“When we possess the God-seeing life, we feel ourselves to be living in God; and from out of that life in which we feel God in ourselves, there shines forth upon the face of our inward being a brightness which enlightens our reason, and is an intermediary between ourselves and God. And if we with our enlightened reason abide within ourselves in this brightness, we feel that our created life immerses itself in its eternal life. But when we follow the brightness above reason with a simple sight, and a leaning out of ourselves, toward our highest life, there we experience the transformation of our whole selves in God; and thereby we feel ourselves to be wholly enwrapped in God.

“After this, there follows a third way of feeling, namely, that we feel ourselves to be one with God; for, through the transformation in God, we feel ourselves to be swallowed up in the fathomless abyss of our eternal blessedness, wherein we can nevermore find any distinction between ourselves and God. And this is our highest feeling, which we cannot experience in any other way than in the immersion in love. And therefore, so soon as we are uplifted and drawn into our highest feeling, all our powers stand idle in an essential fruition; but our powers do not pass away into nothingness, for then we should lose our created being.”

–John of Ruysbroeck

A God-seeing Life

What Ruysbroeck calls “the God-seeing life” doesn’t mean that anyone literally sees God, but more that one feels themselves to be in the presence of God. We read in scripture of people talking to God and God answering them, but that doesn’t happen now because man has become too densely material resulting in blockage of his spiritual faculties. If we awaken and develop those faculties, we become the people who possess the God-seeing life.

Shines Forth a Brightness

God is all about Light. Mystics have said that for ages. So it should not be surprising that when we awaken to God’s presence, God shines forth within us as brilliant Light, a Spiritual Light that is different from physical light. Light carries information in it. Even science is beginning to realize that characteristic of physical light, but the information carried in Spiritual Light is of greater importance to our immortal life. When we follow that Light, we do experience a gradual transformation to a higher version of ourselves. And as we are transformed, the world we live is is going through a similar transformation.

One With God

According to Ruysbroeck, the next stage in spiritual development is to become One with God, one with the All. That is one large step ahead, and some may break down the process into smaller steps, but becoming one with God is certainly the ultimate Goal. Ruysbroeck says this total immersion is God is one of Love, and that is true. Universal Love is part of what we develop as we approach that stage of being.

Ruysbroeck adds that our powers do not fade away when this happens as that would mean losing our created being, or individuality. Just as a board in a fence is part of the fence, yet still itself, so we become part of God and still retain our individuality. This may not happen in one lifetime, but the process will continue after the death of the physical body, as long as we start now and make as much progress as we can.

“Toys and fooleries at home, wars abroad: sometimes torpor, sometimes sloth; this is thy daily slavery. By little and little, if you do not better look to it, the sacred dogmata will be blotted out of thy mind. How many things be there, which when a mere naturalist, thou hast barely considered of according to their nature, thou does let pass without any further use? Whereas thou should in all things so join action and contemplation, that thou might at the same time attend all present occasions, to perform everything duly and carefully and yet so intend the contemplative part too, that no part of that delight and pleasure, which the contemplative knowledge of everything according to its true nature does afford, might be lost. Or, that the true and contemplative knowledge of everything according to its own nature, might of itself (action being subject to many lets and impediments) afford unto thee sufficient pleasure and happiness. Not apparent, but not concealed. And when will thou attain to the happiness of true simplicity and unaffected gravity? When will thou rejoice in the certain knowledge of every particular object according to its true nature; as what the matter and substance of it is; what use it is for in the world: how long it can subsist: what things it does consist of; who they are that are capable of it, and who can give it and take it away?”

–Marcus Aurelius

Toys and Fooleries

What Aurelius is calling “toys and fooleries” isn’t limited to the toys of children. He is talking about anything that distracts us from the serious side of life. Things like television, video games, and being on a cell phone so much you don’t notice anything around you. It is really sad that when I go to a fitness center to work out, there are always a few people who ignore the club rules and talk on their cell phones the whole time they are on the treadmills, stationary bikes, or even weight machines. The same happens in the supermarket. Aurelius is correctly labeling this attachment to these things as a form of slavery.

If You Do Not Look To It

The harm of getting too caught up in and attached to things in the material world is that it tends to cause us to ignore our obligation to develop our spiritual side. That is why the Forces of Darkness work so hard to get us to spend more time with video games, cell phones, television, etc. When Aurelius talks of being a “mere naturalist,” he doesn’t mean someone who is out in the natural world all the time, but one who is caught up in the physical realm of matter.

