The Seven Covenants between the Divine and Man

By George A. Boyd © 2018

The promises of the Divine to mankind are called covenants. In the Bible, these are listed as the Covenant of the Law and the Covenant of the Blood. In actuality, there is a Divine promise for each stage of spiritual development. These seven covenants are described below, and matched to the stages of the Path.

The Covenant of the Law was predicated on the karmic principle of “as you sow, so shall you reap.” Here man is fully free, but also fully responsible for the consequences of his actions. One is bound to the endless cycle of births and deaths. This stage is called “on the wheel.”

The Covenant of the Blood was based on the idea of that the Divine can forgive violations of the underlying moral laws of the Universe. It looks to a purification and dissolution of the karmic impediments to dwelling in the Light Stream or Planetary Life (the Spirit). It produces atonement with the Christ Life within, and constitutes the rebirth or resurrection experience of the 1st Initiation. Due to God’s mercy and sacrifice, the necessity for some future births is canceled. This stage is called “Stream Winner.”

The Covenant of Fire constitutes the ability to actively process, recreate, and transform karmic potentiality through the active reception of the Light as well as through the ministry of the Light to others. One gains the power to “speak the Word” and to so program the forces of the subconscious and Superconscious mind to conform to the image of Perfection, the “I AM Presence.” It corresponds to the work of the 2nd Initiation. This is the “Once Returning” stage.

The Covenant of Compassion evidences the redirection of thought and will energies in the direction of world service. It is through the radiation of pure thought and Buddhic Illumination that the subtle karmas of the astral and causal/mental Planes are evaporated. It corresponds with the work of the 3rd and 4th Initiations. This is the “Not Returning” stage.

The Covenant of Inner Divinity occurs when you step beyond the operation of the karmic laws into the world of Being. This is the Soul Plane, Nirvana, and constitutes the 5th Initiation, the stage of the “Arhat.” One becomes the embodiment of Divine Love and Perfection, replete with the powers to operate on the inner Planes.

The Covenant of Grace Divine reflects the ongoing communion with the Lord and the knowledge of His will and purposes. It begins with the choice to act as a conscious coworker with the Almighty, and to minister His Love and Grace through the disciplic relationship with others. This empowerment bestowed by the Divine allows you to establish the disciplic relationship with others. This is the stage called “Bodhisattva.” It is the mantle of the Adept, the Master, and the Guru.

The Covenant of Surrender is marked by the vanishing of the individual Soul into the limitless Ocean of the Divine. This is Liberation, and constitutes the relinquishment of all activity in Creation. A further work at this stage made possible through the active intervention of a Perfect Master or Sat Guru is the manifesting a Ray of the Infinite Life for the benefit of all Creation. This stage is called Buddha, Divine Incarnation, or Avatar.

Those of you who are interested in our writing on the topics of religion, cults, and terrorism may enjoy our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing? You may also enjoy our Public Webinar series, “A Study of Spiritual Paths.” [Click on the Public Webinars tab on the Public Webinar Access page to order these webinars.]

The Seven Faces of the Religious Mind

By George A. Boyd © 2018

There are different ways of engaging with religion. One can rail against religion, or be its staunchest supporter. One can study about religion, or become immersed in its mystic depths. One can pick and choose from its fruits, or one can believe its doctrine in its entirety. One can flit from faith to faith as the butterfly rests upon different flowers, or one can be steadfast in observance of only one faith.

Some of these different faces of religion can be briefly described as follows:

  1. The critic – The critic gathers information to discredit religion, to find fault with its beliefs and practices, and to promote an alternate viewpoint.
  2. The scholar – The scholar likes comparing the ideas that religion disseminates, reflecting on the meanings of the passages in scriptures and their commentaries, and discovering the hidden gems of truth. The scholar does not necessarily, however, take these dictums of religion to heart, and apply these principles in his or her life.
  3. The eclectic – The eclectic studies several different spiritual traditions, and creates a synthesis of the nuggets of truths from different Paths that he or she has gleaned. He or she adopts some of these truths as moral values, and uses these to guide behavior.
  4. The dilettante – The emotional believer, the dilettante, may take initiation in multiple Paths, but does not follow through on any of them. After the initial excitement of becoming a member of a new group and learning initiatory secrets fades, he or she readily leaves the Path. The dilettante starts many Paths and does not finish any of them.
  5. The anchorite – The anchorite scrupulously follows the guidelines of the Path, practices prayers and meditations regularly, and studies the teaching of the Path assiduously. The anchorite insists that before he or she can begin to teach or take a leadership role in the group, he or she must have perfect knowledge and ability.
  6. The devotee – The devotee wants to idealize and worship the spiritual Master, who supervises development on this spiritual Path, but may not feel worthy or capable to do the work to become a teacher or leader in this spiritual tradition.
  7. The surrendered one – The surrendered one dedicates him or her self to God’s Will, and carries out his or her daily work under the Master’s direction. The surrendered one asks for God’s Grace to teach and help others, recognizing that he or she is not perfect—but does the work, and learns and grows more proficient with practice.

