Spiritual Danger You Do Not See

When I was a new student in these teachings, someone advised me, "Don't listen to the lectures with your intellect. Instead, meditate and visualize what the instructor is saying." That helped me a lot, so I'd like to recommend the same to you.

The problem with listening with the intellect is that any words, any concepts, can be easily refuted. No matter how well or skillfully I tell you "yes," your intellect will find a "no." Even if instead I told you "no," your intellect would find a "yes." That is the nature of the intellect, to oppose, to contradict.

If we truly want to understand reality and ourselves, that stubborn donkey mind must be replaced by a superior kind of understanding, of cognition, related with our consciousness.

The consciousness is how we have the ability to imagine. And through imagination, without the interference of the intellect, we can learn to see things as they truly are, without thought.

The consciousness does not take sides or contradict. It simply perceives. And from its perception, it can understand.

When you know something with your consciousness, there is no thought. There is simply seeing and knowing.

In meditation, for example, once we learn how to see, sometimes we don't understand what we see. So we learn to just keep looking, keep seeing, until we do understand.

The intellect doesn't like any of this. The intellect wants "yes" or "no" right now.

And unfortunately, in this modern era, we are trained, forced even, to use the intellect for everything, especially in this culture, to rely on the intellect as our primary tool for everything we do.

It's very painful to be trapped in that mind that is always seeking contradictions. You will be happier when you know how to stop that, to stop seeing contradictions in everything, instead to just see things as they are.

So the advice I'm giving you is to be aware of that, try to change it, and ultimately to learn a new way of learning, a way of looking and listening that neither accepts nor rejects, neither believes nor disbelieves, but instead perceives and waits to see if understanding comes from that perception. In other words, the intellect doesn't jump in with its interpretations and labels and comparisons.

We instead learn to just see things as they are on their own.

I'm prefacing our talk today in this way, partly because our intellect doesn't like what we're going to talk about. Our intellect likes to contradict. And our intellect has a lot of preconceived ideas, many of which are mistaken. I'm hoping in this discussion today that we can start to reveal some of those mistakes so that we can learn to see things consciously and clearly and understand.

So I'm inviting you to listen with your imagination, to look inward and perceive internal images, to allow your imagination to be creative. And from that perception, you can understand what we're going to talk about.

Prepare for Meditation

So it's best if you sit for meditation and become perfectly still and relaxed.

Close all of your external senses. Obviously, you'll need to use your ears to hear what we're going to talk about. But focus your concentration on allowing your imagination to show you images related with what we're discussing.

And don't let your intellect interfere with its criticism and judgment contradictions. Just relax and open your imagination to be creative without the intellect contradicting and saying, "No, no, no, it's not like that. It's like this." Don't do that. Just relax and let your imagination do what it used to be able to do when you were a child.

So to begin, imagine a castle with all of its lands, a fantastic, beautiful place with many levels of society.

You see peasants working in the fields, merchants working in the streets, soldiers on patrol, maidens looking out of windows at the crowds, all of the different things in this fantastic kingdom, the people, the animals. Officers, dignitaries, royalty.

And those lands are overseen by a regent. When we were children, our imagination would easily show us this regent, very impressive, very attractive, dressed very well, accompanied by attendants and servants, many people wanting attention.

So this is the scene for our story. And of course there is a drama.

Now this kingdom, of course, is very beautiful and has a boundary. And on the other side of that boundary there's another kingdom, one that doesn't have any wealth. This neighboring kingdom is impoverished. They don't have the crops, the beautiful fields, the healthy livestock, the orchards. They don't have a beautiful city or a beautiful regent. But in that neighboring kingdom there is a lot of pain. There is drought and famine. There's a lot of suffering and a lot of cruelty. It's overrun with bandits and thieves, murderers and rapists, people with no conscience, people who just don't care. They take what they want and they do whatever they can to take it. And they don't care who they hurt.

So of course this creates a conflict because on one side there is a kingdom with a lot of wealth and beauty, next to another kingdom who has nothing, where there's a lot of suffering and darkness.

As you would expect, those who live in the impoverished kingdom want the wealth that they see in the beautiful kingdom. And so the impoverished ones are always thinking, "how can we have a shining kingdom like that? How can we have that light and beauty?" And so they are always looking for a way to get it for themselves. They want to take it.

So in a fantasy story, like a children's story, we would expect that the evil ones or the ones in the impoverished kingdom would raise an army and go assault the kingdom of the good. But in reality, if we relate this with something more than a mere child's story, we'd realize that a kingdom that was impoverished like that couldn't afford to raise a big army. Sure, they might have a lot of people and they probably could rile them up. But they would know because they are quite clever and sneaky that raising an army is not easy. It's difficult. It's expensive. And they probably wouldn't win a battle because they'd be going up against a kingdom that has a lot of wealth, is very well fortified with weapons and protection and defenses. And the soldiers there are well fed, well trained, well armed. So it would be very unlikely for them to win any sort of battle. The impoverished kingdom wouldn't have those armaments or weapons. They wouldn't have reliable, well trained soldiers or officers. Instead, everyone in their kingdom is hungry, competing with each other, fighting with each other, and trying to take charge of each other. There's no order. There's no discipline.

So what are their options? Well, it's quite simple really. Subterfuge.

The easiest way for those who do not have something to get what they want is to trick the ones who do have it. To lie. To adopt a false appearance. To seduce. To corrupt. To utilize any weakness they can find and exploit it. So the quickest way to do that would be to find some weakness near the source of the wealth, near the regent. Some attendant or dignitary that could be tempted or bribed or seduced with wealth or love or power.

I'm sure you can see where this story is going. This scene represents the internal situation of a person who is becoming spiritually and psychologically organized.

The regent represents their innermost divinity. Beautiful, royal, dignified. The source of the kingdom's wealth, beauty, and light.

The glories of that kingdom symbolize the solar bodies and the awakening consciousness and all of the virtues that are liberated and resplendent.

The kingdom across the border, overrun by criminals and pain, represents the regions of the mind that remain impure and must be purified. The subconsciousness, unconsciousness, and infra-consciousness. The conflict between these two regions is told in the story of every initiate.

