Just Do It

When talking about the spiritual path, one tends to call to mind the mystical and the transcendent. So when one hears that "character building" is one of the foundations of spiritual practice, the topic tends to have a flat taste perhaps because we have been exposed to this concept since kindergarten. Unfortunately, this early exposure also seems to have desensitized most of us to the importance of developing the virtues.

In my last article, I discussed the importance of character development not only in terms of its moral considerations but also in terms of the esoteric technicalities related to kundalini awakening. According to Master Choa Kok Sui in his book The Origin of Modern Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga:

Developing the virtues and eradicating weaknesses are very important for aspirants and disciples who are treading the spiritual path. Unfortunately, this is also the most neglected practice by the students. Without the development of the virtues, the disciple will eventually fall. (emphasis mine)

Those are very interesting words that we should take note of. I would even venture to say that if you can only do one thing on the spiritual path, it should be character building. One may notice that religion, that part of the Teachings that is taught to the masses, frequently emphasizes the development of the virtues.  This perhaps explains why there have been stories of ordinary people who became saints even if they did not have a library's worth of spiritual techniques available to them.

Knowing something is one thing, but putting that knowledge into practice is another ballgame entirely. After all, the Ten Commandments have been here for thousands of years yet human history has been remarkable for the contravention rather than the adherence to those same Commandments.

Character building need not be so complex but I believe it would really help to consider certain principles that will make one's effort more organized and practical.

The first principle to keep in mind is that of self restriction. This is also known as self control, self mastery or self discipline. It's more than just "not doing the bad things." Self restriction has more to do with moderation or taking the middle path. We've all heard the saying that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. For example, being miserly means you are too selfish, but being too generous means you are a wastrel or tend to get taken advantage of. We must strike a proper balance between helping others and also taking care of oneself. The key word is balance.

Self restriction develops the will because it calls for focus. To borrow Master Choa's words, steam spread out over open space is so much hot air. But channel that steam into the small space of a steam engine and you can move freight trains.

The second principle for character development is introspection and firm resolution. It involves constantly being aware of both the good and the bad that one has done during the day. The purpose of this exercise is not to burden oneself with guilt nor to get puffed up with pride. This exercise is used so that one may continue doing the good while identifying those areas that one needs to improve on, so that the next time a similar situation comes up, you already know the right thing to do. Some systems advocate doing this review in the evening before going to sleep, others suggest doing this in the morning upon waking. Just do what seems more comfortable for you.

Introspection and firm resolution mainly develops one's intellect and awareness, especially honesty. Honesty manifests as accurate perception and correct expression. One cannot correct something if one doesn't know what is wrong or does not want to admit to what is wrong.

The third principle is that of forgiveness. We have all been hurt at one time or another, to varying degrees of severity. Deep seated hurt can develop into a trauma and according to some systems the hardest traumas to root out and correct are those that happened at a young age. From an energy perspective, the trauma energy is lodged deep at the roots of a particular chakra, owing to how early in life it took place.

Holding on to the hurt and anger only saps our energy and makes it difficult for us to move on to better things in our life. Anger can also lead to vengeance and retaliation if the emotion is strong enough. So forgiveness is the key so that one does not remain entangled with others.

The practice of forgiveness develops one's ability to love and have compassion. With love comes oneness, and if the spiritual practitioner sees all things as one, there is no desire to harm others. "Whatsoever you have done to the least of my brothers, you have done unto Me" pretty much encapsulates this concept of oneness. One of the highest expressions of love and compassion is that of ahimsa or harmlessness.

Forgiveness also helps one to develop detachment, because the act of forgiving involves letting go of the hurt and all the negative thoughts and emotions associated with the hurt.


To summarize, three principles of character building are self restriction (will), introspection and firm resolution (intellect) and forgiveness (love). Intellect is often attributed to Light, Will is attributed to Power and love is self explanatory.

Interestingly, at the end of the Great Invocation, we can find the phrase "Let Light, Love and Power restore the plan on Earth." Fits like a glove, doesn't it? What better way to work towards building heaven on Earth than to start on ourselves?

But again, while knowing all this may be half the battle, the other half involves actually practicing and applying our knowledge. We all stumble and fall, but as the saying goes, success is what follows after you pick yourself up from the ground. So I say this with a smile on my face: What are you waiting for?

Character Building and the Spiritual Path

This may seem like one of those strange statements. After all, doesn't the fact that one is on the spiritual path imply that one is already molding one's character to be a better and more moral person? Not necessarily. When one is exposed to the wonderful field of esoteric studies, there is always the danger of getting too caught up in the myriad techniques and rituals of different spiritual traditions. We're talking about thousands of years worth of traditions across different civilizations, so there's really a lot of them.

