Seven Initiations

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Fundamentals of the Wisdom Teachings

As given by Vitvan


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THE SEVEN INITIATIONSand Commentaries on Savitri

by Vitvan

Published in 2003 byTHE SCHOOL OF THE NATURAL ORDER, INC.

P. O. BOX 150BAKER, NV 89311


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Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to

reprint the following:

Quotations from Savitri, 1954, by Sri Aurobindo.

Reprinted by permission of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Trust. Pondicherry 605002, India.

Picture appearing on page 38

Man, Visible and Invisible

by C. W. LeadbeaterThe Theosophical Publishing House,

Adyar Chennai 600020, India

2003 by The School of the Natural Order, Inc.All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America. This book, orparts thereof, may not be reproduced

in any form without permission except the case of briefquotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The School of the Natural Order, Inc.P.O. Box 150

Baker, NV 89311Email: [email protected]: 775-234-7304http://www.sno.org

ISBN O-942630-36-X

First Paperback Edition
mailto:[email protected]://www.sno.org/http://www.sno.org/mailto:[email protected]


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THE SEVEN INITIATIONS


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CONTENTS

LIST OF CHARTS............................................................v i

PREFACE..........................................................................v i i

ABOUT THE COVERx

CHAPTER 1 ....................................................................3

CHAPTER 2.................................................................. 11

CHAPTER 3.................................................................. 27

CHAPTER 4.................................................................. 43

CHAPTER 5.................................................................. 59

CHAPTER 6.................................................................. 73

CHAPTER 7.................................................................. 85

CHAPTER 8.................................................................. 95

CHAPTER 9................................................................ 107


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LIST OF CHARTS

The Seven Initiations.................................................1

Force Field of an Initiate...........................................8

Levels on Which a Given Man Functions............15

The Dynamic Septenary Cosmos .................24 25

Aura...........................................................................38

Four Somatic Divisions of Man.............................41

The Chain According to Function.......................115


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PREFACE

Descriptions of the seven initiations are a part of

the ancient wisdom teachings and can be found inmuch metaphysical literature. This ancient wisdom has

been available for as long as there have been teachers

and students of the wisdom teachings. However, in the

previous cycle they were considered esoteric

knowledge to be revealed by teachers only to students

who were ready to receive such information. Most ofthe teachings were generally given by word of mouth

directly from teacher to student.

With the dawning of the new age (circa the

1890s, according to Vitvan) such hidden teachings

began to become public knowledge for the first time.

Vitvans dharma, his lifes work, he has stated, was tomake those teachings available to modern students in

modern terminology they could understand. Prior to

1938 his lectures and writings formed the curriculum

of his School of the Sacred Science. Then he took a class

in general semantics at the University of Chicago from

Alfred Korzybski. In general semantics he felt that he

had found the missing link between spiritualteachings and modern science. He was so inspired by

general semantics that he determined to rewrite his

entire body of work to correlate the wisdom teachings

with the latest scientific findings, including a general

semantics approach to language and thought

processes. His teachings could now be presented in

terms that did not offend the modern western thinkers.

In the 1940s he began using his newfound insights in

his lectures and writings. He then changed the name of

his school to the School of the Natural Order. All of his


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writings since that time are a revelation of those

esoteric teachings in language acceptable and

understandable to the western mind.

Vitvans description is laid out so that students

can locate their place on the path and then proceed to

consciously cooperate with the process of self-

development. In so doing, they can greatly facilitate

the rest of their journey on the path to

enlightenment. Most of Vitvans work since the 1950swas given as lectures at the School of the Natural

Order headquarters. It has been available both in the

form of audio tapes and printed lessons. If you are a

student who is seeking to de-mystify the esoteric

mystery teachings in order to fulfill a longing to take

your development into your own hands, Vitvans

explanations may be just the help you have beenlooking for.

In the spring of 1955, Vitvan was introduced to

the recently published book, Savitri, by Sri Aurobindo.

It is an epic poem some 940 pages long based on a

well-known (in India) Hindu myth. In Aurobindos

hands the mythserves as a vehicle for describing thefinal phases of the self-development process.

According to Vitvan,the poetic cadence in which it is

written attunes the reader to the finer frequencies of

the higher levels of consciousness from which it was

given. Vitvan was so excited by it that he wanted to

share it with his students, so he chose segments of it

which he found especially inspiring and pertinent,to

use at the beginning of his classes on The Seven

Initiations. These excerpts and Vitvans explanations of

them begin with Chapter Two.


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Some mention should be made about the use of

capitalized words in this book. In Vitvans old work, as

in many metaphysical writings of the previous cycle,

many words were capitalized in order to distinguish

them as having special meanings in the context of the

wisdom teachings. In transcribing Vitvans lectures

into printed form most of that kind of capitalization

has been eliminated. However, a few of the terms that

refer to levels of consciousness beyond the Second

Crossing (see chart The Dynamic Septenary Cosmoson pages 24-25) are capitalized to indicate that they

pertain to these higher levels. Vitvans use of the word

Mind, for instance, refers to the Mind level

consciousness as opposed to the word mind, which

refers to the mental aspect of the personality.

Finally, a word of thanks to a few of my fellowstudents of the School of the Natural Order: to Alice

Moffat for her printed transcriptions of Vitvans

lectures; to Marcia Phillips, Melissa Renfro, and Jim

Woolsey for their help on the covers of the book; and to

Val Taylor and Bill Coffman for their editing

suggestions and assistance.

This book is the Schools effort to make Vitvans

teachings about this important subject available to

more of the general public. May these pages inform

and inspire you as you take your next steps on the path

to enlightenment.

Marj Coffman, editor


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ABOUT THE COVER

The scenic mountain pictured behind the title is a

photograph of Mt. Wheeler, the 13,065 foot peak on the

eastern Nevada border that towers majestically over

Home Farm, the headquarters of the School of the

Natural Order. The School is situated on 320 acres of

land near the base of the mountain. Several simple but

comfortable rooms are available on the premises for

students who choose to visit and enjoy the quiet of thehigh desert.

The tree is a bristlecone pine, drawn for us by artist

and illustrator, Marcia Phillips, who also does

illustrations for nearby Great Basin National Park.

While it is not our logo, it is a symbol of the nearby

environment. Many ancient bristlecone pines grownear the higher edge of the tree line on Mt. Wheeler

and other nearby mountains. To some of the older

students of the School, its life is analogous to the

Schools: it has been around for a very long time, and

despite harsh growing conditions, it continues to

survive.

In our logo, which appears on the title page of this

book, we usethe ancient symbols the serpent and the

eagle. The serpent is representative of wisdom; its

coiled form is suggestive of the power latent in the

sacral center, Kundalini (called by the Greeks the

power of the Christos). The eagle was supposed to bethe only creature that could look directly into the sun.

It represents spiritual vision. The eagle (spiritual

vision) is carrying the serpent (the Christos power) to


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great heights, the ascent of the force from the sacral

center to the crown center.

Sortem suam quisquet amet, the Latin phrase

beneath the logo, literally translated means, Let each

one love his destiny. The word destiny describes

meaning on two levels: on one level each person

creates his own destiny; on another level each one

discovers his destiny. By the power of love we

surmount or overcome our created destiny. And by thepower of love we discover the foundtion of our

existence and Be-ing.

If you would like to learn more about the School of

the Natural Order and its activities, please visit our

website: www.sno.org.
http://www.sno.org/http://www.sno.org/


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In the Name of the Father,

In the Name of the Mother,

In the Name of the Son,

May the Blessed Ones lead usFrom darkness into Light.

We realize that in our present state ofdevelopment, our evolutionary point considering therace-as-a-whole, we do not have the power andstrength to counteract inharmonious, destructiveinfluences. So, in true humility we turn our thought to

Higher Ones, the higher developed ones, and we say,In the Name of the Father, the Positive Power; Inthe Name of the Mother, the Negative Principle; andIn the name of the Son, the Logos, the only BegottenSon of Cosmic Power. Then we say this invocation:May the Blessed Ones lead us from darkness intoLight.

It is suggested that you dwell with thisinvocation as part of your daily meditation practice.The more you practice it, the more you work yourconsciousness into the influence flowing from thosehigher levels, the more you will have that support, thatadditional help, to counteract the conditions withwhich you are confronted in your daily life.

