Dedicated to Athos A. Altomonte's work of instruction
Index: The sensibility of the Ego and of Personality – The natural and the initiatory Paths – The descent in the lower worlds – By-passing the mind – It is necessary to enter in order to exit – The recognition of models
Let's start outlining of this concept, well aware that it is not so much about knowing, hearing, listening to certain notions, but more about applying them on ourselves shortly. Therefore we will carry out this reconnaissance in general terms.
In an abstract being, in a certain region of space that we don't want and cannot quantify, a sensory organ appears; for us it is simpler to call it a perception organ, but in actual fact it is not perception yet. It is a sensible being that appears like a dot.
This sensibility is the terminal aspect of something that we might allegorically call a 'peduncle' (terminal being) of something that is not in this region but in its own region.
This is the Ego that ' invests ', as it is said, part of its own energy to start a working day ; a working day that goes through a covering with elements. This working day for the Ego is a life for Personality.
This minimal sensible presence for us is the embryo of what is becoming Personality (synthesis of the evolution of lower levels), the embodied part that responds to the needs of the evolutionary drive.
Still speaking plainly, Personality starts being 'jostled around', because on one side there is the constant presence of the physical elements – which are substantially four (Earth, the physical form; Water, the astral form; Air, the ethereal form; Fire, the soul, the spirit), and on the other side something that we might call reminiscence. From the year zero to the twenty-first a series of things happen; the reminiscence of these things disappears from the seventh to the twelfth year, when the last reflex disappears as well, with the immersion in the form occurred through sex. |
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Conscience is not on the vertical plane yet, therefore these sensations start expanding on the horizontal plane (the plane of reason, of concrete form).
What does this being, which we call Personality, meet in its sensations? But most of all, what moves it and what kind of drive springs up into it?
A recognition on an egocentric level; it must take the world and bring it towards itself. Taking, touching, putting in the mouth. On an initiatory level this happens for many lives; because there are two evolutions, one is the evolution of the form in a life and the other is of the Ego that needs 'many school days' to form a character.
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Here we have managed to idealize a sphere of conscience on a geometric level. This is the first sphere of conscience that we find. We have said before that the symbol of the first sphere of conscience is the one represented here, but in actual fact, this is an artifice.
It is an artifice to represent the sphere as a perfect circle; indeed, it might be oblong, like an omelet, because here we undergo the Law of Attraction and Rejection (I like, I am attracted to it, I don't like, I draw back). |
Surely the perception is not at the center, otherwise it would be domineering. Therefore, conscious of what reality is, for our convenience we keep symbolizing it as the 'sphere of lower conscience'.
It matures a series of memories, teachings and personal experiences read and transliterated from schools. This is done by the lower mind, the concrete mind, which is a luggage, an archive. It certainly is not creative or goes back; neither can it project its own imagination. It only lives in the present, or it would be more appropriate to say in the past, because the present is extremely hard to conceive (the instant); therefore the past is the lower mental.
On the other hand, an ego that peeps out on the threshold of life learns to recognize everything from sensations and perceptions. For the initiate in search of the higher perception it is the same thing; he deliberately looks for an empty screen, not disturbed by contacts – in a position of alignment, he frees himself from any sensible contact with the outside, commonly we say that we relax (this is the basic technique of autogenic training); the body must be so comfortable as to forget about it – and with its perception starts a visualization. We won't talk about it here, but the analogy is striking. What determines the lower mental is a fact that is imposed on man; whilst when the adept meditates and visualizes in two or three dimensions, he doesn't undergo it, but he establishes this reality himself, he is going towards an empty 'canvas' or 'table'.
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This is a present sphere of conscience; he is present with his own wake senses in this sphere. The area of the sphere is determined by the faculty of man to perceive farther and farther panoramas, with a greater ability.
The illuminated mind of a man is like a light bulb; it enlightens with its reason first and with perception and other intellectual organs later, a wider and wider area.
