Our articles are available here on our web log, on the Open Stacks page, and in our Library—you can sign up for the Library here. We also have books you can read when you want to delve deeper into our teachings. There are also downloads available for our webinars.We use a lot of tables! We have written this article in response to one of your questions on how to use the tables.

By George A. Boyd © 2019

Q: I noticed in many of your articles on the website and your books that there are a lot of tables. I’m not sure how I can make use of this information. Could you shed some light on this?

A: Tables can be used to compare alternate viewpoints across the Seven Rays, the content of chakras or inner centers, the perspectives from different octaves of being, or uncovering greater depths on the Continuum. These tabulations organize information so it can be readily assimilated and compared against other elements within the table. We utilize several types:

1. Horizontal spread – tables of this type compare and contrast the content of the Seven Rays.
2. Vertical array – these tables compare the viewpoint of ensouling entities, nuclei of identity, or spirits at different octaves of the Continuum. They can be also be employed to show varying abilities or powers at different bands of the Continuum, or progressive stages of spiritual Mastery.
3. Depth mandala – these tables show progressively deeper layers of the psyche. Tables of this type might detail the content of each nodal point, or deeper layers of the unconscious mind. Depth mandalas are often used to show you the steps to reach a certain inner center, such as the steps to unite attention with your attentional principle (Purusa Dhyan), the Self (Swa Dhyan), your spirit (Surat Dhyan), your Soul on its own Plane (Adi Atma Dhyan), or with a spiritual guide (Guru Dhyan).
4. Vehicular study – these tables will detail the content of chakras for selected vehicles of consciousness. This is also applied for contemplation of the attentional principle and the spirit through microconcentration.
5. Nested array – these tables show vehicles of consciousness that encapsulate other vehicles of consciousness, like Russian dolls. For example, the form of the feeling center of the Conscious mind is subsumed under the larger frame of the bubble of the entire Conscious mind. This is in turn subsumed under the larger frame of the entire Personality, which the Self integrates. The Personality can then be viewed from the standpoint of the Soul, as an instrument of its expression in the human world. The Soul, in turn, appears to be contained within the Macrocosm of the Planetary Man or Woman.
6. Continuum snapshots – these tables show the different Subplanes and Planes that make up entire Divisions of the Great Continuum of Consciousness. These types of tables are used in our studies of the Great Continuum of Consciousness, and delineate the Path of spiritual development through entire segments of the Superconscious mind.
7. Thematic analysis – these tables show the content of different bands of the unconscious mind as progressive layers with a common theme. We utilize types of tables in our Karma Readings. Rather than show you steps through this band of the mind, we describe the content at that level.

If you can identify what type of table is in a particular article or book, you can readily understand what the Swamis are showing you, and you can gain maximum value from reading this article. Many of our articles are written not only to be an exposition—e.g., giving you information about something—but also to be a meditation, where you will contemplate each row of a table as a way of penetrating more deeply into the subject matter.

It will be helpful to ask yourself, based on the topic of the article, what type of explanation will elucidate this subject. This will give you a clue as to what type of table we are presenting. So for example, if the topic of the article is “Ministry across the Seven Rays,” you know that the table will take the horizontal perspective and show you the content on the parallel tracks of the Seven Rays (type one). The topic, “A Study of the Chakras of the Psychic Guide,” on the other hand, will likely present a vehicular study (type four).