We are going to talk about the transformation of life and this is possible if one profoundly resolves it unto oneself.
Transformation means that one thing changes into another different thing. It is logical that everything is susceptible to changes.
Transformations exist which are well known in matter. No one could deny, for example, that sugar is transformed into alcohol arid that the latter is converted into vinegar by means of the action of fermentation. This is the transformation of a molecular substance. One knows about the chemical life of the elements, for example, radium is slowly transformed into lead.
The alchemists of the middle ages spoke about the transmutation of lead into gold. However, they did not always refer to the mere metallic physical matter. Normally, they wanted to indicate with such a word, the transmutation of the lead of the personality into the gold of the spirit. Therefore, it is convenient for us to reflect on all of these things.
In the Gospels, the idea of the terrestrial man, the latter comparable to a seed that is capable of growth, has the same meaning as the idea of the rebirth of the man who is born once again. It is obvious that if the grain does not die, the plant is not born. Death and birth exists in every transformation.
In Gnosis we consider man to be like a factory of three floors which normally absorbs three foods.
Ordinary food corresponds to the inferior floor of the factory, is a matter of the stomach. Air, which is naturally in relation with the second floor, corresponds to the lungs; and impressions, which indubitably are associated with the third floor or cerebrum.
The food which we eat suffers successive transformations, this is unquestionable. The process of life, in itself and by itself, is transformation. Each creature of the universe lives by means of the transformation of one substance into another. The plant, for example, transforms water, the air and salts of the earth into new vital vegetable substances, into elements which are useful to us, such as nuts, fruits, potatoes, lemons, etc. Therefore, everything is transformation.
By the action of solar light, the ferments of nature vary. It is unquestionable that the sensitive film of life, which normally extends over the face of the Earth, leads every universal force towards the very interior of the planetary world. But each plant, each insect, each creature and the intellectual animal himself, mistakenly called man, absorbs, assimilates specific cosmic energies and then transforms as well as unconsciously transmits them to the inferior layers of the planetary organism. Such transformed energies are intimately related with the whole economy of the planetary organism in which we live. Indubitably, every creature, according to its species, transforms specific energies which it then transmits into the interior of the Earth for the economy of the world. Therefore, each creature that has existence fulfills the same functions.
When we eat a food necessary for our existence, the latter is transformed, it is clear, from one phase to another, into all of those elements which are so indispensable for our existence. Who carries out those processes of the transformation of substances within us? Obviously, the Instinctive Center. The wisdom of this center is really astonishing.
Digestion, in itself, is transformation. The food in the stomach, in other words, in the inferior part of this three story factory of the human organism, suffers transformation… If something were to enter without going through the stomach, the organism would neither be able to assimilate its vitaminic principles nor its proteins, that would simply be an indigestion. As we reflect upon this subject, we get to comprehend the necessity of undergoing a transformation.
It is clear that physical foods are transformed, but there is something which invites us to reflection: Does an educated transformation of impressions exist within us?
For the purpose of nature itself, there is no need whatsoever for the intellectual animal, mistakenly called man, to really transform impressions. But a man can transform his impressions by himself, by possessing, naturally, an in-depth knowledge, we would say, and he has to comprehend the reason for that necessity.
It is magnificent to transform impressions. The majority of people, as seen in the field of practical life, believe that this physical world will give them what they yearn for and seek. Really, this is a tremendous error. Life, in itself, enters in us, into our organism, in the form of mere impressions. The first thing that we should comprehend is the significance of the esoteric work intimately related with the world of impressions.
That we need to transform them? That is true! One could not really transform one’s life unless one transforms the impressions which reach the mind.
The persons who read these lines should reflect on what is being said here. We are talking about something very revolutionary, for the entire world believes that the physical is what is real, but if we go a little deeper, we see that what we are really receiving at each instant, at each moment, are mere impressions.
If we see a person that pleases or displeases us, the first thing that we obtain are impressions of that nature, isn’t that true? This we cannot deny. Life is a succession of impressions, and not as is believed by the learned ignoramuses, a physical thing of an exclusively materialistic type. The reality of life are its impressions!
It is clear that the ideas that we are emitting are not very easy to grasp, to apprehend. It is possible that readers have the certainty that life exists as such and not as its impressions. They are so influenced by this physical world that, obviously, that is how they think The person that we see seated, for example, on a chair, there, with this or that colored suit; the one who greets us, the one who smiles at us, etc., are for us, really true.
