Breaking Identification with the Content of the Mind

By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: Some enlightened beings have said that identification with the content of the mind is the root of all suffering, and learning to detach from this content and observe it dispassionately is the key to becoming enlightened. What is your view on this?

A: We recognize twelve stages of attentional identification and witnessing. These twelve states are:

  1. Attention is identified with the content of the mind
  2. Attention witnesses the content of the mind
  3. Attention witnesses and objective labels the content of the mind, and recognizes with this content is
  4. Attention uncovers the origin of an element of the content of the mind
  5. Attention transcends the origin of the content of the mind, and reposes in Voidness and peace
  6. Attention discovers the attentional principle and gains union with it
  7. Attention discovers the spirit and gains union with it
  8. Attention discovers the ensouling entity and gains union with it
  9. Attention discovers the origin of the spirit
  10. Attention discovers the origin of the ensouling entity
  11. Attention discovers the Soul of the Bridge Path
  12. Attention discovers Satchitananda

Moving off identification with the contents of the mind can be achieved through different modalities:

  • Basic mindfulness and watching the breath leads attention to stage two, where it can become aware of the content of the mind at different levels.
  • The practice of Vipassana brings attention to stage three.
  • Process meditation works at stage four.
  • The Zen practice of gaining union with the voidness of consciousness, or being, leads attention to stage five.
  • In Mudrashram®, we introduce aspirants to stages six, seven, and eight in a practice we call the awakening meditation. This meditation is part of one of our intermediate courses, the Accelerated Meditation Program.
  • In the process of unfolding the ensouling entity and opening the channels of the Nada through the transformational methods of the Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation, the disciple discovers the origin of the spirit (stage nine) and discovers the origin of the ensouling entity (stage ten).
  • In the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation, we show our students the Soul of the Bridge Path (stage eleven) and Satchitananda (stage twelve).

Many meditations that are designed to break identification with the content of the mind do not lead attention beyond stage five, in which attention dwells in union with the Voidness of Consciousness. In some groups, this is regarded as a state of enlightenment; in truth, this is only a very rudimentary stage of meditation.

Associating attention with the three immortal principles—attentional principle, spirit, and ensouling entity—and learning to methods to activate and utilize these essences, empowers the meditator to perform inner work.

In Mudrashram®, we recognize ten aspects of inner work; you learn these ten aspects in our intermediate classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. You can read about these ten aspects that make up our Integral meditation training here.

We encourage aspirants to become familiar with all twelve types of attentional identification and witnessing. As you become proficient in detaching from attentional identification, you can reach the level where you can do inner work and transform your life and spiritual essences.

The Challenge of Working with Concretized Thought

By George A. Boyd ©2023

Q: I have heard you use the term, concretized thought. What do you mean by this?

A: There are three major levels of thought:

  • Concretized
  • Abstract
  • Spiritual

The seven levels of Concretized Thought are:

Naming – This establishes a one to one correspondence to physical objects and people. This creates the sense of reality for the environment and the objects and people who are in it.

Attribution – This assigns qualities or labels to physical objects or people. This places subjective judgments about these objects and people, and emotionalizes them.

Experience – This is your memory for life events and the people in your life, which generates your life narrative and your sense of connection to other people.

Learning – This is your memory for facts and information. This mnemonic reservoir is only as accurate as the quality of the information you learn—if you learn information that is incorrect, you will share that incorrect information with others and believe it.

Attitude – This is the stratum of emotionalized beliefs. You might idealize other people and things; you may demonize them. Negative attitudes form the basis of prejudice, arrogance, and racism.

Beliefs – A dictionary definition of beliefs is “the acceptance of the truth or actuality of something without certain proof; [it is a] mental conviction.” Commercial advertising, journalism, politics, and religion are examples of agencies that seek to shape beliefs; this in turn, may lead you to develop positive or negative attitudes about certain topics, objects, or other people.

Opinion – This is communication of your beliefs as speech, writing, or through other media.

Concretized thought can be vitiated through distorted beliefs and incorrect information. Especially when information is communicated to you in an emotionalized or sensationalized fashion, it may powerfully shape your beliefs and attitudes; those who disseminate falsehoods and wrong information can readily manipulate people, who are unable to verify the information they receive.

