
practical science; it is very practical.

Regardless of the profundity, the vastness, and the

complexity of this type of teaching, really it is actually
quite simple: it relates with how we use Consciousness. As
we were talking in the last lecture, we were talking about
Pinocchio, which means, "pine seed." In Buddhist terms we
refer to this as the Buddhadhatu, which means, "the seed
of the Buddha." It is the potential to become a being that
is fully awakened. The root word budh means
"cognizance," and the Buddha is one who has fully
awakened that.

This really our goal; this is what we want to become,

and this doesn't come about by theories. It comes about
by work through spiritual discipline, through practice. And
this is why you see, particularly in this tradition, we have
so many tools, to activate that, from different prayers,
conjurations and invocations, practices of magic in which
we invoke the superior forces of the Tree of Life, known as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Christian terms; the First
Logos, Second Logos and Third Logos in Gnostic Greek
terms, and many names. These tools and exercises are
meant to develop the pine seed, so that this pine seed
may become a Christmas tree, completely illuminated and
developed.

This all is based upon our actions. It's based upon what
we work upon in our heart; how we develop the heart,
because Gnosis, if we examine the term (in Greek it's a
silent "g") relates to the Sanskrit word Jnana, meaning
"knowledge," and Prajna, which is the wisdom of the heart,
such as with the Heart Sutra or Prajna-paramita Sutra. So
we find that cognate, "Jna," "Gno-sis," "Jna-na," "Pra-nja."
We find this even in Hebrew names such as Eliana, which
is commonly translated as "God has answered me," but
can literally mean "my Goddess of Knowledge," and if you
know Kabbalah, that's one of the sacred names of God,
"My Goddess of Knowledge: Iod-Chavah" or
Eloah va Da'ath Iod-Hei-Vau-Hei in Tiphereth (the world of
the heart) which is equivalent to the aforementioned
name. Eliana relates with that: Pranja, Jnana, Gnosis,
knowledge within the human being, since when we know
the divine through the conscious awareness, Tiphereth, it
has to do with the certainty of the truth experienced in
one's heart.

What we emphasize always is practice, not theories. If

we want God to answer us, indicated through the name
Eliana, we have to develop self-knowledge. We study the
theory in the beginning, so that when we have the
practical experience, we can orient ourselves
appropriately. This is why we have so many different
books; we have over seventy books from astrology
to Tarot to Kabbalah, Alchemy, Tantra, Buddhism,
Christianity, Islam, many writings. But all of that is useless
if we do not know how to work the Consciousness, if we do
not know how to develop the seed, so that it may sprout
into a Buddha, an awakened being.

The person who initiates this type of effort, who works

in a practical way, in Greek is known as
mystikos, which means "initiate." It comes from the Greek
root myein, which means "to close the eyes." This is also
the root word of "mystery," and in a very famous scripture
known as The Voice of the Silence, transcribed by Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky, it says this:

"Before the soul can see, the Harmony within must be

attained, and fleshly eyes be rendered blind to all
illusion."

So it means to close the eyes to the misconceptions or

the theories, the beliefs of many traditions and religions,
and to really seek to experience what is internal, because
this knowledge is completely internal. We have to really
become blind to a lot of the concepts and misconceptions
made about religion and spiritual practice, because
generally humanity is focused on the external and ignores
the treasures that we carry within our interior, that pine
seed that can really blossom into something rare and
beautiful.

It's necessary to learn how to close the eyes in a

figurative sense. It doesn't mean we become naive or
stupid; it just means we know how to live in this world with
wisdom, to take advantage of it for our spiritual work, to
use that so that we can really be of benefit, not only to
ourselves, but to others in a genuine way. The mistake of
many traditions, or the misconceptions about traditions, is
that it is solely related with the external. This is what we
call the Eye Doctrine in the scripture that I've quoted from,
the doctrine of the physical eye, meaning we always look
towards the physical world for answers and explanations,
of phenomena or, better said, noumena, which is
completely mystical and is not based on physical
experience. It's something internal, more profound. And
unfortunately, many schools of philosophy, many religions,
they interpret the scriptures in a very literal way in
accordance with theories, in accordance with the eye, with
what is most easily seen, but it is very rare for a person to
develop that internal sight in order to see within the
scripture itself from living experience.

And the Master Jesus explained this very beautifully in

the book of Matthew, Chapter 13:

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do you

speak to them in parables?"

He answered and said to them, "Because it has been

given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven (myein, "to close the eyes," to see within"), but
to them it has not been given (meaning that they have
not awakened the Consciousness to experience these
things, which is our divine nature within).

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will

have abundance. But whoever does not have, even
what he has will be taken away from him.

Therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing,

they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear, nor do
they understand.

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which

says, 'Hearing, you will hear, and shall not understand,
and seeing, you will see, and not perceive.'

For the hearts of this people have grown dull (relating

with the Heart Doctrine). Their ears are hard of hearing,
and their (spiritual) eyes they have closed, lest they
should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest
they should understand with their hearts, and turn, so
that I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears
for they hear (since you have accomplished this through
myein, closing your eyes to the illusions of the world),
for assuredly I say to you that many prophets and
righteous men desire to see what you see and did not
see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
-Matthew 13:10-17
 So he makes a very strong distinction between the
exoteric and the esoteric, that which is readily perceived
on the outside by external perception, meaning what we
term in Gnosticism as the Sensual Mind, and then there
one's inward perception through mystical exaltation of
the Consciousness. In Gnostic Psychology we refer to three
types of mind:

The Sensual Mind

The Intermediate Mind

The Inner Mind

The Sensual Mind is a type of psychology which is solely

fascinated with physical phenomena, meaning it is a type
of reasoning based on what we can readily see, a type of
"common sense" so to speak. It is exclusively founded
upon the information gathered from the five senses. Since
it is limited to physical perception, or phenomena, such a
mind cannot know anything of spiritual realities,
denominated by Immanuel Kant as noumena.

But the Intermediate Mind is much different; it has to do

with beliefs and theories. It has to do with concepts, things
that, while we have not experienced them, we still think
they are true; we do not know if they're true, but we may
have a faith in a religion, and say, "Well, we should believe
in Jesus and I feel like I'm saved because I have accepted
Christ as my savior, and I'm done." And that's the
Intermediate Mind, it relates with a type of mysticism
which is not based in direct experience in
the Consciousness. It is a belief in the heart or a concept
in the mind that is not backed by experiential evidence
within the awakening of the psyche.

But then we have the Inner Mind, the Inner Mind which
is the faculty of the Consciousness. It is what can directly
perceive in complete mystical experience the truths
contained in religion, sometimes known as, perhaps,
awakening in dreams, such as is described in the Book of
Daniel, which relates with dreams; or the ladder of Jacob,
in which he perceived the angels ascending and
descending, from the superior to the inferior worlds.

It's the Inner Mind we seek to awaken and to develop.

We say that when the Buddhata, the seed of the Buddha,
is fully developed, then the Inner Mind is one hundred
percent awakened. This is what we call faith. Belief is to
think something is true, but we don't practically know.
Real faith, a term that is so abused in this day, really
means what we know. When Jesus said, "With faith the
size of a mustard seed (like a pine seed), you can move
mountains," he's not talking about belief. He's talking
about experience, because when you know something is
true, your conviction is very determined and solid. It's
unshakeable, and even if many people think you're crazy
for studying a type of teaching like this, a type of
mysticism of wanting to experience the divine in a
personal way, you know its true, and really, that won't
bother you because when you "know the truth, the truth
shall set you free" (John 8:32).
 It really has nothing to do with concepts, theories,
beliefs, but we have to open the heart as Jesus says, to
close the eyes to the physical world, close the eyes to the
Sensual Mind, in order to perceive with the vision of the
heart. Many masters are unanimous on this point. I'll
quote for you probably the greatest Sufi Master that's
lived. His name is Ibn 'Arabi, and this is from his book
called Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom.

May God open the eyes of your heart, shedding His

divine light. The angelic realm, which contains the
potential of future creation, incorporeal existences, the
meaning of all and everything to come, and divine
power, is the element from which the visible world is
created and, therefore the material world is under the
influence and domination of the angelic realm. The
movement, the sound, the voice, the ability to speak, to
eat and to drink is not from the existences themselves
in the visible, material world. They all pass through the
 invisible world of the angelic realm.We think that we see
with our eyes. The information, the influences of
perception, are due to our senseswhile the real
influence, the meaning of things, the power behind what
sees and what is seen, can be reached neither by the
senses, nor by deduction and analysis, comparison,
contrasts, and associations made through intellectual
theories. The invisible world can only be penetrated by
the eye and the mind of the heart. Indeed, the reality of
this visible also can only be seen by the mind and eye of
the heart.