But if we meditate profoundly on all of them, we arrive at the conclusion that what is real are the impressions. The latter arrive, naturally, at the mind through the windows of the senses.
If we did not have senses, for example, eyes to see, ears to hear, mouth to taste the foods which the organism ingests, would what is called the physical world exist for us? Of course not, absolutely not.
Life reaches us in the form of impressions and it is there, precisely, where the possibility of working upon ourselves exists. Before all else, what should we do? We have to comprehend the work that we should do. How could we achieve a psychological transformation of ourselves? Well, by carrying out a work upon the impressions that we are receiving at each instant, at each moment. This first work receives the name of First Conscious Shock. This is related with these impressions which is everything that we know of the exterior world. What size do true things, true persons have?
We need to transform ourselves internally each day. Upon wanting to transform our psychological aspect, we need to work upon the impressions which enter into us.
Why do we call the work of the transformation of impressions, the First Conscious Shock? Because the “shock” is something that we could not observe in a merely mechanical manner. This could never be done in a mechanical manner, one needs an auto-conscious effort. it is clear that when one begins to comprehend this work, one begins to cease being the mechanical man that serves the purposes of nature.
If you now think about the significance of everything that you are taught here, by means of your own efforts, beginning with the observation of oneself, you will see that on the practical side of the esoteric work everything is intimately related with the transformation of impressions and with what naturally results from them.
The work, for example, on negative emotions, on angry states, on identification, on selfconsideration, on the successive ‘I’ on lying, on self-justification, on excuses, on the unconscious states in which we are, is all related with the transformation of impressions and what results from all of it. It will be convenient that, in a certain manner, the work upon oneself be compared to dissection, in the sense of what a transformation is. It is necessary to form an element of change at the place of entry of impressions; do not forget it.
By means of the comprehension of the work, you can accept life as work will then really enter a constant state of self-remembering, the terrible realism of the transformation of impression will naturally reach you. The impressions themselves, normally or supra-normally better said, would lead you to a better life as far as you are concerned naturally and they would no longer act upon all of you as they did at the beginning of your own transformation. But as long as you continue thinking in the same manner, receiving life in the same manner, it is clear that there will be no change in you. To transform the impressions of life is to transform oneself. This totally new manner of thinking helps us to carry out such a transformation. This entire discourse is exclusively based on the radical manner of transforming ourselves. If one does not transform oneself, nothing is achieved.
You will comprehend, naturally, that life continuously demands that we react. All of those reactions form our personal life. To change one’s life is to really change our own reactions. Exterior life reaches us as mere impressions which incessantly force us to react, we would say, in a stereotype manner. If the reactions which form our personal life are all of a negative type, then our own life will be negative also.
Life consists of a successive series of negative reactions which happen as incessant responses to the impressions which reach the mind. Therefore, our task consists in transforming the impressions of life in such a manner that they do not provoke this type of negative response. But in order to achieve it, it is necessary to be observing oneself from instant to instant, from moment to moment. It is urgent, therefore, to be studying our own impressions.
One cannot allow impressions to reach us in a subjective and mechanical manner. If we begin with such control, this is equivalent to beginning life, to beginning to live more consciously. An individual can give himself the luxury of impressions not reaching him mechanically. Upon acting in this manner, he transforms impressions and then, he begins to live consciously.
The First Conscious Shock consists in transforming the impressions which reach us. If one manages to transform the impressions which reach the mind at the moment of entry, one obtains marvelous results which benefit our existence.
One can still work on the result of the impressions. it is clear that they expire without mechanical effect since this mechanicity is usually disastrous in the interior of our psyche.
This Gnostic esoteric Work should be taken to the point where the impressions enter, because they are mechanically distributed to wrong places by the personality to evoke old reactions.
I will try to simplify this. As an example, let us use the following: If we throw a stone into a crystalline lake, impressions are produced in the lake and the response of those impressions produced by the stone manifest in the form of waves which go from the center to the periphery.
Now, imagine the mind as a lake. Suddenly, an image of a person appears, that image is like the stone of our example, which reaches the mind. Then, the mind reacts in the form of impressions. The impressions are those which the image that reaches the mind produces and the reactions are the responses to such impressions.
If a ball is thrown against a wall, the wall receives the impressions, then follows the reaction which consists of the return of the ball to the one who sent it. Well, it could be that it will return directly to the person but by all means the ball bounces back and that is reaction.
