Monthly Archives: June 2017

Reflections on Permission

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By George A. Boyd ©2017

Aspirants and disciples are aware of their personal liberty and their ability to create what they intend, but they may not be clear about the role of permission in restraining or allowing action. This article will shed light on the role of permission in conation.

The three major activities of the Superconscious mind are to permit, to allow, and to create.

Permission enables your personality to carry out actions that you consciously and voluntarily choose and that you subconsciously desire. You experience absence of permission as an inner restraint that holds you back from carrying out that action.

Allowance enables the activity of destiny karma. Your Soul does not interfere in the enactment of the genetic and psychological patterns that make up your Pralabdha Karma.

Creation manifests a new thing, using the transpersonal will of your Soul, the intention of your attentional principle, or the wish of your spirit. These aspects that activate the powers of the Superconscious mind comprise your ministry and service.

Permission has a personal octave, which is embedded in the social matrix in which you live. It also has seven spiritual or transpersonal octaves. These are described below.

Personal Octave

  1. Social permission – Your parents, your teachers, your employers, your military commanders, police, government officials, and judges convey the social matrix of permission. Social authority, custom, and law hold this matrix in place. To realize their spiritual essence, aspirants and disciples must transcend this cultural veil.

Transpersonal Octaves

  1. Permission under coercion – When you are faced with unacceptable consequences if you said no to someone’s demand, you grant permission to yourself to carry out acts that you would not permit under normal circumstances. These extraordinary granting of permission occurs when you or your family is under threat of death, torture, or cruel punishment. Those, who use these criminal and sadistic means to illicit your coerced compliance, commonly operate in the Lower Astral Plane.
  2. Permission under liberty – In this type, you choose to fulfill your desires and dreams, and your Soul grants you permission to do so—indeed, helps you to manifest what you desire. This activity is characteristic of those who are journeying through the Probationary Path—from the Biophysical Universe to the top of the Wisdom Plane in the Planetary Realm.
  3. Permission under moral conviction or the guidance of wisdom – In this octave, your Soul begins to check and restrain your choices. It may direct you to choose options that are wise and prudent instead of acting on impulsive and reactive decisions. It may require you to do what is morally correct, as your religious belief system inculcates, instead of acting on your passions and desires. This type of permission typically begins to appear when your Soul undergoes the First Exoteric Planetary Initiation.
  4. Inspired permission – In this mode, you receive a command from a spiritual source—for example, from an angel, from God, from the Holy Spirit, or from an Ascended Master—as a vision or a voice that directs you to carry out an action. You receive permission from your Soul to carry out this action. You usually encounter these types of experiences during the Soul’s sojourn through the First Mesoteric, First Esoteric, and Second Planetary Initiations, although some individuals who engage in channeling in the Psychic Realm also experience this type of permission.
  5. Purposive permission – In this variety, your Soul unites with its Crown of Purpose and it directs your personality to carry out aspects of that purpose. Your Soul may guide your personality to study certain things, to acquire specific skills, to have particular experiences, and to connect with selected people to enable you to enact your Soul’s purpose. At this level, you become capable of genuine discipline, where you curtail your activities with an aim to accomplish an explicit personal or spiritual objective. This type of permission occurs wherever your Soul encounters its Crown of Purpose—this seems to be most common in individuals who are taking the Third Planetary Initiation and above.
  6. Divinized permission – This form appears in those who become Initiates—e.g., those who attain states of universal consciousness, dwell in the presence of the Divine, and receive Divine anointing and empowerment. Initiates channel the Divine Will to teach, minister, guide, or initiate others. They overshadow their personality through the aegis of the Divine Will, and give direction (Holy Yea), deny permission (Holy Nay), or postpone decisions until the appropriate time (Holy Wait).
  7. Dispensational permission – This special kind occurs when the Divine grants an Initiate permission to found a new lineage or to open up a band of the Great Continuum of Consciousness for spiritual colonization. When an Initiate begins a new lineage in the Supracosmic Sphere, the Divine bestows this kind of permission. The founding of the Mudrashram® lineage also was established under this kind of permission.

Much of the evil in the world arises from choices people make under coercion and out of fear. Most would rather obey than risk death, torture, or imprisonment. Those who use the methods of the Lower Astral force other people to obey them.

Many people are able to operate freely in the zone of permission under liberty to achieve their desires in several areas of their lives. Coaches, therapists, and self-help experts aim to empower people to activate this level of the mind, so that people can begin to fulfill their dreams.

