DREAM AS COMPASS TO SEEKER’S PREPAREDNESS

DREAM AS COMPASS TO SEEKER’S PREPAREDNESS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day, Noble Seeker!

With certitude I’d reckon that you dream every time your body sleeps. And if thou art Seeker indeed, your dreams are colored in hue most often. Evolutionary Laggards dream in black & white and wouldn’t dream as often as seekers and mystics. As a soul advances in the evolutionary path, so does the access to higher vibratory climes increase, such climes thereby appearing in ever greater colorful textures in dreams.

Do make it a habit to keep tab of your dreams, Seeker. At least keep a memory tab, at most maintain a daily dream journal. Dreams reveal so much about our unconscious and superconscious states, we can’t afford to throw away this ‘tool’ of self-reflection into dustbins just like trash. Were it not for our problems of retrieval, which is a matter of short-term memory, our dreams could be total guides to our daily actions and routines.

Interpreting dreams, however, is no layman’s task. So, Noble One, please learn to interpret dreams with a modicum of mastery. In ancient language, the term exegesis was used to refer to the interpretation of texts, and exegete refers to the interpreter. Since symbolic templates of life today are regarded as text in hermeneutics (art of exegesis) and semiotics (science of signs), then it pays to be an exegete in various respects: dream interpretation, exegesis of myths, interpretation of body language, divination interpretations (e.g. tarot, palmistry, numerology, astrology, runes, I ching), etc.

Necessarily, one must learn from the masters of hermeneutics and semiotics to be able to interpret dreams with some degree of accuracy. It takes some time to learn, but it is a rewarding thing to do exegesis. Rest assured you will procure the greatest benefits from the exegetic process, and you’ll feel a deep sense of satisfaction, sometimes euphoria, every time you’re able to crack the codes behind the deeply coded messages in your dreams.

To name a few representative masters: Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi Strauss, Umberto Eco among social scientists and philosophers; and, the theosophists H.P Blavatsky, Annie Bessant. You can also review materials coming from popular literature about dreams such as those written by psychics.

In sum, the said experts have contended that the figures one sees in dreams, myths, and cultural symbols (e.g. totem) must be regarded as archetypes. As Eliade clarified, an archetype is a basic structure. In Eco’s semiotics, an archetype is a signifier—a representation of a deeper meaning or structure, the signified. Exegesis basically entails an appropriate unlocking of the signified meanings hidden behind the dream symbols, in the case of dreams.

Note also that the contents of dreams are often related to the dreamer’s experiences in the lifeworld. For instance, when an ice cream appears in one’s dream, this symbol appears on account of the person’s experiencing of eating ice cream. This archetypal subject wouldn’t likely appear in the dream scenes of a person whose entire life is spent in hinterlands where ice cream isn’t an established fact of daily life.

Dream themes could be a revelation of the following: unfulfilled wishes, ailments that are about to surface, past life scenes being replayed from ‘above’, events forthcoming in the next few days in the person’s life (dejavu), prophecies about one’s country or planet, and lessons from one’s Spirit Guide. Freud made very interesting contributions to first two forms (he was keen most of all on mental ailments being a psychiatrist).

The lessons or messages from one’s own Spirit Guide or inner space guru is what you the Seeker should be on the alert for as a sign that you are about to enter the Path. Or, when you have already began the ascent to the Path, the Guide can show signs that you have just graduated from one stage or phase in the journey and you’re about to move on to a next phase. Usually it takes seven (7) years to begin and end a phase, though if one chooses to stop for a while in one’s lessons the period could be extended.

In my experience, I first began to feel that something uncommon was going to happen to my life when, as a pre-school child, I strongly felt the presence of a mighty divine being, a figure I’d recognize later as the Archangel Michael. His assuring presence (maybe I was networked to his ‘department’) made me take routes less traveled, such as to dream of becoming a priest, knowing that God always watches me.

 

Before reaching the age of ten (10) I realized how different I was from my siblings. I was overly contemplative, introspective, and nerdy at an early age. And somehow, deep inside me, I knew I wasn’t among the Earth’s people. The daily course of materialistic life that I encountered early enough shocked me so much that I longed to enter the seminary and say goodbye to normal life.

