The Mid Life Crisis and Its Significance In Astrology

Source: blog.brazencareerist.com

Recently I got to talk with an astrologer and one of the topics we talked about was the mid life crisis. Apparently, in astrology the mid life crisis is quite real and important. Here's how it was explained to me.

We understand the mid life crisis as a period of reflection and sometimes confusion about one's place in life. It can also be one of those times when someone earning a six or seven-figure salary suddenly drops everything and gives it all up to start a band, or something else that's not as financially lucrative. Crazy, right?

This period of reckoning happens most intensely from age 42 until 49. However, it's possible for a person to start questioning himself/herself even as early as the mid-thirties, just as it's also possible for the period to last up to the age of 51.

In order to understand why this period happens, we need to know a little of what astrology does. In astrological terms, every person has a "destiny" (we do have free will). The positions of the planets and stars at the time of a person's birth determines, in very large part, a person's interests, talents and life events that the person is expected to go through in this lifetime.

More often than not, we are molded by what society expects from us, and thus we start to live according to the standards that have been set down for us. It's not like Divergent where you need to be part of a faction to be accepted in society, but sometimes we make our choices more out of pragmatism or social pressure than true desire.

Sounds preposterous? Well, did you know that before World War I, women really didn't mind having armpit and leg hair? But shortly after World War I, a massive advertising campaign dubbed "The Great Underarm Campaign" slowly changed market attitudes so that it would now be anathema for women to show off hairy underarms (or legs) in public. Read 5 Basic Facts of Life (Were Made Up by Marketing Campaigns) to find out what else we've been manipulated into accepting as part of daily life.

In astrology, the farther you get from expressing your true or inner inclinations, the more you start to feel that "something is missing." While this line of thought may only tease one's mind while young, it takes on more significance as one's 40s draws closer. The intensity of this period differs from person to person, but generally speaking the farther one is from the point of "this is how it's supposed to be" or "I am doing what I am supposed to," the more intense the self-questioning is.

In biblical terms, a mid life crisis can feel like the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32:22-32). The outcome will mark you and leave you changed forever.

The question is, why does the mid life crisis happen at the period that it does? What's so special about the 40s aside from it being the midpoint of average life expectancy?

The number 40 appears many times in Biblical scripture. The 40 years the tribes of Israel wandered the desert, Jesus fasting for 40 days and nights, the 40 days and nights it rained during the Great Flood, etc. They all refer to periods of testing and judgement.

But the number 40 can also mean the start of a journey. After all, isn't there a saying that life begins at forty? And it's more than just a joke to play down one's age. Traditionally, a man is only initiated into the study of the Kaballah once he reaches the age of 40.

From the astrological point of view, the planet Saturn exerts its influence more strongly in a person's life during one's 40s. As it turns out, in Franz Bardon's hermetic system, Saturn is the sphere where the Lords of Karma reside. So esoterically speaking, it means that this period puts more focus on one's life karma than at other points in one's life.

Resolution doesn't necessarily involve giving up or changing one's career. If you've always wanted to be a doctor and have a successful practice, any period of self reflection may simply involve adding another specialty or moving from clinical to administrative duties.

According to the astrologer I talked to, there are three outcomes that can be expected from a mid-life crisis:

1. The person recognizes what he/she really wants to do in life and does it regardless of the social cost,

2. The person comes to terms with not being able to follow his/her true inclinations (usually because of financial responsibilities like sending his/her kids to school). It's also possible the person may try to incorporate some aspects of his/her passion into his/her regular life without making too many waves.

3. The person is unable to come to terms with his/her life and a breakdown happens (not necessarily leading to a room with a padded wall, but the person can develop vices, be more hot tempered or just have a general air of disgruntlement; he/she can also start to develop serious illnesses at this point, i.e. a breakdown of health).

But whether one goes through an actual mid life crisis or not, I think the most important take away is that it's not so much about following your dreams as it is about being at peace with where you decide to take your life. In that sense, you are taking responsibility for your choices and when the self-questioning begins, you will find out whether you can really stand by your choices or not.

The Search For Truth - Part 2 of 2 (Wisdom and Intuition)

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A seeker on the spiritual path is always searching for the truth, or what we may alternatively term as "the way things really are." It reflects the innermost desire of every human being to learn the meaning of life and one's place in the whole scheme of things.

In Part 1 of this article, I discussed the role of knowledge when trying to pursue the truth and how the scientific method plays an important part in the study of the so-called inner sciences. A systematic, impartial and organized approach, ergo a scientific approach, is even more critical in a field of study that does not lend itself to the scrutiny of computers and laboratory equipment. Even the Buddha said as much when he told his students: Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. Validate, validate, validate is the mantra.

But at the end of Part 1, I also mentioned that the scientific method has its limitations. How? Let me illustrate with a simple example:

Let's say Bob approaches John and tells him that Tubbataha Reef is absolutely beautiful and a great place to scuba dive. Bob has been there and he had an absolutely magical experience. Skeptic that John is, he does his research and finds out that a place called Tubbataha Reef indeed exists. It's located in the Sulu Sea near Palawan in the Philippines and that it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The conservation efforts and policies are world recognized and the reef is also popular among scuba divers. John also knows Bob to be an experienced diver, so John reasonably concludes that Bob is not pulling his leg when he says Tubbataha Reef is a magical dive site.

Never having dived before but now all fired up by his friend, John takes some scuba lessons, passes the course and then goes to Tubbataha Reef. But let's say that once John gets there he develops an allergy of unknown origin, water keeps getting in his goggles or his mouth and John generally has a horrible time of the whole experience. Does John's bad experience now make a lie out of Bob's statements? Of course not. What is magical to Bob is simply a nightmare for John, yet they're both referring to the same place and activity. What, then, is the truth?

From the above example, we can identify a few general characteristics of truth:

1. Truth is relative, dependent upon the observer undergoing the experience. This brings us to the next point;

2. "Truth" only becomes the truth when it is realized. Direct experience transforms belief into certainty. Without direct experience, what one accepts as truth is actually just information and theory, the credibility of which we take on belief and faith. In our example, John believed (based on his research) that he would have the same magical experience as Bob, but the reality was that he had a bad experience.

The above points sound weird from a Newtonian standpoint, but is consistent with what quantum physics says. According to quantum physics, consciousness influences the behavior of quantum particles and by extension the reality that is made up of those same particles. Thus we find ourselves in a situation where the truth is both universal and conditional at the same time.

What, then, is truth? That's the tricky part, because life has many bewildering expressions that are all reflections of the central truth of the Creator. This gives the truth a mercurial quality, like trying to see what's on the other side of a dirty window mosaic. One can therefore imagine how much more complicated things become when one tries to understand the realms that are beyond the reach of the physical senses.

Since there are apparently many levels of truth, and the state of one's consciousness affects how much of the truth one can comprehend, only an expansion of consciousness allows one to successively part the veils that sheathe our reality.

Master Choa Kok Sui liked to use three Tagalog words / concepts in order to illustrate the different levels of truth. The first of these is tama (correct), which is the 1st level of truth. Next is wasto (literally proper, or something that is within context); the 2nd level of truth also includes the 1st level. And then there's the 3rd level of truth tumpak (used to describe something that captures the essence of a thing or subject, e.g. "hitting the nail right on the head") which encompasses both the 1st and 2nd levels.

Consider the following statements:

Tama (1st level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity.
Wasto (2nd level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity that is fun.
Tumpak (3rd level of truth): Scuba diving is an underwater activity that is fun for most people.

It's a very rough example but I hope it conveys the point. Incidentally, these terms for the levels of truth are also used by an esoteric Christian group called Ganapan. Their focus is mainly on the esoteric study of the Bible as well as meditation.

With the mercurial nature of truth and the limitations of the scientific method, what can bridge the gap between the empirical and the intangible? This is where wisdom comes in.

According to Franz Bardon, knowledge and wisdom are closely intertwined. But where knowledge is dependent on intellect, memory, maturity, talent, etc. (whether in theory or through practical experience), wisdom is not dependent on the qualities mentioned above. Wisdom instead comes from God.

