Mental Representations

[LivingLight]

Like him, dislike him, or be neutral.. The teaching of Samael Aun Wor has been appreciated by many and criticized by an equal sum it appears. In my view, if something/someone one is drawn to generates authentic Gnosis than why bother with the face/mask/book-cover? With that said, here is a snippet from a transcribed lecture from SAW on "Mental Representations".

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It is necessary to profoundly comprehend all the processes of the mind, all the reactions, and the psychological surplus which it accumulates, etc. Only in such a way does the ardent flame of intelligence sprout within us...

 

Well my dear friends, we have been studying the distinct aspects of the mind, and afterwards we will continue, going deeper into the practical field of love, of interesting facts in the elimination of the psychological aggregates. This is very difficult. Nevertheless, this is not all, there is something else we must watch for. I am referring emphatically to mental representations. For in the world of the senses there are difficult representations such as they are, the objects that surround us, remorse, etc. but representations of the mind also exist.

 

In the mind there are many representations that we must take into account. Let us suppose we have the representation of a friend for whom we have much esteem in our mind. Somebody very important talks to us about that friend, and all kinds of gossiping and slander arise. We hear all this gossiping. Then, in fact, the image we have of our friend, the representation, becomes altered. Now we do not see her as the kind person whom we saw before, full of harmony, etc. Now this image in our understanding is the appearance that others have given it; possibly that of the bandit, that of the robber, that of the false friend, etc.

 

At night, perhaps we dream of that friend. Now we will in no way dream with harmony; we see that she attacks us, we see that we attack her, we dream she uses a weapon against us, etc. The image of our friend is completely altered: a representation has been altered. It can be that those who had talked about our friend judged him incorrectly, consciously or unconsciously slandered him, etc., but the representation of the mind remains altered. This is very serious because this representation, in fact, coverts itself into a demon which comes to hinder our esoteric advancement. It is a demon that gets in our way, a demon which is an obstacle to our profound inner development. This is, then, a serious error: to give an ear to gossip, to slander, to murmuring, to the "they say that," etc.

 

Obviously, in our mind there are thousands of representations that can be altered if we take part in negative conversations, if we give an ear to slander, if we hear that ‘they say that,' etc. Due to all of these and other things, it is not advisable to give an ear to the negative words of people; to do so is a serious error. Moreover, not only do our psychological aggregates constitute a burden that we carry inside, but so do the living representations of our psychological defects. Therefore, we must not forget this matter about the representation of our understanding.

Walkers of the path, for giving an ear to negative conversations, for being in huddles where only negative phrases can be heard, you usually deform many representations of understanding; and these, in the world of the mind, consist of real demons which form and create obstacles or a series of impassable obstacles for the awakening of the Consciousness. In this way, we can cite the case of many Gnostic students who, at night, usually have innumerable dreams of a negative type, sometimes they dream they kill another person, etc. It is a most serious matter to carry such enemies inside oneself, in one's own mind. Obviously, the most recommendable thing for our negative representations is to appeal to the annular serpentine power, to invoke Devi Kundalini Shakti so she will destroy these negative representations.

Messages from the Being

Unquestionably, we must not have such representations, negative or positive, within our minds. The mind should create certain serene attitudes that are at the disposition of the Being, but for that to happen, we need the human personality to become passive. A passive personality is a receptive personality, it receives the messages that come from the higher parts of the Being.

 

Unquestionably, such messages go through the higher centers of the Being before entering the mind. This is the advantage of having a passive personality. The mind, disgracefully, is found to be totally controlled by very heavy elements, very difficult aggregates which are related to the world of ninety-six laws, also known as the region of Tartarus.

 

The personality is active because it is controlled by aggregates of hate, pride, envy, and horrible lust. In real truth, we are nothing but miserable worms in the mud of the earth. If we achieve the elimination of such heavy psychological elements from our psyche, our human personality turns passive and the mind becomes receptive to the messages that descend from the highest parts of the Being through the higher centers of our psyche.

 

Now you comprehend, my dear friends, the necessity to eliminate those elements which are too heavy. With Devi Kundalini Shakti, in other words, the igneous serpent of our magical powers, we can, in fact, eliminate these heavy elements. It is a triumph, because in this way we can receive the direct messages that come from the highest parts of the Being. Because of this, I say you must work on yourself.