My dreams were very colored in hue, so colored that the dream objects were so real, beginning in early childhood years. Even the smell of dream objects, like the smell of delicacies, grasses and flowers in the fields, and animal dung were all so real, further multiplying the psychic and emotional powers of the dream scenes.

It was at age 18 when I first encountered my mahaguru, the Master El Morya, while in a dream state. I was already a 2^nd year university student then. I wished somebody else so wise and divine could explain to me so many questions that the church people and mediocre spiritual pretenders couldn’t explain at all, and were it not for the timely appearance of my guru, I could have moved on to become an atheist for the rest of my life.

I thought it was God who appeared to me in the dream, as He blasted me with feelings of love so incomparably overwhelmingly, encompassing and ecstatic. He gave me a lengthy message of love, encouragement, and note about my future missions. I woke up weeping with joy and euphoria, assured at last that a Divine Being takes care of me personally. From then on, I intensified my lessons in the Path, reading voraciously a diversity of topics, to wit: esoteric philosophy, yoga, ETs & UFOs, mystical science, eastern psychology, paranormal science, theology and comparative religion.

From that time on, my mahaguru would appear every now and then in my dreams. He guided me to the materials that I should read, made me encounter my first yoga lessons right inside the classroom, meet interesting people who were also fellow seekers, and so on. With the passing of time, I recognized my great Guru as the Ascended Master El Morya, chohan (sort of CEO) of the 1^st Ray of the Great White Brotherhood. In the succeeding dreams, he would appear more in archetypal form (often as a university professor), while I would perceive his face directly as my mystical vision opened due to yoga practice.

I’ve already entered several phases in my journey. And in 1994 I graduated to a mystic level, no longer seeker but finally reaching the initial ‘end of a journey’, when the Filipino guru F.F. sponsored me into the Great White Brotherhood. My seeker phase had ended, but my mystical path just began then. I still kept on seeing my master in my dreams, with the addition of other masters in couples of other dream scenes thereafter.

Just recently, more than a month ago, I dreamt of my guru again, instructing me in many lessons. The dream scenes lasted for three (3) hours. Some other fellow mystics were there with me during a dream phase. In other dream phases other masters appeared. I just received lessons that could last for over 1 year’s study, offered in just a single moment, which I must gradually retrieve from my memory.

So, Noble One, similar experiences could happen to you. You see, if you dream of your Spirit Guide offering you lessons, even when you wake up to urinate, the moment you go back to sleep the same dream scene will be continued. Or, there would be another scene, but it will till be the Guide offering you lessons that will be the dream theme.

Take note that during the initial encounters with your Guide, your guru may not appear to you in literal form. Rather, the manifestation would be archetypal, e.g. beautiful large sheep radiating light and peace to you. Or, the Guide could appear as your deceased Grandma or Grandpa whom you cared for so much, so the Guide will make use of your grandparent’s image to bring messages to you.

I recalled the narrative of a fraternity brother of mine, Glen B., whom I personally initiated into my wisdom brotherhood, the C.L.. He revealed to me and some brods one day that I appeared to him in a dream, offering him sublime lessons. I was so elated at his narration, and told him that it was his very own Guide and not me who actually appeared in his dream. I was happy because it was a sign that, as a mentor, I succeeded in catalyzing the link between a young seeker and his Guide.

So, Noble One, enjoy reading your dreams, these being exciting, fitful compasses to your journeys. Bon voyage!

 

[Writ 25 September 2007, Quezon City, MetroManila]

 

KNOW THYSELF

KNOW THYSELF

Erle Frayne Argonza

Know thyself!

That sounds like a tall order of a command. It really is no command but a task, a lifelong task. It fused together ‘know’ and ‘self’, the task being to ‘know the self’ in its totality.

Self-knowledge is knowledge of a very high order. This we mystics are very much aware of. We regard self-discovery as the last frontier, the frontier of ‘inner space’. To be able to make adventures in ‘inner space’ and discover truths along the way is the very task of a seeker or knower.

To take it for granted that you already know yourself, or pretend that you know yourself 105%, is pure hubris. On the other hand, to be so disabled from knowing the self, so much that you cannot even think of qualities that indicate your personality and level of psychological integration, is a mark of deep fragmentation and disorder. Both tendencies must be discarded.