In more concrete terms, wisdom is attained through the use of intuition. Master Choa Kok Sui describes intuition as "direct inner perception and knowing without the need to study." If one were to encounter a stuffed elephant in a pitch black room, one would need to first feel the feet, the trunk, the head, etc. in order to guess at the form and proportions and through deductive reasoning conclude that the animal in the room is an elephant. To someone with highly developed intuition, it would be like simply switching on the light and immediately seeing the elephant for what it is.

This reminds me of the rooftop scene in the first Matrix movie when Morpheus was being rescued. When Trinity (played by Carrie-Ann Moss) needed to fly the helicopter, she asked the Operator for a helicopter pilot download so that she could fly it. It's a cheesy example but a clear illustration of "direct inner knowing without having to study."

In Kabbalah, the sefira called Chokmah is named Wisdom. In pranic healing, Chokmah corresponds to the forehead chakra, which is also the seat of the third eye and higher clairvoyancy (lower clairvoyancy uses the lower chakras). Through higher clairvoyancy, one can see into a person, an object or a concept, and simply know. In The Spiritual Essence of Man, Master Choa Kok Sui gives the example of King Solomon, who asked God for the gift of wisdom and through it he was able to discern the guilt or innocence of a person.

However, in esoteric Buddhism the forehead chakra is the seat of lower intuition or lower Budhichitta. Higher intuition or Budhichitta is centered in the crown chakra, called Keter in Kabbalah or Sahasrara (Thousand-Petalled Lotus) in Sanskrit. The difference between the two is that lower intuition is direct knowing with form, meaning one would have inner visions or hear instructions. Higher intuition is direct knowing without form, or pure knowing without accompanying inner visions or sounds.

It is no coincidence that through the crown chakra one experiences (realizes) oneness with the Higher Soul, and oneness with God. Remember that earlier I mentioned that truth is only truth when it is realized? Realizing the truth of God is the underlying focus and intention of yoga and all other spiritual practices.

Given the above descriptions, the words of Lord Jesus in Matthew 6:33 now make more sense: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Achieving oneness with God through spiritual practice leads to a highly developed intuition, and this intuition in turn gives access to knowledge that allows one to skillfully navigate life while enriching the lives of others at the same time.

Such a soul-realized saint does not need to spend so much time plowing through tons of books or studying in school in order to learn the skills that they need to better accomplish their mission. Intuition is not omniscience, but these saints simply receive what they need when they need it. They base their actions not on faith and belief, but on true knowing and certainty.

One who has validated one's beliefs through direct experience or direct knowing (i.e. realized the truth) is not dependent on the beliefs of others about the same subject. Consider the yogi who achieves illumination through consistent spiritual practice. The atheist, who rejects the idea of God, will likewise reject the experience of the yogi. The atheist will instead try to convince the yogi that the experience is due to some weird psychosis or perhaps the collective unconscious of Jung. On the other hand, a pious person would believe the yogi's experience even without having gone through the same state, because his beliefs conform with the experience of the yogi. Alternatively, a fundamentalist may just as easily attribute the yogi's experiences to the devil and great deceiver. But to the yogi, none of those opinions matter, because no argument to the contrary will change the truth of what he went through. The yogi's concern would not be to convince others to believe him but rather to assist others in achieving the same experience if they are willing.

Note that it's possible to have an experience without understanding the experience itself. If one meditates regularly or is clairvoyant, it's possible you may have seen or heard things that you do not understand. This is where intuition also comes in, so that one may know and understand. The advantages of a highly developed intuition are therefore obvious.

Up to this point, you have been reading a lot of extraordinary claims about intuition. But again, without direct experience, there is no way one can validate what it is actually like to be in that intuitive state. What then is needed in order to develop the intuition?

Since Budhichitta is centered on the crown chakra, development of intuition is also tied to the development and activation of the crown chakra. However, the crown chakra cannot be activated without first activating the heart chakra. This is because the heart chakra is the lower correspondence of the crown chakra.

If we have a physical heart, the crown chakra is our divine heart. Where the heart chakra is the center for higher emotions and the love for others, the crown chakra is the center for divine love and a love for all Creation. If one cannot love close friends or family, or at least oneself, how can one feel love for strangers or the rest of Creation?

Various religions and spiritual systems have promoted the practice of character building with varying degrees of emphasis. Since such character building leads to the ennoblement of one's Self in thought, word and deed, it opens the way for the development of the heart chakra and allows the activation and development of the crown chakra. Thus through noble character can one attain wisdom, and this is why wise men say that a righteous person is "close to God." From an esoteric perspective it now makes sense.

Let's now turn to more practical matters. Meditation greatly helps in the development of intuition. There is a particularly powerful, yet safe and highly recommended, meditation that will allow one to develop and synchronize the heart and crown chakras. It's called the Meditation on Twin Hearts. It's safe enough that even beginners can practice it. For more details, just click the link to read the article that I wrote about the meditation. You can also read this other article on MTH that I also wrote which includes simplified instructions on how to do this meditation. Be advised that this meditation is not some type of switch where you do it once and you immediately become like Trinity in The Matrix. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and this meditation is a step in the right direction.

The benefits of intuition are not limited to metaphysics. Did you know that some of the greatest scientific discoveries were achieved through the use of intuition? These scientific discoveries are actually the best examples of merging the empirical and the intuitive. More often than not, laboratory experiments would hit a roadblock, but the scientist would make an intuitive leap and this new idea would prove to be the one that allows them to hurdle the problem.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of the fusion of science and intuition is Albert Einstein, whose birthday happened to be yesterday (March 14). Einstein's Annus Mirabilis papers particularly come to mind. These papers refer to four articles that Einstein wrote and published in the scientific journal Annalen der Physik in 1905. The four articles dealt with the photoelectric effect (giving rise to quantum theory), Brownian motion, the special theory of relativity and matter-energy equivalance (E=mc2). So revolutionary were these papers that they changed the foundation of modern physics.

In a documentary about Einstein, one resource person mentioned that most scientists would have been extremely happy to have published one or at most two of these revolutionary discoveries in their whole lifetime. Einstein published four of them in one year. That in itself is already extraordinary and is the reason why 1905 was called the miracle year.

From the same documentary, I found out that Einstein frequently used what he called Thought Experiments. In his most famous thought experiment, Einstein (then aged 16) imagined what it would be like to chase a beam of light. The results of this experiment led Einstein to form the basis for his theory of relativity. Another way to say this is that Einstein meditated on the subject, and through this intense meditation was able to make an intuitive leap about the properties of light. In fact, we could say that Einstein intuitively formed the basic concepts of relativity before he formulated the mathematics to empirically express his theory. This is a great example of how Understanding Meditation and Concretizing Meditation work together.

According to Master Choa, what one learns in a few moments through intuition can sometimes take days, weeks or even months to mentally distill into a form that can be explained and taught to others. This is particularly the case when one is transmitting higher spiritual teachings. This is why a highly developed logical faculty is also needed, in order to give the teaching a form that is recognizable to others.

As we have seen, much good can be done with the proper balance of knowledge and wisdom, although unfortunately most people are imbalanced in this respect. Albert Einstein himself said: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

As with everything in life, the search for truth is a dance between two poles: the yin of intuition along with the yang of intellectual inquiry. By harmonizing these two forces, we further expand our consciousness and gain a deeper comprehension of truth.

Will we ever understand all of life? Who can say? The Creator is said to be infinite, so our consciousness also needs to expand to the point of infinity in order to fully encompass the whole Truth. But with the faithful application of knowledge and wisdom, our experience of life becomes that much richer and we go further along in our path towards the Infinite...one truth at a time.

Go to Part 1

The Soul Purpose of Your Life

I recently came upon the following quote by George Burns: "I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate." Does this statement strike a chord in you or does it sound like so much bovine manure? After all, how can you fail if you're doing something you love? Conversely, how can you succeed at something you hate?

