The Magic of Water

After air, water is the other critical component of physical survival. One could survive weeks without food, but barely a few days without water. Generally speaking, our physical bodies are made up of 75% water. Losing just 1-2% of our water composition can already result in mild dehydration, which leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, poor concentration, headaches, dizziness and other detrimental conditions. Of course, the pendulum swings both ways. It's possible to drink too much water, and this leads to a condition known as water intoxication resulting from hyponatremia, or too much dilution of sodium in the body. This only happens though if you drink too much water within a short period of time instead of spreading it throughout the day. Dehydration will still be the most common condition that one has to be concerned about.

Water is really a wonderful substance. About 70% of the Earth's surface is comprised of water in liquid, solid or gaseous form, making water the most abundant compound on our planet's surface. Water is also known as the universal solvent, because most solids dissolve in water. This is why even with the advent of hand disinfectants, nothing beats washing one's hands in order to feel clean.

While water is the fuel of life, it's potable water that humans and most animals need. We take potable water for granted in the cities, but in disaster-stricken areas and other places that are experiencing a humanitarian crisis, potable water is one other item that people would kill for. Knowing how to filter water or having the tools to produce potable water can mean all the difference in a survival scenario.

Aside from the various physical uses of water, there is an esoteric component as well. Water has that special quality of absorbing and storing energy, much like what crystals can do. Notice that areas of supernatural activity (ghostly apparitions, white ladies, etc.) seem to center around water concentrations in the house such as the bathroom, water tank and kitchen. This is why in pranic healing, a healer would "throw" dirty energy into a basin filled with water and salt. The water absorbs the diseased energy to keep it in place, while salt has disintegrating properties in order to break down the diseased energy to a certain degree. This is also why taking a dip in the ocean can be so healing and refreshing, although in most beaches today the ocean itself can be quite polluted. The simple act of taking a bath, though, can already be refreshing enough. Don't you feel perked up after taking a shower or after a long, luxurious soak in the tub?

Here's a tip for those who want to get the most out of taking a bath. If you use a bathtub, mix in a handful of salt and a few drops of lavender essential oil. For those who use pails, just mix in the salt and lavender oil in the pail. If you usually take the shower, before your final rinse, rub soft salt on your whole body (rock salt may irritate the skin) then dilute the lavender oil in a pitcher of water and rub the water on your body. Afterwards, rinse it all off. It's refreshing and energetically it removes more dirty energy than normal bathing would. Ideally, you would want to use sea salt, although the salt sold in supermarkets would be cheaper and can be good enough for most people.

This energy absorbent quality of water is probably one other reason why it is considered bad feng shui to have a stagnant body of water in the house, or for a house to be situated near a dead creek. Aside from unsanitary conditions and dengue concerns, stagnant water keeps absorbing negative energies without carrying these energies away, so the negative energies accumulate and eventually spill over into the area. Like attracts like, so one can expect the whole area to have a negative vibe.

Flowing water, on the other hand, not only carries negative energy away but also brings fresh energy into an area, especially the closer to the mountain or other water sources one is. Of course, if one lives in a heavily urbanized area, even flowing water can be so polluted that areas near the creek or river can already be considered as etherically contaminated. For most people, they have only Mother Nature's bounty of rain in order to refresh the land. A lot of humans are sorely taxing Mother Earth's ability to keep the oceans alive. We should seriously do something about this or this will come back to haunt us sooner or later.

Because of the esoteric properties of water, blessed or holy water is part and parcel of almost any religion. Water forms an important part of every initiation and ceremony, but you don't need to be so formal in taking advantage of water in your personal life. You can actually program water to carry energies of good health, prosperity and other blessings. Every time you drink programmed or magnetized water, you can keep on absorbing these blessings to achieve a specific goal or objective. Remember, our physical bodies are made up of 75% water. In Franz Bardon's Initiation Into Hermetics, there is actually an exercise whereby one blesses water (and food) in order to achieve certain goals.

Take note that as you can bless water, the opposite also holds true. This is why it's important to have a cook who is not so negative. Even food can absorb energy, and since we use water in cooking, even more energy, whether good or bad, can be absorbed. Haven't you noticed that sometimes the food tastes somewhat off, especially when there is fighting or tension in the house or kitchen? On the other hand, we've heard a lot of people say that there's nothing like the food that Mommy cooks. A mother, generally, only feels love and caring for her family and that tends to carry over into the food.

Masaru Emoto's research on the effect positive and negative thoughts and emotions have on water, particularly through his book Messages from Water, should already give us an idea of how much what we think and feel influences water. Since we are surrounded by it, and our bodies are literally swimming in it, our thoughts and feelings do matter. As we become more aware of this abundant, yet precious, substance let's keep using it wisely not only for ourselves but in order to promote the greatest good.

All You Need Is Love

Now that Valentine's Day is fast approaching, businesses and promotions all over are gearing up for the romantic theme. So let's get on the bandwagon ourselves and discuss a little bit about love.

From tales such as Romeo and Juliet to the Iliad (the Trojan War was essentially the result of a love triangle), the recurring theme of love has been a powerful concept that never fails to capture the fancy of people. It is perhaps one of the most overused concepts, yet probably one of the least understood. As amorphous as the touch of morning mist on a lake, yet impossible to grasp, love teases us with its presence, leading the unwary to madly pursue it only to find that in one's folly, one has been unwittingly led far from the shores of reason and dragged under to drown in the sudden depths of sundered expectations.

