What is a Nucleus of Identity?

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Q: You use the term, “nucleus of identity,” frequently in your writing. I’m still not clear what this is.

A: We often refer people to our article, “Understanding Nodal Points and Nuclei of Identity,” to define what a nucleus of identity is. The easiest way to understand this is that the Soul has four quadrants of activity. You can visualize this as a pie cut into quarters.

We call these four quadrants, the Poles of Being.

Pole One

On the first pole, at zero degrees, is the Soul. When you meditate upon this pole, you are contemplating the essence we generically call the ensouling entity, on its own Plane. Depending on where on the Continuum of Consciousness you place your attention, you will encounter one of 13 ensouling entities.

For example, if you put your attention in the Planetary Realm, you will encounter the ensouling entity that is called the Planetary Soul. We simply refer to this essence as the Soul, since this is the cutting edge for so many people. Some refer to the Planetary Soul as the Higher Self, the God Immanent, the Transpersonal Self, or the Atma.

If you put your attention in the Cosmic Sphere, you’ll encounter your Astral Soul on this pole. Please see our article on the Great Continuum of Consciousness to learn about the 13 ensouling entities.

In Mudrashram®, we teach our students to meditate on their ensouling entity that is infused with the animating force of the Divine Spirit—this is what we call the cutting edge of spirituality.

In the stream of light where the ensouling entity exists are the nodal points of the Path that the ensouling entity has awakened, and it dwells in a nodal point. By identifying where the ensouling entity is on its Path, we can determine how far it has to go to reach Liberation.

People who meditate on the ensouling entity typically meditate on the brain chakra—or on the Transcerebral chakra, which is the center above the top of the head—to encounter this essence. The path of unfolding the ensouling entity has been called the brain path.

Pole Two

If you rotate your attention 90 degrees to the right (clockwise), you come upon the second pole. Here you identify as the spirit. People also call this spiritual essence the spiritual heart, inner spiritual awareness, the loving heart, or Surat.

If you were to drop your attention into the inner streams of light and sound we call the Nada, you would ride up this current into the spirit that is associated with your cutting edge of spirituality. [This technique is called Surat Dhyan. We teach it in our intermediate meditation courses.]

But like the ensouling entity, you can focus on this spiritual essence at different levels of the Continuum. We call these discrete segments where the Nada begins and ends, domains—we have mapped twelve domains on the Continuum. [Please see our article on the Great Continuum of Consciousness about the 12 domains of the spirit.]

People usually associate the spirit with meditation upon the area of the heart, but some domains begin where you feel your spirit at the point between the eyebrows or even the navel. The practice of opening the channels of the Nada through moving your spirit along them, ultimately to the source of the spirit, has been called the heart path.

Pole Three

If you rotate your attention another 90 degrees to the right to 180º, you encounter the pile of being of the vehicles of consciousness of your Superconscious mind. It is on this pole that you encounter the integration centers we call nuclei of identity.

We have located nuclei of identity in the first through fourth Planetary Initiations, the first through fifth Cosmic Initiations, and on each Supracosmic Path. People who meditate on the spinal axis, sometimes called the cerebrospinal axis, the spinal tube, Sushumna, or the chakras typically come to identify with a nucleus of identity, instead of the Soul or the spirit.

Probably the three most common nuclei of identity with which people identify are:

  • The nucleus of identity of the First Planetary Initiation, which has been called the Christ Child, Christ Consciousness, or nephesh. [In our writings, we commonly refer to this nucleus of identity as the Moon Soul.] Christians and Jews focus their attention on this center and commune with the forms of God that can be known in the First Exoteric Initiation and the First Mesoteric Initiation.
  • The nucleus of identity of the First Cosmic Initiation, which has been called cosmic consciousness or the Atman. Disciples of Yogi Preceptors identify with this center.
  • The Supracosmic seed atom of each active Supracosmic Path: Buddhists, Shaivite and Vaisnavite Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Jains—among others—typically identify with the seed atom of their Supracosmic Path. [For a full listing of these Supracosmic Paths, see our article “Faiths of the Supracosmic Sphere” in the Library section of our website. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for a free Library membership. For a full listing of nuclei of identity, read the article on our website, “Nodal points and nuclei of identity,” which you can access on our Open Stacks page.]