We say, In the Name of the Motherthe

negative principle of allinstead of Holy Ghost,because it is difficult to set up a referent for that term.So we say the Mother Principle which brings forth allthat is. A synonym is the word nature, that which gives

birth.And in the Name of the Son, because the Father

becomes conscious in the Son, the only Begotten, then

everything else flows from that Logos, the Son. Weinvoke that, and then we ask, May the Blessed Oneslead us from darkness into Light. The more youpractice that meditation, the more you will discoverhow wonderful it is.


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THESEVENIN

ITIATIONS


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2


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THE SEVEN INITIATIONS

CHAPTER 1

I am well aware that there are many who knowmore about this process that we call initiation than Ido. I can only explain that which I know by experience,and if there are those of you who know this process,you may check on me.

Because of its many uses, I find it is verydesirable to set up a referent for the word initiation.Recently I read a book about a movement in India inwhich the word initiation was employed a great deal.This book set forth that when the master of the groupor the order looked upon one and said, You may joinour organization, or You are elected, one was

given the nod, etc., then that one was initiated. Therehave been many other writings about what is meant byinitiation. I am taking no exception to all of thesedefinitions or descriptions that the word initiationsymbolizes, but without taking exception to any ofthem I wish to set up the referent for the way in whichwe in our School describe the meaning for the word.

We do not have a rigorous mathematicallanguage in which one symbol stands for one meaningand no other possible meaning. We have to laboriouslydescribe meanings in order to be as precise as possible.That sharpens our thinking and orients us to beingcareful in describing meaning for the words we use. Ido not want to plunge in and use this word initiation

unless I am sure I know what I am talking about and asnearly as possible get you to understand what I amtalking about.


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In the diagram on page 1 we have numerousdots which we have labeled The Many. Think of themany persons in a given state or in the United States,

Asia, or Africa or on the planetjust the many. Eachdot symbolizes one person in the mass, in the many.Each one of these persons has his own mentalizedprivate world, and each is integrated in and motivated

by an oversoul called the race mind, or the race psyche.

I know that each person in his private world

thinks that what he thinks is his thoughts. Each personthinks that what he feels are his own feelings, that theyhave no reference or relationship to anyone oranything else. Each person thinks that what he desiresare his desires, that they have no relationship toanything or anyone else. All of that is in the privateworld of each one. When we can get past his

censorship and go into his consciousnesspsychoanalytically, psychologically, psychically, wecan examine the mentalizing, the manufacturingprocess, that keeps him thinking well of himself. Whenwe get past that censorship in psychologicalexploration we find that every thought one thinks,every feeling one has, every desire one experiences,and so forth, is due to synchronization of his forces, hiswave-frequencies, with other persons. Vibrationally,wave-frequency speaking, each of those other personslikewise is integrated, en rapport, with a number ofothers, and so on, until the whole interrelationship offorce frequencies makes up what we call the racepsyche.

This is the point to be stressed: so long as a givenperson is motivated by those unconscious relationshipshe is not an initiate. He belongs to the world, part andparcel of it; he is regular. Our founding fathers werehighly developed individualists; yet in our own


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country, which is based upon extreme individualism,tremendous pressure is being brought to bear to get inline, dont think outside. You must belong, conform,

be regular, etc. None of those persons are initiates, andwe could not use the term initiate, no matter howmany nods they get. Inherently, innately, they stillfunction under influences of what we call the racepsyche.

But let us suppose that one of them becomes

restless, dissatisfied; he tries to put himself in a groove,to belong, to be regular, but it just will not work. Hekeeps seeking, seeking, and he cant settle down. Andthe gangperhaps members of his own householdsays, What is the matter? You are trying this, tryingthat. Settle down and just be normal. But he justcannot do it. He wanders around disconsolate and

discontented until he makes contact with an initiate.Then he exclaims, I am home. He has found a harborand he drops anchor. He says, This is what Ive beenlooking for, and I didnt know what it was. By makingthat contact, he has obeyed the scriptural admonition,Come ye therefore out from among them and be yetherefore separate. Do not take that literally; it doesnot mean that you must take your physical body outof the gang. It means getting your forces cut loose fromthose unconscious influences and forces that have beenmotivating youthe thinkings, feelings, desires, etc.that belong to the great many.

This is the beginning of a new process and ofsuch a one it is said, When the fire is kindled, who can

put it out? He cannot put it out and it cannot be putout. In his newfound joy he begins to make the usualmistake: he becomes over-zealous. In his enthusiasmhe wants to rush to his loved onesmother, father,wife, children, friendsand tell them all about it. He is


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so filled with joy that he wants to share it witheveryone, until they all begin to look at him withpeculiar glances and ask, Have you gone crazy?

Little by little he is forced back into himself and hebecomes timid about trying to tell anyone about hiswonderful discovery.

It is like the man down who went through theexperience of having so many of his neighbors andkinfolk called him crazy that he finally accepted it.

Then he read a certain book. He jumped up anddanced around and exclaimed, Thank God! Here isanother crazy man! He found another one that wasalso crazy! Havent you gone through it? If youhavent, it is ahead of you. We laugh, but it is almosttragic. Little by little, one is forced back into himself,into secrecy, and he gets timid about trying to tell

anyone about it and he just lives it in himself alone.This contact is the beginning of an introduction intonew realms, worlds that are going to open, little bylittle, which the many cannot even imagine, becausethey have no background, no experience, no referent.

Note that each person has his own mentalizedprivate world but he is also integrated in the overall

intricate pattern of relationships constituting what wecall the race mind. The entire process of what is calledinitiation has no reference whatever to that world, thatstate. To understand this process, in imagination try tooffset from all your private world evaluations andrace-psyche influences. This process that is enteredupon after this first contact with an initiate is made is

so different that it is difficult to describe. So please donot look at this process from your personal, humanframe of reference. It has to do with an entirelydifferent level or state.


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This process of initiation operates in just the sameway whether that higher level one contacted is inincarnation, has a physical body, or not. The initiate

on the level from which he functions has noconsciousness of whether there is a physical body ornot. He is a channel for higher level force in either case.Another point to remember is that an Initiate functionsoutside of time and space. This contact can be madewhether the person with whom the contact is made isin Los Angeles, Calcutta, or Timbuktu. It is the

operation of a higher-world dimensionality, and wehave to rule out time and space. There is nothing inspace (exterior to one) that is going to awaken one.

Higher level forces must have channels throughwhich to operate. So if one has come out of the herd,how is that contact made? Sometimes it is made on the

personal level even when the Initiate might not want itat all. But the Initiate has to recognize it. When oneslight gets bright enough, when he is ready, there aremany invisible watchers on the heights who guide him.He may pick up a book, go to a lecture, hear of ateacher. Like mental telepathy, he is guided to one withwhom he can make a contact.

Just as a seed will not germinate without theproper environmental influencelight, moisture,soilso on the human level one must make contactwith an Initiate to become awakened, lit. It takes onethat is lit to light another; he cannot light himself. Touse analogy, one candle can light many other candlesand not be impoverished thereby. The air surrounding

us, three dimensionally speaking, is charged withenergy. We can think of radio-active influences from

broadcast stations, which we would never know aboutwithout some gadget, a radio or TV set that picks up


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the energy and channels it. So it is with everything;there must be a channel.

Thechart below illustrates an infinite number ofchannels, one integrated into another. The circlerepresents the essential Power-to-be-conscious, the Selfof that Field, and each field represents spheres withinspheres. When a person comes out he makes a contactwith an initiate on the periphery of the initiates force-field on Mind level. That contact is not made on any

level below the Mind level. There are many differentrelationships on other levelsbiological, etheric,psychic, etc., among the many. But when the contact ismade with the initiate it is not on any of those levels. Itis on Mind level, the enduring, the permanent, the real:Heaven and earth shall pass away but not one jot ortittle of it shall unnoticed pass, until all is fulfilled.

Force Field of an Initiate

After this contact is made with the force field onMind level of an initiate, little by little the person

moves in. He can move out also. The going mightget a little rugged, or he loses faith, or has personalaxes to grind. He can even turn against the one withwhom he made the contact and try and destroy him.But once he has made that Mind level contact he will


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never be accepted by another higher one. He must re-establish the contact with the one with whom thecontact was first made. That is the way it works. And it

may be daysincarnationsbefore he can find hisway back and re-establish the contact.