Stated simply, when you look into the mind of most people on this planet, you only see a region of pain, darkness, and conflict. There is no light, only craving and discontentment.

It is only when someone becomes truly serious about changing that they begin to gather light inside and organize their inner situation into a beautiful kingdom.

They can do this because of three factors.

1. By destroying their psychological defects, they liberate virtues which are light.
2. By preserving their sexual power, they are gathering that fire and light, which gives birth to the solar bodies, the soul, which harnesses and radiates that light.
3. And by sacrificing for others, performing great works of love for others, they radiate tremendous light to others.

When you begin to practice teachings like this and you preserve your energy and transform it, you nourish your inner kingdom. It becomes resplendent. It becomes organized.

And that light is very bright, especially in the internal worlds. 

As you ascend and grow as a consciousness, that brilliance becomes brighter. So of course, it attracts more attention.

Naturally, this attracts those who do not have light. They want to take that light, and they are very clever in how they try to do it.

They cannot take your kingdom by force because they do not have the power to overcome divinity. But they can trick you.

And the easiest way to do that is to use your weaknesses. So they study your behavior. They send their emissaries, their spies, their assassins, their investigators into your kingdom, into your life, into your mind. They come to you friendly, sweet, like a best friend. Someone you would never suspect. They adopt a false appearance. They get as close to you as they can. And they watch your mind, your desires, your fears, your traumas. They study you. They look for vulnerabilities that they can exploit. They will use your lust, paranoia, doubt, anger. And manipulate those elements in order to take your light away, to steal it, to nourish themselves and their desires.

The sad part is, people are not trained how to observe this and be on guard against it. People are imprudent and foolish and naive.

So you see, the greatest threat to someone who is on the path is not outside of us. It's inside of us.

If you want to protect yourself and preserve yourself in your spiritual work, to defend yourself and the light that you have, the best way to do that is to find and remove your weaknesses, your defects. When your inner kingdom is purged of pride, envy, lust, anger, then there is no weakness that can be exploited. Instead of pride and anger, you will have humility and love. Instead of envy and fear, you will have happiness for others and confidence. Instead of discontentment, a constant craving for things you don't have, you will have contentment, simplicity, peace. In that state, there is nothing in you that can be manipulated or taken advantage of. When you don't want things, you cannot be manipulated.

This is why we learn self-observation and meditation. These are our greatest defenses.

1. By observing our inner kingdom, we discover the weaknesses that can be exploited by others and by our own mind.
2. Through meditation, we understand them and eliminate them. This is how we organize our inner kingdom and make it safe and secure and protect that light.

Of course, this simple example also applies externally to spiritual groups.

Any genuine spiritual group also receives light from divinity. By genuine, I mean those who practice those three factors, who teach them how to destroy the psychological defects and liberate virtues, how to preserve sexual power and give birth to the solar bodies, and how to sacrifice on behalf of others and perform great works of charity to reduce suffering.

These three factors create light in the students, and the gathered students radiate light as a group. When the group nourishes and protects that light, it grows, and it develops a kingdom also, metaphorically speaking.

But, of course, those who do not have light want it, and they're always watching for ways to take it.

So they see a group that's getting attention, that's attracting people, and they want that attention. So they want to take that light for themselves so that they get the attention.

The problem is they cannot receive the light directly because they do not live by those three factors. Divinity is not radiating within them and cannot be because they are impure. So the only way for them to get light is to steal it, to take it from someone who has it. And when they can't get it, they try to crush it, to snuff it out.

Remember, this is happening both inside of us and outside of us.

Suras and Asuras

In the ancient scriptures, this is represented in a really beautiful way.

In Sanskrit we learn about suras, which means "shining ones." The other word for this is devas. Because they are pure, they receive light from divinity by means of amrita, which means "the deathless."

Amrita is the same symbol as ambrosia from the Greeks, or bodhichitta from the Buddhists.

It is the fountain of youth.

Mrita means "death," so amrita is "deathless," without death.

Amrita is the sacred substance, the bodhichitta, the ambrosia that gives immortality to the gods.

All of that just symbolizes transmuted sexual power, the source of spiritual life.

Those who do not have that light want to take it, from those who do. Those who do not have that light are called asuras.

This is the basis of the mythology of the Vedas, which are more or less 4000 years old. And it is the basis of the same mythology in every tradition in the world. You always have angels and demons. The pure and the impure.

Angels and demons exist outside of us, and they are struggling against each other. But that's not the most important meaning of this symbol. The most important meaning is within us. We have suras and asuras within us.

The suras, the shining ones, or you could say angels, devas, are the cognizant parts of our innermost being that receive the light in order to nourish and protect the kingdom.

Our inner asuras, or demons, are the unconscious, subconscious, and infraconcious parts of us. That's all of our defects, our anger and pride. Lust and envy. Those are demons within us. They are asuras. They do not have light, but they want it. To feed themselves, to feed their desires.

And that's why we are all at war psychologically within ourselves. We are in a constant conflict, a struggle to control the light.

Unless, of course, our conscience is already gone, in which case we are a creature of darkness.

So this struggle is especially strong when we are trying to transmute our energy. We are receiving that light daily, trying to harness it and transform it. But our inner asuras, our inner devils, want that light for themselves. This is the conflict we suffer within every day. How to use our light in the right way.

Knowing about these teachings doesn't change you. Your actions do.

There are many people who know about these teachings. There are few who truly live by them.

There are many who preserve their sexual energy. But they don't control their inner demons who steal that energy to feed their desires. They know about the teachings, and they restrain their energy, but they keep their bad habits and keep feeding their anger, pride, gluttony, and lust. In other words, even though they are trying to hold that light, their egos steal it.

It's hard to change. And it gets harder the deeper one goes into the depths of oneself.

The battle intensifies because the light is growing. As your light grows, it attracts more attention. The battle becomes more dangerous. The asuras who want that light seek indirect, sneaky ways to take it.

For them, success is when they steal that light, but you don't know it. You don't realize it. And you don't realize it because you're not paying attention. You don't catch them in the act. You're not observing your kingdom. You're not on guard.