However, the answer depends on how one defines success and failure. These days, the majority of people equate "success in life" with financial and material success. And that's how you may find financially successful individuals who are miserable at their jobs. They don't like what they're doing, but they're good at it and it pays the bills, so that's what they have to keep on doing. Many people stop themselves from doing what they love simply for the reason that what they love doing may not earn them the money needed to be successful in the way society defines it.

In the book Total Kabbalah by Maggy Whitehouse there is a chapter on how to discover one's soul purpose. According to Ms. Whitehouse, people who follow their soul purpose achieve a certain amount of satisfaction and fulfillment even if their lives become challenging because of it. Kabbalah in conjunction with astrology can provide important clues as to what type of calling would be consistent with one's soul purpose.

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is composed of ten sefirot arranged in a particular pattern. Within this pattern, certain sefirot are connected to others by lines (refer to the image). The way these lines are connected, you can form a triangle among certain sefirot with a sefira at each corner of a particular triangle. This triangular grouping is called a "triad."

The particular triad we are interested in is called the Soul Triad. The interactions between the sefirot in this triad can give a clue as to what your soul purpose may be. The soul triad is composed of Gevurah-Tiferet-Chesed. Next comes the astrology part.

Each sefira has a planetary correspondence. In this case, Gevurah corresponds to Mars, Tiferet with the Sun and Chesed with Jupiter. Tiferet reflects your Sun sign. Your soul's strengths and weaknesses can be found in your Mars and Jupiter. As an example, I will quote directly from Total Kabbalah:

A sun in Virgo with Mars in Scorpio and Jupiter in Libra indicates someone focused on service, accuracy, and health (Virgo). This person can see right to the root of a problem through any illusion and is willing to act to destroy or save where appropriate (Scorpio); he or she has the ability to balance all points of view and find the most harmonious outcome (Libra). This soul triad would indicate a person whose soul's purpose was to discover and heal inner problems - whether as a psychiatrist, healer or surgeon.

Now comes the stickler. The sun sign is easy enough to find out since it's the sign corresponding to one's birth date. However, the Mars and Jupiter in sign needs a full astrological chart to determine, and skilled astrologers can be quite pricey or even hard to find.

Have no fear, because the site Cafe Astrology provides a free natal chart service. Just follow the simple steps and take note of the results. When the natal chart comes out, simply zero in on the Mars and Jupiter in signs to find out their characteristics. The site also has specific pages explaining each planet in sign. Of course, interpreting all three to come out with a conclusion about what career or life path best suits you is still a tricky thing.

Let's now relate this to pranic healing, since this may help shed more light on the interpretation of results. In pranic healing, the different sefirot also correspond to the chakras. Gevurah refers to the solar plexus chakra, Tiferet to the navel chakra and Chesed with the heart chakra. Psychologically, the solar plexus pertains to the lower drive, lower emotions and concern for what benefits the self. The heart chakra represents the higher emotions, the higher drives and concern for what benefits others. The navel chakra is a storehouse of energy and represents lower intuition, the gut feel.

Your Mars in sign, representing Gevurah or the solar plexus chakra, can give you a clue as to what drives you, how you express or go for the things you desire for yourself. Your Jupiter in sign, representing Chesed or the heart chakra, can give you an idea of how you express your desire to help others. Your sun sign, representing Tiferet or the navel chakra, can give you an idea of what motivates you or keeps you going. The interactions of these three can therefore help you gain insight on what would most likely give you fulfillment.

The above methods are not the last word on the subject of discovering one's soul purpose, of course. However, it gives one a chance to align with that purpose in an organized manner. Only you can say if the results resonate with your or not. The important thing is to make the effort, because the more we can attune with our soul and our purpose in life, the more at peace we will be with ourselves and with others. Regret is such a heavy burden to bear, so try not to let it get to that point.

Bridging The Gap - Kabbalistic Teachings in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus can be found in Luke 16:19-31. To save you the trouble of having to click the link or look it up in the Bible, here's the parable: 

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Jesus was Jewish and a rabbi. Rabbis more often than not are also Kabbalists, so it wouldn't be a stretch to suppose that Jesus was also learned in Kabbalah. Whatever the case may be, the above parable contains certain Kabbalistic, and even Hermetic, teachings. Teachings that give a hint of the subtle realities of both physical and spiritual existence.

I arrived at this inspiration while in the process of reading the book Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Although I'm not yet done with the book, I can say that to date it's one of the most well-written books on Kabbalah that I have encountered. When I say well-written, I mean that the explanations are technical and precise yet easy to understand. Not an easy thing to do when writing about something as abstruse as the Sefer Yetzirah.

Going back to the parable, the following two esoteric laws are demonstrated in the story: the Law of Attraction (like attracts like; conversely, opposites repel each other) and the Law of Polarity or Duality. What does this mean? Spiritually speaking, distance has a whole different meaning. Two things of similar attribute or vibration, by the Law of Attraction, are drawn to each other. We can say that two things of similar vibration are spiritually close. And by that same Law of Attraction, two things of opposing attribute or vibration can never be joined together as they are literally poles apart. The existence of such a set up is the Law of Duality or Polarity. This is the "great chasm" that Abraham speaks of in the parable above, that cannot be crossed even if one wanted to.

And thus we get a hint about one of the reasons for physical existence. In the spiritual realms, for example, good and evil cannot interact since they are poles apart. The only place where they can interact is in the physical plane, which is how we say people have both "good" and "evil" tendencies in themselves. It is only in the physical realms that we have the opportunity to exercise the free will to overcome "evil" or "negative" tendencies and thus spiritually grow. Going back to the parable, it was only while the rich man and Lazarus were alive that they were in proximity to each other and able to interact (in that Lazarus was feeding off the scraps from the rich man's table). Yet when they both died, they were separated by the great chasm (Law of Attraction) due to their difference in spiritual vibration. This is why the rich man wanted his brothers to be warned while they were still alive.

In the parable, the rich man mentioned "five brothers" that needed to be warned. The number five is a cipher that can refer to the five powers of man, the five spiritual centers that form the pentagram (palms of both hands, soles of both feet, top of the head), the five senses or the five fingers of the hand and their elemental symbolism (in Indian mysticism and certain hermetic magical systems; this is why mudras or hand/finger positions produce certain effects). In the Sefer Yetzirah, it mentions setting the "five against the five" which is symbolism for the 10 sefirot with their counterpart opposites. In this system, each finger of the hand represents a certain sefira.

As you can see, the topic of ciphers is too vast to cover in one article. But on a more basic level, five represents the pentagram, which also symbolizes Gevurah. Interestingly, in pranic healing Gevurah also refers to the solar plexus chakra. The solar plexus chakra is the clearinghouse of energy that distributes prana throughout the whole body. Psychologically, in a positive sense the solar plexus chakra is the center for courage and drive and caring for the self, while negatively it is the center of lower negative emotions such as greed, anger and selfishness. Without taming these lower impulses, it is easy to fall into the same folly that the rich man in the parable lived out during his lifetime. Soul contact is the means by which one tames the lower impulses, and of course we increase soul contact when we live a more virtuous life. The virtues are nurtured through spiritual teachings that are transmitted through spiritual teachers or "Moses and the prophets" as symbolized in the parable.

But how does the physical plane fit into the greater scheme of things? Let's consider the relationship between God and Man. Obviously, Man is a being that is of much, much lower vibration than God, and therefore spiritually Man cannot be joined with God. In case you are wondering how this can be since we are all divine sparks from God, there is a key phrase in the Sefer Yetzirah (1:7): "Their end is imbedded in their beginning." The explanation would take up too much space, but suffice it to say that it refers to our journey towards God. But how do we undertake that journey?

Many esoteric teachings state that there are several strata in the spiritual world, with each subsequent realm being of a higher vibration than the one "below" it. By the Law of Attraction, one is unable to cross over into a higher realm unless one's vibrations match that particular realm. But if we remain in a purely spiritual state, again by the Law of Attraction our existing vibration would make us unable to interact with the higher vibration that we want to reach. Essentially, we would be stuck in place. Therefore, it seems the only way to interact with a higher vibration would be to encounter it in the physical realm.

