Category Archives: Intuitive Meditation

Why People Might Not Be Aware of Their Soul Purpose

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2022

Q: Why am I having problems knowing my Soul Purpose?

A: Genuine knowledge of your Soul Purpose only truly comes when you experience a re-integration around the Soul. There are seven steps to this maturation process:

  1. You are only aware of the ego
  2. You are aware of the ego, plus you interact with elements of your lower unconscious or Shadow
  3. You are aware of the ego, plus you experience that your conscience criticizes and corrects your ego’s behavior, words, and beliefs—this appears to be the stage where the inner critic emerges
  4. You activate the Self, which begins to overrule the ego’s octave of desire-driven behavioral will and instead implements a goal-directed behavioral plan
  5. You are aware of the Self, plus you begin to interact with archetypal elements of the middle unconscious—the zone of your unrealized personal potential—and the higher unconscious, where you interface and dialog with elements of the Superconscious mind
  6. You experience inner awakening of your immortal spiritual principles—the attentional principle, the spirit, and your ensouling entity
  7. You connect with the Soul, and it begins to direct the Self and the ego to carry out its Soul Purpose

You can begin to accurately discern your Soul Purpose at levels 6 and 7:

At levels 1 to 4, there is no awareness of Soul Purpose.

At level 5, revelation and intuition intimate elements of your Soul Purpose, but you may not understand the cryptic or symbolic communication that arises from this level. As a result, you may experience distortion of what your Soul is trying to show you.

At level 6, when you awaken your attentional principle and spirit, you can begin to commune with the Soul and get its direct guidance. Jnana Yoga methods like Reflective and Receptive Meditation allow you to directly connect with the Soul and receive guidance from it.

Level 7 typically dawns when the Soul ascends to its Crown of Purpose, which for many people, occurs when their Soul takes the Third Planetary Initiation. At this level, the Soul enacts its purpose through your personality, and is actively guiding you about what you need to do.

A Transpersonal psychotherapy, Psychosynthesis, has methods to progressively lead people from level 2 to 5 through a gradual integration process. This ultimately results in a re-integration around the Soul.

In Mudrashram®, we teach Centering Methods to activate levels 4 and 5, and the Rainbow Technique to work with elements of the unconscious mind. For level 6, we train you in the Awakening Meditation coupled with Mantra Yoga, Nada Yoga, and Raja Yoga to activate your immortal spiritual principles. We give you a transformational mantra to bring your Soul to the level of the crown of purpose, which enables your Soul to begin to directly your personality and carry out its Soul Purpose—and move beyond into yet higher octaves of spiritual development.

We teach these methods in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.

Entering the World of Ideas

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2022

Q: If I get an idea about what I might do, does this come from the Soul?

A: Ideas arise in a band of the Subtle Realm called the Manomayakosa. These sparks of inspiration interface with the Metaconscious mind.

  • This idea can stimulate the Intellect, where we call it a concept.
  • It can provide a picture of a potential solution in the Concrete Mind, where we call it a visualized outcome or goal picture.
  • It can activate the Conscience, where we call it a precept.
  • It can inspire a potential personification for the Persona, where it suggests roles, dialog, and humor, as you might express in role-play, drama, or comedy.
  • It can stir the Desire Body to commit to a cause, to take action, or to do battle.

An idea most commonly appears at the level of the Intellect, where it appears as a conceptual representation of an object, a quality, or a category. Ideas are linked together to create models that elegantly describe a subject matter, as a conceptual framework.

The dimension of quality for an idea has several layers:

  1. Intensity – This is the relative energy of an idea from mild to compelling. The energy for design for a new lamp would not be as intense as someone framing the need to vote for one’s candidate as something that will save the country.
  2. Emotion – Ideas range from non-emotionalized or strongly emotionalized. A design for a butter dish would have little or no emotion associated with it, where as a political candidate cast as the country’s savior would be powerfully emotionalized.
  3. Desire – Ideas that becomes representations of desires are called dreams. You might have an idea of what it would be like when you graduate… when you take a vacation… when you retire… and this motivates you to want to achieve this goal image. Desire-laden ideas are typically highly energetic and strongly emotionalized.
  4. Fantasy – This is the symbolic or imaginal significance of an idea. This is the fantasy you weave or the story you tell yourself of what it will be like when you realize your dream. This fantasy component becomes more energetic and emotionalized, the more closely you identify with the outcome. Fantasizing about getting your first job as a chemist, when this is strongly connected with the way you visualize yourself in the future, is experienced more intensely than weaving a fantasy about visiting Disney World—a fantasy connected with your identity and how you see yourself in the future is more compelling than having a fun time.
  5. Reception – This layer taps how you received the idea, and whether you received the idea in a way that you could remember it. The idea can spontaneously pop into your mind through inspiration. You might encounter it through other people’s communication, in conversation, in a speech or lecture. The idea might be conveyed to you through different channels—reading, audio, or video. This layer is relevant to whether the idea makes an impression on your mind and you retain it. If you learn best through listening, you might not remember the idea if it is presented as a written article.
  6. Context – Each idea is received in a particular context that helps you understand its meaning. Ideas can be presented in an environmental, social, cultural, or religious context. For example, the word “love” has many different meanings: when you are clear in which context this idea nests, you can understand the intended meaning of the person who communicated it to you.
  7. Appropriateness – An idea must be relevant and germane to your goals and dreams, or you will reject it. At this layer, you make judgments about whether an idea is realistic or unrealistic; whether it is proven through testing and evidence or it is merely a fantasy; or whether it is doable or unattainable.

The Soul can send you an idea, but it is hard to tease out the origin of where you receive an idea. If you are unsure of the origin of the idea, you might try using Receptive Meditation, where you receive information from the Soul while you are in its presence. This lets you clearly discern that you are getting this communication from the Soul.

We teach Receptive Meditation in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. We teach a form of this meditation in our Introduction to Meditation Program that does not require you to enter a deep state of meditational absorption.

We encourage you to train yourself to identify where particular ideas arise, and to notice the qualities with which these ideas are imbued.

What Is Synthesis and Why Is It Important?

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2022

Q: What is synthesis? You mention a Synthesis Center during the Light Sitting, but I’m not sure what synthesis is and why this is important.

A: Synthesis occurs at different levels of the mind:

  1. In the physical body, a metaphor for synthesis is the state of homeostasis, where the body creates the optimal balance between acid and alkaline blood chemistry.
  2. In the mental center of the Conscious mind, synthesis appears as the common area of two overlapping shapes in a Venn diagram.
  3. In the intellect, synthesis is the resolution of an argument in a common point of agreement that transcends, yet includes, the viewpoints of both opinions.
  4. In the Temple of Philosophy on the Abstract Mind Plane, synthesis is the next stage of thesis and antithesis, in which the apparent conflict of these two opposite positions is harmonized.
  5. In the Psychic Realm, synthesis reveals the nature of the Soul above the conscious zone of the mind and the unconscious zone of the mind, as the transcendent essence that reconciles both polarities.
  6. On the Wisdom Plane, synthesis occurs as an emergence phenomenon that reveals a new level beyond a current condition and the forces that hold you in dynamic stasis in that condition. Synthesis in this context occurs when you move to the next level that you cannot truly grasp when you are in the container of the level before it.
  7. In the First Planetary Initiation, synthesis takes the form of rebirth as the Moon Soul nucleus of identity, which the Holy Spirit awakens through Grace. This is the holy essence that transcends both virtuous and sinful actions.
  8. At the entrance to the Second Planetary Initiation, synthesis emerges as the powerful creative vortex of the Mighty I AM Presence, which appears as a third transcendent force that resolves the conflict between conscious volition and the unconscious motivation that opposes it: this inner Divine command breaks this impasse between these levels of the mind and clears the way to move forward.
  9. In the Greater Mystery School Subplane of the Second Planetary Initiation, synthesis is shown to be the activity of the Fourth Ray, which harmonizes the pairs of opposites.
  10. In the vehicle of the Manasic Vortex in the Third Planetary Initiation, synthesis exists as an inner center in which each octave of the mind is actively aligned with the Soul’s purpose, turning the personality and the higher vehicles of consciousness of the Superconscious mind into an instrument of the Soul.
  11. In the Buddhic vehicle of the Fourth Planetary Initiation, the downpour of the Illumined Mind purifies the mind, brings about mental healing and harmony, and re-establishes the attention in union with the Soul again—transcending the sense of separation.
  12. On the Monadic Plane, upon liberation of the Soul in the Nirvanic Flame, the Monad appears as the reunifying essence transcending both the Soul and the portions of the mind it has turned into light and the darkness of the karmic accretions of the unconscious mind.

