Awakening of the Spirit-Consciousness within you

Man is a thinker. The word ‘man’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘manas’ meaning ‘thinker’. Unlike animals, the (hu)man-animal possesses a thinking faculty. That thinking faculty has played a crucial role in the development of humanity.

Science, art and religion flow forth from the human mind. The thinking faculty has brought man to the greatest heights but also led him to the deepest depths. Although the development of the thinking faculty of the human being has been limited, now it is ready to grow further and serve humanity in its next step.

But, presently the human being’s thought process is fed largely by what can be observed by the senses. The Aquarian Gospel says:

The senses were ordained to bring into the mind mere pictures of the things that pass away; they do not deal with real things.

The senses were only meant to examine the transitory, but we human beings have become so fascinated by the sensory perceivable world that we still lose ourselves in it every day. Our thinking is largely degenerated and directed to the outer world, to the knowledge of this world.

An automatic and chaotic process

Moreover, the thinking of the human being is mostly an automatic and chaotic process. We are generally not conscious that we are thinking. One thought calls up another one through association, which then again calls up another thought, etcetera.

We are not able to observe the exalted truth of the soul with our senses and our thinking faculty. That is why in the beginning the super-natural life announces itself via the heart.

Inner development is possible only on the basis of pure thinking that is nourished by the living soul. Pure thoughts do not relate directly to the sensory world but arise from inner images that well up from the heart. Pure thinking does not happen on its own but requires attention and training.

Books describing the history of Western philosophy usually begin with the philosophers of Greek antiquity. These sages presented classic examples of pure thought and laid down the foundation for the development of science in the western hemisphere. That is why Jesus says to the Greek masters in Athens:

Yea, all of Greece is blest. No other land has been the homeland of such mighty men of thought as grace your scrolls of fame. A host of sturdy giants of philosophy, of poetry, of science, and of art, were born upon the soil of Greece, and rocked to manhood in your cradle of pure thought.

A preoccupation with science can lead to a certain purification of thought.  Such scientific thinking can deflect the fascination with what is perceived with the senses, even though images will always play a role in thought.

For example, pupils in the Greek mystery school of Pythagoras occupied themselves with what we now call mathematics and physics. Attempts were made to elevate thinking to the higher life which could then express itself in the sensory and observable lower life. In this way, according to the plan, human thinking could develop itself into a ‘vehicle for higher truth’.

Socrates and Plato

That approach, whereby spirituality and intellectual thinking go hand in hand reached its pinnacle in the schools of Socrates and Plato around the third century before Christ. By the time of Jesus, these thoughts were no longer alive in Athens.

For example in the beginning of our era, the philosophy of Epicurus was in vogue. It was taught in that school that happiness was to be found especially in the experience of sensory enjoyment, in ‘carpe diem’ (seize the day).

The Stoics, on the contrary, valued pure thinking above emotions. Feeling was of minor interest. The lack of true inspiration from the purified heart centre led easily to dogmatism and crystallisation.

And thus through history, the human thinking facility developed via all sorts of thought-schools into a means for finding happiness, unity and truth. And as in our individual lives throughout the ages, every path had to be explored in order to arrive at a border, a border where a new path announced itself.

Living experience

Both science and philosophy deal with the phenomenon of perception. There is always a question of a duality in perception, a differentiation between the perceiver and the perceived. Spirituality deals with experiencing. There is unity in the living experience, an immediate and unshakable knowing that does not come from reasoning. The living spiritual experience rises above thought. Therefore Jesus says to the Greek masters:

But all your high accomplishments are but stepping stones to worlds beyond the realm of sense; are but illusive shadows flitting on the walls of time. But I would tell you of a life beyond, within; a real life that cannot pass away.

In science and philosophy, there is no power strong enough to fit a soul to recognise itself, or to commune with God. I would not stay the flow of your great streams of thought; but I would turn them to the channels of the soul. Unaided by the Spirit-breath, the work of intellection tends to solve the problems of the things we see, and nothing more.

The senses were ordained to bring into the mind mere pictures of the things that pass away; they do not deal with real things; they do not comprehend eternal law. But man has something in his soul, a something that will tear the veil apart that he may see the world of real things. We call this something, spirit consciousness; it sleeps in every soul, and cannot be awakened till the Holy Breath becomes a welcome guest.

The Greek masters are a symbol for our own thinking which follows a dead-end path if we want to reach the soul life. Therefore, Jesus brings them a wisdom greater than their own and a completely different meaning of happiness.

The senses endow us with a life that is incomprehensibly great, profound and of high value, but the life of the soul provides the only possibility to elevate the thinking to what is ‘above’. Listening to the suggestions of the soul is the only way to rend the veils that thinking pulls over our eyes.

However, as the Chinese sage Lao Zi wrote in the Daodejing, the ‘above’, the realm with eternal values, cannot be spoken nor studied in books or writings. Tao, the Way, can only be lived consciously and inwardly through the cooperation of heart and head.

The poverty of our current knowledge and reason, the limitations of our present comprehension and our brain consciousness all stand before us in their nakedness. We are not able to know anything that is worth knowing, nor possess anything that is worth possessing, until the purified heart elevates our thinking.

Light message

Many sages from all cultures have shown us the universality of this light-message. The great sage Shankara of India said it thus:

The human being is pure spirit, free from attachment. The thought misleads him. It binds him with the shackles of the body, the senses and the breathing of life. It creates in him the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. It makes him endlessly wander in the midst of the fruits of the actions it causes.

The thought-shell therefore cannot be the Atman, the ‘true one’. It has a beginning and an end and is susceptible to change. It is the sojourn of pain.

Therefore the seeker of liberation must apply himself carefully to the purification of the thought. When the thinking is purified, the liberation is as easily to grasp as the fruit that lies in the palm of your hand.