It is essential that you know how to defend yourself to stay on the path. The most important ways are through self-observation and meditation.

Of course, we know many prayers and practices and exercises that are useful and important for our spiritual defense. But if you are not observing yourself and meditating every day, none of those prayers are going to help you.

The one who is cognizant and watchful from moment to moment is keeping guard over their kingdom, looking for the asuras who want to sneak in in order to manipulate some weakness.

So you see, this mythology is not outside of us. It is about our psychological state from moment to moment, the condition of our inner kingdom.

And you already know that the asuras send their emissaries in disguise. They don't come into the kingdom looking like devils and demons because it'd be obvious who they were. If it was obvious, we would see them easily. And they know that. So they're not going to come strolling in looking like a devil or a demon. They adopt a beautiful appearance. And because they study us, they know what we like. That is the appearance that they adopt. The beautiful woman, the handsome man, the fashion we like, the character we like. If we like humility, they come in looking like a saint. If we like boldness, they come in looking bold. By observing the tastes of our personality, they know what we like, and they know how to show it to us. And these are the many temptations that we always hear in our mind. Thoughts and emotions and sensations that we experience internally need to be doubted and questioned.

As it says in the book, "The Revolution of the Dialectic""

97% of human thoughts are harmful and negative.

We are unable to recognize the voices of the deceivers trying to manipulate the conditions of our inner kingdom in order to corrupt it.

So this is a simple story, but it has profound implications. Because no matter what sort of practitioner we may be, our kingdom is very complicated. Whether we are a beginner in these teachings or someone who has had years of experience, when you visualize your inner kingdom, you can see that all the parts are in constant motion.

All the parts of ourselves that we are symbolizing here by the merchants coming and going, lords and ladies coming and going, all kinds of activities happening all over our inner kingdom in different places all at the same time. It's hard to keep an eye on all of it, all at the same time from moment to moment.

All the parts of ourselves are constantly moving as we go through our daily lives, dealing with our responsibilities, taking care of what we need to take care of, providing for ourselves and our family, getting an education, getting enough food to eat, taking care of our home, taking care of our spiritual life.

There's a lot going on, and it's constantly changing from moment to moment. So it's hard to watch all of that activity constantly, but it's essential.

We can easily lose sight of all of the individual players on the stage of our internal drama. At any given instant, suddenly we fall into a temptation or a daydream, or we're listening to some voice in our mind, and we don't realize it's a lie.

We need to become intensely aware of the gates to our kingdom, to put guards on all the gates and be aware of everything coming in and going out.

These guards are our self-awareness, self-observation.

It only takes an instant of distraction for an assassin to slip in the gates or for a spy to sneak out with critical information. In other words, for us to make a mistake, to blurt something out that's stupid, or to look at something that we shouldn't look at, to indulge in some secret desire.

When the guards are asleep, the kingdom can quickly fall.

Self-observation requires constant activity.

Some people believe that self-observation should be approached slowly, gently, without intensity.

That would be similar to being in a war, knowing that the enemy is approaching the gates ready to kill you, but you decide to take a nap, and you'll guard the gate later when you feel a little more energetic.

Every moment is important.

The next moment could be the one that dramatically changes the course of your life.

You simply do not know. So you must be watchful.

Self-observation must keep watch on these gates.

• thoughts
• feelings, emotions
• impulses
• the senses
• the personality

All of these are internal. They are the workings of our inner kingdom. Most of the time they are driven by our desires, fears, resentments, and so they have the potential to destroy everything in our life.

The five senses are the gates between our inner and outer worlds.

By placing guards on the five senses, we watch everything that passes through our senses, and we gain keen insight into our kingdom.

They work in tandem with our personality.

Personality

Most people do not realize what the personality actually is. It's so close to us we don't see it.

Right now, in your body, looking outward and feeling and seeing and sensing everything that you can sense, you cannot see your own face. That is like the personality. It's so close to you you're not even aware of it.

Personality is everything we have adopted in this lifetime. Culture, heritage, religion, language, education, our taste in food and music and people. Pretty much everything that you think you are is merely personality. It's a mask. And that's what persona means. Mask.

When we are born, we do not have a personality. We start to make one. We create it. We adopt that mask as we grow up. We create it by imitating others.

The personality is built by imitating others. That's all it is. An imitation.

Everything about our personality we took from someone else.

As we move through the circumstances of our life, we modify our personality. We change it in order to match, to imitate the people we are around.

When we go to school, we quickly learn to imitate others at school. So we will be accepted and fit in.

By imitating others, the personality gives us a sense of security.

When we attend a spiritual group, we imitate the others who are there. So we will fit in and we will feel secure.

And then when we leave that group and go to join a different one, we drop all of the previous behaviors that we had in the previous group. And we adopt all the new behaviors and new terminology of the new group. We imitate the way they dress and the way they talk.

When we change jobs, we do the same thing.

When we move from one city to another, we do the same thing.

When we move from one group of friends to another group of friends, we modify our behaviors to fit in.

We imitate.

So our personality includes our name, heritage, culture, morals, values, education, everything that we believe, our taste in music, food, people, politics, religion, our style, the clothing we wear, the hairstyle we keep, the way we talk, the words and phrases we use, the way we walk and sit and stand and eat, all of our habits, our ways of living, our hobbies. We think all of this is our identity, but it's not. It's a mask. It's an imitation. It's personality.

It's all adopted, new in each lifetime.

In your previous lifetimes, all of this was different.

It's just paint on the wall. It's nothing more. When we die, we lose all of it.

The personality is disintegrated. It is essential to be keenly aware of the personality and know how to make it passive.

To make it passive means that we only use it in the moments when we need it.

Our culture wants us to have a very active personality.

But if you want to be a spiritual practitioner, a serious one, you need your personality to be passive.

In practical terms, that means it's necessary to let go of your attachment to your name, language, culture, education, your tastes in things, and go deeper.

Find things that are deeper than that about yourself.

To look past the superficial circumstances of your family life, terrestrial life, we need to take care of our family.

