Friday, 28 December 2012

BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA OR THE RAINBOW BRIDGE


IN THE BEGINNING


We all know by now we have to build the Antahkarana [the bridge between personality soul and spirit], but why and how did it all start? Why do we have to work so hard at something that is supposed to happen naturally? I came across the following information that will explain parts of the questions that come up in our minds:
Let us look again at humanity’s place in the scheme of things, in order to clearly ascertain his Purpose and the violation of that Purpose. Humanity, as we have said many times, is the Planetary throat centre, the centre through which the Logoic Word sounds forth. That word (the Soul and later the Monad on its own plane) is creative. It creates the forms within which our God shall appear.

Looking at it from another perspective, we see humanity as the brain of the Logos. Each human being is, then, a brain cell within the One Life. The Logos, or directing will, transfers His Purpose and Plan, via the heart of His Being, the Hierarchy, into this brain for condensation into form. Humanity then takes into itself that Purpose and Plan, recreates it into form, and gives it appearance in the Light of Day.
During the Atlantean period when all human beings were conscious magicians according to Plan, humanity, for an inexplicable reason (except that it be karmic), denied the Logoic Plan for one of its own. That is, men conceived and created according to their own separative purposes. In so doing, the economy of the Planetary Life was misused, the relationship of Spirit, matter, and consciousness altered, and the antahkarana between man and his own Soul broken. As the word sounded in time and space, it took on a destructive tone because it was sounded in violation of the One Life.

The breaking of the antahkarana resulted in an upheaval within the consciousness of the Planetary Life, and man set himself adrift from the Logoic Purpose which had brought him into being, i.e., he broke off his own relationship with God.
It was not a vengeful God who denied man his Divine heritage. It was man himself who destroyed his own awareness of himself as Soul, and consequently shut the door upon his creative genius.

The outer results of this act came in the form of a cataclysm which wiped out the Atlantean civilization. The violent changing of the earth’s surfaces, the inundation of heavily populated areas with water, and the gradual decline of man’s knowledge of the creative process, were but outer reflections of the terrible upheaval taking place within the consciousness of the Planet itself.

Since that time, humanity has gradually brought itself back to the reappearing cycle of opportunity. The antahkarana, not only between man and his Soul, but between the Hierarchy and humanity, is being reconstructed by those disciples in the world who consciously serve the Plan. That Plan, which has to do with man as a creator, is once again being focussed downward, and the redemption of both consciousness and substance for Logoic Purpose becomes possible.

Thus, the unveiling of the mysteries proceeds according to law, but with this specific warning: Let your creative genius be directed to the working out of God’s Plan on earth.

It is suggested that the sincere student take The Great Invocation into meditation for further clarification in the light of the above.

‘‘From the point of Light within the mind of God
Let Light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into the hearts of men
May Christ return to earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let Purpose guide the little wills of men,
The Purpose which the Master Knows and serves.’’

 
These first three stanzas have to do with the reconstruction of that triple strand of Light which is called the antahkarana. They refer, also, to the proper equation of spirit, matter, and consciousness, which since Atlantis has been out of balance.

‘‘From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

 Let Light, and Love, and Power restore the Plan
on earth.’’

 
These last are self-explanatory in the consciousness of one who has intuited the Truth from the above text. [Lucille Cedercrans, Master R. [R./Lucille] ]

So, now we know! It also ties together our theme, the relationship between the Soul-infused Personality, Discipleship and the project of building the Antahkarana. It is also clear that the greatest tool that the Disciple has in his aid is the Sword of God, THE GREAT INVOCATION. Every time he uses it he is not only helping to build and repair the World Antahkarana but also his own, the link between his Soul-infused Personality, the Soul Itself and the Spiritual Triad. We broke it, now as Disciples, we have to repair it as part of our evolutionary development.

Master DK made the following comment about the antahkarana:
The Science of the Antahkarana deals with the threefold thread which connects:
 
a. The monad, the soul and the personality, linking all three periodical vehicles and unifying all seven principles.

b. The triple personality and its environment in the three worlds of human enterprise, and later in the other two worlds (making five) of superhuman expression.

c. The consciously creative man and the world of ideas.  These he must contact and express through creative work, thus bridging with the light:
1.                   Between the world of souls and the world of phenomena.
2.                   Between the realm of subjective beauty and reality and the outer tangible world of nature.
3.                   Between himself and others.
4.                   Between group and group.
5.                   Later, when the divine Plan has become a reality to him, between the fourth kingdom (the human) and the fifth kingdom (the Kingdom of God).
6.                   Finally, between humanity and the Hierarchy.

