..:: Balance ::..

By

Alan Schneider

               One of the interesting characteristics which can be noted about the symbols on the Creation Diagram is the fact that they all display what the biological sciences refer to as radial symmetry, that is, they all are uniformly constructed around a central point. And the symbols of the Diagram can be said to be harmonically balanced around a common axis, as has been noted previously as well. In theory, a radially symmetrical element can be rotated around the central symmetrical axis up to the rate at which the material of which it is composed can no longer remain intact against the resultant centrifugal forces as these increase with that rate. At this point of transition, the element fragments, usually by exploding apart. (1)

            Since the symbols of the Diagram are ideal Astral forms, they obviously are not subject to physical destruction, and their "rate of rotation" is shown as "zero" in order to clearly reveal their esoteric form to the Seeker. But in the manifest condition of dense form in the physical plane of expression, all of the symbols are always acting in rotation. This movement is the vibration of consciousness which we experience as the world. In the preceding chapter, I characterized consciousness as an interactive vibration of complex physical, spiritual, and mental forms. This is directly related to the combined rates and direction of rotation of the Creation Symbols. When we observe any phenomenon, whether simple or complex, we are always "registering" a global recognition of that phenomenon's composite vibration, which is composed of the interaction of all the rates and directions of rotation of all of the Creation Symbols which are active in the phenomenon's consciousness expression. We may or may not be aware of this perception, but it is nonetheless occurring, and the Seeker can make great progress by focusing on the world of events in this way.  Additionally, I feel constrained to mention here again that everything is a form of consciousness originating in the Tetragrammaton, even a common pebble, a speck of dust, or an atom. (2)

            Now, the Triad has been presented as the Creation Symbol which describes the human condition on the chart, a perceived world of three state forms of physical, mental, and spiritual valence which assemble into our level of consciousness. Here we have a special consideration. Although the Triad symbol itself is shown as a symmetrical form, this symmetry is almost NEVER seen in literal manifest terms in the case of any human being! All of the other symbols are balanced as is: the Monad and the Dyad are functionally perfect in manifestation, as are the Chakras. The universe is absolutely flawless in its construction, as are all the higher states of consciousness. The only imperfections that exist anywhere are the ones within ourselves that we disown and project onto the world and (very frequently) the other people around us, through ignorance of the Truth. Only the human expression of consciousness demonstrates dis-harmonic vibration, and we experience this disharmony as suffering on every level. This brings us to the subject of this chapter balance and how we can strive to live in conscious balance and harmony in our challenged state. (3)

            The center of the Triad has been described as a perceptual point called the ego kernel, and the illumination has been made that this point is the reflection of the Logos in the physical human form of Creation. The ego kernel has been differentiated from the physical sensory ego, which is a collection of memories based upon and mediated by sensory impressions. The ego kernel has also been differentiated from the Soul, which is the personal spiritual gate to higher consciousness, and from the "red clay" of the Taoist physical body, which is a sub harmonic of the dense vibration of the physical universe. I have also made the statement that we never ascend so completely in the spirit that we escape all of the effects of physical incarnation with finality, at least until that "ascent" called "death" takes place. The Hindu religion considers the physical death of a Guru to be just such an ultimate ascent, and refers to the event as "Maha Samadhi"! The interpretation here is that the final release of all dense forms of consciousness affecting the Soul and the ego kernel has taken place in the natural order of Divine Consciousness: the passage across the bridge has been completed. Let us see what this implies for our human imbalance and affliction in general, by conducting a detailed "observation" of the Triadic human condition, beginning with the concept of Karma. (4)