The seven levels of Abstract Thought are:

Mindset – This is a perceptual frame that is a container of your beliefs about the world, other people, and yourself. It may be difficult to break out of a mindset that posits certain beliefs about your potential and what is possible in your future; limiting mindsets may hold you back from taking risks and realizing your dreams.

Values – This is the content that arises from your conscience, which dictates the standards and moral rules that shape your behavior, mold your character, and influence the way you relate to other people. Values affect your beliefs about what is right or wrong; what is good and evil; and what you should and shouldn’t do.

Plan – This is a mental roadmap of the behavioral steps you must take to accomplish a goal. Planning, together with the execution of that plan, form the basis of your ability to work and carry out the functions of adult life in family, academic, and vocational settings.

Goal – This is a statement of what you choose to achieve. When goals are clothed in desire, they are called dreams. Goals are ideas of what you want; a plan provides the steps for you to achieve that goal; action enables you to attain that goal.

Problem solving – This is the action of your intellect, which uses intelligence to solve problems. Education and training develop your problem-solving skills.

Reflection – This includes thinking about the meaning of concepts and how they relate to other ideas. Reflection creates theoretical models of the world; science tests those models to see if they are accurate. Reflection about your life and the choices you have made is called introspection; reflection about your values is called values clarification; reflection about your options is called decision.

Personal intuition – This is the mental function that allows you to “check in” with the different levels of your mind and to get information on what you are experiencing. As you know and understand your self, you can extend this into an empathic reflection into the experience of others. This ability to have empathy for others is the basis for what has been called emotional intelligence.

Abstract thought draws upon the faculties of your Metaconscious mind. Problem solving and reflection may help you work with concretized thought to uproot the false information and beliefs that undermine its reliability and accuracy. Critical thinking and the ability to examine your beliefs and values help you to gain greater control over the ideas and information that enables others to deceive you or manipulate you.

Spiritual thought also has seven major facets:

Revelation – This is the passive reception of information from an archetype or spiritual being. If revelations are not subjected to reflection and analysis, they can lead to irrational beliefs. Some of the conspiracy theories circulating today stem from insights or revelations that have not been thought through, and are simply presented as truth.

Dialogue – This is an active question and answer discussion with different aspects of the personality or with elements of the Superconscious mind. At the personal level of dialogue, you might interview your ego, or a personification of one of your issues in your unconscious mind (subpersonality), your conscience, or your Self. In the spiritual level of dialogue, you might ask questions and listen to the answers from your attentional principle, your spirit, a nucleus of identity, or your ensouling entity—or you might dialog with spiritual beings who are outside of your own axis of being, such as angels, Ascended Masters, spiritual guides, the Holy Spirit, or the Divine. Dialogue is the foundation of journaling.

Guidance suggestion – This is a directive given to your attention in meditation, hypnosis, or psychotherapy to focus your attention on an internal aspect of your mind. You may be asked to observe this internal object of meditation; you may be asked to dialogue with it; or you may be asked to interact with it. Guidance suggestion underlies guided meditation, hypnotherapy, and many of the imagery therapies that interact with intrapsychic elements.

Creation – This anchors thought forms in the Astral Plenum though affirmation, visualization, claiming by faith, and decree. Thought forms are purported to substand the phenomena of miraculous manifestation; the New Age community relies upon the creation of positive thought forms to activate the Law of Attraction.

Love – This is the thought stream of love and devotion that comes from your spirit. You become aware of this type of thought when you meditate upon your spirit.

Attunement – This is the beam of directed thought from your attentional principle that carries the Divine Light during attunements. In addition to making attunements, this beam of intention can activate a transformational mantra, actively focus your attention on an object of meditation, or enable the attentional principle to travel through the bands of the Continuum of Consciousness.

Illumination – This arises from the activation of the Illumined Mind of your ensouling entity. This allows you to access the knowledge of the Superconscious mind, to receive the wisdom and guidance of your ensouling entity, and to discern the true nature of your ensouling entity.

You access spiritual thought in the Superconscious mind. Spiritual thought allows you to work on yourself and uproot the false beliefs that plague concretized thought; it promotes insight, understanding, creativity, and the expression of your ensouling entity’s wisdom, love, and ability.