After making contact with the force field of anInitiate, as one begins to move in closer, a completere-metamorphosing process takes place. His psyche

begins to undergo a tremendous change and new

worlds begin to open to him. At this point, let us set upa referent for the Real Self, the Individualized Power-to-be-conscious. Picture that Higher Self in finermatter or substance, as a configuration. It is lovely,

beautifulnot like the old man that must be put off,but a bright shining Be-ing representative of that stateof consciousness on Mind level.

We use an illustration that every person is like agreen nut. When it is cut in half you cannot tell thekernel from the shell or the shell from the hull. It looksall the same. But after this contact is made and one

begins to develop, the shell loosens up from the hull;the kernel, the meat, loosens up from the shell; and thatkernel and that meat configurates into a beautiful

person inside the old shell. This means that theconditions, influences, and entities that do not belongto the radiant Light are expurgated. This is what wecall the purificatory process on the path.

Before a person makes contact with an Initiate, hehas been living in an objectified state of consciousness

in which he thinks about things and objects andabout getting them. One can think about thingstables, chairs, flowers, etc., but when he functions hefeels, desires, reacts, wants. Students must make thatsharp differentiation between thinking and


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functioning. Those who do not make thatdifferentiation between thinking and functioning

believe that they function in an objective world; but

they do not and cannot. Why? Because the objectiveworld is only a picture created in the mental phase ofthe psyche.

Let us use an analogy to clarify this difference.Watch a movie; look at the shadows on the screen.When you lose consciousness that they are only

shadows you will weep or you will laugh because youfall into the illusion that they are real. Weeping andlaughing are functioningabout the shadows. Nowcross over from your weeping and your laughing oryour absorbed interest and try to function in theshadows. It cannot be done. This is an accurate analogyand you should practice and think about it until you

understand the way you think and the way youfunction. This that we call the objective world is aworld of shadows, images in your psyche that appearout there, substantive. But you cannot function inthose shadows. You can think about them and you canfunction about them. Note the difference: You canfunction about them, because when you want one ormore of these shadows you can get hot and botheredabout wanting it. You can react when you are thwartedin your efforts to acquire them, but you cannot crossover and function in them.


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CHAPTER 2

Comments on Savitri

The French poet, Paul Richard, traveled all over the world looking fora teacher. He hadnt found one, and he was on his way home when hemet Rabindranath Tagore, the famous Indian poet, in Japan, and told himabout his search for a teacher. Tagore said to him, I can refer you to myteacher, but I dont know whether he will take you or not. Tagore wrote aletter of introduction to his teacher, Aurobindo Ghose, whose ashram wasin Pondicherry, French India. Paul was delighted to get that letter, and he

took it to Aurobindo and was accepted.That was a great event, because Paul Richard was quite a scholar

and he brought good equipment to his teacher, Aurobindo. And after ayear or so of guidance and study they began to publish Aurobindos workin a magazine which they calledArya. In 1928 I was able to secure thecomplete set of seven volumes of the published magazines, which I valuevery highly. Outside of one work, James Morgan Pryses The RestoredNew Testament, it was the only work that we ever introduced into our

School because we found it to be in complete agreement with our work.

This narrative about how difficult it is to find a teacher, about PaulRichards work with Aurobindo, etc., indicates the far-reachingconsequences which eventuated from just one students finding a teacher.

Aurobindo Ghose, that teacher to whom Tagore referred Paul Richard,thereafter wrote an epic poem called Savitri. There are no words suitableto describe this work. It is the most dumbfounding, remarkable work I haveever had in my hands. It is difficult because it is written on such an

exceedingly high level, but I wish to acquaint you with it as another meansof tuning in to higher levels. It is divided into cantos. The first canto,labeledThe Symbol Dawn, begins:

I t was the hour before the Gods awake.

Across the path of the divine Event

T he huge foreboding mind of N ight, alone

In her unli t temple of eternity,

Lay stretched immobile upon Silence marge.

I just love that language, that word structure! I will not try to go intothe technicalities of the rhythm, the cadence, the feet, measure, etc. It isvery peculiar, but those of you who have musical education will be able to


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catch it without any explanation. It is too technical to describe, so I willconfine myself to describing meaning.

In Christian Biblical terminology, what I have just read is described asdarkness upon the face of the deep. All is void. Nothing but darknessupon the face of the deep; hence, it was the hour before the Godsawake.

First let us describe the Gods. Refer to the diagram on page 115,The Chain According to Function. The Lords of the Flame, the highestthree degrees of Initiation, are called the Gods. Do not think this ispolytheism. It is not. This is qualified monism. The One becomes the

many, but it is the One in whom all is focused. The One becomes manymany differentiationsand when we say, becomes the many we havequalified the One. So this doctrine is based upon qualified monism.Monism says there is One and all else is not (is illusion). Qualified monismsays there is One that becomes manymany differentiationsand thatqualifies the monistic phase, the Absolute monistic idea. In our Westerntradition we label it the Logos, the Word. The Gods are those who functionunder the immediate power, influence, focus of Logoic power, the sevenrays.

Why do they sleep? Because they are still under the Saguna aspectof the Supreme. Beyond the Logos, the resonant, creating power whichthe Upanishads and the Vedas label Saguna Brahma, there is a levelbeyond name and form in which nothing sleeps; a level beyond the gunas,Nirguna Brahma. It is eternity Itself, the absence of time, eternal livingLight, eternal consciousness.

We do not have any word in our English language for the beginningof the creative process. We have to borrow words from languages thathave developed the philosophy, the teaching about it, so we borrow aSanskrit word, manvantara. When we use the label creative process,widen your thought; expand your consciousness to galactic proportions.The beginning of a galaxy is the beginning of a creative process, and wecall that creative process a manvantara. The most comprehensive cosmicgalactic creative process is called a mahamanvantara. The prefix maha-means exceedingly large, great. Mahamanvantarathe largest overall

creative process.

According to the teachings of both Western and Eastern traditions,there is nothing but darkness upon the face of the deep. Darkness, thenThat is a metaphor. The birth of the Son is due to the union of the positive


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and negative. The resonance, the Word, goes forth, so to speak, which isanother metaphor. When we study modern physics we find completeconfirmation of it. Physics shows us that the first objective indication of the

creative process is the formation of an atom of hydrogen. One positivelycharged unit of light unites with one negatively charged unitthe protonand electron become married. That is the first marriage ceremony in thegreat mahamanvantara; one positive and one negative come together andimmediately there is a unit of light. Let there be Light. With ourunderstanding of modern physics we could paraphrase all of that and say,Let there be one atom of hydrogen. That is saying the same thing inother words.

The huge foreboding mind of N ight, aloneIn her unli t temple of eternity,


Substitute that there is nothing but hydrogen, galactically, and thecreative process begins. Anything that has a beginning presupposes anending. What is born must die, whether it is a galaxy of galaxies, a galaxy,a solar system, or a planet or an atom. There is an end to a creative

process, just as there is a beginning. There is an end to amahamanvantara. When the end comes, everything that is out,everything that is in the creative process stops. This is not strange. It islike sleeping and waking. You lose consciousness, then you wake upagain. You wake up again precisely where you lost consciousness. Justapply that on a galactic scale. There is a day of Brahma, a day of thecreating process, an outbreathing, an outflowing; then there is aninbreathing, an infolding, a night. When the night, infolding, occurs,everything stops precisely where it was conscious of itself; and at the next

outbreathing, the next creative process, they all awake exactly where theywent to sleep just as you do. You awaken in precisely the same state inwhich you went to sleep. So . . .

I t was the hour before the Gods awake.

Isnt that wonderful! I think that this is the most wonderful, preciousthing in the world: to understand these things, to learn of them, to bask in

them.the Word, the resonance, begins. And God said, Let there beLight.

