Tag Archives: Raja Yoga

Expanding Consciousness

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: People talk about expanding their consciousness. If consciousness operates in the brain, how is that possible? What the heck are they talking about?

A: There are several viewpoints on what expanding consciousness is. There are two major types of this change in perception that occurs when consciousness expands:

Attentional – This type is predicated upon the movement of attention and the concomitant opening of awareness.

Transformational – This type looks to the unfolding of the Soul and the changes that occur in its vehicles of consciousness: this is most pronounced in the brain center of the Soul’s essential vehicle.

In both types, there is a new perspective:

In the attentional type, your attention moves to a new place on the thread of consciousness and views from that standpoint.

In the transformational type, your ensouling entity moves, and it opens an area of the unconscious mind that was formerly behind the ensouling entity, and can now clearly view the contents of this reclaimed level of the Superconscious mind.

To bring about attentional expansion of consciousness, we teach Raja Yoga in our intermediate meditation classes—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. To generate transformational expansion of consciousness, we impart to you a transformational mantra in our intermediate meditation classes.

In the waking state of consciousness, which is the ground state of your attention, you witness the activity of your brain. Many people mistake this activity of consciousness that operates in the living brain as consciousness itself; those who meditate, however, learn to isolate the attention and discover this inner witness. This collection of your attention leads to the isolation of the “attentional sphere;” this is the state of witnessing mind—or as the Buddhists call it, mindfulness.

Stages of Experiencing the Attentional Principle

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2020

Q: I’m not clear about how the attentional principle gains a greater ability to perceive and operate in meditation. Can you describe how the experience of the attentional principle changes with greater inner development and how it gains enhanced facility for meditation?

A: There are three major stages of experiencing the attentional principle:

Perceptual Union – At the first stage, your attention gains union with the attentional principle. With practice, you begin to be able to see and hear what the attentional principle is seeing and hearing in the present time.

Conscious Intentional Activity – At the second stage, you become aware of your attentional principle’s activity. For example, you become aware that your attentional principle is intending your transformational mantra; it is receiving the Light and sending this out via an attunement; or it is traveling in full consciousness through the dimensions of the upper Subconscious, the Metaconscious, and the Superconscious mind.

Independent existence – At stage three, you become aware that your attentional principle operates 24 hours a day, whether you are awake, dreaming, or are in sound sleep.

Regarding the progressive development of your encounter with the attentional principle, we can characterize a spectrum of states where your experience of this conscious essence deepens.