The world is formed by impressions, for example: The image reaches our mind through the senses. We cannot say that the table has arrived or that the table has entered our cerebrum, that is absurd, but the image of the table is inside, then our mind reacts immediately saying: This is a wooden or metal table, etc.!
There are impressions which are not so pleasant, for example: The words of an offender, isn’t that so? Could we transform the words of an offender?
Words are as they are, therefore, what could we do? Transform the impressions which such words produce in us and this is possible. The Gnostic Teaching teaches us how to crystallize the Second force, the Christ in us, through the postulate which says:
“One has to receive with gladness the unpleasant manifestations of our fellowmen.”
In the previous postulate is found the way to transform the impressions which the words of an offender produce in us. Receive with gladness the unpleasant manifestations of our fellowmen. This postulate will naturally lead us to the crystallization of the Second Force, the Christ in us; it will cause the Christ to come and take shape in us.
If of the physical world, we only know the impressions, then, in reality, the physical world is not so external as people believe. With just reason Immanuel Kant said: “The e is the interior.” If the interior is what matters, we should therefore transform the interior. The impressions are interior, therefore, all objects and things, everything that we see, exists in our interior in the form of impressions.
If we do not transform impressions, nothing will change in us. Lust, covetousness, pride, hatred, etc., exist in the form of impressions within our psyche which vibrates incessantly.
The mechanical result of such impressions have been all of those inhuman elements which we carry within and which we have normally called ‘I’ which in their mass, constitute the myself, the oneself
Let us suppose, for example, that an individual sees a provocative woman and that he does not transform those impressions; the result will be that the same impressions, of a lustful type, produce in him the desire of possessing her. Such a desire is the result of the impression received and it crystallizes, it takes shape in our psyche and becomes one more aggregate, in other words, an inhuman element, a new type of lustful I which comes to add itself to the sum of inhuman elements which in their totality constitute the ego.
Anger, covetousness, lust, envy, pride, laziness and gluttony exist in us. Why anger? Because many impressions reached us, our interior, and we never transformed them The mechanical result of such impressions of anger form the I’s which exist and vibrate in our psyche and which constantly make us feel anger.
Why covetousness? Indubitably, many things awakened covetousness in us: money, jewels, material things of all types, etc. Those things, those objects, reached us in the form of impressions. We committed the error of not having transformed these impressions into different things, into an attraction for beauty, into happiness, etc. Such non-transformed impressions naturally became ‘I’ of covetousness which we now carry in our interior.
Why lust? I already said that different forms of lust reached us in the form of impressions, in other words, there surged in the interior of our mind images of an erotic type whose reaction was lust. Since we did not transform those lustful waves, that unhealthy eroticism, naturally the result did not make itself wait, new morbid I’s were born in our psyche.
Therefore, today we have to work on the impressions which we may have in our interior and on its mechanical results. Within, we have impressions of anger, covetousness, gluttony, pride, laziness and lust. We also have within, the mechanical results of such impressions, a bunch of quarrelsome and vociferous ‘I’ which we now need to comprehend and eliminate.
Such work of our life consists in knowing how to transform impressions, and also, in knowing how to eliminate the mechanical results of impressions which were not transformed in the past.
The exterior world as such does not exist. What exist are impressions and impressions are interior, and the reactions of such impressions are completely interior.
No one could say that he is seeing a tree in itself. He may be seeing the image of a tree but not the tree. The thing in it, as Emmanuel Kant said, is not seen by anyone; one sees the image of things, in other words, the impression of a tree, of a thing, surge in us and these impressions are internal, they are of the mind.
If one does not carry out one’s own, internal modifications, the result will not make itself wait: the birth of new ‘I’ is produced which come to enslave our essence, our consciousness, even more, which come to greater intensify the sleep in which we live.
When one really comprehends all that exists within oneself with relation to the physical world, that they are nothing but impressions, one also comprehends the necessity of transforming those impressions, and upon doing it, the transformation of oneself is produced.
There is nothing that hurts more than calumny or the words of an offender. If one is capable of transforming the impressions which such words produce in us, well, they then remain without any value, in other words, they remain like a check drawn against insufficient funds. Certainly, the words of an insulter do not have any more value than that which the insulted person gives them. Therefore, if the insulted person does not give them any importance, I repeat, they remain like a check drawn against insufficient funds.
When one comprehends this, one then transforms the impressions of such words, for example, into something different, into love, into compassion for the insulter and this, naturally, means transformation. Therefore, we need to be incessantly transforming impressions, not only the present ones but also the past and the future ones.