* * * * *


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Lesson 2A Given Man Can or Does Function

On One or More of Four Levels

4 Mindthe Lowest Level of LightsRegions

3 Higher Psyche Human Soul

2 Lower Psyche Animal Soul1 Elementalistic Configurational,

Natures Formative Forces

0 Abstracted Mentalized Private World,the Objective State

In describing what we label initiations I wish to

refer to the four levels upon which we respectively canor do function. Please notice the zero level on thediagram above. The zero was put there advisedly,

because man cannot function in the objective world.That world is merely an objectified state ofconsciousness. One can think or mentalize about it, butwatch yourself and check on what I am saying. You

can check on this every minute of every day if you willlearn how. Where do you function and how do youfunction? Note the word function. You can think aboutthingstables, chairs, piano, flowers, etc., but whenyou function you feel, you desire, you react, you wantor dont want. See the difference between thinking andfunctioning? Students must make that sharp

differentiation between thinking and functioning.Those who are not educated, not informed aboutdifferentiating between thinking and functioning, thinkthat they function in the objective world. But no matterhow hard they try they cannot. Why? Because the


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objective world is only pictures or images in theirminds, in their psyches. This is not hard tocomprehend if you practice paying attention to the

difference between the way you function, the way youthink, and the way you think you function.

Please refer to the chart on page 1as we review thefirst initiation. A multiplicity of personalities isrepresented by the dots. Each personality has a contact,rapport, synchronization, a flowing together or

harmonization with other personalities, regardless ofthe degree or the level or the guna. Birds of a featherflock together, our grandparents used to say. Eachpersonality makes a contact with other personalities,and every one of those other personalities has amultiplicity of relationships and friendships, etc.Continue this networking until this whole thing is a

tangled skein of interrelationships.

Please remember this. When one functions in thelower psyche or the higher psyche, whetherconsciously or unconsciously, he learns that in thatworld relationships are as tangible, as objectified asthings and objects are to the sense of touch. Theserelationships in the absence of neural sense are real;like things and objects, they are tangible. Any timethat a relationship, friendly rapport, at-one-ness withanother is established in the psychic world it is a realthing and you deal with it just as you would thingsand objects. The stronger the relationship, harmony,love, feeling friendly, etc., the stronger, the morepowerful it is. The higher the level upon which one

functions, the more solid the relationship and moreenduring it is. Relationships in the objective world, thezero world, are fleeting. Any relationship of physical

bodies with physical bodies is fleeting.


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This is important when we consider thedescription of the initiations. When a person in the racepsyche makes contact with an Initiate, this abstracted

mentalized private world, this objectified state, beginsto fade away. It begins with the first contact with thereal stream of Light, of Power, of the wave-frequencystreams of Reality. It will not be long after that contactis made before all of this abstracted mentalized privateworld, the objectified state, looks like a zero. It beginsto fade away. But to say to one who is identified with

things, objects, images, shadows, that it is a zeroappears to him like some form of idiocy. If he says thatthis is the reality he is trying to grasp, do not argue. He

belongs to that collective, the many, the race mind, therace psyche.

Go to the first level upon which one functions, the

instinctive, elementalistic level, like your hunger forfood and all other sorts of hungers, elementalisticmotivations. Relationships there endure longer.Relationships on the animal level are yet longerenduring, more solid. At the level of the higher psyche,the personality at its best, relationships endure muchlonger. And in the old aristotelian marriage ceremonyvow, ...until death do us part, the relationship issupposed to hold until death separates you. On thehighest level death does not separate you at all.Relationships endure life after life, cycle after cycle.These contacts break the tangled skein of relationshipsin the race psyche. The breaking of these personalrelationships in the race psyche is obeying theadmonition: Come ye therefore out from among them

and be ye therefore separate. Be an individual in yourown right instead of unconsciously being motivated byall the influences of the race mind. That represents thereorientation of consciousness from the race psyche to


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the beginning of Reality, the beginning of that whichendures, the beginning of that which is yesterday,today and forever; the beginning of that which you can

take with you and bring back again. Nothing elsedown here in zero can you take with you, let alone

bring back. This is the beginning of laying uptreasures where thieves cannot break through andsteal, etc. This is the pearl of great price buried inyour own garden. If you knew that, how diligentlyyou would dig until you found it! Well, there is

precious treasure buried in your own garden. Wakeup! Get your eyes open! Get away from this zero

business and see it! The moment you see it you willnever stop until you get it. You will pursue it until youare conscious of it and possess it as your own.

How does one know he has taken the first

degree? The reorientation of consciousness at the firstdegree is seldom known at the time. One who goesthrough the first degree of initiation is never consciousof what has taken place. This is a peculiar anomaly

because it has caused serious, expensive confusion.Doctors have gotten wealthy because of this confusion.When one in the race psyche has made the contact withhis teacher and that relationship is established, his ownconsciousness undergoes a reorientation to new linesof force. (Remember this contact operates the samewhether the teacher is in or out of physicalincarnation; it makes no difference whether or not hehas a body in which he is functioning. He functionsprecisely the same. One who functions on that leveldoes not change when he goes out of his body. He goes

right on doing what he needs to be doing, because heworks in force relationships.)


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When one in the race psyche makes that contacthe is seldom conscious of it unless he has someinstruction such as training in a school like this. Before

the contact is made one lives in an objectified state ofconsciousness, an objective manifold of values. Hethinks about things and objects and how to acquirethem. He functions only by sense, what he can see,hear, etc. Before the contact is made he can onlyfunction by neural sensation, but when that contact ismade and reorientation of consciousness takes place he

begins to function by response to vibrations, wave-frequency contexts of situations. After this contact ismade, one begins to be affected by influences and thequality of those influences. He can contact a personthat he has known for a long time and that person hassome mental quirks about something. Now, instead of

just brushing off that persons influences he gets sick.

He registers that persons wave-frequencies in his solarcenter and he gets nauseated, bloated with gas, orsuffers indigestion, etc. Then he goes to a doctor andsays, Doctor, something is wrong. I cant digest myfood. I feel sick all the time. (Some doctors who aregetting wise today know that there are inharmoniousconditions involved.) Something has taken place, butthe young initiate doesnt know what it is.

Also, for one integrated in the race psyche, sexualrelationships are just neural. But after this contact has

been made the approach has to be entirely different. Ithas to be harmonized in frequency before there can beany relationship. The sex act must be the culminationof the frequency responses.

In your mind run through your past experiencesand those of your friends that you remember and seehow expensive this ignorance is! Turn your thought to


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the influences, vibrations, the qualities of wave-frequencies you get intoand sometimes get swampedin! Think of everything objective that you might have

done. Then learn how to check on yourself. You can tellvery quickly if that change has taken place in yourconsciousness and you are reoriented to a differentkind of lines of force, levels, etc. If it has, you need tolearn how to take care of yourself, you need to discoverhow persons and places affect you organically andfunctionally. You will learn to cultivate those persons

and places that create loveliness, harmony, beauty,vitality, etc., and you will learn how to functionconsciously in the new worlds into which youre beingintroduced. There is your first degree of initiation.

Let us move on to the second degree of initiation.In the second degree there is an eagerness, a hunger,

that takes place for association with others who havegone through the first or are in the second or maybe inthe third degree of initiation. That avidness is notpresent in the first degree of initiation because theobjectified state is still too strong. One at that state doesnot consciously seek companionship with those of likemind, but that comes with the second degree. One goesthrough the second degree of initiation more or lessunconsciously also. Some are conscious of what hastaken place, but the majority are not. They are stillunconscious mentally, objectively speaking, but theyhave that drive to read or study or talk or just be withothers of a similar state, because they crave theharmonization of frequencies. That is one symptom ofthe second degree of initiation.

Here is another symptom. They lose interest inpurely intellectual forms of literature. This is quitestriking at the second degree of initiation. If what is


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written is wholly intellectualized, mentalized, etc.,structurally it may have perfect language, grammar,rhetoric, it may be highly polished, but if there isnt

any soul, any life to it, they begin to lose interest. Theyavidly seek reading matter that is written by someonewho is conscious of what he is writing about in thevarious lines of creativity. There must be that creativityin the expression, the literature, before the one at thatstate can have any interest in it at all.

Toward that latter part of the second degree ofinitiation one begins to be taught while out of his body.He joins groups. Many have to take this ratherskeptically. Please do. I want our students to proveeverything for themselves. We say in our School waituntil you prove everything that is said by experience

before you accept it. But at the same time do not reject

it, because you might cut yourself off. Do not acceptwhat I say and do not reject it until you prove it ordisprove it. Please remember that. But just now I amspeaking to you of that which I know.