Those who enter the Light Stream of the Planetary Initiations experience types three to five—permission under moral conviction or the guidance of wisdom, inspired permission, and purposive permission. In these varieties, the Soul begins to actively direct the personality and deny it from acting on its every whim and fancy.

Types six and seven are most rare. They are in the purview of those exceptional Souls who become Adepts and Initiates with their spiritual tradition. These individuals become instruments of the Omnific Power and Grace of the Divine, and actualize the Divine Will and Plan.

Aspirants and disciples will benefit from exploring these different levels of permission and noticing which of these are active in their lives. Understanding both your liberty and your constraint brings wisdom and discernment.

Notice, in which ways is your life governed by:

  • Social permission?
  • Coerced permission?
  • Permission under liberty?
  • Permission under wisdom or moral conviction?
  • Inspired permission?
  • Purposive permission?

What percentage of your life does each variety of permission influence?

Are any of these types of permission changeable? Could you, for example, change certain conditions in your life, so one of these types of permission would not influence you to the same degree?

Are certain permissions inflexible, e.g., you can’t change them?

Which of these permissions are you at liberty to modify? Which of these permissions must you accept?

A Brief Primer on Illusion

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By George A. Boyd © 2011

In an East Indian wisdom tale, Sage Astabakra gave a response to a king’s question, “Which is real, the waking state or the dreaming state?” Astabakra replied, “Oh King, neither this waking state or this dream state is real.”

In this viewpoint, both the subjective sense of a Soul—the ensouling entity or eternal essence—and the embodied life that the ego and the Self know, are both illusory. Not all hold this perspective, however. We compare the perspectives on what is real and what is not in different spiritual and secular traditions in the table below.

Scenario

Statement

Identification

Is It Real?

Approaches that embrace this perspective

Soul
(EE)

Embodied Life
(EL)

1

Both are not real

Satchitananda [In Advaita and Vedanta Paths of the First Cosmic Initiation, they use this rejection of both objective and subjective life to re-identify with Brahman. It also appears in the Third Transcendental Path, where chelas are taught that only God is real.]

No

No

Brahma Vidya (Path of T7)

2

EE is real; EL is not real

T1 to T5 spirit and ensouling entity; Supracosmic Soul or Supracosmic seed atom; Astral Soul or Cosmic Sphere nucleus of identity; or Monad

Yes

No

Groups that operate at the Transcendental (T1 to T5), Supracosmic, Cosmic, and Monadic levels of the Continuum

3

EE is real; EL is real

Subtle of Planetary ensouling entity and nuclei of identity, Soul of the Bridge Path, T6

Yes

Yes

Groups that operate in the Subtle and Planetary Realms,and Mudrashram®

4

EE is not real; EL is real

Self or ego; some operating at this level may mistake the activity of the brain as consciousness

No

Yes

Science, materialistic worldviews, atheists, unawakened individuals

When you work at the cutting edge of spirituality, as we do in Mudrashram®:

  • You do not drop into the Uncreated (Avayakta) and postpone spiritual development, regarding this as illusion.
  • You do not regard the personality as an illusion and relate to the world from a detached spiritual perspective
  • You do not abandon spirituality altogether, as the materialist and atheist do.

In this Integral approach, we ask you to work on and make a commitment to both personal and spiritual growth. We say, you should honor both worlds; and make progress in both worlds.

How Do I Know If Someone Really Is the World Teacher?

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By George A. Boyd ©2016

There are several individuals in the world who claim to be—or their followers claim they are—the reappearance of the Christ or World Teacher. They cite scriptures, and point to similarities in descriptions between what they are teaching or demonstrating and what is written in the scriptures.

They often reach a state of consciousness in which they feel they are one with the consciousness of the World Teacher. Many of these individuals have some type of internal confirmation that they have reached this state. There may be powers or intuitive revelations that dawn upon their mind when they attain this state.

But typically, these are reflections of the World Teacher in his actual form. In the Planetary Realm, he has reflections in the Biophysical Universe, Psychic Realm, 1st Mesoteric, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Initiations—his actual form is as the Monad in the Planetary Hierarchy, the Astral Soul in the Cosmic Hierarchy, and the Satchitananda/Soul of the Bridge Path in the Transcendental Hierarchy. He also has a reflex form in the Supracosmic Hierarchy on the Orzhmad Plane through which he ministers. There are also archetypes of the World Teacher in the 1st Exoteric Initiation, with which some individuals come to identify.

An individual who reaches this consciousness at any of the reflected states may wrongly assume he or she has become the World Teacher. Based on the intuitive revelations and powers that they gain in this state of union, and the voice of inner confirmation, they identify with this state and come to believe they have become Christ.

