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Mental Representations



It is necessary to profoundly comprehend all the processes of the mind, all the reactions, and the psychological surplus which it accumulates, etc. Only in such a way does the ardent flame of intelligence sprout within us...

Well my dear friends, we have been studying the distinct aspects of the mind, and afterwards we will continue, going deeper into the practical field of love, of interesting facts in the elimination of the psychological aggregates. This is very difficult. Nevertheless, this is not all, there is something else we must watch for. I am referring emphatically to mental representations. For in the world of the senses there are difficult representations such as they are, the objects that surround us, remorse, etc. but representations of the mind also exist.

In the mind there are many representations that we must take into account. Let us suppose we have the representation of a friend for whom we have much esteem in our mind. Somebody very important talks to us about that friend, and all kinds of gossiping and slander arise. We hear all this gossiping. Then, in fact, the image we have of our friend, the representation, becomes altered. Now we do not see her as the kind person whom we saw before, full of harmony, etc. Now this image in our understanding is the appearance that others have given it; possibly that of the bandit, that of the robber, that of the false friend, etc.

At night, perhaps we dream of that friend. Now we will in no way dream with harmony; we see that she attacks us, we see that we attack her, we dream she uses a weapon against us, etc. The image of our friend is completely altered: a representation has been altered. It can be that those who had talked about our friend judged him incorrectly, consciously or unconsciously slandered him, etc., but the representation of the mind remains altered. This is very serious because this representation, in fact, coverts itself into a demon which comes to hinder our esoteric advancement. It is a demon that gets in our way, a demon which is an obstacle to our profound inner development. This is, then, a serious error: to give an ear to gossip, to slander, to murmuring, to the "they say that," etc.

Obviously, in our mind there are thousands of representations that can be altered if we take part in negative conversations, if we give an ear to slander, if we hear that ‘they say that,' etc. Due to all of these and other things, it is not advisable to give an ear to the negative words of people; to do so is a serious error. Moreover, not only do our psychological aggregates constitute a burden that we carry inside, but so do the living representations of our psychological defects. Therefore, we must not forget this matter about the representation of our understanding.

Walkers of the path, for giving an ear to negative conversations, for being in huddles where only negative phrases can be heard, you usually deform many representations of understanding; and these, in the world of the mind, consist of real demons which form and create obstacles or a series of impassable obstacles for the awakening of the Consciousness. In this way, we can cite the case of many Gnostic students who, at night, usually have innumerable dreams of a negative type, sometimes they dream they kill another person, etc. It is a most serious matter to carry such enemies inside oneself, in one's own mind. Obviously, the most recommendable thing for our negative representations is to appeal to the annular serpentine power, to invoke Devi Kundalini Shakti so she will destroy these negative representations.

Messages from the Being

Unquestionably, we must not have such representations, negative or positive, within our minds. The mind should create certain serene attitudes that are at the disposition of the Being, but for that to happen, we need the human personality to become passive. A passive personality is a receptive personality, it receives the messages that come from the higher parts of the Being.

Unquestionably, such messages go through the higher centers of the Being before entering the mind. This is the advantage of having a passive personality. The mind, disgracefully, is found to be totally controlled by very heavy elements, very difficult aggregates which are related to the world of ninety-six laws, also known as the region of Tartarus.

The personality is active because it is controlled by aggregates of hate, pride, envy, and horrible lust. In real truth, we are nothing but miserable worms in the mud of the earth. If we achieve the elimination of such heavy psychological elements from our psyche, our human personality turns passive and the mind becomes receptive to the messages that descend from the highest parts of the Being through the higher centers of our psyche.

Now you comprehend, my dear friends, the necessity to eliminate those elements which are too heavy. With Devi Kundalini Shakti, in other words, the igneous serpent of our magical powers, we can, in fact, eliminate these heavy elements. It is a triumph, because in this way we can receive the direct messages that come from the highest parts of the Being. Because of this, I say you must work on yourself.

A receptive mind should be created, a mind that never projects itself, that is always receiving instead of projecting. Obviously, it would be good to accept positive or negative representations in the distinct depths of understanding; such a mind would only bring the messages that come from the highest part of our fellow men. In so much as we continue giving food to the distinct representations of understanding, it will never be a prodigal mind, a progressive mind. In reality, truly, the mind is conditioned by time and by pain. Analyzing in this way we will see that not only must we eliminate the undesirable psychological aggregates, but we also have a very difficult problem I see for inner illumination, and this is that we carry too many representations, apart from all the inhuman psychological aggregates.

If we carefully study the life of dreams, we will find so many vague and incoherent things in them, various subjective and imprecise aspects, so many absurd things, such poor events with no reality. The only motive for their incoherence must invite us to reflection.

As a Gnostic, one must have clear concepts and lucid ideas, radical illumination without vagueness, without any kind of subjectivity. Disgracefully, the representations and the diverse aggregates we carry inside ourselves condition the Consciousness in such a way that they keep it in the very disagreeable state of sub-consciousness, even in infra-consciousness. I invite you to reflection, I invite you to comprehend these indispensable things.

The Silence of the Mind

In the Oriental world much is spoken of in synthesis. For example, Zen or Chan Buddhism only tells us that we must obtain the calmness of the mind, the silence of the mind with the purpose of achieving the eruption of the Illuminating Void [Sunyata, the Emptiness]. We are told that there is true happiness in Satori. In the meditation room we must acquire the calmness of the mind inside, outside, and in the middle. We are told that the mind must get to be like a wall, absolutely still.

Well, I found out that in the meditation rooms of Japan, it is difficult to get to Satori. As much as it may take, some minutes in the best of cases, or one or many hours after, the mind returns to being as agitated as it always was. One gets out of this state of happiness to face the world, fortunately, in a spiritual drunkenness, and ready to fight the ego. Of course, the "I" soon intervenes to give him a couple punches and get him out of that state of wanting to achieve its elimination.