He's really talking about a superior type of perception,

in which the divine nature that we have can see with
clarity the very essence and nature of this phenomenal
world, and it is through mystical experience that we see,
particularly in Meditation, or out of the body, that we see
that this physical world is really quite crude and is not
accurate. It doesn't convey the actual essence of what
occurs on a psychological level, on an energetic level. This
is why in Hinduism this world is Maya, is illusion; in order
to delve past the illusions of the world (really, it's internal),
we have to develop the heart through the experience and
perception of the divine. Ibn 'Arabi continues:

What we think we see is but veils which hide the reality

of things; things whose truth, whose meaning may not
be revealed until these veils are lifted.

(If you're familiar with Freemasonry or Egyptian

mysticism, we know about the veil of Isis. It's that
covering or the illusions of the senses which prevents us
from perceiving Divine Mother Nature, or the divinity that
we carry within).

It is only when the dark veils of imagination and

preconception are raised that the divine light will
penetrate the heart, enabling the inner eye to see. Then
either the sunlight or the light of a candle will become a
metaphor for the divine light.

Gnosis is direct experience, and the very obstacle that

prevents us from accessing those superior states, not just
when we physically go to sleep and enter into those
dream states, but on a moment to moment basis. It is only
by learning to direct our attention from second to second,
from instant to instant, that we can really lift the veil of
Isis, to penetrate with our comprehension into the very
nature of the divine, which subsists on a moment to
moment basis.

As Samael Aun Weor wrote, "The truth is the

unknowable from moment to moment." When we think we
know, that's usually a sure indicator that we probably are
very asleep, because the state of awakened perception, or
Self-remembering or Self-observation, to be in the now,
everything is new, and we recognize, "I don't know
anything!" Like a child who is fascinated with the
experience of life, and everything is fresh a new. This is
really the psychological attitude that we need in every
second, and we always have to go back and cultivate that.
It is the foundation. It is the foundation of mystical
experience. It is the means by which, through the practice
of Meditation, we cultivate, facilitate and activate those
experiences.

Really, it comes to my mind, the story of a Tibetan

Buddhist master, who was asked by a student of his, "So
when do you meditate?" And he replied, "But I am always
meditating!" In every second. It's by using that clarity of
perception, which we call Consciousness, Buddhata,
Tathagarthagarba, the psyche, the soul.

The Body, Soul and Spirit of the Heart Doctrine

 This is the very key that opens the door to religion, to
true reunion with the divine. It is a moment to moment
awareness, a moment to moment effort, and it is this key
that is so lacking in many traditions today, which have
really died and lost the Heart Doctrine contained within
them, or we could say that their esoteric heart stopped
beating. And this is why we see many scriptures
interpreted so literally. And the great masters, the Rabbis
of The Zohar warned about this many centuries ago, even
in their own time. The Zohar is probably the most
advanced scripture given by the Kabbalists of Israel. The
Sepher ha Zohar means "The Book of Splendors."
Splendor is a reference to the Sephirah Tiphereth on
the Tree of Life, for as we say in the Invocation of
Solomon, "Mercy (Chesed )and Justice
(Geburah ), be ye the equilibrium and splendor
(Tiphereth )of my life!"

It is from Judaism where we derive a certain structure or

dynamic in religion, which we actually find in all traditions
and we're going to talk about this in relation with the
Heart Doctrine. The Kabbalists say that there is a body, a
soul, and a spirit to every doctrine. In Judaism, the Torah,
the Books of Moses, along with the complete writings in
the Tanakh, is known as the body of the doctrine. The
Talmud, by the Kabbalists, is known as the soul of the
doctrine. And then you have the spirit of the doctrine,
which is The Zohar . You can see that these are varying
levels of instruction.

Audience: The Talmud, that's a different writing from

the Torah?

Speaker: Moses wrote the Torah, the body of the law

and instruction, but the Talmud is more of the
philosophical discourse regarding Jewish mysticism and
way of life. It's really more of the soul of the doctrine.
Whereas the body of a doctrine is just the narrative, and
you'll see this quotation illustrates this fact. This is about
"The Real Torah" from the Sepher ha Zohar :

Rabbi Simeon says: "Woe to the man who says that the
Torah came to relate stories, simply and plainly, and
 simpleton tales about Esau and Laban and the like. If it
was so, even at the present day we could produce a
Torah from simplistic matters, and perhaps even nicer
ones than those. If the Torah came to exemplify worldly
matters, even the rulers of the world have among them
things that are superior. If so, let us follow them and
produce from them a Torah in the same manner. It must
be that all items in the Torah are of a superior nature
and are uppermost secrets.

Come and behold: the world above and the world below
are measured with one scale. The children of Yisrael
below correspond to the lofty angels above (which,
going back to Ibn 'Arabi's quote, he's talking about the
angelic realm, the physical realm, and their connection).
It is written about the lofty angels: "who makes the
winds his messengers" (Psalms 104:4). When they
descend downwards, they are donned with the
vestments of this world. If they had not acquired the
dress for this world, they would not be able to exist in
this world, and the world would not be able to stand
them. And if this is so for the angels, how much more so
is it for the Torah that created these messengers and all
the worlds, that exist due to her. Once it was brought
down to this world, if it had not donned all these
covering garments of this world, which are the stories
and simplistic tales, the world would not have been able
to tolerate it.

It's because this type of teaching is too direct, and why

all the great scriptures are really symbolic. So we see that
from the angelic realm, the superior regions, the
messengers and prophets, from which we get from the
word angeloi or angels, come down in order to express
this type of teaching, which is very abstract. So to explain
it in completely abstract terms, people would not
understand it, since those indoctrinated by the Sensual
Mind and the five senses are less capable of grasping it.
The fact that it's written in stories and parables is in order
to convey a message, but if we interpret literally, in
accordance with the Eye Doctrine, and not the heart, we
fall into many absurdities, many mistakes.

So we say that the Torah, which interestingly enough

means "instruction," "law," etc., is the same meaning as
Dharma. The Torah and the Dharma are really the law, the
instruction, the foundation of spiritual practice. The
problem is that, due to the hypnosis of the senses, people
are not capable of experiencing the truths that are
contained in the scriptures in a symbolic form, because if
we read just the literal meaning, it's really quite useless. It
might feed a person's pride to read about the history of
Israel; it is very literal to them. They think that there is no
symbolism, and meanwhile the whole scripture is
symbolic. It is a vestment, a dress:

Therefore, this story of the Torah is the mantle of the

Torah. He who thinks that this mantle is the actual
essence of the Torah and that nothing else is in there,
let his spirit deflate and let him have no part in the
world to come. Therefore, David said, "open my
(spiritual) eyes (through myein, Meditation), that I may
behold wondrous things out of your Torah (your law and
instruction)" (Psalms 119:18); that is, look what lies
under that garment of the Torah.

Come and behold: there is a dress that is visible to

everyone. The simple people, when they see a person
dressed beautifully, who appears to them distinguished
by his clothing, do not observe any further. They make
their judgments about him according to his
distinguished apparel and they consider the dress as
the body of man, and the body of the person like his
soul.

It's like what Polonius says in Hamlet, "For the apparel

oft proclaims the man" (Act III.iii. 72). This is now taken in
a more spiritual sense. We can even draw an interestingly
parallel to Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, wherein his fictional prophet discusses the
torpidity of the common man in relation with the things of
the divine, as well as those "famous wise men" who say
they follow the Heart Doctrine, but are in turn hypocrites
and literal interpreters of the Torah, individuals we may
otherwise denominate "tarantulas," to use the author's
terminology:

But even in your virtues you remain for me part of the

people, the dumb-eyed peoplethe people, who do not
know what spirit is. -On the Famous Wise Men, Book II

We continue now with The Zohar :

 Similar to this is the Torah. It has a body, which is
composed of the commandments of the Torah that are
called the 'body of the Torah'. This body is clothed with
garments, which are stories of this world. The ignorant
of the world look only at that dress, which is the story in
the Torah, and are not aware of anything more. They do
not look at what lies beneath that dress. Those who
know more do not look at the dress, but rather at the
body beneath that dress. The wise, the sages, the
servants of the loftiest king (which is Christ, that divine
intelligence known by many different names in religion),
those that stood at mount Sinai, look only at the soul of
the Torah, which is the essence of everything, the real
Torah. In the destiny to come, they are destined to look
at the soul, the soul of the Torah.

We find this structure and dynamic in all religions, and

I'm going to draw this parallel amongst all religions, or
some of the major ones that we know of that express this
type of dynamic: a body, a soul and a spirit of a doctrine.

In the Buddhist sense, we have the following schools:

Shravakayana

Mahayana

Tantrayana / Vajrayana

Yana means vehicle, and indicates a vehicle of

instruction, a vehicle of giving forth the Torah, the law, the
Dharma, whatever name or label you want to give it.
Shravaka means "someone who listens," so in the
beginning of any spiritual instruction, we have to listen
first. The beginner always listens to receive that type of
teaching, and therefore its the vehicle by which we take in
that instruction for the first time.

