Whether at a personal, family, organizational, or national level, it feels to many of us as though daily life has become a constant and unrelenting struggle between our better angels and our inner demons. It is eerily reminiscent of the Hindu epic tale of the Mahabharata that relates Arjuna’s dilemma on the battlefield of Kurukshetra while facing the two armies and having to choose sides.
Which force eventually gains the upper hand and assumes control is entirely up to us and depends upon our ability to employ ‘right discernment’. Victory in this spiritual test is not measured by how many enemy combatants are killed, but how much light can be released from the Soul to help us overcome the darkness of a limited vision created by our own fears, doubts and ignorance of an underlying reality that declares and affirms we are all integral aspects of the One Soul and that there is no ‘other’.
The Ageless Wisdom teaching indicates that humanity has now reached an evolutionary watershed moment – a critical collective choice point where we can either continue to be entrapped in materialism that leads to the suffocation of the Soul, or we can liberate ourselves from the prison of fear and separation and allow the light of our true nature to shine forth and guide our steps.
So why is it often so difficult to see clearly when faced with our daily challenges? One reason might be that when the waters of the emotional plane and the fires of our lower desires meet and merge, a dense fog is created that temporarily obscures the light of the inner sun from illuming the path. Dispelling this darkness requires that the light of our soul be awakened. It is the Light of Truth, together with the Fire of Love, that burns off the veiling mists of maya and permits us to stand in the illumined space and integrity of our sovereign Self from where ‘right action’ flows.
The Trans-Himalayan Mystery tradition (the lineage upon which Meditation Mount is founded) states that the demise of humanity can be averted if three ‘truths’ are acknowledged and applied daily as guiding principles. These ‘Three Recognitions’ can be expressed as follows:
The fact of the Soul as our essential nature and a true guiding force in our lives
The existence of the Realm of the Soul as an embodied field of over-lighting and all-embracing leadership, love and wisdom
A Divine Plan that contains the purpose, promise and destiny of humankind and planet Earth as an evolving sentient Being within the Solar Family – in the same way a seed contains the promise and pattern of the flower-to-be.
These esoteric postulates can easily appear as lofty statements that rely solely on faith and are challenging to prove scientifically. Please allow me an attempt to respond to the many questions raised and share some insights garnered over the years, in everyday parlance.
So how do we go about describing the soul and experiencing its presence? In reality, this is something that nobody else can dictate or impose upon us as it is up to each person to discover the nature of the essential Self through their own process of inquiry. The path of self-realization requires that ‘truths’ emerge from our own experience so that the child of wisdom is birthed from within and not copied and adopted from external sources. Many people have had a deep sense of an inner core of being that transcends their physical, emotional and mental faculties. Like any relationship, it takes time, patient listening and compassion to develop a meaningful rapport with this non-visible locus of our personal life. I find it useful to strengthen this ‘sensed reality’ and ‘inner knowing’ by periodically repeating an affirmation that is part of the Mount’s spiritual lineage.
More radiant than the Sun,
Purer than the snow
Subtler than the ether
Is the Self,
The Spirit within my heart.
I am that Self,
That Self am I.
How can we possibly locate and discover the abode of the soul? Mother Nature may hold a vital clue, as even the flowers here in the Meditation Mount gardens are wise enough to turn their faces towards the sun to track, receive and absorb its life-giving energy. Likewise, in our spiritual quest it may require that we also develop similar heliotropic tendencies and turn our faces towards the shining countenance of the Soul – the inner spiritual sun – in order to receive the generous gifts of its warmth, illumination and limitless power.
If we are indeed Souls incarnated on Earth with a specific purpose to fulfill, then a question naturally arises as to where we as a species fit into the scheme of evolution?
There is a favorite childhood verse of mine by Ibn al 'Arabi that goes like this:
God sleeps in the rock (1st kingdom)
Dreams in the plants (2nd kingdom)
Stirs in the animals (3rd kingdom)
Awakens in humans (4th kingdom)
I believe that it is time to add another line:
And Shines in the realm of Souls (5th kingdom)
There is a magnificent continuum of divine expression stretching from the dense physical plane all the way to the highest fiery frequency of Divine Will and Purpose to which we give the name ‘kingdoms’, or ‘realms of nature’. Much of this multi-dimensional spectrum goes unregistered by our human senses and thus, it is not surprising that we are unaware of these ‘invisible realms’ of Creation in our everyday activities. So, what is the nature of this 5th kingdom, the Realm of Souls?
It has been referred to by different names throughout history, such as the Communion of Saints in Christianity, the Spiritual Hierarchy and The Masters of Wisdom of The Ageless Wisdom tradition, The Rishis and Mahatmas of the Vedic path as well as a general tag name of The Illumined Ones. My dear friend Donald Keys (founder of the United Nations based NGO, Planetary Citizens) called this sphere of higher awareness and consciousness, the land of ‘post-graduate humans’. I like his description as it hints at the real story of what it takes to inhabit this neighboring level to which we aspire and towards which we are evolving.
A resident of this realm might be described as one who has cleared away all the blockages and distortions from within their individual field of consciousness so that the personality is fused with the Soul and its Light radiates unhindered as a blessing to all around. For me, the 5th kingdom represents the full flowering of the promise held within the heart of our humanity – it is our next destination on the spiral journey. I would even venture to say that it constitutes a complete realization and expression of what Martin Luther King refers to in his dream of creating ‘beloved community’ – a coherent congregation of human hearts united in love as a force for good.
Meanwhile back here on Earth inside the temporal matrix, we inhabitants of the 4th kingdom struggle to master those skills that will help establish right human relations, cultivate non-attachment to materials, emotional and mental forms and generally clean up the un-illumined personal patterns and unhelpful behaviors that constitute ‘the shadow’ – the sum-total of the unredeemed aspects of the Earthly self that the Ageless Wisdom teaching names as the ‘dweller on the threshold’. This entity is therefore an aspect of our own nature that guards the Portal on the path of enlightenment which can only be entered until we have acknowledged, accepted and taken responsibility for transforming all the un-enlightened aspects of the past.
I see us each enrolled in a vast planetary graduate program and, thankfully, we have the guidance of mentors from the Realm of Souls who have successfully traveled the same challenging paths that we presently find ourselves on. What better mountain guides and ‘spiritual sherpas’ to lead us on our journey than those who have already successfully made the ascent and who stand ready, willing and able to help their fellow travelers?
The Ageless Wisdom teaching indicates that a major task for humanity is building a path of consciousness – a ‘rainbow bridge’ – to connect the 4th and the 5th Realms so that through this living link a flood of much needed light and love can enter our earthly planes. It is the power of this Soul light that ultimately dispels the darkness caused by fear and hatred gripping so much of humanity today.
If we see the rainbow spectrum of realms as the many aspects of One Planetary Life then cooperation between the Fourth and the Fifth kingdoms is simply Life evolving by communing with Itself in a deeper and more intentional way than ever before. Closer cooperation between the Kingdom of Souls and humanity is therefore a sign of a natural and healthy relationship occurring within an integrated and sentient planetary eco-system.
Collectively, we are being called to be ‘Suns of God’, shining our lights in the darkness. Human beings have also been referred to in several spiritual texts as “Gods in the making” – divine apprentices learning the art and science of being Co-Creators inside the Generative Mystery we call Life. We are so much more than how we are currently behaving!
However, in order to speak and act with conviction and authenticity, we must first enter into a living relationship with this field of Loving, Lighted Wisdom that we call the Kingdom of the Soul. Meditation Mount’s purpose is dedicated to the work of preparing the way for this inner communion and communication through the promulgation of the Pathways (Laws) and Principles of the Kingdom of God as well as advocating the practice of Creative Meditation as a powerful tool and protocol for building a new world together from the inside out.
We are living in an era where the Ancient Mysteries are being revealed as we, ‘inquire the way together’. If the reality of the Soul is not publicly and widely recognized then we run the risk of traversing the dark passages of life without the lighted aid of this indispensable navigational instrument.
Next month in Part Two, we will continue our exploration of these Three Recognitions and focus our attention on the notion of a Divine Plan which includes our destined and active participation in its outworking.
If we are truly being invited to engage as co-creative agents of a divine design and spiritual architecture called The Plan, then there is a need to address the implications of saying ‘yes’ to this service opportunity. Among other things, it raises the question of how the proposition of a pre-determined future can co-exist with the principle of free will without compromising our individual freedom of choice that we hold as a God-given and inviolate right.
Michael Lindfield
Meditation Mount
Board President