THE THIRD EYE

QUESTION: When the third eye develops, does it do so physically? if an autopsy were performed on a person with a developed third eye, would it look different from an undeveloped one ? Exactly what is the function of the third eye? How does it aid us in our psychic development ?

The origin of the legend of a third eye is probably related to two every special glands inside the brain: the pituitary gland, located just about the bridge of the nose between the eyes and about 3cm inside the brain..., and the pineal gland, located behind the third ventricle of the brain, literally in the centre of the head. Of the two, the "third eye" manifests to us visually through the pituitary. In other words it is the pituitary  that converts the signals into frequencies that the visual part of the brain can interpret as sight. The greatest power of the "third eye" however, emanates from the pineal gland and manifests through all five physical senses and not sight alone.

The pineal gland was called the "seat of the soul" by the 17th  Century French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, for it really is the premier area of our being through which we communicate with the soul. The pituitary gland, and indeed all other glands, are in a sense "subordinate" to the pineal gland in that it has a narrower band of operation (sight only), but it is no less important. The pituitary is the true original "third eye" as it operates or superimpose its activity exclusively through of the sense of sigh, whereas the pineal operates through all our sense and uses the pituitary as an overlay for its operations in the area of sight. The rest of this article will therefore be devoted to the pineal gland, as it truly is the controller of all glands..., the master gland ..., the 'seat of the soul", even though it is strictly not the "the third eye' itself. As the controller behind the scenes of all our psychic experiences it is therefore central to any discussion of the third eye.

There are specific physical functions associated with all glands, and although they are not fully understood, they are crucial to our physical and especially our mental wellbeing. The very manner in which we behave, indeed the very thoughts we harbour are intimately linked to the secretions of our glands. As legend has it, the pituitary gland once caused a cyclopic protrusion on the forehead, giving a superior faculty of perception to its possessor, and a relative of the pituitary gland still exists as an eyelike structure in certain reptiles.


The pineal gland takes its name from its pine cone shape. In Rosicrucian ontology , the pineal gland serves as a sense organ allowing the perception of vibratory frequencies far removed from the frequencies we perceive with our normal five objective sense faculties. Not only does it manifest to us through our normal five sense faculties, so to speak overlaying its perceptions over those faculties, it can also be seen as a completely separate sense altogether, a sort of sixth sense completely different and a whole lot more subtle that our other five receptor senses. As a sense faculty, the pineal is much more than just an extension of normal sight, or hearing, or smelling, etc. The whole experience of life is enhanced and somehow given a additional quality as these different cluster of energy are interpreted by our five senses in ways not normally experienced. Furthermore, it brings new concepts into our consciousness, answers old questions, channel inspiration from the Cosmic mind, and inspires us with creativity and other mental phenomena. "Seat of the soul' truly is a perfect label for this crucial gland.

At one time in history, the third eye may well have been more highly developed than at present. It may have been physically larger, more intricately constructed, and operated far more efficiently than it does today. The reason for its deterioration over the millennia is open to speculation, but with the rise of the human intellect, its primary function of protecting the individual from harm may, through its ability to perceive things happening outside of the normal "physical' senses receptors, have lessened , causing a slow atrophying of the gland. Another, less likely, reason could have been a voluntary disassociation with this faculty, a deliberate rejection of its capabilities far in our prehistoric past.

The pineal gland has a crucial physical purpose to play in the body as it secretes certain hormones which regulate our behaviour and perception of events. In a very literal sense, it is responsible for the moods we have. It causes us to feel the way we feel about things, and causes us to make the decisions we make. Of course this is not to say that it such a controller of our affairs that we have no free will, but we use it subconsciously in fundamentally important ways to give ourselves  the feeling and thoughts necessary to accomplish what we wish to accomplish in life. So much for the physical and mental functions and influences of the pineal; the psychic influences are also a relatively new discovery. With our present state of knowledge about the non-physical purpose of the pineal gland, its most useful non-biological function lies in its ability to coax out outer awareness, the awareness of the outer personality, to an ever great awareness of the Universal Mind.

As a superior sense faculty, it permits us to perceive impression of a do-called "psychic" nature, gaining us admission to the thoughts and mental states of other human and non-human creatures, as well as states of consciousness completely alien to human life. Attunement with the Cosmic Mind through the pineal gland is far its most important mystical function, and some mystic orders in particular are encourage to work diligently and steadily with it. In practice, the pineal translates the faintly discernible energies of the "psychic realm" into understandable imagery and perceivable thoughts, all in terms of our five normal sense faculties .