A kabbalistic tale goes as follows: A student approaches his teacher and asks him to teach all the secrets of the cosmos in the time that it takes to remain balanced on one leg. The sage considers the request carefully, then his eyes light up and he tells the student, “Love thy neighbor as thyself. All the rest is commentary. Now go and learn.”

What is it about love that makes it THE central teaching of esoteric spirituality? We've all heard that God is love. What does this mean?

As with most esoteric stories there is a deeper meaning hidden behind this kabbalistic tale although admittedly, the advice of the sage may sound so cliche. I suppose this is because there have been so many meanings attached to the concept of love that we instinctively treat it as a generic term for anything more serious than "I like."

We know about puppy love, platonic love, romantic love and all the different types of love. At the risk of sounding cliche myself, let me make a try at the esoteric meaning of love.

Before I begin, Master Choa Kok Sui always taught that there are always different levels of truth, and like a many faceted diamond, there are many faces of truth reflecting off a central defining concept, the ultimate truth if you will. But as Charles Haanel has said in the Master Key System, "Truth is absolute, but conception of truth varies with the individual consciousness. Therefore, no one can say when the ultimate truth has been reached because no one can say when the individual consciousness has been developed to the point where further development is impossible." (emphasis mine)

Even with the many definitions of love, one consistent theme is that of "joining" or "union." Intellectually, we know that we are all children of God. But let's go deeper. Esoteric spirituality teaches that each of us contains a spark of divinity within us, that we are literally a part of God, although we are often deluded into a sense of separation through the limits of our perception. Yet if it applies that we as individuals contain a spark of God, then this also applies to everyone around us, even the people we're pissed off with.

If you filled a bathtub with water and put several sponges in it, imagine that your body is one of the sponges and that the water is Spirit, or the presence of God. We are all connected and all is oneness. This is why the Lord Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of your brethren, you do unto Him. Jesus loves us all, meaning he does not see you as any different from him. Spiritually, we are all one. Love is oneness with God, oneness with all. This is why there is the injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself. Without love for oneself, one cannot see the divinity within, so how much more with others?

Perhaps our overemphasis on love is a reflection of our instinctive longing to return to our Source, although the expression of this love often leaves much to be desired. We tend to focus on the desires of the ego, what we would get out of a particular relationship, instead of seeing people in terms of their totality as one Spirit. The union of two people in a relationship is supposed to be a reflection of how we seek to unite with God. Recall that we are microcosms of the macrocosm, a fractal design if you will. This is why sex is sacred, since the physical union of two people through sex is a reflection of the bliss and ecstasy of union with one's Higher Soul, and ultimately one's union with God.

The Sanskrit term yoga roughly means "to join" or "union." As yoga is to one's Higher Soul, so love is in relation to other persons and beings. In his book Achieving Oneness with the Higher Soul, Master Choa says that when one achieves a certain degree of oneness with all beings, not just with oneself, the process of arhatship starts. Arhat roughly means "saint" or a highly evolved person. Within this context, the phrase "God is Love" takes on more meaning. I guess the best way to imagine this is to think that you wouldn't willingly cut off your own pinky finger no matter how small and seemingly insignificant it is. The repercussions would immediately be felt in terms of pain and reduced motor skills. Our connection with others may not be so easily perceived, but the connection is no less intimate.

Kabbalah teaches that there are 10 veils, represented by the 10 sefirah in the Tree of Life, that separate our 1% physical reality with the 99% ultimate reality. Call these veils by any term you wish. They are our mental constructs, social programming, prejudices, resentments and other thoughts and emotions that prevent us from seeing everyone else as they truly are.

The spiritual path involves slowly peeling away these veils so that one can see the divinity in everyone, not just as a mental concept, but as a practical experience that translates itself to one's way of life. As Charles Haanel also wrote, "Truth is not a matter of belief. It is a matter of demonstration. It is not a question of authority, but a question of perception." This is why the state of one's consciousness determines how much of the truth one can experience.

Regardless of our state of consciousness, may you be blessed with love. Based on how we have defined love, to truly love is indeed the work of a lifetime, even several lifetimes. But as the kabbalistic sage said in the story earlier, love is what gives meaning to all that we are doing.

The Sun

The sun has always been revered since ancient times. Aside from the obvious influences on agriculture and astronomy, the sun was also a figure of religious significance. Head deities such as Zeus, Amen-Ra, etc. were often depicted as sun gods. The importance the ancients placed on the sun was certainly not misplaced, as life wouldn't have turned out as it did on Earth without the sun.

Even in this day and age, the sun still affects us to a very great degree. Block out enough sunlight from the Earth for a sufficient period of time and one is looking at the onset of an ice age. Solar storm activity poses serious threats to electronics and electrical grids. In fact, we're in the middle of a solar storm right now, with the CME (coronal mass ejection) expected to hit at about 10pm.

With so many fears about skin cancer and a depleted ozone layer, many people are avoiding getting too much sun exposure. The obsession of getting fair or white skin also makes a lot of people avoid the sun. This is actually unfortunate, because Vitamin D (which we get from sunlight) is more important than we realize. For one, it seems Vitamin D effectively boosts the immune system, particularly useful against the flu. There seems to be something to this, because when one of my friends got the flu, one of her Facebook friends mentioned that ever since he started taking Vitamin D3 supplements 2 years ago, he never got the flu again. Vitamin D also seems to be effective against cancer, and there are studies that Vitamin D can also fight depression and Alzheimer's disease.

