Essence and Ego

Identification and Fascination lead to the Sleep of the Consciousness. For example: you are going quite calmly on the street, you suddenly meet a public demonstration; the masses vociferate, they talk about the leaders of the people, the flags wave through the air, people seem to be crazy, everybody talks, everybody yells.

That public demonstration is very interesting; you already forgot everything you had to do, you become identified with the masses, the speaker’s words convince you.

The public demonstration is so interesting that you already forgot yourself, you have become identified so much with that street demonstration, that you no longer think of anything else, you are fascinated, you now fall into the sleep of consciousness; mixed

with the shouting masses, you also shout and you even throw stones and insults; you are dreaming beautifully, you no longer know who you are, you have forgotten everything.

We will now give you another simpler example: You are in your living room, seated before the television screen, cowboy scenes appear, there is shooting, lovers’ dramas, etc., etc.

The movie is very interesting, it has totally caught your attention; you have already forgotten yourself that you even shout with enthusiasm, you are identified with the cowboys, with the gunshots, with the couple of lovers.

The fascination is now terrible, you do not even remotely remember yourself, you have entered a very profound sleep; in those moments you only want to see the triumph of the hero of the movie, you rejoice with him, you are worried about the fate he may have.

Thousands and millions are the circumstances that produce Identification, Fascination and Sleep.

People identify with persons, things, ideas, and every type of identification is followed by Fascination and Sleep.

People live with Consciousness Asleep, they work dreaming, they drive cars dreaming and they also kill pedestrians who walk dreaming on the streets, absorbed in their own thoughts.

During the hours of rest of the physical body, the Ego (I) exits the physical body and takes along its dreams wherever it goes. When it returns to the physical body, when it once again enters the Vigil state, it continues with its same dreams and in this manner, it spends its entire life dreaming.

The persons that die cease to exist, but the Ego, the “I”, continues in the suprasensible regions beyond death.

At the hour of death, the Ego takes along its dreams, its worldliness and lives in the world of the dead with its dreams; it continues dreaming, with the Consciousness asleep, it ambulates like a somnambulist, asleep, unconscious.

Whoever wants to awaken Consciousness should work here and now. We have the Consciousness incarnated and that is why we should work it here and now. Whoever awakens Consciousness here in this physical world awakens in all the worlds.

The one who awakens Consciousness in this three-dimensional world, awakens in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh dimensions.

The one who wants to live consciously in the superior worlds should awaken here and now.

The four gospels insist on the necessity of awakening but people do not understand.

People sleep profoundly, but they believe that they are awake; when someone accepts that he is asleep, it is a clear sign that he already begins to awaken.

It is very difficult to make other persons comprehend that they have their consciousness asleep; people never accept the tremendous truth that they are asleep.

The one who wants to awaken consciousness should practice Inner Self- Remembering from moment to moment.

This exercise of being in Self-Remembering from moment to moment, is in fact an intensive work.

A moment, an instant, of forgetfulness is enough to begin dreaming beautifully.

We urgently need. to be watching all of our thoughts, sentiments, desires, emotions, habits, instincts, sexual impulses, etc.

Every thought, emotion, movement, instinctive act, sexual impulse, should be immediately auto-observed as they come forth in our psyche; any lack of attention is sufficient to fall into the sleep of the consciousness.

Many times, you are walking on the street, absorbed in your own thoughts, identified with those thoughts, fascinated, dreaming beautifully; suddenly, a friend passes near you, greets you, you do not return the greeting because you do not see him, you are dreaming; the friend becomes angry, he assumes that you are a person without manners or that you are possibly angry; the friend is also going around dreaming; if he was awake, he would not make such conjectures to himself, he would immediately realize that you are walking around asleep.

Many are the times in which you mistake the door and you knock where you should not knock, because you are asleep.

You are traveling in a city transport vehicle; you have to get off at a specific street, but you are identified, fascinated, dreaming beautifully about a business, in your mind, or with a memory, or with an affection; suddenly, you realize that you have passed your street, you cause the vehicle to stop and then you walk back a few streets.