If we want to be something more than what can be achieved in a Zen or Chan meditation room, we must also have the awakening of the mind, a mind receptive to the infinities that come from beyond the sky of Urania, an illuminated mind. Could this be possible if we permit psychological aggregates to continue existing in our psyche? Could this be possible if we give an ear to gossip that alters the representation we carry in our understanding? Could this be possible, I tell myself and I share it with you as I think out loud, if we continue giving priority to positive or negative representations?

H. P. Blavatsky has a phrase in The Voice of the Silence that I liked. It says:

Before the gold flame can blaze with serene light,
the lamp must be well cared for, safe from every wind;
worldly thoughts must drop dead at the temple's door...

That phrase of H. P. Blavatsky is portentous, marvelous. I tell you, only in this way is it possible for the mind to become truly calm and remain silent inside, outside, and in the middle; not just temporarily as in a meditation room, but in a continuous manner.

When one studies the distinct creases of the mind, one also comprehends that the calmness and total silence of understanding are not possible as long as the mind is occupied by psychological aggregates and representations. One could object, saying that there exist laudable, clear, and magnificent representations. This is supposed to be acceptable, but it is not. We, as a whole, must be Being. Why must we have things that are not of the Being in our mind? I do not see why we must carry intruders in it. I have comprehended that only the Being must be in the mind, that is all. But as long as that temple is full of strange elements, things, games, huge cabinets of representations and aggregates, it can be said that there exists a deep sleep in the Consciousness, this is unconsciousness.

"A man is known by his dreams," said Plato in one of his books. The day we stop dreaming, the cockroaches we carry in our brain turn into fire. All those absurd incoherencies do not exist, all those morbid, vague, imprecise, tasteless, insubstantial, and odorless states do not have any kind of existence. Joyful is the day in which we stop dreaming, the day in which we no longer dream. When a person dreams no more, he has triumphed. As long as there exist dreams in the mind, as long as he goes to the psychological space to project imprecise, absurd dreams, this indicates to us that we have a mind full of garbage, full of all kinds of rubbish.

As I was saying, true illuminates have no dreams. Dreams are for those who are asleep. True illuminates live in the higher worlds, out of the physical body, in a state of intensified wakefulness without ever dreaming. The true illuminate, after the death of his physical body, is awakened in the psychological space. In this way thus, we should reflect on the necessity of getting to the stillness and silence of the mind.

Selecting Impressions

What can we say here about the three foods? I have explained how we nourish ourselves with the first food (for the physical body). We have spoken also about breathing, the second food, which is more important than that which goes to the stomach. And I have told you there is a third food called "impressions." Nobody can live without impressions, not even for a minute. You are hearing me here. I am scratching myself and a series of impressions come to your minds. You see a human figure dressed with the sacred clothing of the Grail Knights Order. This comes through impressions; all these are impressions to you.

Disgracefully, the human being is negative. What would you say, for example, now that we are in this room, if we open the door to some robbers, so they can come in? Would it seem correct to you that I should open the door so that these people may enter? What would happen? Nevertheless, we do not exercise such caution with impressions. We open the door to all the negative impressions in the world.

These penetrate our psyche and create disasters. They transform themselves into psychological aggregates and develop a negative emotional center within us and at last, fill us with mud. Is this correct? Is it correct for a person who is full of negative impressions emanating from his negative emotional center to have his place among us, that we might open our doors to all the negative impressions of this person?

If we do not know how to select impressions, how will we be able to close the doors of our mind to them? We must learn to open and close the doors of our psyche to impressions. Open the doors for noble impressions, close them to negative and absurd impressions, because negative impressions cause damage, they develop the negative emotional center within us and harm us.

Watch what one does while forming part of a crowd. I assure you that none of you, for example, would dare to go out on the street and throw stones around. Is this not so? However, in a group, it might be that one of you does. A great public manifestation arises, it is excited against the government. The crowd throws stones and you also end up throwing stones, even when you later say to yourself, "Why did I throw them? Why did I do this?"

I remember only four years ago when the school teachers were having many strikes, protests, and manifestations. We saw unusual things there. Here in the heart of the Federal District some ten or fifteen years ago, we saw very decent professors, very worthy, very cultured people who, in a crowd, grabbed stones and threw them at windows, people, and at whoever they could. Those school teachers would never have done this alone, but they did all this while in a group. In a group the human being behaves in a distinct way, he does things he would never do alone. Why is this so? It is because of the negative impressions they have opened their doors to. Then these impressions negatively influence us and we end up doing what we would never have done alone. Because of this, it is necessary that we learn to be cultured citizens.

When one opens one's doors to negative impressions, not only does one alter the order of the emotional center, which is in the heart, one also alters it so that it becomes negative. For example, if one opens one's doors to the negative emotion of a person who comes to us full of anger because someone caused him some damage, then one becomes identified with that person's anger and ends up taking part in the matter.

Let us suppose that one opens one's doors to the negative impressions of a drunk who is at a party and one accepts a drink from this drunk. Then later we have another, then two, three, and four and finally one also ends up as a drunk. Let us suppose that one opens one's doors to the negative impressions of a person of normal sex. One ends up fornicating in all kinds of ways. Let us suppose that we open our doors to the negative impressions of a drug addict; we also end up smoking marijuana, with seeds and everything. The conclusion that we arrive at is failure.

This is how human beings infect one another with negative impressions. The drunk infects the drunk, the great assassins infect others, drug addicts infect other drug addicts and then finally, drug addicts multiply themselves, assassins multiply themselves, robbers multiply themselves. Why? Because we always commit the error of opening our doors to negative impressions and this is not the correct way of behaving.