This is much the same as the function performed by our objective sense organs, such as the eyes or ears, that transform physical frequencies into the sight and sounds of our everyday experience. The key to any perception is not the perception itself, but the manner in which the various energies are grouped or "clustered " in ways that our normal five senses can perceive and apply meaning to . If the energies involved could not be clustered in the way, if it were not possible for the pineal to enhance some frequencies and dampen down others in order to accomplish clusterings that are familiar to our five senses, we would perceive nothing of consequences.

Development of the pineal gland does not necessarily mean development of its physical size, and no amount of "development' or wishing can affect its physical structure in a single lifetime. Initial development simply uses the existing, already highly refined structure as best as possible, but generations of targeted development will undoubtedly lead to human beings with more physically developed pineal glands in due course. That is however far beyond our scope in the present. We have a tool of already great sophistication and merely need to put it to good sue. As an analogy, we have a perfectly good instrument in the piano and can become experts in its use but a piano will never have the versatility of an electronic piano that can mimic anything from a great cathedral organ to the chirping of crickets. Nevertheless, is it not still worth our while learning to play an ordinary piano ? It most certainly is !

Do Stars Influence Us?

The ancient Babylonians and Chaldeans believed there was a universal correspondence between celestial phenomena such as the visible plants, the fixed stars, the moon and sun, and  the earth itself, and human worldly events. The visible planets in particular were wrapped in mythology, usually seen as heroic beings and gods, each having a particular realm of influence.And quite understandably, ancient people believed there was a direct relationship between these celestial bodies and the human realm. What people did on a daily basis was influenced by what happened in the skies.

     Whatever occurred in the heaven was bound to have consequences in earth. The principle of correspondence ensured that whatever occurred as deeds or even as thoughts upon the part of the celestial power resulted in corresponding responses in human affairs. This constituted a theory of transference of the imagined powers, habits and acts from the celestial beings and planets, to mortals themselves .


      Among these ancient people, much of what is know as natural phenomena was considered to be of teleological origin, that is, as having a mind-cause. The phenomena were not thought of as functions of impersonal natural law, but rather as the conscious acts of personalities associated with the planets, the sun , the moon and the occasional comet. In ancient astrology therefore, these celestial bodies intentionally influence human beings to do their bidding.


    This concept of teleological influence gradually changed so that the celestial influence was thought to be wholly naturalistic, with each planet have certain inherent qualities which could be either modified or intensified when the planet was brought into a conjunction or certain relationship with others. These influences were less capricious than in the past, and in the human realm, system and order reigned for as long as the now predicable celestial powers were obeyed.

     The principle of correspondence remained and as human lives were related to the apparent movement of the planets, depending upon the prevailing influence of the planets under which they were born, people were consequently affected in their earthly affairs by this celestial interrelationship .


ASTROLOGY

For millennia, the most learned among philosophers, naturalist , temple scribes and priests devoted their lives to the study of astrology, placing  their entire faith in the art of reading the stars. Clearly they discovered something deeply satisfying in their investigation, and in some cases developed highly accurate methods of character analysis based upon the birth date and time of the individuals they dealt with. We have no objective means of gauging the accuracy of their methods, but what is certain is that their  activities and preoccupations with linking events in the skies with events on earth, were viewed with respect by most people.

     An almost insuperable fatalism developed over the millennia, to the extent that people came to deny their own judgements and conclusions in yielding to the expounding influences of the movements of the planets. Even today, especially in extreme cases, if the aspect of the stars are not favourable, some people will avoid undertaking a venture no matter what that circumstances or what their own reason dictates. This is not a criticism, for their faith in the predictions given by astrology could easily be self-fulfiling prophecies which definitely should in that case not be ignored. But in extreme cases, such people are submitting their intellects and wills to a conceived naturalistic power which exercise complete control over every department of their lives, down to the tiniest of daily trivia. Most modern astrologers insist however that the planets incline things to happen in certain ways but do not necessary compel them to. In other word, they acknowledge that in most circumstances, we have power to overcome the planetary forces that form the basis of the art of astrology.