Mahayana means "Greater Vehicle" and it relates more

to how we work practically to help other people. You may
be familiar with the term Bodhichitta, which we're going to
talk about in relation with the soul of the doctrine. And
then you have the spirit which is Tantrayana, the very
essence, root or core of a doctrine, which is very
advanced. Vajra means "lightning" or "diamond." So this
indicates the most pure teaching we know of.

We find this even in Sufism.

Shari'ah

Tariqah

Haqiqah / Marif'ah

We have the body of the law, Shari'ah; we have the

soul, Tariqah, which means "path;" it's really the esoteric
path. And then we have the final two, which really are one:
Haqiqah and Marif'ah. Haqiqah means "truth" and Marif'ah
means "Gnosis, knowledge."

Shari'ah is the written law or code of Islam, Al-Qur'an

and Al-Hadith. This is the code of conduct any spiritual
aspirant must fulfill. Such ethical discipline is the
foundation of all religious practice and spiritual
achievement.Tariqah is the soul of the teachings, the
practical techniques for achieving spiritual change. These
practices have never been given openly by the Muslim
initiates, but were transmitted by mouth to ear. However,
we now have such techniques available in the writings of
Samael Aun Weor. Tariqah also represents the
philosophical teachings that explain Al-Qur'an and Al-
Hadith, which we find in the Sufi writings of Rumi, Ibn
'Arabi, Al-Qushayri, and others.Haqiqah is the truth, the
realization of divine spiritual truths within the many
explications of the great Sufi Masters. One example is the
poetry of Mansur al-Hallaj, the Muslim Christ, who was
tortured and killed for pronouncing An l-aqq (I
am the Truth!). Truly, this master completely embodied the
Heart Doctrine, since he had no psychological impurities in
his mind; he had completely awakened his Inner Mind and
embodied the truth.

With this explanation about the body, soul and spirit of

any doctrine, we can now understand the following words
from the Prophet Muhammad:

The outer law (shari'ah) is my word,

the spiritual path (tariqah) my actions,

and the inner reality (haqiqah) my inner states.

Muhammad

In relation with the Heart Doctrine, the very heart of a

teaching is Tantrayana; it is the secret teachings, in
relation with Alchemy, Tantra, the very
highest Yoga practices, which were not given to any
student unless they proved themselves worthy.

Right now we live in a very different age of accessibility

and information, and the fact that people need this
teaching, that we need the tools and techniques, such
knowledge is given openly. It's given more readily so
people can practice. But in the past this was conserved. If
you're familiar with astrology, the age of Pisces, during the
times of Jesus, things were very conservative in relation
with the dissemination of the esoteric knowledge. The
Kabbalists of Israel were very selective and they did not
want to give the teachings openly, but you see that Jesus
went forth and started publicly these sorts of things, and
they reacted very violently, because they were very
conservative.

Tantra and Alchemy were not given so openly. It was

given to those who proved their worth, first of all, by
fulfilling the very foundations of spiritual practice, by
demonstrating that they could enter into the Heart
Doctrine through practical experience. Truly, the
Shravakayana, the Dharma, the Torah, in the very
foundations of practice, is given very beautifully and
simplistically in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha,
because a Shravakayana practitioner, someone who is
working the very foundations of ethics and practice so that
they can experience these types of things, has to
understand the nature of Karma.
Ethics, Renunciation and Karma
Karma is simply a law of cause and effect, but it is not
so simple, because we have many internal processes that
occur even without us knowing about it, physical,
emotional and psychological. Karma is a topic of its own,
but we'll introduce this in relation with the body of the
doctrine.

So the First Noble Truth states that, "In life, there is

suffering." The person has to acknowledge that there is
suffering in this life in order to want to change. If we're
attached to our way of life we will not seek to improve it.
It's the recognition that suffering exists where we inquire
into their causes, the Second Noble Truth, and when we
see that there are specific causes to suffering, that certain
actions are being produced which inevitably bring
negative results to us, we realize that there is an antidote
called "cessation." Cessation refers to the end of the
causes of suffering, the Third Noble Truth. By the very fact
that we discover cessation, we discover that there is a
path, the Fourth Noble Truth towards the cessation of
suffering.

Really we are delivering this knowledge of the Heart

Doctrine in the Kabbalistic and Buddhist way, particularly
in relation with the mantra Om Masi Padme Hum that we
performed prior to this discussion, because it tends to be
more readily familiar than, say, the Sufi tradition.
However, we felt it important to explain this aspect of the
Heart Doctrine since many are not familiar with it. We also
emphasize Buddhism by the fact that the Buddha
synthesized the Heart Doctrine very beautifully. However,
we find the Four Noble Truths in all religions.

There is suffering. Obviously suffering has causes which

we produce. There exists the cessation of the causes of
suffering, and there is a path, just as Jesus taught,
"Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14).

As I was saying that the foundation of the body of a

doctrine is understanding the nature of cause and effect,
the nature of Karma, how Karma actually functions, how
we actually produce results. That's an enigma in itself,
since often times we will try to present something and
perform a certain action, only to not produce the result
that we want. Such as in interrelations. We may think that
we said something funny or something good, and it
produces a bad result.

But we all do this, we all have certain ways of being

ignorant, of causing suffering, and it is this type of
ignorance which prevents us from accessing the more
deeper levels of spiritual practice, the Heart Doctrine, of
going further into the experience of the divine.
 We find certain foundations or descriptions within each
stage. Shravakayana is in relation with ethics and
renunciation. It means that the very foundation to know
what is right and know what is wrong; do what is right and
don't do what is wrong. We find this in the ten
commandments of Judaism. We find this in the ten
virtuous and non-virtuous actions of Tibetan Buddhism,
which we synthesize into body, speech and mind. It's a
very interesting parallel in relation with the levels of
instruction of these teachings: the body, soul and spirit of
a doctrine.

We categorize it in this way because there are sins of

the body, sins of speech, relating with the heart, with
emotions, and sins of the mind. So these are the three
brains of Gnostic psychology: intellect, emotions, and
movement or the motor brain.

Body:

killing: physically but also with negative

emotions, anger, criticism

stealing: material goods, but also spiritual

teachings

sexual misconduct: Adultery and Fornication,

the abuse of sexual energy

Speech:

lying: to distort the truth in any fashion

divisive speech: such as causing schisms

among relationships

hurtful speech: trying to harm another person

or oneself with violent words
 senseless speech: speaking gibberish

Mind:

covetousness: wanting to possess what

another person has

malice: feeling hatred towards any living

being

holding wrong views: which is really the root

of our all problems.

We have a presentation of certain literal vows that we

need physically; however, the real work is to fulfill them
psychologically. That's really where the Heart Doctrine
starts to enter in relation with the Shravakayana path, the
very foundation, because it's one thing not to physically
kill a person, steal from them; it's one thing not to hurt
someone physically through violence, but if we observe
ourselves psychologically, we can be doing all those things
and worse in our mind, since we feel that no one can
perceive what exactly is going on. We feel, "Well I am
isolated. I can think all the negative things I want; I can
feel all the negative things I want." Meanwhile that brings
consequences, because thoughts and feelings relate with
matter and energy. It's not physical. It relates with the
subtle dimensions, such as with the Astral Plane, Hod,
in Kabbalah; Netzach, the mind, on the Tree of Life.

Even if we may not express anger with words, we can

kill with a bad glance, a bad look. Energy travels great
distances, even if we are not perceptive of this fact. This is
why we can sense if a person is upset even if they make
no outward indications of such; this is known as the
science of telepathy or transience: the transference of
psychological and mental energies within interpersonal
relations. Without unjust reason, then, Samael Aun Weor
stated within The Major Mysteries:
 "It is as bad to talk when one must be silent as to be
silent when one must talk. There exist criminal silences
as well as indignant words."

Stealing does not only include material things, but

taking credit for another person's ideas, concepts, or
spiritual teachings. The latter type of theft is the worst and
is most common. Many fanatics of spirituality steal the
teachings of the great prophets and adulterate them,
claiming them for their own. We find this all throughout
spiritual movements, whether of Theosophy,
Rosicrucianism, Hermetic philosophy, eastern Yoga , and
even Gnosis. Those who steal the teachings of others and
claim them for their own, without paying due respect to
the Guru, are those who indefinitely follow the Eye
Doctrine. For as H. P. Blavatsky transcribed in the
aforementioned scripture, The Voice of the Silence:

"The Doctrine of the Eye is for the crowd, the Doctrine

of the Heart, for the elect. The first repeat in pride:
'Behold, I know,' the last, they who in humbleness have
garnered, low confess, "thus have I heard.'"

Sexual misconduct is any negative action that abuses

the sexual energy, principally through Fornication, the loss
of seminal energy through the orgasm, and Adultery,
which is not only physical, but psychological. There
is Adultery in the mind whenever someone feels lust in his
mind and heart towards another person. This was
indicated by Jesus in the Gospels, but also the Lord
Buddha two thousand five hundred years ago.