  1. Initial discovery of the location of the attentional principle (passive) – Through the use of hypnosis, psychoactive drugs, or reception of an attunement, you experience temporary union with your attentional principle. However, you cannot under your own efforts, return to this experience.
  2. Discovery of the attentional principle (active) – You move your attention through the focal points of the Conscious and Subconscious mind until your it reaches the feet of the tiny form of the attentional principle behind the pituitary center of the system of chakras of the Subconscious mind. After some practice, you can replicate this at will. We call this method, Purusa Dhyan. We describe this method in our article, “How to Open Your Own Third Eye” on our website. This meditation is the precursor to the more advanced practice of Raja Yoga, which we call direct projection.
  3. Fusion with your attention with the wave of consciousness – This state marks the dawning of stage one. When you achieve this level of control over your attention, you can experience what your attentional principle is sensing in the present time.
  4. Awareness of the intentional activity of your attentional principle – This deeper level of perception marks the beginning of stage two. You become aware of your attentional principle using its intention to travel through the inner Planes of Light, to activate your transformational mantra, and to make attunements. In this state, you become aware that you are doing conscious inner work; you can detect that you are consciously meditating.
  5. Microconcentration on the activity of the attentional principle’s chakras – In addition to intention that operates through the point between the eyebrows chakra of the tiny form of the attentional principle (Purusa), in this state you become aware of the activity of the other chakras of this form. In the throat center, you become aware of its ability to receive intuitive and telepathic impress. In the heart center, you become aware of its ability to contemplate. In its solar plexus center, you become aware of its ability to anchor suggestions in the vehicles of consciousness of the mind and in the unconscious mind. In its navel center, you become aware of its ability to empathically enter the experience of others. At the center at the base of the spine, you become aware of the attentional principles ability to marshal its forces to affirm and create what it wishes to manifest.
  6. Encounter with the guide – At this state, you become aware of your attentional principle’s dialog with an inner guide and its reception of guidance from that guide’s form. You become aware that your attentional principle is listening to the guide’s discourse and it is speaking to the guide through silent, telepathic thought. When you are able to maintain your attention in union with the attentional principle in this state, you experience conscious encounter with the inner guide, which we call Guru Dhyan.
  7. Enhanced noumenal experience – In this state, you have a heightened awareness of your attentional principle’s experience on the higher Planes, and you are able to clearly cognize what it sees and hears. You may become aware that it is attending inner schools or Temples of Wisdom. You may behold it carrying out directed Light Ministry under the aegis of the Masters. You may discover it is consciously communing with Masters of the Hierarchy of Light or Initiates of other spiritual traditions. You make this initial discovery of your attentional principle’s activities when you are meditating while you are awake.
  8. Turiya – This is the start of the third stage of experiencing the attentional principle, where you realize it has a fully independent existence. You become aware that your attentional principle is inwardly awake during all states of consciousness—waking, dream, sound sleep, coma, and death—and you experience your attentional principle is immortal, eternally conscious, and has full remembrance of its experiences on the inner Planes. You realize that its activity is not governed by where your attention is focused—rather, it has the ability to allow your attention to become aware of what your attentional principle is experiencing, and it has the ability to direct your attention to any focal point within the personality or any nodal point in the Superconscious mind, up to the attention’s origin.
  9. Spiritual empowerment – In this state, you become aware of the attentional principle’s ability to guide the attentional principle of others on the inner Planes. In the Mudrashram® tradition, this ability first dawns when we train advanced disciples, who reach the Form of the Disciple on the Bridge Path, to bestow the Raja Yoga Attunement during Teacher Training One. This ability is significantly augmented during Teacher Training Two, which occurs when disciples reach the Mahatma Stage on the Bridge Path, and they learn how to manifest the guide form to the attentional principle of others.
  10. Maha Chaitanya Samadhi – In this deepest stage of meditation, you gain the ability to return attention (chittam) to its origin, the form of the attentional principle (purusa) to its source, and the wave of consciousness (chetan) to where it originated in the Infinite Stage.

During the neophyte phase of spirituality, you may have the passive experience of your attentional principle of state one. You do not have control over this experience, but it shows you aspect of your mind beyond the confines of your Conscious mind.

The aspirant phase of spirituality activates states two through five. You become aware of your attentional principle and its abilities.

In the disciple phase, you have a heightened experience of your attentional principle through states six through eight. You are able to commune with the guide, have full awareness of your attentional principle’s adventures in the inner Planes, and finally realize it as an immortal, eternally conscious spiritual essence.

When you become an Initiate, you activate state nine. Here you are empowered to send the Light to awaken and guide the attentional principles of others.

You can learn to consciously encounter your attentional principle in state two through using the Purusa Dhyan technique. This allows you to open the inner seeing of your attentional principle, and experience what mystics call the opening of the third eye.

We teach you how to activate states three through five in our intermediate mediation courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. We teach you how to activate state six, which enables you to commune with the inner guide (Guru Dhyan) in the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.

Steps seven and eight mark the attainment of advanced discipleship. This comes about gradually after several years of meditation, as your ensouling entity progressively opens deeper and deeper bands of the Great Continuum of Consciousness. Regular practice of Raja Yoga is key to this enhancement of your attentional principle’s experience; those who ignore this important aspect of core Integral meditation practice often lag behind in their ability to experience these more profound stages of attentional principle development.

Those spiritual traditions that grant the ability to bestow the Raja Yoga attunement can awaken and guide the attentional principles of others—these can demonstrate state nine. We empower out students to make this attunement in our advanced Teacher Training programs.