   Astrology is one of the oldest consistent belief in the history of humanity. How factual are its doctrines? Is it merely an age-old superstition, the shadow of an era of greater credulity ? the ancient Sumerians are generally recognised as the first astronomers. They studied the apparent movement of the visible planets,the moon and the son, and assigned various natural phenomena to them. They saw how the sun rose and set each day with precision, changing over 365 days in never ending cycles. They worked out the exact period of the lunar month and notice how various aspect of human, animals and plant life was affected by the moon's cyclical motion. Some plants seemed to speed up and slow down in their orbits, and explanations were undoubtedly given for this in mythological terms.

     They noted the different position of the stars at various times of the year and observer the helical or strange rising of various fixed stars at dawn and at periodic intervals. They studied the phases of the moon and began speculate on the relationship of these phases to the tides and to functions common to reproduction. Since these physical forces and conditions affected the seasons, it was presumed they must influence all life.

      With the celestial bodies undoubtedly being connected with the seasons, and the seasons in turn being the most dominant physical influence on life on earth, it is no wonder then that charting and applying meaning to the motions of the celestial bodies, including the occasional comet or supernova, was such an important and respected art. Thanks to the record they inscribed on clay tablets, we have today a reasonable understanding of the astrological beliefs of the ancient of the so-called "fertile crescent " which encompasses modern day Iraq and Syria.

HIDDEN INFLUENCES ?

Since the sun and moon can cause such huge phenomena as the ocean's tides, it stands to reason that they could also in subtle ways affect the human nervous systems too. Because of their gravitational pull. do they in any way retard or stimulate the flow of nervous energy? Or the two, the moon is by far the most dominant when causing tides. Does the moon alter, even minutely , they transmission of information along neural pathway?  If the moon's phases, not necessary its gravitic influences, but its reflection of sunlight, have some effect on plant life, then it almost certainly influences cycles of biological activity in humans too.

   Minute periodic changes in our neural constitution , caused by the phases of the moon, have already been proven to affect our glandular functions at different times of the lunar month. The lunar cycle are of course competing  with other biological cycles, most of them more dominant than that lunar cycle; but the human body seems to have an extremely fine-tuned sensitivity specifically to the lunar cycle, and through all the clutter and noise of other biological cycles in the body, the moon still has its noticeable effect. And if the moon can have such powerful effect on us, it is conceivable that humans, as well as other life forms on earth have evolved similar critical sensitivities to the movements and alignments of the planets as well.

    It is no longer an old wives'tale that the phase of the moon have an effect on the growth of plants, and indeed on the biological activity in all living things. But the extent of the effect, and specifically the effect of the planets, is the central issue behind astrology as an interpretive and therefore subjective art, and astronomy and biology as objective sciences.This is not to say that astrology is entirely wrong simply because it relies to a large extent on subjective interpretation, for there have been many historical astrologers who were not only accurate in their long-range predictions, but were also successful in their diagnoses of current events, and were even successful healers.

    No intelligent person doubts that there are at the very least gravitational influence exerted upon the earth by the planets, the moon and the sun. Science concerns itself with provable facts and repeatable experiments, and there can be no  arguments against the objective findings of scientific  enquiry. However, an intuitive art like astrology, although relying to an extent on the science of astronomy, relies also on intuition and on the undoubted human ability to partially see what broad trends are in current motion and therefore what events are likely to happen in the future. That astrology can drill down from the generality of long-range predictions to daily predictions of minutes details and exactness is however , perhaps a step too far.


     And even if we believe in astrology's long-term influences, can we seriously believe that people, based purely on the time of year they are born, are fated to fall into various rough classes of individual such as aggressive, competitive, harmful, etc..,or philosophical, accommodating or even mystical? That is one thing science cannot answer, though i must say that from personal experience, i have not the slightest doubt that people born in the 12 houses of this year, do indeed exhibit 12 broadly different personality types. This may sound stupid, coming as it does from a person who adores the rigour of scientific enquiry, but what can i do but state honestly and from the heart, i have seen this work time after time with great exactitude, and i am as as puzzled today as to why this should be, as i was twenty years ago when i first began my enquiry into astrology .

   To conclude: I believe in science, i believe in the supremacy of objective observation, i believe in the conclusion derived from serious scientific enquiry , and have full confidence in their conclusion. But i also have an irrational belief...., one i cannot explain, but hold to firmly on the basis of a lifetime of observation. The predictions of astrology are for me not the type that tell you what you are likely to encounter each day, but the type that paints in rough strokes what sort of person you are, what sort of things you are likely to achieve in life, and what dangers you likely to encounter.