We can see from the above that it involves all the aspects of our live and spiritual unfoldment. He goes on and said the following:
The Science of the Antahkarana is the science of the triple thread which exists from the very beginning of time and links individual man with his monadic source.  The recognition of this thread and its use, consciously, as the Path and the means of ever expanding contacts, comes relatively late in the evolutionary process.  The goal of all aspirants and disciples is to become aware of this stream of energy in its various diversifications and consciously to employ these energies in two ways: interiorly in self-unfoldment, and in the service of the plan for humanity.

I have tried to summarise the whole proses in the following poem:

 THE ANTAHKARANA      [The Lost Word - OM, or The Rainbow Bridge]
 
The antahkarana is the true science of the mind
Where you leaf all your previous achievements behind
And utilise mental substance for the bridging between the personality triad
And soul, and then between soul-infused personality, and the spiritual triad

First, the life thread comes directly from the Monad or the One
To be anchored in the heart, during incarnation, for everyone
It is the seat of life
During the time you are alive
 
Then, directly from the soul, comes the consciousness thread
Which, during incarnation, is anchored in the head
It is the seat of consciousness
That brings about your responsiveness

Thirdly, and initiated and constructed by the personality
And anchored in the throat, is the thread of creative activity
It is the seat of creativity, created through our conceptions
That now gives life and expression to our creations

The antahkarana [OM] is a fusion and combination to perfection
Of these three threads [the sutratma - AUM ] and their projection
Into the higher mental plane, until the abstract mind
Is related by a triple cable to the concrete mind

On the first great union on the path to reality
A rhythm [OM] is set up between Soul and Personality
This first step to liberation
Is completed at the third initiation

Thus the energies that animate the soul and the personality 
Are blended and fused into one, soul-infused personality
The three aspects of the soul in the spiritual world
And the three worlds of the personality become one world

After the bridging of the personality and the soul
Comes the bridging of the spiritual triad and the soul 
This personality, soul and spirit combination
Is completed at the fourth initiation

Before a man can tread the path himself
He has to become that path itself
By using these forces for self-unfoldment and unity       
And in the service of the Plan for humanity 

By acting as if this stages have already been achieved
A shortcut to creating the antahkarana can be perceived 
 
 
A meditation to build the Antahkarana

A simple way to build the Antahkarana for beginners is this meditation: Sit relaxed or lie down, become still and quiet. Close your ears with one finger of each hand. The sound you will hear [sing like a radio off the station] is the vibration of the Antahkarana [OM]. Concentrate on your heart and send that love feeling across the sound vibration to your soul [or God]. If you cannot do it in the beginning, just concentrate on the sound, your heart and your soul [or God] alternately. You can do that as long as you like every day. Even at night when going to bed, good way to fall asleep.
Without the heart it will be impossible to build the Antahkarana [a hint]. This is just my simple method but we have to know what it is all about and why we are doing the necessary steps. We need to know the science behind it [another hint] to make the imagination work. To help us, the Tibetan Master had the following information for us.
 
THE PROJECT OF BUILDING THE ANTAHKARANA
Let us now consider, step by step this science which is already proving a useful source of experiment and testing.
The human soul (in contradistinction to the soul as it functions in its own kingdom, free from the limitations of human life) is imprisoned and subject to the control of the lower three energies for the major part of its experience.  Then, upon the Path of Probation, the dual energy of soul begins to be increasingly active, and the man seeks to use his mind consciously, and to express love-wisdom on the physical plane.  This is a simple statement of the objective of all aspirants.  When the five energies are beginning to be used, consciously and wisely in service, a rhythm is then set up between the Personality and the Soul.  It is as if a magnetic field were then established and these two vibrating and magnetic units, or grouped energies, swung into each other's field of influence.  This happens only occasionally and rarely in the early stages; later it occurs more constantly, and thus a path of contact is established which eventually becomes the line of least resistance, "the way of familiar approach," as it is sometimes called.  Thus is the first half of the "bridge," the antahkarana, constructed.  By the time the third initiation is completed, this Way is completed, and the initiate can "pass to higher worlds at will, leaving the lower worlds far behind; or he can come again and pass upon the way that leads from dark to light, from light to dark, and from the under lower worlds into the realms of light."
Thus the two are one, and the first great union upon the Path of Return is completed.  A second stage of the Way has then to be trodden, leading to a second union of still further importance in that it leads to complete liberation from the three worlds.  It must be remembered that the soul, in its turn, is a union of three energies of which the lower three are the reflection.  It is a synthesis of the energy of Life itself (which demonstrates as the life-principle within the world of forms), of the energy of the intuition or spiritual love-wisdom or understanding (this demonstrates as sensitivity and feeling in the astral body), and spiritual mind, whose reflection in the lower nature is the mind or the principle of intelligence in the form world.  In these three we have the atma-buddhi-manas of the theosophical literature—that higher triplicity which is reflected in the lower three, and which focusses through the soul body on the higher levels of the mental plane before being precipitated into incarnation—as it is esoterically called.
Modernising the concept, we might say that the energies which animate the physical body and the intelligent life of the atom, the sensitive emotional states, and the intelligent mind, have eventually to be blended with and transmuted into the energies which animate the soul.  These are the spiritual mind, conveying illumination; the intuitive nature, conferring spiritual perception; and divine livingness.
After the third initiation the "Way" is carried forward with great rapidity, and the "bridge" is finished which links perfectly the higher spiritual Triad and the lower material reflection.  The three worlds of the Soul and the three worlds of the Personality become one world wherein the initiate works and functions, seeing no distinction, regarding one world as the world of inspiration and the other world as constituting the field of service, yet regarding both together as forming one world of activity.  Of these two worlds, the subjective etheric body (or the body of vital inspiration) and the dense physical body are symbols on the external plane.

