Man, God and the Cosmos

Man, God and the Cosmos from Lisa Montero

1a Studies on Theosophy Part 1 from Theosophical Digest

1b Studies of Theosophy Part 2 from Theosophical Digest

2 Planes of Nature And Principles In A Human from Theosophical Digest

3 Death And The After Death States von Theosophical Digest

4a Reincarnation from Theosophical Digest

4b The Law of Karma from Theosophical Digest

5a Human Perfectibility from Theosophical Digest

5b The Path from Theosophical Digest

6 The Larger Picture from Theosophical Digest

How Each Chakra Maps to an Endocrine Gland and Planet

Did you know that each of your 7 chakra centres actually map to each of your 7 endocrine glands

Each of the body’s basic seven chakras is associated with specific locations on the body, such as the heart, the throat, or the crown of the head. But when you look at a chakra chart, you don’t see the underlying network of glands (and their nearby organs) governed and influenced by the chakra system.

On its surface, the endocrine system seems quite complex. But when you break it down into its individual parts, it isn’t so bad.

Overall, this network of glands is in charge of producing, regulating and distributing hormones throughout the body. Released into the bloodstream, hormones play a pivotal role in the body’s ability to mature, metabolize nutrients, and function.

The function the chakras is very intricate in that it is an energy system that communicates with the body via biological systems, such as the endocrine glands and nervous system, to keep it balanced and healthy.

Each of the chakras in the body is paired with an endocrine gland and governs its function. So before we go any further, here are each of the chakras, their corresponding gland, and their function:

• Root chakra (1st) — Reproductive glands (testes in men; ovaries in women); controls sexual development and secretes sex hormones.
• Sacral chakra (2nd) — Adrenal glands; regulates the immune system and metabolism.
• Solar Plexus chakra (3rd) — Pancreas; regulates metabolism.
• Heart chakra (4th) — Thymus gland; regulates the immune system.
• Throat chakra (5th) — Thyroid gland; regulates body temperature and metabolism.
• Third Eye chakra (6th) — Pituitary gland; produces hormones and governs the function of the previous five glands; sometimes, the pineal gland is linked to the third eye chakra as well as to the crown chakra.
• Crown chakra (7th) — Pineal gland; regulates biological cycles, including sleep.

Not just that, these 7 chakras also correspond to 7 planets in our galaxy

Chakras are the energy centers in our body. The word “chakra” means “wheel”. We have seven main chakras and each chakra is located on a plexus (center of a network of nerves). These energy centers are responsible for keeping our spiritual, physical and mental aspects in balance. This subtle system is the same in every  human. What is different is how we use it and with what quality.

Each chakra is ruled by a planet.  The mapping to planets used in the above diagram is sourced from Edgar Cayce though there are different theories and variations on which planets to correspond to which chakras.  In one version, the moon rules the crown chakra and the sun the third eye chakra.

Chakras display the nature and characteristics of their ruling planets. Birth charts, which are formulated according to our date and time of birth, show the aspects the planets were in when we were born and how they relate with each other. While our birth chart describes our spiritual, physical and mental aspects, it also helps us see how the planets shape us and affect our chakras and energy body. The first breath that we took on this earth has made its mark on every cell of our being and has become an inseparable part of us. Entire humanity shared that moment with us and life started flowing with the next moment. However, that moment of our birth spreads over our entire life and gives us the responsibility to use “that moment” to the benefit of all humans. Only we hold the chance to make that moment perfect. We can feel that our life is part of the universe as we get to know ourselves and balance our being.

In addition to the 7 chakras mapping to each of the 7 notes in music

Did you know that each of the 7 notes in music create harmonic balance to the 7 chakras (your endocrine glands and energy centres) in your body.

This means that music can literally “move” you or “change” your moods, cellular structure and overall healthy well being.

The power of music has the ability to heal people that are in distress, relieve pain to those suffering from a physical ailment and much more.

Music’s healing power over the body has also attracted attention from scientists who aim to test this ancient wisdom. A growing body of research supports the claim that music can alleviate physical pain. Studies have shown music to be an effective pain reliever, both on its own and as an addition in connection with other types of therapy.

Take a look at how each of your 7 Chakras map to an Endocrine Gland in your body, and also how each of these energetic centres also map to a planet in the cosmos and also a musical note.

Source: http://www.whathowhy.info/2015/02/12/how-each-chakra-maps-to-an-endocrine-gland-and-planet/

The Antahkarana

by Benjamin Creme

A discussion of the "rainbow bridge" built by the man/woman in incarnation between the lower and higher self as part of personal spiritual evolution.  

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The science of the Antahkarana is probably the most important science of the coming time but this talk will not claim to cover the whole subject of the Antahkarana or the science of its use.

This is a science which is, as yet, unknown to humanity but it will be the coming science of mind of the New Age, the science of building the bridge between lower and higher man, and also a number of other bridges: between the members of the human race as a whole; between one Centre -- Humanity -- and another, Hierarchy; between Hierarchy and Shamballa; between Humanity, through Hierarchy, and Shamballa; and between this planet and other planets, this solar system and other solar systems. All these bridges and connections are the result of the correct use of the science of the Antahkarana, which will be the major educational field for humanity in this coming age.

The best way to study the Antahkarana is to read the Alice Bailey Teachings, in particular the book Education in the New Age, and further references in The Rays and Initiations. You will not get from this talk, or from the Alice Bailey Teachings, the technique of the science of the Antahkarana. That is something which, as far as humanity as a whole is concerned, lies well in the future. It is a gradual process of enlightenment for humanity, but it will become the major science -- the science of evolving as a race and making the inner connections (which of course already exist but which have to be consciously built by the man or woman in incarnation), to weave the thread of return to the source from which we have originally come. It is really the science of the Path of Return.

For long ages, the soul on its own plane looks down at its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane, and sees no way to interfere with its development. There is very little the soul can do except create a body, give it its various physical, astral and mental make-up, and leave it to get on with the job of evolution.

Eventually, there comes a life -- a series of lives in fact -- in which the soul sees that its reflection, the man or woman, is beginning to respond to the influence of the energy which connects the soul to its reflection, and the process of ‘ensouling' begins.

“The Antahkarana” is, above all, the thread of consciousness. It is the result of the interaction of the life with the form, with substance, with matter; that produces something entirely different. We call it “consciousness”. We can also call it “the Christ Principle”. It is the process of evolution itself.

Each individual is really threefold: the Monad, or spark of God, the impersonal Self which reflects itself on the soul plane as the individualized human soul or ego. The soul, again, reflects itself on the dense physical plane as the man or woman in incarnation. That is the ‘way down', the process by which spirit involves itself in its polar opposite, substance. When the spirit, or life, aspect and the matter aspect come together, a third, the consciousness aspect, is born. “The Antahkarana” is, above all, the thread of consciousness. It is the result of the interaction of the life with the form, with substance, with matter; that produces something entirely different. We call it “consciousness”. We can also call it “the Christ Principle”. It is the process of evolution itself.
Those who study anthropology, the history of evolution on the physical plane -- the evolution of forms -- know that in the beginning there were great oceans, teaming with life, nothing on the land, and then gradually some of the more evolved animals -- fish, reptiles of all kinds -- came on to the land and became the early reptiles and mammals. Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which eventually became early, animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom. With the germ of mind -- which could become the nucleus of a mental body -- at last formed, the human race began. This is denied by Christian fundamentalists and other orthodox religious groups who deny the reality of Darwin's theory of evolution, but esotericists accept it as a more-or-less accurate account of the growth of the form, the evolution of form, on this planet. We are not concerned with that; we are concerned, as human beings evolving back to our source, with the evolution not of form -- which has come more or less to perfection (though there are some minor adjustments and improvements still to be made) but rather with the evolution of consciousness. The evolution of consciousness is the basis of how we become aware of ourselves and our environment, and create together the evolution of the human race.

Gradually, there evolved a prohuman type which eventually became early, animal man, separating itself from the animal kingdom

The descent from Monad to soul and from soul to personality has to be re-enacted in reverse order. The threefold man -- physical, astral and mental -- has to find his way back by a process of at-one-ment, first with the soul and then, through the spiritual triad -- the reflection of the Monad -- with the Monad itself: the threefold monadic Being. That return journey, or the process by which that return journey is made, is through the creation, the gradual evolvement and building, of the Antahkarana. This is a conscious process and only occurs in stages. As the process downward has been slow, over millions of years, so the process back can be a long, drawn-out process, and for the vast majority of humanity so it is.

We are in the second of a threefold solar system. In other words, this solar system is the second embodiment or manifestation of the great Heavenly Man we call the Solar Logos Who has a Plan for the evolution of all the forms in the solar system.

The first solar system expressed through matter, substance, the quality of active intelligence. It was concerned mainly with the intelligent creation of forms. We are in the second of this threefold expression in which the soul quality -- the love or consciousness aspect -- of the Logos is in process of being expressed. The Solar Antahkarana is being built by the Solar Logos and by all the forms, whether they know it or not, who have evolved from the first solar system and are now creating the bridge between that system and this one, and, eventually, between this system and the next. The next solar system will be concerned with the Will aspect, the Monadic aspect, of the Solar Logos. When the correct bridge between these three expressions is built, the Solar Antahkarana is in place. This will lead to the culmination of the Plan of our Solar Logos in its threefold expression.

Each solar system creates a body of expression at a higher level than the one before. The first -- that to do with form, with substance -- is, of course, preparatory to the expression of the soul. It is the soul, in all forms, which incarnates. By descending into form, the soul -- actually the Monad, the spirit aspect, through the soul -- begins a process of redemption of the soul in form. It begins to spiritualize substance; the underlying purpose of our incarnational experience is, precisely, to spiritualize the substance of this particular solar system. When we have taken the substance -- the forms created in the previous solar system -- and energized it with the energy of the soul, the consciousness aspect, in this solar system, we will raise it, redeem it, heighten its vibration and bring it up to the level at which the Will, the Purpose aspect of God (in terms of our Solar Logos), can be expressed.

In this present solar system God is Love, Love is the aspect of the soul, Will of the Atmic level of being. In the next solar system God will be Will and Purpose. We are, all of us, as microcosms, evolving in precisely the same way as the macrocosm, our Solar Logos, through its threefold expression, works out its Plan of evolution in every kingdom and in every planet.

In coming into incarnation, therefore, we are doing something quite extraordinary, something far greater than we as individual human beings possibly realize. But as soon as we do realize the interconnectedness of the microcosm with the macrocosm it deepens our sense of purpose -- the sense of reality -- in life, and it is also a stimulus to concentrate more, and to build a direct line of ascent between this low-level (for that is what it is) expression of Deity and bring it into line with the underlying purpose of Deity for its perfectionment.

The energy of each solar system is raised and becomes the basis for the new system, just as in our incarnational experience every incarnation creates an expression through the vehicles up to a certain vibration. That vibration is held exactly at the point we have reached when we die.

There are three ‘permanent atoms' around which the new bodies, physical, astral and mental, are formed. These permanent atoms vibrate at exactly the frequency reached in that particular life, and we can understand, therefore, how the vibrational rate reached is the degree to which we have perfected, or spiritualized, matter. The soul infuses the matter of the three bodies with its energy and in this way salvages, redeems that matter. It raises their vibration onto an ever-higher level until the point is reached when the soul is reflecting itself, without resistance, directly, through the personality. That is how we become divine. We do so by raising the vibrational rate of the substance of these three bodies to a point where the Divine Man, the soul on its own plane, can reflect itself relatively purely through its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane. That is the evolutionary, the return process; the technique of it is the science of the Antahkarana.