Let us select emotions. If someone brings us positive emotions of light, harmony, beauty, wisdom, love, poetry, and perfection, let us open the doors of our heart. To the beings that bring us negative emotions of hate, violence, jealousy, drugs, alcohol, fornication, and adultery, we must not open the doors of our heart. Let us close them. Close the doors to negative impressions. When one reflects on all of this one can perfectly modify oneself, make something better of one's life.

We see the representation of a friend who has always helped us, he is kind, charitable, marvelous. Suddenly, someone excited, full of negative impressions, comes to us with a problem. We open the doors to those negative impressions, he is murmuring, he is saying that our friend is a robber, a bandit, a bank robber, and forty thousand other things. All those negative impressions enter our mind. Such an altered representation converts itself into a real demon which obstructs work on oneself. Through all of this and many other things, you can see that this necessity of cleaning the temple of the mind is very difficult, but not impossible.

We need to have a clear mind, a clean temple, without filth, without abominations of any kind. But we must know how to live, it is necessary to know how to live. In practical life disgracefully, people do not know how to live. We blame all of our sufferings and all our sorrows on others, and we are the only ones who truly are to blame.

Let us look at the case of somebody who steals a large amount of money from us. Let us suppose that one of you has fifty-thousand dollars put away in some furniture, in some box in your house, and some relative of yours robs you of those fifty-thousand dollars. Of course you would suffer horribly. Is that not so? To lose money this way is not very agreeable, it would cause us much pain. You would cry, you would go to the police, you would file a law suit against him, or maybe you would not proceed in this way because of his being a relative, but the suffering would not be silenced at all. But why suffer like that for fifty-thousand dollars? Because it cost you so much work, that is why you suffer. If you did not have "I's" of attachment to things, to money, you would lose those fifty-thousand dollars and you would be laughing, you would not suffer.

Let us suppose that a man suddenly finds his wife with another man, a difficult case, even more so if he finds her in the midst of adultery. There is no doubt that, confused by the pain, he takes out a gun and shoots the other man on the spot. Why does he do that? He would justify this before the authorities, saying that he found her in the act of adultery so, of course, he was right to do that. That is madness, complete madness, because if this man did not have the "I" of jealousy inside him, if this man did not have the "I" of attachment nor that of jealousy, there would not be anyone who would suffer; he would simply turn his back and leave. He would go and live out the rest of his life beyond what happened to him, realizing that each man is for himself. He feels free of this because she reproved him, she relieved him. If he does not have any jealousy, then there is no pain.

Many times someone suffers because he sees a friend who has a nice house and a beautiful wife. This is called envy, is it not? But if he does not have the "I" of envy, why would he suffer? On the contrary, he would be happy to see his friend doing so well. It is in this way that we must understand that others cannot cause us pain; we ourselves are the cause of our pain. This is the crude reality of life. Disintegrating the ego terminates pain.

The roots of pain are in the ego, and when the ego is terminated, all that remains in us is beauty. That beauty transforms itself into that which is called love and happiness. When the mind reaches these heights it is calm, in silence, it is no longer a mind that projects itself, it is no longer a mind that reacts just because of anything. It receives the messages that come from above, from the superior parts of the Being, it is a mind full of plenitude.

I repeat, not only should psychological aggregates be eliminated, but it is clear that mental representations must also be eliminated, negative ones as well as positive ones. We need to clean the inside of our minds of all rubbish. We need the golden flame to blaze with serene light within the limits of the temple. When the mind is calm, when the mind is in silence, then something new happens.

We say this path is very nice but what do we do with our preoccupations? What do we do with the sufferings which others cause us? It is impossible to acquire a calm mind, a mind in silence, when we live in an absurd world full of problems and difficulties. Upon disintegrating the inhuman aggregates we carry within, problems and difficulties conclude.

What we need at this present time is to stop our mental laziness and work very hard on ourselves.

These are my words. If anybody has something more to ask about this subject, they may do so with the utmost liberty.

Question: Master, can you explain the difference between a quiet mind and a mind that has been forced to be quiet?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, naturally we must distinguish between a mind that is quiet and a quieted mind, between a mind that is in silence and a mind that has been silenced. In the name of truth, we must emphatically state that the stillness and silence of the mind comes when the ego and the representations of understanding have died. When the mind is at rest, in silence, it becomes receptive, it is left in the hands of the Being and only the Being can do this.

Q: Master, can you give us a practical example?

Samael Aun Weor: Common sense gives the most practical examples. Although many say that it is the most common of senses, I would say it is the least common. Of course, if a thief comes here and you open the doors he will enter, and you will have committed an absurd act; but if a brother comes and knocks on that door steadily and rhythmically you will open the door for him with pleasure. Also if any "John Smith" comes with a few negative emotions, excited because he found a person of the opposite sex for his lust, for his fornication, and he starts talking about pornography and I, very content, open the doors for him, I am opening the doors to a negative emotion. If a drug addict comes over smoking marijuana and he tells me it is very good, and that he, using marijuana, has had such and such perceptions, that he has even achieved receiving messages from beyond, from God knows what, and in his excitement he tells me to try a bit and I have some, I am an imbecile. Is that not so? I have opened the doors to a negative emotion. This is clear, there is no necessity to complicate things.

Q: Master, does this mean that one does evil when one talks about a person, be it good or bad, taking into account that those who criticize do not transform these impressions?

Samael Aun Weor: Yes, one does not have any reason to occupy oneself with others for their doing good or evil: each one is for himself. So it would be better to respect one another's lives and to not open our doors to negative emotions, for that is absurd.

Q: Master, instead of having negative or positive representations, what must we have in order to be able to act?

Samael Aun Weor: For now, there is no other remedy but to work. To work from now on you must dedicate yourself to work on yourself. The day you have eliminated all your psychological aggregates, the day you have eliminated all the representations in the mind then, on that day, things will change. On that day you will open your heart. You will receive the sparks of light that come from the higher aspects of your own Being. You will be an integral person. Begin the work now!