It pays to know the self. Today’s gurus of success are very right in their contention that persons who have greater insights about themselves get to become more successful than those who don’t. Robert Kiyosaki and John Maxwell, who are on top of this chain of success gurus, have declared this contention very explicitly and kept on re-echoing it in their various writings.

Know the self well, as this is the way to a more successful future. This is another way of writing the formula. To put it in mathematical language:

Success = fn (self-insight)

Success = A + B X (Self-insight)

Where A = Goals in life

B= Pace of acknowledgement and absorption of self-insight

The Teaching is so filled with methods for self-insight, methods and information that past gurus have already shared to the world. You can go ahead and study them well.

Take a look at astrology and numerology. They are examples of methods for self-analysis and insight devised by masters in antiquity. It pays to study them well. The better if you do the study yourself rather than rely all the time on an external agent (numerologist, astrologer) to do the analysis for you. There are information packages that would be best for you to find out for yourself, as you derive the information intuitively.

As a young yogi in the making, I did study numerology and practice its analytical powers on myself and my former students (1980s, 90s). Numerology, using the combined Pythagorean-Chaldean methods, worked so wondrously that each person done with a reading exclaimed their mighty accuracy of up to 90% most often. The lowest self-assessment I received for efficacy was 80%, with 20% error. The highest was at 95%. That high precision renders numerology into a great scientific tool!

Learn as many methods as you can. Study Jung, Freud, Maslow, Erikson, and other personality psychologists. Study also the methods for examining abnormal psychology, so that you will have an advanced method of self-integration assessment. Nobody is perfect, each one of us has degrees of personal fragmentation that’s why we’re here in the physical plane. So please take pains to study the methods and even undergo psychological tests from time to time. This is for your own good.

The last thing expected of you is to declare that you’re perfect okay and other people are very defective. If you make this self-claim, please see a psychiatrist as you delude yourself with grandiose states. You may need to be locked up in an institution, the better for you. Amen.

[Writ 09 June 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila]a

SERVICE AND THE GOLDEN RULE (Seekers’ Lesson 7)

SERVICE AND THE GOLDEN RULE (Seekers’ Lesson 7)

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Let me articulate at this juncture the last of the 7 Ray Lessons that I wish to stress: Serve God and His Creations! I will begin with some reflective notes on the sociological ‘law of reciprocity’ which the masters made known to us through the ‘golden rule’. I will incorporate in the discourse the reflective notes on libertosophy that I elaborated in my book Libertosophy and Freethought: The Path of Illumination for Libertarian Freethinkers.

Sociologists and anthropologists alike discovered the ‘law of reciprocity’ across cultures. In philosophical sense, this law is an axiological standard and is at the core of ethical teachings. On the positive sense, it is stated: “Do for others what you want others to do for you.” In the negative sense, it is stated: “Do not do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you.”

In libertosophy, I outlined three core principles regarding the liberation project: (1) to be able to attain liberation, one must liberate others; (2) only the free can set other people free; and, (3) liberation must be done within the context of the social world (never in isolation from people). They are all inter-connected and mutually reinforcing.

The Teaching is clear that one must practice yoga (union) and attain union by (1) immersing in the social world, (2) observing mutual devotion with your fellows, and (3) doing mutual service unto each other. In no way should one opt to attain nirvana via a total detachment, by meditating inside caves, by retiring in monasteries early in life for successive lives, by a prayerful attitude and yet manifesting anti-social behavior towards fellows. Only under exceptional cases should one do yoga in isolation, such as when one has been exhausted due to over-immersion in the social world for successive lives. In which case, one will be allowed to meditate in isolation by your Mahaguru (e.g. Christ) for an incarnation or two.

But after some times in isolation, your Mahaguru will again remind you to go back to the social world or ‘lifeworld’. At the minimum, one might be allowed semi-isolation, through a monastic life, in which case one is in the company of a group and can then conduct service with a team of monks. At the maximum, one must immerse fully “with the crowd”, practice a profession or business for a while, and then retire early so as to do the work of a Teacher. Another option would be, based on good karma in past embodiments, to incarnate you in a wealthy family so that you need not have to work for a living. For the latter experience, you as an advanced yogi-mystic can catalyze your ascent to Master status and become a Teacher early in life, such as Paramahansa Yogananda and his teacher Sri Yutekswar Giri, both of whom came from wealthy families.