Sutratma

There are two major threads which connect the Monad, through the soul, with the man or woman in incarnation. One the Sutratma, the thread of life, is anchored in the heart. It comes directly from the Monad, reflected through the soul, and is fixed in the heart centre at the right-hand side of the body. It is reflected through that etheric centre to the physical heart and into the bloodstream, which, as you know, is the purifying stream which carries the energy of life to every part of the body. While the lifeblood is pumped correctly through the body and is kept free of poisons, the physical body displays all its ability and accuracy of movement and expression. So, too, the connecting body, the astral-emotional body and the mental body are dependent on the life thread, the Sutratma, for their existence and correct function. There is another thread, called, indeed, the Antahkarana. This thread in anchored in the centre of the head, and through these two threads the threefold expression -- Monad, soul and physical-plane man or woman -- live their lives. These two threads inform all of these and, in a downward flow, bridge the gaps between, first, Monad and soul, and secondly between soul and its reflection, the man or woman on the physical plane.

Eventually, a third thread is built by the man or woman him/herself through the interaction of soul energy, and eventually, monadic energy, through the physical apparatus: the thread of creativity. These three threads wound together eventually produce the bridge between the three levels of existence.

The future science of the Antahkarana will concern itself with this, the path of return. This will be the New Age education. Individuals will be recognized for what they are, souls in incarnation; their point in evolution and ray structure will be ascertained and known; through this science the gaps between the various levels of our being will be bridged. This is only possible now that the human race has reached the present state and, of course, because of the return to the everyday world of the only people in the world who actually know this science: the Masters.

Since the Masters are returning this will become an exoteric science. All children, from the earliest age up until 28, will eventually go through this process of education in the science of Life -- the science of building the return channel, or pathway. I would like here to show the inner unity of method and approach of certain terms.

The antahkarana is the bridge built -- first out of mental matter and later out of light -- by the evolving aspirant, disciple and initiate, in turn. Until a certain time, the connection between the man or woman and the soul plane is developed by the control of ‘mentation', the energy of the mental body. It brings the mental body under control and the thought-patterns create a bridge. The Antahkarana is, therefore, in the first place, a bridge connecting the lower man, the lower mind, with the soul, and then the lower mind, through the soul, with the higher mind which is the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad. This is Atma, Buddhi and Manas -- the reflection on the soul plane of the threefold Monad, or spark of God.

Path of Return

There are different terms for this and I would like to bring all of these together to show the unity and interconnectedness of these different methods of expressing what is essentially the one process, the return journey: the Path of Return.

The mystic thinks of the Path as the Path to God. He thinks of it generally in terms of his religious or mystical feelings and experiences, his mystical religious beliefs, doctrines, and dogma, his various spiritual practices, the various rituals -- all of these to the mystical and devotional type constitute a way of approaching God through belief, a linking in consciousness between the individual man's belief structure (whether that be Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or whatever) and that which lies back of all creation. The religious person sees that as the Path of Return -- and of course that is perfectly true, it is. But not everybody is religious, and the Path of Return, to the esotericist, is a path which, literally, is made by the disciple himself. The disciple makes the Path by becoming the Path. It is not something which is already laid down and is whispered into your ear. It is not like that at all. It is the evolutionary process itself. It is that same process which brought the fishes out of the sea onto dry land, from which they evolved into, first, reptiles and then mammals and then the huge variety of animals and eventually, at the peak of that development of form, the human kingdom. Above the human kingdom is the Kingdom of Souls, the kingdom whose nature is consciousness. The plane of consciousness is the plane on which the Masters have hitherto worked exclusively. The Path of Return is the Path by which the consciousness of what is and what might be gradually becomes known to the seeker, the evolving individual.

In other words, as you seek, as you aspire, you create before you -- as DK says: the “spider creates out of his own being the silken thread” -- so, in exactly the same way, the aspirant, the disciple and the initiate are creating before them the Path of Return, the Path which is not yet laid down. It is the path of a growing awareness of what constitutes his/her relationship to the whole. It is a means by which we grasp deeper and deeper realizations and experiences of our connectedness to the whole, to the Macrocosm. This is done by a growing expansion of consciousness.

These expansions of consciousness are marked off on our planet by the five planetary initiations. For the adept there are also four Cosmic initiations. Above these, and on throughout Cosmos, are initiation after initiation upon initiation -- on and on eternally, throughout the whole of galactic space. All of that is a process by which, through the building of the Antahkarana, our individual relationship to that totality gradually dawns on us.

The Antahkarana Painting by Benjamin Creme

The Antahkarana is not a ‘form'. Here you have a form which is called “The Antahkarana”. It is a lithograph made from one of my paintings, and it is a purely formal and symbolic representation of the Antahkarana. The Monad reflects itself in the soul as the Spiritual Triad: spiritual Will, spiritual Love-Wisdom and spiritual Intelligence, and these are again reflected in the physical being by the soul. The process by which this takes place is the Antahkarana. In this lithograph, the lower shape represents the threefold human being; the white connecting column is the symbolic representation of the threefold thread of the Antahkarana; and the pale-yellow shape at the top represents the soul itself.

This lithograph is not the Antahkarana; the Antahkarana is not a form. Most people thinking about the Antahkarana, because of the nature of the language used, inevitably imagine a bridge. That bridge is built in, first, mental substance and then light, and so they visualize a physical bridge. An artist has to do so, of course; one cannot paint a picture without a form. The artist has to create out of his creative imagination a form which will symbolize a process, but the form is not the process, it is simply a means of expressing the idea of the process.

Anyone who does Transmission Meditation knows about alignment. When that alignment is perfect, symbolically speaking there is a column of light above the head of the meditators. In that light there are three threads, strands, of energy. That is the form, but it is not the Antahkarana. We must realize that the form and the idea of a bridge, the idea of a column of light, the idea of some actual form in substance, is only a way of stating something else. What we are really talking about is awareness.

Awareness, in a sense, is a vague, generalized way of talking about the process of return. We return through a gradual expansion of conscious awareness, through the conscious building of the Antahkarana. This is created firstly in mental matter, between the personality and the soul, and then by the initiate -- who has already contacted and come into a close at-one-ment with the soul -- in light, between the soul and the Monad, the highest aspect of our threefold being. Then the connectedness eventually is direct between the Monad -- the divine being, identical with God, the reflection of our Planetary Logos -- and the man or woman on the physical plane. By this process our Planetary Logos works out His Plan of evolution through the human kingdom, and of course in the same way the Solar Logos is working out His greater and vaster Plan through all beings on all planets in this, the second, solar system. This process will be completed in the third solar system, in which the Monadic aspect -- the Will, the Purpose, the essential Love of God -- will come to its final expression and fulfilment.

Each of us, right now, is engaged in creating the Antahkarana. Another term for the Antahkarana, besides the bridge of light, is Self-realization, which is what Maitreya calls it: “I have come to teach the art of Self-realization,” He said. The art of Self-realization is the science of the Antahkarana: they are one and the same.

Maitreya has said that the simplest, most direct path is to practise three things: Honesty of mind; sincerity of spirit, and detachment. These three bring about Self-realization, and they do so by enabling the man or woman to create the Antahkarana. For the vast majority of people in the world this is a process which goes on, up till a certain time, quite unconsciously. Most unevolved individuals are connected only by the Sutratma, the life thread, coming from the Monad through the soul and anchored in the heart. Average humanity are connected also by the thread of consciousness, the Antahkarana, and as the person evolves through the building of the first stage of the Antahkarana -- that between the lower man and the soul -- the energies of the soul become available to him or her.

“The Antahkarana is not simply a column of light but threads of awareness spreading outwards from the individual into every sphere of his environment. These threads of awareness multiply endlessly, until in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing can happen anywhere of which He is unaware.”

Then the creative process begins. This stimulates the mind and the creative imagination, and a life of creativity and of service ensues. Creativity and service are one and the same; service is the life of the soul creatively expressed on the physical plane. This, then, dominates more and more in the life of the individual, and so we get the creation of culture. It is not by accident that the culture of any nation is created by the disciples and the initiates of that nation; they are the ones who have already built the first stage of the connecting link, the bridge, between themselves and their soul.

The initiate, having achieved an integration of the three lower vehicles, physical, astral and mental -- that is, having brought them to a point of synchronous vibration, takes the third initiation; the soul, henceforward, controls and dominates its vehicle, which is now negative in relation to the purpose of the soul. The divine man or woman displays his or her divinity on the physical plane in a life of service and creativity. The third-degree and the fourth-degree initiate is usually in incarnation for only one or two lives, depending on astrological factors. But having taken thousands of lives to the first initiation, and perhaps five or six to the second, the third is taken very quickly, and the fourth very quickly after that, probably in the next life. Therefore, by the time a person has reached the state of true creativity, is more or less soul-infused and expressing the purpose of the soul, he or she does not have long in which to do this; only three or four lives at the most. Then, as a Master, the whole of this existence is dedicated to the service of the Plan. Of course, the more one evolves the more one knows. The more one knows, the greater the responsibility of service, and the greater the opportunity for service. The Masters can serve because They know. Our service is limited, not only because of lack of desire or energy, but because we do not know enough; we can serve in a rather limited way because our consciousness is limited. The more conscious one is, or the higher the level of consciousness, the greater the number of threads of consciousness extending outwards to the world, the greater awareness there will be of the nature of reality.

These are the Antahkarana, which is not simply a column of light but threads of awareness spreading outwards from the individual into every sphere of his environment. These threads of awareness multiply endlessly, until, in the Master, they make for omniscience: nothing can happen anywhere of which He is unaware. In this way we reveal the mind of God, become instruments in the furthering of the Plan held in the mind of God. That, really, is the basis of initiation.

When you know consciously, through the building of the Antahkarana, how to link the different levels of expression -- Monadic with soul, soul with the physical (on the downward path) -- when you know this science because you have done it, and done it consciously, when you are a Master, you can use this science to create the Mayavirupa, the self-created body. The Mayavirupa reverses the process of the Antahkarana. It is the result of the ability to create a body because you know the connecting links between the form. A God-realized Master experiences Himself as God in this physical body. For us that physical body is the closest, most important, aspect, whereas for the Master it is only a transitory aspect of the whole. From His God-realized state, the Master can go backwards down the bridge, the Antahkarana, can repeat the process and bring together, therefore, matter of the mental, the astral-emotional and the etheric physical plane, and precipitate His consciousness into that. That is the secret behind the creation of the Mayavirupa. The new world religion, when developed, is really the creation of the ‘racial' Antahkarana. Maitreya has said the He has not come to build a new religion, to create followers, and so on. This is true. Nevertheless there will be what we have to call, for want of another name, a new world ‘religion', but it will be the science of which I am speaking. The new world religion will be a conscious approach by the human race to the Creator, that which stands back of creation -- which, of course, is also ourselves, the essential part of ourselves as the Monad. This will be done through the creation of the racial, group, Antahkarana. The growing experience of aspirants and disciples of working in groups is a preparatory step towards this great racial grouping, to the creation of the ‘world' Antahkarana. Eventually the Antahkarana links not only peoples, but planets and solar systems. This is the essential nature of Being throughout Cosmos. All that is higher reflects itself through a lower vehicle. This threefold expression is to be found throughout Cosmos. At our human level, we experience it consciously, because, as souls, we are the “Sons of Mind”. Through the expression of the soul, the consciousness aspect, that awareness takes place by which the racial Antahkarana can be built.
 As a Being, as a race, as one big grouping of all peoples, all religions, all types and points of evolution, there will be eventually a conscious approach to Deity, especially at the three spiritual festivals in April, May and June and also at the nine other full-moons. This will constitute “the new world religion”, or the technique of the new world religion, in which invocation will replace the present process of worship. We can see therefore that it will be a very scientific religion -- it will be very difficult to distinguish between what we call science, religion and education. This is also the education of the New Age. Children will be trained in the creation of the Antahkarana. The science of the Antahkarana will be taught -- in so far as it can be taught, because it is an experiential thing -- to those ready to receive the tuition. Of course, that does not mean all children, but for those more advanced aspirants, for those who are preparing for initiation, this will become the norm. No initiation is possible for anyone without the building of the Antahkarana. Indeed, it is precisely the building of the Antahkarana, the link between the lower man and the soul, which makes initiation possible. Eventually, the link between the integrated lower man and the soul makes possible the higher initiations in which the at-one-ment is with the Spiritual Triad, and, through that, with the Monad. Then the process is complete; the Godlike man, the God-realized or Self-realized man, has achieved: he is a Master.