It is very difficult to stay awake from moment to moment, but it is indispensable.

When we learn to live awake from moment to moment, we then stop dreaming here and outside of the physical body.

It is necessary to know that when people fall asleep, they come out of their physical bodies, but they carry along their dreams, they live in the internal worlds dreaming and when they return to the physical body, they continue with their dreams, they continue dreaming.

When one learns to live awake from moment to moment, one stops dreaming here and in the internal worlds.

It is necessary to know that the Ego (I) enveloped in its Lunar Bodies, exits the physical body when the body falls asleep. Unfortunately, the Ego lives asleep in the internal worlds.

Besides the Ego, that which is called Essence, Soul, Fraction of a Soul, Buddhata, Consciousness, exists inside the lunar bodies. It is that Consciousness that we should awaken here and now.

Here in this world we have the Consciousness, here we should awaken it if we truly want to stop dreaming and live consciously in the superior worlds.

The person with awake consciousness, lives, works, acts consciously in the superior worlds while his body rests in his bed.

The conscious person does not have unfoldment problems; the problem of learning to unfold oneself at will is only for the asleep.

The awake person does not even concern himself with learning to unfold himself; he lives consciously in the superior worlds while his physical body sleeps in bed.

The awake person no longer dreams; during the rest of the body, he lives in those regions where people wander dreaming, but with his consciousness awake.

The awake person is in contact with the White Lodge, he visits the Temples of the Great Universal White Fraternity, and interviews with his Guru-Deva while his body sleeps.

Inner Self-Remembering from moment to moment, develops the Spatial Sense and then, we can even see the dreams of people who walk the streets.

The Spatial Sense includes sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, etc., in itself. The Spatial Sense is the functionalism of the awake consciousness.

The chakras, of which occultist literature speaks, in relation to the spatial sense, are what the flame of a match is in relation to the Sun.

If Inner Self-Remembering from moment to moment is fundamental to awaken consciousness, learning to use attention is no less fundamental.

Gnostic students should learn to divide attention into three parts: Subject, Object and Place.

Subject. To not fall into the forgetting of oneself before any representation.

Object. To observe everything, every representation, every fact, every event no matter how insignifIcant the latter may seem, in detail, without forgetting oneself.

Place. The rigorous observation of the place where we may be, ask ourselves, “What place is this? Why am I here?”

Within this Place factor, we should include the dimensional issue, since it could be the case that we are really in the fourth or in the fifth dimension of nature during the moment of observation; let us remember that nature has seven dimensions.

The law of gravity reigns in the three-dimensional world. The Law of Levitation exists within the superior dimensions of nature.

Upon observing a place, we should never forget the matter of the seven dimensions of nature; it is convenient, therefore, to ask ourselves: “In what dimension am I? Then, it is necessary, in the way of verification, to take the highest possible jump with the intention of floating in the surrounding atmosphere. It is logical that if we float it is because we are outside of the physical body. We should never forget that when the physical body sleeps, the Ego with the Lunar Bodies and the Essence within, unconsciously ambulates like a somnambulist in the Molecular World.

The Division of Attention into Subject, Object and Place, leads to the awakening of Consciousness.

After becoming accustomed to this exercise, to this Division of Attention into three parts, to these questions, to this little jump, etc., many Gnostic students ended up practicing the same exercise during the sleep of the physical body, when they were really in the superior worlds and when they made the famous experimental jump, they floated delightfully in the surrounding atmosphere; they then awoke Consciousness, they then remembered that the physical body had remained asleep in the bed and full of joy they were able to dedicate themselves to the study of the mysteries of life and death in the superior dimensions.

It is logical to say that an exercise that is practiced from moment to moment daily, that becomes a habit, a custom, is recorded so much in the different zones of the mind that afterwards, it is automatically repeated during dreaming, when we are really outside of the physical body and the result is the awakening of Consciousness.

(An excerpt from the book "Hermetic Astrology", Samael Aun Weor)