You experience state ten when you complete your spiritual journey in Mudrashram® and you arrive at the Infinite Stage at the top of the Seventh Transcendental Path. This is the most profound state of the experience of attention and the attentional principle, where you consciously experience their origin—where they originally came forth from the Divine.

If you will learn the steps of Raja Yoga meditation and practice it regularly, you will in time experience states two to ten of the development of the abilities of your attentional principle. Your meditations will become ineffable immersion in boundless vistas of sublime knowledge and endless love. And God will not be an abstraction: you will know the Divine As It Is.

Can A Woman Become a Spiritual Master?

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2008

Q: Can a woman become a spiritual Master?

A: The answer to this question is yes. Some confusion has arisen in this issue, so it is important to elaborate upon this topic at greater depth.

A woman’s connection to the Logos is predominately through the heart, hence she is innately intuitive, and gravitates easily to the bhakti path of spiritual communion. Her great strength is love, compassion, and nurturing. She may also be attracted to the path of surrender and selfless service, Karma Yoga.

A man’s connection to the Logos is predominately through the brain, hence he excels in volitional, intellectual, and conceptual formulations of spirituality: teaching, moral instruction, and development of self-discipline. Men for this reason often do well in Jnana Yoga (intellectual, discriminative) and Raja Yoga (inner mastery through will) paths.

Over a series of incarnations in both genders, an individual has an opportunity to work on both heart and head connections with the Logos. Typically, by the Third Initiation, the individual has had sufficient experience with both connections to be relatively balanced, so there will be relative facility in all four forms of spiritual work: discipline of attention, mind, and body (Raja Yoga); discrimination of one’s own higher Nature and ability to use abstract contemplation (Jnana Yoga); development of selfless love, devotion, and inner purity (Bhakti Yoga); and expression of selfless service to humanity (Karma Yoga).

The Soul is neither male nor female; hence the Soul’s ability is not affected regardless of the gender of the current incarnation. So when the Soul is revealed in its own unborn Glory in the Fifth Initiation, its illumination is not dependent on whether the individual is male or female. The initiate can minister the Divine Light regardless of gender.

Where the question of gender is included is one of traditional teaching roles propagated at the level of institutions. Some institutions have developed policies that women cannot be ministers or priests, and a similar tradition is upheld in certain spiritual lineages. The impact of this is to maintain a Logoic “brain emphasis,” where will power, philosophical and ethical teaching predominate in these traditions.

So as long as these policies continue within institutions, females will be excluded from expressing the ministerial role within these social vehicles. However, the Divine Spirit does not recognize such boundaries devised by the intellect and imagination of humanity, hence empowers women as Its instruments, as readily as It empowers men. We should understand Grace transcends culture and social institutions: whomever has earned the requisite qualifications and Mastery in Light may become anointed and join into the Hierarchy of Illumined Ones.

Ways People Experience the Astral Body

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2017

Across the Seven Rays, there are seven alternate ways for interfacing with the astral body. These are briefly described below:

1st Ray – You interface with the astral body via the deep body awareness center. You access your astral body through relaxation and suggestion. Hypnosis and autohypnosis use this type. Mudrashram® teaches a technique for autohypnosis in its intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

2nd Ray – You interface with the astral body during dreaming, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This access point is through the heart center of the vehicle below waking awareness, where attention resides during dreaming sleep. Those who use this method frequently keep dream journals, and commonly undergo training in lucid dreaming. Schools of psychotherapy that analyze dreams and that ask people to remember and monitor their dreams adopt these methods.

3rd Ray – You interface with the astral body through the etheric switchboard of the Metaconscious mind. Volition directs the astral body to give suggestion to the physical body for healing or to give information about the what the body is experiencing, to visualize ideas and alternative scenarios, to trace issues back through your life narrative and personal unconscious, or to personify subpersonalities or dramatic characters. Your Metaconscious mind operates this practical form of utilizing the astral body.

4th Ray – You interface with the astral body through the solar plexus brain. This pathway promotes conscious astral projection experiences. Occult and psychic schools that train people in psychic skills—such as healing, channeling, and doing readings and remote viewing—employ this pathway. Psychoactive drug use passively awakens this pathway.