This voice of inner confirmation may take a variety of forms. Common phrases that may lead the spiritual wayfarer to believe he or she has attained this sublime state include:

  • “You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” (Psychic Realm)
  • “You are the Light of the World.” (1st Exoteric Initiation)
  • “Upon thee I have placed the government of the world.” (1st Mesoteric)
  • “You are my anointed one.” [This occurs without any actual empowerment: the individual is not anointed to minister the Light.] (2nd Initiation)
  • “You are the Word made flesh.” (2nd Initiation)
  • “You are the incarnation of My Eternal Mind.” (3rd Initiation)
  • “Thou art the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (4th Initiation)

So compelling are these voices of inner confirmation that these individuals may start ministering and teaching, start religious organizations, and make declarations about their inner Divinity. Some of the groups that form around these inspired individuals may become religious cults: the self-proclaimed savior may begin running the lives, dictating the beliefs, and guiding the decisions of those who follow him or her.

Those that master the art of Soul Reading can readily detect the imposter Christ or spurious World Teacher. One glance at the actual attainment of the individual will reveal the genuine Master from the deluded claimant of the mantle of Glory. We encourage aspirants and disciples to develop their faculty of discernment so they can determine the actual state of attainment these individuals have attained—and not follow those who proclaim to be another false Second Coming of Christ.

Imagination Viewed through the Seven Rays

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By George A. Boyd ©2017

Some aspirants conflate the intention-driven movement of the attentional principle in the Raja Yoga technique of direct projection that we teach in our intermediate classes—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program—with the aspect of imagination that creates things that don’t exist. It will be helpful to understand the perspectives of the Seven Rays to become clear on which aspect of imagination needs to be isolated and cultivated.

These expressions of imagination across the Seven Rays are described below:

  • 1st Ray – This type confers the ability to create or “mock up” images, scenes, or imaginary characters. Graphic artists use this type of imagination to create animations, storyboards, and cartoons. Architects employ it to imagine the details of their finished building. This is primarily visual imagination.
  • 2nd Ray – This type tells a story or recounts the narrative of real life events, or creating the adventures of a fictional character in a novel or screenplay. Fiction writers, and documentary and fictional screenwriters utilize this type of imagination. This is the imagination that arises from remembered experience.
  • 3rd Ray – This type bestows the ability to create song lyrics, fictional narrative, or poetry through dialoging with subpersonalities, or the mental representations of historical and mythic characters. Some get their inspiration from listening to the ideas that bubble up from the deeper strata of their mind. Poets, musicians, rap artists, fiction writers, and screenwriters tap this source of imagination for lyrics and dialog. This form of imagination comes from inner listening or speaking.
  • 4th Ray – This type visually captures the experience of the attentional principle as it moves in full consciousness along one of the Seven Ray paths. This is the aspect that seekers often believe is fantasy, when in fact, this is the actual experience of the attentional principle. Albert Einstein, the famous physicist, made use of this aspect when he did his “thought experiments” to explore light. This form of imagination comes from spiritual experience.
  • 5th Ray – This type applies the ability of the mind to hypothesize, to infer, to speculate, and to extrapolate to make projections for the future, to visualize potential outcomes for different alternatives, and to suggest ideas for experimental testing. Scientists draw on this type. This form of imagination comprises creative modes of thinking.
  • 6th Ray – This type projects your wishes and hopes on another person, on an archetype, or a spiritual being. This type is involved in attribution, where you infer people possess certain qualities or character traits. It also plays a role in idealizing another person, or worshipping a Divine Being. It also expresses in imagining what heaven might be like, what angels are like, or being with the spiritual Master in Heaven will be like. Religious believers of sundry faiths regularly adopt this form of imagination. This form of imagination stems from emotion and human desire.
  • 7th Ray – This type grants the ability to embody and personify subpersonalities, fictional characters depicted in scripts, or real life characters in documentaries. Actors, mimes, dancers, and comedians demonstrate this form of imagination. This form of imagination expresses through movement and enactment.

To perform Raja Yoga, aspirants and disciples need to stop discounting the inner experiences of their attentional principle as fantasy. They need to accept that this is not a rational function of the mind, but it is a viable and real form of experience not limited to the perceptual environment of the physical senses. Reason has its role in reality testing, but to limit human experience to what can be known by reason is to excise 90 per cent of human functioning.

It will be helpful to understand that the attentional principle and the spirit have an experience that is not limited to the physical senses, but employs more subtle senses to perceive the inner, subjective world of the mind and the dimensional worlds of the Great Continuum of Consciousness. This is an independent experience from the life narrative of the human ego.