 

A receptive mind should be created, a mind that never projects itself, that is always receiving instead of projecting. Obviously, it would be good to accept positive or negative representations in the distinct depths of understanding; such a mind would only bring the messages that come from the highest part of our fellow men. In so much as we continue giving food to the distinct representations of understanding, it will never be a prodigal mind, a progressive mind. In reality, truly, the mind is conditioned by time and by pain. Analyzing in this way we will see that not only must we eliminate the undesirable psychological aggregates, but we also have a very difficult problem I see for inner illumination, and this is that we carry too many representations, apart from all the inhuman psychological aggregates.

 

If we carefully study the life of dreams, we will find so many vague and incoherent things in them, various subjective and imprecise aspects, so many absurd things, such poor events with no reality. The only motive for their incoherence must invite us to reflection.

 

As a Gnostic, one must have clear concepts and lucid ideas, radical illumination without vagueness, without any kind of subjectivity. Disgracefully, the representations and the diverse aggregates we carry inside ourselves condition the Consciousness in such a way that they keep it in the very disagreeable state of sub-consciousness, even in infra-consciousness. I invite you to reflection, I invite you to comprehend these indispensable things.

The Silence of the Mind

In the Oriental world much is spoken of in synthesis. For example, Zen or Chan Buddhism only tells us that we must obtain the calmness of the mind, the silence of the mind with the purpose of achieving the eruption of the Illuminating Void [Sunyata, the Emptiness]. We are told that there is true happiness in Satori. In the meditation room we must acquire the calmness of the mind inside, outside, and in the middle. We are told that the mind must get to be like a wall, absolutely still.

 

Well, I found out that in the meditation rooms of Japan, it is difficult to get to Satori. As much as it may take, some minutes in the best of cases, or one or many hours after, the mind returns to being as agitated as it always was. One gets out of this state of happiness to face the world, fortunately, in a spiritual drunkenness, and ready to fight the ego. Of course, the "I" soon intervenes to give him a couple punches and get him out of that state of wanting to achieve its elimination.

 

If we want to be something more than what can be achieved in a Zen or Chan meditation room, we must also have the awakening of the mind, a mind receptive to the infinities that come from beyond the sky of Urania, an illuminated mind. Could this be possible if we permit psychological aggregates to continue existing in our psyche? Could this be possible if we give an ear to gossip that alters the representation we carry in our understanding? Could this be possible, I tell myself and I share it with you as I think out loud, if we continue giving priority to positive or negative representations?

H. P. Blavatsky has a phrase in The Voice of the Silence that I liked. It says:

Before the gold flame can blaze with serene light,
the lamp must be well cared for, safe from every wind;
worldly thoughts must drop dead at the temple's door...

That phrase of H. P. Blavatsky is portentous, marvelous. I tell you, only in this way is it possible for the mind to become truly calm and remain silent inside, outside, and in the middle; not just temporarily as in a meditation room, but in a continuous manner.

 

When one studies the distinct creases of the mind, one also comprehends that the calmness and total silence of understanding are not possible as long as the mind is occupied by psychological aggregates and representations. One could object, saying that there exist laudable, clear, and magnificent representations. This is supposed to be acceptable, but it is not. We, as a whole, must be Being. Why must we have things that are not of the Being in our mind? I do not see why we must carry intruders in it. I have comprehended that only the Being must be in the mind, that is all. But as long as that temple is full of strange elements, things, games, huge cabinets of representations and aggregates, it can be said that there exists a deep sleep in the Consciousness, this is unconsciousness.

 

"A man is known by his dreams," said Plato in one of his books. The day we stop dreaming, the cockroaches we carry in our brain turn into fire. All those absurd incoherencies do not exist, all those morbid, vague, imprecise, tasteless, insubstantial, and odorless states do not have any kind of existence. Joyful is the day in which we stop dreaming, the day in which we no longer dream. When a person dreams no more, he has triumphed. As long as there exist dreams in the mind, as long as he goes to the psychological space to project imprecise, absurd dreams, this indicates to us that we have a mind full of garbage, full of all kinds of rubbish.

 

As I was saying, true illuminates have no dreams. Dreams are for those who are asleep. True illuminates live in the higher worlds, out of the physical body, in a state of intensified wakefulness without ever dreaming. The true illuminate, after the death of his physical body, is awakened in the psychological space. In this way thus, we should reflect on the necessity of getting to the stillness and silence of the mind.

 

Full article here: https://glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/lectures-by-samael-aun-weor/mental-representations

Edited February 28, 2023 by LivingLight

[LivingLight]

This image is loosely related in that it suggests in an abstract fashion the way in which the hands could be said to be intimately related to the mind. I understand mind doesn't necessarily correlate to the brain and that there are many levels of mind. However I still find the image interesting.

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by LivingLight