This process whereby one steadily increases one's vibration through cultivation of the virtues and other good works is termed spiritual evolution. If one follows the spiritual teachings to the best of one's ability, by the time one passes over from the physical realm (i.e. once our physical bodies die), one's vibrations should already be high enough to enter the next higher spiritual realm, and thus the person is "one step closer to God" in terms of spiritual evolution.

T. Lobsang Rampa mentioned in one of his books that incarnation is one of the fastest ways to spiritually evolve. What would take a purely spiritual being millennia to achieve can be achieved in a few years simply by incarnating in the physical realms. I was wondering why this was so before, but now Lobsang Rampa's statement is starting to make some sense.

Of course, what we are seeing here is only one facet of the truth. What comprises the physical changes the higher up one ascends in the spiritual realms. In Alice Bailey's works, for example, the Monadic Plane (Anupadaka) where our divine spark resides is but a part of the Cosmic Physical Plane. The Cosmic Physical Plane actually extends all the way to the Divine Plane (Adi or Plane of the Logos). But at the moment, we need not boggle our minds with such terminologies.

What is important to consider is that physical life is the paradox that allows us to spiritually evolve. Life can be a burden and it can be confusing at times, especially when things seemingly go wrong despite doing everything right. But the fact of the matter is, life is literally a gift and an opportunity.

Americans recently celebrated Thanksgiving. But if we think about it, we go to sleep at night with no guarantee that we will wake up the next morning. The fact that we do wake up should already be an occasion for giving thanks, because we have been given another opportunity to live the life that would allow us to increase our spiritual vibration.

There are even more teachings that are embedded in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but again discussing them would take up too much space. But hopefully this article would point the way towards taking another look at the teachings of Jesus the way a Kabbalist probably would have. In case this sounds challenging, it is. But let me end with the following words of Jesus that you can meditate on:

This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. - Matthew 13:13, 16

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. - Matthew 7:7

Evocation

Wikipedia defines evocation as "the act of calling or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent, in the Western mystery tradition." These supernatural entities are usually summoned so that the magician may learn something about a particular subject that the summoned spirit is knowledgeable about or to order the spirit to perform a task for the magician.

Spirits have different specialties. If the magician wanted to know more about the making of herbal ointments and potions, for example, a spirit from that sphere of knowledge could be consulted. If a magician wanted to improve the sales performance of his/her shop, the appropriate spirit could be summoned to attract more prosperity and customers for the business.

The concept of evocation or summoning tends to sound diabolical because of all the horror stories we've been bombarded with about runaway demons and evil wizards (it's practically standard fare for Dungeons & Dragons adventures), but in its barest essence evocation is like consulting or hiring a specialist in the real world except that you're using magical means. But one aspect of evocation that many people would question is, why is there a need to summon demons or so-called negative spirits?

According to Franz Bardon, one of the foremost hermeticists of the 20th century, good and evil are concepts created through Man's limited understanding of the universe. From the perspective of the esoteric scholar, good and evil are expressions of the Law of Polarity or Duality, one of the natural laws that makes the universe possible.

One way to see how "negative" and "positive" are both necessary is to look at ants and mosquitoes. Ants can be negative in the sense that they can ruin our food, while mosquitoes bite us and can bring disease. But we know that both species are necessary for the health of the environment and wiping them out can imbalance the ecosystem to the point that it could threaten our survival. The concept of negative connotes destruction, while the concept of positive connotes construction. So another example of how both concepts work together is to look at digestion. If there was no negative (in the sense defined earlier), there would be no way for us to digest our food, because digestion involves breaking down the food (a "negative" process) to allow the body access to the nutrients to repair and sustain itself (a "positive" process).

Going by the examples above, we can expand our understanding of positive and negative to angels and demons. They are entities that have their specific roles in making the universe work as it should. Not everyone can understand what roles these entities may play, the same way not everyone understands how a mosquito is an important part of the ecosystem, but for the magician who has an understanding of these matters he/she can harness these forces in order to further his/her development and act as an agent of Divine Purpose.

That being said, there is a reason for all those horror stories about magical summonings gone awry. Just as no one works with high voltage electricity without proper training and preparation, one needs the same amount of care when evoking spirits. This shouldn't be surprising since one is directly accessing the hidden forces that run the universe.

Just consult any grimoire and you will see the same basic paraphernalia: the magic circle; the wand, sword and knife; the triangle; the magician's robe; the sigils, and so on. The aim of all these is to ensure that the magician doesn't lose control over the magical operation. If you want a more detailed explanation about evocation and the different processes, I suggest you read Franz Bardon's The Practice of Magical Evocation. Even if you don't have any plans of actually evoking spirits, Bardon's book is still good theoretical material and his explanations are clear and easy to understand, without the histrionics that commonly color the prose of classical grimoires.

In case you're still feeling apprehensive about this whole summoning business, it's interesting to note that we actually practice some sort of evocation everyday, most often unconsciously. How? Through the way we think.

The power of thought is a force. This is why we say that energy follows your thoughts. What is this energy? In pranic healing, this pervasive energy is called prana. If energy (prana) follows your thoughts and prana is life energy, the thoughts we put forth are enlivened by pranic energy. In a sense, thought forms are also lower forms of entities. A thought form can gain power when it's very clear and focused or through constant repetition, or both.

There is another esoteric law that states that like attracts like. So if you continuously send out angry thoughts, for example, you attract anger entities and elementals that will send signals to you to produce even more of the energy (in this case, anger) that they are so enjoying. This is true for every negative or positive thought that there is. Therefore, you "summon" the type of entity that is equal to the quality of your thought.

Repeated thoughts by a sufficient number of people can form an egregore, or a gigantic thought form not attached to any particular individual. These egregores have a power of their own and can be accessed through gestures, words of power or rituals. A negative example of this would be the Nazi egregore that engulfed the people of Germany prior to and during World War 2. The Nazi salute was the gesture that filled the person with the energy of the Nazi egregore and at the same time empowered the egregore as long as the person remained a devotee of that belief system.

It's interesting that the process that ensures a safe and successful evocation parallels the same process that helps one attain a happy, healthy and balanced life. During an evocation, the magic circle is not only a protective device. It symbolizes one's divinity or oneness with God. The summoned being is in essence "talking to God" and therefore has to obey the magician. In everyday life, we need to maintain this "magic circle" of our being so that we don't lose control over the thoughts and entities that we are bombarded with everyday. This "magic circle" also serves to remind us to consciously control our thoughts and direct the forces that impact our lives and those of others.

Consider for example the act of earning a living. When we are doing work, we attract entities of productivity so that we are even more energized and motivated to work. However, if we lose control over this impulse to work, these productivity entities can "possess" us and drive us to become workaholics. Same goes for eating. This basic survival instinct can all too easily lead to gluttony if we don't control our appetites. This is how bad habits and addictions are formed. That's why we sometimes end up asking ourselves, "What possessed me to do that?" Anything positive can quickly turn into a negative if we lose control over it.

The ancient Kabbalists say that there is no attribute that can be assigned to the Infinite Being because this Being is beyond all concept. However, if there was one concept that would come closest to describing the Infinite Being, it would be that of will. Will provides the volition or impetus that gives birth to creation. It is through the will that we gain control over the forces that would otherwise overwhelm us if left unchecked.

All of this is easier said than done, of course. But that's why life is a school that gives us all these opportunities to learn and practice. All the descriptions about magic and mysticism make it look like we are gaining the power to control and influence outside events, but in many deeper ways we are actually working to master ourselves.

The Hermetic concept of "As above, so below" is quite well known. So if we subscribe to the assertion that our body is a little universe, a microcosm of the macrocosm, then the concept of self-mastery as a path to God makes a little more sense. We effect change in the outside by first changing the inside. This is the essence that we can extract from all the rituals and practices of magic that exist in the world.

