spiritual evolution | Mudrashram® Institute of Spiritual Studies

Q: How is it that people who accelerate their spiritual progress through some type of transformational technique will still experience issues in their life?

A: For the standpoint of the Planetary Adept, who transcends each of the potential lives in the Subtle and Planetary Realm, there are the archetypes of these lives, which span from just beyond the gateway of the Superconscious mind in the Subtle Realm to the Flame of Compassion at the top of the Fourth Planetary Initiation.

Each of these lives is comprised of seven layers:

Physical body – This is the vehicle of expression for the issues of life.
Ego – This is the personal identification center that experiences being embedded in that life.
Life narrative – This is the layer of life experience that dwells on the temporal mnemonic band of the mind that parallels the ego’s experience of its unique life.
Deep life issues – These are the emotionalized issues within the personal unconscious that make up destiny karma—these are the unfulfilled or unresolved issues of human life.
Torus of Life Purpose – This is a mirror of those unfulfilled aspects that operate from the Subconscious mind. From this vantage point, you can witness the activity of these life issues playing out though your causal body (craving and volition), your astral body (fantasy and desire), and your system of chakras (movement of life force driving emotion and behavior).
Petal on the Lotus of Lives – Each nodal point, from the Outer Worlds below the beginning of the Path in the Subtle Realm, and each nodal point upon the Path in the Subtle and Planetary Realms up to the highest nodal point of the Fourth Planetary Initiation has one petal on the Lotus of Lives in which one potential life is mirrored.
Thread connecting this life to the overshadowing ensouling entity – When the ensouling entity incarnates, it connects with this life through a life force link. The life that is generated and the body that expresses it are in direct correspondence to the station of the Soul at the time of birth.

For example, a woman’s Soul Spark dwells on the third nodal point of the Subtle Mental Subplane of the Subtle Realm. Her Soul Spark animates that petal of the Lotus of Lives that corresponds to that nodal point, and the destiny karma apportioned to that life would be written on the Torus of Life Purpose; this will also appear in the fourth quadrant of the casual body.

As the Soul Spark evolves, it will maintain its life force connection to that life in which it was incarnate, even though it aligns with a new potential life petal at each new nodal point that it opens. This is why you will see each successive life anchored in a higher life petal, and a new destiny pattern is established in each new incarnation.

So our woman’s Soul Spark, who incarnated in the Petal of the Life Lotus at the third nodal point of the Subtle Mental Subplane—as her Soul Spark evolves during this life and the inter-life period after the death of that body—will anchor her next life in the petal of the Lotus of Life corresponding to her new station on the Path. This might be, for example, the eleventh nodal point of the Subtle Mental Realm, when she next incarnates.

Sometimes, as her ensouling entity incarnates on this next higher life plateau, she will incarnate in the body of the opposite gender—so “she” will become a “he” in this next life. We speculate that those who don’t easily make this transition from female to male—or vice versa—may deal with gender identity issues as part of their destiny karma in their new life.

This process continues until the Soul has gone beyond the Flame of Compassion at the top of the Fourth Planetary Initiation, at which point an individual enters the Kingdom of the Soul. At this stage of spiritual evolution, the individual is said to be “Not Returning” to the wheel of physical incarnation. When the Soul merges into the Nirvanic Flame, it is reborn as the Monad.

In the form the Monad animates, this Lotus of Lives is reflected at its feet center (pedal chakra). There is a central Jet of Spirit in this center, surrounded by a crystal clear circle—this corresponds to the Soul Plane—and one Life Petal appears for each nodal point below the top of the Fourth Planetary Initiation.

So if you accelerate the rate of your spiritual evolution, while your Soul and its vehicles move to a new nodal point. The karma embedded in the Life Petal at the nodal point in which it operated continues to operate until it is completed—until each issue has been fully experienced and worked out.

Q: What happens if someone doesn’t unfold his or her Soul Spark or Soul, but instead, unfolds a spiritual essence in the Cosmic, Supracosmic, or Transcendental Sphere?

A: The destiny karma will continue to play out on the Life Petal on the Lotus of Life. If the individual leads a good, “dharmic life,” in which he or she doesn’t create heinous sins and darken consciousness, the Soul Spark or Soul will continue to evolve gradually. Every eleven or twelve years, individuals typically work through the karma between one nodal point and the next one.

What we see in individuals polarized in the Higher Octaves of Being is that they will enact a new agenda in their lives based on what path they embrace. So in addition to destiny karmic issues, which will remain the same, we see that this higher octave spiritual essence will express elements of its experience through its personality.

For example, individuals who identify with cosmic consciousness and actively unfold this essence might begin practicing hatha yoga, learning from books of Yoga Philosophy, studying Hindu scriptures, and enacting worship and lifestyle rituals in their life. They will bring these elements into expression in their personality, while the underlying destiny karma issues will remain the same.

This is why you find a profound split in the ego’s experience of life and the destiny karma with which it must struggle, and the higher, more ecstatic experience of someone communing with cosmic consciousness—or other Higher Octave spiritual essence.

We might note that those who do their spiritual work at these Higher Octaves often seek to disidentify with the ego and permanently transcend it though remaining in an altered state of consciousness. However, these issues remain, and must be resolved, regardless of whatever state of identity the individual embraces.