The Psychological Matrix

There is interaction between eight of the levels of concretized and abstract thought that can distort belief and behavior:

  1. Attribution can go astray when people have negative experiences, incorrect learning, mistaken attitudes, and false beliefs that influence your ideas about other people. Attributions that come from the unconscious mind are called projections; desire and fear distort projections.
  2. Life narrative can be subverted through traumatic, abusive, or difficult life experiences; erroneous learning, warped attitudes, and untrue beliefs can distort your perception and experience of your life and self-image.
  3. Learning can be vitiated when you receive incorrect information.
  4. Attitude can be conditioned though attribution, experience, learning, and belief.
  5. Belief can be influenced through your experience, learning, and values; the opinions and judgments of others also play a role in shaping your beliefs.
  6. Opinions communicate your values, beliefs, attitudes, experiences, and attributions; when these levels of the psychological matrix have been corrupted, your opinions reflect this bias.
  7. Mindsets are held in place through other’s opinions; and through your values, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences. Negative mindsets can impede growth and change; positive mindsets can facilitate forward movement in your life and achieving more of your potential.
  8. Values can influence your mindsets, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes; how you regard your life experiences; your attributions, and your behavior. When you accept the values of others as your own (introjection), this can powerfully affect how you view yourself, others, and the world.

Your psychological matrix is constructed from the interaction of these eight facets; when these have been perverted, your beliefs and mindsets may imprison you. Those who begin to work with spiritual thought—aspirants and disciples—can begin to purify this psychological matrix.

Purifying Your Psychological Matrix

There are a variety of methods that you use to begin to purify your psychological matrix:

  1. Attribution – Ascribing correct descriptors to a person’s character and behavior; re-owning your projections
  2. Life narrative – Working out traumatic and abusive life experiences through psychotherapy and forgiveness; experiencing emotional healing through reception of the Holy Spirit or Comforter
  3. Learning – Correcting inaccurate information; utilizing critical thinking, reality testing, and reflection to uproot incorrect learning
  4. Attitude – Cultivating loving kindness, compassion, and understanding towards yourself and others
  5. Beliefs – Deconstructing false beliefs through cognitive behavioral therapy; immersion in the stream of the Illumined Mind
  6. Opinions – Gaining direct experience and accurate knowledge that counters inaccurate learning and beliefs; connecting with your attentional principle, your spirit, and your ensouling entity and receiving truthful guidance
  7. Mindsets – Shifting attention into alternate frames of perception (reframing); operating from the deeper perspective of the Self and the Soul; moving your attention into higher levels of awareness (consciousness raising)
  8. Values – performing values clarification and introspection; exposure to moral teaching that enables you to evaluate your behavior and the values you have chosen; choosing to improve your character; and discovering your Dharma—the inmost core of truth within your heart.

You learn several of the modalities of spiritual thought in our intermediate meditation courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. Through these applied methods you can begin to reform the layers of concretized and abstract thought that imprison you in the labyrinth of your psychological matrix.

Upcoming Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation

I’d like to invite you to to enroll in new Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation this coming Thursday January 19, 2023 at 6:30pm. The course will go ten weeks in a webinar format. Classes will be short— an hour to an hour and one half on most nights—so you can laser focus on the topic we are covering. We’re offering this class for $360—about 88% off what its actual value is.

If you want general information about what the class covers, you can go to https://mudrashram.com/master-course-in-meditation/

If you want to know why you should take the class, go to https://mudrashram.com/why-take-the-mudrashram-master-course-in-meditation/

If you aren’t sure this is right for you, please feel free to contact me and I can talk to you to help you determine whether this fits for you.[Select spiritual discovery session on the contact us page.]

If you are clear you want to take this class and you want to enroll now to hold your spot, you can sign up at https://mudrashram.com/programs/#MMCIM/. We are opening up twelve slots. When those are gone, they are gone.

If you want to gain a complete understanding of meditation and not just learn a stray technique here and there, I want to let you know this is a course that will give you incredible value! Please join us!

I’d love to see you in transformational and life-changing class!