Lying, divisive speech, hurtful speech, and senseless

speech are abuses of the Verb, the Word, which is Christ.
Whenever a person utilizes the verb in these manners, the
mind and soul suffer the consequences, which is again the
adulteration of forces within the psyche. God is the Truth,
and to lie is to sin against the Father. We have to
remember that Christ is not a person, but a cosmic energy.
Therefore, to sin is not some moral burden upon our
shoulders, but a misappropriation of energies. Hurtful
speech, divisive words, or senseless speech as with many
who claim to "speak in tongues," abuse the Verb and
disturb their minds tremendously, making them greater
candidates for suffering, simply because they take the
harmonious energies of Christ and use them in negative
ways.

Covetousness does not only involve desire towards

material objects, but even psychic powers. Many students
enter esotericism wanting spiritual powers, to accomplish
mind control, which is one hundred percent negative.
Christ respects free will, and to dominate another person
in this way is very bad. To covet powers is also useless and
eventually converts one into a magician of darkness, since
the only true power belongs to the Lord. The great initiates
always renounce power, fame and glory and surrender
everything to God. This is hidden within the Arabic word
Islam, which means "submission to the will of God."

Oftentimes such sentiments are fueled by malice,

wanting to gain power in order to harm. It is not my
purpose in this lecture to go so much into the
consequences, but to help us reflect on how we commit
these types of errors within ourselves on a daily basis. This
is in order to awaken the comprehension of the heart, to
enter into the Heart Doctrine.

Wrong views entails ignorance of Karma, a lack of

perception of reality which makes us act in wrong ways.
This is the root of our suffering: our lack of comprehension
of the causes of suffering within our psyche.

So our thoughts produce consequences. In the very

exoteric level, we must stop; we should not do those
things physically, because it's going to create bad energy,
and if we try to meditate with a mind that's so disturbed,
we will not be able to comprehend anything; it will be too
chaotic.

What we want is to go into how it applies to our mind,

how it applies to our hearts, because that is really where
the work is. There's also many types of behaviors are
generally so condoned in this society that we accept them,
such as idle chatter; just talking, something we think is
really innocent. The great master Swami Sivananda said
that "Idle chatter is the diarrhea of the tongue." Truly it is,
because people are something like volcanoes, just
belching out words without comprehending where it's
coming from or the effect they have.

This type of behavior disturbs the mind. If we try to sit

and meditate after a very chaotic day, where we don't
have enough restraint on our mind or
actions, Meditation becomes very difficult; Self-
observation becomes very difficult. Trying to see the roots
of our problems becomes very difficult. This is why
renunciation alongside ethics is the foundation. We have
to renounce these types of habits on a moment to
moment basis, not just saying "Well, I'm not going to do
that again," and we get into the same situation and repeat
the same thing. The real effort is finding yourself running
towards the cliff and finding yourself at the ledge,
refraining and saying, "I'm not going to do that," and then
stopping before the fall. It could be a moment of restraint.
The Buddha said this is a wonderful moment; that really
shows we are working to change and are changing, if we
can stop ourselves from acting in habitually negative
ways.

If we find ourselves beginning to act a certain way that

is contrary to the teachings, or thinking negative thoughts,
but stopping ourselves through comprehension,
renouncing them and letting ourselves relax, not
identifying, that is a strong indication that we are
developing our ethics.

Ethics is really the foundation of concentration. It is

impossible to concentrate in Meditation if our mind is
disturbed, if we do not have enough restraint. This is what
the Buddha said in the Dhammapada, the very first lines:
"Mind precedes phenomena. We become what we think."
So if our thoughts are garbage, if our thoughts are very
negative, then that is what our life is going to be
externally. It's how we are going to react and relate to
others, or how we're going to affect other people.

Sivananda gave some beautiful quotes in relation with

this: "Students fail in Meditation because they lack
ethics" and "Concentration without purity is
useless." Pretty strong coming from a man who is
generally considered to be laid back and happy, but he
had a very strong Martian side to him, very disciplined
nature, and we really have to be like that. We need to be
focused; to be disciplined, but not militant; to be strong
and firm, but flexible; because it's one thing to adopt this
type of conduct, "I can't do harmful things; I can't think
harmful thoughts," but to do it in a repressive way is
wrong; it will get us nowhere. And I have seen that happen
with many people, who have been so effected trying to
adopt a spiritual practice when doing so in a very
cloistered way, helping them become very negative and
morbid people. They perceived how much negativity they
have within and they don't know how to deal with it.

The thing is just to relax. If we catch ourselves doing

negative things, thinking negative thoughts, then just
relax. Be firm. Observe, be concentrated, but don't be
paranoid, because the truth is we carry a lot of
degeneration, a lot of negative habits, negative qualities,
but it's by renouncing those habits, in a calm way, that we
grow spiritually. You know that in an argument you can be
forceful without being offensive. "You know, I agree with
you, but this is my space." You can assert yourself without
being overbearing. The same with spiritual discipline,
except the one we are up against is our own mind.

This is the type of gentle and affirming attitude that we

need in relation with ethics, how to control the mind,
without storming and thundering like Zeus, "This is not
how I want things to be!" But really, true strength and
force is relaxed, firm but gentle.
Bodhichitta and the Heart Doctrine
This is just the foundation of the Heart Doctrine. The
Heart Doctrine is founded upon these principles of ethics
and spirituality, but we find through investigation and
practice that this is just the groundwork for the path itself,
the Heart Doctrine itself:

The Dharma of the "Eye" is the embodiment of the

external, and the non-existing.The Dharma of the
"Heart" is the embodiment of Bodhi, the Permanent and
Everlasting. - H. P. Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence
 Bodhi means wisdom. As I mentioned to you before, the
term Bodhichitta, which is essential to Mahayana
Buddhism and is essential in Gnosis, since these traditions
are unanimous. Bodhichitta literally means "wisdom-
mind," "wisdom-heart," or "wisdom-Consciousness," and
we know from Kabbalah that wisdom in Hebrew is
Chokmah, which is Christ, so really we can say that
this is "Christ-mind."

As I said, Christ is not anthropomorphic. Christ is an

intelligence, is a force, which we find in all of nature and
can become personalized in any individuals that have
developed themselves to incarnate that, and Jesus is
probably the most beautiful example of this fact, because
he is a very elevated master. For example, we look at light
bulbs, which are just the vehicles for the expression of
light, and the light itself is that energy, Christ. Any
terrestrial person is just the vehicle through which the
light of the Lord can express Himself.

This brings us to another important term, if you're

familiar with the Mahayana term in
Buddhism: bodhisattva. As I said,bodhi is light or wisdom,
sattva means incarnation. So an incarnation of wisdom is
somebody that has developed him or herself to the point
where they actually have that intelligence within
themselves, that they are working in a very superior way;
symbolized by the birth of Jesus in the stable, and how he
grows up into a complete and full human being, fulfilling
the life, passion, crucifixion, death, resurrection and
ascension of Christ.

We use the term bodhisattva in relation with individuals

who have achieved what we call mastery. This is a very
high level of development, but it is, we can say, the
beginning of a much greater spiritual evolution, or better
said: revolution. Upon achieving mastery, these initiates
may incarnate that intelligence if, on the sole condition,
they worked to help others. So it's one thing to reach that
type of height in spiritual development, it's another thing
to incarnate Christ, because in Mahayana Buddhism we
understand that alongside the bodhisattvas are what we
call the Pratyeka Buddhas or Shravakas.
 bodhisattvas and Pratyeka Buddhas are initiates,
meaning that they worked in teachings of Alchemy,
teachings of spiritual development, working with the force
we call Kundalini, the fire of the Holy Spirit, raising that fire
from the coccyx to the pineal gland and into the heart
within successive dimensions, which relate with the lower
five spheres of the Tree of Life. And when reaching the
sphere of Tiphereth, one attains mastery, as a beginner. It
is highly significant that when you imagine a person
transposed upon this Hebraic glyph, Tiphereth aligns and
relates with the heart. It's the human soul, the
human Consciousness developed into a master. Yet
remember that even upon reaching those heights known
as Nirvana, very blissful states, not all of them
become bodhisattvas. There are really two paths that
open up when you reach those heights of what's called
mastery.

The Pratyeka Buddhas follow the spiral path.But

the bodhisattvas follow something very different and very
radical, called the direct path. Both paths eventually lead
to the original source of the divine, what we call the
Absolute. Some know It as Parabrahma, Allah; we use the
term Christ as a type of impersonal force and intelligence
within creation. But really is that uncreated source, which
both the spiral and direct paths lead to, but in very
different ways, with very different results.