Within us exist many impressions with which we committed the error of not having transformed them in the past, and many mechanical results of the same impressions which are the so-called I which we now have to disintegrate, annihilate, in order for the consciousness to remain free and awake.
It is indispensable to reflect on what I am saying. Things, persons, are nothing but impressions within us, within our minds. If we transform those impressions, we transform our life radically.
For example, when there is pride in one, the latter has ignorance as its basis; for a person, for example, to feel proud of his social position, of his money. But if this person, for example, thinks that his social position is a mere mental matter, that it is a series of impressions which have reached his mind, impressions about his social status, when he thinks that such status is nothing but a mental matter or when he analyzes the question of his worth, he comes to realize that his position exists in his mind in the form of impressions. Those impressions which money and social position produce, are nothing but the external impressions of the mind. With the simple fact of comprehending that they are only impressions of the mind, there is transformation of the same. Then, pride, by itself, declines, collapses and humility is born in us in a natural manner.
Continuing the study of the processes of the transformation of impressions, I will proceed with something else. For example, the image of a lustful woman reaches the mind or surges in the mind. Such an image is an impression, that is obvious. We could transform that lustful impression through comprehension. It would be enough, in that instant, for us to think that that woman will one day die and that her body will become dust in the cemetery, and if with the imagination we saw her body in the process of disintegration in the grave, this would be more than sufficient to transform that lustful impression into chastity. If it is not transformed, it will be added to the other I of lust.
By means of comprehension, it is convenient that we transform the impressions which emerge in the mind. It is highly logical that the exterior world is not so exterior as is normally believed. Everything that reaches us from the world is interior because they are nothing but internal impressions.
No one could put a tree, a chair, a palace or a rock into his mind. Everything reaches our mind in the form of impressions, that is all; the impressions from a world which we call exterior and which is really not exterior as it is believed. It is undelayable that we transform impressions through comprehension. If someone greets us, praises us, how could we transform the vanity which this or that flatterer could provoke in us? Obviously, the praises, the flattery are nothing but impressions which reach our mind and the latter reacts in the form of vanity; but if those impressions are transformed, vanity becomes impossible. How could the words of a flatterer be transformed? By means of comprehension. When one really comprehends that one is nothing but an infinitesimal creature in a corner of the Universe, one immediately transforms by oneself those impressions of praise, flattery, into something different; one converts such impressions into what they are: dust, cosmic dust, because one comprehends one’s own position.
We know that the Galaxy in which we live is made up of millions of worlds. What is the Earth? It is a particle of dust in the infinite. And if we were to say that we are some organic microorganisms of that particle, then what? If we were to comprehend this when were flattered, we would carry out a transformation of the impressions related to the praise and flattery or adulation and as a result we would not react in the form of pride.
The more we reflect on this, more and more we will see the necessity of a complete transformation of impressions.
All that we see as external is interior. If we do not work with the interior we are treading the path of error because we will not modify our habits. If we want to be different, we need to transform ourselves integrally, and we should begin by transforming impressions. By transforming the animal and bestial impressions into elements of devotion, sexual transformation, transmutation then surges forth in us.
Unquestionably, this aspect of impressions deserves to be analyzed in a clear and precise manner. The personality that we have received or acquired, receives the impressions of life but does not transform them because it is practically something dead.
If the impressions fell directly upon the Essence, it is obvious that they would be transformed because, the Essence would immediately deposit them exactly in the corresponding centers of the human machine.
Personality is the term that is applied to everything that we acquire. it is clear that it translates impressions from all sides of life in a limited and practically stereotyped manner in accordance with its quality and association.
In this respect, in the Gnostic Esoteric Work, the personality is sometimes compared to a terrible secretary who is in the front office, who is occupied with all the ideas, concepts, preconceptions, opinions and prejudices. It has many dictionaries, encyclopedias of all types, reference books, etc., and is not in communication with the centers, in other words, with the mental, emotional and the physical centers —intellectual, motor, emotional, instinctive and sexual—, in accordance with its unusual ideas. Consequently or as a corollary, it so happens that it almost always puts itself in communication with wrong centers. This means that the impressions that arrive are sent to wrong centers, in other words, to places which do not correspond to them, producing, naturally, erroneous results.
