The Core Mystery addressed by the
Ageless Wisdom is the relationship of the Spiritual to the Material,
energy to mass — the relationship of God to Man. The interface,
center, or Soul of that relationship is Consciousness — the
Divine Love that unites every separated thing into the
One Life that is God.
The meaning of the Divine
Trinity known commonly to Christians as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit can be more easily understood as:
Know Thyself — Personality
and Soul
My
principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrow
from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless
battle between the spirit and the flesh … and my
soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed
and met.
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—
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957),
The Last Temptation of Christ,
Greek novelist, philosopher.
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In time, self-realization expands
beyond the personality of
the physical human to include an
awareness of your “higher
self” — your self as a Spiritual Soul.
This refinement or redemption becomes self-evident as your personal
values, ethics, and belief systems naturally unfold and mature.
In other words, the persona (mask) of the physical
man and his sense of self as a Spiritual Soul constitute
two distinct identities within the Ultimate
Unity that is God. These two human identities, material and spiritual,
plus the Absolute Unity that is God — comprise the Divine
Trinity.
In his book, The Power of Now,
Eckhart Tolle makes this point quite eloquently as he describes
his realization, in the midst of a deep depression that, “I
can't live with myself like this.” Recognizing the duality
of an "I" (Higher Self/Soul) that can no longer tolerate
"myself" (the persona/ego) changes his life forever.
During her
adventures in Wonderland, Alice experienced a similar dilemma.
“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar,
sternly. “Explain yourself!”
“I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir,”
said Alice, “because I am not
myself, you see.”
In both cases,
the "I" is the Higher Self or Soul that incarnates as
(animates and illumines) the lower "myself." The Soul
is the Consciousness or level of awareness while the persona (egoic
"man in the brain") tends to identify with its thoughts,
feelings, and apparent circumstances.
Materialism promotes resistance
to this personal growth from persona-identified to Soul-identified.
But those who seek true Wisdom eventually begin to develop peace
of mind, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, generosity, patience,
tolerance, empathy, and a quality of Unitive Love that is much
more refined than the emotional desires of the separative self.
To become more unitive is to become more charitable
in the original sense of the word. (Charity — the
virtue defined as love directed first toward God, but also toward
oneself and one's neighbors as expressions of God's Love. Also
known as "agape.")
I Don't Have a Soul, I AM a Soul
Emotional love and caring begins
to reveal its Divine Source as you realize, "I don't have
a Soul, I am a Soul — a Spiritual Being having a human
experience." You begin to see Inner Peace and Spiritual Love
as a Sacred Journey rather than a destination — a Spiritual
Path leading you from your emotional heart to your Soul and
homeward to the Godhead.
The motive to walk the Path begins
with a personal desire to escape anxiety and suffering. But soon,
you find yourself attracted, instead, to the meaning and fulfillment
of Unitive Love — a longing to know God, to return to His
Bliss, a craving that has been described as “the Divine
Homesickness.”
The Spiritual Path
The first stage of this inner journey
— mortal man realizing his identity as immortal Soul —
is described by the Chakra system in yoga, the Steps of
The
Infinite, in order to express Himself, descends in the
multiplicity of the Finite, and the Finite, in order
to realize itself, must rise into the unity of the Infinite.
Only then is the cycle of truth complete.
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—Rabindranath
Tagore
(1861-1941) Indian mystic, poet
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Refinement in Alchemy, and the Grades
of Advancement or Initiation in the Western Mystery Schools (Freemasons,
Rosicrucians, Templars). Each model depicts exactly seven steps.
In the more complete sense —
the Soul's approach to Divine Unity (One God) — it is also
called the Mystic's Path, the
Hidden Way, the Unitive or Middle Way, the Tree of Life (especially
its Middle Pillar), the Ladder of Lights, Jacob's Ladder, the
Stairway to Heaven, the Path of Liberation, the Scale of Perfection,
the Tao, the Dharma, and "the Way and the Light."
In ritual and ceremony, the Redemptive
Path of Spiritual Love is represented by the scepter, crosier,
rod of power, wizard's staff, magic wand, and Hermetic caduceus
(spine). In fable and myth, the path (teachings or laws) is represented
by Christ turning water into wine, the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's)
Stone for turning lead into gold (or Rumplestiltskin spinning
straw into gold), the Ark of the Covenant, the Arthurian Quest
for the Holy Grail and Jason's Quest for the Golden Fleece, the
Yellow Brick Road in Oz, and the heartfelt wishes of Pinocchio,
the Velveteen Rabbit, and Data (Star Trek) to become "real."
Moving Up the Path
In its lowest frequencies, the consciousness
of the persona — the egoic man-in-the-brain —
is fear-based and separative. Survival and avoidance of pain are
its main concerns. As it begins
to unfold, it
God
turns you from one feeling to another, and teaches
by means of opposites, so that you have two wings
to fly, not one.
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seeks pleasure and power for its separative
self — lusting for money and material goods; seeing others
as objects to be controlled; feeling victimized by hurt, frustration
and anger; and, especially in men, often willing to resort to violence.
The natural evolution of consciousness
to ever higher, more refined frequencies of Love expands and uplifts
its capacity to understand greater, more holistic concepts. As
consciousness begins to identify more with the Soul than the man,
it grows less fearful and separative — more Loving and unitive.
Aspiring to greater awareness, you
eventually learn to use meditation
and prayer as a way to accelerate your progress along the
Spiritual Path — further unfolding and uplifting consciousness.
Essentially, meditation is
the practice of a detached, mindful witnessing of the thoughts,
emotions, and behavior of the man-in-the-brain from the
Soul's point-of-view. The Sufi phrase "To be in
the world, but not of it," is a reference to using the
mindful detachment of meditation to view your mortal, physical
life (persona) from the elevated point-of-view of your immortal,
Spiritual Soul.
Besides becoming more peaceful and
loving, your higher, more refined consciousness enables you to
recognize the advantages of replacing unconscious, fear-based,
knee-jerk reactions with even-tempered, well-reasoned responses.
As you substitute ever more conscious choices for unconscious
reactions, you also begin to express much more refined and harmonious
values in place of the separative, inhumane, and largely archaic
values of the typical man-in-the brain.
Development of the Lower and
Higher Self
Th1e guidance needed to develop
both of your identities — persona and Soul
— is provided in Michael
Benner's Personal Development
and Spiritual Development Training
Programs. The Personal
Development
Training is done in private, confidential sessions
of one hour and 45-minutes. These lessons teach emotional maturity
as well as mental alertness, concentration, memory, and imagination,
plus responsibility for self-esteem, self-motivation,
clear goals, and management of emotional hurt, anger, and stress.
Michael's Spiritual
Development Training is taught in a classroom setting.
Key lessons include the nature of the Soul as Consciousness, learning
to embody Love as a Spiritual Ray, and practicing its healing,
transmutational, redemptive and unitive benefits.
Where do we look to discover our
Spiritual Identity — out there, somewhere; separate
and remote — or within ourselves, deeply integrated; already
a fundamental part of who we are? Logically, it is impossible
to understand God without a devoted attempt to become like Him.
Through a self-realization process
of mindfulness, meditation, and the study of those ideas that
have stood the test of time, the Unitive Way of Love is found.
It is our Soul's inner journey back to the Godhead. It is experienced
as the expanding Awareness, Love, Peace and Joy of our personal
connection to the Ground of God.