How is this bridging antahkarana to be built? 

It is with the work of the "bridge-builders" that we are concerned.  First, let me assure you that the real building of the antahkarana takes place only when the disciple is beginning to be definitely focussed upon mental levels, and when therefore his mind is intelligently and consciously functioning.  He must begin at this stage to have some more exact idea than has hitherto been the case as to the distinctions existing between the thinker, the apparatus of thought, and thought itself, beginning with its dual esoteric function which is:
1.       The recognition and receptivity to IDEAS.
2.       The creative faculty of conscious thoughtform building.
This necessarily involves a strong mental attitude and reorientation of the mind to reality.  As the disciple begins to focus himself on the mental plane (and this is the prime intent of the meditation work), he starts working in mental matter and trains himself in the powers and uses of thought.  He achieves a measure of mind control; he can turn the searchlight of the mind in two directions, into the world of human endeavour and into the world of soul activity.  Just as the soul makes a way for itself by projecting itself in a thread or stream of energy into the three worlds, so the disciple begins consciously to project himself into the higher worlds.  His energy goes forth, through the medium of the controlled and directed mind, into the world of the higher spiritual mind and into the realm of the intuition.  A reciprocal activity is thus set up.  This response between the higher and the lower mind is symbolically spoken of in terms of light, and the "lighted way" comes into being between the personality and the spiritual Triad, via the soul body, just as the soul came into definite contact with the brain via the mind.  This "lighted way" is the illumined bridge.  It is built through meditation; it is constructed through the constant effort to draw forth the intuition, through subservience and obedience to the Plan (which begins to be recognised as soon as the intuition and the mind are en rapport), and through a conscious incorporation into the group in service and for purposes of assimilation into the whole.  All these qualities and activities are based upon the foundation of good character and the qualities developed upon the Probationary Path.
The effort to draw forth the intuition requires directed occult (but not aspirational) meditation.  It requires a trained intelligence, so that the line of demarcation between intuitive realisation and the forms of the higher psychism may be clearly seen.  It requires a constant disciplining of the mind, so that it can "hold itself steady in the light," and the development of a cultured right interpretation, so that the intuitive knowledge achieved may then clothe itself in the right thoughtforms.
It might also be stated here that the construction of the bridge whereby the consciousness can function with facility, both in the higher worlds and in the lower, is primarily brought about by a definitely directed life-tendency, which steadily sends the man in the direction of the world of spiritual realities, plus certain movements of planned and carefully timed and directed reorientation or focussing.  In this last process the gain of the past months or years is closely assessed; the effect of that gain upon the daily life and in the bodily mechanism is as carefully studied; and the will-to-live as a spiritual being is brought into the consciousness with a definiteness and a determination that makes for immediate progress.
This building of the antahkarana is most assuredly proceeding in the case of every earnest student.  When the work is carried on intelligently and with full awareness of the desired purpose, and when the aspirant is not only aware of the process but alert and active in its fulfilment, then the work proceeds apace and the bridge is built.
Students should train themselves to distinguish between the sutratma and the antahkarana, between the life thread and the thread of consciousness.  The one thread is the basis of immortality and the other the basis of continuity.  Herein lies a fine distinction for the investigator.  One thread (the sutratma) links and vivifies all forms into one functioning whole, and embodies in itself the will and the purpose of the expressing entity, be it man, God or a crystal.  The other thread (the antahkarana) embodies the response of the consciousness within the form to a steadily expanding range of contacts within the environing whole.  One is the direct stream of life, unbroken and immutable, which can be regarded symbolically as a direct stream of living energy flowing from the centre to the periphery, and from the source to the outer expression, or the phenomenal appearance.  It is the life.  It produces the individual process and the evolutionary unfoldment of all forms.
It is, therefore, the path of life, which reaches from the Monad to the personality, via the soul.  This is the thread soul and it is one and indivisible.  It conveys the energy of life and finds its final anchor in the centre of the human heart and at some central focal point in all forms of divine expression.  Naught is and naught remains but life.  The consciousness thread (antahkarana) is the result of the union of life and substance or of the basic energies which constitute the first differentiation in time and space; this produces something different, which only emerges as a third divine manifestation after the union of the basic dualities has taken place.
The life thread, the silver cord or the sutratma is, as far as man is concerned, dual in nature.  The life thread proper, which is one of the two threads which constitute the sutratma, is anchored in the heart, whilst the other thread, which embodies the principle of consciousness, is anchored in the head.  This you already know, but this I feel the need to constantly reiterate.  In the work of the evolutionary cycle, however, man has to repeat what God has already done.  He must himself create, both in the world of consciousness and of life.  Like a spider, man spins connecting threads, and thus bridges and makes contact with his environment, thereby gaining experience and sustenance.  The spider symbol is often used in the ancient occult books and the scriptures of India in connection with this activity of the human being.  These threads, which man creates, are triple in number, and with the two basic threads which have been created by the soul, constitute the five types of energy which make man a conscious human being.
The triple threads created by man are anchored in the solar plexus, the head and the heart.  When the astral body and the mind nature are beginning to function as a unit, and the soul also is consciously connected (do not forget that it is always unconsciously linked), an extension of this five-fold thread—the basic two and the human three—is carried to the throat centre, and when that occurs man can become a conscious creator on the physical plane.  From these major lines of energy lesser lines can radiate at will.  It is upon this knowledge that all future intelligent psychic unfoldment must be based.
 