Q: Venerable Master, when one is at work and achieves having perceptions without identifying oneself with them, is this a product of self-observation?

Samael Aun Weor: The sense of self-observation develops as one uses it. You obviously need to use it because an organ that is not used becomes atrophied. As one observes oneself cautiously, that marvelous sense of psychological self-observation enters into activity. But one has to be, we could say, on mystical watch, searching, self-observing one's own errors. As one observes oneself, the sense of psychological self-observation develops.

Q: Then we must definitely make practices for awakening faculties being in the state we are in, without dying?

Samael Aun Weor: The most important thing is the psychological exploration of oneself, to discover oneself. In all self-discovery there also exists self-revelation. When one admits that one has a particular individual psychology, one begins to observe one's own errors. When one discovers one has an error, one must try to comprehend it profoundly in all levels of the mind. When one has comprehended the error, then one can reduce it to cosmic dust with help from the igneous serpent of our magical powers. I am referring to Devi Kundalini Shakti, which unfolds and develops in the spinal column. "First search for the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto to you."

Q: Can a mental representation create a psychological aggregate?

Samael Aun Weor: Let us not confuse the terms. Mental representations are one thing and psychological aggregates are another. Mental representations exist from instant to instant, from moment to moment. You yourself, here at this moment, are full of mental representations. But mental representations can be altered, they can convert themselves into perverse demons, but they are representations. No representation could create a new aggregate, representations are of one mind and aggregates are of another.

Q: Venerable Master, then that demon which results from the representation... The method which is needed to eliminate it, is it the same one used to eliminate our psychological "I's"?

Samael Aun Weor: It is obviously so. If one appeals to the igneous serpent of our magical powers so that she will eliminate specific representations, we can receive her help right away, and those representations will be reduced to cosmic dust. The mind must be clear, free. It must be a Temple without dusty stables, where only the flame of Prajna, so to speak, the flame of the Being, blazes.

Q: So Master, then representations are the product of "I's"?

Samael Aun Weor: No, sir, I said that we must not confuse the terms; representations are one thing and psychological aggregates are another. As in the world of the senses, objects are fundamental because objects are really located in the world of the senses; like this, there is also the world of the mind. Representations within the mind are commonly trouble, whether they are positive or negative.

Q: Then what happens if the representations that come to us when we are trying to meditate are of characters very sacred to us?

Samael Aun Weor: When one is in meditation, mental representations commonly come, but if the subject is analyzed then one discovers that such representations are stuck in one's mind, that they have always been there. We need to liberate ourselves. The mind must become clean so that, instead of representations, messages come to us. Messages from beyond are one thing and bad mental forms that come to the mind are another, they are representations.
These representations are one thing and messages another. Messages come, I repeat, through the higher parts of the Being and arrive to the higher mind, in the crystallized mind. They have a new taste. They are not of time. They are beyond time. We have to open ourselves to the new. Representations do not ever have a new taste, they are of time.

Q: Master, when a representation comes within the field of the mind and the person does not identify with it, but instead studies it, how can one understand this? What results are obtained?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, it always happens to be that it is a representation. During sleep, usually there are representations of a subjective, incoherent, vague, and imprecise type. If the person does not identify with such representations, only studies them and knows what such representations are, usually he finds they are related to many errors of the past. But we must distinguish clearly between representations and psychological aggregates. In the mind, one can have representations of lust from all his friends. These are representations that must be eliminated sooner or later. Aggregates are another thing, they personify our defects. Representations are simply mental forms. The representation of a stone, the representation of a man, and the representation of an animal are simply forms. We must have a free mind, the temple of the mind must be clean, it must be pure.

Q: Venerable Master, can the same work taught in relationship to the transformation of impressions be carried out in eliminating representations?

Samael Aun Weor: It is good to try and comprehend a representation before eliminating it in a similar form, as it is done with psychological aggregates. When one comprehends that a representation is nothing more than a form in the mind, thus, one must eliminate it, but you must comprehend it to later eliminate it, and you eliminate it with the force of the igneous serpent of our magical powers.

Q: Master, when there is a transformation of impressions are there still representations in the mind?

Samael Aun Weor: One can digest determined impressions, but one cannot expect those representations one has already stored in the mind to cease to exist. One must manage to comprehend them and to eliminate them.

Q: Until what point is an experience in the inner worlds a mental representation?

Samael Aun Weor: As long as the ego subsists, one is not fit for investigations in psychological space. No one could know the inner worlds of planet Earth if before he does not know his own inner worlds. Nobody could know the inner worlds of the solar system if before, he does not know his own inner worlds. None of us could know the inner worlds of the galaxy in which we live if before we do not know our own particular individual inner worlds. One cannot be fit for psychological investigation inside the psychological space in which we live as long as we have not disintegrated the ego and have not finished with the representations which emanate from the rustic world of sensation.

Q: Is it possible to leave the body with only 3% Consciousness ?

Samael Aun Weor: I have clearly stated that with only 3% Consciousness no one can become a competent investigator of what happens in our psychological space. Before anything else, people need to increase their percentage of Consciousness so that they can become truly ideal investigators of psychological space. Thus, we need to constantly psychologically explore ourselves on a daily basis until we discover our errors and reduce them to cosmic dust. Only then is it possible to acquire self-consciousness. We need to put so many of our theories aside, so much vagueness, so many incoherencies that do not serve for anything, to be able to convert ourselves into awakened individuals.

In the name of truth we have to say that the world of the mind is a deposit for all mental forms past, present, and future. The world of the natural or universal mind must be studied in depth, profoundly, if we want to understand something about the ego and mental representations. It has clearly not occurred to many brothers and sisters what the difference is between ego and representations.