Pole Four

Finally, if you rotate another 90 degrees to 270º, you come to the fourth pole. This is divided into an upper and lower zone.

The upper zone contains your attention, the thread of consciousness, and the principle of intention and consciousness, which we call the attentional principle. This essence has been called the inner witnessing consciousness, the third eye, or Nirat.

The lower zone contains your personality and your life. This is where you encounter the two personal integration centers, the ego [the personal identification center that is embedded in your experience of your life, in what we call the Conscious mind] and the Self [the personal identification that governs your entire personality; it dwells in the Metaconscious mind]. This zone also includes the bands of the unconscious mind that express in your life—this is the level of the mind that psychologists call the shadow.

The attentional principle dwells in the system of chakras of the Subconscious mind slightly above the point between the eyebrows. It is from this perspective that you behold the thread of consciousness that travels through each band of the mind. It is from this perspective of the fourth pole that you view the map of the Great Continuum of Consciousness.

We encourage aspirants to familiarize themselves with the perspectives on each of these four poles of being. In the Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation, we uniquely train you to work on all four poles of being and give you meditation tools that actualize you personally and spiritually. You learn these methods in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail or online Accelerated Meditation Program.

Different Tools for Varying Spiritual Objectives

By George A. Boyd © 2018

Q: How are Mudrashram® meditation practices different than those I get from other groups?

A: Each group gives you tools appropriate for the job they do. Here are some examples:

A Wiccan or Occult group will show you how to unite with your Soul Spark and activate the upper Subtle Realm octave of will, which we call the Magical Will, to bring about manifestation and to protect against evil influences.

New Thought or New Age groups that operate on the Abstract Mind Plane and Psychic Realm give techniques that enable you to unite with the wave of the present time and your Higher Self, to process issues to completion, to activate the Soul’s power to manifest its transpersonal will, and to awaken your psychic abilities.

Jewish and Christian groups train you to commune with the Holy Spirit in the inner altar center of the Christ consciousness or Moon Soul nucleus of identity in the First Planetary Initiation. You learn to connect with God and listen to His guidance, and receive His blessings in your life.

I AM Movement groups lift your attention to unite with the Mighty I AM presence nucleus of identity in the Second Planetary Initiation, where you can activate the Omnific power of the spoken decree to manifest your intention.

Yogi Preceptor lineages teach you how to unite your attention with the cosmic consciousness nucleus of identity in the First Cosmic Initiation, and to transform this essence.

Light-Master-led groups reveal to you how to awaken the cosmic soul awareness nucleus of identity in the Second Cosmic Initiation and unfold it, while concurrently guiding the spirit on that segment of the Continuum to its origin.

Cosmic Masters awaken you to unite with your Astral Soul and progressively move this essence towards its source.

Supracosmic Gurus initiate the Supracosmic seed atom upon their Path and lead it progressively to unite with the form of the Divine that dwells in the Supracosmic brain chakra.

Transcendental Sphere Sat Gurus focus your attention on the spirit upon their Path, and lead this essence to its origin in the highest Plane at that level of the Continuum.

You will learn different techniques to achieve these varying objectives. These groups will train you to focus your attention on a different spiritual essence. In groups that teach you to transform your spiritual essence, you will learn different techniques for unfoldment.

Mudrashram® spiritual practices are keyed to your cutting edge of spirituality, and lead you to progressively complete your spiritual development in Subtle, Planetary, Transplanetary, Cosmic, Supracosmic, and Transcendental bands of the Great Continuum of Consciousness.

You can learn about the steps of our Integral meditation system in the article, “Steps of Integral Meditation.” You can find out about the major meditation techniques we teach in our description of the Introduction to Meditation Program; our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program; and the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.

We invite you to study about different approaches to spirituality and to identify one that resonates with your sense of truth. We welcome you to study with us if you feel our approach to spirituality seems right to you and matches the spiritual objectives you wish to achieve.