I constantly have to remind myself that the techniques are only the tools that are required to achieve the objective. To quote a cliche, we must not be so focused on the trees that we lose sight of the forest. When there is an overemphasis on technique and ritual, we can lose the essence of why the techniques and rituals are there in the first place. The practice can devolve into something like a bodybuilding contest, where people flex their "muscles" to impress spectators. What is worse is that the promise of receiving higher teachings can be used to ensure obedience within an organization, particularly to those who are "addicted" to the prospect of higher knowledge. In this case, the techniques and rituals can become a distraction and a hindrance to one's spiritual progress.

This is not to say that we should give up the different spiritual exercises and rituals. Rather, a proper perspective should always be present. One analogy I can think of is the practice of traditional martial arts. By "traditional" I mean those systems that have a rich collection of preset forms or kata. If one focuses too much on the kata, one won't be able to fight effectively or react in a fluid situation such as sparring or a real fight, yet one could delude oneself into thinking one is a bad ass fighter simply because one is a black belt who knows all the kata. The forms are there to give the foundation that allows the martial artist to execute techniques in a fluid situation such as a real-life encounter.

What does this have to do with character building? Again, the goal of spiritual practice is the perfection of the self. The spiritual exercises are not ends in themselves. The techniques are the support, not the goal.

The work of character building takes on even more urgency when one is practicing advanced spiritual disciplines. Master Choa Kok Sui explains in his books that divine energy activates the kundalini (the serpent fire at the base of the spine) to a certain extent. The more advanced a spiritual technique or meditation, the more divine energy it brings down, hence the more tendency for the kundalini to activate.

There are many descriptions of what the kundalini is, but according to Master Choa, the important thing to consider is that kundalini is like a fertilizer. It magnifies both the good and the bad in us. This explains how there are priests and pastors who become sex maniacs or who embezzle the funds of the parish. Their daily spiritual practices activated their kundalini and made their negative tendencies stronger, often to the point of being uncontrollable. This is why character building is so important, so that advanced spiritual practices produce saints instead of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde parodies.

In pranic healing courses, one will notice that character building is a consistent part of every seminar. The fact that character building is constantly repeated, even in higher courses such as Arhatic Yoga, underlines its importance so that one may avoid complications in one's spiritual advancement. If one's negative traits overwhelm one's positive traits, one may spiritually fall or become worse off than if one hadn't pursued advanced spiritual practices in the first place.

There are many signs of kundalini awakening that are also called kundalini syndrome. But in Arhatic Yoga, "kundalini syndrome" is usually understood in its negative context, referring to problems associated with kundalini awakening.

Some examples of the positive effects of kundalini awakening include increased intuition, increased mental capability, more energy in the body (sometimes one would feel subtle electrical currents around the body or slight vibrations), activation of clairvoyance or other psychic tendencies, increased spiritual experiences, etc. Some negative effects that one might experience could be uncontrollable sex drive, a quick temper, overheating in the body even after meditation, increased bad luck, etc. although some of the effects are temporary and may just be signs that one's energy body is adjusting to the increased energy (like sore muscles after hard exercise).

Before you get scared of activating your kundalini, please note that everyone's kundalini is already activated. The question is how much it's activated. If you compare this to a faucet, most people would only have a trickle of water dripping out, while more advanced practitioners and yogis would probably have the faucet half-way open or more.

Also, the negative effects mentioned above are not inevitable. They are only likely if one has imbalances or problems in the energy body. Think of a dirty hose. If you open the faucet and the inside of the hose is dirty, you could end up spraying dirty water on the floor or the water gets stuck and the hose could burst. Since negative thought patterns, emotions and attitudes dirty one's energy body, then one's character (or lack of it) definitely has an effect on how smooth or rough one's kundalini awakening will be.

Again, the negative effects are avoidable and manageable, and one need not be absolutely perfect in order to start advancing spiritually. We all make mistakes. However, character building is also a continuous process, the same way a gardener prunes the leaves and pulls out the weeds before they grow further. The New Testament makes several references to gardeners and taking out the weeds, and those passages could apply just as easily to the practice of character building.

Lack of character building also explains why one may encounter genuine spiritual organizations that have worse internal politics and backstabbing than ordinary organizations. The spiritual teachings may be real but the practice of the teachings may be lacking, and so the activated kundalini of advanced members may instead fertilize greed, power-tripping, jealousy and other vices.

In case you are now confused about whether to pursue advanced spiritual practices or not, let me say that no single path is better than the other. Like in anything, it's all up to the individual. This is why the diversity of choices in life all have their place. Some people are content with sitting quietly in a corner and praying. Others need the direction and pacing a more structured practice gives. Only you will know the answer.