The Antahkarana is not only the bridge between the different fragments of ourselves, it is the bridge between the worlds: planetary, systemic, and galactic.

The key to the formation of the Mayavirupa is found in the right comprehension of the creation of the Antahkarana. It is important to remember that as these bridges are built the vitalizing process goes on. It is not simply a question of building a bridge; it is through that bridge that the stimulus from the higher levels takes place.

Three major sciences will dominate in the New Age: the science of the Antahkarana, the science of meditation and the science of service. The science of service utilizes the creativity which is achieved through the building of the Antahkarana, and the science of meditation, of course, is a preliminary process leading to, and essential to, the creation of the Antahkarana through its science. So the science of the Antahkarana is very broad indeed, including that of meditation and of service.

The vitalizing agency is, first of all, the soul. The soul opens up on the personality level the Knowledge petals in the crown chakra and vitalizes them; this stimulates the thought processes and galvanizes the man or woman to further creation of the bridge, the Antahkarana, between itself and the soul. Soul at-one-ment gradually takes place, and when this has gone a certain distance initiation leads to the opening of the Love petals, and eventually, as a man or woman approaches the third initiation and that is taken, the opening up of the inner three petals which enclose the “jewel”, the “jewel in the heart of the lotus”, which is the Will aspect.

The Monad reflects more and more in the man or woman on the physical plane, dominating, therefore, the life of that individual. In this process, what was simply emotional aspiration gradually transforms itself into the Monadic will: the purpose of the life is known. This leads to lives of true value on the physical plane, no time is wasted, the individual knows his or her purpose in life and gets on with it without the wastage of time and wrong thought, wrong action, and delays which occur lower down the line. He discovers the value, uses and purposes of the creative imagination. This is all that remains to him eventually of the intensely active astral life lived for so many lives. The astral body becomes a mechanism of transformation -- desire transformed into aspiration, aspiration into a growing and expressive intuitive faculty.

The intuitive faculty emerges when true soul contact is achieved, when the bridge between the personality and the soul is of such a constancy and intensity that what was simply emotional aspiration is transformed into a direct linking with the higher aspect of which it is a reflection, the Buddhic aspect of the Spiritual Triad. Our astral-emotional body, in terms of evolutionary purpose, is meant to be, and eventually becomes, simply a still, reflecting vehicle for Buddhi. Buddhi is true intuition. It is essentially, group consciousness; intuition is another name for group consciousness. It is the Buddhic, the Love-Wisdom, aspect of the Spiritual Triad. Buddhi eventually reflects itself directly through the astral mechanism as intuition: we know, because we know, because we know. There is no thinking about it; it is a direct, spontaneous response to Buddhi, using the purified astral nature as the medium for that intuitive response. The Antahkarana produces this, inevitably.

There is a relationship between the science of the Antahkarana and Transmission Meditation. Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas: Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the Chakras, the energies. Essentially, the Antahkarana is concerned with the force centres, the chakras, because it is through the scientific, manipulation of the energies in the chakras, the correct stimulation of these chakras, that the Antahkarana is built. One can say that the science of the Antahkarana is the science of the chakras. The sciences of the future -- of the Antahkarana, of meditation, and of service -- are linked. One leads to the other: correct meditation leads to the building of the Antahkarana; correct building of the Antahkarana leads to the life of service -- correct service, directed by soul purpose. The knowledge and creativity of the soul is consciously put at the disposal of the individual who scientifically builds the Antahkarana. 

Transmission Meditation is a fusion of two Yogas: Karma Yoga, the Yoga of Service, and Laya Yoga, the Yoga of the Chakras, the energies

Since Transmission Meditation is a fusion of Karma Yoga and Laya Yoga, what the Masters are actually doing in the Transmission Groups around the world is creating a group Antahkarana. It is being done for us. The average time of real alignment, and therefore of correct transmitting, in any hour is about three-and-a-half to four minutes. It is only because Transmission Meditation is so potent, so scientific, that it is valuable to do even these three-and-a-half minutes. Because of its extraordinary potency, because of the pure, scientific nature of Transmission Meditation, these three-and-a-half to four minutes have an extraordinary value for the world and an extraordinary value for the people doing it. We are gradually having the Antahkarana built for us -- it is a gift. The Masters are serving us, spoon-feeding us. The Antahkarana is being created at an extraordinary rate; so much so that, if people are around the 1.5 mark -- between the first and second initiation -- and in reasonable health and youth, it is perfectly possible to take the second initiation in this life; not because of any particular effort being made, either in building the Antahkarana or in service to the world, but simply by sitting enough times in Transmission Meditation, keeping the attention at the Ajna centre, for the Masters to help create this channel of light between the different aspects of our being.

This is an extraordinary thing that is happening in the Transmission Groups, and it is one of the major reasons why people in these groups make such extraordinary advancement. Those who have been transmitting for the last 10 years, say, are far more advanced than they could possibly have been. They may not realize it, but the Masters do; They measure and register it, and They know those who are ready, in this incarnation, to take the second initiation (most people doing Transmission Meditation have taken the first). This is only possible because of the exigencies of the time which at the same time presents to the aspirant and the disciple an opportunity for service through Transmission Meditation. It cannot be overemphasized how valuable this is proving.

What is being built in the connecting thread, the channel between the different aspects of oneself, is a Path of Return to the Source, the Monad. We are the Monad, which reflects through the soul as the physical-plane personality. We are on the Path of Return, redeeming the matter of our various bodies, physical, astral and mental. That redeemed, spiritualized, matter produces, in the next solar system, matter of a higher rate of vibration. And so the evolution of the body of the Planetary Logos proceeds; we are all involved in that individually and for the planet, for the solar system. That is why we are here. As one grows and evolves one deepens one's consciousness of that reality. The Macrocosm, as we begin to intuit its nature, to experience it through conscious awareness, tells us that that is the reality, and, more and more, we lose the sense of the separate self. It is said: Lose yourself in service. The process by which we do this is the building of the bridge. It results in the creativity of service: creativity is service, service is creativity. It is the nature of the soul in the three worlds to express itself in some form of creative service, and as we do this we lose sense of the separate self. We deepen our experience of the Macrocosm and realize that that and ourselves are one. That is the growing experience of the man or woman who builds the Bridge, who creates that unity with the soul. Then the soul becomes in a singular life a reality. Beyond all controversy, all gainsaying, we know that we are the soul.

It is not simply a theoretical or intellectual idea, we know it as part of our being, and we know eventually that the soul itself is a light within an even greater light, a fire within an even greater fire. That fire has consciousness -- that is the nature of the soul, and the person making contact with the soul eventually realizes that it is a fire within a greater consuming fire, which is Deity itself. It says in the Bible: “God is a consuming fire”. That is the reality.

The soul is a great, fiery vortex of forces which are reflected on the lower planes as the man or woman in incarnation. That is what we are: a reflection of these fiery forces, and the bridge that we build -- the Antahkarana -- back to the soul and eventually back to the Monad is the path by which these forces become available to us. They stimulate the mind, the intuition and the creative will, and our life as initiates, knowing initiates, in the process of life, takes place.

“It is the nature of the soul in the three worlds to express itself in some form of creative service, and as we do this we lose sense of the separate self.”

More details about the  the Antahkarana may be found inMaitreya's Mission, Vol. III, by Benjamin Creme, pages 448-484.

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Source: http://www.shareintl.org/archives/AgelessWisdom/aw_bcantahkarana.htm

Building the Rainbow Bridge

IN THE BEGINNING

We all know by now we have to build the Antahkarana [the bridge between personality soul and spirit], but why and how did it all start? Why do we have to work so hard at something that is supposed to happen naturally? I came across the following information that will explain parts of the questions that come up in our minds:

Let us look again at humanity’s place in the scheme of things, in order to clearly ascertain his Purpose and the violation of that Purpose. Humanity, as we have said many times, is the Planetary throat centre, the centre through which the Logoic Word sounds forth. That word (the Soul and later the Monad on its own plane) is creative. It creates the forms within which our God shall appear.

Looking at it from another perspective, we see humanity as the brain of the Logos. Each human being is, then, a brain cell within the One Life. The Logos, or directing will, transfers His Purpose and Plan, via the heart of His Being, the Hierarchy, into this brain for condensation into form. Humanity then takes into itself that Purpose and Plan, recreates it into form, and gives it appearance in the Light of Day.

During the Atlantean period when all human beings were conscious magicians according to Plan, humanity, for an inexplicable reason (except that it be karmic), denied the Logoic Plan for one of its own. That is, men conceived and created according to their own separative purposes. In so doing, the economy of the Planetary Life was misused, the relationship of Spirit, matter, and consciousness altered, and the antahkarana between man and his own Soul broken. As the word sounded in time and space, it took on a destructive tone because it was sounded in violation of the One Life.

The breaking of the antahkarana resulted in an upheaval within the consciousness of the Planetary Life, and man set himself adrift from the Logoic Purpose which had brought him into being, i.e., he broke off his own relationship with God.

It was not a vengeful God who denied man his Divine heritage. It was man himself who destroyed his own awareness of himself as Soul, and consequently shut the door upon his creative genius.

The outer results of this act came in the form of a cataclysm which wiped out the Atlantean civilization. The violent changing of the earth’s surfaces, the inundation of heavily populated areas with water, and the gradual decline of man’s knowledge of the creative process, were but outer reflections of the terrible upheaval taking place within the consciousness of the Planet itself.

Since that time, humanity has gradually brought itself back to the reappearing cycle of opportunity. The antahkarana, not only between man and his Soul, but between the Hierarchy and humanity, is being reconstructed by those disciples in the world who consciously serve the Plan. That Plan, which has to do with man as a creator, is once again being focussed downward, and the redemption of both consciousness and substance for Logoic Purpose becomes possible.

Thus, the unveiling of the mysteries proceeds according to law, but with this specific warning: Let your creative genius be directed to the working out of God’s Plan on earth.

It is suggested that the sincere student take The Great Invocation into meditation for further clarification in the light of the above.

‘‘From the point of Light within the mind of God

Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.

Let Light descend on earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God

Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men 

May Christ return to earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known

Let Purpose guide the little wills of men,

The Purpose which the Master Knows and serves.’’

These first three stanzas have to do with the reconstruction of that triple strand of Light which is called the antahkarana. They refer, also, to the proper equation of spirit, matter, and consciousness, which since Atlantis has been out of balance.

‘‘From the centre which we call the race of men

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light, and Love, and Power restore the Plan

on earth.’’

These last are self-explanatory in the consciousness of one who has intuited the Truth from the above text. [Lucille Cedercrans, Master R. [R./Lucille] ]

So, now we know! It also ties together our theme, the relationship between the Soul-infused Personality, Discipleship and the project of building the Antahkarana. It is also clear that the greatest tool that the Disciple has in his aid is the Sword of God, THE GREAT INVOCATION. Every time he uses it he is not only helping to build and repair the World Antahkarana but also his own, the link between his Soul-infused Personality, the Soul Itself and the Spiritual Triad. We broke it, now as Disciples, we have to repair it as part of our evolutionary development.