5th Ray – You interface with the astral body through the medulla center of the system of chakras in the Subconscious mind. When your attention travels through this portal, you study the operation of the astral body, examine how its senses and movement work, and experiment with using intention to control it. You activate this body when you move your attentional principle out of its ground state in the pituitary center of the Subconscious mind—on any of the Seven Ray tracks—and it directly responds to suggestions and commands that your intention anchors. The direct projection technique that we teach in our intermediate courses awakens the astral body in this manner.

6th Ray – You interface with the astral body though your spirit—you experience the astral body in this perspective as a covering over your spirit that you drop when you reach a certain level on the Nadamic Path. Meditation schools that emphasize Nada Yoga practice, particularly the traditions anchored on the first through fifth Transcendental Paths view the astral body in this fashion.

7th Ray – You interface with the astral body through your attentional principle—you perceive your astral body through this viewpoint as a covering over your attentional principle that it drops at the top of the Psychic Realm. When you operate through this view, you can activate a variety of inner abilities and do readings through astral body, both through contemplating the chakras within it and through viewing different bands of the mind and the Planes of the Continuum. Schools that train in metavisional sight exploit this approach. We train our advanced students in Mudrashram® how to access the visioning abilities available through this perspective in our “Another Look at Inner Vision” series.

Mudrashram® trains its students in several of these methods that access the astral body in our intermediate classes. We teach a First Ray autohypnosis technique. We tap the Third Ray perspective when we introduce our evocative Rainbow Technique. We show you the direct projection method of Raja Yoga, which is a Fifth Ray technique.

In the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation, we introduce our students to the coverings over the spirit in our Advanced Nada Yoga module, which examines the Sixth Ray perspective. We also train our students in the Seventh Ray approach in our advanced webinar series, which students that complete the advanced course can study.

We generally steer aspirants away from the Fourth Ray solar plexus pathway. While your attention can readily enter the astral body through this pathway, it commonly has little control over your experience—either where the astral body travels or whom it encounters. Psychoactive drug use shares this pathway, and similarly, triggers a passive astral projection experience.

There is some risk in adopting passive astral travel methods. You sometimes can encounter malevolent entities in the inner Planes—particularly on the Lower Astral Plane—who may attempt to take over your physical body (possession) or inflict emotional torment and severe mental confusion (psychic attack). The “bad trips” that those who ingest psychedelic drugs report are examples of these types of experiences.

These experiences leave you shaken and traumatized. We suggest it is better to avoid them through only using a controlled astral travel method, such as the Fifth Ray, direct projection method.

The Third Ray will-governed approach, and the Seventh Ray visioning activation approach are also safe meditation practices, as they keep the astral body under the control of volition, or the intention and suggestion of the attentional principle.

The spirit’s ability to make use of its astral covering in the Sixth Ray perspective is similarly under the control of its conative principle—which we call, the wish. This wish-activated interface with its astral covering does not involve the spirit passively wandering through the dimensional worlds on the Nadamic Path.

The First Ray approach of self-hypnosis and hetero-hypnosis is likewise generally safe, as your astral body will respond to your—or your hypnotist’s—suggestion, provided that neither of you lead the astral body into areas of the unconscious mind or the astral Planes where it might encounter negative entities that are beyond your ability to control.

The Second Ray dream methods, since a therapist supervises them, generally do not lead to problems; if you do have nightmares or other dysphoric dream experiences, they can be readily debriefed and deconstructed to promote your understanding and integration of them. Since most lucid dreaming methods attempt to get the subject in dreams—your attentional principle—to wake up and control the experience, these methods should also not get you into trouble.

We encourage you to become familiar with all seven interfaces with your astral body, so that you may understand this vehicle that you inhabit during the states of dreaming, hypnosis, and meditation, and when you perform psychic readings. If you endeavor to explore the solar plexus pathway of passive astral projection, we encourage you to only do so in a guided meditation that a Light bearer supervises, so you can travel under protection, and safely enter the current of the Astral Light without being waylaid during your journey.