We live happily and blissfully, until at some point we decide to go and check what's beyond. We choose to go towards other dimensions. What do we find out? We actually find this Presence, called Ego, which we only heard about beforehand.
For now we consider as the top of this exploration the Causal Body, although there is much more. The Causal Body is the mental cloth of the Soul. We are always talking about Psyche.
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Us, as personality, are undisciplined and uneducated; we are under the influence of this magnetic field, called psyche, which is in actual fact the aura expressed by the soul. The lower being, which is our small part (the one we are not identified with), doesn't have any conscience of how big this space can be.
Now, with a certain work the adept starts perceiving, starts forming an idea inside himself of what's beyond the 'first wall', which we might call a 'second wall' or rather a cloth.
He knows, because that's what they taught him, that this part called metaphysical or higher sphere exists, but he doesn't know it (he, in the sense of Personality); he has heard about the cloth of the psyche, this panorama, he has had perceptions of them (for example in his oneiric detachments sometimes there is something that goes beyond the sensation of an electric shock or an emotion of desire. We have sensations that have been classified in the last six thousand years, there is an extensive list of these events that repeat themselves in the same form and mode), therefore he is aware of the existence of this sphere, so much so that it crosses him.
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He wants to know it and at this point he wonders: 'what shall I do?' It is obvious that this issue progresses if the individual wants to know his own metaphysical sphere, because if he's not interested, he keeps living and growing with another method, called: the Natural Evolutionary Line.
The Line that the adept chose is the Initiatory Path, which consists of a process of acceleration of conscience, in order to force the latter to 'acknowledge' it in a faster way than normal. It is obvious that the process of acceleration doesn't involve skipping duties or unpleasant things; all that you needed to do you do in less time, with more 'sacrifice' but more gain as well.
We have a certainty, though, that is we can more easily reach and dominate what is 'under' us. Instead of stretching towards the top, we know that there is another sphere, easier to contact, which is the one under our threshold of conscience. For the adept this certainty originates from the consciousness that a small part of conscience in the subconscious is in contact with the lower Ego, like the latter is in contact with the higher sphere. There is a boundary between the portion that belongs to the metaphysical kingdom and the portion that makes the subconscious.
The adept starts in silence (here we have the rule of silence again) to drive his roots of perception, not towards the top, like everybody generally does, through study and research, but by diving in. It is clear that he won't descend emotionally in the lower drives, but he will use a bathysphere, plunging into a current, a concept, a lower emotion, even much lower, but protected by a diving suit: reason.
We can fearlessly enter the 'trip' of a lunatic (psycho-analysts do that) and remain with him in his own sphere, but always protected by our own reason, otherwise we won't be able to help him.
We might wonder, why descend if we want to ascend?
Because this sphere characterized by lower tension can be exited. The adept descends in a kind of coil up to a particular and strange moment, when with his own reason and conscience he sees the lower elements (his own astral), not having blended with them at all. At some point he will be in absolute silence, because once he is out of this sphere he will experience an incredible silence, which is the lower cloth of the psyche.
In psycho-synthesis this action is called to by-pass the mind. We cannot by-pass the mind by piercing it, just like we cannot leave the world of sensations like a ray, directly, but only by following a coil shape.
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To by-pass the mind means to reach the lower cloth of the psyche, in order to start going back up. We must point out that in this process there are two events going on; a dynamic action (that allows us to dive in and then go back up in the psychic body) and a magnetic action (because from a certain point on the higher being attracts the lower being), complementary and opposite.
Once reached a certain point, the adept lives abandoning himself to the 'wind' or the current, but we are still talking about an 'atmosphere' that belongs to him. It is a journey inside himself. He, like any individual, is in actual fact all this (and much more, but for now this is enough). What he's lacking is the awareness of being as such.
In other words, on a geometric and therefore symbolic level we have a global image of the two mechanisms that we must learn to use: the dynamic and magnetic events. Technically speaking, the former is recognizable in visualization, the latter in meditation (perception).