     There is i believe a happy medium between the rigorous honesty of science and the intuitive, interpretive art of astrology. Science cannot be argued against, for it speaks the universal truth. But equally i can say that science cannot argue against the intuitive conclusion of experienced astrologers either, for no rational enquiry has yet discovered the precise nature and mechanism of the operation of the intuitive faculty in the human being, a faculty that has existed always, and served us well in our struggle to survive .

DO ANIMALS HAVE SOULS?

QUESTION: There must be a point where the sort of awareness of self which seems to separate human beings from the vast majority of other animals, breaks through. If a line is drawn between simple consciousness and self-consciousness, there must be some creatures who are approaching that line, domestic animals chiefly and surely a few who have passed the line. How far down the line of evolution does reincarnation manifest?


Over the course of history, societies have at times believed that animals posses individual souls and at other times that they have no soul. Ancient Egypt had several religious cults espousing that belief that animals(or at least some of them) not only had individual souls, but repeatedly reincarnated into the world as well. In some parts of the world, animals are still worshiped as sacred entities and are thought to have souls. So for example, in some temple courtyards in Nepal and India, monkeys are revered as sacred animals and thought to have an inherent divinity exceeding that of the average human.

We may think of such belief as originating with superstitious, primitive cults, but is there any justification in believing that any living thing is devoid of a soul that migrates from one incarnation to the next over aeons of time? Is it really possible that a thinking, or at least consciously aware, creature can have consciousness one moment and the next moment have it snuffed out from all eternity?Nature does things in the most economical and practical ways possible..., always! The question then arises: If the consciousness of sentient being is so difficult to create ( and it surely is ), would nature simple dispose of that consciousness for all time at transition simply because the processes of life generation are so well oiled and functioning so well in the universe that losing one unit of consciousness here or there would make little difference in the overall scheme of things?

The concept of an animal being able to exist in the world but not possess an individual soul seems to the mystic as being rather odd. It stems primarily from the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic stream of religious beliefs. This so called "Abrahamic " tradition speaks of an original and unique creation of humanity some time in the distant past by an anthropomorphic God who bestowed a uniquely purposed divine essence and individual souls on human beings alone, leaving out all other living creatures .....indeed making all other creatures subservient to the human species, and leaving these poor creatures at the whim and fancy of human beings, no matter how cruel. The holy writings of the Abrahamic tradition are used as sources of irrefutable reference by Jews, Christians and Muslims, not to be questioned and to be adhered to literally and often with blind faith.Historically though, all these writings, from a rational standpoint, must have been compiled by human minds..., admittedly some of them deeply inspired in a spiritual sense, but nevertheless still ordinary, fillible, human minds. For them, they have their "holy scriptures," they are the "word of God" and are therefore beyond reproach. In the cold light of rational thought and analysis, they are human created concepts, highly syncretic in nature, sometimes compassionate and spiritual, but at other times sometimes brutal and barbaric, and being derived from many sources. So if we accept their holy scriptures as infallible and absolutely true, then there is no further discourse possible upon the subject of souls in animals and their reincarnation. However, if we look at the matter free of any theological or doctrinal bondage, then the question is open to an interesting consideration.

Taking the principle one by one,we must first acknowledge that human beings are first and foremost animals..., highly evolved animals to be sure, yet still sharing many traits with other animals. It is said that we share over 95% of our genes with chimpanzees and even more so with Orangutans. looking at the primates as the frolic and play in their natural habitat, one cannot help but be deeply moved by the many similarities we see between then and human children for example. Or look at the devotion that a bitch shows towards its litter of pups and we see a kindness and gentleness that sure can only come from the spiritual realms. If you have ever owned a bird such as an African Grey parrot, you will know that such birds live to over 50 years, have distinct personalities and are capable of almost superhuman affection. Surely such traits cannot exist in creatures with no link at all with soul? Surely such creatures are the same as us in possessing individual souls, but expressing their soul personalities in different ways from us?


The second principle involves the theory of existence. How does consciousness arise? In mystic ontology, it is a result of the union of two complimentary though relatively opposite principle or energies, both arising from a supreme actuality called Nous,or as it has also been called the Monad. The two principle are called Soul, which is the repository of information, purpose and meaning, and spirit, which is the basic "center wave " upon which Soul modulates that information, purpose and meaning, thereby resulting in the manifestation of living sentient being.