Given the many health benefits of Vitamin D, I've made it a point to get some morning sunshine for a few minutes everyday. Of course, it's always possible to just buy Vitamin D3 supplements, but sunshine is free and natural is always better.

Interestingly, sunshine is also considered one of the foods that feed the pineal gland. In esoteric practice, the pineal gland has a very important role to play in the expansion of one's consciousness. If I may indulge in a little bit of conspiracy theory thinking, it's interesting to note that media and advertising have been overemphasizing the dangers of sun exposure, thus promoting the use of sunscreen lotions. However, it seems most sunscreen lotions do more harm than good. The skin-whitening craze (at least in tropical countries) also tends to lead people to shun sunlight. If one lacks sun exposure, then one's pineal gland can get starved, which makes it difficult for one to achieve a higher level of consciousness. It just seems one of those things that conveniently fit into the theory of a global elite that seeks to keep the masses chained to a slave mentality.

In any case, aside from feeding the pineal gland, sunlight is also a source of powerful solar prana. There are different types of prana that one draws from the surroundings, such as earth prana, air prana and water prana. However, solar prana is understandably the most powerful. According to Master Choa Kok Sui, this is why those with insufficient internal power feel down or weak during cloudy days or during seasons when there is little or almost no sunlight. There is not enough solar prana getting through to the Earth. We've all heard the term "a depressingly rainy day" and it seems there is basis for this description.

In Theosophy, the sun is also called the Solar Logos, the physicalized form of God. This is why in Hinduism, they have the Gayatri mantra, which is addressed to the sun. Repeated chanting of the Gayatri mantra is supposed to accelerate one's illumination.

Even from a literal point of view, we can say that the sun gave birth to us. Our physical bodies are formed from the trace elements of the Earth, and the different planets were formed from the ejecta that accompanied the birth of this solar system. Just as the heat from the sun is part of the sun but is not the sun itself, so are we intricately linked with this majestic cosmic body. One can then see why the ancients deeply revered the sun and why the sun gods were the head deities, "from whom all things come."

Whether from a purely physical health perspective, or from the deepest core of esoteric spiritual teachings, we would do well to respect the power of the sun.

Synchronicity

Making the decision to consciously embark on the spiritual path is a life-changing event, no matter how seemingly minor the choice may have been at the time. But precisely because of its transformative nature, the spiritual path can produce some complications along the way when it comes to dealing with family and long-time friends. I've known a lucky few whose parents were also into the metaphysical and were even the ones who got their children into the esoteric, but not everyone's parents nor friends are as open-minded about such things.

A few days ago, Yehuda Berg of the Kabbalah Centre discussed a kabbalistic saying that goes: “Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for yourself a friend.” This saying has two aspects. One is that it's very important to have the guidance and blessings of a teacher. Spiritual forces, although invisible and difficult to quantify to the physical senses, are still very potent. Just as one wouldn't poke around high voltage electricity without guidance, so would it be necessary to have the guidance of a teacher in order to progress smoothly along the spiritual path. Teachers are not only found in the physical body. For those who are sensitive enough, they may also encounter a Teacher in the inner world.

The second part of the saying is also important. To "acquire a friend" means to have someone, or preferably a group, to share your spiritual journey with. Just as ordinary friends stick together and help each other through thick and thin, by surrounding oneself with other spiritually developed people one has the greatest chance of succeeding. The spiritual path can be lonely and frustrating, especially when there are no immediately discernible results. Receiving support and encouragement at just the right moment can mean the difference between further progress and a spiritual fall. Just as a plant needs the right environment and care in order to blossom, so does the right spiritual environment allow one to unlock the full potential of one's spiritual practice.

However, there still remains the tricky part of staying grounded in the everyday world, especially nowadays when lightworkers are called to assist in healing Mother Earth and assisting humanity. If you want to see what I mean, just imagine doing social work in a hinterland village where the people still eat pork, and trying to balance that with being a vegetarian and your other spiritual beliefs without offending and alienating the locals.

But even more than that, most of us still need to work for a living, to deal with everyday matters, and we don't necessarily want to abandon old friendships (a lot of my friends, while not as bent on spirituality as me, are actually good people). It's an interesting balancing act.

There's really not much to do about this except to point out the need to balance one's spirituality with the everyday world. Although we want to inspire others towards spirituality and be a good example to others, it really doesn't help one's case to stick out like a sore thumb. Check out this hilarious video one of my friends sent over the weekend:



That being said, here are probably two rules of thumb when interfacing with the everyday world:

1. Avoid being in your friends' or family's faces about one's lifestyle. No one likes being coerced into something, so just be respectful of other peoples' beliefs and if they want to know more about you, they'll ask you anyway.

2. Try to see the other person's point of view. You don't need to agree with it, just to understand it. This requires a lot of imagination and empathy, but it's a skill worth developing.

The above points require a lot of respect, humility, compassion and inner reflection to be aware of what one needs to do without compromising one's own beliefs. It's going to be a challenge, but hey, life is about learning anyway.