Master DK made the following comment about the antahkarana:

The Science of the Antahkarana deals with the threefold thread which connects:

a. The monad, the soul and the personality, linking all three periodical vehicles and unifying all seven principles.

b. The triple personality and its environment in the three worlds of human enterprise, and later in the other two worlds (making five) of superhuman expression.

c. The consciously creative man and the world of ideas.  These he must contact and express through creative work, thus bridging with the light:

1.                   Between the world of souls and the world of phenomena. 

2.                   Between the realm of subjective beauty and reality and the outer tangible world of nature.

3.                   Between himself and others.

4.                   Between group and group.

5.                   Later, when the divine Plan has become a reality to him, between the fourth kingdom (the human) and the fifth kingdom (the Kingdom of God).

6.                   Finally, between humanity and the Hierarchy.

We can see from the above that it involves all the aspects of our live and spiritual unfoldment. He goes on and said the following:

The Science of the Antahkarana is the science of the triple thread which exists from the very beginning of time and links individual man with his monadic source.  The recognition of this thread and its use, consciously, as the Path and the means of ever expanding contacts, comes relatively late in the evolutionary process.  The goal of all aspirants and disciples is to become aware of this stream of energy in its various diversifications and consciously to employ these energies in two ways: interiorly in self-unfoldment, and in the service of the plan for humanity.

I have tried to summarise the whole proses in the following poem: 

THE ANTAHKARANA      [The Lost Word - OM, or The Rainbow Bridge]

The antahkarana is the true science of the mind 

Where you leaf all your previous achievements behind

And utilise mental substance for the bridging between the personality triad

And soul, and then between soul-infused personality, and the spiritual triad

First, the life thread comes directly from the Monad or the One

To be anchored in the heart, during incarnation, for everyone 

It is the seat of life

During the time you are alive

Then, directly from the soul, comes the consciousness thread

Which, during incarnation, is anchored in the head 

It is the seat of consciousness

That brings about your responsiveness 

Thirdly, and initiated and constructed by the personality

And anchored in the throat, is the thread of creative activity

It is the seat of creativity, created through our conceptions

That now gives life and expression to our creations

The antahkarana [OM] is a fusion and combination to perfection

Of these three threads [the sutratma - AUM ] and their projection

Into the higher mental plane, until the abstract mind 

Is related by a triple cable to the concrete mind

On the first great union on the path to reality

A rhythm [OM] is set up between Soul and Personality

This first step to liberation

Is completed at the third initiation

Thus the energies that animate the soul and the personality 

Are blended and fused into one, soul-infused personality

The three aspects of the soul in the spiritual world

And the three worlds of the personality become one world

After the bridging of the personality and the soul

Comes the bridging of the spiritual triad and the soul 

This personality, soul and spirit combination 

Is completed at the fourth initiation

Before a man can tread the path himself

He has to become that path itself

By using these forces for self-unfoldment and unity       

And in the service of the Plan for humanity 

By acting as if this stages have already been achieved

A shortcut to creating the antahkarana can be perceived 

SOUL-INFUSED PERASSONALITY AND DISCIPLESHIP

The Dual Life of the Disciple      

In connection with the dual life of the disciple, the factors involved are the threefold personality (with an awakening or onlooking consciousness centred or focussed in the brain), the soul which seems at first the ultimate goal of attainment but is later seen as simply a system or collection of fusing spiritual attributes, and the lowest aspect of the Spiritual Triad, the abstract mind.  The disciple feels that, if he can attain the immediate and fused consciousness of the three, he has attained; he realises also that this involves the construction of the antahkarana.  All these factors, for one who has just been admitted to the Path of Discipleship and who is just finding his place within an Ashram, seem an adequately difficult undertaking and one that engrosses every power which he possesses.

This, for the time being, is true and—until the third initiation—these objectives, their conscious fusion, plus a recognition of the divine planes of awareness to which they all admit him, indicate the disciple's task and keep him fully occupied.  To the recognitions entailed he has to add a growing capacity to work on the levels of consciousness involved, remembering always that a plane and a state of consciousness are synonymous terms, and that he is making progress, becoming aware, building the antahkarana, training as a hierarchical worker within an Ashram, familiarising himself with new and opening spiritual environments, widening his horizon, stabilising himself upon the Path, and living upon the physical plane the life of an intelligent man within the world of men.  He is demonstrating also no freakish peculiarities, but appears as a man of goodwill, of benevolent intelligence, of unalterable goodness, and of stern and unchangeable spiritual purpose.  Is that enough of a goal for a disciple?  Does it seem well-nigh impossible of accomplishment?  Can you undertake such a proposition and make good your undertaking?

Most assuredly you can, for the factor of time enters in and the disciple is free to submit to its conditioning, particularly in the early stages of his discipleship; this he usually does at first, knowing nothing else to do, but the speed or the sattvic or rhythmic nature of the spiritual life eventually changes this attitude; he then works with no true consciousness of time except as it affects other people and his associates upon the physical plane.

At first, his registration of that which is sensed or seen upon the subtler planes or the soul plane is slow; it takes time for contacts and for knowledge gained to penetrate from the higher levels to his physical brain.  This fact (when he discovers it) tends to upset his time-awareness, and the first step is therefore taken on the path of timelessness, speaking symbolically.  He gains also the capacity to work with greater rapidity and mental coordination than does the average intelligent man; in this way he learns the limitations of time as a brain condition, and learns also how to offset it and to work in such a way that he does more within a set time limit than is possible to the average man, no matter how ardently he may pursue the effort.  The overcoming of time and the demonstration of spiritual speed are indications that the dual life of discipleship is superseding the integrated life of the personality, though leading in its turn to a still greater synthesis and higher integration.

The dual life which all disciples lead produces also a rapidity of mental interpretation which is essential to the sane registration of the phenomenal life of the various higher planes and states of consciousness.  Forget not that all our planes are subplanes of the cosmic physical plane, and are therefore phenomenal in nature.  As they are contacted and recorded and the knowledge is transmitted to the physical brain, via the mind, there must always accompany them a true interpretation and a correct recognition of "things as they are."  It is here that the non-disciple and the psychic go wrong, for their interpretation is almost always fundamentally in error, and it takes time (coming within that cycle of limitation) intelligently to interpret and truly register what the perceiving consciousness has contacted.  When the time factor no longer controls, the interpretations registered by the brain are infallibly correct.  I have here given you a major piece of information.

You will see, therefore, that in the earlier initiatory process, the factor of time is noted by the initiate and also by the presenting Masters.  An instance of a slow permeation of information from the plane of initiation to the physical brain can be seen in the fact that very few aspirants and disciples register the fact that they have already taken the first initiation, the birth of the Christ in the cave of the heart.  That they have taken it is evidenced by their deliberate treading of the Way, by their love of the Christ—no matter by what name they may call Him—and by their effort to serve and help their fellowmen; they are still, however, surprised when told that the first initiation lies behind them.  This is due entirely to the factor of time, leading to their inability to "bring through" past events with accuracy, by a false humility as well (inculcated by the Christian Church, as it attempts to keep people subjugated by the sin idea), and by the intensely forward-looking anticipatory consciousness of the average aspirant.  When a true perspective and a balanced point of view have been attained, and some awareness of the Eternal Now is beginning to penetrate into their understanding, then the past, the present and the future will be lost to sight in the consciousness of the inclusiveness of the moment that IS; then the limitations of time will be ending and the Law of Karma will be negated; it is at present so closely related to past and future.  The dual life of the disciple will then be ended, giving place to the cosmic dualism of the Master.  The Master is free from the limitations of time, though not of space, because space is an eternal Entity.

You will see, therefore, the great necessity for a constant emphasis, at this stage in the training of the average aspirant, on the need for alignment, or for the creation of a channel of direct relation from the brain to the desired point of contact.  To this trained alignment must eventually be added the building of the antahkarana and its subsequent use in a growing system of alignments.  The antahkarana must be completed and direct contact must be established with the Spiritual Triad by the time the third initiation has been taken.  Then follows the fourth initiation with its destruction of the egoic, causal or soul body, owing to the complete fusion of soul and personality.  The dual life of the disciple ends

USE OF IMAGINATION                [in building the antahkarana]

Before we get to the actual building of the Antahkarana, let us take a look at the roll the imagination plays in the proses.  

There is no initiation for the disciple until he has begun consciously to build the antahkarana, thus bringing the Spiritual Triad and the mind as the highest aspect in the three worlds into a close relationship; later, he brings his physical brain into a position of a recording agent upon the physical plane, thus again demonstrating a clear alignment and a direct channel from the Spiritual Triad straight through to the brain via the antahkarana which has linked the higher mind and the lower.

This involves much work, much interpretive capacity and much power to visualise.  I am choosing my words with care.  This visualisation is not necessarily concerned with form and with concrete mental presentations; it is concerned with a pictorial and symbolic sensitivity which expresses interpretively the spiritual understanding, conveyed by the awakening intuition—the agent of the Spiritual Triad.  The meaning of this becomes clearer as the work proceeds.  It is difficult for the man who is beginning the work of constructing the antahkarana to grasp the meaning of visualisation as it is seen to be related to a growing responsiveness to that which the ashramic group conveys to him, to his emerging vision of the divine Plan as it exists in reality, and to that which is committed to him as the effect or the result of each successive initiation.  I prefer the word "effect" to the word "result," for the initiate increasingly works consciously with the Law of Cause and Effect on planes other than the physical.  We use the word "result" to express the consequences of that great cosmic Law as they demonstrate in the three worlds of human evolution.

It is in connection with this effort that he discovers the value, uses and purpose of the creative imagination.  This creative imagination is all that remains to him eventually of the active and intensely powerful astral life which he has lived for so many lives; as evolution proceeds, his astral body becomes a mechanism of transformation, desire being transformed into aspiration and aspiration itself being transformed into a growing and expressive intuitive faculty.  The reality of this process is demonstrated in the emergence of that basic quality which has always been inherent in desire itself:  the imaginative quality of the soul, implementing desire and steadily becoming a higher creative faculty as desire shifts into ever higher states and leads to ever higher realisations.  This faculty eventually invokes the energies of the mind, and the mind, plus the imagination, becomes in time a great invocative and creative agent.  It is thus that the Spiritual Triad is brought into rapport with the threefold personality.

I have told you in earlier writings that basically the astral plane is non-existent as a part of the divine Plan; it is fundamentally the product of glamour, of kama-manas—a glamour which humanity itself has created and in which it has lived practically entirely since early Atlantean days.  The effect of an increasing soul contact has not simply been to dispel the mists of glamour, but it has also served to consolidate and to bring into effective use, therefore, the imagination with its overwhelmingly powerful creative faculty.  This creative energy, when implemented by an illumined mind (with its thoughtform making ability), is then wielded by the disciple in order to make contacts higher than with the soul, and to bring into symbolic form that of which he becomes aware through the medium of a line of energy—the antahkarana—which he is steadily and scientifically creating.