And take care of our responsibilities. But we have had many families before this one. We have had many languages, many cultures, many names.

Which one is the real one? The authentic one.

To be attached to our present personality is illogical and foolish.

It would be similar to believing that the clothes you're wearing today are your very identity that define who you are. But you wore different clothes in the previous days. And what you wore many years ago was also totally different. So which one is the real self?

Shouldn't a real self be the same?

Shouldn't it be true and genuine, like the sun in the sky, like the stars in space? Something eternal?

The truth is, none of them are. They are just an outer appearance that you adopt. So why take that seriously?

The personality is only an interface, a mask between our inner and outer worlds.

But if we fatten it up with power and layers of behaviors, it begins to look real to us and important. And it becomes very dangerous.

So it is good to learn to recognize what personality is and learn how to make it passive in yourself.

Why is this so important?

Well, the personality is the interface between the inner and the outer worlds.

So when it is active, dominating, it is tied to physicality, to worldly concerns and demands. It only cares about the physical world and terrestrial concerns. It doesn't care about divinity, about truth. It might talk about them, but it really doesn't care about them. It only cares about how it looks, whether it is accepted, admired, loved, appreciated. And none of that has anything to do with spiritual development. It has everything to do with pride and vanity.

All of this is why Samael Aun Weor said,

"Personality destroys spiritual organizations."

We have spoken about two types of spiritual organizations.

Ourselves, our inner kingdom, and any external group, any spiritual organization.

What we are studying today applies to both. Personality destroys spiritual organizations.

To be truly spiritual means that it is housing the light of divinity. Personality destroys that. This simple statement is loaded with power and meaning.

I strongly recommend that you meditate on it. Start by studying your own spiritual organization.

Your personality will destroy it. So make your personality passive.

When you make your personality passive, you protect your inner spiritual organization.

For now, you need that personality to survive in the world, to communicate with others. But eventually, in this work, you will destroy that personality so that it can be replaced by a solar one.

When you make your personality passive, you protect your inner spiritual organization.

At the same time, you protect your external spiritual organization.

On the other hand, if your personality is dominating your daily life, it will destroy your spiritual life. And it will destroy any spiritual organization that you associate with.

Now this means it will destroy the spiritual part, the true ability of that organization to house the light. That organization, whether internal or external, could become big, huge, world famous. But it would no longer be truly spiritual. It would not house true light.

Personality also creates organizations, big ones, but they're false because they are not housing the light of divinity.

Personality is an artificial construct. It cannot hold the light of divinity. It's simply not possible. It can display a false light and make people believe it is spiritual, but it is not. It is only an imitation.

When people seek to join a spiritual organization, what they're really looking for is a personality that appeals to them. And that's why they always ask, "Who's the teacher? Where is he from? What does he look like? How does he dress? Will he like me? Will he accept me?" Does the group like me and accept me? Will I fit in? Do they have the same tastes as me?"

So you see, all of this is personality.

It has nothing to do with real spirituality and awakening consciousness. It is all superficial appearances. It's all just socializing.

None of that has anything to do with real spirituality or religion.

So groups like that are just social clubs, and the asuras take advantage of that.

When people want to be liked, to be accepted, to feel like they belong, they can be manipulated.

You see, they're not seeking genuine spiritual knowledge. They're seeking comfort, assurances.

In other words, they want to belong to a herd.

The asuras love this because it's very easy to manipulate. And that's why so many so-called spiritual groups are really just social clubs that make people feel good and safe. While in truth, they're being deceived. They're being taken advantage of.

Furthermore, in the case of those groups who do have genuine spiritual light, it is the personalities of the people that are the interface between the inner and outer worlds. And so the asuras, the devils, use those personalities to destroy those groups. How? Simple. By manipulating appearances, pointing out contradictions, spreading gossip. They can even use a person's terrestrial name, even a photo of them, as a way to attack them with black magic. Once they have something to concentrate on, they can use it as a weapon. It is very easy for someone who is awakened negatively.

And that's why the master Samael Aun Weor remained anonymous for most of his life. He did not reveal his face or his terrestrial identity until the very end of his life. When he was strong enough to handle the attacks and the attention. And they tried hard to kill him many times.

The instructors who volunteer with Glorian also remain anonymous.

Many students who study the books and lectures that Glorian produces ask, "Who is running Glorian? Who are the instructors? Who wrote this book or that book? Who made this video? Who gave that lecture? Where do they live? What are their names?"

They have many questions about the personalities of the instructors.

Glorian does not reveal the personalities of the instructors or founders or volunteers.

Glorian does not show anyone's face or use anyone's name. There are no personal names given on anything from Glorian. This is because when there is no personality in the way, the student can focus on the teachings.

When there is no personality in the way, then the personality cannot interfere with how the student learns the teachings, neither the personality of the instructor or the personality of the student.

When there is no personality in the way, the student is protected. The teachings are protected and the instructor is protected.

In other words, each level of organization, spiritual organization, is protected. So you see, it's really simple.

Your intellect and your personality may not like it, but your intellect and your personality are the primary reasons why you are trapped in suffering.

It is time that you start denying them what they want.

The asuras will take any little piece of information that they can find, especially about our personality, in order to destroy our spiritual organization, whether that is an external or internal organization.

Any instructor who steps forward to teach, to transmit the light, is going to face the wrath of the asuras who want to steal the light.

Those asuras are internal in that instructor and external. Awakened black magicians.

So if you step forward as an instructor, presenting yourself as an instructor of spiritual teachings like this, showing the world your face and your name, you are essentially giving them on a silver plate the easiest way to destroy you.

You might as well give them the keys to your house and your bank account numbers. This is why we advise instructors to remain anonymous.

Students ask us every day, "Please give us videos of the lectures of you guys teaching. Please tell us your names, where you're from. We want to come and study with you personally."

But everyone at Glorian remains anonymous because it's our responsibility to protect the teachings, the students, ourselves, and the organizations that are transmitting the light.

And it makes us sad when we see people who do not understand this simple principle, because they create a lot of suffering for themselves and others.