This story will illustrate my experience. Back in1919 I accepted a commission from the president of theTheosophical Society to revive the outlying lodges inthe Society. On the evening that my lecture in San Josewas scheduled, there were several other activitiesgoing on in town, and we had a very meageraudienceobjectively. At that time I consciouslyfunctioned in the psychic world far more than Ifunctioned in the objective world. So when thepresident of the San Jose society apologized to me

afterward for the small turnout, I said, What? Not acrowd? Every chair was full and there were peoplestanding in the aisles. I said that innocently andhonestly. He looked at me incredulously. Yes, I said,


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every chair was full and they were standing up in theaisles and in the back. He said, No, sir, Im sorry tohave to tell you they werent. Then I said, Wait! I

had lost the differentiation between the two levels. Ihonestly saw every chair full and standing room andthey were standing up around and I lectured to anoverflow crowd. Take it or leave it! I cannot prove it toyou but I am telling you what I know.

But let us return to the second degree of

initiation. Toward the end of the second degree ofinitiation one is sort of taken into charge by the higherones and their helpers, and while out of his body he isdirected to a teaching, a teacher, or a work that is goingon, but he does not bring back the memory. If he isalert he can bring back the recognition of how fine hefeels. He wakes up in the morning feeling like he has

been in heaven, or on the fringes of it. He wakes upfeeling so fine, but that is all he can bring back.Actually, he has been directed by a helper on theinner levels. There is lots of work going on there allthe time that the zero ones do not know anythingabout. To them it is a closed book. That teachingduring the second degree of initiation goes on foryears. Eventually much of it begins to percolatethrough to the more opaque objective mind, the mentalconsciousness. One goes through that period ofinstruction, the Hall of Learning, and gradually,sometimes painfully, he learns himself, the reality, theinvisible worlds.

Here, in preparation for the third initiation, the

induction into the third degree, one is taken out of hisbody. A great event takes place as he develops andlearns. This time he is conscious of what is going on. Infull consciousness he is taken out of his body to a


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company of higher ones. He sees them and they seehim. Here is a common experience when that takesplace: One is taken out of his body to a ceremony.

When he is taken out he would like to see the one whois taking him and he might twist his head aroundtrying to see, but the candidate is never allowed see theface of the one who is giving him the third initiation.When you hear of such experiences, there are certainearmarks that let you know that they are genuine andcertain earmarks let you know it is spurious. At the

third initiation if you see the initiators face, it is notreal, because he will never let you see his face. One istaken before quite a company, one of the groups of theinner order. He is taken before one of these innerorders, and there in a most solemn ceremony he isaccepted, recognized, inducted into the order. Then heis taken back to his physical body, where he begins to

be a conscious worker, a Brother of the Third Degree.This is part of the real governing brotherhood, theinvisible government of the worlds. It is real andgenuine. I stand in the presence of all that I know andtestify, they are real. There is a real invisiblegovernment of the worlds, and there are many

branches and orders of that government.


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CHAPTER 3

Comments on SavitriI t was the hour before the Gods awake.

Across the path of the divine Event

T he huge foreboding mind of N ight, alone

In her unli t temple of eternity,


A lmost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,

I n the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse

The abysm of the unbodied Infinite;A fathomless zero occupied the world.

The key point in this reading of Savitri, the unbodied Infinite, is avaluable point for students in this School to understand; becausewhatever specific point of reference, specific detail in the evolutionaryprocess, we may describe, we have that whole broad comprehensivebackground into which we can fit the detail to better understand what isbeing described. In this exceedingly broad, comprehensive state of

realization out of which Aurobindo is writing we want to focus here on oneparticular point: the unbodied Infinite.

For a moment please disregard all of your aristotelian concepts of theInfinite. Pretend you never had them. You can go back to them if youwant, because that ingrained and deeply impressed suggestion fromchildhood is not easily erased. It takes a long time, even after ourintellectual understanding has clarified, to eliminate the psychic

impression of early suggestions. But insofar as possible, let us pretend wenever had any concept about the Infinite.

The unbodied Infinite is a Triad (See Beyond Name and Form on thechart on page 24-25). If we were teaching a class in the Kabbalah wewould label the upper point of the Highest Triad Kether, the Crown. Infunction throughout the whole creative process, meaning the cosmicprocess, it is experienced as balance, equilibrium, the binding power.Modern physicists deal with the proton, the electron, and the third factor,

the meson, which becomes evident as the neutron. It is only recently(1955) that physicists have awakened to the realization that the neutron isthe configurational representation of force. The neutron has no positivecharge and no negative charge. It is the binding power of the positiveproton and the negative electron. The Binding Power is a power that holds


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everything together, and when we come down to the human level it iscalled love. So love is another label for the Binding Power.

Love holds man and woman together and that makes a home. Whenlove goes a house is left, but there isnt any home. We must bring thesethings that we study as high principles right down and feel them, knowthem, experience them. We must make everything functional. I count it ofno gain whatever unless I experience these things as function. Go back toKether, the binding power, expressed as the law of balance, the law ofequilibrium that holds whatever you want to name together. Nameanything, from the galaxies down to the atom, including your home andincluding your body. There is a force that holds it together in balance, in

equilibrium. It is the highest unit of the Highest Triad. The other units arethe Positive Power and the Negative Substance. This Highest Triad iscalled the unbodied Infinite.

What constitutes embodiment, relative to the Infinite? It has beengiven many names. In India it is called Nirguna Brahma. Buddhists call itPurushatama. Embodiment constitutes the negative aspect of the HighestTriad. Were we studying field physics we would say magnetic force,magnetic energy. But when we come out from high perceptive insight wesay substance is the negative aspect of the Highest Triad. As synonymswe could use the labels light, energy, etheric matter, teloplasm,ectoplasm, protoplasm, cytoplasm, cellular structure of living matter.These are labels for different divisions of subtleness, fineness, of NegativeSubstance, of the negative aspect.

At the beginning of the dawn of a mahamanvantara, a cosmiccreative process, the Positive Power enters the Negative Substance andis buried, is lost, apparently; but it stirs the substance into a high degree ofactivity. Think of activity as waves and frequencies in and of substance.The higher, the finer, the substance, the higher the frequency and theshorter the wave; the grosser, the fewer waves per unit of time, slowerfrequency and longer waves.

The unbodied Infinite enters embodiment by bringing forth the OnlyBegotten, the Son, the Logos, and all power is given unto the Son fromthen on throughout the whole creative process. The Mother Substancewas virgin and the Positive Power hovered over the virgin substance. The

virgin substance conceived, and the dynamic creative process began.Think for a moment of the silliness that has been evoked over the virginbirth. Think of the hundreds of years of terrible argument over thatimmaculate conception and the virgin birth. It has only indicated one thing:profound stupidity and ignorance.


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A lmost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,

I n the somber symbol of her eyeless muse.

That is the Mother. No activity yet, only the eyeless muse, theabysm of the unbodied Infinite.

The abysm of the unbodied Infinite

A fathomless zero occupied the world.

* * * * *

Lesson 3

Let us begin to understand the third degree ofinitiation by building some background forunderstanding this degree in the initiatory process.Please refer to the diagram ofa helix, a spiral, below.We begin at the bottom with an atom and end at thetop of the spiral in Living Light. You no doubt are

familiar with what is called evolutionthe creativeprocess of a mahamanvantaraso I will mention onlya few factors.


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It used to be thought that at a certain point

between the mineral and the plant kingdoms, scientists

maintained that there was a dividing line. Years agothey used to argue a great deal about that dividingline where the mineral left off and the plant began. Inthe study of crystallography there is a point wheresome crystals in solution, like colloids, becomeanimated and microscopic algae develop. So in thecreative process the mineral seems to merge into the

plant. They also argued about a line where the plant

merged into the animal. Then the plant world seems tomerge into the animal kingdom. This building upprocess of the mass of atoms from hydrogen to

uranium and beyond as described in the periodic tablewe label elemental essences. It is composed of thewhirls of forces, units of light-energy. This representsthe elemental configurational process. This processgoes through the mineral, the plant, the animal, and on


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the etheric configurational level proceeds throughoutthe man state.