The Difference Between Ego and Representations

We have stated emphatically that psychological aggregates, as a whole, constitute that which is called ego. Each psychological aggregate is the personification in itself of some defect of a psychological type. We have also said that within each aggregate there exists a percentage of our inner Consciousness. We have made it clear that through disintegrating those aggregates, we liberate our Consciousness. We were given techniques to follow in our Consciousness.

In our chat, we have added something different from the question of aggregates. I am referring clearly and precisely to this question of representations.

What is the difference between aggregates and representations? This is what we are going to study from here on.

In the practical field of life, a person is an object of the senses. The mental representation or mental image we have of a person is another thing. It is something similar to the difference that exists between a person and her photograph. The person is a person and her photograph is a photograph, and her representation is what it represents. There are mental photos, and the mental photos we may have of that person are one thing and the actual person is another thing.

This mental photo comes to be the representation of that person. Psychological aggregates constitute the ego, but representations reflect objects in the world of senses.

In the esoteric world, in the inner worlds, in the World of the Mind, such representations are denominated ‘effigies' by the Universal White Fraternity. There are millions of them. I will cite an example of the formation of effigies or representations. Many years ago, I still had the bad custom of going to the movies. About twenty years ago, I went to a movie that had a rather lusty flavor, a couple appeared, etc., etc. I saw the movie and cast it into oblivion, I didn't think about that movie anymore. But things changed in the World of the Mind.

One day in this region, I found myself in my Mental Body inside an elegant room. I was sitting beside a table and there in front of me was a very elegant lady. She was the same lady I had seen in the movie, the same features, the same way of walking, talking, etc. Obviously, I found myself before the representation of the figure that I had seen on the screen that had become stored in my Mental Body. An object, we could say, of a loving type with that mental lady that was nothing more than an effigy. Obviously, there was a very serious error, I had created that representation, that effigy.

Suddenly, I found myself forced to descend to the Astral World and I later found myself in a great Temple before a great master and a group of masters. I still remember it as it happened twenty years ago. An adept gave me a note written in his own handwriting. The order said, "Retreat immediately from the Temple, but with INRI," meaning to say, keeping my sacred fire, since I truly had not committed fornication nor anything of the kind, that was all.

Very grieved of heart, I comprehended my error and I walked towards the entrance of that great temple, but before I left, I resolved to myself to bow down before the priest who was standing beside the door and beg forgiveness. Suddenly, the one who gave me the note, the guardian of the temple, advanced once more and said, "Sir, you have been ordered to leave, obey."

"Well," I said, "it is just that I want to speak to the Venerable One."

"You cannot do so now sir, perhaps later. At this moment he is occupied examining some effigies (representations)." Well, I could do nothing but leave that temple. I came, very grieved of heart, directly back to my physical body.

Already back within this dense vehicle, I concentrated myself on the Christ asking for pardon and I admitted the error of having gone to that place (the movies). I comprehended that I produced an effigy in my mind and begged the merciful one to repeat the test. I was heard, for I received true comprehension and the next night I was taken to the lady who was in reality nothing more than a mental effigy. When I was going to begin the same "pattern" of the past night, I remembered my intention to correct the error and at once took my flaming sword out and dissolved that mental lady with it. Later, I disintegrated her as a form because she was a mental form. The flame of the sword permitted her to be disintegrated and she was immediately turned into ashes.

Having concluded this labor, I descended to the Astral World once more. Already in possession of my Astral vehicle, I found myself within a great temple the same as the night before. I was then received with joy and festivity. I was congratulated and later, my Inner Buddha instructed me profoundly. He took me to the movie theaters in my Mental Body to show me what such places really are. They are full of Astral parasites, representations created by the attendants of movies themselves, mental forms deposited in those anterooms of Black Magic.

My Inner Buddha instructed me about all the perilous implications of going to movies. He told me that instead of going to the movies I should be going through my past lives, he even made me go through some pages. He later took a sword, broke it and told me, "You can end up just like that, losing your sword, if you continue going to those Black Magic anterooms."
I said, "Sir, I will not return to those anterooms," and I didn't return.

Thus, many years passed without my ever returning. I confess however, because I must be true to myself, that once they showed a movie about the end of the world according to Michel de Nostradamus. Well, I said, this one could not be bad. It is about Nostradamus, about the days of the end and I went. It was about Nostradamus and his times. I found it very healthy and I was not reprimanded for going to see this movie on this occasion. And I did not dare to go back because I did not want them to pull my ears for getting in too deep.

These modern movies and those with much lust and eroticism are this way... I never returned, the only exception was the one about Nostradamus. Anyway, I recognized it is dangerous to enter those theaters because there are multitudes of Astral parasites that are nothing but representations. Mental forms of persons, of thieves so to speak, created from all that you have seen on the screen. So that in the name of truth, I tell you that psychological aggregates are one thing and mental representations are another.

The dead commonly waste much time in the Devachan. I will not deny that this Devachan is a place of happiness and delights, but the figures that make life in the Devachan agreeable are merely living representations of the families, parents, and friends they left on Earth. In one word, the forms of the Devachan are living mental representations, or effigies. They result in a bizarre nature, that is why I say they waste too much time in the Devachan, but they are happy in this place. They feel accompanied by the loved ones they left on Earth. They do not even remotely notice that this world of happiness is full of mental effigies. If they noticed, they would lose the Devachan for themselves.

In each one of our minds there live many representations of our friends, our families, our parents, and the people we know. It is clear that if someone tells us something about our family, and we change the concept we have in respect to the latter, that figure is altered or that mental effigy is altered and, upon being altered, it takes new characteristics of violence, robbery, ill will, anger, etc. that attack us violently, converting themselves into obstacles to our esoteric work.

alexandra-david-neelIn these instants I remember Alexandra David-Neel. It seems like a masculine name but it happens to be the name of a lady, a woman of Tibet. She proposed to create, and this is true, a representation by her own will, a mental effigy, and she gave this figure the form of a Tibetan monk. When someone knocked on the door, instead of her going to open the door, the monk went, and he was physically seen; such was the power with which he had been materialized.