Humanity is easily confused by the personality. When they see the face of a person, then they're only thinking about the face of that person. They stop hearing the teaching. They start to think, "What's he like at home? I wonder what he eats. I wonder if he would like me. Maybe we'd be friends."

In other words, the person is wasting their time.

We also hope that if you do happen to meet anyone from Glorian in person, that you will help preserve their anonymity, because that protects them, it protects you, and it protects the teachings and the organization.

So many poor people have suffered because of students talking about the personal lives of instructors. Students don't think there's anything to that, but it's because they're naive. They don't realize the danger.

When students talk about the personal lives of instructors, they are harming the instructor and the organization and the teachings, and ultimately, they are harming themselves.

Samael Aun Weor addressed this many times, but the students don't listen. He said many times, "Don't come to my house. Don't come and visit me. You will come to my house and visit me. And it will in turn hurt you. You will turn away from the teachings because you will see that I'm just an ordinary person."

But people are stubborn. The personality is stubborn.

People always want to find the personal details about instructors and don't realize that ends up destroying their interest in the teachings.

People come, they see the instructor as just an average person. There's nothing special about them, which is true. But the mind uses that as a trick and says, "See, I told you. There's nothing special about this person or about that teaching. Let's go find something else."

In some groups, they build up a big mystique about the personalities of the instructors. They claim spiritual names and present themselves as reincarnations of great masters. And they invite you to follow their personality, maybe even claiming that only by following their group will you be saved. So people get identified with those personalities, especially if there's a big group. The bigger the group, the more people think that must be something real. And so instead of being about real spirituality, these groups are about personalities. You already know the term "cult of personality." It's when a group worships a personality, an empty shell.

There are groups like that everywhere in every tradition in the world, including Gnosis. Many Gnostic groups are just cults of personality.

They may worship the personality of Samael Aun Weor or some other person. They mean well, but there's no real religion there. They're just worshiping a personality, imitating a personality. And they have a social club, which is fine. But that's not where the light of divinity will shine.

The personality is destroying those organizations. It's the beginning of the end for them because God does not give light to personalities.

Personality is a false construction. It's a mask, an empty thing. It's a costume. It might walk and talk and give beautiful lectures, but a personality cannot transmit the light of divinity. It is not a creation of divinity. It is the creation of a person.

Each of us creates a personality, and if we start leading a spiritual group, we create a spiritual personality.

And when we become identified with that spiritual personality, we become a demon.

How do we know this? Because we've seen it. We've watched it happen.

We have seen people who mean well, but who are very naive, who you could say they are imprudent. They lack prudence and caution.

For instance, there are many people nowadays who are attempting to teach on YouTube or social media, and they're using their name and their face, presenting themselves by video or photos to others in order to teach. They mean well, but they are doing something that ultimately is going to cause problems for themselves and others because of the personalities.

We've also seen people who take teachings that someone else gave, let's say a lecture, and they dictate that lecture into a video camera, and they post it online as if they gave that lecture. And they post that with their own face and their own name. So they are stealing the light that someone else gave and presenting it as though they gave it. They might rewrite it a little bit or restructure it a little bit, but none of it's from their own experience. They may mean well when they do this, and they want to help people, but the truth is they've stolen the light of someone else and presented it as if it was their own. Maybe to get praise or gather followers or be admired or even sometimes to make money. Maybe they want to be envied or feared. Maybe they want to be perceived as something they are not. Regardless, it is not their own light in that lecture. They took it from someone else.

What kind of spiritual organization will result from that?

What can a false light create, especially when that false light is shown through the mask of personality?

Imagine you are critically ill and in danger of dying, and you're searching desperately for a doctor, and you find one. A doctor who has all the appearances that you would expect a doctor to have. A diploma's on the wall, a white coat, a busy nursing staff, medical equipment. So you get an appointment, and the doctor comes to see you. She seems very compassionate and educated, patiently explains what is wrong with you, and prescribes medicine.

And you go home. You take the medicine. But you get worse, and you die.

Now that you're dead, you think to yourself, "How could that have happened?"

And you're distressed and angry and disappointed, but now it's too late. Nothing you can do.

So even though you're dead, you go to find that doctor, and in the internal worlds you can see that that person was not a doctor at all. She was only adopting the appearance of a doctor. She knew how to imitate the appearance and the jargon, and fooled everyone by her clever performance. But she was not a doctor at all. She actually knew nothing. She didn't know how to heal anyone. She just liked the feeling of playing the part.

That is what so many so-called spiritual teachers are doing. They like to play the part, but they have no skill to see the illnesses that the sick people have and how to cure them. They do not have their consciousness awakened. They do not have experience dealing with the very diverse and complicated psychological and spiritual sicknesses that everyone is suffering from.

The advice they give is just an imitation. It is not based on their own insight, their own light, their own ability to see the illness in the person they're trying to help. As such, they give the wrong advice. Most so-called spiritual teachers are just imitating others. They are asleep, and they're putting on a performance.

They have built a spiritual personality to give themselves a sense of security and to be admired, liked by others. This usually leads them to seek more and more followers. So to attract more people, they manipulate what they say and how they say it to make it more attractive to the personalities of others.

Obviously, this will only lead to the destruction of everyone involved because the personality cannot hold divine light.

The more one tries to attract the personality, the more one must reduce the light that is given.

And we can say all this because we have decades of experience of watching groups come and go, instructors come and go, seeing these situations repeat again and again.

Then there are the cases of those who are actually awakened, but as black magicians, and who use their spiritual personality to acquire power over others. These are also very common today and are easy to find everywhere in the world. People love them and swear that they are true white magicians, but in reality they are not.

The thing is, people are asleep and they cannot see who is black and who is white.

And all of this is because of personality, a lack of prudence, and a lack of education.

So this brings us to the question, what is a magician?

Magicians, Priests, Priestesses

The word magic comes from magi, which means priest, and it comes from the word mag, power.

The light from divinity is a tremendous power.

When someone directs that power, they are a magician, a priest or a priestess.

When someone is receiving light from divinity, protecting that light, and using that light to help other people, they are a magician. They are using power.