The third principle relates to the degree of consciousness of the sentient being whether a human being, a dog, cat, parrot, dolphin or mouse. All living creatures have at the very least, an awareness or consciousness of some sort. In the vast majority of case, that consciousness does not extend beyond simple awareness of pleasure or pain, and it is natural that the creatures involved will always gravitate towards experience of pleasure and move away from experiences of pain.

Beyond that, there is a small minority of living things that have sense organs such as sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, as well as other senses not possessed by humans such as the Ampulse of Lorenzini possessed by all sharks which gave them the ability to sense the electromagnetic disturbances given off by the muscular activity of other living creatures. This minority of creatures(numbering many billions, yet still very much in the minority) are akin to human in so for as they can interact with the world "out there" much as we do through well developed sense organs.

Then there is a much, much smaller fraction of living creatures on each that posses what is call self awareness, namely awareness of identity and of a difference between them and all other things. All the usual creatures we know, ranging from mice to elephants and sea-lions to whales, have this awareness of their identity.And then is the extremely tiny fraction of those creatures that have awareness of the fact that they have consciousness and are able to think about their own mental processes. This last category may only include human beings, but it is likely that some forms of self awareness also exists in the higher primates such as gorillas , chimpanzees and orangutans , and maybe even in dogs.

This is speculative though and so fat there is no proof either way. All we do know with certainty however, is that humans do posses this level of consciousness, and it is precisely because the dominant and by far the most successful species on earth.

With all there different life forms, consciousness emerges in essentially the same manner, namely with the union of two principle or force..., Soul and Spirit. And in every case, the controlling force or principle of Soul is individualized as a unique soul. Does a dog therefore have a soul? you bet it does! Does your pet parrot have soul? Of course it does! And furthermore, your soul interacts with the souls of non-human creatures all around you every day. The beauty of a bird twittering in the trees, the barking of a dog three blocks away, the yawn of a cat as it stares at you with adoring eyes..., these are all souls, individual soul that are karmically tied to your soul, and assist you in your evolution just as you assist them in theirs.

Will they evolve to higher and higher level consciousness, one day maybe even reaching the awareness of the human mind? Most likely they will, but not in the time scale that humans can understand, and most likely not incarnated in the same world we will inhabit as we go from life to life in our own process of evolution.

The sanctity of these hundreds or thousands of soul that we are so privileged to know, that wander through life with us, sharing its fortunes and misfortunes..., permeates and instructs us from deep within, far below the level of objective awareness, and help to make us the self-aware, spiritual beings we are.

What would the world be like without these furry, fluffy, slithery friends, all of which have individual soul ties for time to our souls? Sad to say, at the rate we are destroying our planet at the moment, even in our lifetimes, we may yet find the sad answer to that question .

NOUS, SOUL AND SPIRIT

For an atheist, the material world, as it appears to him or her, is the only reality there is; and there is a presumed assumption that the personal reality of one person is the same as that of all others. For a mystic, the material manifestation of the world is only one among millions of slightly different personal realities of much deeper realities, each of which ultimately have but a single "non-material"actuality .


My philosophy is fundamentally mystical in nature and states that the old platonic concept of Nous is the most fundamental of all manifestation of the universe. Nous is the actuality that precedes the manifestation of the universe, and is also what will continue to exist after the universe has ceased to exist. Nous express itself in two different forms or polarities. One is called spirit, ,loosely also referred to as or "Spirit energy," and is both the force fields and the clusters of forces that underlie all expression of mater and energy. The other phase of Nous known to living things is called Soul or the Vital Life Force, loosely also referred as Soul energy, and is the source of the individual soul that each human being possesses.

My philosophy and mysticism in general therefore go deeper than the purely atheistic concept of reality. It does not claim that Vital Life Force or Soul in the ultimate reality. Nor does it claim that Spirit, whether condensed as matter or manifesting as energy, is the ultimate reality. In mystical terminology, the ultimate reality is the Cosmic itself and Nous is the highest manifestation that anything in the universe can ever know. Mind is an expression of Vital Life Force and matter is an expression of Spirit, but both are manifestation of a much deeper actuality called Nous.

To the materialist, the self exist only as long as the physical body exists. For the mystic however, the self, or more precisely some aspects of the inner self associated with the individual soul, survives life on earth. When the body dies, some individual repository of information and experience continues, existing with a form of consciousness we cannot understand. The physical body renews itself constantly throughout life. Most of its cell have relatively short-life-spans, and others, such as in the brain, live for decades. But all cells ultimately die and their absence triggers cells of their own kind to generate new ones. But there is something linked to yet quite apart from the physical body. It is the ultimate repository of our memories and record of experience. What it is, probably very few can accurately tell, but whatever it is, it contains our complete karmic history and ensures that we will compensate for our former actions in the best way possible to learn from our mistakes.

