The Truth is a brilliant, many-sided diamond.  
The Great Light fills this gem and colors gleam from every side. 
Mystics, messengers, sages and teachers of all ages, races, and beliefs have spoken of a different face of this common Eternal Truth.

Our Selfhood
part 1

Virtual Circle Lesson January 21.02
  

Our  Heavenly Father, Your Name is Sanctified,  In the Heavens and so in Earth.  Your Will Be Done.  On Earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen

Our initial aim as a Researcher of Truth is Self-Realization - the realization by the personality of Soul Self Awareness.  In this assimilation of the personality self-awareness with the Soul Self Awareness, we are not becoming something we were not already.  Rather we realize the truth of what we were, are and always will be. 

We can begin our approach to Self Realization by studying to find out just what is the Selfhood of a human being.  We will begin with a basic outline of the Selfhood, as it is not possible to give a complete picture all at once using only words.  More details will be given later.  As we begin to research to find out  what a human being is, we immediately come to find a kind of duality.  On one side of this phenomenal duality, we have our true nature as an individualized Eternal Spirit Being – forever free and never bound. 

On the other side, we see a temporal limited self often struggling in the Worlds of Existence as a constantly changing peronality – The Present Day Personality.  But, we do not have two selves.  Instead, we find one all-inclusive Selfhood in various states of manifestation.  By using the word, personality, we are referring to its earthly vehicle the Material Body, also the Psychical Body and the Noetical Body.  This is the mortal part of man and thus each of these bodies that we inhabit is perishable.  This level of expression of our Selfhood is not the true Self, which we are attempting to realize. 

Our material body is the vehicle of expression and belongs to the material world.  Our psychical body is the vehicle for our expression as feelings, desires, and belongs to the psychical worlds.  (Not one psychical world but many psychical worlds or planes.)  Our noetical body is the vehicle for our expressions as thoughts and reason.  It belongs to the noetical worlds – the worlds of the fifth dimension.

No one living on Earth doubts they have a material body that is undergoing constant change.  It undergoes change in appearance (shape, size, weight) but it does not deviate from the human form.  What about our psychical and noetical bodies do they undergo change?  Yes, they undergo changes but in purity.  The change in purity is a result of the quality of emotions and thoughts we choose to express while on earth and in the worlds beyond.  Our material, psychical and noetical bodies coexist and are interwoven - all connected by the etheric.  Yet, with training we can separate and use independently the psychical/noetical from the material body consciously in the first Exosomatosis (also called an out of body experience and Astral Travel by some).

Daskalos and others to describe our Self Awareness and our three bodies of expression have given many metaphors.   One is that of a lamp with three colored lampshades.  In this metaphor, the light bulb is Self Awareness and the three shades represent our three bodies.  The cleaner and more translucent the shades the more light is emanated.  So too with us, the cleaner and clearer our personality the more the inner light shines through.   Initially, our work is to clean the lampshades of our personality so that the light of the Self may shine brighter without obstruction.  In the Worlds of Existence, this is a never-ending process even for the very advanced. 

Yet, Self Realization means to experience and know directly the light of Self Awareness free from the colored lampshades.  To do this we must eventually break the miss-identification of our Self with the lampshades of our material, psychical and noetical existence.  If we remove or transcend the lampshades of the material body, the psychical body, the noetical bodies what then are we?   We are not our material body with it’s instinctual and autonomic functions.  We are not our psychical body with it’s unique range of emotional feelings and desires.  We are not our noetical body with it’s particular ways of thinking.  What then are we?

Additionally, each of our three bodies has its etheric double.  All forms of life, be it a one-celled organism or a great whale, has an etheric double. The etheric double is in and around the body.  Our so-called aura is simply the light emanations of this etheric double. All the individual atoms composing our material body also have an etheric double, which collectively form the complete etheric double of the material body.  The etheric double serves as a pattern or mold for the formation of the body.  The Archangels of the Elements use the etheric double to create and maintain our bodies.  Currents within the field of the etheric double of the material body distribute the etheric vitality giving life, health and regulating the body’s autonomic functions.   The etheric doubles are perfect and incorruptible.   Yet, illness passes through to the material body without corrupting the etheric double.  

        The so-called psychical powers of Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Telekinesis and the like are not phenomena of our psychical body.  They are phenomena associated with the Etheric Double.  Vital to our spiritual unfoldment is the work on our etheric doubles.   Daskalos gave such importance to this work that virtually all of his public Stoa Lessons contained an exercise involving the Etheric Double.  Work with the etheric doubles will in time, produce direct experiences, verifying the truth of these teachings to you.   Regular exercises using the etheric doubles of our material, psychical and noetical bodies bring balance and good health to our three bodies.   We work with our Etheric Doubles with Meditation, Concentration, Visualization and Introspection exercises.