As well, when someone takes light or power from someone else, or uses power to influence others, they are also a magician.

Both are manipulating light, power, but in a different way.

One, the white, receives the light directly from divinity. The other, the black, takes the light from others.

Do you see the distinction? This is the difference between white and black magic.

White magic receives from divinity in order to give to others to alleviate suffering. It expects nothing in return.

Black magic takes from others in order to acquire power, status, recognition, money.

Samael Aun Weor said,

"The one who wants to become a white magician needs to know four things:

How to be silent, how to abstain, how to suffer, how to die."

Notice that in these instructions, there is no "doing." They are not about going out and doing things to become a magician. Like doing rituals or practices or going to so-called spiritual countries or finding some so-called master that you're going to become a magician.

Instead, all of these steps are about not doing.

How does one become silent? This is not something you go and do. You become silent by stilling your mouth and your mind. By not thinking, by not talking, being quiet inside and outside.

How do you abstain? To abstain from what? The personality and all of its desires. The mind and all of its desires. The body and all of its desires. To abstain is to be still, to not seek and crave, but instead to simply be.

How do you suffer? To know how to suffer is to not go out seeking suffering, to go looking for problems. Rather, it is simply to have acceptance.

To accept our situation. To kiss the hand of the one who brings us problems. To welcome those who irritate us. To tolerate the foolishness of others. To accept the problems that we have. To accept the difficulties that we experience. It is to have patience, compassion, understanding, forgiveness.

To know how to die is also an act of acceptance. It is primarily to let our desires die. They don't want to die. And they suffer from their craving and craving and craving. We have to be willing to let them die. It is to let our sense of self die. It is to let the personality die. It is to no longer seek recognition, acceptance, fame, money, or whatever it is that the personality wants, whether internally or externally. It is to let everything terrestrial in us die. So that what is real, what is spiritual, what is our real being can emerge.

So you see all four of these point towards becoming empty.

Someone asked me, "what is a bodhisattva?"

A bodhisattva is someone who seeks to become nothing. Empty. A vessel that transmits light.

That vessel should not even be seen. Only the light should be seen.

So a true bodhisattva is invisible. Has no self, no name, no face, no identity. Just transmits the light. That's it.

What is the character of light?

Light has no name, culture, race, or gender. It is not attached to anything. It is so pure. And yet it is the light that reveals the beauty of everything.

If the light was not beautiful, nothing else would be.

If you notice that, it's light that reveals the beauty of things. People are hypnotized by the beautiful thing, but they don't see the light that reveals it.

If there was no light, we would not have beauty. Light is intelligence. Light is consciousness. But it is a kind of consciousness that is very far from our level of mind.

So a bodhisattva is simply a transmitter of light. A perfect bodhisattva is totally invisible. Only the light is seen there.

The light itself is an intelligence. Some call it Christ, Avalokitesvara, Vishnu, or just God if you want.

A true bodhisattva displays that light flawlessly. To do that, there can be no personality in between. Only the light.

So no terrestrial personality, no terrestrial identity, no sense of self, only the light.

We could say that a bodhisattva has a solar personality. It's a type of character or type of self. But it's far beyond any notion that we have of self.

Anyone can reach that level of development, but it requires an incredible sacrifice. The sacrifice of everything that we think we are in order to become something much greater.

But to reach that, you first need to become a magician. And to become a white magician, you must have the help of divinity. One cannot do it alone. Divinity guides the magician through three stages of development. First, as an apprentice. This is the time in which one learns and studies and is being trained.

One knows that training is complete when one becomes a worker, a journeyman, a craftsman, a stage in which one can do the work oneself. In other words, one stands on one's own feet. One can investigate the mysteries with the consciousness awakened.

From there, one must work to reach the third stage, which is mastery.

Generally, the apprentice phase lasts at least seven years. For some people, it can be much longer, even lifetimes. Of course, modern people hear, "Seven years! That's too long." So they go looking for something faster, easier. Or they think, "Not me. I'm going to do it in a few months. I'm going to work so hard, I'll be done with my apprentice phase in a few months."

We know many students who, after a few months of hearing lectures, become convinced they are special, that they know the teachings very well already, and they want to start guiding others. This is like a five-year-old child strutting around in a hospital believing herself to be a surgeon.

We also know many students who have been listening to lectures for years, even decades, and still do not understand even the most basic principles of the teachings. They cannot even silence their tongue from constantly talking, so they certainly cannot silence their mind. They are a long way from completing their apprenticeship.

We even know instructors like this, people who put themselves in front of groups and speak humbly about the teachings. Meanwhile, inside of them, the one who is talking and teaching is actually their personality, a spiritual personality that they have made that craves attention and wants to be admired, envied, feared.

If you want to complete your apprenticeship, then you must learn the four requirements to become a magician.

[...]

They have that inner silence, and the mind is still and motionless. Then what they teach is not reflected, it is transmitted. For those who have the eyes to see, this is obvious by the way that they live and by the way that they teach.

When someone has their solar bodies and knows how to use them, they do not imitate anyone else.

When someone has the solar astral body, their teachings have authenticity, conviction, because they are given from conscious experience. Their words naturally and simply carry the certainty of truth.

When someone has their solar mental body, their teachings are unique. They are not copied from others or repeating others, but given from that person's own experience. What they teach is their own insight, revealing bright, clear, penetrating.

When someone has the solar causal body, the light they transmit through their words moves whole communities.

And when someone is a bodhisattva, the light they transmit through their words changes the world.

When someone wants to handle the light of divinity, there are stages of initiation in which one receives it. This is not something you can do on your own, on a whim, just because it sounds good.

At each successive phase of empowerment, the recipient becomes capable of understanding and transmitting more and more light.

Divinity does not empower just anyone to do this. It is a great responsibility.

It is not just lives that are on the line. It is souls.

To be a priest, priestess, magician, is to handle the souls of those you are helping.

We feel genuine sorrow for those who imitate being a priest, a priestess, a magician, who are out there advising people about their spiritual lives, but are asleep and are simply repeating what they've heard elsewhere.