In the end, we should always ask ourselves, how has our spiritual advancement helped others? As we ennoble ourselves, do we also ennoble others? As quoted from The Science of Mentalphysics by Edwin J. Dingle:

Freedom in life comes through a knowledge of Spiritual Law and luckily the more Man knows the more he is responsible for.

Knowledge without right action is worse than ignorance, because an ignorant person does not know how to act any other way, yet a knowledgeable person has the power of choice, yet chooses irresponsibly. This is why knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge, is a sacred trust.

The spiritual path gives us access to higher knowledge. Character building is the bridge that allows that knowledge to flow from the head and into the heart.

The Wesak Festival

If ever there was a "Trending Now" indicator in the esoteric world, the Wesak Festival would be top on the list of trends right now. So what is it about this event that has esoteric communities around the world abuzz with excitement?

There are two aspects to the Wesak festival. The first aspect is that it's the most important Buddhist festival because it celebrates the birth, death and enlightenment of the Buddha. Think of Christmas and Easter combined into one. The Wesak is celebrated when the sun is in Taurus and the moon is full in the constellation of Scorpio, and this usually happens on the month of May.

The second aspect is that according to tradition, in the Wesak Valley high up in the Himalayas, the Buddha appears during the Wesak festival in order to shower the assembled initiates, holy men and lamas with the spiritual energy of Shamballa to empower them further in their world service. This congregation of pilgrims would have gathered in the valley at the approach of the full moon, there to await the appearance of the Buddha and other great beings who oversee the welfare of the world.

What is so special about this year's festival, aside from the fact that it's now 2012? We all know that the full moon brings about powerful energies. Even for those not sensitive to energy, you will find in police blotters and emergency room records that the amount of stabbings and other crimes in general tend to spike just before, during and after the full moon. The word lunatic actually derives from luna, the Latin word for moon.

The thing is, the full moon during the Wesak festival is also the most powerful full moon of the year. You can just imagine the magnitude the energies will be at right now compared to other full moons. What makes this May 5 full moon even more unique is that it's going to be a supermoon.

A supermoon means that the moon will be at its perigree (closest point to the Earth) and this particular perigree will be the closest of the three perigrees of the year. This means a brighter and bigger full moon as well as higher and lower tides than usual for the coming days. It's rare for the moon to be full AND at its perigree at the same time, so this is going to be a real treat for skywatchers indeed, especially if you're on a beach. The height of the full moon will be at 11:35 a.m. here in the Philippines, but Saturday night's full moon should still be something to behold.

So let's do a recap. This May 5 is the Wesak festival, happening on the most powerful full moon of the year, a Super Moon that also happens to be the closest perigree of the year. I think there are even meteor showers expected. With all these components coming together, you can already get the idea that the energies that will be generated during this Wesak festival are going to be really intense.

What does this mean for us? In his video address about the Wesak, Master Stephen Co (one of Master Choa Kok Sui's senior disciples) says that the full moon is a time either for crisis or opportunity, most especially this particular full moon (for reasons already mentioned earlier). For people not on the spiritual path, negative situations will tend to manifest more strongly, and thus it becomes a crisis. For people on the spiritual path, this becomes an opportunity to use the magnified downpour of energies to bless Mother Earth and be of service to others.

For those who do the Meditation on Twin Hearts, you are already of service to Mother Earth and all sentient beings. But during the Wesak, you can make use of these energies to bring down even more divine energies and thus be an instrument of greater service. This not only generates good karma, but it also serves to empower us in our spiritual evolution. This chance is priceless.

Master Stephen Co adds that with all the dire predictions coming out about 2012, especially the anticipation and anxiety surrounding the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, it's even more important to bring down divine energies to our Mother Earth. Why? He cites the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham initially asks God if He would spare the city if there were even 50 righteous people in it (with the number eventually going down to 10 righteous people), to which God agrees. However, as we know, not even 10 righteous people were found and so Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

The lesson we can derive from the Sodom and Gomorrah story is that even with a few righteous people, localized disasters can be averted. If we extrapolate this to the world, the more righteous and spiritual people there are, the more these dire predictions can be averted or at least mitigated. This is because every spiritual person naturally brings down intense divine energy which influences the person's surroundings through the person's aura. Think of the spiritual person as an antenna or conductor of divine energies. Imagine if millions of people around the world do this, the possibilities are endless!

For this Wesak festival, will it be crisis or opportunity for us? The choice is always ours, but if you would like to make the most out of this opportunity, I would suggest that one try to be of service during this weekend, such as healing others, visiting orphanages and handing out donations, or simply being there to help one's friends and relatives. It may not seem much, doing one little good thing, but keep in mind that millions of people around the world will also be doing these "little good things." And that's going to make all the difference.