This is really the very Heart Doctrine,

because Tiphereth, the human soul, relates with the heart,
and if we are fortunate enough to reach those stages of
development some day, it's a very major decisions: to
choose between the spiral path of the Pratyeka Buddhas
and the direct path of the bodhisattvas who incarnate
Christ, is something very significant. You can read about it
in The Three Mountains by Samael Aun Weor. But really,
the spiral path is a very long trajectory which takes many
cosmic days, known as Mahamanvantaras, periods of
activity in which entire universes are born, and pass away
with cosmic nights or Mahapralayas.

It takes many cosmic days on the spiral path, very slow,

because those individuals choose not to renounce the
happiness of Nirvana, and if you experience Nirvana, you
can see why, because it is blissful.

Audience: If a person took the spiral path, do they

return?

Speaker: It depends upon their karma, because we

know that Nirvana is governed by laws. The Tree of Life,
whether in the very heights or the bottom of this physical
world, is governed by karmic laws. Nirvana is governed by
periods of activity and repose. When Nirvana enters into
activity, the Nirvanis or initiates of that realm will have to
physically incarnate because of cause and effect, because
of past karma that they owe. We know, given through the
writings of Samael Aun Weor, that Nirvana is in a period of
activity, and many Pratyeka Buddhas have physical
bodies.

The problem in general is that it's very easy to fall

again. You reach those heights, and then you come back
to the physical world and are tempted to make mistakes
again. So they lose the doctrine of the heart in their level,
right? But a bodhisattva is someone who renounces
everything, is a being that is very revolutionary, which is
considered very scandalous.

It comes into my mind the Prophet Muhammad. Very

radical. Jesus. Very radical. Buddha. Very radical. They
created many enemies cause they go against everything
that is wrong and unfortunately, pretty much everything
about this planet is wrong.

With the direct path, it's very straight; it's short, but its
very difficult, because the initiate pays his karma entirely
in one life. That is really the essence of the Heart Doctrine.
For one thing we have ethics and renunciation; this is the
foundation in the beginning. But with Bodhichitta, with
Christ-mind, with altruism and inspiration to help others,
we take on everything: all the suffering of this planet on
our shoulders, the cross of Jesus, in order to help
humanity, to transform it.
 That is really the beauty of the great initiates. When I
think that I have problems and difficulties, I look at the life
of Jesus, and see how much he was despised and hated by
everybody, but he just returned that type of negativity
with love, sincere gratitude or those people. Bodhichitta is
really that. Bodhichitta is composed to two principles:

Comprehension or realization of the Absolute

Conscious love and compassion for all

sentient beings

Emptiness, Prajna, in Buddhism, is the very primordial

root of nature and existence. It's a type of emptiness or
space, which if you recall from the Book of Genesis, "And
the world was formless and void, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the deep." It's what we call
the Abstract Absolute Space. It is the Nothingness or
space, which does not indicate nihilism like many people
think when they study Buddhism and react with horror.

It is emptiness, but the genuine type of existence

beyond our concepts. That is the Heart Doctrine, the
realization of That, even if it's just in a minor Samadhi,
which in truth is not that minor. If you find yourself
entering the Illuminating Void, that is really where we can
say that Bodhichitta is strengthened. Let us remember
that Bodhichitta is comprehension of Karma, cause and
effect, inter-causal relations, in relation with ethics. It is
the understanding of the impermanence of phenomena,
coupled with conscious love. Many schools of Buddhism,
and I've even heard many Gnostic instructors saying "Well,
it's either one or the other." But it's notit's both.

If you really have love for a person, conscious love, it's

because you understand that they are suffering from
Karma, that they are afflicted by causes and conditions.
When you see that this is impermanent, that nothing is
really stable in life, that everything is inherently empty of
intrinsic existence and depends upon specific causeswe
do not fall into nihilism, which is due to the fact that we
understand we have existence and comprehend the
nature of cause and effect.

When we see how impermanent psychological states

are, we can truly forgive a person very easily, such as if he
or she is angry at us for one moment, and nice to us in the
next. There's really nothing to get angry about. Usually,
we think, "Oh, he's angry at me!" Or "She's angry at me!"
Or "Oh, he's being nice to me!" "She's being nice to me!"
However, none of that is permanent. None of that is. It's
really on this basis of the impermanence of nature that we
can develop real understanding and compassion, the
Heart Doctrine, to develop Tipherethand Bodhichitta.

In the beginning of our spiritual practice we always try

to develop ethics and change ourselves in certain ways
through renunciation. But what we want also is to develop
Bodhichitta, that altruistic love for other beings through
comprehension of emptiness, Karma and impermanence,
which is the essence of the heart, the Heart Doctrine; it's
real wisdom. Understanding that there is karma, that
things are interdependent, that nothing is separated or
isolated, and that we affect others, we develop genuine
concern for others to the point that we don't even exist in
an egotistical sense, but are always giving out as much as
we can to the best of our ability. That is really what
Bodhichitta is.

Tantrayana / Vajrayana: The Diamond Vehicle

 However, this is really not the end. There is the
Vajrayana or Tantrayana path, which is the most
revolutionary and difficult to understand. As I said, vajra
can mean "diamond" or "lightning," and a vajra is a
symbol of power utilized within ceremonies of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Jainism, the meaning of which will be
clarified shortly. The real essence or the spirit of a
doctrine, the heights of spirituality, is the understanding of
Prajna or emptiness, and it is precisely through the vajra
that we can come to know the truth. First we need to
develop ourselves in our practice through ethics,
renunciation and comprehension of Karma, followed with
the generation and strengthening of Bodhichitta, wherein
we work to make changes within ourselves and ascend
higher.

Despite the beauty of this level of teaching, the real

heights of the Vajrayana path is really the experience of
the Absolute in Meditation, where we fall asleep, and our
soul goes to the Void, the space, which is so amazingly
symbolized in the beginning of one of Wagner's operas,
Das Rheingold from Der Ring Des Nibelungen or The Ring
of the Nibelungen, which is literally about one hundred
and thirty eight bars of music in the same key, which is
symbolizing that ocean, the space that keeps on going,
and going, and going. It is very overwhelming; that is
really the nature of the emptiness, the Void.

Understand that this is not something we will

immediately come to understand, since first we learn
through the intellect through concepts. To experience it as
a Heart Doctrine is another thing. But that's why we study
first, so that when we find ourselves in a samadhi having
that experience, we will have more courage because we
will understand what's going on. So it won't be as
terrifying, although to the ego it is very terrifying, because
every sense of self, security that we have in the egotistical
self, really becomes annihilated before That, to become
one and merge with that universal soul, universal
compassion, without shackles or limitations, truly beyond
this universe of relativity and Karma, cause and effect.
 The wisdom of Prajna or emptiness has been known by
different names, and so while I am teaching this in the
Buddhist flavor, you can see how this applies to all
religions irregardless. In the Nyingma school of Tibetan
Buddhism, this philosophy of emptiness is known as
Dzogchen, founded by Padmasambhava, who was an
Indian Master of the eighth century, considered the
second Buddha in comparison to Gautama Sakyamuni due
to his knowledge and level of attainment. We also have
Mahamudra, which is practiced by the other three schools
of Tibetan Buddhism: Gelug, Sakya and Kagyu. Really
these two philosophies are synonymous, they really have
the same meaning.

Dzogchen translates into "Great Perfection" and

Mahamudra means "Truth Seal." This is going to be very
significant in relation with other traditions besides
Buddhism. I will read for you what Samael Aun Weor wrote
in Zodiacal Course:

"The Doctrine of the Heart is called the seal of the truth,

or the Truth Seal."
 In Islam, we know that the Prophet Muhammad is
known as "the Seal of the Prophets." And what does a
prophet teach? He teaches the truth. He is the seal of the
truth. That is Mahamudra, even given as the identity of a
great initiate. For example, if you're familiar with Al-Miraj,
which is the ascent of the Prophet into the superior worlds
or seven heavens, he rides on a mystical animal called Al-
Buraq. The word "b-r-q" means "lightning." Lightning is a
vajra. Vajra relates with Dzogchen, Mahamudra, the Truth
Seal, the Seal of the Prophets.
 So we see that Muhammad is a master of Tantra, or
Vajrayana. That's how he ascended to the superior worlds.
Padmasambhava said this about Dzogchen:

"It is the secret, unexcelled cycle of the supreme vehicle

of Tantra, the true essence of the definitive meaning;
the short path for attaining Buddhahood in one life."

This is the straight path, the direct path of

the bodhisattva, and as it says in the very opening of Al-
Qur'an, Al-Fatihah:

In the name of Allah , the Entirely Merciful, the

Especially Merciful. All praise is due to Allah , Lord of the
worlds - The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful,
Sovereign of the Day of Recompense. It is You we
worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to
the straight path - the path of those upon whom
You have bestowed favor, not of those who have
evoked Your anger or of those who are astray.

