The Yoga of the Seven Mudras
[The Yoga of the Seven Mudras is another name for the
Mudrasram® system of Integral meditation. This name comes from the
seven light immersion sittings in the first class, the Mudrasram®
Master Course in Medition.]
The Yoga of the Seven Mudras is based
on the recognition of innate spirituality: how to contact it, how to develop
it in a balanced way, how to integrate it into human life. These techniques
can be adapted with minor adaptations to any religious context, because,
in spite of the cultural overlay of religion, the gem of the Soul still
shines brightly within. It is not a religion.
The Yoga of the Seven Mudras is not
a religion because it respects you too much to frighten you or coerce
you into following these teachings, or to dictate your lifestyle, your
thinking, your morality or your behavior. For example, it does not tell
you Whom or What to worship. It does not tell you what to pray. It does
not specify how you should live or what you should believe (except for
giving you ideas to help you develop a stronger meditation practice).
It does not hold the teachings in this book are the inspired Word of the
Almighty (scripture), nor does it inveigh upon you to read scripture or
this book as the source of guidance in all of your affairs. It does not
condemn you to fiery netherworlds or the terrors of transmigration if
you fail to believe in the teachings of this book, adopt its specified
belief systems or practices, or live up to the author's personal ethical
standards. It does not set up a unitary Savior figure for you to worship
and obey. [The Masters of the Mudrashram lineage recognize the validity
of the work of the Divine through all lineages in Subtle, Planetary, Cosmic,
Supracosmic, and Transcendental Spheres. Any association with the Mudrashram
lineage, must be and always will be entirely voluntary.] Finally, and
gratefully, it does not set up the author as your new Savior!
It was through an analysis of the
shortcomings of indoctrination practices in religious and cultic groups
that the Mudrashram system of teaching was developed. The Yoga of the
Seven Mudras gives basic models to understand the potential development
of consciousness. It aims for an experiential understanding of spirituality,
an inner mapping of the vehicles of consciousness by those who study and
practice its methods, without attempting to create rituals, doctrine,
or a mythology. It is an initiatory system imparting the Grace-Bestowing
Power of the Divine, but a student can still gain much value from reading
and practicing these techniques from the book without the sittings. It
is a ministry of the forces of the Spirit without ceremony and without
fanfare, open to those who choose to come to partake of it.
Religion as a Conditioning Agency
For purposes of this essay, we shall
define a religion as a belief system that posits a supernatural agency,
power or idea behind the manifestation of human affairs and the universe.
Religion dictates moral standards, correct doctrines of belief, and delimits
acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It sets up living or dead individuals
as ideal models for its adherents to emulate. It may require attendance
of its followers at a regular set of meetings, ceremonies, or rituals.
It admonishes its adherents to worship or respect representations or human
representatives of the supernatural agency, power, or idea. It expounds
human duty and purpose. Over time, it may come to influence laws and the
policies of government, dress, social custom, language and education,
indeed, the entire warp and woof of the fabric of society.
A cultic group is a gathering of
adherents around a charismatic individual with a religious teaching or
belief system. It varies from mainstream religion in that it may claim
a special Divine revelation, or an exclusive access to imminent or present
Divine Advent. In addition, it commonly insists its followers undergo
secret rites, rituals, or initiation ceremonies. It prevalently uses elaborate
procedures for information control. It can separate its followers from
their families and normal social duties or roles, substituting the cultic
group as family, or assigning responsible duties or roles within the cultic
group. Its doctrine oftentimes creates feelings of exclusivity, superiority
or 'specialness' for its adherents. The charismatic individual may largely
guide the individual members' decision-making by directly, by instruction
or commandment; or indirectly, through group pressure to rigidly adhere
to doctrine. The austerity imposed on members can be more severe than
traditional religion, and the indoctrination period more intensive. Often,
a cultic group will insist on a rebirth or conversion experience, creating
a sense of new identity for the convert and separation his or her former
life and personality. A cultic group frequently teaches its members to
remain in an altered state of consciousness as much as possible.
Because the cultic group is smaller
and has less influence than a religion, it may be viewed by the dominant
culture as a deviant or fanatical group. However, cultic groups do dominate
entire societies, influencing every aspect of religious and political
life. The results can be devastating: for example, the aftermath of the
reign of Ayatollah Khomeini, or Adolph Hitler. [Scholars have documented
Hitler's immersion in the occult].
Religion acts as a conditioning agency
by influencing: 1) will, 2) social or cultural norms, 3) morality and
values, 4) perception of the physical and spiritual worlds, 5) belief,
6) emotionality and spirituality, and 7) behavior.
Religion conditions will by creating
a "forced choice" scenario, where a person must choose between accepting
religion or some aversive and terrifying stimulus, such as "God's wrath",
"suffering", "hell", or "transmigration". It also "stacks the deck" to
make the religious option appear more palatable by using testimonies of
people who have had "miraculous transformations" or "wonderful inner experiences"
or having had some other experience desirable to the pre-convert, to make
the choice for joining the religion appear even more positive.
Social and cultural norms are conditioned
by religion when adherents of a particular religion go out into their
careers and social roles, and use the religion's values in dictating policies,
rules, or laws. For example, beliefs about acceptable language and sexuality
mold rules for censorship in reading material, music and the media. Beliefs
about acceptable food express as items excluded in a lunch menu for school
children, such as eliminating pork, or traditionally serving fish on Fridays.