At the end of the day, we ask ourselves: Do we stand at the center of our own magic circle, fully in control of the forces within us so that we may better participate in the Divine Plan? Or do we become enslaved to the entities that we unwittingly call forth in the unguarded recesses of our own mind? That choice is always before us.

On Transcending The Physical

Mystic teachings of antiquity have always taught that we are more than just our bodies, that we are divine sparks undergoing a physical experience through the medium of our physical bodies. The main thrust of mystic practices has been to transcend the physical in order to realize the divinity within and experience the supernal realms of existence.

For most people, transcending the physical would mean denying many of the things that an ordinary person would consider normal, be it in terms of diet, material possessions, participation in everyday affairs, and so on. In this case, spirituality has been equated with self-sacrifice. For me though, while a certain amount of restriction and discipline is indeed necessary, living the life of an ascetic is not always the best path to enlightenment. In fact, too much withdrawal can leave a person ungrounded and out of touch with the needs and sensitivities of everyone else. This neglect can even lead to the failure to take care of one's own body.

However, everything in the universe has its place and this would include the physical world. This wonderful biological construct called the human body is a marvel of sacred geometry and the miracle of life, therefore it makes no sense to discard it while we are not yet done with our time in this world. While this may seem at odds with how many people would view spirituality, I found something interesting in the field of athletics that may help shed some light on the role of the physical in driving our spirituality forward.

We've all heard the saying that boxing is 90% mental and 10% physical. However, for anyone who has actually taken up boxing, it's very physically demanding to the point that one would say it's all physical. One boxing website I visited goes so far as to say that: Boxing is 90% mental and 10% physical. But that 10% physical requires 100% of your physical capacity.

Now here's the interesting point. According to the same boxing website I mentioned earlier, professional fighters have developed their physical capabilities and conditioning to the point that in the ring, they're not thinking or focusing attention on their physical body anymore, leaving their minds free to think of strategy and outsmarting the opponent. That's where the 90% comes in, after you've basically mastered your physical conditioning.

There's an interesting parallel in the selection process for special forces soldiers. If you've watched any of the military-themed shows such as Discovery Channel's Surviving the Cut or History Channel's Special Forces, you will see that prospective special forces candidates are run through a meat grinder of physical challenges such as forced marches with heavy loads or long distance swims, usually with little or no rest, lasting several weeks until only the toughest remain and earn the opportunity to be trained as a special forces soldier.

In one episode, one of the selection instructors was interviewed. The sergeant who was interviewed said that the selection process is structured such that physical fitness can only carry one so far. Beyond a certain point, pushing on becomes a mental effort. He said the physical body's limits can be pushed as long as you're mentally strong enough. And it's these soldiers that the instructors are looking for, those who can dig deep and push forward in situations when someone less mentally tough would have given up. Often it's not the big, muscular or athletic ones who make the cut.

In both the boxing and special forces examples, the way to transcend the physical is to fully engage it rather than to shun it. Again, the case of the famous Shaolin monks comes to mind. These monks develop themselves to the pinnacle of martial arts prowess, but only as a means to get to the next level.

Many modern esoteric authors categorize Eastern/Oriental mysticism as inward looking, or focused on detachment, while Western/Occidental mysticism as more focused on mastering one's surroundings and being participative. But actually, they are two sides of the same coin, because you can find elements of both inward and outer directions from both sets of traditions.

For instance, the several systems of Indian yoga develop particular aspects of the self. The more popular Hatha Yoga develops the physical/etheric body, and the early fame of Indian yoga comes from the extraordinary physical feats performed by certain yogis. Bhakti Yoga develops one's emotional body through devotion and this is furthered through Karma Yoga, or compassion in action. Rajah Yoga strengthens the mental body and increases soul contact. Every level is important, which is why the physical is not overlooked.

In the book A System of Caucasian Yoga by Count Stephan Colona Walewski, there is a passage that reads:

I am on this earth,
to reclaim the earth,
to turn the deserts into paradise,
a paradise most suitable to God and His associates 
to dwell therein.

Like any mystic knowledge, there are several levels of meaning to the above prose. On one level, the earth refers to this physical plane and we should also work to improve our surroundings and help other people when they need spiritual nurturing. On another level, the prose refers to the perfection of the body that the I AM presence is working towards.

The Freemasons refer to the self as the inner temple, symbolized as Solomon's temple that was built "with neither sound of hammer nor iron tools." But as with any building, the foundation has to be strong which is why if you look at the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Malkuth (Kingdom) whose planetary association is Earth, rests at the bottom. But immediately above Malkuth is Yesod (Foundation) and it is on this Foundation that all the other sefirot rest.

A Spanish proverb puts it nicely: A person too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.

As we go further on this spiritual journey of ours, we are called to realize the importance of every aspect of our being, and this includes the physical. Let us properly build our foundation lest we encounter instability on the path later on.

One Is All, All Is One

I recently saw an episode of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and who would have known that you could pick up something profound from a Japanese cartoon show (popularly known as anime)? Although Animax has had several re-runs of the show, the few times I managed to catch an episode I didn't feel like following the series because it was already late in the season. However, recently Animax started running the show again and I happened to catch the beginning episode so I decided to watch it whenever I could.

Like most anime, Fullmetal Alchemist first started out as manga (comic book series) in 2001 before being adapted into TV in 2003, and then again in 2009 with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. If you want to know more about the Fullmetal Alchemist universe you can just check out the Fullmetal Alchemist Wikipedia entry. Meantime, I would just like to focus on one particular episode, Episode 12: One Is All, All Is One (the same title I decided to use for this article). This episode details the time the Elric brothers (the main protagonists) were left in a small island by their alchemy teacher so that they could learn to survive and at the same time puzzle out the riddle of "one is all, all is one." How they answered the riddle would determine if they would be qualified to continue studying alchemy or not.

At one point, Edward Elric was already hallucinating from starvation (they had very minimal survival skills that time) when he happened to look upon a trail of ants that started to look like chocolate candy bars in his hallucinatory state. The moment he ate the ants, Edward made the connection between eating a life and living. Earlier in that episode, the Elric brothers caught a rabbit but they couldn't bring themselves to kill it. After the encounter with the ants, Edward then realized that if he had died, the foxes and the rabbits would have eaten him. His body would have been assimilated into the soil, the grass would get their nutrients from the soil, and the rabbit would have eaten the grass (and have indirectly "eaten" Edward's body).

Death is the transition from one form to another, but this transition also allows other life to be sustained when the transitioned form becomes the food that feeds the other. Paradoxically, death gives life. It is a cosmic cycle of life, all of us flowing inexorably from one state to the next, everything interconnected, with our movements governed by a set of cosmic laws.

From the point of view of the universe, we are even smaller than an ant would be to us. We are just "one" within the vast all. However, it is only when these small and seemingly insignificant "ones" are gathered together can an "all" exist. Creation is the totality of all that is. One is all, all is one.

In the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, alchemy is all about discovering the rules that govern life, and then using these rules in order to break things down and rebuild them into another form. Since the natural order of things is already a cycle of breaking down and rebuilding into another form, then life can be said to be one continuous process of alchemy. Alchemy is life itself.

Now how cool is that? I've been reading many different esoteric texts and they pretty much say or hint at the same things that were said above. And it's also so amazing because those short statements summarize the underlying philosophy of these esoteric teachings. There's more to it than that, of course, but for the esoteric student such insights are quite refreshing when seen on TV.

In the Hindu tradition, there are three aspects of divinity. There is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. As per the teachings of Master Choa Kok Sui, these three aspects of divinity correspond to Light, Love and Power respectively. Brahma creates, Vishnu preserves and sustains, while Shiva destroys and restores (also called "creative destruction" or breaking down in order to build up into another form). The interaction of these three aspects of divinity is what is being described in the above featured episode.