After a certain time, that figure, that representation this lady created intentionally, began taking on dangerous characteristics; he no longer obeyed, he began attacking everyone, even the lady herself. And, of course, this lady was frightened. Everyone in the monastery was dedicated to destroying this effigy. This effigy was so strongly materialized that even though these monks were true experts in the world of the mind, it took them six months of continuous work to disintegrate it. This is the physical materialization of a mental effigy.

We must not open our mind to negative representations because it is very harmful. We should open the doors only to positive impressions. If we open our doors to negative impressions, to someone's gossip, or if we were to go and speak against someone we carry here in our mind, the result would be fatal. The mental effigy or representation we carry within ourselves of any person we have been talking about can be altered precisely by a negative impression. This figure then takes on dangerous characteristics, it turns against us and attacks us violently. It is clear that we carry a multitude of representations within us and, naturally, if any one of them is altered, it turns into one more inner enemy on top of those who already exist.

It is convenient, brothers and sisters, for us to reflect on this. Only if we learn to live intelligently will we attain final liberation. It is necessary to take care of the mind. The Voice of the Silence says, "the mind that is enslaved by the senses makes the Soul as helpless as a boat lost in the waters by the wind." We need to control the senses and the mind. Many mental birds, thoughts, get into the cage of the mind, of understanding, and they harm us; I am referring to negative representations. Now you will comprehend what I am saying better, that we must control the senses and the mind. You walk down the street and suddenly you see a pornographic magazine in a corner newsstand, you look at it with some obscenity. The result is a new creation, a mental representation. This new representation is an evil bird in the cage of the mind, causing damage and fortifying negative emotions and lust.

Because of this, the senses must be controlled. Disgracefully, people do not even remember to control the senses and the mind, and this is very serious. Instead of reading pornographic magazines which lead nowhere but to the creation of new mental effigies, it is worth while to study books of wisdom, the sacred scriptures, etc. There is no doubt that true initiatic wisdom converts into fire and thereafter into power. My dear brothers and sisters, true wisdom, occult wisdom, is converted into fire, sacred fire, universal fire. I want you to understand that fire is really an unknown element to intellectuals, it is an element whose origin nobody knows. We strike a match and produce fire. Anyone could tell us it is the product of combustion. It is nothing of the sort, because before this combustion existed there existed fire within the arm so that it could move, and that fire was received after combustion. I could better say that, with the match, when the covering is destroyed the substance which produces the fire is destroyed and the flame comes out to the surface.

What really interests us is not physical fire but the Astral signature of fire, so to say, the fire within the fire, the flame within the flame. This igneous or Christic power we could say, is the Solar Logos. And this is what interests us. We know that true knowledge is converted into solar fire. Fire here in the physical world is one thing and fire during its manifestation or in the world of natural causes or in chaos is something else. There we meet directly with the Lords of the Flame, those who are true fire. We find that power is found in chaos, that electrical creative power which induces all life in the universe. That is what we see in the upper spheres of cosmic creation. This latent fire is a marvelous thing.

Because of these and other things, you will find the necessity of studying this wisdom or this Universal Cosmic Science, the study of Gnosis. Only this knowledge is related with the distinct parts of the Being; it can turn into fire, into living and philosophical fire.

tsong-khapaMuch has been said of the Buddhas. There is no doubt that there are Contemplation Buddhas and Manifestation Buddhas. Manifestation Buddhas are creatures who dominated the mind, who destroyed the ego, who did not let negative emotions enter their hearts, who did not create mental effigies in their own mind nor in the minds of others. Let us remember Tsong Khapa who reincarnated in Tibet; he was the Buddha Gautama previously.

The Buddha of Buddha Amitabha is another thing, his true divine prototype. Amitabha is the Contemplation Buddha, and Gautama, we could say, is the Manifestation Buddha, the worldly Buddha or Bodhisattva. We cannot deny that Amitabha expressed himself brilliantly through Gautama. We cannot deny that later Amitabha sent Gautama (the Bodhisattva or worldly Buddha) directly to a new reincarnation. Then he expressed himself as Tsong Khapa.

These are Contemplation Buddhas, they are masters of their mind, creatures who liberated themselves from the mind. The Lords worship the Great Buddha that we also know as the Logos and they pray to him.

Looking at things from this angle, from this point of view, we comprehend more each time the way to liberate ourselves from the mind, learning to live wisely. If we really want to truly convert ourselves into Contemplation Buddhas, then it is obvious that we need to feel the necessity for final liberation; otherwise liberation will not be possible.

In the name of truth we must say that as long as we are the slaves of mental representations and the ego, final liberation will be more than impossible.

Why do the disincarnated waste their time? I repeat, because of representations. These accompany them in the Devachan and, even though they enjoy an apparent happiness, they are obviously wasting their time miserably. The human race wastes a lot of time with the ego. All of this is more bitter than bile.

The moment has come when we must understand that uncreated light is fundamental, the desire of life is converted into uncreated light. This uncreated light rises from the depths of the darkness of unbeing. We must yearn for the real light and work with the purpose of being born some day in uncreated light.

Today there are many Bodhisattvas in the world. It so happens that in the past epochs of our planet Earth, during the golden, silver, and copper ages, many entered the mysteries and became Adepts. In other words, they turned into Buddhas, but when the age of Kali Yuga came, the ego became terribly strong. It took the strength from all those ancient initiates because they did not know how to live, they failed before temptations. If this was not so the ego would not have risen in them. Today many fallen Bodhisattvas walk the face of the Earth. If they took more care of the mind, disintegrated the ego, and proposed to themselves to not create any more mental effigies, they would rise again, victorious.