String That Bow

Yesterday, one of my friends in Facebook shared a nice article entitled To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion by Oliver Segovia. The article starts by relating the story of Segovia's friend who followed her passion for writing by getting a PhD and working in academe instead of getting stuck in a regular 9-to-5 job. Those were the happiest times of her life, but when the recession hit, it hit Segovia's friend hard, and she was faced with the uncertainty of a bleak economy and a shaky career future to deal with. Her dreams were shattered, and she's now left sorting through the pieces for enough to survive on.

Segovia then goes on to say that the tragedy of today is that we have all been taught to find happiness by following our dreams. However, like in the case of his friend, because such pursuits focus so much on the self, such dreams become vulnerable to the vagaries of our environment and society. He encourages us to instead focus beyond the self to solving big problems, to become a valuable contributor, and thus be compensated in bigger ways. He then lists some tips and suggestions on how one may achieve this worthy goal.

In Segovia's words: "Happiness comes from the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs. We've been told time and again to keep finding the first. Our schools helped developed the second. It's time we put more thought on the third." I wholeheartedly agree with Segovia's points, especially with the conclusion of his article. But I'd like to state something in a different way.

I still believe it's important to find one's passion. For me, true passion seeks neither convenience nor reward, and this can produce that added impetus to give it one's all to really accomplish great things, just like Vincent Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke) in Gattaca, who didn't save anything for the swim back, which is how he beat his brother. Also look at the lives of the great classical composers and the great painters and artists. Most of these guys only became famous after they were dead, but they did what they did anyway. Or ask the dedicated mountaineer why he would risk life and limb to climb a difficult mountain, and he would tell you, "Because it's there."

One's passion may temporarily take a backseat against the practicalities of daily living, but the spark of happiness is only fanned further the more closely one's life is aligned with one's passion. And if there's any tragedy in the modern world, it's that more often than not people are forced to bury their life's passion in order to make a buck and pay the bills. How often have we heard of parents discouraging their children from taking up Fine Arts or from becoming a singer because "there's no money in it"? Is it no wonder then that people with the caliber of a Beethoven or a Leonardo da Vinci have hardly been in evidence in the recent past?

Pianist Vidalito Infante probably says it best: "Do not be shy, especially when you have a gift worth sharing. I love music. I love playing the piano. This is what I am going to do until the day I die. So I try to share my passion whenever I can."

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely important to apply one's talents to what the world needs. But while one's life does not end with the self, it needs to start with the self, because one can't give what one does not have. It's all well and good to apply oneself to the issues of finding world peace, but a lot of people haven't even found themselves. Despite college educations, many people still can't say what they love or what they're good at. Forget income level; are they really HAPPY?

The danger of immediately applying oneself to big problems without at least coming to terms with one's self is the possibility of doing things by rote, out of obligation, to the concept of serving others. And that's one of the quickest ways to burn out if one is not careful. Being of service to others takes a lot out of you, so there's a reason it's called a labor of love.

One of my other Facebook friends posted a status message this morning that happens to be quite appropriate for this article. Talk about serendipity. The Buddha once said, “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” If you want to have an idea where to start, you can take a look at this article about the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed.

In the novel Siddharta, there is a line that goes, "Om is the bow, the arrow is the soul, the Brahma is the arrow's target, that one should incessantly hit." Let me then rephrase it. In ordinary life, let your life's passion be the bow and your soul the arrow so that you can fly straight and true to the realization of the Oneness that resides within us all. Once one discovers one's life passion, one becomes more aligned to one's soul mission. Once this mission is pursued within the context of world service, one then becomes a Divine Servant, and then one can truly change the world.

Friday The 13th

Today is Friday the 13th, the first of three such Fridays in 2012 (the next two are in April and July). Understandably, this type of Friday is looked at with just a little bit of apprehension. All of this superstitious dread has been reinforced by horror movie franchises such as, what else, Friday the 13th. The more extreme cases have a phobia for Friday the 13th, scientifically termed friggatriskaidekaphobia (good luck trying to pronounce it; I didn't bother).

The exact origins of Friday the 13th seem to be disputed. The Wikipedia entry is more extensive, but I'll summarize it here. Apparently, Friday had been considered an unlucky day as far back as the Renaissance. The Wikipedia article also states that the number 13 was considered irregular in numerology, so it wasn't a good number. So the combination of a Friday and the 13th day of the month could be considered an especially unlucky day. In The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown mentions that Friday the 13th started its notorious reputation for bad luck when King Phillip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar on October 13, 1307 (a Friday), signalling the downfall of the once powerful militant order. However, scholars dispute this because there are indications that the Friday the 13th superstition may have started within the 20th century, or the 19th century at the earliest.

Although Friday may have been considered unlucky at one point, it's probably not as true today as it was in older times, as evidenced by the TGIF (Thank God It's Friday!) Facebook posts of many stressed out office workers at the end of the work week. As to the number 13, in some numerology circles, the number 13 is actually a mystical number, the number of a master or guru. For example, in the case of the 12 Apostles, Jesus could be considered the 13th member, the Teacher of the 12.

Whatever its origins, there is no disputing that people react to Friday the 13th in one way or the other. Is it really an unlucky day? I would say that it depends on one's mindset. The Friday the 13th superstition can be considered as a type of meme, "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture" as per the Merriam-Webster definition. In short, it's a collective "if everyone else is doing it, I'm doing it, too" attitude.