If you want to watch the episode itself, you can watch it through You Tube below:



It shouldn't be surprising that Fullmetal Alchemist contains a lot references to esoteric knowledge. Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of the series, once read about the philosopher's stone. She got so inspired with the idea of using alchemy in a manga that she read actual books on alchemy. According to the Wikipedia description, Arakawa was more interested in the philosophical aspects of the different treatises rather than the actual process, so understandably a lot of what we see in Fullmetal Alchemist will be the product of artistic license.

It's still interesting though that some hints of esoteric knowledge still bleed out into the series. For example, a couple of the sigils being used in the series (refer to the image at the start of this article) wouldn't look out of place with the Solomonic pentacles found in the Clavis Salomonis (Key of Solomon). I also saw a reference to the Tree of Life with one of the Names of God written on a sefira. But again, we shouldn't make the mistake of using Fullmetal Alchemist as a practical reference guide. It's interesting for its entertainment value, but to make it something more than what it is would be foolhardy and dangerous.

Nevertheless, a dose of insight in the midst of fun and relaxation is always invigorating. It just reminds me that life always finds an opportunity to teach us something if we knew how to take the hint. The lesson then is not to take life too seriously but remain sensitive enough to get whatever messages that life is trying to give us.

Here's to a fun-filled, but very informative, life!

The Meaning of Fear

The dictionary definition of fear describes it as: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. In light of the current trend of awakening and empowerment that is sweeping across the world, fear is getting quite a bad rap. We've all heard that it's fear that keeps us down. Fear is what keeps us separate from other people. And so on.

All the above assertions are correct, but just like with anything in God's creation, there must be a reason why fear has its place in the universe. For this reason, I would like to use this article to try to gain more of an understanding of this phenomenon called fear.

If we sat down and thought about it, fear is part of what keeps us alive. It's what makes us look before crossing the street, and it's also what stops us from grabbing a high voltage wire. If we had no fear of death or injury at all, our instinct for self-preservation would be so low that a lot more of us wouldn't have made it past our teenage years.

From here, we can identify some important characteristics of fear:

1. Fear induces self-control (to stop us from doing anything that would cause pain or injury).
2. Self-control through fear is only effective in the presence of external stimuli.
3. External stimuli will trigger a re-action; you act again (re-act) in the previously programmed response that was induced by fear.

The above statements may come as a surprise, since you would think that in this day and age, self control comes from the exercise of our will resulting from logical and rational conclusions combined with a recognition about what is best for us. But society is hardly an example of self control. Why else are there people who get fat and sick as a result of uncontrollable appetites, and why else would we need the presence of police to make sure people keep within the bounds of the law?

There are people who say that fear is just an illusion, and they're right. Fear is an illusion in the sense that it's not permanent, or at least it's not supposed to be. Fear is supposed to be a starting point. It calls your attention about what is harmful to you or to the people around you when your mind is unable to recognize it or unable to control what you are doing. A related aspect of fear is that it teaches you to respect any power or force that can be harmful or dangerous if treated carelessly.

What, then, should come after fear? As said earlier, fear induces self control. However, this self control only comes from the presence of an external factor. For example, the watchful eye of a policeman would prevent a pickpocket from plying his trade, whereas the absence of a policeman would embolden the criminal.

However, external factors come and go, so the amount of self control they may induce in you is also transitory. In order to make self control permanent, you must first face the fear and find out why you experienced pain or injury in the first place. When you study the situation dispassionately this way, you are now dealing with the situation on the mental rather than astral (emotional) level. Then the situation that caused the pain (and evoked the fear response) becomes a lesson learned, and so your exercise of self control becomes more permanent, because self control is now exercised through the conscious use of your own will. You are now acting, instead of reacting.

The problem, as most life coaches and psychotherapists would point out, is that people get stuck in the fear. In more extreme cases, fears can turn into phobias that are buried deep within the psyche. Without examining and confronting the source of the fear, the person is unable to move on.

We now can see that fear is simply a process we go through in the act of learning. This is why psychotherapy has been helpful in removing phobias or changing negative behavior when people recognize the causes of their fears. Needless to say, self-honesty is needed if any progress is to be made. The first step is to recognize that there is a situation that needs to be addressed. Second is to find out what caused the situation. Third is to take steps to resolve the situation. You can see how easy it is in any of the steps to delude oneself that there's no problem, or that it's the fault of someone else, or that there's nothing to be done about it.

Up to this point, I've been discussing fear based on my own observations. But how do my observations stack up when compared to the teachings of an esoteric spiritual system? Interestingly, we can find something similar in Kabbalah. In order to take a closer look at this topic, we need to use the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as a reference.

If you refer to the image of the Tree of Life below, notice how each of the sefira (the spheres with names on them) are connected by lines. Now on the left side of the tree, take note of the three sefira of Tiferet-Gevurah-Hod. In Kabbalah, these three sefira are called the Triad of Pain. The opposite triad, composed of Tiferet-Hesed-Netzah is called the Triad of Pleasure.

The book Total Kabbalah by Maggy Whitehouse describes the relationship of the two opposite triads as follows:

The left-hand triad is focused on the need to hold back to limit suffering and the right-hand side on the urge to grow, improve, and perfect the Self. The left-hand triad keeps us safe in times of danger but can also cause paralysis that prevents us from developing. The right-hand triad is our wish to grow but can lead to carelessness over one's responsibilities. 

As with anything dealing with the spiritual and esoteric, the opposing triads must work in harmony in order to have a balanced life.

The Hebrew term for courage, justice and judgement is "Gevurah." It is expressed as self-control because the characteristic of Gevurah is limitation. In pranic healing, the chakra correspondence of Gevurah is the solar plexus chakra, the seat of lower emotions. In its positive aspect, the solar plexus chakra expresses itself as courage and the drive to succeed. In its negative aspect, the solar plexus is the seat of greed, vindictiveness, and fear. This is why some people, when they get nervous, experience a hollow feeling in the pit of their stomach. It's their solar plexus chakra reacting.

The polar opposite of Gevurah is Hesed, which is the center of love, generosity and compassion. When Gevurah and Hesed work in harmony, there is expansion, inclusion and love tempered by good judgement and the setting of proper boundaries.

In the eyes of Kabbalah, fear is part of the Triad of Pain. Through the proper interaction with the urge to improve (Triad of Pleasure), we go beyond the fear to transform it into good judgement, the proper Gevuric expression of self-control.

If you would like a relatively complete and overall look at Kabbalah, I really recommend the book Total Kabbalah by Maggy Whitehouse. The topics are introductory yet are still explained well and it's amazing how the author has managed to include the many different concepts in Kabbalah in an easy-to-read book for the price of a good paperback novel. You can use the book as a launching pad for deeper study into specific Kabbalistic topics while remaining aware of how the topic fits into the whole picture. It's the most complete book on Kabbalah that I've read so far. I've seen this book available in most branches of National Bookstore, so you'll find it easy to purchase.

Since we're on the topic of fear, some of you may have wondered how the "fear of God" fits into the picture. Within the context of respecting an incomprehensible and overwhelming force, the "fear" of God makes some sense. I'm sure you would "fear" a black hole or a neutron star especially if you were sent near one, so what more God, who is infinitely more massive and powerful than a black hole or neutron star?

But actually, some Hebrew words in the Bible may have been translated into English as "fear" when they could also have meant something else. For example, the Hebrew word yirah could mean fear but can also mean awe, reverence, respect and devotion. Same with the word yare, which can be translated as fearful but also means to stand in awe, reverence or honor. Another Hebrew word, mowra, was translated into the word fear but also means reverence, object of reverence, or an awe inspiring spectacle or deed. The mentioned Hebrew words are consistent though in expressing the awe, reverence and respect that one would expect when face to face with an all powerful force like I mentioned earlier.

In the end, there are many more facets to fear than we first thought. But however we choose to look at fear, one thing remains the same, and it's that fear should be faced and then overcome. Fear is what indeed holds us down, but it is a burden borne by ignorance and dishonesty to oneself. From what we have seen it seems that in the overcoming of fear, the old adage still holds: The truth shall set you free.