It might be said (equally symbolically) that at each initiation he tests the connecting bridge and discovers gradually the soundness of that which he has created under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad and with the aid of the three aspects of his mind (the abstract mind, the soul or the Son of Mind, and the lower concrete mind), combined with the intelligent cooperation of his soul-infused personality.  In the early stages of his invocative work, the instrument used is the creative imagination.  This enables him at the very beginning to act as if he were capable of thus creating; then, when the as if imaginative consciousness is no longer useful, he becomes consciously aware of that which he has—with hope and spiritual expectancy—sought to create; he discovers this as an existent fact and knows past all controversy that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

A meditation to build the Antahkarana

A simple way to build the Antahkarana for beginners is this meditation: Sit relaxed or lie down, become still and quiet. Close your ears with one finger of each hand. The sound you will hear [sing like a radio off the station] is the vibration of the Antahkarana [OM]. Concentrate on your heart and send that love feeling across the sound vibration to your soul [or God]. If you cannot do it in the beginning, just concentrate on the sound, your heart and your soul [or God] alternately. You can do that as long as you like every day. Even at night when going to bed, good way to fall asleep.

Without the heart it will be impossible to build the Antahkarana [a hint]. This is just my simple method but we have to know what it is all about and why we are doing the necessary steps. We need to know the science behind it [another hint] to make the imagination work. To help us, the Tibetan Master had the following information for us.

THE PROJECT OF BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA

Let us now consider, step by step this science which is already proving a useful source of experiment and testing.

The human soul (in contradistinction to the soul as it functions in its own kingdom, free from the limitations of human life) is imprisoned and subject to the control of the lower three energies for the major part of its experience.  Then, upon the Path of Probation, the dual energy of soul begins to be increasingly active, and the man seeks to use his mind consciously, and to express love-wisdom on the physical plane.  This is a simple statement of the objective of all aspirants.  When the five energies are beginning to be used, consciously and wisely in service, a rhythm is then set up between the Personality and the Soul.  It is as if a magnetic field were then established and these two vibrating and magnetic units, or grouped energies, swung into each other's field of influence.  This happens only occasionally and rarely in the early stages; later it occurs more constantly, and thus a path of contact is established which eventually becomes the line of least resistance, "the way of familiar approach," as it is sometimes called.  Thus is the first half of the "bridge," the antahkarana, constructed.  By the time the third initiation is completed, this Way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under lower worlds into the realms of light."

Thus the two are one, and the first great union upon the Path of Return is completed.  A second stage of the Way has then to be trodden, leading to a second union of still further importance in that it leads to complete liberation from the three worlds.  It must be remembered that the soul, in its turn, is a union of three energies of which the lower three are the reflection.  It is a synthesis of the energy of Life itself (which demonstrates as the life-principle within the world of forms), of the energy of the intuition or spiritual love-wisdom or understanding (this demonstrates as sensitivity and feeling in the astral body), and spiritual mind, whose reflection in the lower nature is the mind or the principle of intelligence in the form world.  In these three we have the atma-buddhi-manas of the theosophical literature—that higher triplicity which is reflected in the lower three, and which focusses through the soul body on the higher levels of the mental plane before being precipitated into incarnation—as it is esoterically called.

Modernising the concept, we might say that the energies which animate the physical body and the intelligent life of the atom, the sensitive emotional states, and the intelligent mind, have eventually to be blended with and transmuted into the energies which animate the soul.  These are the spiritual mind, conveying illumination; the intuitive nature, conferring spiritual perception; and divine livingness.

After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection.  The three worlds of the Soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, regarding one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity.  Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.

How is this bridging antahkarana to be built? 

It is with the work of the "bridge-builders" that we are concerned.  First, let me assure you that the real building of the antahkarana takes place only when the disciple is beginning to be definitely focussed upon mental levels, and when therefore his mind is intelligently and consciously functioning.  He must begin at this stage to have some more exact idea than has hitherto been the case as to the distinctions existing between the thinker, the apparatus of thought, and thought itself, beginning with its dual esoteric function which is:

1.       The recognition and receptivity to IDEAS.

2.       The creative faculty of conscious thoughtform building.

This necessarily involves a strong mental attitude and reorientation of the mind to reality. As the disciple begins to focus himself on the mental plane (and this is the prime intent of the meditation work), he starts working in mental matter and trains himself in the powers and uses of thought.  He achieves a measure of mind control; he can turn the searchlight of the mind in two directions, into the world of human endeavour and into the world of soul activity.  Just as the soul makes a way for itself by projecting itself in a thread or stream of energy into the three worlds, so the disciple begins consciously to project himself into the higher worlds.  His energy goes forth, through the medium of the controlled and directed mind, into the world of the higher spiritual mind and into the realm of the intuition.  A reciprocal activity is thus set up.  This response between the higher and the lower mind is symbolically spoken of in terms of light, and the "lighted way" comes into being between the personality and the spiritual Triad, via the soul body, just as the soul came into definite contact with the brain via the mind.  This "lighted way" is the illumined bridge.  It is built through meditation; it is constructed through the constant effort to draw forth the intuition, through subservience and obedience to the Plan (which begins to be recognised as soon as the intuition and the mind are en rapport), and through a conscious incorporation into the group in service and for purposes of assimilation into the whole.  All these qualities and activities are based upon the foundation of good character and the qualities developed upon the Probationary Path.

The effort to draw forth the intuition requires directed occult (but not aspirational) meditation.  It requires a trained intelligence, so that the line of demarcation between intuitive realisation and the forms of the higher psychism may be clearly seen.  It requires a constant disciplining of the mind, so that it can "hold itself steady in the light," and the development of a cultured right interpretation, so that the intuitive knowledge achieved may then clothe itself in the right thoughtforms.

It might also be stated here that the construction of the bridge whereby the consciousness can function with facility, both in the higher worlds and in the lower, is primarily brought about by a definitely directed life-tendency, which steadily sends the man in the direction of the world of spiritual realities, plus certain movements of planned and carefully timed and directed reorientation or focussing.  In this last process the gain of the past months or years is closely assessed; the effect of that gain upon the daily life and in the bodily mechanism is as carefully studied; and the will-to-live as a spiritual being is brought into the consciousness with a definiteness and a determination that makes for immediate progress.

This building of the antahkarana is most assuredly proceeding in the case of every earnest student.  When the work is carried on intelligently and with full awareness of the desired purpose, and when the aspirant is not only aware of the process but alert and active in its fulfilment, then the work proceeds apace and the bridge is built.

Students should train themselves to distinguish between the sutratma and the antahkarana, between the life thread and the thread of consciousness.  The one thread is the basis of immortality and the other the basis of continuity.  Herein lies a fine distinction for the investigator.  One thread (the sutratma) links and vivifies all forms into one functioning whole, and embodies in itself the will and the purpose of the expressing entity, be it man, God or a crystal.  The other thread (the antahkarana) embodies the response of the consciousness within the form to a steadily expanding range of contacts within the environing whole.  One is the direct stream of life, unbroken and immutable, which can be regarded symbolically as a direct stream of living energy flowing from the centre to the periphery, and from the source to the outer expression, or the phenomenal appearance.  It is the life.  It produces the individual process and the evolutionary unfoldment of all forms.

It is, therefore, the path of life, which reaches from the Monad to the personality, via the soul.  This is the thread soul and it is one and indivisible.  It conveys the energy of life and finds its final anchor in the centre of the human heart and at some central focal point in all forms of divine expression.  Naught is and naught remains but life.  The consciousness thread (antahkarana) is the result of the union of life and substance or of the basic energies which constitute the first differentiation in time and space; this produces something different, which only emerges as a third divine manifestation after the union of the basic dualities has taken place.

The life thread, the silver cord or the sutratma is, as far as man is concerned, dual in nature.  The life thread proper, which is one of the two threads which constitute the sutratma, is anchored in the heart, whilst the other thread, which embodies the principle of consciousness, is anchored in the head.  This you already know, but this I feel the need to constantly reiterate.  In the work of the evolutionary cycle, however, man has to repeat what God has already done.  He must himself create, both in the world of consciousness and of life.  Like a spider, man spins connecting threads, and thus bridges and makes contact with his environment, thereby gaining experience and sustenance.  The spider symbol is often used in the ancient occult books and the scriptures of India in connection with this activity of the human being.  These threads, which man creates, are triple in number, and with the two basic threads which have been created by the soul, constitute the five types of energy which make man a conscious human being.

The triple threads created by man are anchored in the solar plexus, the head and the heart.  When the astral body and the mind nature are beginning to function as a unit, and the soul also is consciously connected (do not forget that it is always unconsciously linked), an extension of this five-fold thread—the basic two and the human three—is carried to the throat centre, and when that occurs man can become a conscious creator on the physical plane.  From these major lines of energy lesser lines can radiate at will.  It is upon this knowledge that all future intelligent psychic unfoldment must be based.

In the above paragraph and its implications you have a brief and inadequate statement as to the Science of the Antahkarana.  I have endeavoured to express this in terms, symbolic if you will, which will convey a general idea to your minds.  We can learn much through the use of the pictorial and visual imagination.  This bridging must take place:

1.       From the physical to the vital or etheric body.  This is really an extension of the life thread between the heart and the spleen.

2.       From the physical and the vital, regarding them as a unity, to the astral or emotional vehicle.  This thread emanates from, or is anchored in, the solar plexus, and is carried upwards, by means of the aspiration, till it anchors itself in the love petals of the egoic Lotus.

3.       From the physical and astral vehicles to the mental body.  One terminus is anchored in the head, and the other in the knowledge petals of the egoic Lotus, being carried forward by an act of the will.

Advanced humanity is in process of linking the three lower aspects, which we call the personality, with the soul itself, through meditation, discipline, service and directed attention.  When this has been accomplished, a definite relation is established between the sacrifice or will petals of the egoic Lotus and the head and heart centres, thus producing a synthesis between consciousness, the soul and the life principle.  The process of establishing this inter-linking and inter-relation, and the strengthening of the bridge thus constructed, goes on until the Third Initiation.  The lines of force are then so inter-related that the soul and its mechanism of expression are a unity.  A higher blending and fusing can then go on.

I can perhaps indicate the nature of this process in the following manner:  I have stated here and elsewhere that the soul anchors itself in the body at two points:

1.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the life or spirit aspect, anchored in the heart.  It uses the blood stream, as is well known, as its distributing agency, and through the medium of the blood, life energy is carried to every part of the mechanism.  This life energy carries the re-generating power and coordinating energy to all the physical organisms and keeps the body "whole."

2.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the consciousness aspect or the faculty of soul knowledge, anchored in the centre of the head.  It controls that response mechanism which we call the brain, and through its medium it directs activity and induces awareness throughout the body by means of the nervous system.

These two energy factors, which are recognised by the human being as knowledge and life, or as intelligence and living energy, are the two poles of his being.  The task ahead of him now is to develop consciously the middle or balancing aspect, which is love or group relationship.  (See Education in the New Age, pages 26-27, 32-33, 92.) [THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS, P434/52-adapted] 

BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA

One of the points which it is essential that students should grasp is the deeply esoteric fact that this antahkarana is built through the medium of a conscious effort within consciousness itself, and not just by attempting to be good, or to express goodwill, or to demonstrate the qualities of unselfishness and high aspiration.  Many esotericists seem to regard the treading of the Path as the conscious effort to overcome the lower nature and to express life in terms of right living and thinking, love and intelligent understanding.  It is all that, but it is something far more.  Good character and good spiritual aspiration are basic essentials.  But these are taken for granted by the Master Who has a disciple under training; their foundation and their recognition and development are the objectives upon the Path of Probation.

But to build the antahkarana is to relate the three divine aspects.  This involves intense mental activity; it necessitates the power to imagine and to visualise, plus a dramatic attempt to build the Lighted Way in mental substance.  This mental substance is—as we have seen—of three qualities or natures, and the bridge of living light is a composite creation, having in it:

1.                   Force, focussed and projected from the fused and blended forces of the personality.

2.                   Energy, drawn from the egoic body by a conscious effort.

3.                   Energy, abstracted from the Spiritual Triad.

It is essentially, however, an activity of the integrated and dedicated personality. Esotericists must not take the position that all they have to do is to await negatively some activity by the soul which will automatically take place after a certain measure of soul contact has been achieved, and that consequently and in time this activity will evoke response [Page 468] both from the personality and the Triad.  This is not the case.  The work of the building of the antahkarana is primarily an activity of the personality, aided by the soul; this in time evokes a reaction from the Triad.  There is far too much inertia demonstrated by aspirants at this time.