On the Three Major Modes of Spirituality

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Q: Why do people have such different perspectives on spirituality? Some people relate to God from the standpoint that the Divine is far away, only to be approached through prayer. Others seem to stay in a state of altered state of consciousness in which they claim to experience oneness with God. Others seem to emphasize traveling on a Path to unify with God at the end of their spiritual journey.

A: We discuss these relational modes to the Divine in our book, “The Winds of Adi Sat Guru Desh,” in greater depth. While there are several other types we discuss in this book, the three most common ones we call the Brahma mode, the Vishnu mode, and the Shiva mode.

  1. Brahma mode – In this relational posture, you relate to God from the standpoint of the ego, and connect with the Divine through the cord of faith or your Soul through the intuitive thread (Antakarana). You dialog with your Higher Self through the intuitive thread; you pray to God and listen for the response to your prayer through the cord of faith. While you interiorize to the level of the Conscious mind to access this mode, you do not enter deep states of trance. Many sects of the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—relate to God from this viewpoint.
  2. Vishnu mode – In this perspective, you enter an altered state of consciousness and keep your attention united with a spiritual essence. There are two types of Vishnu mode: unitary and relational.

In the unitary type, you might keep your attention focused in the Soul, and dwell in an unbroken “enlightenment” experience. Vedanta and Advaita groups might ask you to keep your attention continually fixed on Brahman, until you experience complete Oneness with God.

In the relational type, you unite your attention with a nucleus of identity or your spirit, and develop a relationship with the Divine. For example:

  • Certain Jewish and Christian sects teach their adherents to keep their attention fixed on the Moon Soul or Christ Child nucleus of identity, and develop a relationship to the Father God or to the Son of God or Christ.
  • Groups of the I AM Movement counsel their adherents to gain union with the Solar Angel within and activate the Mighty I AM Presence, and develop a relationship to an Ascended Master and with God, who appears as the Central Sun.
  • Groups operating in the First Cosmic Initiation have their adherents identify with cosmic consciousness, and develop a relationship with the Yogi Preceptor, and to the Lord of the Yogis (Yogeshwar or Ishwara).
  • Groups anchored in the Supracosmic Sphere have their devotees focus on the seed atom on their Supracosmic Path and identify with it. They establish a relationship with the Supracosmic Master on that Path and the form of the Divine that Master has realized.
  • Groups on Transcendental Paths one, two, three, four, five, and seven have their followers identify with their spirit, and they cultivate a relationship with the Sat Guru of that Path.
  1. Shiva Mode – In this relational mode, the emphasis is on unfolding your ensouling entity and its vehicles towards its Divine Source, and achieving a state of Mastery and Liberation. Unlike the Vishnu mode, you do not keep your attention fixed in an altered state of consciousness, but you visit that state of consciousness to do your spiritual work, and then you return to your waking awareness. In these Paths, the spiritual teacher gives disciples a transformational method, which enables disciples to dissolve the karma along the track behind their spiritual essence and move that spiritual essence along this track, which constitutes the delineated Path of that tradition.

In Brahma mode, you open a portal of communication between your personality and an agency in the Superconscious mind. For those who lack faith in a Higher Power, this might simply take the form of waking up in the morning and having their instructions of what they need to do for the day delivered to the preconscious doorway.

In Vishnu mode, you enter an altered state of awareness and remain fixed in it. With sustained union with this spiritual essence, you identify with it. You begin to see this essence in others and relate to others as if they were that essence. You may feel compelled to help others identify with this same essence.

In Shiva mode, you objectively measure your progress along a delineated Path. The emphasis here is on unfolding this spiritual essence and its associated vehicles of consciousness.

Mudrashram® is an example of a Shiva mode Path that unfolds your ensouling entity and its associated vehicles of consciousness at your cutting edge of spirituality, and you concomitantly open the track of the Nada to this same level to achieve balanced spiritual development. You do not remain in an altered state of awareness like the Vishnu mode Paths. Like the Brahma mode Path, we do teach you how to receive guidance from the Soul and the Divine to conduct your life. You do your daily work at the level of the personality; you do your daily spiritual work at the level of the Soul—you make progress in both areas of your life.