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The Eastern Masters have taught in the West the technique of meditation; as westerners, we are interested in using this technique only after applying visualization. This means that first we implement a dynamic mental mechanic, projecting our will, therefore it is active. The meditation and perception that reaches us later on is the attractive part where we let ourselves be lead, etc....Therefore, the key, or the game, is the same no matter what the pattern is. Man is like a record player with two speeds, 45 and 33 rpm. Man thinks he is different from other people for various reasons, but the mechanism is the same; the record player, the psyche, and the two records, 33 or 45 rpm, either you play one or the other, either the lower or the higher mental.
We have mentioned the operative area in its general context, now we need to look at the problems that we have and worry us. The first of them is precisely about exiting.
It is necessary to enter in order to exit. Indeed, we are not talking about an exoteric structure, like leaving a house. Here every time we want to go out, we must interiorize ourselves. For this small operation to be carried out in a tiny part of our conscience, viz. physical conscience, we need to dominate this area. This 'master' (in the feudal sense of the word) – which is me of my lower self – cannot operate if he doesn't become the 'magister vitae' of his domain, of his kingdom, Personality. Until he is able to dominate his Personality, himself, he cannot do anything. This 'self' must face his own recognition, through the technique of ' I am not this, I am not that' , which is the path of wisdom and pondering.
When we start saying consciously in the sphere of conscience: 'I am not this, I am not that', we address a model that on a technical level is called sub-personality*.
To use the reason means to be able to find a total and balanced mediation between all the emotional drives, all the sub-personalities.
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* Sub-personality – A whole range of different feelings, attitudes, relationships and behaviors resulting from the combination of emotional and mental phenomena, which activate the realization of their purposes, outside our conscience and independently from – even against – our will. Some of them correspond to the various roles or functions that we must carry out in our life. In actual fact they act as different beings with different and even opposite characteristics; nevertheless it is possible to coordinate them in a higher unity. It is necessary to recognize them, not to identify with them. The second task is to use them properly, the third one is to modify and mould them. – Roberto Assagioli
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In our alignment, as soon as we see a model that we are learning to recognize, we say: 'I am not you'; 'You are in me, but I am not you'. It is not only a matter of recognizing trivialities like I am a male, I am blond, I am Italian; in actual fact I am psyche, I am mind. In relation to these sub-personalities I am the chief ; they must cooperate with me and I manage and feed them regardless. But the most important sub-personalities are not these small codes between me and my physical body, such as 'I am not hunger'; they are much bigger. To be immersed in a role creates a very strong sub-personality. For example, the sub-personality of the son, the father, the mother, the professional, remains. These are immersions in roles where transference occurs, which means that they identify with them (it is an inner transference with ourselves). At the end of a working day I go out and I am convinced that I am the still mechanic who has been working for many hours in the garage.
There I left a sub-personality, which is necessary for the job I do, but I am also a free man with good thoughts, therefore I do other things (involving other planes of my sensible sphere); by following this example and stretching higher and higher, we understand that we are not a great deal of things.
The example of Gulliver symbolizes Personality which, when is not careful and goes to sleep, is tied with strings by Lilliputians, viz. sub-personalities. When you are tied up (bonds are like blackmail) you must do all but what you would like to do. This parable is very significant, if we think about the curses we hurl at life every time we must do something that we are not interested in doing, due to the relationships created with the sub-personalities, which we must carry on regardless.
The equidistance, the esoteric detachment , is the secret to feeling better and it is the first step in the recognition of an Inner Hierarchy.
Less sub-personalities an individual has, less bonds he undergoes. Therefore let's use sub-personalities, but without being tied to them, otherwise we become slaves of a routine that interests them much more than us. Man is thought, which doesn't mean to run breathlessly from one useless thing to another; it means to do our best to do only necessary things.
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Another little parable that gives us food for thought is the story of Narcissus. Here the Ego looks in the water, the astral, the world of desire, sees its reflection in the lower Self, which he doesn't talk to; it doesn't understand that it is a reflection, it thinks it's another Ego and falls in love with it; it falls into the astral, reincarnates and dies, in the sense that it loses its own conscience. For a thought-form, to lose its memory is the same as a normal person to lose his life.
For initiates, tradition as well has maintained into their myths the moral concept of what is right and what is not, of good and evil, which are the two pillars of the Sephirotic Tree, up to reach what we are going to embark on, which is well represented by Psycho-synthesis.
The next step is to acknowledge the practice of who lives inside us.
If I want to understand the character of the people living in a house, what kind of people they are, I start observing their books, their furniture, how it is organized (I don't consider untidiness because it might only be a particular situation), what they eat, even looking at their pantry and fridge. We can carry out this survey on ourselves through models; we must start rediscovering the models that are closest to us and most obvious.
Generally we feel more like something rather than something else, or we are attracted to one thing rather than another, or we want to emphasize an aspect of ourselves more than another, or we look for a note rather than another in people. These are models. By discovering our models, we discover our lower ego. That is the only door where to start diving in. They are the windows through which we enter in order to exit; this is why it is necessary to enter in order to exit.
When we recognize the models, what do we discover? Through models, which are like animals' excrements, the hunter, viz. the psycho-therapist, discovers the beast. The beasts, as cunning as 'foxes', are sub-personalities. They are so cunning that they make us believe what they want; they make us believe that we are sad for something that we don't really care about, because in actual fact it has no use to us. We experience sadness, though. Therefore we do our best to have it at all costs, and then we realize that sadness is still there; we have the confirmation that we didn't need the desired object by the fact that another 'object' replaces the previous one straight away.
Therefore models are traces.
By studying the order of models we will understand the traces to follow in order to go in search of the sub-personality; when we leave the lower self we don't kill the sub-personality (neither Personality) but we empty it. In order to empty a sub-personality it is sufficient to look at it, to become aware of it, which means to remove it. But this is a voluntary action that must be done without being subjected to a therapist; therefore it is me shaping in my own strength, learning to unconsciously obey to other forces. To remove the problem means to leave the image as a two-dimensional memory in the archive of our own concrete mental but 'deflated' of energy. The memory remains, not the sub-personality. We must look at it, but not defiantly, because any action of force or violence (repression) vitalizes further that thought-form at the moment we use it. Indeed, if I attack one of my negative sub-personalities (we can also have positive ones, from pious ones to that which feeds cats, or that gets emotional when kissing a child) and I use force, I fight against it, I contrast it, I am giving my psychic energy to that thought-form; therefore each time I assault it, it happens like with the myth of the nine-headed Hydra; when it was attacked by Hercules it came back stronger.
Therefore we need to learn to look at them; how , we will see elsewhere. The important thing is that it is a matter of visualization and not of violence or force – not to mention the mortification of the body, crazy interpretation of teachings that lead to obsession. When the true warrior knocks his rival down, he never kills him or humiliates him, but he manages to get him on his side. With this method, the Pax Romana dominated the world.
Sub-personalities, the important, interesting, productive, economical ones, must be kept aligned. There are two alliances that esotericists call holy alliance. One is with the lower domains and the other with the higher domain. I cannot form an alliance (Ark of the Covenant) with 'my personal God', unless I have pacified the lower domain. There can be alliance with the higher sphere if there is peace in the lower kingdoms. On the other hand a conflicting sphere cannot live beside a harmonious sphere, 'the silence of Psyche'.
We need to work on this.
Go and find the models, descend at the bottom, discover the sub-personalities; this is the meditation of the Raja Yoga, the beginning. We must start with elementary Raja Yoga. With the use of visualization it becomes very powerful, because we move energies inside and outside ourselves, given that the simile calls his simile by magnetic attraction. When a person emits a note, this goes round the planet.
If we don't open this box (which is the Z of the secret Masters) it is not possible to recompose the broken ivory key, symbol of the loss of conscience. This is possible through this dynamic technique that I can apply on the lower Self, but which I cannot use on the higher Self. 