What is a Bodhisattva? Simply a germ, a seed. A seed with an etheric microscopic organism that can develop into a celestial being. But if such a seed does not develop, an opportunity is lost and glorious beings who lived in the civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, etc. are now found latent in those seeds that are stored in the endocrine and sexual glands of some people.

If this seed containing an etheric organism achieved development, those beings would be in full possession of their body and would be a blessing to humanity. But unfortunately, the worst enemy of all those fallen beings and of all those dethroned adepts is the mind.

Because of this, I have insisted so much on the necessity of not opening the doors of our mind to negative impressions that can alter some representations and become an obstacle to our advance, inwards and upwards.

This is the motive behind why I have insisted so much upon the necessity to disintegrate the beloved ego. The ego and the Being are incompatible. This is obvious.

Well, I hope you have been able to comprehend what mental representations or effigies are in the world of the mind. Before finishing this talk, I will give you the liberty of speaking so that those who did not understand can ask more questions and they can do so as I said, with confidence.

Question: Do effigies return with the ego or do they disintegrate with the personality?

Samael Aun Weor: Effigies can keep for some time until they begin to weaken little by little. They return sometimes, but not always, and they weaken little by little. When one ceases to interest oneself in this or that effigy, they can no longer feed on us and they begin to dissolve.

Q: Master, one makes good and evil representations; do good representations form effigies?

Samael Aun Weor: It is clear that there are good ones. There are positive and negative representations or effigies, but they are merely mental forms. When one learns to live from instant to instant, the possibility of creating such forms disappears, but if one continues living in time, effigies also continue creating themselves in time.

Q: Then we must also eliminate these so-called positive effigies?

Samael Aun Weor: They as much as the others are mere transitory and vain figures that have no true reality, therefore it is better to disintegrate them.

Q: Then negative effigies are the ones that harm us most?

Samael Aun Weor: That is obviously so, these are the ones that harm us most. However, let us look at a positive effigy, let us suppose it is about a friend, for example, and we listen to some gossip about him and we choose to believe it. Then this effigy, now altered, takes the new form we give it and of course, it is converted into an inner enemy which attacks us and can even make us fail.

Q: So the difference between a representation and an ego is that the ego has a part of the Essence bottled up and representations do not?

Samael Aun Weor: That is correct, there is no Essence bottled within any representation.

Q: Venerable Master, is the vanity of believing oneself to be a good Gnostic a representation?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, that is different. If one has the vanity of believing oneself to be a good Gnostic, that is due to the "I" of vanity; there is no effigy, no representation. One simply feels like the mother of the chicks and like Tarzan's father, that is all.

Q: We assimilate the method to eliminate the ego daily during practice, but to eliminate effigies what method is necessary?

Samael Aun Weor: Thus, as it is above so it is below. By means of the flaming sword among Vulcan's weapons, we can disintegrate an ego that is so burdensome. Some are ruled by 96 laws, some are of 48, of 24, and of 12, and there are also egos of 96 times 1, times 2, times 3, times 4, times 5, times 6, times 7, times 8, times 9... Nevertheless, we disintegrate them with intense work in the Forge of the Cyclops. If we disintegrated it, we would not need so much effort, it would be sufficient with a little attention and only one work on the forge to disintegrate an effigy.

Q: What must we do with effigies we have had since our childhood?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, it seems you are confusing teleogynoric films with representations. If it is a movie you saw in your childhood, the procedure is the same as you use to disintegrate the ego. Not much work is needed to disintegrate a representation.

Q: How are representations formed? Because of the ego? Because of the present state of our mind?

Samael Aun Weor: To the senses, it is clear that the different forms of sensation penetrate through the senses and remain there in the form of representations. A Buddha is a creature who has no representations, that is why he (or she) is a Buddha, because he carries no representations in his mind, neither positive nor negative. That is why he is a Buddha, he is whole, total in himself and illuminated. He has, we could say, developed uncreated light, he has self-fulfilled it in himself.

Q: Venerable Master, can a positive representation serve to cure someone?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, only if it is a positive representation. However, after having used it to cure that person, you must disintegrate it, otherwise it will remain bothering you in your mind.

Q: Venerable Master, do mental representations have anything to do with mechanical imagination?

Samael Aun Weor: When the representation rises mechanically, it is related to mechanical imagination, but when it rises intentionally, it unquestionably happens to be conscious imagination which has taken part to give form to this representation.

Q: We can make for ourselves representations of other people but do we create representations of ourselves?

Samael Aun Weor: One can create any representation one wants to create, just like that lady who created the representation of the monk and who took six months to disintegrate it.

Q: Venerable Master, can you give me an example of a representation we would create?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, you imagine you are a superman, full of power, and there you make a representation of yourself. One can create positive or negative representations in one's mind.

Q: Master, are the incubus and succubus a variety of effigies?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, it is said that incubus and succubus are a variety of effigies, but I would go further. I simply think that the incubus and succubus are psychological aggregates created by the will of their creator. In this manner, we could denominate them incubus and succubus aggregates in the human psyche, that is all. They steal part of their creator's Consciousness, so they are not mere representations.

Q: Do these inccubus and succubus aggregates require a special form of destruction or a special technique?

Samael Aun Weor: I have been reflecting now and I see the necessity to disintegrate them in the same way as any psychological aggregate; they are aggregates created by those who have such a vice.

Q: Would a cleansing help in this?

Samael Aun Weor: Here, the only valuable thing is the spear and the firm work with the Divine Mother Kundalini in the Forge of the Cyclops. No cleansing will be effective there; psychological aggregates are not eliminated with a cleansing.

Q: Venerable Master, you have said that with the sulfur the incubi and succubi are disintegrated.