In the occult world, such a strong belief in the unfavorable influences of Friday the 13th can already be called an egregore. An egregore is a collective thoughtform that has become so powerful that it tends to influence the actions of people to achieve the thoughtform's intended goal. When you think of something, you give energy to it. So if you subscribe to a certain belief, then that belief gets more powerful especially when many people also subscribe to the same belief. Given enough energy, the thoughtform acts like an autonomous computer program, acting to achieve the intended results even without anyone's conscious direction.

In the case of the Friday the 13th superstition, one unfortunate by-product is that if you believe you'll be unlucky on this day, then it will tend to manifest, with the egregore "helping" you along in that department. But on the flip side, because it is a thought form, you can choose to not believe or not follow and get along just fine. Of course, you'll need to overcome many years of social programming, but it's indeed possible.

Friday the 13th need not be unlucky. For example, the Olsen twins were born on a Friday the 13th, yet they have a successful acting career and their business flourished so much that they're already billionaires. In short, Friday the 13th, or any belief for that matter, is only as powerful as the importance that you ascribe to it.

You may ask, how can you prevail in the face of the collective thoughts of millions of people? For one, do not underestimate the power of one's will. And second, it's all about karmic entitlement. Master Choa Kok Sui said that good karma supersedes bad feng shui. If it can trump bad feng shui, then any unfavorable situation or thought form should not be a problem. If it's not in your karma, it won't happen to you.

Don't forget the role one's subconscious plays in all this. You may say that you don't believe in a particular situation, but if deep inside your subconscious you actually believe it, then you're still bound to attract what you don't want.

We are all swimming in a sea of thought forms and intentions. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. But this is where one's will comes in, so that one is not pulled hither and thither by these restless tides.

So simply enjoy this day, and Thank God It's Friday!

The Five Tibetan Rites

I first encountered the Five Tibetan Rites in the book Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig. I didn't start practicing the rites then, but one of my friends sent me an ebook version over the holidays and I decided to at least give the rites a try.

Although they're called "rites" they are actually a set of simple physical exercises. Simple they may be, but not ordinary because these physical exercises supposedly result in a rejuvenated body, with the years peeled away from one's looks. But before we get into that, let's have a short look at the background of the Five Tibetan Rites.

These Tibetan Rites first came out in 1939 as a 32-page booklet called The Eye of Revelation by Peter Kelder. Kelder was supposedly taught these Rites by a certain Colonel Bradford (a pseudonym), a retired British army officer who once served in India. While still in active service, Colonel Bradford heard of a lamasery (Tibetan monastery) in India where the "Fountain of Youth" could be found. At the time Kelder met Bradford, the colonel was already in his 60s and looked every bit his age.

The colonel then decided to go back to India to search for this lamasery and Kelder didn't hear from him for the next few years. When Colonel Bradford finally returned, Kelder was shocked to see that the colonel looked like a man in his 40s, full of health and vigor. While Kelder's claims may seem outrageous, it's interesting to note that the Tibetan Rites do seem to derive from genuine Tibetan yantra-yoga practices.

From a physiological standpoint, the five exercises taken together seem to work out most of the muscles in the body. The slight whole body tensing (isometric) postures at the end of the fourth rite and at two points of the fifth rite help to stimulate blood circulation throughout the body. When I tried the exercises myself, my abdominal muscles were slightly sore the next day. So it seems the exercises particularly target the core muscles, just like in Pilates.

Even treated as a purely physical endeavor, the Five Tibetan Rites already seem to be a good exercise regimen, one that can be done everyday for as little as 10 minutes each workout. As with any exercise regimen that one is trying out for the first time, the booklet suggests starting with a few repetitions and then slowly building up to 21 repetitions for each exercise. If one also follows the dietary recommendations at the end of the booklet, one pretty much has a simple yet effective program for overall physical health.

A simple yet effective exercise program is one thing, but is there any basis to the booklet's claim that the Five Tibetan Rites can rejuvenate the body to such an extent that one seemingly grows younger? For that, we need to take a closer look at the esoteric part of the material.

According to the booklet, the body has seven psychic vortices. The booklet doesn't mention it, but these psychic vortices are also known as chakras. In a young and healthy person, the chakras are slightly further out from the body and are spinning rapidly. In old or sick people, the chakras are more sunken and spinning sluggishly. Therefore, the difference between young and healthy from old and sickly is the speed at which the chakras spin. This is also the explanation in pranic healing, so this is at least one thing that the booklet has going for it.

What the Tibetan Rites do is that they stimulate the seven chakras so that over time, they will return to the spin rate of a young, healthy person. By the Law of Correspondence, when the energy body becomes healthy, physical health soon follows.

Although the booklet mentions 7 chakras, they are not referring to the 7 chakras commonly known (i.e. root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, crown). Rather, the 7 chakras in The Eye of Revelation refer to one in the forehead, one in the posterior part of the brain, the throat, the right side of the body above the waistline, the sex/sacral and the chakras on both knees. It's interesting to note that the booklet also says that the sex chakra is directly connected with the throat chakra, which is the same information found in pranic healing. But even more interesting are the locations of the chakras themselves.

Take a look at the image on the right. They pretty much correspond to the location of the psychic vortices mentioned in The Eye of Revelation. However, this image was taken from the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception by Max Heindel. They are psychic centers in the desire (astral) body that determine how clairvoyant a person is. So there is the intriguing possibility that the Five Tibetan Rites may also activate clairvoyance to a certain extent.