Join Action and Contemplation

What Aurelius is saying here is that instead of idly acting on anything that we find interesting, distracting, comforting, etc., we should think about what we are doing and act on the things that benefit us instead. There is nothing wrong with playing video games a little, but not for hours a day. I personally like to play solitaire on my Kindle Fire for twenty minutes or so each night before I go to sleep. It helps me relax. But I know better than to spend two or three hours playing such games. So when we contemplate what action we are planning to take, we need to ask if that action helps us grow, or not. We need to ask if there are some other actions we should be doing instead. Most of all, we need to be sure we are spending a reasonable amount of time on spiritual development. That doesn’t mean just doing techniques for a few minutes. It means reading books that help stimulate spiritual growth. It means that when we watch movies nd television shows, we choose those that do not promote violence, anger, vengeance, and other negative behavior.

Everything According to Its Nature

When we contemplate, we must think of what is the true nature of things. We must forgive the violent behavior of some animals because we know that it is not their true spiritual nature that is guiding them to do such things. Poisonous plants are not poisonous because they hate us. They are poisonous because their physical self is a product of the Darkness in the world and within all of us. Instead of condemning such plants and animals, we should seek to help them change. Likewise, we should seek to help other humans change. Foolish people sometimes depict angels destroying demons and devils by cutting them up with swords, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contemplation should teach us that such behavior is just joining the darkness, not stopping it. The Angels and Beings of Light stop the demons by convincing them to change their ways. We must change our ways as well.

“Paracelsus recognizing derangements of the etheric double as the most important cause of disease, sought to reharmonize its substances by by bringing it into contact with other bodies whose vital energy could supply elements needed, or that were strong enough to overcome the diseased conditions existing in the aura of the sufferer. Its invisible cause having been thus removed, the ailment speedily vanished.

“The vehicle for the archaus, or vital life force, Paracelsus called the mumia. A good example of a physical mumia is a vaccine. … The most universal form of the Memia was ether, which modern science has accepted as a medium between the realm of vital energy and that of organic and inorganic substances. …

“Paracelsus discovered that in many cases plants revealed by their shape the particular organs of the human body which they served most effectively. The medical system of Paracelsus was based on the theory that by removing the diseased etheric mumia from the organism of the patient and causing it to be accepted into the nature of some distant and disinteresting thing of little value, it was possible to divert from the patient the flow of the archaea which has been continually revitalizing and nourishing the malady. Its vehicle of expression being transplanted, the archaea necessarily accompanied its mumia, and the patient recovered.”

–Manly P. Hall

Derangements of the Etheric Double

This is a way of saying that physical illnesses can have causes that originate in either the psychic or spiritual body. While we can’t say that all disease descends down to the physical body from the higher levels of being, we do know that some do. That is why Gene Savoy, Sr. taught that those who properly developed their spirit would achieve better physical health as well. You might ask, then, why do Cosolargists still have physical illnesses? The most common reason is that the person cannot mentally accept that the development of the spirit does eliminate most physical illnesses. Of course, it will never eliminate all illness, but in general, the spiritually developed people have less illnesses and less severe illnesses than the complete materialists.

Contact With Other Bodies

This is the basis of the Sonatherapy that was available for years at our Steamboat Healing Center & Spa. The concept, developed by a British doctor, is that a sound that duplicates the frequency of a healthy organ can be used to help heal a diseased organ. For example, if someone has cataracts or other eye problems, the frequency of a healthy eye can help them to heal. Paracelsus didn’t use sound, but he did use the same idea with herbs and other natural medicines that worked in a similar way. Color can also be used to help with healing some illnesses.

Gene Savoy, Sr. told us that some medicines worked better than others because they were the proper color. For example, a blue or purple colored pill or liquid would be good for eye problems, while red or orange would be a good color for pills to treat a bowel problem. That doesn’t mean that the drug doesn’t work, but that it works better when the right color is used.

Shape of Plants

This is a new idea to me, but there may be something to it. Nearly all herbs are green, but they treat different illnesses in different parts of the body so that shape may be involved rather than color. The important thing in all of these healing methods is vibration. That which vibrates at a frequency very close to the frequency of a healthy organ will help that organ to heal when diseased or damaged. As geometry is the language of the soul, plant shapes could aid in treating illnesses that originated on the spiritual level.