Samael Aun Weor: Well, I believed that it was possible and now I regret that. Now I realize that they are inhuman psychic aggregates that have to be reduced to dust like any other aggregate such as hatred, violence, etc. That is the crude reality of the facts. Mr. Franz Hartmann will have to excuse me for contradicting his book, but experience reveals the facts.

Q: Venerable Master, could the Essence, out of the body's affections and desires, see things through representations in a more complicated way?

Samael Aun Weor: No, it would see things within crude realism because, for example, while in Samadhi, the Essence achieves living in the Atmic world, in that region in which Atman expresses itself with all its power. One discovers that everything there is bliss. One sees nature such as it is and how it was. To see a photograph of something is one thing and seeing a picture of nature such as it really is, is another. And to see a photograph of that picture of nature is yet another. In this case, that photograph is the representation of that picture of nature.

Q: A person who has died in himself, even though he might have his physical body, a window through which he looks at this physical world, will he see things such as they are?

Samael Aun Weor: Such as they are in themselves. We must distinguish between objective things and subjective things. This has already been well settled by Emmanuel Kant, the philosopher of Koenigsberg, in his "Critique of Pure Reason."

Q: Master, do we form new psychological aggregates when we do not transform impressions? And do we let representations penetrate our mind when we live according to the moment-to-moment philosophy?

Samael Aun Weor: When one lives moment-to-moment, it is clear that one does not produce representations because one lives from instant to instant, this is obvious. Dissolving the psychological aggregates is better than learning to live from instant to instant. As one eliminates the psychological aggregates, one learns to live from moment to moment.

Take into account that psychological aggregates are time, the "I" is time, it is a book of many volumes, but if we disintegrate the "I," we disintegrate time. It is obvious that upon learning to live from instant to instant one fulfills oneself little by little, as one eliminates the psychological aggregates, or one eliminates time as one eliminates the ego. We have been told that Geopash is the worst tyrant and it is true, Geopash is time, and time within us is the ego. When the ego has been dissolved, Geopash has been destroyed. Then time does not exist anymore, let us learn to live thus, from second to second.

Q: Master, would you recommend using a representation to eliminate the ego?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, that results, we could say, in a counter-sense. In common sense, it would be like trying to get an automobile to move by applying the brakes. The automobile would obviously not function. A representation to dissolve the ego is a feculant work in the Forge of the Cyclops.

Q: Master, we achieve seeing things for ourselves as we die, this is what we have heard you say. To see the ego in itself, not a representation of the ego, not an inexistent imaginary ego, no, but as it really is, in other words, to see it with that upper emotional center, that is the only way the ego will truly die. This practice of the death of the "I" becomes sterile in the same moment in which we do not see the ego such as it is, but a representation of the ego.

Samael Aun Weor: Well, this is already a simple a game of the psyche, because in reality, truly, we could not see the ego in itself if we have not developed this sense which makes it possible to see the ego. To see the ego as a representation would be to get trapped in a vicious circle, a form of self cheating.

We are interested in dissolving that which we are feeling, that which is thinking within us in a given moment, that which in a moment is offending others, that which in a moment is feeling lust, that which in an instant is burning our flesh with lasciviousness, that is what must be dissolved. We need to be practical. This is not about forming in ourselves representations of the ego, but about psychologically self-observing ourselves and disintegrating the ego.

Q: Speaking of self-observation, does this have a relationship to the higher centers of the organic machine?

Samael Aun Weor: Well, obviously the higher centers of the human machine are falsified precisely by the education we have received. This is in such a manner that we will have to purify those centers of the human machine, and this is precisely why the work of the inner self-development of the Being is so difficult. There are two things that impair us, two things that prevent our self-development. We refer precisely to the false education received during the preparatory age and to heredity. Our terrestrial father and our terrestrial mother had determined habits, determined erroneous and non-erroneous customs, but customs anyhow. They, in their turn, have them because they inherited them in their genes from their grandfathers. Our grandfathers had the same customs because they had inherited them from our great grandfathers and so on. In such manner that, due to the inheritance we carry in our genes, there exists a tendency to repeat the same errors as our ancestors, and they are so deeply-rooted in ourselves that we do not even notice them. This is in such a way that the very bad education received during the preparatory age is a hindrance to the self-development of the Being.

Q: Master, are mental representations always of the mind or are there also effigies of emotional, instinctive, and sexual type?

Samael Aun Weor: All effigies are mental because in the end they are of the world of the mind. The mind is the mind and the Being is the Being. The Astral World is nothing but condensed mind, the physical world is nothing but condensed mind. It is in this way that we must think that effigies are mental, that is obvious.

Q: When we listen to someone and a representation passes through us, what do we do?

Samael Aun Weor: If you are paying full attention, there is no reason for these manifestations to come. But, if one is not paying full attention when one is listening, other things arise in the mind: negative thoughts and recollections. If one is fully concentrated in a natural way, spontaneously, there is an impossibility for such negative thoughts and recollections to arise. If they arise, it is because one is not paying full attention to oneself. Therefore, we must stay more attentive.

Q: When one is working with imagination, how do we know if we are forming mental effigies?

Samael Aun Weor: Thus, the sleeper remains asleep. What is he going to know! Awaken, then you will know that is the crude reality of the facts. What is a person going to know if they are asleep!?! We must awaken!

Q: Master, relating with the impressions that we take in during the sublimations of the Sacrament of Love. When the person is practicing Sexual Alchemy, and this person completely identifies themselves with the pleasure, will the product of the experience result in the body being magnetized, causing the impressions to crystallize in the ego?

Samael Aun Weor: Yes, they crystallize in the negative form of egos. Inside each of us we have too much to explore, and that is very important to know. If each one of you at any given moment could liberate the Consciousness from the bottle of the ego, this person would then be able to see the 12 Orders of the Universe (the 12 signs of the zodiac). They would also be able to see the Solar Order of Leo; the Beings in this order are without the ego, and do not create mental effigies at all. We should meditate on this.