When the mind is in conflict and turmoil, this hinders making decisions, generating forward movement in life, and allowing clear expression of the Soul’s gifts. Synthesis resolves this conflict, and allows physical and psychological tension to relax—freeing up energy for constructive use.

Whether this conflict arises as arguments in intimate interpersonal relationships, discord at work, disagreement in the political area, or a clash between nations, synthesis is a way forward beyond the deadlock. Learning how to achieve synthesis is the goal of mediation and its efforts to reach conflict resolution.

We teach the Synthesis technique as a supplemental exercise for 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 find the key to produce synthesis to resolve internal and external stress in your life, and make progress, both personally and spiritually.

Formulating Questions for Journaling

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd ©2021

Q: I seem to get the same material when I am journaling and inquiring—asking questions to my Higher Self? I keep exploring these same issues, like I am continually re-hashing the same stuff.

A: It depends on what question you ask. Different questions evoke discrete responses from the Subconscious and the Subconscious mind. For example, if you ask:

How do you feel? You’ll dredge up the emotional issues you have been dealing with in your life. [This question is often used as a segue into psychotherapy—it focuses you on your poignant emotional issues and concerns.]

What do you really want? You’ll tap the core of your desires that motivate you. [This is a good one to use if you are experiencing boredom and ennui with key areas in your life—your relationship, the people in your social network, your classes in school, your career, or your spiritual or religious organization.]

What fears hold you back? You’ll examine the obstacles fear puts up to block your success. [If you have not been moving forward on your dreams and aspirations because of fear, this is a beneficial question to ask.]

What doubts don’t allow you to move forward? You’ll look into how lack of belief in your Self, or a deficit of faith and hope influence your ability to achieve your dreams. [This helps you confront your inner critic and begin to dismantle it.]

What are your core fears? You’ll probe into the root of your egoic complex that clings to survival and runs away from danger and death. [You’ll want to use this one when you seek to make a spiritual breakthrough, to leap across the great chasm and allow your spiritual life to be awakened in you.]

What action can you take to move forward? You’ll employ this question to identify steps you can take that will free you from inertia and feeling stuck. [This is helpful when you are dealing with procrastination and feelings of not knowing what to do to create movement.]

What’s the next step? You’ll make use of this one when you want to know where you are going in your life in a particular area. It lays out a step-by-step plan for you to reach the goal or purpose for this area of your life. [Those of you who are unaware of the purpose for engaging in a particular endeavor will find this sheds light on your what to do next to actualize that aspect of your nature. We use a structured exercise to gather this guidance from your Higher Self in our intermediate meditation classes.]

What do You require of me, Oh Lord? You’ll utilize this question when you want to know the Divine Will for your life. [We discuss the elements of what the Divine Will is in our article, “The personal octave of the Divine Will,” which is in our Library, and also in our book, A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation.]

How may I serve? This reveals your Soul’s gifts that it can express in you, the wisdom and intuitive knowledge that it wishes to share, and the love and compassion that it feels that it wants to do bring out. [This frees the deeper life within you to express in your life.]

How do I make progress on the Path? This clarifies what are your next steps spiritually. [We assist aspirants to answer this question with our Soul Purpose Reading, which reveals the highlights of the Path ahead.]

What is my purpose? This requests your Soul to reveal the facets of its Purpose that it is implementing in your life. [You begin this inquiry when you have established a partnership with your Soul to enable it to express in your life.]

How do I fulfill my dreams [or overcome this challenge to reaching my dreams]? This question guides you to the steps to achieve actualization—making your dreams come true. [You would bring out this question when you are already clear about your personal zone of operation and your Soul’s zone of expression, and you seek to chart a course to personal fulfillment.]