Those that become teachers and initiators in spiritual traditions typically are of type seven. Types five and six, scrupulous observance and devotion, fervently adhere to the Path engaged, but they lack the core commitment that marks the surrendered one.

These three types form the core of any religious group; the other types are not serious about their commitment to make progress along the lines described in this Path and to follow its precepts. Those that do the work deepen along the track that this Path opens; those that dip their toes in its waters make limited or no progress towards its consummation.

If you are currently engaged with any spiritual or religious group at the present time, notice what patterns you adopt in relation to it.

  • Are you its critic, continually finding flaws?
  • Are you a scholar, content to learn about it without adopting its practices or principles?
  • Are you eclectic, selecting truths from many different Paths and creating your own synthesis?
  • Do you have pattern of taking initiation in multiple Paths and not following through with any of them?
  • Do you scrupulously perform the prescribed practices of the faith, and are working to perfect them?
  • Does devotion drive your spiritual quest and you are on fire to make progress on your chosen Path?
  • Have you surrendered yourself to become God’s Instrument of Light and Love for others?

If you evolve to the stage where you can become a surrendered one, you will become the emissary of God’s Light and Love in your tradition. Those that become teachers and initiators in Mudrashram® transform over time into this posture, and show the inmost facet of realized Divinity and Grace to all who cross their Path.

Seven Sources of Inspiration

By George A. Boyd © 2018

Those of you who are inspired have found something that gets your creative juices flowing. The challenge for people, who can’t seem to muster their imaginative genie, is to discover what that sparks this flow of energy and ideas that enables them to get into the flow of sustained inspiration. Here are seven different ways people tap into that inner wellspring:

  1. Passion – A surge of emotions from anger and outrage, grief, reunion with a loved one, falling in love, or experiencing joy can drive your creativity.
  2. Beauty – The beauty of Nature can connect you with your inner muse.
  3. A powerful idea – A compelling idea can trigger your reflection and commentary, either to interpret and extend the idea or to argue against it.
  4. Stream of consciousness – Getting into touch with the present time can enable you to capture your experience as it unfolds. Many poets and musicians tap into this inner stream.
  5. Investigation or inquiry – Doing scholarly research on a topic that interests you, or investigating a mystery, can light your inner lamp of insight and invention.
  6. Revelation or channeling – Tapping into the power centers of the Superconscious mind through deep meditation can open the channels of intuition from the spiritual realms. For example, you might receive guidance from the Holy Spirit, one of your spiritual guides, or an Ascended Master in this inner downpour of revelation.
  7. Expression of your Soul Purpose – Those of you who have opened your connection to the Soul receive guidance and direction to carry out your Soul’s purpose. You can express this in a number of arenas of life, as you receive clear instruction as to what you need to do.

If you know what fires you up inside—strong emotion, being in Nature, an idea that moves you, the flow of the present time, searching for truth and meaning, or connecting with your higher mind or your Soul—you can tap into this energy to fuel your creativity and productivity. Once you can tap into this energy, you need to find how you best express it.

You can discover your “creative voice” through dabbling in different forms of artistic expression and different types of writing. Artistic media you might try include painting, drawing, sculpting with clay, computer graphics, music, or dance. You can experiment with different writing styles as well: scientific journal format, essay, short story, novel, or poetry.

If something stirs you up inside—even if you are not creative today—you can bring out your inner source of creativity. It might take some effort and time to hone your ability in your chosen avenue of expression, but when you can reach the level of proficiency to give a voice to your inner genius, you will clearly your articulate your inspiration and share your gift with us all.

Those of you who are interested in enhancing your creativity using meditation will benefit from taking our mini-course, “On Creativity.” If you have not previously taken any classes or webinars with us, the link to sign up for this course is on the Public Webinar Access page.