So we really find the essence of Alchemy in the

Vajrayana path, the very heights in all religions. It's very
interesting that Dzogchen is the "Great Perfection" or that
Mahamudra is the "Truth Seal." Muhammad was the seal
of the truth, seal of the prophets, and if you
know Kabbalah, the sphere of Tiphereth, relating
with the heart, begins and ends with the Hebrew letter
Tav. The letter Tav is literally the "seal." It means
"covenant," and really this is the seal of covenant of the
heart, about developing Bodhichitta.

Now Bodhichitta in Tantra has more connotations. It is

synonymous with sexual energy, which is the very power
of the Holy Spirit in the body, the psyche. Bodhichitta can
be represented by the masons as the Cubic Stone, the
stone has to be chiseled. This relates with the stone that
the builders rejected and is really the foundation stone of
the temple. In relation with Muhammad, he was
meditating in the Mosque of Mecca (Al-Masjid-al-Haram),
near the cubic stone, and its from that stone of
Bodhichitta, the vajra, the lightning bolt, the fire
of Kundalini, which rises from the spinal column to the
heavens, took him all the way to the very heights.
 And it's described in Al-Hadith, which is the Muslim oral
tradition, that he was before Allah and it's impossible to
give attributes to that. Really the scriptures are saying
Allah is emptiness, the space, the primordial root nature of
our Consciousness, which is pure happiness and divine
nature, without form.Although we have not mentioned this
earlier, there is a powerful scripture by the name of the
Heart Sutra, or Prajna-paramita Sutra, which elaborates on
the nature of the emptiness and ultimate wisdom of the
awakened Consciousness. To discuss the implications of
this work would take many lectures, but here we are
referencing it for further study.

Really, the emptiness or void is the spirit of a doctrine.

That is really the Heart Doctrine. This is why we say in the
Shravakayana level we don't fully grasp this, because it
really takes a lot of heart in order to renounce our
egotism, to develop spiritually, to really develop ethics.
The problem is that many exoteric traditions do not have
the Heart Doctrine. There really is no Heart Doctrine there,
it's just theories; many discussions and polemics,
arguments over terms. All of that has to do with the loss of
the heart in many people, where there isn't even that
genuine longing to change. That genuinely longing for that
seed, Pinocchio, to develop into a true human being.

The Master Jesus explains it in this way in Matthew

13:19-23:

Therefore hear the parable of the sower. When anyone

hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand
it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what
was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by
the wayside.

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he

who hears the word and immediately receives it with
joy.

Yet he who has no root in himself, but endures only for

awhile, for when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the Word, immediately he stumbles.

Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who

hears the Word and the cares of this world and the
 deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes
unfruitful.

But he who receives seed on the good ground, is he who

hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears
fruit and produces, some a hundredfold, some sixty,
some thirty.

The Christian Gospels relates with a much more ancient

scripture, The Voice of the Silence as we have been
discussing.

The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless

space. To live and reap experience the mind needs
breadth and depth and points to draw it towards the
Diamond Soul.

Diamond soul refers to vajra, or Vajrasattva, or

Vajrayana. So really the seed can become that if we
develop it progressively through the different stages of
practice.

"Great Sifter" is the name of the "Heart Doctrine," O

disciple.

The wheel of the good Law moves swiftly on. It grinds

by night and day. The worthless husks it drives from out
the golden grain, the refuse from the flour. The hand of
Karma guides the wheel; the revolutions mark the
beatings of the Karmic heart.

True knowledge is the flour, false learning is the husk. If

thou would'st eat the bread of Wisdom (Prajna,
emptiness), thy flour thou hast to knead with Amrita's
clear waters (relating with Alchemy, the science of
transmutation). But if thou kneadest husks with Maya's
dew, thou canst create but food for the black doves of
death, the birds of birth, decay and sorrow.

While this is just an explanation of the structures of

religious practice, these are the degrees and stages by
which the heart develops. These are levels of
development, levels of practice. Generally when we work
in Meditation, the foundation is concentration. We learn to
control the mind, so we can concentrate in order to really
meditate. In relation with practice, we see that these three
schools are synthesized again. Samael Aun Weor
categorized this very simply and beautifully in one of his
books of astrology, specifically the chapter on Leo:

Concentration

Meditation

Samadhi

This is a much more simplified didactic of some of the

more Hindu or Raja Yoga models.

So we learn to concentrate. When we learn how to

concentrate our mind on one thing, really the heart will
open up to the experience of the divine. Meditation is
really a state in which you receive new information, where
as a lake on a mountain top, you reflect the starry
heavens of the Being. And when you have enough stillness
and concentration of mind, where you mind is focused,
your heart opens up spontaneously. Then Prajna, the spirit,
wisdom, will enter into you in a moment of
comprehension. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going
to find yourself flying out of your body. That can happen,
and if you practice diligently, it will happen. Those types of
experiences will unfold, cause naturally if you're setting
forth the causes and conditions for Dharma, fruit will
naturally grow as a result of that.

So the Heart Doctrine is hidden within the body, the

soul and the spirit, but more so in the spirit. We say that
the body is exoteric, the soul is mesoteric, and the spirit is
esoteric, coming from the Greek esoterikos, mesoterikos
and esoterikos. And really, an intiate, a mystikos, who
closes the eyes to the exterior senses, awakens the heart
and experiences those things for him or herself.

Questions and Answers

Audience: You touched more in the beginning on the
nature of belief and how we should have preference
toward experience rather than theories. If I remember
right, from what I've read, I guess belief, such as when the
Bible tells you to believe, it's not just telling you to accept
theory. It's, when traced back to the Latin root, it has a
context that people are not even aware of in the present
day, and it's been ruined and gutted out by the Catholic
Church.

Speaker: The word belief comes from "be" and lieve, or

"love," which is where we get the word libido. As I
mentioned in Tantric practice, Bodhichitta is synonymous
with sexual energy, how we use that force. The first
commandment of Moses, as was given by Jesus of
Nazareth, explains this. Someone asked him, "What is the
highest commandment that exists?"

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. Matthew 22:37

This relates with the three brains of Gnostic esoteric

psychology, the heart, the mind, and the soul, or waters of
sex. This is what it means to be a "believer," one who
knows how to "be" through the power of love, the science
of Alchemy. Alchemy, as we have studied in the last
lecture, is Allah Khemia, "to fuse with God," to reunite with
that. A real believer is someone who knows this type of
alchemical science and you find this in the Qur'an too. This
really was the original intention in the word "belief." Many
people, however, would think that the way we're
expressing it is in the literal sense, to just think that a
concept is true with one's mind. But it's much more
deeper than that.

Audience: That would only be using one of the three

brains? But then the real meaning of belief is to have
action, or performing religion within all three brains.

Speaker: Yes. It is not just an intellectual concept. It's

not just a feeling in the heart. Or sensations. It has to do
with our actions.

Like when someone says they believe in the cross.

What does that really mean? Well the cross is alchemical,
because the vertical beam is the phallus and the
horizontal beam is the uterus. Together they form the
symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is Father, masculine,
Jah, and Mother, feminine, Eve, Chavah.

Even the symbol of Islam is alchemical too, because

you have the crescent moon and the star of Venus. The
moon relates with Yesod, the sexual energy or Bodhichitta.
The star of Venus is the Divine Mother. So this indicates
how you work with that energy through the power or love,
to be a believer. That is what a believer is in the true
sense of the word. But when I'm talking about what people
term belief, it's in the completely exoteric sense.

Audience: You made a very interesting point about the

symbol of Islam with the star and the moon. I tended to
think that that's a lot like the cross too because you said
that there are masculine and feminine components. Isn't
that what you're seeing with the moon? The star and the
moon would be like the sun, masculine and the moon
would be feminine?
 Speaker: The Divine Mother, the Virgin Mary dressed in
a blue mantle in the Assumption, standing over the moon,
has to convert it into a sun, a star. And that is really what
the symbol of Islam signifies.

It gets even more alchemical in relation with Yoga ,

because generally you find crosses on the tops of
churches, and the symbol of the crescent moon and the
star on the top of a mosque. Really the body is a temple,
and the very top is the chakra Sahasrara, which is the very
highest chakra in relation with omniscience, Samadhi,
Mahasamadhi, experiences with the most elevated
aspects of the Tree of Life.

So we see that the cross has to be carried from the

bottom of the spinal column and raise it to the very
heights. When we see the cross at the very height, it's
referring to Alchemy, how we raise that energy to the very
top of the pineal gland. In the mosque too we find the
same thing. The moon is related with the angel Gabriel,
and Gabriel, or Jibril in the Qur'an, is often referred to by
Muslims as the Holy Spirit. So it's the same thing. The Holy
Spirit is really found by raising the moon in our sexual
glands to the brain, transforming it into a sun, from a
feminine lunar force to a solar masculine force, to the very
heights of realization. This is what a church or a mosque
indicates in their architecture.

