“The strand of DNA in a single cell is six feet, six inches long. That’s a lot of code when you consider that the size of the characters in the code is microscopic. Think of the enormous amount of information packed into it. Moreover, the type of order found in DNA, which is the basis of life, is not simple, symmetric order. It is a highly complex, specified order that might be compared to the notches on a key, which are highly irregular, but also highly specified. They must be so in order to open a particular lock—a kind of specificity does not happen by accident because it is a kind of language. Consider, for example, the arrangement of the letters in this sentence, or for that matter, in this entire book. They did not and could not have happened by accident. You may not agree with what I have written, but you have to admit that putting all these letters together to communicate what I want to tell you must have required at least a minimal degree of intelligence. This kind of premeditated organization is what is found in the DNA and the RNA. Indeed, three things found in the universe that have the property of specificity are 1) human language, 2) computer code, and 3) the information in DNA and RNA. It should go without saying that whenever we see information such as that, there is always an intelligent input that accounts for it, which indicates convincingly that intelligence is behind the origin of life. Nevertheless, after more than 60 years, science teachers in schools and colleges are still teaching their students that matter is all there is. However, not everyone remains in denial, and many today are coming to the realization that the basic premise of Scientific Materialism simply cannot be correct.

“This awakening, which is now gaining speed, began more than 40 years ago. After Click’s discovery, a few brave souls broke from tradition and accepted the fact that there must be some sort of guiding intelligence responsible for the origin of life. I know this from personal experience because I read a book more than forty years ago that put forth that argument. Published in 1975, it refuted the idea that intelligence, consciousness, and awareness came about because of evolution.”

-Stephen Hawley Martin in the book Christ Consciousness

Strand of DNA

As the first sentence of the quote indicates, a single strand of DNA found in one of our cells will stretch to 6.5 feet long when uncoiled, but because it is tightly coiled, it takes up a small fraction of an inch in our cells. What Mr. Martin is telling us is that there is an enormous amount of information stored in a strand of DNA, and that information implies order and intelligence in each cell of our body.

Highly Complex Order

Martin adds that not only is there an order to the information stored in each DNA strand, but it is a complex order. He compares it to the notches in a key. While a plain key may be simple, various combinations of notches can be added to the key so that thousands of different keys can be made, each one capable of opening a different lock. He is saying that DNA works in a similar way. In other words, the strand of DNA in a blood cell is specialized so that when the cell reproduces, it will produce another blood cell, not some other type of cell.

Guiding Intelligence

Martin eventually says that some experts are now saying that this complex arrangement of DNA implies that there is a guiding Intelligence that is responsible for life. This is a reasonable conclusion, but it must be noted that we are still dealing with only the life of the physical body.

Beyond Matter

The quote does not follow on with what I think is a logical conclusion: this Guiding Intelligence had to exist before the physical universe was created. If there was some Intelligence before matter existed, that intelligence had to be spiritual. So what these studied of DNA really prove is that there must be a realm of spirit that existed before the realm of matter and the guiding intelligence of that spiritual realm is what most of us call God.

“These are the hidden sayings that the living Yeshua spoke and Yehuda Toma the twin recorded. And he said, Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death.

“Yeshua said, Seek and do not stop seeking until you find. When you find, you will be troubled. When you are troubled, you will marvel and rule over all.

“Yeshua said, If your leaders tell you, “Look, the kingdom is in heaven,” then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, “It’s in the sea,” then the fish will precede you. But the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are poverty.

“Yeshua said, A person old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and the person will live. For many of the first will be last and become a single one.

“Yeshua said, Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be disclosed. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. His students asked him and said to him, Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?

“Yeshua said, Do not lie and do not do what you hate. All things are disclosed before heaven. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nothing covered that will remain undisclosed.

“Yeshua said, Blessings on you who came into being before coming into being. If you become my students and hear my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in paradise for you. Summer or winter they do not change and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death.

-Gospel of Thomas

Will Not Taste Death

Those who awaken and develop their spiritual faculties will gain eternal life, so they will not taste death. Their physical bodies will die, but their spirit and soul will live on.

Seek Until You find

Thomas is talking about spiritual growth and development throughout the above quote, so when he says that Jesus (Yeshua) told him not to stop seeking until you find it, he is talking about seeking a path to spiritual awakening. Thomas is not going to put it in writing, but we in Cosolargy know that Jesus and his apostles did practice spiritual sun-gazing.