Those who are interested in studying more about what happens when individuals work outside of the cutting edge of spirituality and adopt identification outside their native ensoulment and personality embodiment might enjoy reading our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing? Those wishing to avoid the consequences of imbalanced spiritual development may wish to learn more about the Mudrashram® system of Integral meditation, and learn how to effect transformation at your cutting edge of spirituality in our intermediate meditation classes, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and the online Accelerated Meditation Program.

The ability to do sustained inner work on yourself requires that you first reach union with one of the immortal principles of consciousness within you—the attentional principle, the spirit, and the Soul. You learn this aspect of inner work in meditation.

While psychotherapeutic and hypnotic work requires your ability to isolate your attention and focus it, it does not require that you gain union with one of your immortal principles. The deeper integrative work of psychotherapy leads you to gain union with the Self and to activate its abilities—but excluding transpersonal psychotherapy modalities, activating your immortal essences is not required for these types of psychological intervention.

Inner work typically addresses physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems. The deeper component required to do inner work may also require absorption and focusing of your attention, and experiencing union and identification with one or more of your immortal essences.

This ability to do inner work appears to progress through eleven stages.

Fully embodied egoic stage – You experience physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems, but you have no apparent means of resolving them. You may seek help at this stage, but it may be difficult initially for you to benefit from psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, or meditation, because you may have difficulties focusing your attention on your subjective experiences.
Relaxation stage – You are able to release tension in your muscles. You may have some success letting go of pain in your body. You learn to relax. You may take up stress reduction modalities like Hatha Yoga or Tai Chi.

This ability to relax may take the edge off of your emotional issues, and may make your mental problems seem more manageable. After some practice of relaxation and stress release, you may be able to collect your attention and become established in the state of mindfulness.

Cascade of thinking stage – You are able to process your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems using sustained attention to the selected levels of the Conscious mind where you can become aware of them arising in the present time.

These practices of monitoring the sensations, feelings, and thoughts arising in the present time are called Vipassana—Physical Vipassana monitors the sensations arising within your body awareness center; Emotional Vipassana, the emotions bubbling up in your feeling center; and Mental Vipassana, the thoughts surfacing in your mental center.

You are able to benefit from psychotherapy and hypnosis at this level. You may, however, experience difficulty moving beyond the cascade of body sensations, feelings, and thinking at this level, so you are unable to penetrate more deeply into the levels of your mind beyond these centers of the Conscious mind.

Initial contemplation stage – You are able to move beyond the initial processing of your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems at these levels of your Conscious mind. You are able to consciously direct your attention along the thread of consciousness.

At this stage, you are able to focus your attention at discrete focal points and contemplate the contents arising. At this stage, you have your first experiences of meditative absorption. You are able to enter more profound states of hypnotic trance and clearer insight in psychotherapy at this stage.

Inner awakening stage – As your attention continues to travel along the thread of consciousness, you encounter one of your immortal essences—your attentional principle, your spirit, or your Soul. After gaining union with this essence through repeated meditation sittings, you may eventually come to recognize this essence clearly and identify with it.

At this stage, you come to recognize your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems arise within the strata of the mind—but you discover that who you are, is separate from this content. You cease to identify yourself with illness, emotional complexes, and your problems—you have them, but you are not your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems.

Transformational stage – At this level, you begin to travel through the inner Planes as your attentional principle; open the channels of the Nada as your spirit; and unfold your Soul through transformational meditation. You may learn a variety of techniques to work on your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems as your awakened spiritual essence.
Illumination stage – At this level, you begin to activate your Illumined Mind. You experience a downpour of intuitive knowledge, which enables you to get to the core of your mental problems. You gain understanding, insight, and wisdom.
Compassion stage – At this level, you acutely feel your own suffering and the suffering of others. You are empowered to send the Comforter to heal deep emotional pain and resolve emotional issues.
Healing stage – At this level you have the ability to send the Light of Healing, which helps dissolve physical symptoms.
Inner Guide stage – At this level, you gain the ability to lead the attention along the thread of consciousness to unite with the attention principle or the spirit, and to assist these essences travel along their pathways.
Thaumaturge stage – At this level, you are able send attunements to unfold the Soul, and move it from nodal point to nodal point to Mastery and Liberation.

True meditation emerges at stage four. The ability to move your attention and contemplate is prerequisite to inner awakening.

You awaken your spiritual essences at stage five. This level marks the point where you shift from becoming identified with physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems—and realize you are a conscious spiritual essence.

Conscious inner work becomes possible at stage six. At this point in your inner journey, you discover can work on your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems without relying upon others to guide you in working with them. You gain the ability to initiate process meditation to work on your emotional issues, to modify limiting and dysfunctional beliefs through affirmation, and to use autohypnosis to promote healthy behavioral change.

Stage six also marks the beginning of transcendence meditation, where you start to transform and awaken the powers of the Soul. When you embark on this deepest level of work, you actively accelerate your spiritual evolutionary potentials and ascend to Mastery and Liberation.

In stages seven through eleven, you become empowered to give attunements that resolve your physical symptoms, emotional issues, and mental problems; facilitate attentional absorption and awakening of your immortal essences; and support inner work and transformation.

We teach stage four in our introductory meditation class, the Introduction to Meditation Program. We review the technique of attentional movement and contemplation in our intermediate meditation classes‐the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and our by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program—and additionally teach you core stage five and six methods.

Access to stages seven though eleven of inner work, which enable you to utilize the higher levels of attunements, inner guidance—and ultimately, Thaumaturgy—occur as a result of transformational meditation. Transformation activates all of the dormant powers of your Soul and progressively leads you to spiritual Mastery.

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