            Each individual human expression of Divine Consciousness (which we experience as a human being on the physical plane), is defined by Karma. This is the set of Taoist conditions that the Tetragrammaton establishes in the Creation process, for that human being's Soul to express the Chakras in dense form. The Soul can be seen as the spiritual expression of the Tetragrammaton linked to the Taoist Karma through the dense body. Just as there are an infinite number of Petals on the Lotus of Sahasrara, so there are an infinite number of expressions of Karma. Just as everything in the Taoist manifestation of dense form is ultimately conscious, so it is that everything in that state is also an expression of the action of Karma. Again, even a common pebble is a conscious being manifesting Karma! When that pebble is finally ground into dust and loses it's "identity" in "death", the Karma in which it was involved has been sufficiently released to enable the "Soul" of the pebble to reincarnate as the "Soul", or "Souls", of the dust! As fantastic as this may sound, it is still the Truth. Is the pebble good or bad in it's Karmic condition? Certainly not. This is the ultimate nature of Karma although we frequently here about "good" and "bad" Karma as applied to perceived fortunate and unfortunate events and circumstances, these are just that – only perceived. Karma is neither good nor bad, but is simply the action of the Tetragrammaton in the Taoist form: Karma is the physical manifestation of Divine Love through the creation of finite little "doorways" of Grace! (5)

         When the Soul of any form has passed through the doorway, and returned a little closer to the Logos, the Karma attendant to that form is released, and a movement in the Cosmic Dance of Love is complete. This process is what that total expression we call "life" is doing, and that is all there is. If most of the people in the world could attain this simple perception, suffering would cease, and we would be at peace. Yet, as common as the word "Karma" has become today around the world, very few of us have this understanding. Why is this? Because the essence of the Karma which defines an aware consciousness, such as an animal or a human being,  is embodied in a much less familiar term: Maya, the veils of the physical senses. (6)

            Maya more or less literally translates to "illusion", and it is the sensory illusion which fosters ignorance and frustrates understanding. It is the action of Maya, not Karma, which must be comprehended and overcome through Enlightenment for the Seeker to experience Samadhi, and attain peace. In this vein, why would God, in an expression of Love, create a universal condition of illusion and ignorance that blocks our very perception of that Love? Because a genuinely perfect gift of Love is completely objective and unselfish. The human condition as a gift of awareness and a potential bridge of consciousness back to God would mean nothing if the process was not free, and Maya guarantees that freedom. The Logos manifests Creation as an unrestricted condition. We are all free to live in illusion, and we are all free to Seek the Truth. Contrast this to the limited consciousness of the pebble. By comparison, are we not all remarkably empowered by our gift of awareness, even in our suffering? Every wall is a door in disguise, and so it is with the Maya of our senses. Rather than see this condition, and the physical dense form which sustains it, as  evil curses of Lucifer, let us take the much more Enlightened perspective that we have been provided with a very sophisticated system of reflection of consciousness on all levels as a complex, multifaceted mirror, as a gift of Love by God. With this first step of insight into Maya, much of the imbalance and ignorance which is the real source of our suffering is revealed and dispelled. (7)

            The ego kernel has a very challenging balancing task indeed. The persistent and often overpowering flood of impressions from the senses tends to demand attention and assimilation from early childhood on. Most people find themselves to be so involved in this process that they rarely take the time to stop and reflect upon their lives, or life in general, and they certainly do not suspect that the process in which they are enmeshed is there to advance the development of the Soul as it's only real purpose! We must find our way back to this knowledge somehow, and frequently in discomfort of many kinds and degrees, although this is not absolutely necessary. Reflection, meditation, and illumination (or spiritual guidance) also perform the same function. Now let us continue with our examination of Maya. (8)

            The ultimate nature of the universe of physical dense form which supports the senses cannot be known by those senses because it includes and presupposes them. This condition of dense manifestation, including the physical body, results from the vibration of the Tetragrammaton as pure spiritual consciousness, and can only be known by turning away from the senses and focusing our awareness on our inner consciousness state. In other words, the dense universe is consciousness and can only be understood by consciousness. The sensory condition is only "there" in our awareness as an extension of the Karmic expression of the physical body: The senses transmit the Karmic condition of the individual human expression to the awareness of the ego kernel. This is their whole and only purpose –  the purpose of Maya.  (9)