In the above paragraph and its implications you have a brief and inadequate statement as to the Science of the Antahkarana.  I have endeavoured to express this in terms, symbolic if you will, which will convey a general idea to your minds.  We can learn much through the use of the pictorial and visual imagination.  This bridging must take place:
1.       From the physical to the vital or etheric body.  This is really an extension of the life thread between the heart and the spleen.
2.       From the physical and the vital, regarding them as a unity, to the astral or emotional vehicle.  This thread emanates from, or is anchored in, the solar plexus, and is carried upwards, by means of the aspiration, till it anchors itself in the love petals of the egoic Lotus.
3.       From the physical and astral vehicles to the mental body.  One terminus is anchored in the head, and the other in the knowledge petals of the egoic Lotus, being carried forward by an act of the will.
Advanced humanity is in process of linking the three lower aspects, which we call the personality, with the soul itself, through meditation, discipline, service and directed attention.  When this has been accomplished, a definite relation is established between the sacrifice or will petals of the egoic Lotus and the head and heart centres, thus producing a synthesis between consciousness, the soul and the life principle.  The process of establishing this inter-linking and inter-relation, and the strengthening of the bridge thus constructed, goes on until the Third Initiation.  The lines of force are then so inter-related that the soul and its mechanism of expression are a unity.  A higher blending and fusing can then go on.
I can perhaps indicate the nature of this process in the following manner:  I have stated here and elsewhere that the soul anchors itself in the body at two points:
1.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the life or spirit aspect, anchored in the heart.  It uses the blood stream, as is well known, as its distributing agency, and through the medium of the blood, life energy is carried to every part of the mechanism.  This life energy carries the re-generating power and coordinating energy to all the physical organisms and keeps the body "whole."
2.       There is a thread of energy, which we call the consciousness aspect or the faculty of soul knowledge, anchored in the centre of the head.  It controls that response mechanism which we call the brain, and through its medium it directs activity and induces awareness throughout the body by means of the nervous system.
These two energy factors, which are recognised by the human being as knowledge and life, or as intelligence and living energy, are the two poles of his being.  The task ahead of him now is to develop consciously the middle or balancing aspect, which is love or group relationship.  (See Education in the New Age, pages 26-27, 32-33, 92.) [THE RAYS AND THE INITIATIONS, P434/52-adapted]


Please read the full article at: http://edgeba.webs.com/buildingtheantahkarana.htm
 

 

 


 

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