If you do not already have a dashboard account—you get this by signing up for a course or webinar and paying for it—go to the Public Webinar Access page, open the tab for Public Webinars, click the sign up link. You will then register for an account. You purchase the entire course—or just individual webinars in that series, if you wish. Then you’ll sign in to your account. The webinar you purchased will show up in your dashboard under the “My webinars” menu. You select Public on the drop down, and there it is.

If you already do have an account, you can purchase it right in your dashboard under the “Purchase Webinars” menu. Once you buy it, it will show up in you under your “My Webinars” menu. Just open the “My Webinars” menu, select Public, and there it is.

What Is Your Calling?

By George A. Boyd © 2018

Q: How do you know what your calling is? How do I recognize it?

A: There are two types of calling: Purpose and Divine Calling.

Purpose is the Soul’s expression in your human life. It operates through your personality. It has three aspects:

  1. Talent – This occurs when your Soul calls you to express a talent you’ve already developed in your career, in a volunteer setting, or in a hobby. A talent operates in the personality—the expression of a talent brings you joy and satisfaction.
  2. Skills Augmentation – This arises when your Soul calls you to refine an existing skill through discovery and intensive practice to become a direct, masterful and elegant expression of your Soul. This transforms a talent into genius through building a bridge to the Soul through the Superconscious mind.
  3. Purpose Enactment – This appears when your Soul expresses its gifts in your human life directly—your Soul specifically guides you to carry out specific actions towards a goal. This is called your extrinsic or expressed Soul Purpose.

In a Divine Calling, you work with spiritual Master to develop your spiritual essences to Liberation and Mastery. This supervising Initiate assists you complete your spiritual journey, while you practice sustained meditation until you attain Liberation. There are four aspects to Divine Calling:

  1. You consciously experience that you have a calling to unfold your spiritual essence and fulfill your intrinsic Soul Purpose.
  2. You experience the awakening of spiritual devotion and you yearn to reunite your spirit with the Divine. You have a calling to experience spiritual salvation.
  3. You have a powerful drive to develop the Soul’s abilities, wisdom, and love to the highest extent, so you can help others using your spiritual powers and wisdom. This leads you to activate the latent abilities within you, and fulfills the Soul’s potentials through its form on every Plane of Life.
  4. You complete your development of tracks 4, 5, and 6, and you reach the shores of mastery. The Divine anoints you and gives you a mission to carry out in service to humanity—to initiate, guide, teach, counsel, heal, and minister.

The most common type of calling is talent (1). Most people discover their talent as a passion, a powerful interest, or something they love to do. You typically uncover your talent during your education, or while you are training for your career. Once you uncover your talent, you work with it until you are proficient, and then you share it with others. You express your talents in your career, in your own business, and in your hobbies.

You reach the skills augmentation stage (2) when you already have an established talent, but you have this inner drive that compels you explore how far you can take this skill. It is this drive that turns a regular musician into a virtuoso or a maestro; or an entry-level employee into a leader and chief executive officer of a company. This calling drives you to excellence and mastery of a skill.

When your Soul awakens, it may guide your personality to carry out an aspect of its expressed Soul Purpose (3). When this occurs, you may experience that something greater than your Self is expressing its gifts and genius through you. Sometimes you may also intuit that you have a mission that your Soul directs you to complete in your life, and you are aware of this inner directive every day.

When your Divine Calling stirs you, you begin to work on spiritual development, unfolding your Soul (4), opening the path to freedom for your spirit (5), and developing your latent abilities, wisdom, and love (6). When this process is complete, you ultimately reach spiritual Mastery (7).

In Mudrashram®, we specifically teach you how to discover your Soul’s extrinsic Soul Purpose (3), and how to develop your spiritual essences to respond to your Divine Calling (4), (5), and (6).

Those of you who are attempting to discern your genuine Soul Purpose from the siren voices of your mind may enjoy our Purpose Workshop in our Public webinar series, which shows you how to uncover this core of purpose within you.[Click on the Public webinar tab.]

Those whom the Divine calling has awakened to the quest for spiritual homecoming, will benefit from our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. These will train you in how to unfold your Soul (4), how to open the Path of the spirit (5), and how to develop your latent abilities, wisdom, and love (6). If you follow this track to its culmination, you will journey step-by-step to Mastery (7)

If you are able to tap into your Soul’s intuitive stream, you might ask your Soul these three questions to clarify the three aspects of calling for your Purpose:

  • “Show me the talents I have. What is the best way for me to use these talents?”
  • “Show me what skills I am developing, so they will be refined to the highest degree. What will it look like when I am expressing this skill at the highest level? What do I need to do to arrive there?”
  • “Show me what aspects of your purpose you are enacting in my life. How can I cooperate with you to ensure your purpose is completed?”