The first factor to note in relation to all of theinitiations is that every relatively higher turn of thehelix repeats and condenses in time all that haspreceded it. Second, as the whole of the past in thecreating process develops, unfolds, outbreathes, etc., itrises into higher levels of the Mother Substance withwhich the Power-to-be-conscious clothes itself. As it

proceeds in the process, it keeps clothing itself withfiner and finer degrees of matter, degrees of substance.On the chart on page 30 we indicate those degrees bywhat we call cytoplasm, protoplasm, living matter,etheric substance, energy, light, and Living Light.

For clarity of understanding, let me repeat: As themotivating, creating, activating Power-to-be-consciousexpands its consciousness of itself, it clothes the manydegrees of expanding consciousness with finer andfiner substance (called the Mother, the negative aspectof the two-in-one Power). These degrees of expandingawareness become manifest in finer and finer energysubstance until by and by there is nothing but a bodyof Lightthe Temple of Light, in which the Power will

be conscious and in which it will function.

There is a third point that is extremely important.On the chart there are three divisions to each level ofthe spiral. At the man state, we will label the first oneliving matter. That is the physiological vehicle. As thephysical body develops it condenses and epitomizes all

of the past. Even a superficial study of the mitoticprocess in embryology will reveal this. We know thereis going to be no physical body unless there is first aunion of a positive sperm and a negative ovum. The

Japanese people date a persons age from conception.


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We aristotelians of the west date age from the birth ofthe body from its mother. We say the baby is born at acertain hour, day, year, etc. But the Japanese count the

birth from the moment of conception and they say youare born at that moment. If you think seriously anddeeply about it, you will find that they are accurate.There is a living being at the time of conception. Thatunion continues as it repeats the whole past. However,there is a long past back of the creation of the spermand the ovum. Think of the aeonian process of

evolution that, according to current scientific thinking(1955), began about four billion years ago. All of that iswrapped up and repeated in the building of theconfiguration.

The evolutionary process that goes on from theunion of the sperm and the ovum to the physiological

organism as a rule is completed in about 28 years.Notice that I said as a rule. Some may think it iscompleted by age 18 to 21, but in actuality it is notcomplete at that time. The point of beginning, union,we could label birth, the whole of the past beingrepeated on the configurational level.It will endure toa point that we are going to label deathdisintegrationof the physiological organism. Thus, it becomes adynamic process, not a static thing.

The second line of the spiral indicates theevolving process having reached the dividing line

between what is labeled the animal state and the manstate. Somewhere between the higher animal and thelower man phase or state of the process, a new vehicle

manifests. We call it the psychic nature. It is apersonality, a person. The referent for that wordperson is the guna (quality) content of the psyche. Wedivide it into two divisionsthe lower and the higher.For our purpose in describing the process however, we


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group the lower and the higher psyche together. In theearly stages of the palingenetic process we find thatthere is not much advancement made in each time

round, but the higher the state of development of theperson, the faster becomes the expanding process ofconsciousness. From conception, development of thephysiolgical organism continues for seven years beforethe development of this new vehicle, the psyche,

begins. In the higher animal state we note individualcharacteristics which indicate the beginning of the

development of the psychic nature.

The psychic nature parallels the continuingdevelopment of the physiological organism. Whendeath, disintegration of the physiological organism,takes place, the psychic nature continues a little longer.The time will vary with individuals, persons, but it will

generally continue a little longer before it begins todisintegrate. The psyche disintegrates because it isbuilt out of reactions to values given, reactions tofunctions, etc., in relation to the physical body.Consciousness functions through our feelings, desires,emotions, and mentalizations about, not in theconfigurational side. The value given, the quality ofdesires, the quality of thinking, and emotions aboutthings and objects, bounces back. What you send outmust come back. Thine only is the hand that holds therope that drags thee on; let go thy hold, Sannysin bold!Say, Om tat sat, Om! (The Song of Sannyasin, authorunknown) So if you do not like your suffering, stopcreating it. It is as simple as that. As long as you arereveling in your suffering, go on and create more of it.

We do not moralize with you; we are only asking youto wake up and find out how you do it. When you gettired enough, sick enough, you will let go. This is howthe psyche is developed and why it discontinues afterthe dissolution of the physiological organism.


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As expansion of consciousness continues there isa third vehicle that begins to develop. We call it theimmortal vehicle, the Individualizing Self on Mind

level. The degree in which that third vehicle, the thirdstory of the three-story house is developed iscommensurate with the consciousness one has ofimmortality. That consciousness begins when thePower-to-be-conscious in the animal state differentiatesitself from the animal and becomes man, primitiveman. Mind Substance becomes the vehicle of

individualization on the Mind level, because there canbe no consciousness without a vehicle in which tofunction. After dissolution of the physiologicalorganismthe first deathand the disintegration ofthe psychethe second death the Body of Light, alsoreferred to as the Temple of Light, the Solar Vesture,the Immortal Body does not disappear. In the

expanding process, when the Body of Light is fullydeveloped, the Powerthe Real Self of you and mewill continue fully conscious from birth to death anddeath to birth.

Let us apply what has just been said to the thirddegree of initiation. At the third degree one learns toconsciously function in his psyche independently of hisphysiological organism. The many, as well as the firstand second degree initiates, are conscious of only onevehiclethe physiological organism. But as onedevelops through the third degree, he becomes awareof his psyche and begins to consciously function in it.

How does this take place? Let us once again use

the analogy of a green nut. As it ripens the shellloosens from the hull and the meat begins to loosenfrom the shell. The third degree initiate experienceswhat we call the shakesan actual and very definiteshaking experience in the process of loosening the


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psychic vehicle from the physiological organism. Thereis a religious organization known as the Shakers whoare good aristotelian fundamentalists. They think the

shaking is due to the spiritand I guess it is, for inthe Bible we read, There was an earthquake in heavenfor the space of half an hour. The psyche loosens fromthe physical body so that the third degree initiate cango out of his body in his psyche in full consciousness.He must learn to operate on the psychic level.

After the third degree is completed, then comesthe development of the Individualized Self on Mindlevel. When one becomes seated in that consciousnessof Be-ingbeing a distinct, luminous Light, a self-luminous Selfhe enters the Fathers house anddeparts therefrom no more. He is no longer a prodigalson wandering out in the psychic world, groping for

understanding, eating the husks that the swine eat,and thinking he is having a good time. When onebecomes seated in the consciousness of his Be-ing onMind level, he operates from that level without losinghis seat. He can extend his consciousness onto anylevel. As Paul said, he can become all things unto allmen, equally at home in a hovel or a palace and notembarrassed or elated by anything. If there is a job todo, he does it according to the conditions of the levelupon which the job obtains. He can do all of that eventhough he makes his bed in the depths of hell, (if hehas to for a purpose). That means he never loses hisseat after becoming seated on Mind level.

What I am trying to say to you is that in the

School of the Natural Order we do not try to get wayup there, on a high level with beautiful angels. Andwe do not go down and camouflage either, if we haveto work on a lower level. The whole point is to develop


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conscious control over ones forces so that he can focusthem wherever necessary without losing his seat.Remember this fundamental point in this teaching,

because if you attempt to climb up to some highpoint, you are going to get a holier-than-thou attitudethat you are high and another is low. We havenothing like that in our teaching. We recognize thatevery step or stage is just as important as any otherstep or stage when it is basic to the developing process.It is like a person who has reached the university level

in his education who looks back to high school and tograde school, and even to kindergarten with therealization that he would not be where he is now if itwere not for each one of those grades. So each grade

becomes very important at that point in theevolutionary process. That takes all of that goodie-goodie, holier-than-thou attitude out of one.

Aristotelians identify with the image-appearing-substantive of the physical body. They think thepsyche is something subjective, and thereforequestionable. Before contact is made with a HigherInitiate, those who belong to the many live inidentification with their physical bodies. They haveno idea that there could be anything else. It is similar toa man starting to build a three-story house and whenthe ground floor is completed he moves in and livesthere without going on to complete second and thirdstories or the roof. But the third degree initiate, afterthe first contact is made, not only must build a secondstory. Then he must occupy it, conquer it, and rule it.

After being inducted into a higher order, onemust learn to consciously go out of his physical bodyand function without it and return to it without help.This represents one of several phases of the work that


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has to be done during the period of the third degree ofinitiation. There are other phases that go onsimultaneously, but I must describe them separately

and you can piece them together. Please refer to thechart on page 38 as we continue with this description.