Students would do well to consider the building of the antahkarana as an extension in consciousness.  This extension is the first definite effort made upon the Path to bring in the monadic influence with full awareness, and finally directly

 

The Six Stages of the Building Process 

These words cover a building technique or a process of energy manipulation which brings into being a rapport between the Monad and a human being who is aspiring towards full liberation and is treading the Path of Discipleship and Initiation; it can create a channel of light and life between the higher and the lower divine aspects and can produce a bridge between the world of spiritual life and the world of daily physical plane living.  It is a technique for producing the highest form of dualism and of eliminating the threefold expression of divinity, thereby intensifying the divine expression and bringing man nearer to his ultimate goal.  Disciples must always remember that soul consciousness is an intermediate stage.  It is also a process whereby—from the angle of the subhuman kingdoms in nature—humanity itself becomes the divine intermediary and the transmitter of spiritual energy to those lives whose stages of consciousness are below that of self-consciousness.  Humanity becomes to these lives—in their totality—what the Hierarchy is to humanity.  This service only becomes possible when a sufficient number of the human race are distinguished by the knowledge of the higher duality and are increasingly soul-conscious and not just self-conscious.  They can then make this transmission possible, and it is done by means of the antahkarana.

Let us, therefore, take these six aspects of a basic building technique and endeavour to arrive at their occult and creative significance.

1.Intention.

 "raise the consciousness to the head centre"; "hold the consciousness at the highest possible point"; "endeavour to hold the mind steady in the light"; and many similar phrases.  They are all concerned with the task of bringing the disciple to the point where he can achieve the desired point of tension and of energy-focussing.  This will enable him to begin the conscious task of constructing the antahkarana.  It is this thought which really lies unrecognised behind the word "intention," used so often by Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics when preparing candidates for communion.  They indicate a different direction, however, for the orientation they desire is not that towards the Monad or spirit, but towards the soul, in an effort to bring about better character equipment in the personality and an intensification of the mystical approach.

In the "intention" of the disciple who is consciously occupied with the rainbow bridge, the first necessary steps are:

a.                   The achievement of right orientation; and this must take place in two stages:  first, towards the soul as one aspect of the building energy, and second, towards the Triad.

b.                  A mental understanding of the task to be carried out.  This involves the use of the mind in two ways:  responsiveness to buddhic or intuitional impression and an act of the creative imagination.

c.                   A process of energy gathering or of force absorption, in order that the needed energies are confined within a mental ring-pass-not, prior to the later process of visualisation and projection.

d.                  A period of clear thinking anent process and intention, so that the dedicated bridge-builder may clearly perceive what is being done.

e.                  The steady preservation of tension without undue physical strain upon the brain cells.

When this has been accomplished there will be found to be present a focal point of mental energy which previously had been non-existent; the mind will be held steady in the light, and there will also be the alignment of a receptive attentive personality and a soul oriented towards the personality and in a state of constant, directed perception.  I would remind you that the soul (as it lives its own life on its own level of awareness) is not always constantly aware of its shadow, the personality, in the three worlds.  When the antahkarana is being built, this awareness must be present alongside the intention of the personality.

2. Visualisation. 

The creative activity of the imagination is the first organising influence which works upon and within the ring-pass-not of accumulated energies, held in a state of tension by the "intention" of the disciple.  Ponder upon this occult and significant statement.

The creative imagination is in the nature of an active energy, drawn up into relationship with the point of tension; it there and then produces effects in mental substance.  The tension is thereby increased, and the more potent and the clearer the visualisation process, the more beautiful and strong will be the bridge.  Visualisation is the process whereby the creative imagination is rendered active and becomes responsive to and attracted by the point of tension upon the mental plane.

At this stage the disciple is occupied with two energies: one, quiescent and held within a ring-pass-not, but at a point of extreme tension, and the other active, picture-forming, outgoing and responsive to the mind of the bridge-builder.  In this connection it should be remembered that the second aspect of the divine Trinity is the form-building aspect, and thus, under the Law of Analogy, it is the second aspect of the personality and the second aspect of the Spiritual Triad which are becoming creatively active.  The disciple is now proceeding with the second stage of his building work, and so the numerical significance will become apparent to you.  He must work slowly at this point, picturing what he wants to do, why he has to do it, what are the stages of his work, what will be the resultant effects of his planned activity, and what are the materials with which he has to work.  He endeavours to visualise the entire process, and by this means sets up a definite rapport (if successful) between the buddhic intuition and the creative imagination of the astral body. Consequently, you will have at this point:

The buddhic activity of impression.

The tension of the mental vehicle, as it holds the needed energy-substance at the point of projection.

The imaginative processes of the astral body.

When the disciple has trained himself to be consciously aware of the simultaneity of this threefold work, then it goes forward successfully and almost automatically.  This he does through the power of visualisation.  A current of force is set up between these pairs of opposites (astral-buddhic) and—as it passes through the reservoir of force upon the mental plane—it produces an interior activity and an organisation of the substance present.  There then supervenes a steadily mounting potency, until the third stage is reached and the work passes out of the phase of subjectivity into that of objective reality—objective from the standpoint of the spiritual man.

3. Projection. 

This process is a combination of will, further and continued visualisation, and the use of the ray Word of Power.  Up to the present stage in the process, the method for all the seven rays is identical; but at this point there comes a change.  Each disciple, having successfully organised the bridge substance, having brought into activity the will aspect, and being consciously aware of process and performance, proceeds now to move the organised substance forward, so that from the centre of force which he has succeeded in accumulating there appears a line of light-substance or projection.  This is sent forward upon a Word of Power, as in the logoic creative process.  This is in reality a reversal of the process of the Monad when It sent forth the thread of life which finally anchored itself in the soul.  The soul, in reality, came into being through the means of this anchoring; then came the later process, when the soul in its turn sent forth a dual thread which finally found anchorage in the head and the heart of the lower threefold man, the personality. The disciple is focussed in the centre which he has constructed upon the mental plane, and is drawing all his resources (those of the threefold personality and the soul combined) into activity; he now projects a line towards the Monad.

It is along this line that the final withdrawal of the forces takes place, the forces which—upon the downward way or the involutionary path—focussed themselves in the personality and the soul.  The antahkarana per se, completed by the bridge built by the disciple, is the final medium of abstraction or of the great withdrawal.  It is with the antahkarana that the initiate is concerned in the fourth initiation, called sometimes the Great Renunciation—the renunciation or the withdrawal from form life, both personal and egoic.  After this initiation neither of these aspects can hold the Monad any more. The "veil of the Temple" is rent in twain from the top to the bottom—that veil which separated the Outer Court (the personality life) from the Holy Place (the soul) and from the Holy of Holies (the Monad) in the Temple at Jerusalem.  The implications and the analogies will necessarily be clear to you.

4. Invocation and Evocation. 

The three preceding stages mark, in reality, the three stages of personality work.  The remaining three are expressions of response from higher levels of the spiritual life; beyond briefly indicating them, there is very little that I can put into words.  The task of Invocation, based on Intention, Visualisation and Projection, has been carefully undertaken by the disciple and he has at least some measure of clear perception as to the work he has done by the dual means of spiritual living and scientific, technical, occult work.  He is therefore himself invocative.  His life effect is registered upon the higher levels of consciousness and he is recognised as "a point of invocative tension."  This tension and this reservoir of living energy, which is the disciple himself, is set in motion by projected thought, the use of the will and a sounded Word or Phrase of Power.

The result is that his developed potency and its radius of influence are now sufficiently strong to call out a response from the Spiritual Triad.  There is then a going forth towards the aspect of the antahkarana, constructed by the disciple, along which the life of soul and body can travel.  The Father (Monad), working through the thread, now goes forth to meet the Son (the soul, enriched by the experience of personality life in the three worlds), and from the higher levels a line of responsive projection of energy is sent forth which will eventually make contact with the lower projection.  Thus the antahkarana is built.  The tension of the lower evokes the attention of the higher.

Finally, contact between that which the Monad projects and that which the disciple is projecting is made, and then come the fifth and sixth stages.

5 and 6.  Stabilisation and Resurrection.

 The bridge is now built.  Thin and tenuous may be its strands at the beginning, but time and active understanding will slowly weave thread after thread until the bridge stands finished, stable and strong and capable of being used.  It must perforce be used, because there is now no other medium of intercourse between the initiate and the One Whom he now knows to be himself.  He ascends in full consciousness into the sphere of monadic life; he is resurrected from the dark cave of the personality life into the blazing light of divinity; he is no longer only a part of humanity and a member also of the Hierarchy, but he belongs to the great company of Those Whose will is consciously divine and Who are the Custodians of the Plan.  They are responsive to impression from Shamballa and are under the direction of the Heads of the Hierarchy.

The "freedom of the three Centres" is Theirs.  They can express at will the triple energy of Humanity, the dual energy of the Hierarchy, and the one energy of Shamballa.

Such, my brothers, is the goal of the disciple as he begins to work at the building of the antahkarana.  Reflect upon these matters and proceed with the work.

[Taken from, THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS, pp435-95.]

THE SCIENCE OF THE ANTAHKARANA

AS A PREPARATION for what students need to master, I would like to emphasise certain points by tabulating the information already given.  The Science of the Antahkarana is not an easy one to learn because of the following points.  These emphasised points must be accepted by students as a working hypothesis prior to all attempted work:

1. The Science of the Antahkarana is connected with the entire problem of energy, but peculiarly with the energy handled by the individual and with the forces by which the individual relates himself to other individuals or to groups. For the sake of clarity, we will give the name of

a.       ENERGY: to all forces pouring into the individual form from whatever direction and source.  To these major energies, the names of "sutratma" or "life thread" or "silver cord" have frequently been given.

b.      FORCE: to all the energies which—after due manipulation and concentration—are projected by the individual or group in any direction and with many possible motives, some good and many selfish.

2. The Science of the Antahkarana, technically speaking and for group purpose, is especially the science of light manifestation with its results of revelation and consequent changes.  It should be remembered that:

a.       Light is substantial, and from the angle of the spirit is a sublimation or higher form of material matter.

b.      Light is also the quality or major characteristic of the soul in its own realm, and of the etheric body (a reflection of the soul eventually) in the three worlds of human evolution.

c.       The object of the science with which we are dealing is to fuse the lower and the upper lights, so that one light shines forth in physical manifestation and a synthesis of light is consequently brought about.

d.      Technically speaking, two light bodies exist—the vital or etheric body and the soul vehicle.  One is the result of aeons of incarnating life and becomes in time a powerful repository of energies gathered out of a wide range of contacts, though conditioned by the ray type in its three aspects.  The etheric body exists and is today functioning powerfully.  The soul body is in process of being slowly constructed, and is that "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" to which the New Testament refers (II Cor. 5: l). It is interesting to note that the Old Testament refers to the etheric body (Ecc. 12:6-7) and its construction, and the New Testament deals with the building of the spiritual body.

3. The Science of the Antahkarana must be studied in three ways:

a.       Concretely and in relation to the etheric body, which is a substantial, tangible form, and is being so considered (though not as yet universally admitted) by modern science.

b.      Egoically and in relation to the soul and to the "light body" through which the spiritual man must function in the world of souls, and which—when blended and fused with the etheric body—produces the manifestation of divinity upon earth to a greater or lesser degree, according to the extent of fusion and the conscious recognition by the individual of the attained fusion.

c.       Abstractly and in relation to knowledge-wisdom, which are two words used in relation to force and energy, and their use by the individual in his environment and contacts.  Ponder on these words.  You will realise how necessary it is that there should be some capacity for abstract thinking before the true implications of this new science can be understood.