Approaches for Working with Deep Seated Issues

By George A. Boyd © 2023

There are several different perspectives on working with deep-seated issues across the Seven Rays:

First Ray – Activation of the will through will training (volitional therapy); use of attunements to destroy entities that contribute to mental and emotional distress (Attunement and transformation)

Second Ray – Understanding of the issues through listening and empathic reflection (humanistic therapy); loving kindness and compassion meditation (meditations drawing upon the source of unconditional love within)

Third Ray – Identifying steps to change and taking constructive action (coaching); identifying layers of the issue and leading attention to gain insight and release through reflective, receptive, and guided meditation (Jnana Yoga)

Fourth Ray – Use of creative exploration methods using drawing, giving a voice to unconscious issues, and acting out unconscious issues through psychodrama (Gestalt and imagery therapies); use of mindfulness and Vipassana to breakthrough and transcend the issue (Zen Morita and mindfulness-based therapy)

Fifth Ray – Dismantling false beliefs to uproot dysphoric emotions and dysfunctional behavior (cognitive behavioral therapy); using process meditation to identify where the issue originated and making the choice to re-create it (process meditation approaches)

Sixth Ray – Using psychotropic medicine, herbs, or vitamins to ameliorate symptoms (psychiatry and holistic healing); invocation of the Divine Succor and Grace, receiving Divine Healing and Comfort (prayer and pastoral counseling)

Seventh Ray – Working with the system and the environment to change the dynamics that hold the issues in place (family systems therapy); awakening the Kundalini Shakti to awaken and empower the Soul (Yoga therapy)

There are two approaches: external approaches work through the personality—these involve psychotherapy, counseling, coaching, and medical and nutritional regimens. Internal approaches that engage the attentional principle, spirit, and Soul—these include meditation and invocation.

We train our students in these inner approaches to work on their issues. These methods include transformation (Mantra Yoga), Attunement (Agni Yoga), Reflective and Receptive Meditation (Jnana Yoga), Mindfulness and Vipassana, Process Meditation, and awakening the Kundalini (Kundalini Yoga) in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

We encourage you to utilize different inner and outer approaches until you find one that enables you to make progress with resolving your issues. We note that different external or internal approaches do not work for certain individuals; you need to identify one that allows you to extricate yourself from the thralls of the issues that bring you unhappiness and hinder your progress towards your worthy goals and dreams.

Meditation on the Departed

Meditation on the Departed: Is It Possible and Verifiable?

By George A. Boyd ©2017

[Our special thanks to DB for submitting these questions.]

Q: “Current family conditions are shaped by past events, but the “why” often remains opaque becoming yet more veiled as loved ones leave the earthly scene. Sadly, the dust of time invariably obscures family history leaving questions unanswered, issues open, a lack of resolution and understanding. Can a verifiable, scientific approach be drawn to teach students methodologies for reaching “across the divide?”

A: To contact an individual on the Higher Planes after their death requires that the person who is doing the reading have the ability to clearly perceive the attentional principle, spirit, and Soul of the individual.

A scientific approach requires that there is an empirical verification for the subject matter that is studied: there alas, are no instruments to reliably detect the three conscious principles within a human being. We can however, follow scientific rigor in approaching this topic.

We would first have you examine the layers at which you interface with the dead:

  1. Neurological – At this level, we can detect certain clusters of nerve cells fire when you are thinking about your departed loved one.
  2. Memory – During the period directly after the death of your loved one, as you process your grief, these memories arise unbidden through the preconscious doorway.
  3. Astral imagination – As you travel in your astral body in the state of dreams or hypnosis, you may encounter dream images constructed from your wishes and hopes. You may find that these “thought forms” may speak with you, advise you, or have discussions with you. Since you create these thought forms from distilling your experience with your departed loved one over your lifetime, this creation is your perception of the loved one. [Psychotherapy may have you interact with these thought forms of your loved ones to help you integrate your experience with them during your life, and clear your feelings about them after their passing.]
  4. Contact with their spirit – if you are in a silent place in the presence of your loved one’s cremains or grave, you may tap into the silent etheric bridge that connects the atomic residue of your loved one’s former body with their spirit through the Akashic Aether. Those who visit cemeteries, where there is the chance to commune with their spirit, may distinctly sense the presence of their spiritual heart, and may actually receive answers when you ask your loved one questions.
  5. Visit on the Higher Planes – When you are able to travel in full consciousness as your attentional principle, you may visit the actual astral environment in which they dwell. Here your attentional principle, clothed in its astral or causal covering, encounters your loved one’s attentional principle, in their astral or causal covering. You may witness the environment in which they dwell (astral world) and the objects in that environment. You may witness the inhabitants on this astral planet who may come into your perception. You can distinctly see your loved one’s form. You can hear your loved one’s voice. You can feel his or her emotions palpably. [This is the level at which you do a departed loved ones reading.]
  6. Contact with your loved one’s Soul – at this level, you can see out-pictured, the likely scenario for your loved one’s next incarnation. You can even get details about that future life at this level: gender, physical location where incarnation will occur, and some keynotes of the future life, including potential career and any issues they will work on. [This is also included in a departed loved one’s reading.]
  7. Contact with the Jet of Divine Spirit above the Soul – Attunement through this center allows advanced disciples and Initiates to lift individuals who are “earthbound” into the Light and up into the presence of the Soul. Highly advanced disciples who have made significant progress outside of the cutting edge of spirituality may utilize this attunement to lift the attentional principle into the presence of the nucleus of identity, spirit, or ensouling entity that is developed at this Higher Octave of Being.

Those who have developed their ability to see clearly with their attentional principle can be trained to access levels five and six, which allows you to both commune with your loved one on the higher Planes and also to envision their future incarnation.

You will need to identify the Plane on which your loved one’s attentional principle dwells, and take the Seventh Ray Raja Yoga pathway to travel to the dimensional world in which they dwell.[We train you in traveling as your attentional principle on each of the Seven Ray pathways in our Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation. You become eligible to take this class after completing one of our intermediate meditation programs, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.]

Q: “Are there methods to ensure that one is contacting the intended [individual]?”

A: If you are able to genuinely silence the projective stream from the unconscious, while you are in communion with your loved one, you can receive clear and cogent answers. You must be able to recognize your loved one’s Soul and spirit to ensure that you are not visiting some one else’s departed relative.

Q: “[How might we know if their] answers are legitimate?”

A: You must be able to discern the difference between the thought form at the astral imagination stage and the actual presence of your loved one’s attentional principle, spirit, and Soul. If you are able to contact your loved one in their actual immortal essence, your experience will be genuine and unmistakable.

Q: “What preemptive steps are necessary to ensure safety—that we don’t draw unwanted [spiritual entities] to us that then insist upon staying?”

A: If your loved one dwells in the Subtle Realm, it will be important for you to create the Armor of Light to protect you against the negative thought streams of the Lower Astral. If you do opt to travel to commune with your loved one, you must not allow yourself to enter a state of passivity or a trance state, which can open the doorway to potential possession scenarios or encounter with entities that may have nefarious intentions.

Q: “Is it advisable? Is it of wide enough interest? Is it better to leave our ancestors [rest in peace]?”

A: The interest in these readings is widespread, and there are many who ostensibly provide them—with varying levels of accuracy and validity. Many of these readings are products of the reader’s lively astral imagination, and probably do not actually contact one of the three immortal essences of their clients’ departed loved ones.

Q: When is it appropriate to do these readings?

A: If you have the requisite inner metavisional clarity, you can do these readings to help yourself finish your grief work and clear any unfinished business or unspoken communications that you have not been able to resolve with your loved one. Only if you have been given the service of doing these readings for others should you attempt to do them for others. Recognize that as a reader, someone who does not know your client’s loved one, you may misinterpret what you are told or shown, and you may unwittingly provide information that is incorrect by misunderstanding the context of a communication you receive.

It is best that you establish your own contact with departed loved ones, as you know them best, and would not introduce the same error as a reader who does this reading for you.

We suggest that you let the departed have their experience unmolested: your only rationale for making contact at all will be for you to finish your grief work. If you do not have the clarity of inner vision to do a reading on your departed loved one, you can work with a skilled psychotherapist or hypnotherapist who can help you work out your issues at the level of the astral thought forms, or you can have a silent dialog with your departed loved ones at the cemetery or shrine where they are interred or their cremains are kept.