Alternate Ways of Finding Answers to Your Questions

When asking questions does not yield fruitful or actionable responses, here are some alternatives you can use:

Practicing the Presence – In this method, you place your attention into the inner presence within you that declares, “I am God.” You listen for any guidance that it may give you. You would adopt this method if you do not know what question to ask to overcome an obstacle or move forward in your life.

The feet of the Master – In this approach, you sit at the feet of your inner spiritual Guide, and listen to what he or she tells you. You would draw upon this method when you cannot get constructive, actionable material during your dialogs with your Soul or in responses to your prayers.

The Light upon the altar – In this technique, you contemplate the Light of the Holy Spirit anchored in your Moon Soul, or the Shakti that broods upon your cosmic consciousness. This alternative comes into play when you cannot contact the Guide within, or your attempts to get guidance from the Soul or in response to prayer is not fruitful.

Journaling Specific Areas in Your Life

You also can journal to look into your goals for each of the areas of your life. Areas you can explore in your process include:

  • Your health
  • Your home and environment
  • Your emotional issues
  • Your relationships
  • Your education
  • Your career
  • Your finances
  • Your creativity
  • Your moral values
  • Your engagement with your community
  • Your learning about other cultures and travel
  • Your recovery from addiction or trauma
  • Your quest for meaning and understanding
  • Your spiritual journey
  • Your personal dreams for your life

Journaling is like a crowbar that pries open the inner depths of the mind. It lets you uncover your truths. We encourage you to journal with the appropriate questions upon relevant topics to reap the full benefits of this practice.

Our meditation students who are taking or have completed one of our intermediate classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation or the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program, are eligible to obtain The Mudrashram® Home Study Workbook, which gives you the information and resources to prepare a personal and spiritual journal. We recommend that you obtain this book, if you gravitate to doing a journal as a way of gaining insight and clarifying what decisions to make.

Reflections on Genius

Posted on by

By George A. Boyd © 2005

Genius, in academic testing protocols, is defined as scoring on an intelligence test greater than two standard deviations from the norm. Whether the correct responses are learned during elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education, or whether some superior innate faculty of discernment or judgment allows these individuals to score significantly above the norm, is putative.

We may speculate that if education is geared directly to improve test performance on standardized testing—learning the intellectual skills necessary to pass tests such as the state high school exit exams, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), or Graduate Record Exam (GRE) may also increase the scores on intelligence testing.

Aside from this consensual empirical measure, genius may have other definitions that we will discuss briefly here.

  1. Expanded ability to use the faculties of the intellect – The faculties of the intellect (see our article, “The Seven Chords of Jnana Yoga” available in our online Library) may be opened to a greater extent in some individuals than in others. This allows them enhanced access to problem solving strategies of greater complexity. This may be the result of spiritual evolution that concomitantly awakens the vehicles of the personality.
  2. The result of prior learning or experience in other lives – The phenomena of the gifted musical prodigy, for example, is used as a [rationale] for this theory. To develop the nearly instant facility for music and accelerated acquisition of mastery of the most complex musical repertoire, it is argued, points to lifetimes of prior practice and progressive mastery of the rudiments of this art.
  3. The result of powers gained by spiritual practices in present or past lives – By certain types of meditation practices, including Jnana
    Yoga, Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Agni Yoga—We could add, by the use of selected bija mantras invoking the goddess of learning, Saraswati—the individual may purportedly refine certain talents on this substrate in the Superconscious mind. This gift is, in turn, anchored in the personality. The individual then asks for the gift to operate, and poetry, music, or whatever gift the Soul bestows flows into the mind to be recorded and expressed. Through study and reflection (Jnana Yoga), contemplation (Raja Yoga), energization and activation of specific vehicles of consciousness (Kundalini Yoga), and anchoring these abilities through attunement (Agni Yoga),these powers are progressively awakened, mastered, and expressed in the personality. [We teach each of these types of meditation in our intermediate classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program.]
  4. The result of the bestowal of a gift by a supernatural agency – As a result of prayer, penance, great charity and good deeds, intense worship, and other means of pleasing the Higher Power, angels, gods, goddesses, or the Divine are held in this view to anchor a gift in the individual during the current life.
  5. Merit based bestowal – In this scenario, the gift is anchored by supernatural agencies prenatally or at birth as a reward for good deeds in past lives. Unlike (4), the individual does nothing to invoke them by prayer, worship, or meritorious deeds in the current life. Also unlike (3), the individual does not perform specialized meditation practices to develop them, either in this or in previous lives.
  6. The result of vehicular awakening – In this model, gifts or powers are automatically bestowed as the Kundalini Shakti opens and awakens higher chakras. Unlike (3) where the powers are progressively refined by meditation practice, then anchored—in this model, the native intelligence of the Kundalini is sufficient to awaken the powers, and they burst forth, fully active, as the progressive rising of the Kundalini force opens the chakra or higher vehicle of consciousness.
  7. The result of spiritual evolution – In this viewpoint, the evolution of the ensouling entity and its vehicles concurrently tunes up the vehicles of the personality, opening the faculties of each vehicle. In this schema, only transformational methods that unfold the spiritual evolutionary potentials of the Soul produce these effects. Meditation practices described in (3) access and awaken faculties that exist in the Superconscious mind, but do not concomitantly unfold the spiritual evolutionary potentials.