But what really takes the cake for me is the Sixth or Secret Rite. According to Colonel Bradford, the sex energy must not be suppressed, but rather transmuted by bringing it up to the higher centers. A person who does this transforms from an ordinary man to a "superman." The Sixth Rite is therefore an exercise that brings the sex energy up to the higher chakras to be used as "spiritual gasoline."

This is really amazing because Master Choa Kok Sui also teaches the same thing about sex energy. In fact, in The Spiritual Essence of Man, Master Choa also gives the exact technique how to bring sex energy up towards the higher chakras, and for me it's even more simple to do than the Sixth Rite.

Based on such analysis of the esoteric components of the booklet, I can say that there really is something to the information that had been presented. Of course, with regard to regaining youthfulness, it's not like getting a liposuction and some botox. It'll probably take some time to achieve the full effects, and a lot will also depend on one's dietary habits and lifestyle. According to information from Dr. Mercola, exercise, although important, actually represents about 20% of overall health, with the remaining 80% coming from diet. So you cannot exercise yourself out of a bad diet.

In any case, whether one is looking to regain one's youth or simply looking for easy-to-do exercises to round out one's daily health regimen, the Five Tibetan Rites do seem to fit the bill quite nicely.

How Thoughts Can Entangle

In quantum physics, quantum entanglement refers to non-local communication between two objects. What this means is that what happens to one object happens to its twin, regardless of the distance between the two. They could theoretically be light years apart (literally) and a change in state of one will result in a similar change in the other.

In terms of energetic health, "entanglement" usually refers to emotional entanglements that bind one to certain lines of behavior, especially when faced with a triggering event. An example would be phobias, like a flood survivor getting nervous every time it rains hard.

Anyone who believes in the Law of Attraction is aware of the adage that energy follows your thoughts. To a clairvoyant, a person extends many energetic tendrils that reach out to those things that the person is thinking about. If you passed by a bookstore on the way to meet a friend and saw a magazine cover that interested you, the clairvoyant would probably see a thin energetic thread extend from your aura to lightly touch upon the magazine. However, since you're more intent on meeting your friend on time, you would quickly forget about the magazine and the thin thread would easily be broken. If, on the other hand, you were thinking how pissed you are at your boss, the thread would be thicker and probably pulsating with every angry thought you sent out, and it's not something that would easily dissolve unless one had good self-control.

In general, the harder one thinks of something, the larger the energetic thread linked to one's object of thought, and the harder it is to break. Perhaps the phrase "following one's line of thought" originated from clairvoyant observation of such energetic cords. Normally, this isn't an issue. When one is very focused on a project, for example, one may not notice that it was already dinnertime, but a call from one's spouse or a friend to go get some dinner would be enough to "break" one's concentration.

The problem happens when there are emotional attachments that link in with one's thoughts. According to Master Choa Kok Sui, desire is emotional gunpowder. It has the power to materialize what you want quickly, but uncontrolled it can turn on you and burn you. Energetic elementals or parasites also feed on certain thoughts and emotions (e.g. anger entities and elementals) and these energetic entities tend to trigger the appropriate responses in order to get their "food." Hard as it may seem to think of oneself as an emotional vending machine, that's what happens when we let our emotions and desires spin out of control. Just ask anyone who is addicted to anything (food, cigarettes, gambling, etc.); the desire is almost overwhelming.

These cords are also two-way streets. Since the energies being used up in maintaining these cords (anger, greed, lust, etc.) are the same energies used to materialize things, then it stands to reason that negative cords will only set up or attract more negative situations that result in newer negative cords being created, perhaps with other people.

When the Lord Jesus said that even if one lusted after a woman in one's thoughts, one was already committing adultery, it was likely in reference to the energetic cords that one creates and can materialize given enough time and energy. "What you meditate on, you become," Master Choa often says in his books.

Even more important, these cords create karmic traces that can carry over into a future lifetime if one can't resolve them in this lifetime. This is the type of quantum entanglement that you do not want. If you've ever met someone for the first time yet felt an intense dislike for that person, it could be because there is a karmic cord that binds you to that person.

What to do then? Again, we come back to the same principles found in all religions, mainly that of non-attachment, forgiveness and mercy. Esoteric teachings the world over mention the need to master one's thoughts. Given how wayward thoughts can create a cascade of undesirable events, there is very good reason to nip these things in the bud.

If mastery of thoughts sounds quite intimidating and unreachable, remember that everything starts with a thought. The same process that creates negative entanglements is the same process you can use to liberate yourself. Be firm in your intention, and the rest will follow. It may not happen quickly, and you may not even finish within this lifetime, but we all need to start sometime, and that time may as well be now.

The Point

A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with two of my friends when one of them asked me if it was possible to know when someone was going to die. I told him that yes, it was possible, because each of us has a specified duration in this physical plane, so we all have a sort of "timer" ticking down to our time of death. Our life cycle is fixed but in exceptional cases, life may be extended for a few more years. I further told him that because of the set duration, it was possible for really skilled astrologers to calculate one's day and time of death. I'm sure most people would rather not know, but I'm just saying that it's possible.