They will create so much pain for others and themselves.

Unfortunately, humanity has been very poorly educated about all of this and truly has no idea what white and black magic really are.

Power is Magic

We say white magic to indicate that it is pure. It is from divinity. It is from the divine.

It is not corrupted by personality, pride, ambition, greed, envy.

Black magic is impure. It is corrupted by desire.

From the outside, they look the same. To the personality and to the intellect, black and white magic look the same.

The personality and the intellect cannot tell them apart.

The personality and the intellect cannot tell by looking at the personality of a magician, whether they are white or black.

So you cannot tell by looking at someone, by how they talk, dress or live, by the kind of building they live in or the size of group they lead, or by the charities that they run or the teachings they give, whether they are white or black, because they all use the same words. They use the same scriptures. They quote the same masters.

Even if you awaken your consciousness, you still cannot tell. Even if you are awakened in the astral plane, you still cannot tell, because the black magicians adopt the appearance of white magicians.

Even in the astral plane, awakened and using the conjurations, it is hard to see the truth of whether someone is black or white.

People don't understand any of this. People have very foolish ideas.

A student came to me once and said, "You shouldn't wear black. People will think you are a black magician." This person honestly thought that black magicians wear black clothing, and that's how you can tell who they are.

That is so absurd, but that is how superficial people are and how clueless.

The real black magicians, the most dangerous ones, look like saints. They look like angels.

You would never suspect them, because they are very skilled at fooling people.

That is how they've acquired so much power, and that is why they are so dangerous.

They know what people like and what people expect, so they know how to fool people. They are very, very sneaky.

This is one of the reasons that we emphasize repeatedly in this tradition. Do not follow anyone in the physical world. It's simply too dangerous.

Learn to follow the Master who is inside of you, your inner being.

Learn authentic meditation and learn to go consciously out of your body. Then you don't need a teacher in the physical world. You don't need a Master in the physical world, because you can find those in the internal worlds.

This also brings up an issue we have in this tradition related to some of the terms that we use.

I've already used the words "black magician" and "white magician," and we also say the words "black lodge" and "white lodge."

These words are really misunderstood. "White and black" don't mean the colors. They mean a state of purity.

"Lodge" sounds like something fraternal just for men, like a social club where they have meetings in some secret place and plot some kind of conspiracies.

I recently asked a gathering of students, "Who here has ever experienced the black lodge?" A few of them raised their hands.

I then asked them, "Who here has ever experienced their ego or the ego of someone else?"

And then, of course, every person raised their hands.

What this revealed is really simple. People do not realize that the black lodge is their own mind.

Everybody has experienced the black lodge, because the black lodge is the collection of defects that we have within.

It is our pride, envy, gluttony.

That is the black lodge in yourself, and everyone who has those qualities is part of the black lodge.

So your parents are part of the black lodge because your parents have psychological defects. They have pride and anger.

Your children are part of the black lodge because they have defects. Your spouse, your best friend, your coworkers. Everyone that you know is part of the black lodge.

So the black lodge is not limited to some clan of people in black robes hiding in the depths of the earth, performing strange rituals to hypnotize some poor person.

The black lodge is also that resentment in your mind. It is that desire for respect.

It is jealousy, gluttony, laziness that lurk just behind your awareness and whisper in your thoughts.

We are all black magicians, and all of us are in the black lodge.

I'm telling you with my hand on my heart that I am a black magician because I have many defects. I'm trying to become a white magician. Maybe one day I will. But to do that, I have to eliminate all of my defects, and I have a long way to go. I'm under no illusions about that. So I'm not going to go around promoting myself as a white magician and showing my name and face to humanity, proclaiming to myself to be something that I'm not. That would be a terrible thing to do to others.

You might be convinced that you are a white magician, but let me suggest that you question it. If you have even a speck of pride, lust, or anger, then you are not pure white.

Behold now in your imagination a beautiful clean glass of water. It looks perfect.

And it would be easy to say that this glass of water is very pure, very clean, and must taste wonderful. But the truth is, it is not.

That water can have enough poison in it to kill you, but you cannot perceive that with your senses. You cannot taste that poison.

Spiritual poison is like that. It is hard to see the truth of it. Your terrestrial senses cannot see it. Your intellect cannot see it. Your beliefs cannot see it. Many people today are drinking spiritual poison, but do not know it.

You can learn to sense it.

But for that, you need to know how. You need to learn to use your consciousness, your intuition, and you need to be educated.

That poison, the Black Lodge, is here in ourselves, and that Black Lodge is always attempting to deceive us from moment to moment inside of ourselves.

The Black Lodge is that impoverished country that wants the light, and it is our own mind.

In that region are murderers, rapists, liars, thieves, elements that have no conscience. They are just consumed by their desires, gluttony, and fear, and pride.

And all of them are constantly seeking ways to steal light, to feed themselves, to gain power over us.

These are the qualities that the external Black Lodge will use in order to manipulate us.

And this is the spiritual conflict that we all have within, the conflict between our defects and our consciousness.

Our consciousness receives light from divinity, but our defects and egos want that light to fulfill their desires.

They want to take that power and light, the wealth that we have, and use it to feed themselves.

When we enter into any kind of spiritual studies, we hear about magic, rituals, mantras, priests, priestesses, magicians, and we think it's all about protecting ourselves from other people.

But the truth is, we learn prayers, exorcisms, conjurations, and rituals to protect ourselves from ourselves.

The gravest dangers we face don't come from outside. They come from inside.

The Black Lodge that we need to be worried about is not outside. It is inside.

The only way that the external Black Lodge can influence us, hurt us, or control us is by manipulating the Black Lodge that is within us. If we eliminate that, if we clean ourselves inside, then there is no vulnerability that they can exploit. So we need to be watchful and aware of how the Black Magicians that are within us are always attempting to take control of our inner kingdom, to steal the light and control it in order to feed pride, lust, fear. At the same time, we need to be watchful of the external Black Magicians and Black Lodge that are attempting to destroy the spiritual organizations, both externally and internally.