Audience: The church is the body itself?

Speaker: It also relates with the Tree of Life, because

the cross has four points, related with Father, Son, Holy
Spirit, and the very root of existence, God, Ain Soph,
otherwise known as the Star of Bethlehem, the root of our
Being. The Holy Spirit, in relation with Gabriel, is the same
thing, the very heights of realization that we find in the
pineal gland, and the cross relates with the four elements:
earth (the physical body), water (sexuality), fire (heart),
and air (mind). And this also relates with
the Hebrew letters:

Aleph - Air
 Shin - Fire

Mem - Water

These constitute the three mother letters of Kabbalah.

With Hei, the Earth, we can spell Hashem, literally
translating as "The Name," and is used as a term of
respect in the place of Iod-Chavah, the sacred name
of God. Such as in the saying, Baruch
Hashem Adonai, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

We see that just as our inner Being is a

Tetragrammaton: Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Ain Soph,
even our physical body is a Tetragram, in relation
with Alchemy and the cross. In synthesis, a believer uses
the cross of their body in order to practice transmutation
or Alchemy, to fuse oneself with God.

Audience: Am I remembering this right? The I, the A,

and the O represent the superior elements?

This is the Latin version of the same thing. IAO among

the Gnostics is considered one of the most powerful
mantras of the Lord.

I - Ignis, Fire,

A - Aqua, Water

O - Origo, Air

We demonstrate that we are true believers by how we

use our sexual force for God, our Bodhichitta, which is the
root of all creation as symbolized in the Book of Genesis,
the Garden of Eden, because we have a physical body, the
earth, and the three other elements, which relate
with God. So really we are a miniature cosmos, a human
being that needs to be standing upright before God. That
is what a believer is, to use all three letters, the fire
(heart), the air (mind) and the water (sex). Usually most
people are just using their air, thinking "Well, I think God is
real," when they don't really know. They do not follow the
Heart Doctrine at all, because they really have no
experience.
 Spiritual creation is a combination of the three; the four
elements.

Audience: You're talking in relation with the cross those

three, if I remember correctly in relation with those three
top points of the cross itself, and then the one element
that is not talked about, which is the bottom point. So that
there is earth, air, fire and water.

Speaker: Yes, the earth can relate with the bottom

point, since that is where one is grounded. That is if the
cross is stable. However, we also talk about the cross in
motion, the swastika, which is a very sacred symbol
amongst many religions, but was unfortunately abused
and misappropriated by a mistaken group of people who
exclusively considered themselves "Aryan." We have to
remember that the zodiacal sign of Aries relates with fire
and that all of humanity is governed by that force, sign
the God of Aries, Samael, is working intensely through our
current zodiac, Aquarius.

When we see the swastika in motion, like in Tibetan

Buddhism or Hinduism, it's really all the elements in
motion; they're mixing. All the forces of the swastika
mingle together, such as with the chakras. When all of the
chakras are activated, it's not like one activates over the
other: they work harmoniously, in unison. So if you have
experiences of clairvoyance or clairaudience, usually it's in
combination with many things. These psychic phenomena
don't tend to remain so isolated. Just like any normal
experience: you have thought, feeling and sensation. They
usually happen all mixed together. This makes it hard to
isolate specific phenomena, whether in the external or our
internal worlds, our psychology. This is what makes access
to the Heart Doctrine so difficult, because we tend to be
very confused in our three brains and how they function.
 Audience: I've read some articles on the swastika where
they say it's not even supposed to be pointed in a
particular direction, since one represents the wheel of life
and the other the wheel of death.

Speaker: There is that connotation. One of the

directions represents the actualization of the
Mahamanvantara, which means the creation of the Tree of
Life, the expansion of existence out of the Absolute, that
primordial root nature of Consciousness, into
manifestation, into this creation that we have.

Then we have the other direction, the Mahapralaya, the

cosmic night, where the universe gets absorbed back into
the Absolute, symbolized by the days and nights of
Brahma. When Brahma exhales, we have creation. When
he inhales, all of that returns to the source. So we always
have periods of activity and repose, intimately related with
t he breath of God, and it is the wind, the spirit, Aleph,
that rotates the swastika in motion.

As I mentioned, Nirvana has periods of activity and

repose. What we're talking about now is a much grander
cosmic scale, represented in the swastika or Gnostic
Cross.

Originally, the counter-clockwise swastika used to

represented how manifested creation, the Tree of Life,
unfolded from the Absolute, the emptiness, the Prajna.
However, since we have entered into Malkuth, the physical
world, that swastika needs to return back to the divine
origin, the emptiness. This is symbolized by the clockwise
swastika which we find depicted in Buddhist art. The
swastika should rotate now to the right, clockwise,
towards the Absolute, for the left, counter-clockwise,
indicates a fall into even more dense states of matter and
energy. We are in Malkuth, as I said, and we do not need to
descend further into the infernal worlds, which is signified
by the counter-clockwise Nazi Swastika, a symbol of
degeneration and black magic.

The essence of a true believer, a follower of the Heart

Doctrine, Bodhichitta, is the work with the cross: they use
everything they have, but most importantly the heart,
following the superior emotional center. The path of the
heart, as Samael Aun Weor indicated, is Mahamudra, the
realization of emptiness, Tantrayana, Vajrayana. "To love
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
strength." Everything. Those are really the four elements
relating with the psyche, the Hebrew letters, relating with
the Cross or Vajrayana, the Heart Doctrine.

Audience: Is there a succession of the chakras, such as

a list to work on?

Speaker: It is particular to you. This is why Samael Aun

Weor gave so many different practices, because our needs
are different. I might need to work more with my heart.
Maybe you need to develop more clairvoyance. It depends
on you. You need to meditate and really analyze, "What do
I want to know and what do I really need to know?" And
sometimes, just meditating and not even intending it, you
can have certain experiences in which the heart opens up,
whereby clairaudience, psychic sounds appear in your
psyche; you hear sounds in the astral plane; or
clairvoyance emerges where you start seeing images. So
while you're physically meditating you gain access to the
internal worlds.

This can spark your interest, such as "Since I

experienced that I need to develop that more." So there's
no determined checklist, such as starting first with the
Muladhara chakra and moving up to Svadhisthana,
Manipura, Anahata, etc., although that can be effective.

Audience: I've heard in particular with Glorian

Publishing that they tend to emphasize the heart, because
that is probably the most default and the most needed.

Speaker: That also relates with the emotional brain and

the Heart Doctrine, to really develop Bodhichitta, real love
for other human beings, genuine compassion originating
from comprehension of emptiness of phenomena. We see
that human beings are predominantly intellectual,
especially in the West. Really, our heads are libraries. You
go to university and see many different instructors and
that their hearts are dead. If you look more intimately
through clairvoyance you see they are just intellectual.
Really, they just regurgitate information. I like what one
German philosopher said, Friedrich Nietzsche, that
university professors are like clocks; just make sure you
wind them correctly so that they'll tell you the time. They'll
repeat facts like this and that, being that they are just
intellectual.

People tend to be way too intellectual. That is why we

teach the Heart Doctrine, to experience, because it entails
a superior emotional quality. While we refer to the three
brains: intellect, emotions and motor-instinct-sexual
impulses, we also relate to superior centers relating with
the psyche, which are our direct connection with the
divine. We have a superior intellectual center, which
receives concepts and abstract principles from God. This is
the divine Nous of Plato in The Republic, the objective
spiritual reasoning of the philosopher kings, real human
beings in the true sense of the word.

Then you have the superior emotional center, which

becomes activated by listening to the great classical
compositions of the masters of music, such as Beethoven.
Profound and Kabbalistic works given through music and
art. That's really food for the heart, since in works such as
the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, we experience the
Heart Doctrine, the emptiness of Prajna, the Logos or Word
of Christ within the magnanimous choral movement, along
with the Vajrayana path that leads out of suffering. It's
very explicit, but to understand it you need to experience
it internally in order to recognize the message physically,
since Beethoven was an initiate who wrote for other
initiates of the Heart Doctrine. The Chorus teaches about
Bodhichitta, the mysteries of the heart, and represent the
Elohim, the Gods singing in unison. Many voices, but one
universal harmony, Prajna, ever flowing, the swastika in
motion, the power of God in movement, the emptiness,
the real wisdom or happiness of the Lord. Beethoven's
greatness is unveiled to the spiritual sight when we see
that he wrote from having experienced many
Mahasamadhis. It's really unbelievable how anyone could
convey such experiences through music, which is a living
scripture.

In relation with the heart, yes, listening to music like

that develops our emotional center through conscious
superior sentiment, not to be confused with
sentimentality, like Hallmark cards.