Accepted by Some Distant Thing

This is what it means in the Bible when it says that Jesus drove demons out of a person and into nearby pigs. A better way to do this, however, is in the way that we in Cosolargy do using an advanced technique where we send negativity out of us to harmlessly disperse into the world, rather than sending it into another being.

“If we will stand still and calmly consider our past life (the present life, we mean) we will see that certain things have led to certain other things, and that small things have led to great things – that little turning points have resulted in an entire change in our life. We may trace back the most important thing in our life to some trifling incident or occurrence. We are able to look back and see how the painful experiences of the past have strengthened us, and have brought us to a larger and fuller life. We are able to see how that particular thing in the past, which seemed needlessly cruel and uncalled for, was the very thing which has brought us to some great thing in the present.

“All that is needed is the perspective of years. And if we get so that we are able to see this, we will be able to bear with greater degree of philosophy the pains and disagreeable occurrences of the present, knowing that they mean ultimate good. When we cease to think of these things as punishment …, or the cruelty of Nature, and begin to see them as the consequences of our own past life, or the result of the Spirit’s directing had, we will cease to protest and struggle, and will endeavor to fall in with the working of the great Law.” –William Walker Atkinson

Consider Our Past

Many of us do consider our past, often more than we should, but not in the way that Atkinson is advising us to. We look back at our successes and failures of the past and generally avoid those things that we failed at and only do those we were successful at. Atkinson is advising us to look more closely at the failures and what changed in us following those failures. If we do that, we will often find that difficulties often trigger us to make changes in our lives, hopefully for the better. It is a simple fact of basic psychology that when we are comfortable and things are going well, we don’t advance at all. We need some problems to push us forward.

Atkinson adds that when he advises us to consider the part, he means the present life. Why would he not want us to consider past lives? The only reason I can think of is that he doesn’t beleve in reincarnation. If he did, he certainly didn’t think blaming everything on past lives was a good idea. Neither is putting off change for a future life when we don’t know we will have one. We need to make the changes necessary in our current life.

Trifling Incident

Unfortunately, while it often is true that some trifling incident in our life may have led to great changes—hopefully for the better—we often don’t remember those small incidents. I am reminded of the story told by actor and singer, James Maslow, who was picked on as a child for being chubby. He didn’t let that insult limit him, but instead decided to change and became a very handsome and muscular young man. He did remember the incident that led to that change, but many do not.

We should also remember the story of the hurricane that may have been started by a butterfly flapping its wings. It is not known that this has actually happened, but it is theorized that a butterfly flapping its wings can start a tiny wind current that grows and grows as it crosses the Sahara and goes into the ocean where it becomes a hurricane. So big things can start small.

Cease to Think of Difficulties as Punishment

Atkinson advises us to stop seeing difficulties as punishment for doing wrong, and instead see them as pushing us on to better things. There are two good reasons for taking that advice. First, God does not punish us, so we need to stop blaming God and change things when necessary. Second, the Dark Beings and Forces will bring difficulties to us when we are succeeding in our path to spiritual enlightenment in an effort to get us to turn away. We must realize what is happening and instead double down and continue on harder than before.

“As the spiritual student climbs the path leading to higher worlds, he becomes aware at a particular point that the cohesion of the powers of his own personality is assuming a different form from that which it possesses in the world of the physical senses. In the latter the ego brings about a uniform cooperation of the powers of the soul—primarily of thought, feeling, and will. These three soul powers are actually, under normal conditions of human life, in perpetual relation to one another. For instance, we see a particular object in the external world, and it is pleasing or displeasing to the soul; that is to say, the perception of the thing will be followed by a sense of either pleasure or displeasure. Possibly we may desire the object, or may have the impulse to alter it in some way or other; that is to say, desire and will associate themselves with perception and feeling. Now this association is due to the fact that the ego coordinates presentment (thinking), feeling, and willing, and in that way introduces order among the forces of the personality. This healthy arrangement would be interrupted should the ego prove itself powerless in this respect. If, for instance, the will went a different way from the feeling or thinking. No person would be in a healthy condition of mind who, while thinking this or that to be right, nevertheless wished to do something that was not right. …

“Now the person progressing toward higher cognition becomes aware that feeling, thinking, and willing do actually assume a certain independence. … For this reason, therefore, a person’s own ego must be strengthened, for it must introduce order among those three powers.” –Rudolf Steiner

Cohesion of the Powers

Mr. Steiner divides the Powers of Personality, as he calls them, into three: thinking, feeling, and will. He says it is normal for these powers to work together, and that is true. It makes sense that in order to have feelings about something, you must first think of it, and in order to do something, you must activate the will based on those thoughts and feelings.