Religion exhorts strict codes of
morality for its adherents, and urges the practice of virtuous behaviors.
This training in right and wrong is internalized as an individual's personal
values, and may come to influence choices throughout his or her life.
Since certain behaviors, attitudes, and motivations have been labeled
as "evil", the individual faces internal discomfort or dissonance, the
"pricks of conscience", whenever his or her natural inclinations to act,
speak, feel, or think, in "forbidden" ways, arise when he or she is "tempted"
choose "wicked" options.
We may note that until an individual
gets in touch with his or her innate sense of truth, conscience is for
the most part constructed from the admonitions of parents, peers, educators,
employers, authorities, and by religious education. The inner sense of
truth, or Dharma, in contrast, is developed by meditation. Inner truth
promotes wisdom and understanding of the laws of nature and consciousness,
congruent with the genuine needs of his or her person and organism.
Perception of the external environment
by a nervous system that is not compromised by illness, fatigue or intoxication
reveals a fairly consistent world. Belief about one's abilities and one's
self (self image), and the cognitive labeling of objects as "safe" or
"dangerous", or as "good for you" or "bad for you" come to build distinct
attitudes about objects, people, places and situations. Through this cognitive
map of the environment created by belief, people no longer see, hear,
or feel what is actually "out there". What they see is a construct based
on their fears that stem from past experience and "training", their current
attitudinal biases, and their expectations (hopes) or anxieties about
what will happen. Since religion so strongly dictates what to believe
about the world and what is good and evil, religion has a powerful impact
in molding the perceptions an individual has of his or her world revealed
by the senses.
Even more powerfully, religion has
a powerful impact on the perception of an individual's inner world by
specifying what "correct" cosmology or world view to believe. Thus the
individual's inner sky may be painted with "the Trinity, Heaven, and the
hosts of angels", or "the Void, The Primal (Adi) Buddha, the five Meditation
(Dhyani) Buddhas, and the realms (lokas) of the sentient beings. As we
will discuss later, religion reifies this perception by having the individual
use rituals, prayers, or meditations to interact with these symbols and
archetypal forms, and the "beings", "spirits", "deities", "gods", or "powers"
that inhabit its chosen cosmology. In the Yoga of the Seven Mudras we
teach that an individual needs to discover what actually is in his or
her inner worlds, and create his or her own map, rather than having it
specified by an authority.
We have mentioned the influence that
religion has on beliefs shaping social and cultural norms, morality, perception
of self (self-image), environment, and cosmology. Religion shapes beliefs
by associating stimuli with strong positive emotions (exultation, ecstasy,
joy, blessedness, total serenity) or strong negative emotions (disgust,
horror, terror, rage, shame, condemnation, revulsion), thus creating a
wide duality between right and wrong, "our religion's true way" and "their
way, which is sinful and in error". Note that the items which are held
out as "evil" are associated with strong negative emotions and terrifying
or disgusting images, and those that are "good" are associated with positive
emotions, and images of goodness, virtue, and praiseworthiness.
Religion captures emotionality by
bringing the listener into participatory relationship with the speaker.
Religion does not talk in the "I" voice, it is always "you" or "they".
"You" are addressed directly, and "you" are told about the error of "your"
ways, and what supernatural catastrophes await "you" if "you" fail to
follow the correct behavior and belief. Otherwise, the argument continues,
"you" will wind up like "them", whose abject and miserable state is described
to you in exquisite and excruciating detail. Tale after tale of woe and
misery and suffering is described to "you" in a sorrowful voice, and after
awhile you come to see yourself in these stories, and identify with the
pain of your own suffering.
Religion then offers its beliefs,
its practices, its powerful spiritual agencies, as your panacea, "your
way out" from this suffering. Note that your attention has been focused
on your suffering by this speech. You were not remembering your suffering
before, but suddenly, midway into the speech, you are engaged: you are
feeling your own depression and misery. You might have been in a good
mood coming into the hall or meeting place, but now you have been sucked
into an encounter with your own pain. Then suddenly, you are offered a
miraculous "way out", and escape from pain. All "you" have to do is "choose"
to do what "we" (the saved, the initiated, the twice born) request that
"you" do. This ongoing request for new commitments and "choices" drags
you deeper and deeper into involvement with religion. Eventually, you
may be "led" to become a renunciant, a monk or nun, in which case a superior
or "Master" will help dictate every decision of your life: what to think,
how to believe, and what to do in every situation. Does this sound like
mind control or brainwashing to you? It is.
Spiritually, conditioning takes place
by selecting one of the twelve domains as the place to focus on your spiritual
heart or spirit. Specific prayers, visualizations, and meditations are
used to direct your attention to this level. Religion describes a "correct"
cosmology in which the spirit dwells and "true" path for you to follow.
There are guides and helpful agencies at every level in the continuum
of consciousness, but religion specifies the only guides you "should"
listen to and which spiritual agencies you "should" invoke or emulate.
The powerful influence that religion
has on belief, cultural norms, morality, perception, and emotions, strongly
affects behavior. This is seen both in "pious" or "holy" behavior while
in the church or temple congregation or at proscribed ceremonies or rituals,
in the prayer or meditation room or altar at home, and in interactions
with other people in daily life.