At that point, our other friend interjected a comment on another topic, so conversation drifted away from the original question that my friend had asked. However, I could sense my friend's unasked question, mainly: "What's the point of it all?" This has been a question asked countless times for many millennia.

According to Drunvalo Melchizedek, the esoteric practices of the ancient Egyptians consisted of three Mystery Schools: the Left, Right and Middle Eye of Horus. The Left Eye of Horus is the feminine pathway that deals with emotions, feelings, birth and death, and other feminine components of consciousness. The Right Eye of Horus is the male pathway that was passed on purely as oral tradition and dealt with the mechanics of expanding of one's consciousness. The ancient Egyptian initiates spent 12 years in the Left Eye mystery school before graduating into the Right Eye mystery school, which was only taught once.

The Middle or Third Eye of Horus Mystery School is the source of both the Left and Right Mystery Schools, because the Middle Eye is life itself. To the ancient Egyptians, life is the most important school of all. Everything in life is a lesson, preparing us for higher levels of existence and consciousness.

The question still remains as to why one has to go through life in the first place. Couldn't one just learn about the different facts, theories and other knowledge in the higher realms? For example, why climb Mount Everest when there are many documentaries describing the journey and the sights?

To try to answer that, we need to go on a slight tangent. Interestingly, I recently came upon the novel Siddharta, written by Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962), a German-Swiss poet, novelist and painter.

Siddharta derives from two Sanskrit words: siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning or wealth). Taken together, it refers to someone who has found the meaning of existence. Siddharta is also the name of the protagonist, an Indian man on a spiritual journey set during the time period of the Buddha. According to the novel, experience is the best way to understand reality, which eventually leads to enlightenment. This actually makes sense, because knowledge by itself is merely information, but knowledge that is experienced (applied) becomes wisdom.

So there you have one viewpoint that seeks to encapsulate the meaning of life. Of course, not everyone proceeds at the same pace, so not everyone "graduates" from life with the same level of spiritual achievement. More often than not, most people forget that they are spirits in the first place, and hence become too attached to worldly (hence temporary) objects such as status, wealth and power.

When one gets too attached to something, it becomes an addiction, with all the unfortunate conditions the term implies. I remember watching one National Geographic Channel episode that dealt with the online gaming addiction of South Korean youths. South Korea probably has the best Internet infrastructure in the whole world, which is why a lot of MMORPGs are coming out of South Korea and why they're really into gaming as a whole.

There was one teenager who was really addicted to First Person Shooter games. He couldn't sleep at night unless the lights were on and his dad slept beside him because he always felt some commandos would come crashing into their unit to kill him. He also got up several times an hour to double check the locks. The above example is quite extreme, but shows to what levels excessive attachment can lead to.

It is important to engage in life (work, family, friends, leisure, etc.) but it is equally important to have a sense of perspective about everything. According to one yogi, the only things we carry beyond death is karma and knowledge of our Higher Selves.

Live and learn, but always with a sense of detachment. I guess that's as close to describing the point of life that we can get. The rest of the way we need to experience by ourselves.

It's All About Entitlement: How To Manage Karma

It's now 2012 and with all the hype in media, TV shows, books and the Internet, I'm sure even the most skeptical out there are wondering, in a very little corner of their minds, if there really is anything to the buffet of scenarios that are supposed to come about this year. I just thought that it may be helpful if people became aware of certain tips to take note of as it applies to all these supposed predictions and prophecies.

One critical key that one must understand is the role that karma plays. Karma, in a nutshell, is similar to Newton's Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is good and bad karma, representing the results (consequences) of positive and negative actions respectively. In the case of good karma, it tends to manifest as good luck, good health, prosperity, etc. Bad karma tends to manifest as bad luck, sickness, hardship, etc. A very simplistic illustration is that if you smile at someone, the person will smile back at you; if you punch the person, the person will punch you back. What you give out comes back to you, but magnified many times to emphasize the results (whether good or bad).

Materialization of karma need not happen immediately and can come up in future lives. Hence anything currently happening in one's life right now is simply karma (good or bad) that is finally materializing. Entitlement means you deserve it, so whatever happens is simply a matter of entitlement. As Master Choa keeps emphasizing in his teachings, everything that happens has a cause, it's just that we are not always aware of the causes. This may be a difficult concept to accept, but the sooner one comes to terms with it, the better one will be able to start managing the course of one's life.

If you're experiencing bad luck, but cannot trace it to anything you have done recently or earlier in your life, chances are your bad luck is a result of something you did in a previous life. Obviously, an acceptance of the concept of reincarnation is necessary for all of this to make any sense.

There is planetary karma, national karma, family karma, personal karma, etc. You can go crazy trying to trace all of it. However, it's not always necessary to trace the exact causes. In the case of hardship (bad karma), learn your lessons from them and strive to make sure no one else gets into the same situation you were/are in. In the case of blessings (good karma), be thankful for them and use them to improve not only your own life but the lives of others as well.

But more important than that, if your current situation is a reflection of your past actions, the corollary also holds true that what you do NOW will define your future. This is why karma is not fatalistic, because you can shape what your future will be by performing good actions now. Like a farmer planting seeds in order to have a bountiful harvest, you can plant good karmic seeds, and continue to plant them, so that you keep reaping good results. Of course, there are many dimensions in how this works. But generally, keep the principle in mind of planting good seeds now to reap a good future later.