            The ego kernel, like everything else in Creation, exists in a state of resonant vibration. When this resonance is "harmonic", or balanced, the resultant condition is experienced by the ego kernel as "peace". This is the condition that the Logos most wants us to experience, and is continually calling us back to. We frequently tend to suppose that regular sensory gratification, called homeostasis in biological terms,  is a condition of peace, but it is not. In fact, homeostasis is a condition of slavery: it demands the constant effort of the ego kernel on all levels to continually keep refreshing the gratification loop with more gratification experiences. This process is doomed to failure by its very nature. Today's joy of sensory gratification will always become tomorrow's longing for additional sensory gratification which can no longer be provided for any number of inevitable causes. (10)

            True, lasting peace begins to occur when the ego kernel's frustration with the impermanent sensory gratification experience causes it to search elsewhere. This is a process that every ego kernel linked to every Soul must undergo, and is part and parcel of the spiritual development of that Soul. The ego kernel as the reflection in the clay is attached to the Soul, and is the spiritual terminus of the corridor of Light (the Chakras) which is that Soul's specific Petal of the Divine Lotus. Even if we never experience the Soul, it does experience everything that we do, and this effects its harmonic vibration. This changing resonance amounts to a spiritual signal of Light which is both "stored" in the Soul as the form of it's development in incarnation, and transmitted to the Logos. God knows our experience through the Light of the Soul, and adjusts our Karma accordingly as the development process takes place. When enough Maya sensory experience has taken place to satisfy the baseline condition of consciousness in the Soul, the synchronous doorways of Enlightenment begin to open the way to higher consciousness, and the development process continues along this path.  (11)

            So the ego does not create the Soul, as psychology frequently maintains: the Soul creates the ego kernel, and the ego creates illusion. Humanity is literally created and sustained by God, in Light, and through the Soul, as a reflection of Love. This is our ultimate nature, and this point cannot be emphasized enough. All the apparent joys and sorrows of the senses are simply there as an expression of Karma to condition the mirror of the Soul in an incarnation. But know this: if this state of Maya did not occur as often as required, the Triad would be "removed" from the Creation Diagram, and the entire process of the Cosmic Dance would collapse. Even in our imperfection, we are still a vital and important expression of Perfect Divine Grace. For this reason, I am of the opinion that the sensory illusion cannot be prematurely penetrated and removed by any willful effort of the ego kernel, even after the true state of affairs is realized, although this is the natural tendency of the Seeker upon awakening. We can permit the process of Enlightenment to take place, but we cannot will it to take place. This specific act of will only replaces one form of desire for gratification with another form: the desire to escape desire! When the Karma pertaining to someone's personal sensory condition is finally released on the Soul's terms, then we will naturally and effortlessly take the next steps along the path. Spiritual evolution is the antithesis of personal sensory ego based decision making. The Soul knows the way. The only real requirement for the ego kernel is to walk along patiently, and trust the process as it unfolds in radiance or sorrow as required.  Learning and genuinely practicing this sacrament of trust in our daily lives is the answer.  (12)

            One additional consideration must be examined to complete the illumination of the action of Maya in and on consciousness, and this is the phenomenon of attachment. Just as Karma acting in dense form expresses in the senses as Maya, so it is that Maya holds the ego kernel prisoner through attachment to this expression. It is this attachment to Maya, not Maya itself, which causes suffering and opposes Enlightenment. This mechanism deserves a very close look. (13)

            Attachment tends to obscure the distinction between the sensory ego and the ego kernel, and this process is very much interwoven with the physical homeostasis loop. Although we cannot really know the true nature of the physical body as a Taoist vibration of the Tetragrammaton through the senses (hence the reference to Maya as illusion) those senses are clearly a very linear sub-harmonic of the dense physical bodily vibration. This sensory vibration, or field, creates a complex model, or impression, of the dense universe and all it contains, including and especially the body, along with a sensory model of the ego kernel, which is known as the Freudian sensory ego. The sensory unknowable condition of the dense body is like the rest of the Triad: always in a state of imbalance to a greater or lesser extent. The body manifests that imbalance through the senses to the ego kernel as the Taoist conditions of pleasure and pain. A relatively complete state of homeostasis is experienced by the ego as very pleasurable, or pain reduced. The obverse is, of course, a condition of extreme non-homeostasis which is experienced as great discomfort: a condition of powerful dense attack on the ego kernel through critical sensory overload. If this condition is carried far enough, consciousness is lost, and the ego kernel is temporarily or permanently destroyed. Particularly in early childhood, the experience of pain and distress on the very vulnerable new ego kernel can be very devastating. Most people acquire a life long tendency to manipulate the sensory model through attachment, in an effort to control homeostasis, and this in response to various types and degrees of childhood trauma. And adulthood, as we all know, contains it's fair share of additional trauma, which continues to reinforce the propensity for attachment.  (14)