Did Nature Just Weep?

What are we supposed to make of the recent flooding and devastation across Metro Manila and adjacent provinces that occurred this past week? God's retribution or human mismanagement?

On one level, the causes of the flooding are quite straightforward, and both the citizenry and the government played a role. For the government, poor urban planning and lack of political will to implement large-scale infrastructure development (e.g. the Sucat spillway that has been proposed since 1975) to address the causes of flooding have left us at the mercy of Mother Nature. Among the citizenry, careless disregard for the disposal of waste, building houses beside creeks and other environmentally unfriendly practices have helped magnify the effects of poor government planning and management.

Some people would describe the crazy weather as "apocalyptic" but actually, almost 40 years ago there was even worse rainfall in what was called the Great Flood of 1972 when for more than 2 weeks in September non-stop torrential rains submerged most of central Luzon and caused hundreds of deaths. In the absence of hard data such as level of rainfall then compared to now it's hard to make an assessment, but based merely on description it seemed the level of rainfall in 1972 was worse than it was the past week. However, it didn't seem to cause the same level of destruction and disruption that we see now. I'm sure the events of Ondoy will be forever etched into my memory, so it's remarkable that my parents hardly remember the great flood of 1972. But it probably helped that Metro Manila and a lot of Luzon was not as urbanized then, so the scale of destruction and impact on people was not as big as the recent flooding. So you could say that the recent flooding was more an "apocalypse" of our own making.

How would an esoteric scholar look at these recent events and, the way 2012 has been hyped up, the promise of more of the same to come?

An esoteric law states that "As above, so below; as below, so above." Meaning, everything is interconnected, so that what we may experience is merely a reflection of what is inside and vice versa. As described earlier, some of what we've experienced are pretty straightforward cause and effect scenarios. Throw trash in the waterways, expect flooding. However, there are other esoteric views about this.

In the book The 72 Names of God, there is interesting description for the 29th Name :

All destruction - including even natural disasters - occurs for one reason: humanity's hatred toward our fellow beings.

Kabbalah teaches that tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and disease are born from the collective hatred that burns in our hearts. In truth, there is no such thing as a natural disaster, despite what our insurance policies say. Human behavior and the human heart are the sole determining factors as to what occurs in our environment and what transpires between nations.

Here's what the ancient Kabbalists had to say on this matter: If a person witnesses any form of hatred - on his own street or anywhere in the world - it means this person still has some measure of hatred lingering in his own soul.

If we harbor even the slightest bit of hatred or animosity for another person - for any reason whatsoever, valid or invalid, whether we're aware of it or whether we're in self-denial - we still bring destruction to the world.

By cleansing the hatred in our own hearts, we can remedy all the world's problems at once at the level of their root cause.

The passage above reminds me of what Yoda said in Star Wars I: The Phantom Menance: "Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." For all that we may smile at this movie quote, it still has a ring of truth to it.

But really, a lot of us have become familiar with the Law of Attraction which states that thought combined with desire results in manifestation. Of course no one consciously wishes for the destruction of the world, although a lot may wish for the destruction of their fellow men. But that seed thought combined with the destructive emotion of hate and anger has psychic weight. We exert a force upon our environment. Unexpressed this force may be for most of us, but we still scatter that unseen force around us, just waiting for the chance to explode. It's like throwing gasoline into a forest, an inferno just waiting for a joker with a carelessly thrown cigarette butt to start a wildfire.

Be that as it may, we are living at a time when all previous choices are coming to confront us. Naturally, the question is what we can do about it aside from the usual "take better care of Mother Nature." This brings me to a quote attributed to Master Choa Kok Sui from the All Gratitude page. The title of the article is The Secret of Real Survival, which I will share here (with some emphasis added) because it is very relevant for us:

I have been asked, in my lecture tours two main questions: "What is happening with the world?" I answered this one simply: "Many bad things are happening and they are beyond the control of men, beyond the manipulation of human mind and human hands."

The second is more personal: "How do I survive?" This is a very good question and I would like to give you a little note that I have from the Teachings of the Teacher.

Our life is a world of impermanence. We cling to impermanent things: wealth, money, gold, power and human recognition, desires of many forms. They all come and go.

The Inner World of the Higher Beings is filled with Permanence: Fruits of the Spirit, Unconditional Love, the Permanence of Spiritual Joy and Blissful Existence, Immortality of Human Consciousness, the Infinity of the Love of God to humanity, the unrelenting Service of the Avatars and the Higher Souls to mankind.

So the answer to our real survival is in the search of the Permanence; for in finding that, we become deathless for there is a thing called Immortality of Consciousness.

All things that are impermanent have to go. This is the Law of Nature. Inescapable. Immutable. Relentless.

The Permanent will live and life will go on for Nature will sustain the Beings, Consciousness and Vehicles of the Permanent.

How do we apply these Principles in relation to our personal survival?

a) Develop the higher consciousness of the Spirit for such will show the future reality of things and forthcoming events, for higher realization is partly seeing and sensing the inner world and includes skillful handling of situations in the world of men.

b) Work on developing the Higher Bodies for Nature will spare the rare and useful for its higher evolution. Men kill the rare and the useful but Nature sustains and gathers the best in its forms: Survival of the best and the fittest.

c) Etherically speaking: Develop the Golden Body, for a golden man is rare and is spiritually useful. We have to go one step higher than the chakras for all men have chakras but rare is the one who has the Golden Body.

I think Master Choa's words are quite clear on what type of changes we need to institute so I will just end by saying that after all is said and done, our ultimate fate is not determined by the government, other people, or even by the exemplars that we look up to. The key is always within us, because it's what we choose that matters. Somehow, someway, our choices will weave themselves into the effects that we will see reflected in our outside perceptions.

In that sense, Nature didn't weep. We did. But there is always hope, for what is important are the choices we make from this moment on. It may seem to be the most simplistic answer in the world, but if you follow it through it is also the most empowering one.

A Coin Has Two Sides

When I was still new to pranic healing, I had the chance to read the 1st edition of The Existence of God is Self-Evident by Master Choa Kok Sui. In the book, he states that in order to understand deeper spiritual concepts, one must understand the principle of paradox.

Back then, I barely had any idea of what he meant. But as I continued to study and encounter more and more esoteric treatises I began to see how different spiritual principles apparently contradict each other. I say "apparently" because this is where understanding paradox comes in, and what Master Choa was probably getting at in his book.

Once one begins to accept the nature of paradox, one can better appreciate questions such as: "If there is oneness, how can there be individuality? If God is all-powerful, why is there suffering?" And I mean truly gaining an understanding of the question. I recently saw a funny meme on Facebook that says the Bible is like a software license agreement. People never read it, but they scroll down to the bottom anyway and click "I Agree." Don't be like that.

Based on what I've observed, it is usually a lack of knowledge and understanding that makes things seem paradoxical. For instance, if an 18th century person saw today's airplanes, it would boggle that person's mind how something that is heavier than air could fly. That's because in the 18th century, people had not yet discovered the principles of aerodynamics.

We can use esoteric knowledge as a mental scaffolding to help build our understanding of the universe and its mysteries. Additional knowledge can reconcile certain things that are not obvious to our physical senses. One of the first steps is to familiarize oneself with the different esoteric laws. Just as scientists have used scientific laws to better understand our physical universe, so can one use esoteric laws to gain a glimpse of how subtle energy works.

When we touch upon metaphysics, one model I have found useful to illustrate paradox is the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang. The Yin and Yang symbol that we are all familiar with is called the Taijitu or what some prefer to call the Tai Chi symbol. We often associate Tai Chi with the martial art that millions practice for its health benefits, but Tai Chi means "Grand Ultimate." According to Taoist philosophy, the Tao (or dao) is the underlying principle of the universe which is intricately woven with the concept of yin and yang.