Good karma can also neutralize or at least mitigate materializing negative karma. One particular aspect of good karma is the Law of Mercy and Forgiveness. According to Master Choa, the Law of Mercy and Forgiveness supersedes the Law of Karma. Which is why the Lord Jesus also said, "Be merciful, so that you will be forgiven."

Let's now go into the HOW of things. Like in anything, there is a Yin (Don't) and a Yang (Do) aspect. If you're in the red and trying to improve your bottomline, it not only makes sense to earn more money but also to reduce or substantially limit your expenses. The same principle applies to managing your karma. Avoid doing anything to increase your negative karmic debts while at the same time, keep planting good karmic seeds.

Eventually, your good karma will tend to overtake your bad karma, but you need to be patient and persevere because we're not talking about quick and instant fixes here. After all, we may be talking of several previous lifetimes worth of negative karma. Master Choa, in his booklet Achieve The Impossible, also adds that deliberately committing a mistake and then trying to "pay it off" with good deeds does not work.

Service and tithing are some of the quickest ways to generate good karma. Character building is what helps you avoid creating additional negative karma. In general, you need to give what you want to receive. As it applies to managing the predictions for 2012, if you want food security, then give food to those who need it (e.g. feeding programs). If you want security of shelter, contribute to the welfare of the homeless. And so on. While it would be great to personally participate in these works of mercy, it's not always possible, so you may instead just donate money or resources to the many charitable foundations who undertake these projects full time, such as the Red Cross, Food for the Hungry Foundation, Gawad Kalinga, etc.

In his book Psychic Self Defense for the Home and Office, Master Choa Kok Sui mentions that good karma is the ultimate protection. This is why in Psalm 91, "You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." This is also why there are skydivers who survive a failed parachute opening, or passengers who come out unscathed in some air crashes. The most extreme case I've read about is the amazing story of the 8 German Jesuit priests who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima despite being only 1 kilometer away from ground zero.

The topic of karma and its overall role in spiritual evolution is a vast subject that would require a book, if not several books, just to discuss. So by necessity, this article has been quite limited in scope. But I hope that I've presented enough information to show that one need not be held hostage to the prospect of dire predictions and events. It is possible to shape one's future by using esoteric laws, particularly the Law of Karma.

Here then is to our bright future, a future that we can start creating even today!

Recognizing The Source

Sumptuous lamb chops. Mouth-watering T-bone steak. "Heavenly" crispy pata (fried pork leg). Delicious chicken empanada (meat pie). Those of us who aren't full vegetarians would happily wolf down our favorite dishes without a moment's thought. But if someone puts a butcher's knife to your hand and tells you that you need to slaughter the animal you're going to eat, I bet most of us would balk at the thought.

Most people don't realize the process by which their meat gets to the table. This makes it easier for people to eat the end product, because they don't consciously make the connection between the animal and the meal they're eating. But come face to face with the animal and suddenly, most people can't even bear the thought that parts of the animal will eventually end up inside their guts.

In one of the episodes of Wowowee (when Willie Revillame was still with ABS-CBN), they had butchers as contestants. Before starting each game segment, Willie usually interviews the contestant about their work, why they joined, etc. More often than not it's this pre-game interview that gets Willie in trouble, but in this particular episode it was interesting to find out that butchers actually feel pity for the animals they are about to slaughter. Some of them even say prayers over the animals or at least perform some sort of ritual to ease what is about to happen.

On the one hand, it's encouraging to know that butchers aren't heartless, but on the other hand we should thank them for taking on the burden most of us wouldn't bear ourselves. If this isn't enough to make us into full vegetarians, it should at least make us more respectful and thankful for the meat that we eat.

This situation with how we perceive meat also has greater implications in how we relate with other people. Back in college, I remember finding an old propaganda booklet in the library. It was printed in the US back during World War 2 and was entitled something like "Know the Enemy". The booklet contained detailed descriptions of Japanese customs and beliefs, all in a negative light, of course. Enemies are always demonized in order to make fighting and killing them more palatable. Propaganda like this is still quite prevalent, especially in the way media portrays supposed "enemies of the state."

The problem with this mindset is that it perpetrates the "us versus them" attitude. Anything or anyone that is different from one's beliefs or from one's family is "evil." Most people eat meat without a second's thought because they don't recognize that the parts they're eating come from an animal they would otherwise feel pity for. This is the same type of thinking that leads us to easily hurt others. After all, they're the "enemy" and "we have nothing in common" so they'd be better off wiped from the face of the Earth. Isn't that the usual thought process when we're really pissed off or boiling with anger at someone or a group of people?

Many people forget that we are all spirits, perhaps inhabiting and using different forms, but all from the same source nonetheless. If people just saw more of the divinity in others, perhaps there would be less tendencies to hurt other people..

This disconnection, the failure to see the oneness in everything is also evident in how we are treating Mother Earth. The environment is something outside and separate, so many people think that they can throw trash in the ocean or deforest the mountainside and none of it has any effect upon them. But the many disasters in 2011 spawned by such ecological mismanagement show the folly of such thinking.

Since 2012 is already here and many are expecting a change in consciousness anyway, why don't we start by affirming the divine nature of everyone we meet. The Indians have a term for this: namaste. When you say namaste to someone, you are in effect telling the person that you recognize the divinity in him/her. You may be surprised at just how much inner peace and harmony you can generate by a change in how you see other people.

Namaste!