During the first degree, and particularly thesecond degree of development, one begins to registerfrequencies. These waves-frequencies that areregistered can be described in terms of colors, from so-

called higher wave-frequencies or colors, to lowerones. Violet represents Mind level functioning; brilliantyellow indicates high mental development,intellectuality; cerulean blue indicates a religious,devotional state of consciousnessthe deeper onesdevotion, to home, country, wife, children, school,church, etc., the deeper the blue. Crimson to light pink

denotes love; the deeper shade, protective love and thelight pink, mother-love. Green in the aura representsadaptability, one who is liked by everyone and wholikes everyone. Grey is indicative of fear, and brown,selfishness. These colors represent gunas, qualities,seen in the psychic aura of a person. Of


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course, there are also endless combinations anddegrees of intensity of color.

When one first begins to function in the psychicnature, during the first two degrees of initiation, he

becomes sensitive to waves-frequencies registeredfrom persons, places, and things. Even towns and citieshave an overall influence or force. The registry takesplace on the periphery of the psychic nature. If the

mentality is well developed, that is, if objectiveidentification is strong, it develops a wall of mentalforce around the person. The hard-headed businessman builds a defense mechanism behind which he triesto hide his feelings, his sentiment, his loveuntilsomething comes along that breaks through this

barrier. Therefore, when the mentality is well

developed there is less registry, because thecrystallized conditions on the surface of the psyche actas a barrier.

After one has reached the third degree in theprocess of development, the five centers of the psychicnature begin to stir and awaken and he no longerfunctions by peripheral registry alone. He begins tofunction by the activity of each of the five centers. TheBrother of the First Degree does not do this, nor doesthe Brother of the Second Degree. Those who belong tothe many, the crowd, are far from it. But the Brother ofthe Third Degree has to enter the psyche and learn hiscenters, focus his consciousness in them, then purifyand control them. While learning his centers and how

to control and direct the forces by which they areactivated, he must also learn to function in his psycheindependent from his physical body.


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We have a beautiful parable in the Bible thatillustrates the work to be done during the third degreeof initiation. It is the parable of the five wise virgins

who preserved the oil in their lamps and went forth tomeet the Bridegroomto become Be-ings on Mindlevel. That is, they were initiated into the fourthdegree. There were also five foolish virgins who spentthe oil in their lamps. They had no light to go forth tomeet the Bridegroom. They stumbled around in thedark and missed their chance. This is the work of the

third degree initiate, the process that each one iscoming to or that he has passed through. It is the exactpattern set way back in the Highest Triad when Papamarried Mama. There is only one way for us to growup, after we have been born, and that is according tothe plan or pattern. What we call initiation constitutesa growing up, becoming adults, instead of being lost

children wandering around in ignorance in our privateworlds.


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The five centers of the psychic nature representfour divisions of the structural aspect of any givenperson. Referring to the chart, The Four Somatic

Divisions of Man, the earth symbolizes theconfigurational phase. Handle this carefully. Theconfiguration is a dynamic process, not a thing or anobject. We have to drop down to the abstractedprivate world to get the thingified concept of adynamic configurational state. Separate the thingfrom the dynamic process. Please get the difference.

Dwell with this until anything to which you can pointbecomes an ensemble of positive and negative pointsof light, whirling with incredible activity and heldtogether by the binding power. This is so simple it iselementary. Yet without the ability to actually see thosedynamic points of light you will get down into the zeroworld and give value to things and objects.

Earth symbolizes this configurational level ofconsciousness. Water represents the psychic world. Airrepresents the mental or intellectual world when themental and intellectual are used as instrumentsthrough which the dynamic process operates. In thezero world we have a mentalized objective state ofidentification built from values given in identificationwith things and objects; but here, air represents afunctional aspect of the psyche itself, not somethingdeveloped out of experience in objective identification.Fire represents the Living Spirit. We must first learnto function in the psyche on these four levels, beforewe can learn to function on the Mind level (the fourthdegree of initiation).

This is a weighty statement, so let me say it again.One must learn to function on the four levels of histotal structural self in his psychic consciousness, in his


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personality, as a preparation preliminary tofunctioning on the Mind level. We must learn how tofunction in the psyche by developing the centers and

operating in and with those centers consciously as wewould operate with instruments.


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CHAPTER 4

Comments on Savitri

Please refer again to the chart on page 24-25.We are describing theHighest Triad, Beyond Name and Form. The only way whereby theilluminati know this triad is by reason of its effects. It is a sort of deductiveprocess. By all its marvelous manifested effects they arrive at theperception of that which is beyond, behind, all cosmic activities. Thistriad has been called the still spirit. By reason of its stillness, all activity ispossible.

We can use an analogy. Take a sheet of glass, and underneath theglass place a strong magnet. Sprinkle iron filings around on top of theglass. Instantly, there is activity in those iron filings. Then it all settles intoa regular geometric pattern, like frost on windows. The magnet did notmove, relative to sense. It was still, but look at the tremendous activity itproduced!

Here is another example. Meteorologists tell us that in the center, the

eye, of a hurricane it is still; but by reason of its stillness it produces theactivity around the periphery.

Another example can be found on a dollar bill. Turn to the reverseside, to the Great Seal of the United States of America. Notice that thereis part of a pyramid that is floating above the base of the pyramid. In thatfloating top of the pyramid there is an eye. Those who had the perceptionto use such symbols knew their significance. Eventually we will work out

of the chaos that we all have to go through to get into the center, the eye,and become identified with it.

Let us label this Highest Triad, the still spirit, the Power-to-be-conscious. The moment we label it the Power-to-be-conscious, we do notthink of the cosmic process as something abstract and remote. We try tobring it right down to that which can be experienced. With what power doyou think, feel, act, enjoy, affirm, believeeven deny that there is aPower? That is what we are talking about; that is how we know it. It is, and

that is undeniable on the grounds that it takes something to be consciousof a denial or affirmation in order to deny, affirm, believe, etc.

So in our School of the Natural Order we do not ask you to believein Godnever! We ask you to accept, not believe, the Power with which


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you believe. Then when we become conditioned in thinking that way, thenwe turn anywhere, to any this (anything to which you can point) and wesee the operation of that Powerthe Power-to-be-conscious, the power to

exist.

Here is the point I am leading up to: this Power cannot beconscious of itself unless it is united with something, with a substance,with a force, with an energy, by the activity of which consciousness isengendered. Therefore, that Power must fecundate the Mother, thenegative. All activity of that which we label the Mother, nature, light,energy, living matter, and all of its far-flung divisions of substance,enables the Power-to-be-conscious, enables consciousness itself,

because the activity produced in that substance is what we callconsciousness, whether it is light, energy, protoplasm, etc. It is the activityof the substance that we call consciousness.

So there is a Power, but to be conscious takes the Mother. Whenwe live in this thought, work in it, build our inner faculties of perception sothat it becomes functional, then the activity is called waves andfrequencies. Up to the present time, those scientists who deal with atomicparticles are treating those waves-frequencies intellectually, as objectiveto the intellectual symbols by which they are designated forcommunication purposes. But some have gone beyond that and haveencountered, registered, demonstrated, that each of those waves ischaracterized by a resonance. When we hear that resonance we call it thesound currents. And how we hear it! Roaring like a Niagara sometimes!But watchthe resonance is also called the Word, the Logos. Logos isthe Greek label for causation. Logos, the resonance, the Word, constitutesthe reason for all existences. It is the Reason, the causative factor. This is

our referent for the word Logos.

One more point and then we can read intelligently how Aurobindodescribes it in this grand and noble epic. This all becomes the activity welabel consciousness. That is, all activity takes place in consciousness. Ithas no other existence. It is an act, an activity, of becoming conscious.Then think of the vast, far-flung multiplicities or divisions. Divisions ofwhat? Of that act of becoming conscious. We are in that process. Watchyourself over a period of ten yearsthat is brief enoughand you will

discover that the only joy, the only peace, the only satisfying condition orstate or experience is when you are fulfilling your degree in the process ofbecoming conscious. You will not discover it in a day, because you mightbe too much identified with the activity and the effects and themanifestations thereof. But every ten years review the past ten years and


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see what you got out of all the experiences that you thought you would geta great deal out of, and you will find dust and ashes except for thoseparticular points in which you fulfilled your degree of Self-awareness.