Something has been with us from birth...., a continuous entity that is not part of the material body, yet intimately tied to it. The physical body is a temporary vehicle for the expression of the soul, a soul that predates the existence of the physical body and will go on after the physical body has ceased to exist. The Inner Self then, as a manifestation of the soul, has continuity. It comes from the source of life and eventually returns to it. In the meantime it is incarnated into various physical vehicles that are in a constant state of change. A part of the experience of the soul is to manifest through the medium of those material changes.

LOVE

Love has probably been written about more than any other word in any language. It is represented as the best solution to almost all problems and since it is as old as the human species itself, a considerable amount of experience has been gathered about it. Although one aspect of it has been irrevocably bound to the to the perpetuation of the species, its complete function and potential power seem to remain little understood. It is for this reason that i dare to add yet another commentary on love. I do not expect to add anything new, for there is nothing new, for there is nothing new on the subject, but i hope at least to focus attention on certain aspects of the subject with the aim that perhaps i can increase awareness of it within us.

Undoubtedly, the most understood or, rather, most recognized aspect of love is that which is expressed in the magnetic physical attraction between  two people. This mysterious attraction has been made intense in nature as an ardent appetite for the purpose of assuring the uniting of the two polarities for reproduction, regardless of any distraction or discouragements. For this, as with food, water and air, nature has deliberately made us aggressive and self-preserving. So many tragic situations today are the result of the willful or ignorant attitude that this aspect, sex, is the total sum and substance of love. It is a vital and important part of love but it alone cannot bring the world to peace, happiness and universal brotherhood. What then is missing?

Despite the vast accumulation of literature on the subject, love is usually describe as sacrificial, as in mother's love, as unquenchable fire, or even as an incurable disease. Much is written to show that under the spell of love, one sets aside all reason. Although these are all expressions of the effects of the various aspects of love, it is more difficult to find a comprehensive definition of love. It is generally agreed that love is an emotion, just as hate is an emotion. An emotion is a strong surge of feeling marked by an impulse toward outward expression; letting oneself go in the direction of a certain  impulse or attitude. The most important aspect of love is that it is outgoing. Love primarily seeks to give, not receive.

Love assumes an attitude of inner contentment, peace and stability, and it seeks to share that attitude with others outside of self. It is as though love conceives within a surplus of positive charge that it seeks to share with all others whom it conceive as short of positive charge and therefore negative. From this viewpoint, love is an equalizer. Compatible with all natural law, love seeks not only equalization but also rest or tranquility. Oddly enough, the eternal law of change is part of this natural flow toward tranquility and stability. This state of rest is the potential goal of nature and left to itself, all things work toward that goal. It is unenlightened people who so often work against this natural state, thereby creating their own difficulties and discomforts.

Strange as it may seem, we can love others only if we first love ourselves; this is how i recognize love. Then the "golden rule" comes into play. We love others as we would have them love us. We identify with others;we love them as we love ourselves. When we strive conscientiously to improve and refine ourselves, according to the highest ethical and moral standards to exemplify the best ideals to which we subscribe, we should love ourselves, for we are all that we love most. This should not be confused with egotism or self-promotion.

Egotism describe those who are filled with inflated vanity and conceit. They overestimate their abilities, qualities and worth while taking undue pride in their possessions or attributes. Egotists do not give, they take! They do not love others, for they identify themselves in others. They believe others cannot be compared with themselves for they are superior to all others. Their love for themselves is not that of self esteem or self-respect. Theirs is rather self-glorification, or narcissism . Those who promote self or are egotistical, conceive of themselves as apart from the remainder of humanity. They have no understanding of the unity of humanity, the common sharing of Soul and the state of attunement that exist potentially between each of us. And so they are insensitive to the feelings of others. They are unable to identify themselves with others. They feel no emotional response when they find their neighbor either suffering or sorrowing .

On the other hand, when you love others you love yourself, you identify with all of the joys and sorrows you behold in them. When you know that someone is suffering, you are moved to sympathy and sometimes even to suffering; for what you witness in another, you feel in yourself. When those about you experience happiness and joy, you are happy, for you are sharing their happiness. You become happy for them. There is no selfishness in love. When we love, we wish to share all that we have or are, for we seek on advantage over those we love. What we have is theirs for we are they in a mystical sense.