Pleasing or Displeasing

I’m not sure it is true that certain objects are either pleasing or displeasing to the soul. I think it is more the mind that judges things in that way. Yet we know that there are sounds, such as music, and scents such as Frakencense that send high-level vibrations to us and those vibrations help to stimulate and develop the energy centers, which make the sevelopment of the Spirit and Soul possible. So shapes, sounds, and scents affect the Soul mostly in an indirect way.

Ego Coordinates

Steiner says the ego coordinates the powers of thought, feeling, and will so they can function together, and that may well be true. Some modern schools of spiritual development have taken the simplistic approach of claiming that the development of the Soul requires the destruction of the Ego. That is a completely false teaching.

I remember an old episode of the television series “Star Trek” where a technical problem caused Captain Kirk to be split into two. One of him was gentle and loving but incapable of making a decision. The other had Ego and could make decisions, but was afraid of everything. It was only when he was put together again that he could properly function as a Captain. This divided Kirk is described appropriately. Without ego, he couldn’t function.

Strengthen Ego

I don’t think what Mr. Steiner says about the need to strengthen the Ego is always true. While some people, often those who seek spiritual development, have weak egos that do need to be strengthened, some already have egos that are strong enough, or even too strong. The point is, we need the ego to function in the material world, and to develop ourselves in any way. But when we develop our spiritual Self, we need to put our ego under the control of the Soul so it won’t lead us away from the spiritual.

“Bless me, O God, thou the only True God. I thank thee for the preservation of me, and for all other benefits. I now commend myself, both Soul and Body, and all that thou has set me to do in my employment and calling, into thy protection. Be Thou the beginning of my conceptions, my undertakings, and alll my doings. Work Thou so in me that I may begin all things to the glory of Thy Name, and accomplish them in Thy Love for the good and service of my neighbor. Send thy Holy Angels along with me, to turn the temptation of the Devil and corrupt nature away from me. Preserve me from the malice of evil men, make all my enemies reconcilable to me, and bring my mind into Thy vineyard, that I may labor in my office and employment, and behave as Thy obedient servant therein. Bless me and ask that I am to go about and do this day, with the blessing of Thy Love and Mercy continue Thy Grace and Love in Jesus Christ upon me, and give me a mind cheerful to follow Thy leading and execute thine appointment. Let Thy Holy Spirit guide me in my beginning, and in my progress, on to my last day, and be the willing, woking, and accomplishing of all in Me. Amen.” –Jacob Boehme

When We Rise

We can pray to God, formally or informally, at any time, but the most important time to do so is first thing in the morning when we get up so as to set the theme for the entire day. This especially makes sense for us in Cosolargy, as we generally do our solar techniques at dawn. The somewhat lengthy prayer above by Boehme is a formal way to do it, but we don’t have to be so formal or lengthy. Simply saying “God bless me” is often enough, or you can be specific for whatever issues you may be having at the time, so if you are finding yourself getting angry at people, ask God to help you get rid of your anger. If you are having health problems, ask God to help with that. Most important, of course, is to ask God to help you with the process of awakening and developing your spiritual faculties.

Preservation of Me

When Boeme asks God for “the preservation of me,” he isn’t asking God to keep him as he is, for that would be pointless. He is asking God to keep him alive, not to prevent him from changing and growing.

I commend Myself

This is an important part of Boehm’s prayer. We should all commend ourselves to God. If we want God to help us, we must make it clear to ourselves that we are on His team, part of His Army of Light, and not just random people asking for God’s help while doing nothing to earn it or deserve it.

The Beginning of All My Doings

Whether part of a morning prayer, or something ongoing throughout the day, we do need to do all things in God’s name, and as God would have us do. Some Christians today are fond of saying “What would Jesus Do?” but what they often mean by that is what would my preacher do since they listen to the preacher rather than the teachings of Jesus. While we may not always know for sure, we should think about whether or not God would want us to do the things we do. We all have to make a living in this world, and that often means taking a job we don’t want and doing work we don’t want to do, but we should still try our best to do as God wants us to do.