How do they do it? Through our mind. Remember, it is much easier to corrupt the member of a group than it is to assault it from the outside. The easiest way to destroy a group is from within it.

So, as a member of a group, we are the vulnerability.

What is the best protection? How do we ensure that a spiritual group, an organization, survives?

Whether it is our own internal, individual organization or an external organization that we belong to. How do we ensure that a spiritual group is a protection that we belong to?

How do we ensure that a spiritual group is a protection that we belong to? How do we ensure that a spiritual group is a protection that we belong to?

• First, self-observation. If we are not on guard, we cannot catch the spies, thieves, assassins and liars that are within us and around us.
• Secondly, we must control our senses and our three brains.
• Thirdly, we must make our personality passive.

In modern life, the personality is worshiped.

People love jargon, slang, fashion, trends, culture. All of that is personality.

And, of course, these are the tools used to destroy real spirituality.

Renounce all of that. Turn your attention inward.

If you really want spiritual development, you must turn your attention inwardly.

How many masters can you serve? Only one. So choose the white or the black.

If you want to take over the world and be the greatest in the world, you can, but only by renouncing genuine spiritual development.

Why? Because terrestrial success requires that you become a very skillful black magician.

Nothing is as it seems.

And people are becoming more and more clever in how they manipulate others, but the essential method is the same. They use the personality to manipulate desires, fears, pride, envy, to make people want things they do not have. Black magic, especially social media and YouTube.

Everything there is trying to manipulate you to get clicks, to get followers, to get you to believe something, to belong to something, to get your money. This is why Gloria has never been supported by ads and never will be.

We know you love YouTube, but most of the content on YouTube is designed to get you to watch ads. And the ads are black magic. They are designed to influence you hypnotically, subliminally, covertly, to program you. They are designed to seduce. They seduce the viewer to click, to buy, to follow. But they also seduce the creator of the video or the channel with money.

Most of the people creating content on YouTube are doing it because they want money. They want fame. They want to be admired or envied. They want to be followed. They design their content to attract followers and make money. They designed it specifically to attract your personality. They design it to get better ads, to get more clicks, to make more money.

So if Glorian started depending on ads for an income, then Glorian would have to change what is taught. Glorian would have the incentive to modify what is taught to make it more palatable, to make it more commercial, to make it more acceptable. To not talk about things that are difficult or controversial. Obviously, that would modify the light.

Furthermore, how would you feel if the temple or church you attend was filled with billboards and advertisements? You want to go there to pray, to learn, to communicate with divinity, but you are surrounded by advertisements wanting your money?

No. That is not how a church or a temple should be. Yet that is what people are doing to spirituality today.

All of the so-called spiritual websites, channels, magazines are filled with black magic. Advertisements, deceptions, seductions of the personality.

They want to attract people to form large groups to make more money to get more followers.

You can already see where this leads. Look at any large religion and you will see an empty shell. They have millions of followers, even billions, but no light. They are filled with fighting, commerce, transactions, marketing, advertising, politics, but no light.

When someone is fascinated by having more followers, more cliques, a bigger group, a bigger temple, this is all personality. And the Black Lodge will use those desires to take control of that kingdom. It is that simple.

This is especially true when someone depends upon clicks or followers for their income. They will be incentivized to get more clicks or followers, and the way to do that, appeal to the personality. This is a very quick path to becoming a Black magician.

The ego and the personality always want more and more.

The Black magician always wants more and more.

The one who wants to be a White magician seeks to become less and less.

So we have to be extremely cautious.

To become a White magician, one must learn how to be silent, how to abstain, how to suffer, and how to die.

I am not saying that you have to be totally isolated from the world, unemployed, friendless, impoverished, alone, destitute. All of that is just your intellect playing with contraries.

When you become a White magician, you don't need any of those things that you think you need.

When I am saying make the personality passive, this means that our consciousness should be in charge of our life from moment to moment, not the personality.

And then we use the personality when it is needed, otherwise it is not used.

At its most basic level, the personality gives us our common language, and we need that.

It gives us the gestures that we use, the communication skills that we have.

As an example, if we suddenly could recover the personality that we had a thousand years ago, we would not be able to communicate with each other. Everything about us would be different. Our language, the way we move our body, the way we use our faces, the way we use our gestures, everything. We would not understand each other at all. So the personality is necessary on that level. But beyond that, it is going to vary.

So for instance, you need your personality to manage your life. You need it to do your job and to take care of your family and your responsibilities. You need it to survive in society.

But when you go to meditate or to study scripture, put the personality away. Forget your name and culture. In those contexts, you need to make the personality quiet, absent, so your consciousness can become fully receptive. For example, when you go to meditate, you should not be there meditating from the point of view of your personal name in your personal language with your personal culture and personal religion. All of that has to be set aside and forgotten. The real way to meditate is to forget all of that, to empty yourself of all of that, and to center yourself in pure awareness.

When you're dealing with the world, family, responsibilities, you need the personality, but manage it consciously. Know how to use it wisely.

Right now, all of us are out of balance because our consciousness is asleep and our daily life is dominated by the personality and our terrestrial mind.

The personality and our terrestrial mind only seek satisfaction in the terrestrial world because they cannot see that real satisfaction and contentment.

Real acceptance and confidence can never be found in the terrestrial world. Those qualities are within the consciousness when it is liberated from the personality and the mind.

When our defects are destroyed, we find our true identity and genuine happiness.

And then, no matter what our external circumstances may be, we will have satisfaction, confidence, and contentment.

Someone who is fully dedicated to their spiritual development renounces worldly gain, but they are provided with everything they need. They will never lack what they need.

So, we need to purge our inner kingdom of vulnerabilities, to root out our impurities that make us vulnerable. We need to find and destroy our pride, gluttony, lust.

Step by step, in this way, we become more and more pure, more and more secure, more and more radiant.

To protect our kingdom, we need to retain our light and protect it, to nourish it and help it grow. And we do that by learning the techniques the tradition teaches us to harness that light, transform it, and purify ourselves, and then learn to use that light to help others with wisdom and prudence. Ultimately, as we organize ourselves internally, psychologically, and spiritually, we can then help others do the same.