Life is a series of events or outcomes accompanied by their respective state of consciousness: each one of us in search of the truth, in search of oneself, seeking the spiritual path, looking for self-realization, are urged and impelled by hidden causes.
In that laborious search for self-realization, we can make a differentiation between the several ways related with the different levels of inner development. Every path, more or less long, more or less difficult, strives to lead man towards one same direction, which is self-realization.
What is Consciousness?
People confuse consciousness with intelligence or with intellect, thus, they qualify a very intelligent or intellectual person as a very cognizant person.
Undoubtedly—and without fear of deceiving ourselves—we affirm that within a human being the consciousness is a very particular means of apprehending internal knowledge and is completely independent of any mental activity.
The faculty of consciousness facilitates the knowledge of ourselves.
The consciousness grants us the integral knowledge of what is, where it is, what is really known, and what is certainly ignored.
Samael Aun Weor – Fundamental Education
Self-realization, immortalization, is not a quality with which human beings are born, but it can be conquered, the ways are explained below:
1.- The Way of the Fakir
When we listen to this word, we place ourselves immediately in the East, particularly in enigmatic and mysterious India. In Persia the term “fakir” means beggar or indigent. In India the jugglers and the clowns call themselves fakirs (ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance).
This doubtful, long and difficult way consists of the struggle to develop within oneself, the physical power of will, to defeat pain, to achieve power or dominion over the body. This goal is achieved through terrible sufferings and very difficult trials.
The fakir’s way is made up of incredibly fatiguing physical exercises: they keep themselves standing in the same position, without any movement, for several hours, days, months or years; or they stay seated on a bare stone under an implacable sun, under the rain, in the snow, etc.; they keep their arms stretched for an indefinite period of time or they torture themselves with fire or with an ant’s nest in which they place their bare legs over the top of it, and so forth.pierced fakir
Some of these fakirs follow this way not because of religious feelings or not because they understand the different possibilities of inner development, but due to simple imitation produced by the impression of seeing other fakirs. In the East as in the West, many fakirs give themselves up to a fanatic asceticism because they want to pay with pain their bad actions or their incapacity to defeat temptations. For that, they whip themselves without mercy.
They love pain itself, they ignore that the physical body is the Temple of the Living God. No one can achieve Self-Realization through pain, because the origin of pain is the “I.”
2.- The Way of the Monk
This is the path of faith, of religious sentiment and sacrifices. It is a conscious state in which the purpose is to develop the devotional sense, the emotional aspect of the Being.
The monk’s work concentrates around his feelings, submitting his other functions to faith. Let’s take into account that faith in and of itself is awakened consciousness.
There are two types of faith: one, which produces an emotional state based in beliefs; the other, which is based in mystical direct experience, does not need to believe or doubt.
As far as the way of the monk is concerned they develop will over the emotions, but the rest of their faculties may be kept without development. For faith to be a sure bridge towards liberation, we must also cultivate the physical and intellectual capacities, which will be accomplished through new sacrifices and austerities.
“A monk should become a yogi and a fakir.”
There are very few monks who get far, there are even fewer monks who triumph over the difficulties that the real path imposes, because initiation is given by the Goddess Isis (The Divine Mother), the Alchemist’s foundation deeply taught by the Gnostic doctrine.
3.- The Way of the Yogi
The yogi’s centre of gravity resides in the mind, in psychic development. Nonetheless, there are different branches of Yoga.
Bhakti-Yoga, or Yoga of devotion. This develops the mystical part, the higher devotion, and could give us illumination, but could not take us to the Inner Self Realization of the Being.
Gnana-Yoga, or mental Yoga. Gnana-Yoga is centered in the knowledge of oneself; it knows the different disciplines of the mind, achieves states of Shamadhi, but does not conquer Self-Realization.
Raja-Yoga. The purpose of Raja Yoga is the development of the Chakras, of occult powers, etc. A certain development is achieved; no doubt, but that is not Self- Realization.
By the nature of the practice performed by a yogi there is no doubt that they develop some kind of psychic powers such as mental relaxation, concentration (the power of telekinesis is well known, that is to say, moving objects at distance using the force of the mind), telepathy, hypnotic powers, etc. But if by forgetting about the doctrine of the “Many I’s,” they can be led to paranoia or delirium of grandeur; they feel as if they have reached authentic mastery, but this only leads to the development of siddhis or inferior powers.
The yogi works in the knowledge of the duality of the mind and there is no doubt that they reach sublime states, but that does not mean they have created the legitimate mental body.
There’s also Agni-yoga or the Yoga of inner fire, or Kundalini Yoga, this one leads us right to the doorsteps of the Fourth Way.
4.- The Fourth Way
The Fourth Way encompasses the other three. This is the royal path, the path of the razor’s edge, the Gnostic doctrine.
The fakir seeks the total dominion over the corporal. The monk works in the development of the feelings (sentiments); the yogi strives for the perfection of the mind, transcending the duality in which the mind struggles, making the mind apt to receive the knowledge.
The fourth way, the way of the balanced man, leads to perfection and to the harmonious development of all the centres of the human machine, through the awakening of consciousness, working simultaneously with the physical body, the emotions and thoughts.
A whole series of parallel exercises over these three levels: physical, animical (of the soul) and spiritual, are used for this goal. By doing this, The fourth way embraces and synthesizes the work of all the other three in perfect equilibrium.
The fourth way is the path of the perfect matrimony, the road of the intelligent being, of the one who studies Kabbalah and Alchemy, applying them in the harmonious realization of all its infinite possibilities, synthesized in the awakening of consciousness, based in the disintegration of the psychological “I.”
The fourth way is founded on the transmutation of the creative energies, achieving the development of the inner-fire. Progress is determined by the dissolution of the ego and the sacrifice for humanity.
Then Jesus said to his disciples: If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
This way does not demand that the person retreats from the world, or abandons all contact with other beings, things or events, but requires that a preparation be acquired in the psychological gymnasium of practical life. Its centre of gravity resides directly in the consciousness or essence.
It is necessary to be prepared to enter into the fourth way. One who wants to follow this path has to have certain conditions in his life favourable to do the work, or at least have those that do not make it impossible.
It is necessary to understand that in external life as much as in the internal life, there are some conditions that could constitute insurmountable barriers for the fourth way.
The fourth way is the least known. The other three ways are the traditional ones. The fourth way is very exact and much more perfect than the other three.
Samael Aun Weor
PRACTICE:
Lie down, face up, on your bed. Relax all of the muscles in your body and make your mind blank. You must not think of absolutely anything for thirty minutes. This practice should be done six days out of the week. at the same time, before falling asleep.