Bring My Mind Into Your Vineyard

I think this is a fairly obvious allegory. Boehm is telling us to ask God to bring our minds into Heaven, although it isn’t actually the mind that can get a glimpse of Heaven, but the Spirit. The idea is to help to get some of that Divine Knowledge to trickle down into the physical mind as seems to happen in some cases of Near Death Experiences (NDE). This is so we can better be Guided by the Holy Spirit as Boehm says, and so that we have a greater desire to reach Heaven—the real Heaven, not the fantasized versions coming from human minds.

 “In Egypt, during the three days of darkness, the son saw not his father, nor brother, brother, nor true friend his friend, because the darkness hid them. So when Adam transgressed and fell from his former glory, and came under the power of the spirit of the world, and the veil of darkness fell upon his soul, from his time until the last Adam, they saw not the true Father in Heaven, or the good, kind Mother, the grace of the Spirit, or the sweet and desiring Brother, the Lord, or the friends and kindred, the holy Angels. And it was not only the last Adam, but even to this day, those upon whom the Sun of Righteousness has not risen, and in whom the eyes of the Soul have not been opened and enlightened by the true Light, are still under the same darkness of sin, wrought upon by the same influence of pleasures, subject to the same punishment, not yet having eyes to behold the Father.

“This is a thing which everyone ought to know, that there are eyes deeper within man than these [physical] eyes, and a hearing deeper than this hearing. As the [physical] eyes behold and recognize the face of a friend, so the [spiritual] eyes of the worthy and faithful Soul, being spiritually enlightened with the Light of God, behold and recognize the true friend.” –St. Macarius the Egyptian

Three Days of Darkness

This is a reference to one of the plagues brought upon Egypt in the time of Moses. Here is what is said about it in the Book of Exodus in the Bible:

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.’  So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.”

But the darkness over man didn’t end when that plague ended. While we are able to physically see now, the vast majority of us remain spiritually blind and deaf.

Spirit of the World

St. Macarius says that when Adam transgressed, he came under the power of the Spirit of the World, and that is true. The Spirit of the World is the one the Gnostics call the Demiurge, the false God that created the realm of matter. When Adam and Eve ate from the “Tree of Knowledge.” which was not a literal tree but the light of the physical sun, they fell into the realm of matter and came under the control of the lord of matter, the Demiurge. When that happened, they no longer “saw” God in heaven, whom Macarius here refers to as the three persons, Father, Mother, and Holy Spirit, as well as losing their connection with Christ and the Angels. In other words, they lost contact with Heaven.

Sun of Righteousness

St. Macarius then says that humans remain in darkness because the Sun of Righteousness has not risen. That was true when he wrote it, but is no longer true. The Sun of Righteousness, which is the Spiritual Sun with the Presence of God within it, does now shine upon us. But it doesn’t immediately appear at full strength. The power of the Sun of Righteousness reaches all, but only a few are able to absorb that Light and have a true awakening of Spirit because of it. The solar techniques practiced in Cosolargy help us absorb even more Light from that Sun.

Deeper Eyes and Ears

We do have deeper senses than the physical ones, which are capable of getting more than a vague notion of things spiritual. We must awaken and develop those spiritual senses to truly know the spiritual realm and to gradually expand our consciousness until it rises to the highest level of Consciousness and becomes one with the All, one with God. That we do by following the teachings of Cosolargy.

“If two persons combine in harmony their force of muscle to lift a heavy weight, they will lift it easier than one. If four people so combine, they will lift it easier than two.

“The same law and result applies to mental force. Each one of us, consciously or unconsciously, sends out daily and hourly this silent mental force—this invisible element we call thought, which affects favorably or unfavorably the persons of whom we think. It is the same force which may lift a box, a bag, or a truck. Only it may be differently applied.