4. The Science of the Antahkarana is concerned with the problem of the continuity of consciousness and with the problem of life and death.  Keep these two themes clearly in your mind for they are basic and important.

5. The Science of the Antahkarana deals with the threefold thread which connects:

a.       The monad, the soul and the personality, linking all three periodical vehicles and unifying all seven principles.

b.      The triple personality and its environment in the three worlds of human enterprise, and later in the other two worlds (making five) of superhuman expression.

c.       The consciously creative man and the world of ideas.  These he must contact and express through creative work, thus bridging with the light:

1.       Between the world of souls and the world of phenomena.

2.       Between the realm of subjective beauty and reality and the outer tangible world of nature.

3.       Between himself and others.

4.       Between group and group.

5.       Later, when the divine Plan has become a reality to him, between the fourth kingdom (the human) and the fifth kingdom (the Kingdom of God).

6.       Finally, between humanity and the Hierarchy.

6. The Science of the Antahkarana is the science of the triple thread which exists from the very beginning of time and links individual man with his monadic source.  The recognition of this thread and its use, consciously, as the Path and the means of ever expanding contacts, comes relatively late in the evolutionary process.  The goal of all aspirants and disciples is to become aware of this stream of energy in its various diversifications and consciously to employ these energies in two ways: interiorly in self-unfoldment, and in the service of the plan for humanity.

7. The Science of the Antahkarana teaches certain fundamental truths about the thread, some of which might be enumerated as follows:

a.       The life thread comes directly from the monad or the ONE.  This thread is anchored in the heart during incarnation.  There is the seat of life.

b.      The consciousness thread comes directly from the soul.  It is anchored in the head.  There is the seat of consciousness.

The thread of creative activity is initiated and constructed by the human being.  It is anchored, when sufficiently constructed, in the throat.  This thread is an extension or synthesis of the two basic threads.

The creative thread itself is triple in nature.  It is slowly constructed down the ages by the man.  As he becomes truly alive, from the standpoint of intelligent awareness and the desire fully to express himself, the process is materially hastened. These three self-created lesser threads which constitute the third thread of the antahkarana extend eventually:

1.       From the physical body to the etheric body, passing from the heart to the spleen, and thence to the body of prana, the vital or etheric body, unites with force from the egoic will petals.

2.       From the etheric body to the astral body.  This thread passes from the solar plexus to the heart and from thence to the astral body, picking up the energy of the thread mentioned above, unites with force the love petals.

3.       From the astral body to the mental vehicle.  This thread passes from the ajna centre to the head centre and from thence to the mind body, picking up the energy of the other two threads mentioned above, unites with the force from the knowledge petals.

Though these three energies are woven into one thread finally, yet they remain distinct.  It should be borne in mind that the soul body is constructed of pure white light, whilst the light out of which the etheric body is made is golden.

8. The Science of the Antahkarana deals, therefore, with the entire incoming system of energy, with the processes of usage and transformation and fusion.  It deals also with the outgoing energies and their relationship to the environment and is the basis of the science of the force centres.  The incoming and the outgoing energies constitute finally two great stations of energy, one characterised by power and the other by love, and all directed to the illumination of the individual and of humanity as a whole, through the medium of the Hierarchy composed of individuals.  This is basically the Science of the Path.

The antahkarana, therefore, is the thread of consciousness, of intelligence, and the responsive agent in all sentient reactions.  The interesting point to bear in mind, and where we must now lay the emphasis, is that this thread of consciousness is evolved by the soul and not by the monad.  The World Soul pours its gossamer thread of sentient consciousness into all forms, into all body cells and into all atoms.  The human soul, the solar angel, repeats the process in relation to its shadow and reflection, the personality. This is part of the creative work of the soul.  But, in its turn, the human being has also to become creative in the mental sense of the term and must repeat the process, for in all points the microcosm resembles the macrocosm.  Therefore, through the life thread, the soul creates and reproduces a personality through which to function.  Then through the building of the antahkarana, the soul first of all develops sentiency down upon the physical plane, and later bridges the gap—through meditation and service—between the three mental aspects.  It thus completes the creation of the path of return to the Centre, which must parallel the path of outgoing. [EDUCATION IN THE NEW AGE, P143/48]

*******

WORK AS WORLD DISCIPLE AND BRIDGE BUILDER

This year the keynote of the annual Arcane School conference is “Let the ‘bridge of souls and servers’ link the subjective and objective worlds, thus aiding the Christ in His work”. 

As we have seen, part of the Christ’s  work is to re-establishing the Mysteries on earth and we, as Soul-infused Personalities and Disciples form part of this ‘bridge of souls and servers’ whose work it is to build this ‘link’ or bridge between matter and spirit for humanity as a whole. This is what our evolution is all about.

Christine Morgan had the following to say in her opening address:

THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION – THE UNITED ANTAHKARANA OF HUMANITY

The “united antahkarana of humanity” is a technical phrase that expresses a deep concept, but such esoteric terms can sometimes be taken for granted, without really thinking them through to the grassroots level. And of course, thinking them through until they become accessible to those not involved in esotericism is a vital part of our work; it helps to anchor truth in the lower aspects of the mind and to create the foundation for the bridge of consciousness between humanity and the Hierarchy.

Describing the united antahkarana of humanity as “The science of social evolution” is therefore a good starting point for anyone interested in exploring this concept. That’s not to say it’s easy though for it requires in-depth reflection on the evolution of human consciousness from the far distant past [from Atlantis? - Edward] to the present – a consideration of the revolutionary ideas, movements and trends that have shaped the course of societies down the ages and the guiding principles and morals on which present societies are functioning. These principles and morals clearly indicate a society’s current stage of conscious unfoldment, and, once recognised, can form the basis for further exploration. By using reason and imagination, possible future social development can be projected. The result is an unfoldment lineage of social history into a vision of the future – a vision that can then be regularly energised to stimulate and direct the collective consciousness of humanity.

[I can see that our evolution since Atlantis has basically been about preparing humanity to be able to repair the connections or the antahkarana that we lost so long ago. Once we have achieved that, then we can go safely on and liberate ourselves and the planet as a whole. Christine explained further how we should do this through the process of invocation and evocation:]

The Tibetan tells us that we should treat the teachings as a working hypothesis to be corroborated or not by our own experience, intuition and reason. And we know that the bridge between the spiritual and human kingdoms is not built by the passive acceptance of a spiritual teaching, but by its stimulation of our own creative thinking and reasoning powers. Similarly, with the united antahkarana of humanity, this bridge to the future is built through a downward projection of qualified information by the society of illumined minds and the projection upwards of reason and imagination by the society of enquiring intelligences.

This exchange of projections is otherwise known as the science of invocation and evocation and it brings about a convergence of the human and superhuman kingdoms. It is an exchange of energetic, qualified force in the body of the Logos and is also mutually nourishing, with the human kingdom being fed by the descent of abstract ideas and the Hierarchy being nourished by the ascent of intelligent enquiry prompted by a love of humanity. In this connection, it is interesting to recall that the sixth rule for group initiation states that the fifth kingdom of nature [the Hierarchy] “feeds on the fourth” [humanity]. This sounds a little like spiritual vampirism, and in a way it is so, for we know that on an individual level, the soul abstracts the good out of each personal life and builds it into its own body of manifestation on soul levels, beautifying and expanding it.

On a larger scale, human intelligence qualified by selfless love, carries the redeemed essence of matter inwards and upwards to build into the already rarefied substance of the higher spiritual planes as added quality. The Divine Plan involves the descent of the human monads to more material kingdoms of nature to stimulate, purify and transform the matter of which they are composed into a blazing fire that can be carried back home again to deepen the substantiality of the original abode in some unimaginable way. While the lower planes of the system are seeking refinement, the higher planes are seeking added substantiality, though not, of course, in the superficial sense of that term, but in a qualitative sense.

So bearing this larger picture of the scheme of evolution in mind, how is the bridge building between the higher and lower kingdoms proceeding? Fortunately, we live in a time when conclusions are somewhat easier to arrive at than in the past, for a large part of humanity’s mental and emotional state is clearly displayed on the worldwide web. At its worst, the web displays undeniably shocking aspects of human nature, but at least this clearly shows humanity’s shadow side and reveals the extent of the work to be done. And as for the Internet at its best, we are provided with an encouraging glimpse of the noble potential of human beings, of beautiful and creative thinking based on sacrificial love. The rapid communication system, “the light and sound waves of the air, which underlie all human and planetary relationship and evolution” are an integral part of our civilisation today. They have, in short, helped to revolutionise societies and drive human aspiration towards greater freedom of expression, and this includes greater democratic freedoms and more equitable sharing. People are becoming more globally aware in their thinking, transcending the limits of their physical location and becoming empathetic with the concerns of societies other than their own. So we see the Internet steadily fulfilling its potential to level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots through the sharing of information and an integrated world mind is slowly but surely emerging from the chaos of these turbulent times.

A clear and shining example of this is the fact that today, we can learn from top lecturers and educational institutions around the world and often, for free; we can, for example, access the wonderful lectures of Harvard professor of political philosophy, Michael Sandel. He addresses the great moral issues of today, stimulating our ability to apply reason and imagination to find solutions to the problems of humanity with the assistance of the rich legacy of philosophical thought bequeathed to us by the great minds of the ages. Such intellectual sharing across the Web is definitely helping to develop the mental power to discriminate increasingly subtle differences between right and wrong and between greater and lesser principles at work in the evolution of societies around the world.

This is just one example in the field of political philosophy; the emergence of the WWW has resulted in instant access to all manner of human thinking and as a result, people the world over are able to resonate to ideas across many areas of thought: politics, religion, philosophy, the arts, and  culture, reveals the social development of the multitude of human communities around the world taking place through reasoned discussion on the problems challenges that confront them.

This process is steadily organising and integrating the separate forces of the human kingdom into one united organism. For we can imagine the human kingdom as a network of forces and where lines of force intersect and cross one another through international affairs, business and general communication, a junction is created similar to an etheric centre in the human body. Furthermore, we can imagine these junctions becoming increasingly magnetic and invocative as social cohesion is demonstrated through cooperative, creative work, based on common values, laws and right conduct. And just as the chakras substand the organs of the physical body and start to turn in upon themselves in a fourth dimensional way as a person becomes reoriented to the higher community spirit, so too do the subjective force centres that substand societies and communities as a whole when enough people of goodwill reside within them.

And, because a society naturally interacts with the lower kingdoms of nature just by going about its usual activities, threads of light are also anchored or rooted there too. A communal bridge of consciousness then stretches from the lowest kingdoms through the human and up towards the higher, spiritual kingdoms. We can visualise this happening an all societies worldwide – all these centres in humanity starting to turn in upon themselves, rapidly revolving, while simultaneously connecting to all other centres, offsetting the dense form nature and drawing the whole creation inwards towards the divine.

One positive sign that this is taking place subjectively is the occurrence of numerous world conferences and councils currently being held all over the world – representatives of the people coming together in order to tackle the big social problems that face the world today. Their collective voice may or may not directly produce outcomes of a practical nature, but the intention and the willing efforts to search for solutions are continually feeding lines of lighted energy into the problems of humanity, and this light is aligning and integrating their forces. At some time, humanity will be achieved with the appearance of even greater centres of light in the body of humanity.