        The Present Day Personality is composed of all our thoughts, feelings, desires motivations, intentions, ways of behaving. It has a name, a nationality and a sex - male or female.  The Present Day Personality is a time and place creation – a projection of the Soul.  In our system this expressive part of the Soul, which projects a ray of itself into the Worlds of Existence as a personality, is called the Permanent Personality .  Some refer to it as the “Feet of the Soul” and others call it the “Seat of the Soul.”  The Permanent Personality is both Holy Spiritual and Logoic and contains the Divine Laws.  It is not male or female and has no nationality, no race.  It chooses and supervises each Present Day Personality’s incarnation and life experiences.  We might even think of the Permanent Personality like the actor who puts on a mask to play the different Present Day Personality characters in each of the incarnations. The Permanent Personality also contains the total of all our previous incarnations as it distils and assimilates these experiences.  It is the flawless record keeper of all our sojourns into the Worlds of Existence.

The relationship between the Permanent Personality and the Present Day Personality is sometimes like this.   Say an important individual hires a chauffeur to drive him around in his limousine.  The chauffeur is always looking outward as he is driving here and there.  After awhile the chauffeur forgets all about the owner of the limo in the back and starts to consider the car as his own and drives off in his own direction.  Now the owner of the limo must intervene, correct this situation, and remind the driver of the reality.   In this analogy, the Owner is the Permanent Personality; the limousine represents our vehicles (our bodies) while the chauffeur represents our Present Day Personality.   This is similar to the conflict of interest between the Present Day Personality and the Permanent Personality.   However, the Present Day Personality through purification is one day destined to turn its attention inward and merge in full unity with the Permanent Personality.     To be continued.  .   .

Love to all,

Daniel 
 
   1.21.02

P.S.  It is not enough just to understand in theory the teachings on our three bodies and their etheric doubles.  In order to really know them we must also engage ourselves with the esoteric practices and experience them directly.  What follows is a general breathing exercise engaging us in  this process. The breathing exercises as taught by Daskalos are long standing tried and true methods for empowering our work.  They are safe and very successful ways to increase our supplies of the vital energy in our etheric doubles.  The basic training exercise which follows, is also a way to help us come in contact with and begin to use our etheric double consciously. It is advised that the beginning students breathe in and out with out any pause or breath retention.  The duration of the patterned breathing is to be 3, 4, or 6 beats of the heart (which ever you find most comfortable).  The number of beats of the heart should be exactly the same  on the in breath  as it is on the  out breath.  Do not use 5 beats of the heart.   There should be no appreciable pause in between these breaths, which should be deep yet comfortable.  Because this exercise is long, you may want to have someone read it to you or tape record it and play it back as you follow along.

Now, shall we make some exercises? You need it because I am getting it all the time from the minds of many of you.  The first thing one has to do is to relax. And - attention doesn't mean tension. Have it in your mind. Attention is a different thing from tension. You must get rid of tension and have attention, which means - observation.

Feel that you are in the body. You are in the body. Fell your toes and your feet. Feel them. Relax there. Go up to the knees and feel the feet from the knees down - relaxed completely. Feel from the knees to the place you are sitting now. Feel the thighs completely relaxed. Your feet are completely relaxed. Feel the solar plexus in your belly. Feel completely relaxed. Go to your heart and your chest, and at the same time feel your hands. Feel the chest completely relaxed. It is not difficult to relax in the head. Feel that you are in the head and relaxed completely. Now, you feel completely relaxed in your body.

Start breathing deeply but comfortably. Start feeling your heart beating. Just imagine four beats of your heart and inhale slowly, feeling the abdomen first and then the chest. Exhale the air feeling first the lower part and then the chest. Breath in again. Four beats of the heart inhaling and four beats of the heart exhaling, feeling the air and feeling the lungs. Check that you are completely relaxed in your material body. Completely relaxed.

(You can do that for some minutes - five or ten minutes. Thinking about nothing, not allowing any thought to come and disturb you, neither your emotions and desires. Nothing from your personality. Calm down. Breathe deeply the Breath of Life. And now - meditate.)

What is going on in this body of mine? Every thing is alright. The circulation of the blood, metabolism, the blood loaded with energy, feet and every organ with the right substance to be in good order. Caring for the eyes to make them capable for me to see around. The blood under the supervision of Life as the Holy Spirit (God) and the high intelligences of the elements (the Archangels) who are working continuously to keep this body of mine in good order. To keep in good order my arteries, veins, the heart, the bowels, the glands. So much work for them to do Super-consciously. The hair on my head - each hair is growing.

"And all the hairs..." says Christ "are counted." And not on the head only but over the whole body, the hairs are fed according to the Will of the Creator. What is taking place in your body? Most, most important: the creative energy in you! Now, in this condition, completely relaxed, be in your body and thank the Archangels of the Elements for keeping it in good health and in good order. Will they feel it? I am telling you - yes, and they will like it. Do Archangels and the Angels feel glad or sorry? Definitely, yes, because they have their own self-consciousness. Christ said "And joy is to your Angels in the Heavens" that means, within you - for everyone of you, returning - realizing the Truth.

So, breathe the Breath of Life, thank Life and live what is Life. Again, check that you are completely relaxed in your body. The relaxation is most necessary and especially, when I say relaxation, I mean ceasing down (completely) thoughts and emotions.