Yin and yang is a representation of the principle of duality, which expresses itself in the polar opposites of good and bad, night and day, black and white, etc. But the yin-yang symbol goes further, because within each opposite is the seed of the other (the black dot in the white field, and the white dot in the black field). What does this mean? Yin and yang are not static concepts. Yin changes into yang and back into yin again in an ever continuous flow. Everything always changes and this principle of change is what the Law of Cycles is trying to say. Night flows into day and back into night again. Winter gives way to spring, then to summer, then fall and back to winter. It is the dance of nature and of creation.

Because everything is dynamic, this means even ideas and mental frameworks are dynamic. This is important because mental frameworks are what we use in order to understand and process what we perceive. Take the case of the Cargo Cults. As extraced from Wikipedia:

A cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices. Cult members believe that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors.

Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of material. When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behavior that they had observed of the military personnel operating them.

From the example above, because the tribes weren't able to shift their framework outside of their traditional way of viewing and interpreting things, they totally misunderstood what was happening when the cargo planes arrived. We're talking about tangible things here such as airplanes, and yet the tribes perceived and understood them differently from how we perceive and understand those same things.. What more when one is dealing with abstruse spiritual subjects?

When one is unable to perform that shift in consciousness, understanding certain concepts becomes impossible or grossly misinterpreted. This is why blind belief and fanaticism are not good, because they hold you down to a very specific, and limited, mental framework.

Restriction is an attribute of form. We see it all around us. Take a chair, for example. The chair is a collection of atoms, but without anything to hold or bind those atoms together, there would be no chair to speak of. But just as restriction is necessary to be able to function in our daily lives, we need to shift to an unrestricted state in order to get back to the Source. Yin and Yang. A Kabbalistic teaching would illustrate this.

Kabbalistic legend says that God wished to behold God, but in order for that to happen there first had to be duality. So from Ain (No thing) which is beyond comprehension, there was a contraction or zimzum, a space like a womb within which all creation would manifest itself. In Hebrew this is called Ain Sof (without end) and in this we see the first hint of separation between God and creation. Within Ain Sof, God breathed Ain Sof Ur (endless light) where manifestation actually began and where things started to take form.

When we do meditation and let go, it's like we are traveling in reverse, going back to the Source, which is God. This is why we need to let go of form, to be able to shift our consciousness and experience God even while we are incarnated on this physical plane. In Kabbalah this is known as climbing Jacob's Ladder. In meditation sometimes we are told to be aware of the space, silence and stillness between OMs. It is by being aware of this stillness that one is able to go beyond the restrictions of form.

One of the ways that this connection with God manifests in our lives is the intuition. Through intuition one is able to get a glimpse, no matter how fleetingly, of the secrets of the universe. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries in our history have come about because of a flash of intuition, thus showing that logic and intuition are not as incompatible as one might think (again, yin and yang).

Developing the intuition to a high degree, now that's a tricky thing. It's not a "take three of these every morning and call me next week" type of thing. But this is where spiritual practice comes in, because as one goes deeper and deeper into the meditative state, one is slowly aligning one's consciousness to vibrate harmoniously with the substance of the higher planes.

But like in all things, it is through the blessing of God that we are able to achieve these things. There are many aspects to our being and the spiritual realms are limitless, yet we have been blessed with the tools and the capacity to explore these realms and perfect our being. As we make use of these faculties, we get that much closer to perfection and a return to our Source. After all, while there are two sides to a coin, there is only ONE coin.

Where Are We?

Upon reading the title for this article, the answer may seem patently obvious. We are on planet Earth. Additionally, you would be in front of your PC / laptop / smart phone reading this article. And you would be right. But that's just one level of truth.

Let's take the question a step further. Let's say you die and believe in life after death. Where are you now? Religions the world over have different terms for it. Purgatory. The bardo. The astral plane. Heaven. Hell. Call it what you will. But "where" is that, exactly?

Now for another level. Esoteric spiritual traditions state that it's not only the physical body that is mortal. Even our astral and mental bodies will eventually pass away, with the soul moving higher as it unites with its Divine Source. "Where" does that leave us?

In the examples above, as we change planes or levels of existence, what we PERCEIVE also changes but YOU yourself, or rather your consciousness, remains constant throughout it all. The different bodies pass away, but these bodies are merely ways for us to perceive a particular plane, which is why when we die we are gone from the Earth (no one perceives us with normal eyes and we don't perceive the physical world anymore) until we get another physical body through reincarnation. It would probably be better to think of the different bodies as antennas that we can use to tune in to different levels of existence, much the same way we change channels on the TV. Flip to a different channel and you see something different on your screen.

According to Master Choa Kok Sui, the soul is pure energy with consciousness. If the consciousness is constant and it's only what we perceive that changes, "when" and "where" become increasingly meaningless the "farther" we go from the physical realm. I suppose this is why esoteric traditions say that the soul exists beyond space and time, and is immortal.

Additionally, as one studies esoteric manuscripts and treatises, one will eventually come upon references to the self as the center of a wonderful universe. While science has contradicted the Bible and shown that we are not the center of the universe, I believe this assertion found in the Bible and other spiritual texts refers to something much deeper.

The ancient genius Archimedes once said: "Show me one point in the Universe and I shall lift the globe off its hinges!" In the past, mysticism and science were not considered separate, so we can infer a deeper meaning to this quote. Earlier, we had shown that the consciousness remains constant, with only the perception changing. In this way, the consciousness is like a "point" by which everything perceived revolves around it. If there was no consciousness, there would be no experience because there is no one to do the experiencing. So all events have to "center" around the consciousness. So we may say that the quote of Archimedes refers to the deeper truth that we control what is in our surroundings, the same way that the Law of Attraction works by pulling into our sphere those things that we desire, both conscious and unconscious.

According to Kabbalah, only we are responsible for what happens to us (good or bad) and that whatever we perceive outside of ourselves is merely a reflection of our inner state (our inner state represents not only our unexpressed thoughts and emotions but also our karma). If we take the view that this is because all of these outside events are centered within our sphere of consciousness, orchestrated in such a way as to present a scene for our consciousness to view and experience, then it seems Kabbalah is saying the same thing in a different way.

But how can we be at the center of everything, when obviously there are other souls, other beings out there? That is certainly a paradox, the mechanics of which are not easy to decipher at our level of consciousness. However, I believe certain clues may be found by taking a closer look at the qualities we attribute to God.

In the words of Edwin J. Dingle (founder of the Institute of Mentalphysics), in his book The Science of Mentalphysics, he states that the Creator is all the knowledge there is (OMNISCIENCE), all the presence there is (OMNIPRESENCE) and all the power there is (OMNIPOTENCE). Therefore, the universe, our surroundings, even our very selves are not separate from the Creator, because the Creator is simply all that there is.

In History Channel's The Universe, I remember one episode about the Big Bang where one scientist said that he is related to the whole solar system chemically, and related to the whole universe atomically, and he thought that was really cool. Since the Big Bang theory states that everything started from one single point, that's a very profound statement right there.

Using the Law of Correspondence ("As above, so below; as below, so above."), we are the Creator expressed in human form, the same way a granite pebble is of the same essence as the mountain it came from. Again going back to Dingle's words, since the Creator is all that there is, and we are of the same essence as the Creator, then whatever the Creator is, I AM.

Now doesn't that sound familiar? I've always wondered about the two words I AM but considering the earlier part of this article it's now starting to make more sense.

In pranic healing, we are encouraged to say the following soul affirmation before meditation:

I am not the body,
I am not the emotions,
I am not the thoughts,
I am not the mind.
The mind is only a subtle instrument of the soul.
I am the soul.

I am a spiritual being of Divine Intelligence, Divine Love, Divine Power.
I am one with my Higher Soul.
I AM THAT I AM.

I am one with the Divine Spark within me.
I am a child of God,
I am connected with God,
I am one with God,
I am one with all.

I am the soul.

In the above affirmation are found beautiful and sublime truths written plain as day. But this is no mere mental exercise so a deeper realization of the truth, as with all spiritual truths, can only be achieved by experiencing it. The implications are certainly mind-boggling, and are worth more than just a passing thought.