I will mention an example so that I will be better understood. Let us suppose that a woman attends to a gentleman with much consideration and respect; it is clear that the impressions which the gentleman is receiving in his mind are received by the personality and the latter sends them to wrong centers. Normally, it sends them to the sexual center and this gentleman gets to firmly believe that the lady is in love with him, and as is logical, it does not take long before he rushes to make insinuations of an amorous type to her. Indubitably, if that lady has never had that type of caring for the gentleman, with much reason, she cannot, but feel surprised. That is the result of a terrible transformation of impressions. Here we see how bad a secretary the personality is. Unquestionably, the life of a man depends on this secretary who seeks transformation in its reference books without comprehending in the least, what the event means, and consequently transmits, without preoccupations for what could happen, but feeling only that it is fulfilling its duty.
This is our interior situation. What is important to comprehend in. this allegory is that the human personality that we acquire and which we should acquire begins to take charge of our lives.
Unquestionably, it is useless to imagine that this happens only to certain and specific persons; it happens to everyone no matter who it is.
One finds out in observation that numerous characteristic reactions exist which are produced by the impressions which reach us. These mechanical reactions, unfortunately, govern us. It is clear that each person in life is governed by life itself, it does not matter if he calls himself liberal or conservative, revolutionary or Bolshevik, good or bad in the sense of the word.
It is obvious that these reactions before the impacts of the exterior world constitute our own life. In this sense, we can say in an emphatic mariner, that humanity is completely mechanical.
Any man, in life, has formed for himself an enormous quantity of reactions, which come to be the practical experiences of his existence. It is clear that every action produces its reaction, actions of a certain type, and such reactions are called experiences.
The important thing would be, for example, in order to get to know better our actions and reactions, to be able to relax the mind. This “mental relaxation ” is magnificent. To lie down on one’s bed or on a comfortable armchair, to relax all the muscles patiently and then empty the mind of oil types of thoughts, desires, emotions, memories. When the mind is still, when the mind is in silence, we can know ourselves better. In such moments of stillness and mental silence, is when we really come to experience in a direct manner the crude realism of all the actions of practical life.
When the mind is in absolute repose, we see the multitude of elements and sub -elements, actions and reactions, desires, passions, etc. as something foreign to us but which awaits the precise instant to be able to exercise its control over ourselves, over our personality. That is the reason why the silence and stillness of the mind is worthwhile. Obviously, the relaxation of the mind is beneficial in the most complete sense of the word for it leads us to individual self-knowledge.
So it is that all of life, in other words, exterior life, what we see and live, is for each person, his reaction to the impressions which arrive from the physical world.
It is a great error to think that what is called life is a fixed, solid thing, and the same for each person. Certainly, there is not a single person who has the same impressions which, with respect to life, exist in the human species, because they are infinite.
Life, certainly, are our impressions of it and it is clear that we can, if we so resolved it, transform such impressions. But as it was said, this is an idea which is very difficult to understand or comprehend because the hypnotism of the senses is very powerful.
Although it may seem incredible, all human beings are in a state of “collective hypnosis”.Such hypnosis is produced by the residual state of the abominable Kundartiguador organ; when the latter was eliminated, the different psychic aggregates or inhuman elements which in their mass constitute the myself, the oneself, remained. These elements and subelements, in turn, condition the consciousness and keep it in a state of hypnosis. In this manner, therefore, hypnosis of a collective type exists. The entire world is hypnotized!
The mind is engrossed in the world of the five senses and does not manage to comprehend how it could become independent of them; it firmly believes that it is a god.
Our interior life, the true life of thoughts and feelings, continues being confused for our mere reasoning and intellective conceptions. Nonetheless, at the same time we know very well that the place where we really live is our world of thoughts and feelings; this is something that no one can deny.
Life is our impressions and the latter can be transformed. We need to learn to transform our impressions. However, it is not possible to transform anything in us if we continue attached to the world of the five senses.
As I have said in my Treatise of Revolutionary Psycholo experience teaches one that if the Gnostic Esoteric Work is negative, it is due to one’s own fault.
It is from the sensorial point of view that this or that person of the exterior world whom one sees and hears through the eyes and the ears, has the blame; this person in turn will say that we are the ones to blame, but really, the fault is in the impressions that we may have about people. Many times we think that a person is perverse when in reality the person is a humble lamb.
It is very convenient to learn to transform all the impressions which we may have of life.
“We have to learn to receive with gladness the unpleasant manifestations of our fellowmen.”
Samael Aun Weor