Until we can understand the mystical unity of humanity, love may be difficult for us to express. Without it, we tend to be possessive and jealous. Jealousy reveals a complete absence of love. It  conceives all persons and  things as separate entities and what is worse, it seeks to control or possess that which it knows and wants. It is utter selfishness to feel jealousy, for then we want whatever others have but we will not share anything that we have. Jealousy over another persons is worse, for then we not only refuse to share with others what we like about the person every freedom and seek to own them. This is the epitome of selfishness. Jealousy should never be acceptable as evidence of love; jealousy and love are not compatible.

From a mystical viewpoint, we seek to give and to spread love wherever we go and to whomever we meet. We accept others as we find them, respecting and admiring those who may have more, do more, or are more than ourselves, and overlooking the shortcomings of those who may have less, do less and are less than us. With self-respect, as well as respect for that mystical part of us which is in our neighbor, we must strive never to be vindictive in our human relations.By learning to control our emotions, we can practice patience, tolerance and sympathetic understanding even in our occasionally necessary negative relationships.

If we would like to experience continual peace and happiness, if we would like the world and our peers to be in accordance with our highest ideals, if we would like the world to be a Mystic or enlightened world, let us think love, practice love and give love .

INSIGHT AND INTUITION

Metaphysics involves a method of linking the everyday world of body and brain to a reality that exist beyond the physical world, and therefore beyond physics. While metaphysics fundamentally concerns the finite, it also tries to reach an approximate understanding of the infinite. And this can only realistically be achieved by linking up with mysticism. Metaphysics looks without.Mysticism looks within. It concerns the soul, the mind, the inner self, and the eternal. It sees reality in much the same way that Plato taught, as an ideal that transcend all physical manifestation.


We habitually go through life viewing the universe from the inside. We are constantly looking out at our realisation of that environment. until we learn to reverse that process, we will continue struggling through one incarnation after another. The channel to knowledge, to true experience, to realization of our place in the universe, lies within. To comprehend mysticism and the mystical experience, we must realize that mysticism is related to functions that are separate from our day to day activities. Probably the nearest parallel to the mystical experience with anything in the physical world is the aesthetic experience.


For more years i walked back and forth to work every day. As i walked home in the evening,particularly in the late autumn, winter and early spring, i would almost always, face a sunset. We had some gorgeous sunset, particularly in the days before smog was eliminated. Each time i saw one of these beautiful sunsets, it was like a new experience. I would wonder "can there be another sunset more beautiful than this?" and there always was!


As the old saying goes: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." We realize only a portion of what we experience, never all of it. Our realization is always far less than the actual experience itself. This is a progressive condition that continues until the time comes when we reach the point where we can comprehend the idea itself, to which Plato referred. The comprehension of the ideas that lie behind manifestations is the equivalent of mastership which is the eventual realization of complete Cosmic Consciousness.

Our experience of beauty is usually related to an emotional as well as a rational experience.

We becomes emotionally involved every time we perceive beauty. It usually comes suddenly, rather like a surprise that we are not particularly seeking. It overwhelms our consciousness and cause us to momentarily realize that there is more to existence than the physical world.

The mystical experience is very much like the experience of perceiving beauty. When we have a mystical insight, it is if a veil is lifted and we see or comprehend a fact or experience. The veil is dropped so quickly that the experience is over before we realize it. Only those who have gained a degree of mastery in this area, and are alert enough to seize the moment, are able to hold onto and preserve that experience over a period of physical time. Such ability comes through practice, as well as acknowledgement and realization of the transitory conditions that exist in an experience like this. It is solely because most of our time is directed in the exact opposite direction, that we just do not have patience to build up the necessary experience to be able to hold onto and grasp the intuitive and mystical impressions that comes to us- constantly - if we could but hold onto them long enough to become objectively conscious of them.

There is one common factor in the mystical experience. Those who have had even the slightest of mystical experiences realize that there is always a nostalgic feeling about it, a feeling that one was once upon a time more familiar with, more in touch with. One feels very sad at having to come back to the physical , everyday world again. But the reason for this nostalgia is that we are reaching the reality that metaphysicians speak of we are contacting the source, a part of the Absolute, the I, which is the way to absolute mastery of life.