Reflections on Realization

By George A. Boyd © 2020

Q: What brings about Realization? How can I move beyond simply receiving information and truly grasping the essence of what I am taught?

A: We begin the process of Realization through inquiry, or questioning.

Questioning requests an answer from the ensouling entity, when you ask your ensouling entity; from the spiritual Master, when you query him or her; and God, when you invoke Divine guidance.

When you receive information, your first task is to understand it. This process of understanding engages your intellect and your Illumined Mind (Buddhi). As you study new information, you add to your conceptual map of your own nature and the Path ahead of you. You keep revising this map, as you gather more information and have more experiences.

Whereas information layers on the thread of insight and understanding, which we call the Antakarana, experience occurs when you contact one of the ideas referenced in the information you have learned. You do this through focusing your attention, your attentional principle, or your spirit upon this idea.

Examples of these “ideas” you can experience include:

  • The meaning of spiritual ideas or “seed thoughts”
  • The content of inner vehicles of consciousness
  • The inner centers of vehicles of consciousness, such as chakras
  • The seed atom of a vehicle of consciousness
  • The movement of energy in a vehicle of consciousness, such as Prana or Kundalini
  • The array of vehicles of consciousness that your ensouling entity animates
  • Your attentional principle
  • Your spirit associated with your ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality
  • Your spirit in other domains
  • Your ensouling entity at the cutting edge of spirituality
  • One of your ensouling entities at another Octave of Being
  • A personal integration center, such as the ego in the Conscious mind or the Self in the Metaconscious mind
  • A Superconscious integration center, which we call a nucleus of identity
  • A universal nexus of consciousness, such as the Holy Ghost at the entrance to the abode of the saints in the First Mesoteric Planetary Initiation, or the Supreme Light of Creation at the top of the Ideational Plane in the First Cosmic Initiation
  • A form of the Divine, such as the Father God in the First Mesoteric Planetary Initiation, or Brahman in the First Cosmic Initiation

When you experience something, you gain a new perspective on the object of meditation you focus upon:

  • You gain new information.
  • You make new connections and correlations.
  • You begin to fill in the missing pieces of the inner map of the Continuum you are building.

With each new experience, you gain insights, and begin to truly know the essence of the idea you have used to lead you to the object of meditation. So for example, you truly recognize what is your ego, what is the Self, or what is your attentional principle—you truly grasp the essence to which the idea or concept points you.

The next order of processing is Realization, or enlightenment. Realization means that you know something, because you are one with it:

  • You know your Soul directly, because you are the Soul.
  • You know your attentional principle directly, because you are the attentional principle.
  • You know your spirit directly, because you are your spirit.

Realization is not description [information] or attentional union [experience]; it is identity. You know the essence because you are one with it.

As you progress upon the Path, you come to know the nodal points, Subplane and Plane markers, and the forms of the Divine that operate on each level, as your cutting edge ensouling entity actually traverses this terrain—you know each aspect of the Path, because you have taken each step upon it.

Q: What allows you to know what your ensouling entity has realized?

A: The key that allows you to release the Soul’s knowledge, to open its Buddhic capsule, is Samadhi. When you turn the four outgoing streams back to their core, there is an inner explosion of Realization that takes place: this is the Illumination that takes place during Samadhi.

We teach you how to generate Samadhi at the level of the Soul and each higher Octave of Realization in the Samadhi Week Program. Those who complete the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation are eligible to take this class.

So when you can achieve Atma Samadhi at the level of the Soul, you can extend this to higher Octaves of Being. This opens the full spectrum of Realization, which includes your Monad, Astral Soul, Supracosmic Soul, the Soul of the Bridge Path, and each of the ensouling entities of Transcendental Paths one to seven.

Q: What if I have difficulty in experiencing Samadhi?

A: Like any skill, it takes time to master it. If it is important to you, you will devote the time to reach Samadhi.

It won’t come instantly, but in time, you will get it. This will allow you to truly know and realize what you’ve opened on the Path. It won’t be conjecture or speculation; you will genuinely know.

Q: What happens if the ensouling entity I’m meditating upon has been liberated?