It’s fair to say that our global challenges are speeding up social evolution beyond measure and we see evidence everywhere that confirms Alice Bailey’s definition of evolution as “the unfolding of a continually increasing power to respond”. The internet and rapid communication systems are tools in this process, highlighting and amplifying the “crises of ideologies” and evoking a rapid response from people of goodwill as well as stimulating a wealth of new ideas.

It’s the magnitude of these crises in all departments of human expression that is causing humanity to spiral forward to tough solutions and ideas – as though each crisis were a pocket of energy holding within it higher values and ideals. And as this occurs, the true meaning of the word “Love” and the law of attraction is dawning, as many people are drawn to distribute knowledge, resources, time and energy to those in need. Such a positive response to need is a demonstration of group love and there is the beginning of the ability to create, build and vibrate in greater synthesis. Many people today have the power to focus attention upon “that which can serve humanity” along with “a compassionate recognition of human need” and are therefore becoming part of a planetary meditation. In this process the new group of world servers, as an aspect of the world antahkarana, is helping to create active force centres in the body of humanity, qualified by ideas emanating from all of the seven rays in every field of human endeavour. Together with the disciples of the world, their combined force field is becoming highly magnetic and is having a synthesising effect on the evolutionary process. 

Such thinking and the ready access to information is not only strengthening the world mind from which the world antahkarana is built, but it is producing a generation of enquirers – enquirers who can now access information at will. this ease of access releases the mind of the thinkers of the race to imagine “new combinations” and to use the imagination in conjunction with knowledge built up by sharing group knowledge. 

For the disciple of the world, we recall that the adept is “a rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers”. The disciple is never satisfied with the knowledge of the world but seeks for himself, through personal enquiry and spiritual invocation, a new and higher expansion of understanding. He looks up and in and serves down and outwards. For this the intuition is tapped and this capacity to travel to the -higher realms provides access to that which is needed to revolutionise that which is below.

The Agni Yoga teachings remind as that “Each epoch has its own call. The power of thought will be the evocative principle of the New World.” The teachings say that the measure of success is dependent upon the degree of necessity and that “the more unavoidable the necessity, the nearer is the step of conquest. If this is true then surely, now at this time, the united antahkarana of humanity can reach right up to the heart centre of the Logos and fuse with the fifth kingdom of nature, the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet. 

Whether it arises out of perceived need in the world around us, the thought and ideas of others, or from the aspiration to find new and lasting solutions, we can see from this how sensitivity to impression reinforces the idea that evolution is linked to responsiveness. This time of crisis and necessity attunes us closer as a race to the call of the Christ and his group who, like a spiritual pied piper, are constantly playing upon human consciousness and helping to raise the collective threads in a series of ascents through magnetic interplay. If it is true that the whole evolutionary scheme is based upon a series of ascensions, then this conscious ascent from “bottom up” reaffirms the fact that it is the disciples of the world who are called upon to work with this magnetism – a combination of will and love – something which can embody the Christ’s new work as World Teacher. As humanity begins to take up the task of world saviour through its united antahkarana and the awakening of its higher centres – the throat, heart and head – it becomes responsive to His new calling. Our work is to help humanity grasp the science of social evolution through the power of thought, driven by love, and so see social work in its true light as group awareness and identity. [End of address]

We all participate in this work and this address was a good summery of our age old task that we were part of for many lifetimes as part of humanity on this planet. We now more or less know where it started, where we are, and where we are going as a race. We also have a good idea of our work as disciples. When it comes to building the individual Antahkarana consciously, the work is slightly different although built on the same foundations.

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INTENTION AND TENSION AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP

 Let it never be forgotten that the Great Ones do not look for those who only desire and aspire. They look for those who blend with their desire the determination to learn to use their mental bodies and become creators, and who will work constructively towards these ends. [This is right intention.]

Thus it will be seen why, in all systems of true occult training, the emphasis is laid on right thinking, loving desire, and pure, clean living. Only thus can the creative work be carried forward with safety, and only thus can the thought-forms pass downward into objectivity, and be a constructive agent on the plane of human existence. [This is to preserve the right tension.]

Right intention produces correct orientation and develops in disciples that persistence and intelligent perseverance which brings them consistently nearer to their goal….they must learn to live with vision in the world of causes and of motive, adhering strenuously to ‘original intention’.

They must hold that tension and they must not permit themselves to be side-tracked by the activities which they have themselves set in motion, or by the details which emerge out of their creative activity, or by the lesser responsibilities and obligations which may appear.  

The above information taken from set 8, expresses to me the relationship between intention and tension in an adequate manner and I can see in our meditation work why so much emphasis is focused on INTENTION – and intention which inevitably and rightly produces tension.

RIGHT INTENTION

In the bigger picture we have:

1.       Right intention – producing right tension – producing right orientation. 

2.       Right intuition – producing inflow of “light and knowledge” from the Spiritual Triad. 

3.       Right building – leading to the construction of the antahkarana and its right use.

Thus we can see how the right intention and tension can lead to evocation of the intuition which is in reality the bringing to the brain consciousness the innate – but usually undeveloped – spiritual capacity [pure reason] which enables the aspirant directly to contact ideas, and finally to know that unity and synthesis are the only true realities where the divine Plan is concerned. 

The one leads to the other and the building of the antahkarana is the aim where we have the following progression of Recognitions that will make it plain for us where intention and tension fit in:

1.       Recognition of the soul–Infused Personality.

2.       Recognition of the Mind in relation to the Antahkarana. 

3.       Recognition of the Bridge [Antahkarana] as an Agent of alignment.

4.       Recognition of Intention, resulting in Tension. [To build this bridge.]

5.       Recognition of the Use of Visualisation and Projection. [The method.]

6.       Recognition of the Invocative Life

7.       Recognition of the world of energies and Forces and the possibility of initiation.

8.       Recognition of the use of the Will on the Way of the Higher Evolution.

Now we have the big picture and we know where we are going and why we need to concentrate on intention and tension. These are arresting thoughts which could, given right study, make these indicated qualities or names factual expressions in our daily lives. The achieving of this will require a rightly directed Intention, followed by those necessary adjustments which will produce a tension which will be creative in its results.

Thus we need the formulation of a careful thought-out and directed Intention and the production of that creative Tension which will evoke knowledge of the divine pattern or plan, as it works out in establishing right human relations. These human relations are impulsed from that High Place we call “the Heart of the Sun”.  They are directed towards the three worlds and the four kingdoms in nature, via the Hierarchy. As aspirants make progress and the heart centre is more fully awakened in far greater numbers of them, this inflowing energy will become effective and will change world ideas, human civilisation and human values. This is just beginning to happen. The result, right relations, must demonstrate first of all in the aspirants’ own lives, then in their group and nation, and finally in humanity as a whole. This involves right perception, love in action and beauty in relationships. All this starts with right intention that goes over into action and its continuation through the holding of that tension.

RIGHT TENSION

On the matter of right intension we got the following information: The ajna centre only comes into creative activity when the Antahkarana has been build…. The building of the Antahkarana only becomes genuinely possible when the creative life of the aspirant shifts from the sacral centre into the throat and is becoming factual and expressive…. The throat centre is the organ specifically of the creative WORD. It registers the intention or creative purpose of the soul, transmitted to it by the inflow of energy from the ajna centre which embodies the idea lying behind active creativity, the subsequent act of creation producing eventually the ideal form for the idea.

Most disciples are not working from a point of spiritual tension, but from a point of personality focus – a step forward indeed from that of the average unthinking person but one to which they cling unduly long. As long as a man is focused in his personality, the point of spiritual tension will evade him. He will be driven by personality aspiration and not by ashramic force and this focus in form will lead to trouble both to the individual aspirant and to his group. Spiritual tension, as a result of complete dedication of the personality to the service of humanity, stimulates and empowers but does not evoke the lower life of the personal self.

Tension, when focused rightly, is the great releasing power. Working from a point of tension, brings in the flood-tide of revelation, and it is then possible for a disciple to learn in one short day what might otherwise take months and even years to learn. So many disciples focus tension wrongly and release energy in the wrong direction and from the wrong location. Right tension is brought about first by correct orientation; this necessitates a true sense of values and freedom from those minor pre-occupations which produce extension instead of tension. If you are [to give a very usual illustration] pre-occupied with your physical condition, you will not experience the tension which will make you a magnetic centre of power and love; if you are pre-occupied with the failures of other people or with their ideas about you, you will again fail to experience the tensionwhich releases. You would find it of value to discover where your “extensions” are and then retreat inward to the point of tension from which you can consciously and effectively direct soul energy.

INTENTION, TENSION AND CREATION 

When we want to create something we need to create that state of mind which is our fixed Intention to create – as a result – creating something of beauty in our surroundings. Purpose is the magnetised line along which the fire may travel. Along this line will travel the perceived and designated energies made magnetic by the fire of the mind, intentionally channelled into a point of focus. This concentration and focus of forces attracts the energy of the attentive soul. Thus a point of Tension is attained and is to be steadily sustained as facility in the work progresses.

Thus again, in our building of the Antahkarana we can see how right Intention leads to right Tension resulting in Fusion – individual and with the world in which we live. Keep this in mind and the whole of life will be irradiated for you, and you will become a centre of light and love in a world emerging into light.

If we go to a higher scale we can say that behind everything in life there is a purpose; even life itself has a purpose that is God’s intention and life itself is the tension to bring about this Intention of God. It has been hinted by Those Who know so much more than we, owing to their longer life cycle and experience, that some glimmering of that eternal and cosmic Intent is beginning to dawn in the consciousness of Those Who have taken some of the higher initiations.

The Tibetan Master gave us the following: What you call “the Plan” is the response of the Hierarchy to the inflowing purposeful will of the Lord of the World. Through Sanat Kumara, the Ancient of Days [as He is called in the Bible], flows the unknown energy of which the three divine Aspects are the expression. He is Custodian of the will of the Great White Lodge on Sirius, and the burden of this “COSMIC INTENTION” is shared by the Buddhas of Activity and those Members of the Great Council Who are of so elevated a consciousness and vibration that only once a year [through Their emissary, the Buddha] is it safe for Them to contact the Hierarchy…….

A new type of energy becomes available – the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention…… It is this living realisation of Being and of identification with the divine intention of God Himself, the Father, the lord of the World upon levels of awareness of which we know nothing [as yet] which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution…..He knew, in a sense hitherto unknown to Him, what God intended and what human destiny meant, and the part that He had to play in the working out of that Destiny. 

It was the dawning of this significance of the will of God upon the consciousness of the Christ which led Him to certain great decisions, and which forced Him to cry out: “Father, not my will but Thine be done.” These words definitely indicate conflict and do not indicate the synchronisation of the two will; they indicate the determination on the part of the Christ that there should be no opposition between His will and that of God. Suddenly, he received a vision of the emerging, divine intention for humanity and – through humanity – for the planet as a whole.

On the level of humanity, the Master went on: The balance is slowly, very slowly, swinging over to the side of the spirit aspect of the duality; it has not yet swung, even in intention, completely over, but the issues are becoming increasingly clearer in men’s minds and the indications are that man will eventually decide correctly, will attain a point of balance or equilibrium, and will finally throw the weight of public opinion on the side of spiritual values, thus leading to a collective renunciation of materialism, particularly in its grosser and physical forms……..

Intension and effort are considered by us of prime importance, and are the two main requisites for all disciples, initiate and masters, plus the power of persistence. [tension]

When there are a sufficient number of people who are in conscious touch with their souls, then the sheer weight of their numbers, plus the clarity of their intentions and their widespread distribution over the face of the earth, must necessary become effective. [Thus leading to right creation by humanity as a whole.]

Source: http://edgeba.webs.com/buildingtheantahkarana.htm