Category Archives: Mastery

The way of effortless effort.

Purification – By John Gregor (Guest Teacher)

Purification has been talked about in spiritual circles since God kicked Adam’s butt for lusting after Eve. Legends have been told of saints and monks facing demons as large as the sun while their very flesh was flayed from their bones while they maintained their oaths to purify their souls.

It all makes for great reading, but what is purification really?

First you need to get the concept of Karma. Karma is like throwing a huge rock at a bull, it’s gonna get an effect. Karma is like smiling at a pretty girl (or a guy!), it’s gonna get an effect. That’s what Karma is – it’s cause and effect.

Karma doesn’t make any promises about what it will deliver – but one thing that it will promise is that something will be delivered!

Now your consciousness is made up of many different levels give or take a few, but you’ve got the big three.

You’ve got the mental side – that part that thinks that it gets it all and knows what is going on.

Then there’s the body – you know the thing that carries your head around. Funnily enough, the head is also part of the body but many people don’t really get below the neck, they just keep all their consciousness bottled up in the head.

There’s also the spirit – and this is where people get all funny, because some people don’t believe in it, others will kill or chastise you for looking at it the wrong way and some think that it’s something that you drink.

So all these levels of consciousness have things that are going on. Day to day procedure – business as usual. In most cases the procedures are happening because of patterns or habits.

Now a habit is made up of 2 parts – cause and effect.

So there again, we have Karma.

This funny little thing keeps us winding up and winding down and we run our lives by it. It creates who we think we are – our personalities, our perception of pain and pleasure, our values, ethics and beliefs.

All of it started because of a rock being thrown in a pond somewhere at sometime…a pond in our consciousness.

So it’s all well and good when things are well…good.

But watch people come running when things go south.

That’s when purification comes in.

Someone once said to me: “All my life I thought that spirituality has a load of horse crap and now all of sudden I’m crazy about it…what happened?”

I said: “You started getting old, knew that grim death was just around the corner point and decided, Hell I better do something before I get there!”

Purification is that investment, but it’s not necessarily about self-flagellation and so forth. It’s about applying the essential ingredient of purity to all the layers of Karma within you.

Then, like a flame burns wood, all your Karma layer by layer is dissolved.

That’s it, you no longer recreate the same patterns that you’ve played out for all these life times.

Your consciousness at the 3 main levels becomes free to do what it wants.

That in a nutshell is purification.

The next question is: what remains when the consciousness becomes free?

John Gregor

The Steps to Enlightenment – By John Gregor (Guest Teacher)

“Everyone has within them the potential to be a master, a spiritual warrior and to know infinite power. The path of Enlightenment is known by few simply because adversity seems too overpowering and so they never break past the initial walls of illusion.” – .

When I first began Metaphysical training there wasn’t a lot of knowledge that was given out freely and in many ways this hasn’t changed. The real keys, the secrets and subtleties are still kept pretty well hidden. The sad thing is that in lieu of real Enlightenment there are teachers going around saying “you don’t need to do anything – you’re already Enlightened.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Real Enlightenment exists and its not about just going around saying “Yeah I’m Enlightened.” It’s about hunting down those damn secrets and using them.

I remember when I had my first encounter with a teacher who was well on his way to Enlightenment and his consciousness was so overpowering that I could feel it transforming my very bones just from being around him. This was back when I didn’t believe that Enlightenment was for us mere mortals…but that first meeting changed my mind completely. Power that you can feel…you don’t meet that everyday.

On to the steps to Enlightenment!

The first rung on the ladder to Enlightenment is developing some degree of self-control and discipline and using this to get a small “foot in the door” connection with the Higher Self. This gets people out of their normal headspace, a place that is not usually so conducive to getting Enlightened and into a kind of super consciousness highway where intelligence, information and understanding can process at an unbelievable rate. Where the normal mind plods along…1, 2, 3 – the super conscious Higher Self is like 1 to infinity in an instant. The knowledge is there, the understanding is there and the path to Enlightenment is all of a sudden a Hell of a lot clearer!

The second rung is developing psychic awareness – now this isn’t the type of psychic showmanship that you see on the back of tabloids – checking out who is cheating who and so forth. What it’s really about is getting a phone line to the universe – tapping into that ripe knowledge and using it to boost up your ascension and Enlightenment. I’ve heard talk that Psychic ability and Enlightenment have nothing in common but to be honest these people just don’t get it. Most of the reason that Enlightenment is seen with such unattainable awe is because people haven’t worked out how to perceive it…and what is Psychic Mastery if not the ability to perceive at an infinite level?

The third rung is what is known as the inner or Esoteric warrior. This is the stuff that you need when the real inner battle begins and believe me, it’s a battle waged on many fronts and from many angles. Learning to fight on this inner level is really important and is one of the most misunderstood things on this whole journey. Let me put it another way: Being a spiritual wet noodle gets you no where when the battle comes to the door of your consciousness. Develop your inner strength and mental fortitude like this was your last day to do it and you’ll conquer whatever comes from within swiftly and decisively.

The 4th rung of Enlightenment is purification, but I’ll leave that for next time.

John Gregor

Beyond the Psychic

The psychic senses begin the opening to understanding and communicating with the Etheric planes. This connection begins with an expansion of consciousness into the 5 primary physical senses as well as a deep integration within the intellect and mind. The bridge between these psychic senses and the higher spiritual senses becomes active when sentient cellular realization occurs. At this point a person’s dormant spiritual abilities and powers move from the Etheric into the physical and they understand how to perform such influencing as quantum healing and physical manifestations such as telekinesis, breatharianism and bi-location.

This level of ascension is also important for accessing a higher understanding of our spiritual purpose. Without these higher senses being active it is impossible to understand higher levels of spirit, much in the same way as if one does not have eyes, they cannot understand written text.

The psychic is the beginning of expanding the physical senses. The next step is to use this as a foundation to bridge to the higher Etheric senses. At this stage the true purpose of psychic abilities will become clear as the higher Etheric senses allow us to communicate with spiritual consciousness in a way that is beyond anything the intellectual mind could currently imagine or perceive.

The next levels of ascension from occur here as physical ailments and disease are understood and healed and the denser aspects of consciousness are fully integrated into the spiritual light. The universe and its child the earth then begin to provide power in a way that is completely in alignment with our spiritual self. Our true purpose becomes illuminated.

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Metaphysical Technology

The influx of metaphysical technologies into this planet is moving into a new stage now. Where the harnessing of such technologies has largely been in the underground movements even within fringe new age groups, recognition of potential power and knowledge is beginning to be realized. The melding of consciousness and technology heralds expanded opportunities for manifestation, astral projection, healing and spiritual realization and as long as the balance is kept between the esoteric and exoteric principles, the path of self-mastery and control will continue to progress.

The advantages of using metaphysical technologies are many. For the novice they offer a way of sustaining high levels of energy and intent even when the consciousness is not yet able to hold these frequencies. It is much like a computer is able to tap into complex equations at a level and speed that most human beings are not.

Metaphysical technologies range from the very physical implements to etheric artifacts and structures. The method and material used to create these artifacts will determine the power and ease with which they can access each plane of reality. Ancient knowledge is now being understood and channeled in as to how to create technology that can link and transcend several planes simultaneously. The ability to link these planes and to draw energy from one seamlessly into a creation of another holds profound opportunities.

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Higher Self Manifestation – The Secret Key to Truly Effective Manifestation and Abundance

The highest or most effective level of manifestation is through the Higher Self. This is the direct connection to the God source, where creation becomes effortless. This is the reason why all meditation and esoteric practice has as its highest aim a connection with God or the Higher Self. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

The Higher Self or God Force manifests accurately and effortlessly because it is able to remove the blocks, download new programs and infuse the creation with energy that is required to ‘make it happen.’ The stronger the connection to this power, the quicker, more accurate and effective the manifestation becomes. This is the law of attraction at work, but instead of it taking say 1 year to manifest, the Higher Self accelerates the process so that it takes 1 week.

All creation whether spiritual, monetary, emotional or intellectual is essentially about understanding how to magnetize or attract that reality into the here and now. The Higher Self or God Force does not judge whether we choose to manifest enlightenment, good health, wealth or knowledge. Why would it? It already is all that it needs to be, it exists to be part of us – if we would have it. The Higher Self exists to be all that we would have it be – all that is required is that we allow it.

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The Way of Astral Projection

Astral projection is the ability to move the consciousness deliberately into the plane of reality known as the ‘astral.’ This plane exists at a subtler level than the physical and so in this plane it is easier to create and receive mental manifestations. If for example we wish to see a particular person we can move to them instantly, without the usual physical process of getting transport to meet them, or making sure that they are home. Knowledge and information too is created at a faster speed without the friction of the physical to slow it down.

The planes of the astral work in densities. The higher planes have a lesser density and the lower planes have a heavier density. This is the reason why mastery of the mind and emotions is important for higher level astral work. All thoughts and emotions have a particular density and form. These forms act quite literally as obstacles to moving into the subtler realms. The harder that we push, the more impatient and ‘power’ that we try to muster, the more these realms elude us. The impatience, tension and force that we create has a density that prevents us from entry. Ironically it is by diminishing the effects of desire, impatience and force that we enter these gates. This principle holds true all the way from the most simple astral projection to the most deep and subtle.

The main pre-requisites to astral projection are relaxation and focus, although in truth all that is really required is focus. In the beginning we learn to control our bodies to the extent that we can effect a complete and deep relaxation. The body literally falls asleep, yet part of the mind remains conscious and awake. This is simply a shift from what we normally do, which is to allow the mind to move into the sleep state with the body. In this case we are training the mind to be awake while the body sleeps. This simple practice develops aspects of mind control in that the mind must learn to not fall asleep and instead focus. Each time the mind tries to fall asleep with the body, we will it remain conscious.

It is interesting that many modern people are not actually ‘embodied.’ So much of our lives are spent thinking and living in the future of possibilities or in the past of happenings, thoughts and emotions. What is interesting about this is that when it comes to splitting the consciousness from the body a reaction sets in that seeks to prevent us from projecting or leaving. It is not so much an intellectual fear as a primal one, yet it is not at the unconscious level as much as at the conscious and subconscious.

Our bodies do quite well with out the interference of the conscious mind. Our heart beats, our lungs breathe, our immune systems fight off disease – none of these require our direction ~ they simply does what they do. The fear that we will die if we leave our body does not come from the fear that our body will die. It comes from fear of the unknown. Of what will happen to our mind if we leave our body. The more that we face this threshold, the more that we face this fear, the easier it becomes to cross it. Slowly, like babies we venture further and further until we realize that we are in fact safer leaving our bodies as we are safe to leave the house.

What is also interesting is that we all leave our bodies every night that we sleep. It is just that we are unconscious of this and we do not remember. Our subconscious plays out its reactions and interactions within the astral realm which is why dreams can be so crazy. Flying pink elephants can and will appear instantly if this is what is required in a dream. The difference between the dream and astral projection is being conscious. Being consciousness in the astral just as in life is what provides the opportunity for deliberate choice and intention.

The importance of being conscious ties right back to the foundational process required to astral project. At the moment the body sleeps, if we lose consciousness then we lose deliberate choice and intention. If we remain conscious then we keep choice and intention. This is the difference between simply falling asleep and astral projection.

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Dedicated Spirituality

Dedicated spirituality is living spirituality. This means that abilities and skills are honed and refined continuously in daily life. Dedicated spirituality means revolving the rest of our lives around our spiritual practice and not the other way around. It is not for everyone, just as becoming an Olympic athlete is not for everyone, but achieving high levels of ability in any field will always require dedication.

The path of dedication will leave many of us behind. It will require many sacrifices, but to those of us with true intent and commitment, these sacrifices will be as little as dust. Dedication will leave behind all the illusions of spirituality, all the “should” and “should nots” will fade as we pursue real experience to define the way of true meaning and value. Our choices and actions will begin to frighten the spiritual “hobbyists” not because of any true moral slights, but because we bring light to illusions which they would otherwise hold on to. This is true power. While some would have us believe that power exists in denying fear and insecurity, we find it in facing and conquering fear, at first with trembling hands and eventually with hearts so strong that fear flees at first contact.

This is what the masters meant when they reminded us that what we truly fear is not our weakness, but our true power. We fear it because it separates us. It separates us not in truth, but in perception and it is this perception of separation, of being apart from others that frightens us. This perception is the “closed mind.” It is the outcast, the hermit, the isolated, the lonely and the alone. It is our weakness when it controls us, but when we are in control, then it is our strength. It becomes our commitment, our discipline, our dedication and purpose. This meaning and value becomes a power in itself, it inspires and gives us reason to be who we are. We change from a person who is scared to utter one word out of line, to a being who lives to be who they are.

Each and every facet of life changes through our dedication. At the same time each and every facet of our life must be faced and observed critically in order to be dedicated. Life is a succession of moments, each moment is a test of our integrity. And what is integrity? It is a being that is aligned with itself. It is a being that walks its talk. Each time that we act in a way that we feel at any level is not true or right or within our value system, we can feel our own energetic, mental and physical integrity distort. Likewise when we act in a way, that is aligned and congruent with our values and meaning then we will feel our spiritual, mental and physical integrity strengthen.

When we put off implementing and acting on what is true and right for us, then we are affirming that these inner values are not important enough right now – and so they manifest exactly as such. The will becomes weaker, clarity less so, the mind and emotions create lower energy states that help to manifest and affirm these limiting belief. It is exactly what was ordered! On the other hand when we pursue and implement our inner most values with dedication and commitment we manifest the strength to integrated these into the world, the expression to make certain that we are not ignored, the clarity to achieve the highest vision possible and the energy to match the expansion of mind and body that we are commanding.

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Meditation Mastery – Developing High Level Elite Meditation

Meditation is the practice of understanding. It is training the mind and the body to observe and gain knowledge about specific energies and aspects of consciousness. As the body and mind becomes familiar with the language of these energies, a communication is realized and formed. This communication is the catalyst to understanding.

Often understanding is perceived to merely mean intellectual realizations. In truth understanding can be defined as ‘knowing.’ It is knowing how ‘cause’ relates to ‘effect,’ and it is also knowing how to influence “cause” and “effect.” Deep understanding means an intrinsic, intuitive knowledge of how to create effect or result. It becomes as basic as simply reaching out and taking a glass of water. No thought, theory or concept needs to be understood to take the water – the ‘knowing’ is so deep and cellular that our body and mind has the perfect coordination and knowledge to simply reach out and take it. This is ability and skill. It may not be recognized for a task such as this, but this is because we have reached a high level of skill. It is simply taken for granted. This is the direction of mastery. It is tuning our abilities to such a high level that ‘intention’ can become ‘reality’ at our will. This level of mastery only occurs through progressive practice.

For many people spiritual practice does not move much deeper than the intellectual level. The intellectual level is the level of thought, concepts, philosophy and theory. This is the level where we make our plans and understand the ‘map’ to creating deeper skill. The fact of the matter is that without deeper practice we do not have the opportunity to control cause and effect. Using the example of taking a glass of water for instance, as babies we were unable to manifest this effect at will. Even through watching and gaining instruction it took practice and time to entrain these abilities into our bodies. It took even more time to develop this ability to the level where we could do it without thought.

The training of the mind and body to coordinate and follow intention in this way is meditation. Mastery of meditation is the development of all the skills required to move, direct and control the mind in all its facets. Where the basic meditation will form fewer aspects of focus and skill, mastery is able to flow from one to another at will. The difference is like needing to think hard about reaching out and taking a glass of water, all the while concentrating intensely – and simply reaching out and taking it.

The speed of ‘thought’ is fast indeed, but it pales in comparison to the speed of knowing. Mastery is the training of our abilities into body and mind so that this deep coordination of consciousness just ‘knows’. ‘Thought’ needs to interpret and process experience, then apply the necessary level of consciousness. ‘Knowing’ simply creates experience directly. The higher the level of ability and skill, the less thought is required. It is like taking the glass of water – we simply reach out and connect. There is no dispute, doubt or argument about the fact that we can simply reach out. We just do it. This is what ability and skill does for us. This is also the reason why intellectualization, concept and theory leaves so much room for arguments, dispute and doubt. None of this however matters when we develop real skill. It becomes completely irrelevant when we develop mastery.

Training towards meditation mastery develops the ability to connect to spiritual experience without requiring intellectual concepts or theory. The experience just happens as a result of the ability and skill. Our understanding of spirit, the Higher Self and metaphysics changes completely, because instead of working with theories and thinking “what if?”, we get to actually try out our ‘what if?’ ideas within the realm of experience.

Where theories would discuss whether spirit of the Higher Self exists, ability demonstrates existence beyond a shadow of a doubt. More than this, experience moves us into a more constructive phase such as viewing discussing methods of evolving with Ascended Masters, astral projecting into mystic libraries of spiritual knowledge and communing with the Higher Self or God force.

Mastery is a path that is created when we dedicate ourselves to developing a high level of skill. Through this path, purpose and meaning are made apparent – empowerment is made apparent. Ideas that were concepts become experiences within our reality. Mastery at this point is no longer simply an idea, dream or ideal. It is refined ability and skill. Correct meditation, the art of understanding and communication is the most direct path of training to bringing these skills of consciousness to mastery.

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Spiritual Growth – Achieving Real Spiritual Evolution

The state of spiritual growth as a whole on this planet is in a shambles. Contributing to this is the lack of or inappropriate teachings, but the worst of the lot are the philosophies proposing that we have nothing to learn at all. It is this idea that halts growth in its tracks. It may provide moments if not minutes of inspiration and the odd fantasy that everything is all right and we need not do anything – but in effect it is asking us to stop being critical and seek ignorance.

The most technically gifted masters among us have already long left our company, having realized that most of us simply do not care enough to truly gain from the teachings. This leaves much of the modern world speculating about the true nature of ideas like enlightenment, empowerment and so on. In the mean time these Savants walk through the levels of consciousness as easily as one would walk through an open door.

While modern day intellectuals would debate the existence of enlightenment and the meaning of empowerment, the masters are evolving and refining their methods for evolving the actual practice. It is understood that not all beings are on the direct path to enlightenment, the universe is fully capable of encompassing those that are actively choosing other roads. It is for this reason that the masters do not agitate over teaching, rather they understand the energetic momentum that the planet as a whole will gain from their own growth.

Being caught in the flow of beings powerful enough to influence entire planets with their consciousness is simply an indication of lack of self-mastery. It is not a moral condemnation, simply an observation of fact. It is similar to being caught in an ocean storm. Only the most effective swimmers can break free from its grip. This in itself is about training for real ability and skill.

If we are too weak to influence our own direction, then we are caught with the waves. Perhaps even unaware of what is occurring. If we wait for masters to give us strength, then we will wait forever, for true strength cannot be given, only earned through facing our weaknesses.

It comes back to us to remain critical. Critical of ourselves and critical of what we have and are creating. It is in this that we gain the opportunity to evolve with intent, meaning, reason and purpose. There is so much more to be known. Spiritual growth initiates when we acknowledge this. Concepts and ideas only reach fruition through sustained action and practice. Ideals such as love and compassion only become what they are through testing our connection to them in the heat of real life and experience. Principles such as those of manifestation and purification are only entrained into our bodies and minds through vigilantly aligning our spiritual understanding with our physical and mental being.

It is not difficult to see that spiritual growth as a whole is floundering. It is only difficult when we refuse to be critical. When we are objective we can see the vast amounts of incongruent knowledge and information. We can see the struggle to understand and find clarity within this knowledge. We can see how this lack of clarity has come to limit expansive spiritual vision and potential. We can see how protecting this lack of answers has led to fear and aversion to having a truly critical mind.

We only fear the critical mind when we choose to cling to blind belief, but no answer will be forthcoming from blind belief. The myths within the spiritual arena are legion, but this also means that the opportunity for truth is massive. Potential for growth lies in these opportunities, but without taking them there is no real power or conscious growth. The intellect must move beyond the comfortable appraisal that potential lies out there somewhere. It must look to the heart and see why we are not moving stridently toward our potential right now. It may not be pretty, it may not be in the current trend of “spiritual speak,” but it is true. Movement between two points of consciousness only occurs because of the choice to move. This choice is made when we understand critically the reason for our new destination.

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Where Spirit Exists

What is the purpose of spirituality? What are the reasons for it? Why have we created it? Why do we seek spirit? Why is it important to some and irrelevant to others? What has it done for us lately?

Spirituality like anything, only holds power because of the value and meaning that we perceive in it.

This is the reason why real ability and skill is important. Without the ability to perceive and connect with spirit, spirituality is simply a set of blind beliefs. These beliefs remain blind until the ability to see is developed. As long as we are blind or partially blind to spirituality we will not understand the opportunities or benefits available to us. So in a very literal sense, the purpose and reasons for us seeking it will continue to elude us. We may hear stories of spiritual knowledge and power and think “Gee that sounds alright!”, but these will just be thoughts and words without actual experience.

Defining spirituality from experience is important because it separates and distills what holds meaning and value for us from what does not. We need to be clear on what it is that we are seeking and this requires blunt and direct honesty. If we rely on theory and concept over actual experience then we are compromising real understanding. Theories no matter how good are simply ideas. Real understanding comes from taking these ideas and integrating them into a course of action. For example we may have an idea that expressing our emotions is of some use. We may gather all the evidence to support this idea and in our mind it may seem like God’s have gifted us with their wisdom. However without putting this idea into action, without actually expressing our emotions, we will never know the truth of this wisdom.

Spirituality is a big word. It essentially means to connect with spirit, but this in itself holds many unknowns, one of which is “where is this spirit thing?” Interesting then that many aspects of spiritual society choose to hold onto the known and shy from the unknown. Spiritual logic or logic of any kind would suggest that if spirit has unknown qualities, that delving into the unknown would then be a valuable course of action. This is where faith comes into it once more. Faith is a concept and as a concept it becomes refined when it is tested. There are so many untouchable qualities about “spirituality.” Keep pushing and digging in our consciousness and we find a point that wants to cling to dogma, faith and concept. Dig a little deeper and we find fear. It is essentially the good old God fearing persona, the one that does not want to question or investigate its betters for fear of punishment. It is no wonder that with this type of fear that mastery, enlightenment and real power elude us. Again, these fears and beliefs are simply concepts that require testing.

The battlefield where all our beliefs, ideas and concepts are tested is within our own practice. It is through aligning our inner values into our actions. Things can get sticky at times. Sometimes our most cherished ideas get trampled on mercilessly by experiences that reject them. We may for instance have the idea that “spirituality is everywhere and in all things”. It is experience that will either reflect this – or not. Our findings here give us something tangible to work with. If this idea holds under the steady and rigorous criticism of actual experience, not just intellectual argument, then it contains true value. If it does not hold this does not necessarily mean that the idea is invalid, it may simply require that our abilities and skills require further development. Of course sometimes we need to admit that what once seemed like a novel idea just doesn’t cut it in the real world.

This is how we evolve our spiritual understanding and as our understanding evolves, so too does our understanding of where spirit exits. This is essentially what is happening – we are understanding connection, but connection can only be understood by experiencing where the object of connection exists. Spiritual connection or existence then is a process of looking and finding, as well as looking and not finding. The places where spirit exists then provide a connection – places with which to develop paths to our consciousness. The places which do not connect are not discarded, but rather we refine the method of connection within ourselves.

An interesting thing happens when we test our ideas, concepts and beliefs. The destruction of these makes the mind more fluid. Through this flexible flow, we regain the ability to connect where once we could not. Once again our understanding changes, as the places that we knew with+ certainty that spirit was not, open up and show us that it is in fact there. This opening does not occur through wishful thinking, holding onto ideas, concepts or beliefs. It occurs through practice, critical thinking, developing ability and understanding.

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