The key skill that aspirants and disciples must master to enter into the attentional principle’s and spirit’s experience is to shift their attention into their perspective, so you can view with the inner eye of these spiritual essences. We teach the methods to do this in our intermediate meditation classes.

Aberrations of Volition

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By George A. Boyd ©2017

Normally your volition is anchored in the ego, Self, and Soul, and you operate autonomously. There are, however, a variety of states in which volition appears to operate outside these parameters, giving rise to states that feel like they are beyond your ability to control them. These are briefly described below.

  1. A higher aspect of the will in a nucleus of identity or higher octave ensouling entity, which has been activated through meditation practices earlier in life or in a prior incarnation, may begin to overshadow the personality and give behavioral commands. This may occur concurrently with a Kundalini awakening—the Kundalini is raised into this essence when this overshadowing occurs—or this can occur without it.
  2. In this state, an entity in the unconscious mind split offs from the personality and exercises control over thinking, feelings, and behavior. These split-off elements of the mind, which appear to act as islands of volition, have been called subpersonalities. Working with these subpersonalities typically utilizes hypnosis or imagery psychotherapy. This type appears to correlate with the experience of those who demonstrate addictive behavior—even though they “choose” not to do something, these patterns take them over and enact the behavior despite their objections.
  3. In certain spiritual traditions, the Masters or Initiates may induce spiritual awakening experiences. When an Initiate takes someone as their “disciple” through this energetic transfer, they may begin to exert control over them. A beam of Light or Shakti appears to anchor in an inner center within these “chosen disciples,” connecting them directly with that Initiate. These multiple rays emanating from the Initiate form a pattern like a wheel—we call this emergent pattern, the wheel attunement. Those caught in this attunement may report that they receive direct commands to carry out overt behavior or to do specific meditations.
  4. As a result of doing Vipassana or Zen meditation practices, some practitioners report that they enter a void or vacuum state in which it appears that there is no Self or doer, and actions appear to arise of themselves. In Taoism, this state has been called wu wei.
  5. In states of severe inner conflict, people may experience “Jekyll and Hyde” splits within themselves, where their normal personality functioning appears to be taken over by a separate or alternate personality within them. Each alternate “Self” appears to have its own volition. This state appears in dissociative or multiple personality disorders. Therapies that work to achieve personality re-integration are used to address this type of volitional aberration.
  6. When people surrender their will to God, a spiritual Master, a god or goddess, or their Higher Self, they often find that this agency of the Superconscious mind begins to direct their behavior, giving them specific guidance as to what they should do. This seeking of a Higher Power’s direction is voluntary. This voluntary allowing of a Power outside their own Soul to guide and direct them can be extended to a variety of other “invitation scenarios:” letting a god, goddess, or “spirit” take over their voice and movement (possession trance), asking a spirit guide to speak through them (channeling), or requesting “God” or the “Holy Spirit” to speak through them (prophecy).
  7. This state appears when someone enters an altered state of consciousness and powers begin to operate that are not available to normal personality functioning. These powers can arise as a result of the Infilling of the Holy Spirit (the Gifts of the Spirit), union of attention with a higher spiritual essence (Samadhi), or the full awakening of the Kundalini Shakti. This is a highly ecstatic state. The powers that arise in this state go away when the Holy Spirit withdraws, attention returns to normal awareness, or the Kundalini goes back down to the grounded state.

Type 1, 3, and 6 volitional aberrations require you to break the connection with the internal or external agency that exerts control over you. We discuss type three in greater depth in our articles in the Library, “Induced Kundalini Awakening” and “When Spirituality Is Less than Free.”

Integrative psychotherapies can help you deal with type 2 and 5 volitional anomalies. Self help methods like the Rainbow method and the Mandala Method that we teach in our intermediate meditation programs, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program, may assist you gain insight into these patterns. These approaches aim to bring the wayward subpersonality or complex back into integration with the Self.

The volitional alterations of type 4 and 7 can usually be rectified through returning attention to the waking state of awareness from the altered state of consciousness that contains the abnormal perception of volition (type 4) or the activation of supra-personal “powers”(type 7), and/or lowering the Kundalini Shakti.

If you are aware that you are experiencing one or more of these types of aberrations of volition and it is interfering with your functioning, we encourage you to pursue the strategies appropriate for your situation. If you are beginning to lose control of your life and destiny through your spiritual practices, you may wish to back off from them for a while, to help you regain your balance and perspective.