A: You’ll know the Source from which this ensouling entity has emanated—and the complete Path of the ensouling entity, from beginning to end. In this vortex of Creation from which your ensouling entity has originated, you will also intuit the other ensouling entities that dwell at that level, and their distance from the Source.

If you’ll reflect upon these three levels—information, experience, and Realization—you’ll be able to differentiate them. With practice, you will begin to be able to shift between them at will, when it is appropriate to operate at that level.

How You Can Become Illumined and Enlightened

By George A. Boyd ©2018

Q: What is Illumination? How do I become enlightened?

A: To understand how you do this, you need to understand something about the levels of mental functioning. To become enlightened, you have to move your attention to the core of your mind and unite with your Soul. But before you do this, you have to move through the other strata of mental functioning. So beyond the firing of neurons in your brain that instruments can measure, there are seven additional layers of mental functioning:

  1. Reason – At this level of the Conscious mind, the faculty of reason enables you to use analysis, deductive and analogical reasoning. With your reason, you are able to “test reality” to detect if a statement is true or false. You use this level of the mind when you investigate something or gather evidence to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
  2. Intellect – At this level of the Metaconscious mind, you are able to utilize problem-solving strategies to arrive at a solution to a problem. The intellect is capable of inductive, dialectical, and synthetic reasoning.Reflective and Receptive meditation – When you activate this connection to your Soul through the intuitive thread (Antakarana), you can ask the Soul questions and receive answers. So if you ask your Soul, “What is the purpose I am alive?” The Soul will give you an answer if this cord that connects your intellect with the Soul is functioning. You can also “sit in the silence” and passively receive guidance from your Soul through Receptive meditation.
  3. Psychic intuition – This type of knowing operates in your vehicle of consciousness in the Psychic Realm. Depending on your state of spiritual evolutionary development, this aspect of intuitive knowing allows you to read the “ethers”—the chemical ether (comprising molecules, atoms, and the subatomic unified field), the information ether, the resonance ether, the life force ether, the desire ether (e.g., the Law of Attraction), the thought form ether, and yet higher ethers up to the presence of the Soul. This form of knowing allows you to gather information about other people, so you can do “psychic readings.”
  4. Revelatory intuition – This type of knowing begins to operate in the First Planetary Initiation. It ostensibly reveals the meaning of scriptures, gives correspondences to metaphysical ideas, and constructs a philosophical framework through which you can understand the world. With sufficient acquisition of this knowledge from this source, you can begin to teach and counsel others about metaphysics and spiritual subjects.
  5. Illumined Mind downpour of knowledge – This aspect of the mind functions when you awaken the “Buddhic capsule,” the inmost mental stratum around your Soul. You can awaken this capsule through deep Raja Yoga or Kundalini meditation. When it is activated, there is a continuous downpour of intuitive knowledge, which shows you the content of every level of the mind, and reveals the Soul at the core of the Superconscious mind. This igniting of this deepest aspect of the mind is called Illumination or Samadhi. The discerning wisdom that operates at this level of the mind is called mandalic reasoning.
  6. Gnosis – This state dawns on the mind when you know the Soul from the Soul’s perspective. In Gnosis, you become the Soul. This state is also called Enlightenment.

Most people are familiar with layers 1 and 2—you use them at school and at work. Some people can also access layer 3, so they are able to ask a question to their Soul, and the Soul will give them guidance.

Usually people begin to tap into layer 4 when their Soul journeys onto the Psychic Realm; layer 5 appears when the Soul enters the First Planetary Initiation; and layer 6 dawns with the Soul takes the Fourth Planetary Initiation and it migrates onto the Buddhic Plane. There are spiritual practices that can enable people to prematurely activate layers 4 and 5—this typically results in distorted and confused information being disseminated.

You can learn ways to safely activate layers 3 to 6 in our intermediate meditation classes, in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program. We explore the deeper aspects of gaining illumination (layer 6) and experiencing Gnosis (layer 7) in the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.

We encourage you to acquire techniques from intuitive meditation (Jnana Yoga), so you can begin to access the deeper layers of your mental functioning. We teach these techniques in our intermediate and advanced classes to help you reach the states of Illumination and Gnosis.