Therefore, we always emphasize the heart, since it is

the heart that is always going to lead us to liberation,
represented by Jiminy Cricket, giving us, represented by
Pinocchio, inquietudes: pushing us to study, pushing us to
practice, pushing us to want to change. He's really in the
heart, the Consciousness or Buddhata, the cricket who is
like a little Verb, a little IAO we can say. IAO is Christ, for in
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He is a small voice, a little
representation of that principle that guides us in our
actions and tells us what to do. We must always follow him
within the heart.
 If we struggle with that, there are many practices we
can use. Many prayers, such as the Pater Noster, which is
very powerful and beautiful. The bodhisattva, Francis of
Assisi, gave another tremendous prayer to develop the
heart, the Heart Doctrine within:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to
be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

This is the bodhisattva path. Even Mother Teresa had

some beautiful teachings too. I do not know of her
development, but she really embodied in a profound way
the principle of sacrifice without self-consideration.
 The heart comes first. It is really the instrument that will
take you to the very heights. As Muhammad said in Al-
Hadith:

There is an organ in the body that, if it is righteous,

ensures that the whole system will be righteous; and if
it is corrupt, the whole body will become corrupt. This
organ is the heart.

And:

"There is a polish for everything that takes away rust;

and the polish for the heart is remembrance (of Allah)."

This is Self-remembrance, remembrance of our

Inner God. When the heart is polished like a mirror, it can
reflect God within, in every action. Then we will become a
better instrument for the Lord to act in our life, guiding us.

Audience: You were talking about purity with

concentration, where your concentration practice can be
put askew if we are not keeping purity of mind and heart.
This was profound for me because I've been studying for a
long time, but have never heard this or overlooked it, or
had it said like that. You can be sitting there meditating,
concentrating, and can be less distracted if you actually
kept more purity in your thoughts, speech, and all that. So
really, ethics is the catalyst for your concentration,
whereby concentration is the root catalyst for what
becomes Meditation, where you can actually concentrate
very well? Then Meditation is a potential catalyst for
Samadhi, and things of that sort?

Speaker: The foundation is concentration, ethics,

renunciation. Without concentration we can't meditate.
And this is the failure of many practitioners and schools:
they try to meditate for twenty years but have no
experiences, because they do not maintain purity in their
mind, heart and actions; the sins of body, speech and
mind.

Audience: They're meditating but haven't established

concentration practice, whereby they could focus
completely?
 Speaker: Basically what we want in Meditation is to sit
for however long and to not forget that we're meditating.
This is described in the diagram of the Nine Stages of
Meditative Concentration in Tibetan Buddhism. We find
this diagram throughout the Tibetan Buddhist
monasteries. It has been used and taught by all the great
Tibetan Buddhist masters. Therefore this really
emphasizes its importance.

Here we see a monk chasing after a wild elephant. The

elephant is the mind. In the beginning it is chaotic,
running all over the place, without control, but eventually
through his tools, a rope and a hook, representing
mindfulness, restraint, concentration, he is able to calm it
down, until reaching the stage where the elephant is
becoming more white instead of gray, indicating he is
becoming more pure and docile. The monk finally reaches
the point where the mind is subdued, and then Samadhi or
mystical experience occurs, he is flying.

These stages are not like plateaus, or a checklist to

fulfill one by one. These are principles, and one can
fluctuate greatly within the diagram. It depends on our
effort. But generally when we meditate, we at least want
to develop the degree of concentration where we don't
forget that we're meditating, which are the middle stages
of concentration, the fourth or fifth stages. This is a very
profound diagram for comprehending and developing
concentration. It is a guide or map for our practice in
developing the Heart Doctrine within.

THE MYSTIC HEART

In Sanskrit the nam anahata, was given to the fourth chakra, which
literally means "not struck." It refers to the subtle vibration that is the
creative energy of the Void and is chanted as the sacred syllable OM. It
is said to be heard inwardly in meditation when consciousness has
awaken in the heart or kundalini has arisen in this chakra. The fourth
chakra is also, commonly referred to as the Mystical Heart in the
Christian mysteries and as the Intelligence of the Heart in the Egyptian
Mysteries. When the heart center is awaken, then the impulses of
spiritual inspiration and altruistic love pour in and an ardent desire for
all beings to enjoy the love and beatitude available at this level of
awareness is, felt. In the Buddhist tradition, this urge is, expressed as
the vow to assist all sentient beings to reach Enlightenmnt. A person
who actualizes this vow becomes a Bodhisattva. All forms of romantic
love are, motivated by this search for union with the source of love.
However, it is an unconscious distortion of the ego and a great
misfortune that this search is directed outward and that the source is
misunderstood as being a person outside of oneself. This
misunderstanding is due to the ego being divorced from its source,
which is its Perfect Model or inherent blueprint - its complementary
divine Self. It is in the heart center that the union of the female and
male (Yin/Yang) energies takes place. In other words, when the two
opposite and complementary energies within each one of us takes place,
then Cosmic Consciousness awakes in the ego of a seeker the bud
becomes a rose and unfolds the quality of unconditional love in
his/her mystical heart.

As for Buddhist Tantra, the fourth chakra has twelve bright red petals.
Inside of this we find two smoke-colored interlocking triangles.
Together they make the Vayu mandala, which represents the harmonious
relationship between the male and female forces of the cosmos. Inside
the Vayu mandala, which also symbolizes the air element, there is an
antelope. Noted for its rapidity, the antelope is a good vehicle and
symbol for the ancient god of the wind, Vayu. In Buddhist Tantra, the
fire element is associated with the heart center. Its symbol is a red
triangle pointing upwards. Lama Govinda claims that this fire is not
physical but psychic. It is the fire of religious devotion and inspiration.
He goes on to say that the heart center is the seat of the intuitive mind
and transmuted feelings (divine love and compassion), and that it is a
primary focus in meditation because it is where the universal is realized
in human experience.'

The Primordial Buddha Aksobhya sits on the throne of the heart chakra.
His Mirror-like Wisdom dispels the illusion of the separateness of things
and reflects their innate Voidness. His obscuring passions are anger and
aversion.

For the Christian Mysteries it is the place of the sacrificial God. The
center where the "Perfect Model" dissolves (the Sephirah of Tipheret in
Kabbalah) completely in the Great Void of pure Being

As the heart center begins to unfold, it often brings a teacher who serves
as the embodiment of this level of consciousness. This happens in both
planes, the inner and outer physical planes of existence. In other words,
it is the place from where the Perfect Model of a seeker makes an impact
on his ordinary level of consciousness. It may also open his/her level of
consciousness to conscious communication with the spiritual hierarchy
of beings guiding the souls of this planet through intuition, vivid
dreams, strange encounters and the like. Disciples may in turn act in the
heart of a group working to guide terrestrial evolution.

Currently, the energies of the heart center are becoming more active as
we collectively evolve beyond the stages of con sciousness related to the
lower, three centers. One problem in this transition, so prevalent in the
New Age movement, is the attempt to live in the heart without dealing
with the repressions and ego drives in the lower centers. If, for example,
we are angry, arrogant, desperate, or emotionally insecure, love does not
flow freely. A forced decision to be loving cannot be the same as a
spontaneous outpouring of deeply felt love.

Confusion also arises between romantic love and altruistic love.

Romantic love is associated with the projection of the anima and animus
and the desire for the perfect relationship. The romance is an ideal, a
projection of an ideal complementary that can only unfold from within.

Altruistic love, on the other hand, is an empathy and com passion that
enables us to act in a deeply caring way. It is an unconditional
acceptance of life and respect of others. There is a depth of
understanding and wisdom in this love that only comes from a profound,
suffering and an intense experience of life. It is not a projection or a
form of control, but a very sincere openness and surrender to what is. A
seeker experience disappointments, but he/she will never be broken
hearted if he/she remains open to his/her potential for being in this state
of unconditional love.

We might think that opening the heart center brings only peace and love.
Aside from meeting with our own repressed grief and fear of being
vulnerable, there are many, difficulties that arise as the heart opens. The
heart center invokes intense forces from the soul and inner spiritual
realms. The activities, or mere pres ence, of a person with an enlivened
heart center may stimulate intense defensive reactions in others, as the
love vibration penetrates barriers and stirs into resonance the love that
has been buried beneath untold pain and suffering. In Esoteric Healing,
Alice Bailey points out that the difficulties accompanying the opening of
the heart center are some of the most typical, and problematic
experienced on the spiritual path. These include reactions from others
that range from wild devotion to extreme hatred, causing much
confusion and turmoil for the seeker. However, as time goes on, the
seeker learns not to identify with these reactions and withdraw personal
attachments and expectations from this kind of love. With compassion
and patience, he/she allows others to accept or reject the forces of
unconditional love in the heart center.
Like the root of a rose needs time to be nourished and grow in the
darkness of the soil before emerging into a delicate bud and then become
a beautiful rose with its exquisite scent. In the same manner the process
of unfolding the Mystic Heart within a seeker occurs after it has
unfolded and experienced its hallowed qualities and released the subtle
perfume of Unconditional Love.