In the Mudrashram® System of Integral Meditation, we underscore that genius can be developed as a synergy of methods (3) and (7), and use specific attunement practices to unfold the faculties of the vehicles of the personality (1). We see that genius is the dynamic expression of the Soul’s innate abilities of love, wisdom, and power that are present in the Superconscious mind, and are actively and purposely anchored in the personality.

Bestowal of good fortune from good deeds, spiritual practices, or the beneficence of your Higher Power may underlie your current high intelligence or giftedness in certain areas of human endeavor. We point out, however, that it is possible to develop these capacities further as the consequences of activating your spiritual evolutionary potentials and moving forward the process of refining these abilities by learning selected meditation practices.

The Kundalini will rise and activate powers and abilities naturally as a part of spiritual evolution, as in (6), but we do not advocate heroic measures to attempt to force open these higher centers or chakras. We do advocate the use of the Kundalini to awaken, activate, purify, and ready the higher vehicles for the Soul’s expression—but not as an agency of transformation, which for many individuals, produces imbalances of vehicles and may actively interfere with personality functioning.

Genius and Talent

Talent is a different order of mastery of a skill. Talent may be understood as a step on the path to mastery of the skill, where it becomes fully incorporated into the Soul’s repertoire of abilities.

These stages in the acquisition of talent, genius, and mastery are shown below.

Level of Mind

Content

Stage

Conscious

Initial practice of the skill

Stage of learning

Subconscious

Automatization of parts of the skill

Stage of habit

Metaconscious

Easy practice of the skill with creative innovation and style

Stage of talent

Understanding the skill and its acquisition so that you may guide another in gaining talent

Stage of teaching

Superconscious

Gaining unique insights or revelations about the skill so that you are able to advance the skill in new directions, e.g. to invent new derivations or application of the skill

Stage of intuitive revelation

Developing the skill to the point where the Soul can fully express the skill seamlessly, utilizing the faculties of the Superconscious, Metaconscious, Subconscious, and Conscious minds

Stage of genius

Developing the skill to the point where it can be anchored in others as a gift

Stage of Mastery

Gaining access to the Superconscious mind is requisite to develop the three highest aspects of a skill, for which meditation
plays a key role. This aspect of skill mastery transcends the personality by creating a tunnel of ability into the Superconscious mind.

  • When this tunnel is opened all the way to the presence of the Soul, true genius is born.
  • When this tunnel is opened to the presence of the Divine Spirit, which dwells universally in all lives, it bestows the ability to minister the skill as a Grace, a gift, or an empowerment—and it imbues another Soul with ready understanding and insight into the skill. When the skill is developed to this level, this is a sign of Mastery.

Whereas one with talent can train another to express talent, one with Mastery can activate the octaves of the Superconscious and can draw out inspiration and genius in another.

We encourage the reader to reflect upon the possibility of genius and what may bring it to fruition, and the stages of development of a skill.

We propose to you that genius may not be a rare genetic gift bestowed on the few by some special twist of fate, but rather the potential for any of your skills should you devote the time, energy, dedication, discipline, and perseverance to develop it fully—so it may allow your Soul to express through this ability in your human life.