Looking for the kingdom

In this case, Thomas is using the word “heaven” to mean the sky. So here Jesus tells him that if they look to the sky for the Kingdom of God, the birds will be there before you. And if you think it is in the sea, the fish will be their first. He then says the Kingdom of God is found inside and outside of us. We don’t just turn inside, as some spiritual teachers advise. We must also look outside, to the cosmos, especially to the Spiritual Sun.

Know Yourself

Many materialists think they know themselves, but when they deny the existence of the spirit, they deny a very important part of what they truly are. But is is more than simply being aware that we have a spiritual Self. We have to awaken that spiritual Self before we can really know ourselves.

Everything Hidden Will be Revealed

When we awaken our spiritual Self, and develop it gradually until we reach the highest levels of consciousness, everything will be revealed because there is no way to keep it secret. At that level, you are in direct contact with the Mind of God so all veils are lifted, and all Truth and Wisdom is revealed.

“Navigating the terrains of the Bardo, we may face unwelcome travelers of fear and disorientation, which stir the waters of our minds, obscuring the serene reflection needed for recognizing the Clear Light. Familiarity with the path is indispensable; without prior experience and reflection on the essence of the Clear Light, recognition in the Bardo becomes akin to finding a needle in a cosmic haystack. The “Bardo Thödol” prescribes practices and teachings aimed at peeling away these veils, refining our perception, and revealing the luminous nature inherent in all beings. By integrating mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom into daily life, practitioners prepare to meet this unique juncture with awareness and understanding, recognizing the Clear Light as their true nature. This unveiling is more than an ephemeral experience; it’s a golden opportunity for immediate liberation, an invitation to awaken to our innate wisdom and compassion, to reflect on life’s impermanence, and to live with mindfulness and spiritual vigor. The teachings of this Bardo serve as a guide for the dying and a reflective mirror for the living, unveiling deeper truths of existence and offering a path towards self-realization and liberation.”

-the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Unwelcome Travelers

TheWord Bardo refers to the place where we are between Heaven and Earth, but what the quote says about unwanted travelers applies to the physical world as well. Not only might we face “unwelcome travelers,” we definitely will. These unwelcome travelers of fear and disorientation are generally called demons and devils. Their purpose is to keep us confused about what is real and what is illusion, what is important and what isn’t. They want to prevent us from awakening and developing our spiritual Self.

Serene Reflection

Serene Reflection is needed to recognize the Clear Light of God and the path to it. Some schools teach that this “serene reflection” means practicing basic meditation, but that is a tool for beginners and we must remember that the ancient schools were careful to not put too much knowledge in writing to prevent it from being misused. There is, as we know in Cosolargy, ample evidence that the ancient spiritual groups and mystery schools in many parts of the world practiced some form of spiritual Sun Gazing.

Bardo Thödol

Bardo Thödol is another name for the Tibetan Book of the Dead, so the real purpose of this book is to teach people how to engage in spiritual development. The quote says that its teachings are aimed at “peeling away the veils”. It was taught in many spiritual schools that the Spiritual Sun was blocked from us by “veils”, and those veils would be lifted at some future date. We are now living in the time when the veils are being lifted and people are awakening to the reality of a Spiritual Self, and the need to awaken and develop it. Although some veils may remain, practicing the proper techniques can lift those veils.

Awaken to Wisdom

The quote says the lifting of the veils gives us an opportunity to “ awaken to our innate wisdom and compassion.” Another way of saying it is that it gives us the ability to develop higher levels of consciousness until we reach the highest levels where we are one with the All, one with God. When that happens, we are also one with True Wisdom and Love for all. That is how we become part of the Clear Light of God.

“David in the Psalms says, ‘I believe I see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living.’ He also says, ‘Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.’ Solomon declares, ‘But the just will inherit the earth and live on it forever.’ About creation, I wish to confess that our lord God is the creator and author, but not of the elements of the world, which are impotent and empty, and as Paul said in Galatians, ‘How can you now turn back to the impotent and empty elements under which you suffer a new slavery?’ The messenger also says in Colossians, ‘If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?

GOD HAS NOT MADE DEATH

“ Even less can we admit that our lord is the creator and author of death, and of the things that are, by their essence, in death, because, as it is written in the book of Wisdom, ‘God has not made death, and he does not rejoice at the loss of the living.’ There exists, then, with no doubt whatsoever, another creature or factor, who is the principle and cause of death, of perdition, and of all evil.

ON THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE TRUE LORD GOD

“I wish to speak now of the omnipotence of the true lord God, which so often permits our adversaries to play the glorious one when they claim against us that there is no other force or power than theirs. Although in the testimony of the holy scriptures, the true lord God may be called all powerful, one must not believe that he is called that because he can do and does all evils, because there exist many evils that the lord cannot and will never do.

THAT GOD CANNOT DO EVIL

“If God does not want to do all the wicked things, if he does not want to lie or destroy himself, surely he cannot. Because what God in his unity does not want to do, he cannot do. And what he cannot do, he does not want to do. And in this sense, one must say that the power of sinning and of doing evil does not belong to the true lord God. All that is thought to be God’s attributes and conduct is not accidental, as the learned know. It necessarily follows, then, that God himself and his will are one and the same. The good God cannot lie or commit every kind of evil, if he wants to, because this true God cannot do what he does not want to, we repeat, since he himself and his will are one and the same.

-Book of The Two Principles

Goodness of God

Yes, God is good in the Land of the Living. Actually, God is always good. But what is the land of the Living? It is the realm of spirit, especially the highest level of spirit that most call Heaven or Nirvana. The Earth, currently a part of the physical realm created by the false god, the Demiurge, is a place of death and disease. Yet Solomon says ‘the just will inherit the earth and live on it forever.’ Which means the Earth must change back into a world of spirit so eternal spirits can live here.

God Doesn’t Kill

In many cases, people believe that God kills under certain circumstances. That is not true. God never kills. Some will argue that if God allows demons, devils, and evil people to kill, that is the same as if God kills them. That is like saying a rock is a killer because someone shaped the rock into a spearhead. In any case, God doesn’t kill because it is pointless to kill the physical body which is already temporary, and God cannot kill the eternal Soul as he made it to be immortal.

God is Omnipotent

God is all-powerful and indestructible. While the false gods will say otherwise, the true God remains the only God that is omnipotent. There is a simple reason for this. When you put together the spirits of all beings, all things, all spirits of any kind, you have God. There is no way for anyone to destroy all of that.

God does not do Evil

Some think that if God is omnipotent, then he must do evil as well as good, but simply because God is all-powerful doesn’t mean God does all things, including evil. It is the very nature of God to be Good, to be loving, to be forgiving. Only false gods do evil, get jealous, take revenge, etc. The true God is not like that.

“Then I said to them, ‘In no way would I destroy the commandments of the Savior. But if you reproach me on account of wheat bread, because I have said, “It is necessary to eat of it,” this the savior has done; as it is written, that when he had blessed it and shared it with his students, “over bread he said a blessing and gave it to them.” Was not that bread from wheat? The scripture points out that he reclined to eat with tax collectors and idolaters. Likewise, he also reclined to eat in the house of Martha and Mary on the occasion when Martha said to him, “Lord, do you not care enough for me so as to tell my sister to help me?” and the savior said to her, “Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.” Consider, moreover, how even the students of the savior ate bread from women and idolaters and did not separate bread from bread, nor vegetable from vegetable; nor did they eat, while laboring in the toil and tilling of the land, as you do today. Likewise, when the savior sent his students out to preach in each place, neither mill nor oven did they carry with them, but made haste, taking one garment. . . ‘

“Then Mani said to them, “Consider these famous men of your law, those who saw these visions, who were moved by them and proclaimed them as good news to others. Likewise, I too practice everything I was taught by them.” “While I was speaking to them, reducing their words to nothing, suddenly they became angry and violent, and one of them even got up and hit me. They huddled around me and beat me. They grabbed my hair as though I were an enemy. They shouted at me in a loud voice that grew bitter and angry as at someone who was superstitious. Out of malice, they wanted to strangle me. Because Pattikios, the master of the house, begged them not to be impious toward people among them, they were ashamed and released me. After I went through this trial, I withdrew to one side and stood praying. I prayed for our lord to come to my aid.”

-On the Origins of His Body (a Manichian scripture)

Mani on Eating Bread

It is not clear who Mani was, though he calls himself a disciple of Jesus. He was the leader of a Gnostic group that we now refer to as Manichians. In the first part of the above quote, he is addressing someone who has apparently objected to Mani and his followers eating wheat bread and eating bread from “unclean” sources. He points out that Jesus and his apostles did the same. He notes, however, that Jesus blessed the bread before sharing it with the apostles. The implication is that his blessing removes all negative characteristics from it. We know today that most types of bread are not as healthy as people believed for centuries, but it isn’t the nutritional value that Mani is talking about.

Ate Bread from Women and Idolaters

Mani adds that the students of the savior ate bread that came “from women and idolaters”. It is not clear if he means bread that was made by such people, or simply served by them. Perhaps both. He adds that they even ate vegetables from such people. Why anyone should be concerned about eating bread or other foods from women is beyond me, but apparently there were people in the time of Mani who objected to doing so.

Mani adds that when the followers of Jesus traveled, they did not carry an oven with them. The implication is that they did not bake their own bread, but relied on the people they were visiting to supply them with food, no matter who those people were.

Such things sound silly to most people today, but we have those who avoid buying products from some companies because of their politics.

Reducing Their Words to Nothing

Mani changes the subject here and is now telling the story of a time he was attacked by a crowd of people he was speaking to for “reducing their words to nothing”. In other words, he was contradicting long-held beliefs of theirs and many people will turn on someone who does that rather than admit they were wrong. We still see a lot of this today. Many politicians take advantage of this fact to manipulate and control people. We see this in Cosolargy where we lose a number of students after six or seven months of study because they reach some teaching in the books that contradicts a belief they are not willing to change. They don’t see that if you can’t change, you can’t move forward.

“Before all the worlds came into being there was a sole enormous fruit, and when the enormous fruit entered a fruit, the great and glistening King of Light began. An ether of radiance existed. From the ether of radiance came the living fire. From the living fire there was a light. By the power of the king of light came the great fruit and life. The great fruit came alive and in it rolled the Jordan, which is also a garden. The great Jordan came alive, and the living water was in it. Luminous water came alive from the living water. I, life, came alive and all the uthras—the light beings—found space.

“When the fruit was in the fruit, when the ether was in the ether, when the great and glorious Mana was there from whom powerful manas came, whose radiance is enormous and light is great, no one was before them in the fruit abundant and without end, whose radiance is too abundant for the words of the mouth, and whose light, which was in that fruit, too great for telling with the lips. From the fruit came a thousand thousand fruits without end and a myriad myriad of beings of light, the shkinas, beyond count. In each fruit were a thousand thousand beings of light. They stand and praise the great and glorious Mana, who lives in the great ether, within the Jordans of white water made by the Mana, whose aroma is fragrant and inhaled on all the roots of light and on the great first radiance. The long Jordan was made to go on uncounted and endlessly. Plants grow next to it. They are happy. They praise and stand in perfection, and from the great Jordan came uncounted Jordans endlessly.”

-The Ginza

A sole Enormous Fruit

This is obviously an allegorical statement. It was written in a way that people with little scientific knowledge could understand. It is simply saying that there was one undivided Whole, a Oneness. This was before God created anything. This oneness is sometimes called the Godhead.

King of Light

The King of Light is God. From the phrase “ the great and glistening King of Light began,” it sounds like God is being created, but that is not exactly true. God always existed and always will. He is outside the limitations of time and space. I think this refers to God beginning his creation. It is confusing when we always think in terms of time and space, but even though God had to create the Worlds of Light and the beings of Light, those worlds and those beings have no beginning and no end as they too are outside of the limitations of Time and Space. I am illustrating this article with an image of what is supposed to be the hand of God creating. I used that image because it is a popular way of illustrating creation, but God is a spirit and doesn’t have hands. In any case, it is the mind of God that creates, not his hands.

From The Light Came Life

From the Spiritual Light of God comes Spiritual Life. Physical life is an altered version of Spiritual Life and is created by the Demiurge, not the real God. From the Light, powerful Manas also were created. Mana is a Hindu word that refers to the Spiritual Mind, so this is telling us that the Light not only produced spiritual bodies, but also spiritual minds.

Myriad Beings of Light

The quote then says that Beings of Light came from the Light, or in other words, were created by the Light. These are the beings that most of us call angels. They were created before humans were created, so while some angels may have spent time in physical form on Earth, angels are not created from dead humans. They were angels before they became human. In other words, we were Spiritual Beings before the Great Fall in which we became beings of matter.

Jordans of White Water

The Ginza says that the Mana created many Jordans. This is allegorical. The Jordan river was considered sacred to the ancients so what this means is that the Spiritual Mind of God created a great flow of Light full of Grace, truth, and Wisdom. Those rays of Light are the Jordans of White Water.

“Clairvoyant consciousness is able to learn something of what will happen during the Jupiter state. The beings and facts observed in this field of consciousness have not the nature of sense-images; they do not even appear as fine air structures from which effects might proceed which resemble sense-impressions. They give purely spiritual impressions of sound, light, and heat. These are not expressed through any material embodiments. They can be apprehended only through clairvoyant consciousness. One may say, however, that these beings which at present manifest on the psycho-spiritual plane, possess a ‘body.’ This body, however, appears like a sum of condensed memories which they carry within their souls.

“One can distinguish within their being what they are now experiencing and what they have experienced and now remember. This last is contained within them like a bodily element. They are conscious of it in the same way that an earthly human being is conscious of his [physical] body.

“at a stage of clairvoyant development higher than just described as necessary for a knowledge of the Moon and Jupiter states, the student is able to perceive supersensible beings and things which are, in fact, the more highly developed forms of those present during the Sun condition, but which have reached stages of existence so lofty as to be quite imperceptible to a consciousness capable of observing the Moon forms only.”

–Rudolf Steiner

Clairvoyant Consciousness

What Mr. Steiner calls “Clairvoyant consciousness,” we in Cosolargy might refer to as simply “psychic consciousness” without specifying a specific psychic ability to associate with it. I won’t bother to get into what he calls “the Jupiter state.” Suffice it to say that what he calls “the Moon state” is the low level of the typical materialistic person on Earth. A higher state of consciousness associated with the psychic level of being, he calls “the Jupiter level,” and still higher is the “sun level,” or spiritual level. He also makes it clear that there are even higher levels of being and consciousness than the spiritual level. We would call the highest level Christ Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness.

Purely Spiritual

Steiner says the beings that one might observe in a higher state of consciousness have “not the nature of sense-images.” In other words, they cannot be seen by the physical senses of the body, but must be seen by awakened psychic and spiritual senses. He adds that they give “purely spiritual impressions,” which makes sense as we are talking about spiritual beings. He adds that these beings do possess a body, but not one of matter. Steiner says their bodies appear “ like a sum of condensed memories,” an odd description in my opinion as I have no idea what condensed memories would look like. I think it is better to describe the bodies of these beings as less dense than our physical bodies, and made of energy rather than matter. At the highest levels of consciousness, the beings found there would have bodies of brilliant Light and energy.

Supersensible Beings

Steiner goes on to say that beyond this Jupiter State, are even higher developed forms of the being found in the Sun State. This indicates that the beings of the Sun State are even more advances, in a spiritual sense, then those found in the Jupiter State. This makes perfect sense to students of Cosolargy who know that there are beings that exist at all levels of reality, some good, some not good. In order to see and communicate with these higher-level beings, we must raise our own consciousness to their level. That is what the Solar Techniques of Cosolargy help us do.

“Learn to respect one another. You are all conductors of God’s blessings. And if you do not respect omebody, you deprive yourself of Divine Blessing. As much as you love people, you will benefit from the good. Whomever you may love, you benefit from that love.

“A good person is everyone who speaks the truth. You should all pray for one another, or think well for one another. When you meet somebody, wish them well.

“God lives in everything. His spirit is present even in the smallest being.

“You ask: ‘What shouls we preach to people?’ Tell them: ‘Without Love of God, life has no meaning. A sick man comes to you, tell him: Without Love of God, man cannot be healthy. You come to an ignorant man, tell him: Without Love of God, man cannot become learned. You come to a bankrupt merchant: Tell him: Without Love of God, trade wil not go well.. Tell all the people: Without Love of God, life cannot be understood. … Separation from God always produces suffering.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Respect One Another

Having respect for a person doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, or even like them. It means you have to recognize that they are humans just like you, and they are not perfect any more than you are. If it was your child or a sibling who was behaving badly, you would not turn on them and refuse to love them. You want to change the behavior, but you still respect and live with the person. If you don’t respect those who behave badly, you will not have the incentive to try to help them. We only try to help those we love and respect.

Conductors of God’s Blessings

Yes, we are all conductors of God’s Blessing, both taking in and giving out. If we expect to receive God’s Blessing, we must share it by sending love and blessings to others. It doesn’t weaken us by sharing love and energy with others. Instead, it allows us to take in more energy until our energy centers are fully charged and link together to create a complete energy flow throughout the body and spirit. And if you have no particular person you want (or need) to show love and respect to, then just send love and respect out into the world to all including animals, plants, and all things.

Benefit from Good

We do benefit from the good we do. We benefit from the love and respect we have for others. I recently wrote about karma for the Cosolargy blog, so I won’t repeat it here, but the main thing to know about karma is that it works both ways. Whether you do good or evil, what you do comes back to you. It may come back almost immediately, or it may take some time, but it always comes back.

God Lives in Everything

It is not true that God’s presence is everywhere in the material world, but it is true that God Lives in everything because everything has a spirit, and each spirit is a tiny piece of God. That does not mean that we should proclaim that we are God. That attitude results in excessive ego, which is not a good thing. If the fingernail of your right thumb could talk, and it declared that it was you, you would laugh at it. It is just a tiny part of you. Likewise, each individual spirit is only a tiny part of God, and should not say that it s God.

Without Love

Underhill says that “Without love of God, man cannot be healthy.” That is true if you understand that health is more than the health of your physical body. Complete health also means mental, emotional, psychic, and spiritual health. We are complex beings, and our health is a complex thing. We can improve our health on all levels by practicing respect and love for all. And if you truly love God, then you must love all, or at least all spirits, since we already mentioned that every spirit is a tiny piece of God. And what all spirits desire is to unite with God again. That is what the practice of Cosolargy is all about.

“The terms used by the individual mystics, the divisions which they adopt in describing the Self’s progress in contemplation, are bewildering in their variety. Here, more than elsewhere, the mania for classification has obsessed them. We find, too, when we come to compare one with another, that the language which they employ is not always so exact as it seems: nor are traditional terms always used in the same sense. Sometimes by the word ‘contemplation’ they intend to describe the whole process of introversion: sometimes, they reserve it for the ‘orison of union,’ and sometimes identify it with ecstasy. It has been pointed out by Delacroix that even St. Teresa’s classifications of her own states is far from lucid, and vary in each of her principle works. …

“Thus we are forced to the conclusion that the so-called ‘degrees of orison’ so neatly tabulated by ascetic writers are largely artificial and symbolic: that this process which they profess to describe is really, like life itself, one and continuous—not a stairway, but a slope—and the parts into which they break it us are diagrammatic. Nearly every mystic makes these breaks in a different place, though continuing to use the language of his predecessors. In his effort toward self-analysis, he divides and subdivides, combines, and differentiates his individual moods. Hence the confusion of mind which falls upon those who try to harmonize different systems of contemplation.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mania for Classification

I think it is not really true that mystics had a mania for classification. I think most of them were perfectly happy to leave things rather vague. It is the writers who put the teachings and experiences of the mystics down on paper that had the mania for classification. It is understandable, however, that when a process or experience is complicated, we try to break it down into smaller, more understandable pieces.

Orison of Union

Ms. Underhill has chosen to use “orison” in an attempt to avoid confusion, but it is a word rarely used today. It can mean any form of prayer or plea to God. She uses this word instead of prayer because most people have the idea that prayer is all about asking God for things that they want, while the “orison” of the mystic is more a matter of trying to communicate with God, rather than just asking for things. Her reference to the “orison of union” refers to the goal of the mystic, or spiritual adept, to become one with the highest level of Consciousness, thus one with God.

Steps of the Spiritual Path

Underhill says that the process of spiritual awakening and enlightenment is more like a slope than a stairway. It doesn’t have specific steps and levels. She is probably correct in saying that most mystics are simply breaking the process down into steps in an arbitrary and individual way, so that different spiritual teachers and writers have different steps and different names for the steps, but the overall process remains the same. And the breakdown may be based on how that individual feels as he or she continues on the path. If one feels as if one has made a big step forward, then one may consider that a step on the path, whereas others may feel that way at different points.

Secrecy

Another reason why the language of mysticism may be vague is that it is often allegorical in order to maintain secrecy. In the ancient mystery schools, students were required to take an oath to keep most of the teachings secret, so when they did write things down, they hid a lot of it in allegorical language. This was done for the protection of the students as well as others. The schools of Light did not want dark schools to learn the secrets and misuse them. They also didn’t want new students to learn things before they were ready, and harm themselves.

Contemplation

One of the terms of mysticism or spiritual development that Ms. Underhill uses frequently is “contemplation”. Many people today will think that means meditation, but it doesn’t. At least not the forms of meditation commonly practiced today. Contemplation is defined as “the action of looking thoroughly at something for a long time.” That “something” doesn’t have to be a Sanskrit word repeated over and over without knowing its meaning. It could be something that you, as a spiritual person, want to achieve, such as humility, and love for all. It can also refer to the techniques of Cosolargy for contemplating the Sun.

“We have then arrived at our description of the mechanism of the mystic. Possessed like other people of powers of feeling, thought, and will, it is essential that his love and his determination, even more than his thought, should be set upon Transcendent Reality. He [or She] must feel a strong emotional attraction toward the supersensual Object of his quest: that love which scholastic philosophy defined as the force or power which causes every creature to follow out the trend of its own nature. Of this must be born the will to attain communion with that Absolute Object. This will, this burning and active desire, must crystallize into and express itself by that definite and conscious concentration of the whole self upon the Object, which preseeds the contemplative state. We see already how far astray are those who look upon the mystical temperament as passive in type. …

“It appears, generally, from the experiences of the mystics, that their act of contemplation becomes a psychic gateway; a method of going from one level of consciousness to another. In technical language, it is the condition under which they shift their ‘field of perception’ and obtain their characteristic outlook on the universe. That there is such a characteristic outlook, peculiar to no race or creed, is proved by the history of mysticism.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Like Other People

Some people seem to think that mystics are either frauds or members of some race superior to ordinary humans. In actual fact, they are like other people in most ways, except for a burning desire to learn the universal truths hidden to the materialistic person. They have the same kinds of feelings, thoughts, and temptations as all of us, but at some point, they turn from the temptations and pleasures of the material world and concentrate on seeking something higher. As Underhill notes, love and determination put them on the right path and keep them on it.

Some people don’t like the term “mystic”. If you are one of them, then think “Spiritual Adept” instead. The terms mean the same thing, at least in the way that Ms. Underhill uses the word “mystic”.

The Object of the Quest

Underhill vaguely refers to what the mystic or spiritual student is seeking as the “supersensual Object of his quest.” First, we must remember that until a few decades ago, it was conventional to use masculine terms for things that could be masculine or feminine and mystics could be women. As to the object of the quest, you can call it Spiritual Enlightenment, the highest levels of consciousness, reaching Heaven, or oneness with God. Those terms all refer to the same quest and the same goal.

Becomes a Gateway

Ms. Underhill says that the “contemplation” practiced by the mystics becomes a “psychic gateway” that leads one to higher dimensions of consciousness. It is more accurate to call it a spiritual gateway since the goal is to go beyond the fourth dimension of the psychic realm, to the fifth dimension and higher. Again, she doesn’t say exactly what form this contemplation takes, possibly because she doesn’t know, but more likely, because she thought such information shouldn’t be shared with the uninitiated.

Shift Perception

The Spiritual Adept does shift their perception when practicing spiritual development techniques, and we now know that most of the ancient mystery schools used spiritual sungazing as at least one of those techniques. We know that the students of Pythagoras practiced their techniques while watching the sunrise. We know that the Essenes went to a mountaintop and practiced techniques at dawn. We know that St. Francis had his primary spiritual awakening while watching a sunrise from his bedroom window. We also know that the Spiritual and Mystical writer Jacob Boehme had his when the sun reflected off a shiny metal bowl he was carrying struck him in the eyes.

Of course, just looking at the sun isn’t enough. Some animals such as certain types of snakes look at the sun regularly, but they don’t become mystics. It has to be done properly and with the right attitude; an attitude of love, peace, and humility. Those who do it with the desire to gain the power to use to control others will not succeed in the quest. Instead, they will negate and be taken over by dark forces and beings. So practice the solar techniques, but do so with humility and love of God, and remember the Goal of the Quest.