You can do this exercise for ten minutes. No need for more. If you make this exercise ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at night and then start your introspection, looking within, these exercises are enough to raise your self-consciousness, through the course of time, to higher and higher levels. Suppose we are doing these exercises for longer periods (half an hour, three quarters, an hour or so)? Do we gain anything more? I am telling you - no. You don't.  ~DASKALOS

Present Day Personality:  A personality developed during each incarnation, which we may call "George1' or "Mary" or whatever. The present-day personality­ is a projection of the Permanent Personality into the worlds of separation. This petty self, infatuated with knowledge resulting from the five senses, is the sum total  of its elementals. The work of the present-day personality is to cultivate a humble, moral and loving character

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ETHERIC DOUBLES  Each body of everything in existence, from the simplest to the most complex structures, possesses an etheric double centered within the body and extending slightly beyond it. The etheric doubles, both perfect and incorruptible, serve as the moulds for a body's construction and in the preservation of a body's health. Within etheric doubles ether is accumulated and distributed to various parts of the body. The etheric double exists as long as the body (whether material, psychical or noetical) is projected.  When a body dies (passes-over), its etheric double dissolves.

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PERMANENT PERSONALITY: The active and expressive part of the Soul, both within and beyond the worlds of separation [worlds of existence]. It filters knowledge to and from the present-day personalities and distills wisdom.

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EXOSOMATOSIS Is a Greek word equivalent to the English expression 'out of body'. We know of a first (from the material body), a second (from the psychical body) and a third (from the noetical body) exosomatosis. We all leave our bodies each night, during sleep, and travel to other planes subconsciously. The aim, however, is to live self-consciously while out of our bodies.

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The Worlds of Existence are comprised of Material World also called the Natural World, the Psychical World and the Noetical World.

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Our physical body (material body) is composed of solid matter and is our vehicle while on the material plane – the world of the three dimensions.  Matter is the Super Substance of Mind at the lowest vibration.  Mind is an emanation from God and is used as the means for the creation of all the Worlds of Existence – material, psychical and noetical.   Everything existing is Mind in different frequencies of vibration, from the most dense to the most refined.

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Our psychical body is the body of our emotions and it is our vehicle in the four-dimensional world.  The forth-dimensional world is also known as the psychical or astral world and is a world of emotions. The psychical world is layered having seven planes, each of which also has seven sub-planes. This world is the world we first visit subconsciously in sleep, in conscious out of body experiences or when we pass over at the death of the material body.

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Our noetical body is the body of our thoughts and is our vehicle in the five-dimensional world.  The Noetical World is the most refined of the Worlds of Existence and is a world of abundant light. The noetical world is also layered having seven planes, each of which has seven sub-planes.

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 "Our system of Esoteric Christianity celebrates the eternal truths known to all great religious traditions, while firmly based in the teachings of the God-Man Jesus Immanuel the Christ and the New Testament" ~ DASKALOS

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T O P

Daskalos Exiting the Stoa

From The Stoa Lessons
by Daskalos:

“We have three bodies and in the Bible Saint Paul mentioned these bodies in his writings because he knew them practically. He called them the material body, the psychical body and the third body the spirit body.” [Daskalos called the third body noetical so as not to confuse it with our real nature - Spirit]

“Joshua Immanuel the Christ also referred to our bodies in a parable. There was, He said, a woman who got three measures of flour, mixed them with water until the whole thing became leaven.”   Matt. 113.33

“Was Christ teaching bakers how to make bread? What did He mean? Who is that woman? The woman is our personality - taking the three measures: the material body, the psychical body and the noetical body. Mixing them with water, that means with the Mind, with reason, balancing them until all of them became one leaven. That is what the Christ meant by that”  - DASKALOS

NOTE: This quotation of the  Parable Matt. 13.33, used the literal translation  from the original Greek which says: "... a woman took and hid in three sata of flour"  (sata or saton was an Aramaic measurement of weight equaling about  35 pounds)

Present Day Personality
See Esoteric Teachings page 65

Etheric Double –
See Esoteric Practices page 65 and Esoteric Teachings page 115

Permanent Personality
See Esoteric Teachings page 104

Our Prayer

Our Heavenly Father. When Joshua Immanuel the Christ was saying these words, in Greek or in Aramaic, the universes were shaking.  These are great words, shaking the universes.  In Aramaic he said "Abuun d'buaschmaya"- he was saying this and the universes were shaking. He was feeling His Father in Him. And when he was raising his hands no illness could stand on any human being.

We must understand the power of words having behind them meanings, shaking the Soul Self. Then you will reach the real Spirit Soul respect. Then all of you will understand that we are not weak beings because the human being is not destined to behave like an animal or all the other animals, but reflect God.

So, when you gather yourselves in your circles, the first thing, start with the prayer.  This is enough. Start with the worship glorification prayer, it will be enlightening. He will be amongst you. Feel him yet and see what comes ~ DASKALOS

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©1.2002 Daniel Joseph

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