Once you know your calling, you will move ahead in your life with clarity and confidence, knowing that you are doing what you were born to do—and in carrying out your calling, you are also making a difference in the lives of others.

The Eight Doorways to Altered States of Consciousness

By George A. Boyd © 2014

Many of those who follow the Shamanic Path know of only one doorway to altered states of consciousness: the ingestion of psychoactive drugs. These create an energetic bridge to the astral body that we call the physical etheric pathway.

This doorway to the astral, however, is certainly not the only pathway to altered states of consciousness. We describe eight additional doorways that do not require any tools other than the attention and the breath. These are the methods taught in meditation.

  1. The Kundalini Doorway – the energy substanding awareness, once awakened, follows the Kundalini track through the Subconscious, Metaconscious, and Superconscious mind to unite with the Soul, which brings about illumination and enlightenment. Kundalini meditation opens this doorway.
  2. The Breath Doorway – This taps into the current of life force that the Indians call Prana and the Chinese call Chi. The life force animates the physical body, circulates through the life force dynamos of the astral body, energizes the chakras of the Subconscious mind, activates the energetic switchboard of the etheric body of the Metaconscious mind, provides energy for the activity of the volition and the vehicles of the entire personality. Life force flows downward from the Soul’s etheric form through each vehicle of consciousness of the Superconscious mind, activates the pranic vortex in the Anandamayakosa, and the Pranamayakosa circulates this current throughout the personality and body. Breathing meditations (Pranayama), body recharging exercises, hatha yoga, and martial arts tap into this living stream, and open this doorway.
  3. The Sensory Doorway – The physical senses connect through the astral body, to the focus of attention, to the attentional principle, to the personal intuition, to the senses of the spirit, to the transpersonal intuition, to the Soul’s experience of itself. Pratyahara methods that reverse the currents of sight, hearing, smell-taste, and touch tap into this pathway. Opening this pathway to the focus of attention brings light to the eye of the mind. When is extended to the attentional principle through Raja Yoga, it awakens the faculty of Metavision. When it is expanded to the vista of the spirit through Nada Yoga, it stimulates Heart Sight.
  4. The Astral Doorway – The astral body has the ability of astral projection and astral travel to any location in the physical world and the dimensional worlds of the Astral Plane. The astral body can be directed through autohypnosis and intention to explore the unconscious, Subconscious, Metaconscious, and Superconscious bands of the mind, and open the astral doorway.
  5. The Volitional/Intentional Pathway – Personal volition can be trained to take charge of each vehicle of the personality, and to make choices to gain control of personal destiny. Transpersonal volition can be activated to operate the powers and abilities of the Superconscious mind. The faculty of intention, which operates through the attentional principle can be trained to move the attentional principle in full consciousness through the Higher Planes, to activate transformational mantras, to commune with spiritual guides, and to make attunements using the Divine Light. Active will training, study of the higher octaves of the will, and the Tratakam exercise of Raja Yoga opens this doorway.
  6. The Attentional Doorway – Collecting the attention and guiding it move upward through the focal points of the mind, or to track across the unconscious mind, are methods to open the attentional doorway. Learning to concentrate the mind (Dharana, Samatha), to monitor experience in the present time (Mindfulness, Vipassana), to contemplate the contents of awareness (Dhyana), and to gain union with the object of meditation (Samadhi) are methods that enable you to access this pathway of the attention.
  7. The Symbolic Intuitional Doorway – When you dialog with your Higher Self, you contemplate the meaning of a symbol or an astrological array, you use a structured method of Reflective Meditation or Receptive Meditation, you ask a probing, repetitive question to your Subconscious mind (Process meditation), or when you inquire “Who am I?” again and again, you are tapping into this inner intuitional stream. Jnana Yoga and invocational methods open this doorway.
  8. Identification Doorway – When you place your attention upon your ego, your Self, your spirit, a nucleus of identity, or your Soul, and realize this is who you are, you are opening the identification doorway. This is the culmination of the discernment phase of Jnana Yoga that leads to realization of your essential nature and Gnosis.

We invite you to lean how to open these other eight doorways, and leave behind your dependence on psychoactive drugs to alter your awareness. We teach you how to open each of these other eight doorways in our intermediate meditation classes, the on-line and by-mail Accelerated Meditation Program and the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation.