Gnosis and Mysticism

Gnosis means knowledge, usually of deeper, inner, spiritual truths, based on direct experience. Human beings have sought spiritual knowledge since the beginning of time. We seem to be motivated by three basic drives: survival, pleasure, and knowledge.

Our history is filled with many great spiritual leaders, from the Buddha to Christ, who taught on two different levels: exoteric and esoteric. Gnosis and mysticism is concerned with the esoteric aspects of religion. It is an intuitive, right-brain, inner approach to spiritual knowledge. It relies on our own, individual direct experience of the Divine, from within ourselves. This knowledge is not taught in or acquired from the exoteric, institutional churches of today. Rather, it is obtained in an inner, spiritual journey that we must personally pursue. It is a state of being, of permanent union with the Divine. We become one with the Source that is within yet beyond this physical world. This source is neither male nor female, but encompasses both and is beyond both.

All that you seek is already within you. It is there all the time, and if you give it time and are still, it will make itself known to you.  May your being be centered on the goodness, the Divine, that rests within you. As Christ said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you". You are a droplet of the Divine whose purpose is to fit the Divine Ocean in your droplet, while embodied, here in Earth School. Life's purpose is to attune to the Divine.

There is only one, all-inclusive, all-powerful principle, life, being, existence, mind, Spirit... All our souls are unified in this one Great Spirit. Be still and know this Great Spirit. Meditate! The whole of evolution is a lifting up of energy, vibration towards more complex refinements, towards a greater oneness with Spirit. We are all manifestations in form derived from Divine creative thought that thinks everything into being. We create our own realities with our thoughts. Reality is thought fixed in time and space based on the Law of Causation (Karma). We need to know ourselves as Spirit.

What separates us from Spirit is a failure to recognize our inner foe or enemy. We need to know that our real foe or enemy is within us and can be overcome. It is our own fear or internal schism or compromise, or failure to surrender truly to the Great Spirit. Spirit gives us tests in life that are actually opportunities to overcome our inner foes and unite permanently with Spirit. May you pass every test!

Ignorant folks identify themselves with external things: material possessions, social positions, children, job, home, etc. The real Self is consciousness (Spirit) that is pure, eternal, and blissful. This consciousness is the witness or illuminator of all illusory things, from external objects to our internal egos. Solitude and meditation are helpful in controlling the senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing) that link us to the external world or reality. When the senses are controlled, the mind is controlled; when the mind is controlled, the ego is controlled. Ego control is followed by union with Spirit (Bliss). We need to cultivate dispassion for all external objects and detachment towards body, senses, and mind. Attachment to any one of these binds us to external reality; we cannot unite with Spirit. Spirit is wisdom, purity, and eternity; Spirit is beyond time, space and causation. So must we to unite permanently. We must learn to go through life (Earth School), but stay above it, as the Witness. May you be victorious!

Be still, meditate, and focus on the inner light. Ask yourself: "Who am I?" Realize you are not the mind, body, or emotions. You are Spirit. How can emotions affect you? You are the witness of these emotions. Nothing can disturb you.... Ask: "Why has this thought arisen? Whom does it concern? Who am I?"

Meditation creates a vortex of stillness in which harmony and love can descend. The source of all life is love itself. Both you and Spirit are Love. Through your own direct experience in meditation, you can know Spirit as truth, knowledge, and bliss.

"I am the way, the truth, and the light."

"Be still and know that I am God".