“”If you have in view any enterprise or business, and you can meet at regular times two, four, six, or as many persons as heartily wish you success, and they hear your plan, and talk it over with you, always in earnest sympathy and goodwill, you are having their cooperation in making for you a silent force which will aid you more than anything else. You will then the quicker find persons who are in sympathy with your purpose. If you have a new knowledge, or a new truth, … you will, through the power of cooperative demand or prayer, be the sooner brought to the people who can aid you.” –Prentice Mulford

The Law of Synergy

Synergy is a method in which individuals or organizations pool their resources and efforts to enhance value, productivity, efficacy, and performance more than they could individually. That term may not have been used in Mulford’s time over a century ago, but it is common in modern-day business and especially in Systems Analysis. In systems analysis, they also use another expression, the Laurel and Hardy effect, to describe the opposite of synergy, when each individual is doing his own thing and not working in cooperation with others. Sadly, we have more of that than of cooperation.

Like Lifting Weights

Mulford says that it is easier for two people to lift a heavy weight, and even easier for four. He might also have said that the more people you have working on it, the more total weight they can lift. Likewise, a mental or spiritual task can be more easily accomplished by a group of people working together rather than individuals making uncoordinated efforts.

Let’s take the example my college professor used to illustrate synergy. He said that two cavemen were hunting separately and not having much luck chasing cave rabbits around. But then one noticed that one particular rabbit was simply running in circles around a large boulder while the other caveman pursued it. So he met the other caveman and they decided that one would chase the rabbit while the other simply waited on one side of the rock in a hidden spot so he could jump out and club the rabbit when it came by. The trick worked and the two cavemen used the method frequently after that and rarely went hungry.

But if the cavemen arrived at the hunting area at different hours, the trick would not work, so a coordinated effort is necessary. The same is true with mental and spiritual goals.

Law of Abundance

Many talk today about a Law of Abundance that is supposed to make it possible for anyone to get almost anything they want by simply thinking about it and believing they can get it. About 99 out of a hundred people who try this fail. The gurus of this law of abundance always put the blame on the individuals when they fail and say that they simply didn’t do it correctly, or didn’t really believe, but that is an oversimplification of the problem. A large part of it is that cooperation is not being applied. Many different people are seeking individual goals and because of that, the energy (force as Mulford would put it) of their efforts conflict with each other instead of aiding each other. So they are using the Laurel and Hardy Effect rather than that of Synergy. But when many work together for the same goal, this Law of Abundance often works, though not always. That is because there is another catch to it. The laws of the physical universe say you must work and earn what you get, so if you work hard and don’t always get what you should, the Law of Abundance, coupled with the Law of Synergy, my work, but if you don’t deserve it, you probably still won’t get it.

Spiritual Goals

In Coolargy, we learn that being part of a community is important. The ability to use the Law of Synergy (or Law of Cooperation) as a community makes it more likely that those goals will be achieved. It also gives us more protection against the dark forces that seek to prevent spiritual development.

“There is within us an immense capacity for perception, for the receiving of message from outside; and a very little consciousness which deals with them. It is as if one telegraph operator were placed in charge of a mutitude of lines: all may be in action; but he can only attend to one at a time. In popular language, there is not enough consciousness to go round. Even upon the sensual plane, no one can be aware of more than a few things at once. These fill the center of our field of consciousness: as the object on which we happen to have focussed our vision dominates our field of dight. The other matters within the field retreat to the margin. We know, dimly, that they are there; but we pay them no attention and should hardly miss them if they ceased to exist.

“Trancendental matters are, for most of us, always beyond the margin; because most of us have given up our whole consciousness to the occupation of the senses, and permitted them to construct there a universe in which we are contented to remain. Only in certain states—recollection, contemplation, ecstasy and their allied conditions—does the self contrive to turn out the usual tenants, shut the ‘gateays of the flesh,’ and let those submerged powers which are capable of picking up messages from another plane of being have their turn. Then it is the sense world which retreats beyond the margin, and another landscape that ruches in. At last, then, we began to see something of what contemplation does for its initiates.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Capacity for Perception

It is true that we have a great capacity for perception. It is also true that there are many things that exist beyond our physical perception and are completely invisible to them. But Ms. Underhill makes a mistake that was common for the time: she confuses consciousness with the conscious mind. The conscious mind is part of the physical mind, and is limited, as Underhill says. Consciousness, on the other hand, is not limited at all.

Focussed Vision

One reason our capacity for perception is limited is that we focus only on one thing or a small number of things. This makes sense to a large degree in a purely physical world, because we want to experience mostly the things that most interest us, endanger us, or are simply in our way and we need to go around them. Unfortunately, once we have learned to focus our vision and other senses in that way, we do it constantly. In so doing, we miss out on a lot of things that are, as Underhill puts it, pushed to the margins and ignored. That is one reason why Gene Savoy, Sr. taught us to practice unfocusing our eyes so we see more, not only on the physical level but to help us start seeing beyond the physical with our spiritual faculties.