If you do not believe that statement, check on it. Recall all thehopes, enthusiasm, all of your expectations. Find out what givesloveliness, beauty, peace, joy, happiness, and satisfaction. You will find itwill be every time you have fulfilled the urge within you to be more andmore aware of that great, imperishable, indestructible Power-to-be-conscious. That Power unites with the Motherdisappears, apparently;but tremendous activity of the Mother ensues until it emerges in Light andSelf-awareness. A synonym for Light is Self-awareness. With this in mind,

let us read more ofSavitri.

A power of fallen boundless self awake

Between the first and the last Nothingness,

Recalling the tenebrous womb from which

it came,

T urned from the insoluble mystery of birth

And the tardy process of mortali ty

And longed to reach its end in vacant Nought.

This calls for a little explanation. The Highest Triad is nonexistent.Existent: ex-, meaning out, and sistere, the Latin root meaning to stand;hence, to stand out. Non-existence is nought, does not stand out. It hasreturned to the center, to the eye, which is zero.

We have two zeros. Down in the abstracted private world we havea zero, because abstractions have no existence except in the

consciousness of those abstracting from the reality. And at the otherextreme we have a zeronon-existence. That is, non-standing out, incomplete consciousness of Self.

* * * * *

Lesson 4

Let us now turn our attention to how one learnsto function in the psychic world, how one learns tofunction just as if he did not have a physical body and


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were fully conscious functioning as a personality. Abrief review of two points will lead right to the how.There are two forms of intellectual functioning,

development, etc. We have a lower and a higherintellect. Remember, everything is activity inconsciousness and has no existence otherwise.

The lower intellect is developed from experiencesin objective identification. When one is in a state ofidentification with things and objects, he develops a

wide range of feelings, desires, and emotions aboutthose apparent things and objects. We haveexhaustively described that things and objects areabstractions, pictures produced by reason of the factthat the neural structure cannot register the high rate ofwaves-frequencies produced by the activity of the unitsof energy of which any thing is constituted. Mentally

and intellectually we can easily follow our modernphysicists as they describe any given thing as merelyan ensemble of positive and negative units of energy.Mentally, we can follow that right along and say, Yes,everything constitutes an ensemble of atom andelectrons and protons, etc. But we do not see it as it isdescribed. And we do not hear it. Each wave-frequencyhas its resonance, and the combinations of all theresonances of each wave-frequency makes a symphonyof sound. We do not hear or smell the wave-frequency.We smell and taste and touch the effect produced. Butwe can learn to see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, andtouch it.

I am loathe to divert attention to myself as a

person away from the thought or teaching, but once inawhile I feel justified in standing up and raising myhand and saying, I testify, I bear witness. I have seenitmany times; I hear it almost constantly. And when Ido not deaden my sense of taste and smell by the way I


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eat, I smell it and taste it. You can smell persons andplaces and even taste them. The frequency can be fullyexperienced. Where one does not pay any attention to

anything except the thing his consciousness isidentified with that material world, as it is sometimescalled. Then one develops feelings and desires and haslots of emotional upheavals about things andobjects. Out of all those actions and reactions amentality, an intellectuality, is developed. Let us

borrow the Sanskrit word for it and call it lower

manas.

One time during a private class in Denver I wastrying to explain this intellect and how it functionsonly in relation to things and objects and cannot go

beyond it or above it. It can only function objectively,and I called it the concrete mind. A man who studied

with us and once in awhile would substitute for mewhen I was not there was a part of that class. On oneoccasion I was absent from the class and he substitutedand he was reviewing the concrete mind.

Dont you know what he means when he saysconcrete mind? He means cement.

We have laughed about that through theyearscement. Well, it is like that, actually, becausewe have the allegorical story of Lots wife fleeing fromSodom. (That means fleeing from the lower psyche, ifyou want to know the symbolism.) Fleeing fromSodom, she turned around and looked back andcrystallized into a pillar of salt. She looked back. That

is, she looked back to traditional authority, to what iscalled history, to former states of development inobjective identification. Look back and you becomecrystallizedlike cement. So let us label that intellectlower manas.


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But there is another intellect. This other intellectemerges and develops out of lower manas. As lowermanas develops in objective identity, there are many

subjective experiences in which one will ruminateupon thinking about objects, where one has feelingsthat he contemplates, where one feels motivatingurges, and he turns to analyze those motivating urges.One does not live just in perception. One lives inapperception. Perception is to know; apperception is toknow that you know. When you dwell on all those

experiences that are apperceptive, knowing what youknow, another intellect is built. This other intellect as itgrows and develops displaces and replaces theconcrete mind, the lower manas. We give it the labelhigher manas. It becomes an instrument through whichthe Mind level principles (AtmaBuddhiManas)operate in formulating ways and means to describe

what is known. It marshals ways and means to executedirectives from the spiritual world, from the higher,Mind level world. It organizes the multiplicity of waysand means to carry out directives from the higherlevels, but it never sets itself up as determinative as toways and means.

Lower manas will take a bit in its teeth and wantto determine what to do, and generally does, andinevitably runs things into the ground, over theprecipice, or somewhere. Watch anyone with lowermanaslet us say he has a powerful intellect,objectively speaking. Watch when it takes charge. It isnot long until calamity occurs, or he fails in hisattempts. One may condemn the lower manas as

objective and concrete, particularly when it tries to setitself up as the leader, determiner, director. But nothigher manas, because it will never set itself up andtake charge. It keeps itself as a shining instrument inthe hands of the Higher Self. It is higher manas


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through which the Higher Self works to executedirectives, determinations, etc.

Higher manas never tries to assume directing,that is, to create determinations. It is an instrumentthrough which determinations, directives, areexecuted. Please remember this important difference.The higher intellect is the instrument of the HigherSelf, used to execute directives and marshal thoughts.When one writes out of realization (and I speak from

long experience), it would be impossible withouthigher manas. The higher manas does not see,perceive, have the insight; but the higher manas canmarshal the thoughts and words and sentencestructure with which to describe what is perceived.There is the difference between lower manas andhigher manas.

Cultivate higher manas as an instrument in thehands of the Individualized Being, the Higher Self onMind level. It is the finest instrument that theIndividual has to work with. But keep it and respect itas an instrument. The Higher Self utilizes that highermanas. Higher manas is being demonstrated right herein the organization of the words and thoughts with

which to describe this deeper, higher perceptiveinsighteven about higher manas!

We have described that when one functions inthe objective state of consciousness a crystallizedthought form is developed on the periphery of thepsyche. This structure on the periphery of the psychic

body operates as censorship. I want to identify it nowas the censor which keeps the content of the psyche

bottled up so that it is impenetrable, so that the personcannot discover the content of his own psyche. Thiscrystallized peripheral shell is lower manas. Because of


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this shell, lower manas, the content of the psychicnature is called the unconscious. The content of thepsyche is unconscious, relative to lower manas; but it is

not unconscious relative to anything above the psychicnature, and it is not unconscious to higher manas. Iwant to emphasize this point and make it clear for onereason. Before we are through with this discussion ofthe third degree, we are going to see where thiscensorship (actually and literally the peripheral crust,the cement, the concrete) is broken up and dissolved,

and the whole content of the psyche comes out on theperiphery. This is part of the third degree work thatmust take place. The concrete, crystallized crust, thecensorship, is completely broken to pieces anddissolved, and then the scripture is fulfilled, There isnothing hidden but what will be revealed. Do notallow pride and vanity and all that censorship stuff

such as, How do I look? and What will they think?and What will they say? to interfere. When thatperipheral crust is broken, all will be revealed.

Better turn tail and run if you do not want to getto that point. Find a hole and crawl into it, because assure as the sun rises and sets, the peripheral crust ofthe psyche, the censorship, is going to be broken andthe whole content of the psychic nature will come tothe periphery. When that happens, do not be ashamedof it. Get the attitude, I do not care where I am in thewhole cosmic scheme, my basic point of development,I just want to be good where I am. If I am a dog, I wantto be a good dog. Break up that censorship inadvance. Then you will have an easy time when the

forces break it up and all the hidden (relative to theconcrete mind) content of the psychic nature comes outonto the periphery. That is wholesome! We must havea washday or a housecleaning. How do we do it? Wehang it all out, or we take the rugs out and beat them;


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we scrub and use disinfectant, and we clean it all upinside.

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Seven Initiations