            Because we are dealing with the Taoist condition in terms of the physical body, we are always going to observe a physical vibration manifest by two polar extremes achieving Creation through a struggle for control. This struggle generates a high degree of background chaos. This chaos, in turn, places the stability of anything in dense form in question at all times, while simultaneously establishing a temporary manifestation of "duration"! So it is that the dense physical body is created with an inherent tendency to persist in duration through control, manifest in homeostasis. This characteristic of the body is the dense mechanism of Karma. Homeostasis is an attempt to control chaos at the dense level, and attachment is the resultant attempt to control chaos at the sensory level. (15)

            As perceptual mechanisms, attachments are stored in extensive chains of comparative observations which we call memories. Our memories are real only in that they represent comparisons of experiences which have affected the ego kernel. In literal truth, only the moment of Divine Manifestation occurring now, in communion with the ego kernel, is real.  This truth reveals the most negative effect of attachment on our conscious awareness: a comparison of any kind can be made between conditions only when they are perceived as fundamentally separate from each other. Through implicit comparison of the quality and intensity of experience, attachment reinforces the perception of separation at all levels: that I am separate from others, from my feelings, from the universe, and ultimately from God. And in separation I am isolated, and have no alternative to the imperative attempt to use personal ego control to guide my life. I am alone, and this is the most "Fallen" state of awareness possible. Even though we are all expressions of individual Karma, and must release this Karma on individual terms, and must sometimes act alone to do so, we are never spiritually isolated. All beings are united in consciousness forever, no matter how physically divided they may seem to be in Maya. (16)

            The process of attempted control through attachment is in direct contrast to the Chakra manifestation, which achieves Creation through the process of release from attachment in Higher Consciousness. When enough experience of the homeostasis/attachment loop is delivered to the ego kernel and the Soul, this phase of Karma is complete, and the process of Enlightenment begins to reveal the initial distinction between the Freudian sensory ego and the Soul to the ego kernel. As this process continues, the transitory and futile character of attachment as a means of protection and gratification becomes apparent. The Soul and the Logos then appears as  the only reliable standard of permanence and satisfaction to the ego kernel.  (17)

            We have seen to this point in the discussion of Maya that the effect of Karma determines the way in which we experience the world through the senses, by structuring our experience. And we have also seen that Karma is progressively released through our sensory involvement in the condition of Maya, at first very slowly (across many incarnations), and then at successively higher vibratory rates and levels as Enlightenment begins and continues to occur. Imbalance and discomfort manifest through the senses is the very nature of Karma. The Triad becomes gradually more balanced in any incarnation as spiritual awareness is established and increased in the ego kernel, replacing both Karma and Maya suffering with inner peace. This is the only way that any lasting balance and harmony can, or should, be instituted in the vibration of the human condition. And we must accept the fact that the fundamental chaotic background turbulence of the Taoist physical universe is a necessary and appropriate condition of spiritual development. Please take this bitter pill now, and choke on it if you must, for this is the beginning of the path to peace. Accept this Truth! As we grow in acceptance, we also grow in spiritual awareness, and ascend the Chakras of Consciousness, and in this way our lives become more and more joyful and satisfying to live. As you encounter the many imbalances and sufferings in your life and the lives of others do not turn away from these things, but rather accept, understand, and release them as much you possibly can. This is the way back to God.  (18)

            (Copyright 2009, by Alan Schneider)

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