Filters

In addition to focussing, we have beliefs, concepts, and ideas of what is real and what isn’t. This causes us to see things differently than others who may have different filters. One example of this is the way members of certain Churches will see the face of Jesus in every water stain, or blob of rust that vaguely resembles a human face. None of them have ever seen the actual face of Jesus, yet every time they see these vague shapes, they just know it is him.

Trancendental Matters

Underhill refers to everything spiritual when she uses the expression, “transcendental matters”. She says these matters are always being pushed “beyond the margin” of our conscious mind, and that is true. She adds that we perceive these things only when we are in “certain states,” and gives some examples. But here, we are really talking about something different than the focusing of the conscious mind. Spiritual things can only be perceived by our spiritual senses, and to do so, we must awaken and develop those senses. That is what we are doing when we practice the techniques taught in Cosolargy. Another part of it is that there are many levels of consciousness, and we are only aware of things happening at our current level, and below. We need to develop higher levels of consciousness to see more of the reality that is largely hidden from us. The Cosolargy techniques do that as well.

“Though I have said that we are one with God and this is taught us by Holy Writ, yet now I say that we must eternally remain other than God, distinct from Him. …

“And therefore I say further: that from the face of God, or from our highest feeling, a brightness shines upon the face of our inward being, which teaches us the truth of love and of all virtue: and especially are we taught in this brightness to feel God and ourselves in four ways. First, we feel God in his Grace; and when we apprehend this, we cannot remain idol. For like the sun, by its splendor and its heat, enlightens and gladdens and makes fruitful the whole world, So God does to us through His Grace. He enlightens and gladdens and makes fruitful all who desire to obey Him. If, however, we would feel God within us, and desire to have the fire of His love ever more burning within us, we must, of our own free will, help to kindle it in four ways: we must abide within ourselves, united with the fire. And we must go forth from ourselves toward all good people with loyalty and love. And we must bo beneath ourselves, betaking ourselves in all good works. And we must ascend above ourselves with the flame of this fire, through devotion, and praise, and fervent prayer, and must ever cleave to God with an upright intention and with love.” ~John of Ruysbroeck

One With God, Yet Individuals

When they are told that the goal of spiritual development is to unite with God, many people think this means that their individuality will be lost in doing do. In fact, there are some spiritual schools that teach that we lose our identity as we become one with God, comparing it to a drop of water that flows into the ocean where it mixes in and can never be separated again. But others teach that it is more like a brick being added to a brick wall. The brick is part of the wall but still retains its individuality.

A Brightness Shines

A brightness does shine on us from God, but not directly. God’s Light illuminates the Spiritual Sun and it is that Sun than shines down on us with God’s Light. And it shines on our outer being as well as our inner one. It shines on all beings, but most are unable to absorb it, so it just passes through them like neutrons. But for those who seek this Brightness of God, it awakens and nourishes the spirit and helps us develop higher levels of consciousness.

Four Ways

The Four Ways listed by Ruysbroeck may not be the only ways to keep us close to God, but they are certainly part of it. First, he says we must seek to unite “with the fire.” In other words, to be one with the Light, one with God, one with Heaven. In Cosolargy, we know that the best way to do this is to practice our solar techniques faithfully and regularly. Then we must, as Ruysbroeck puts it, “go forth from ourselves toward all good people”. In Cosolargy, We are taught to keep the teachings secret, just as was done in the mystery schools of the past, yet we can still reach out to others, inform them of what is happening, what the Awakening is all about, and invite them to join Cosolargy. Don’t be disappointed, however, if your friends and relatives are not ready to see the Light, and turn down your suggestion. The Light will come to them when they are ready, not before, but as the old saying goes, it helps to plant seeds. Third, we must, as Ruysbroeck says, go beneath ourselves to continue to labor in the world of matter. We remain part of the material world while developing our spiritual side, so we must continue to function in that world, and not withdraw from it. We function in it but avoid becoming attached to it, or to anything in the world of matter. And finally, we ascend above ourselves to “pray” or communicate with the Beings of Light and With God. This is the way to truly know God.