Among the current gurus of financial success is Robert Kiyosaki, writer of best-selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad. In his books, Kiyosaki emphatically reiterated the need to do service unto others, by sharing your graces to others. He said succinctly that “the more you give, the more you receive.” Without need to mention, the trait of stinginess speaks of negative backlash. But very graphically, Kiyosaki did stress the dangers of becoming greedy as this would lead to disasters in one’s financial life. Though Kiyosaki is no yogi, couples of core wisdom lessons were articulated by him that reverberate the wisdom of the ancient masters.

Let it be clarified that there is not one fixed form of service. The 6^th Ray gets manifested in diverse forms. By praying for others, whether singly or as a team, one does service to others. By extending financial gains to the less fortunate ones such as the clients of a hospice, one does service. By doing relief works for those affected by calamities, one does service. By washing the feet of priests during special occasions, even if such priests are dogmatic and sinful, one does service. Who is without sin anyway? “He who is without sin will cast the first stone,” declared Jesus Christ.

In the emerging contexts, service as a manifestation of deeply divine principles has been steadily increasing. So powerful is the subtle force behind the 6^th Ray that even capitalism itself has been transformed from the greedy money-bag capitalism of yesteryears, which has no moral philosophy whatsoever, to that of ‘corporate social responsibility’ capitalism or ‘compassionate capitalism’. Many young executives are turned off by purely money-making concerns, even as some other top echelon executives demand that, prior to their appointment as CEO of a huge conglomerate, CSR must be considered first and foremost. The noble CEO Mr. Licuanan, who steered the Ayala Group for sixteen (16) years, whose leadership led the said conglomerate to grow to multinational scale, made such a demand on the corporate patriarch Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala who empathically listened to him and granted his demand. Look at the enormous stride in the growth of the Ayala Group with CSR at its core principle of operations, which has diversified its investments from Manila to overseas.

 

Many other young executives, fresh from MBA, choose to shy away from the corporate world altogether. Rather, they opt to serve the NGO sector, or the Non-Profit Associations. In a recent research conducted by me lately about international consulting think-tanks, I was amazed at the trebling of numbers of such young executives who serve international aid organizations and non-profit think-tanks, risking their lives in the poor regions of the emerging markets. This trend is bound to grow exponentially as the years go by, rest assured.

Furthermore, there are also businesses whose nature is to help others in their financial lives. Among these enterprises, network marketing is the fastest growing form. It is among the least understood enterprises, because people are fixed to the old ideas of doing business: pure old capitalistic profit-seeking. Per my own research, network marketing socializes teams of marketers to help out each other, via the adage “the rising tide will lift everybody up.” The members of a team can’t afford to claw at each other like crabs, for the demise of one could redound to the demise of the entire group. The team members observe the lesson that you must help yourself first, and when you gain profits than you can have the extra income to help the less fortunate. It makes a lot of sense, this network marketing.

It surely pays to listen to the new gurus of success including those who brought network marketing to maturity such as Jim Dornan of Network 21. They first of all stressed on the power of the team approach, and the norm of helping each other out. In the process, network marketing and related modalities are very potent at deconstructing the ‘crab mentality’ in the lifeworld. Converging with CSR at some junctures, the new modalities for ‘compassionate capitalism’ may lead to some other modalities in the future, and reformat the world from old-world capitalism to altruistic or ‘community economy’ within a broad context of Information Society.

Understood in another sense, the lessons say “do not hoard what you have, learn to be self-sufficient but when resources permit, share your blessings to others.” Among the various thinkers in the scientific community, it was the Erich Fromm who discoursed on the dangers of the principle of hoarding. He articulated this well in his books, such as the Art of Loving. Hoarding is among the counterproductive traits, and the greater we hoard in life the more we become objectified or depersonalized. Liberation becomes expressed, among other things, in more productive behavior such as loving, sharing, or those related to “being” that make us all more ‘human’ in the process.

The creation of a ‘compassionate society’ has been the obsession of many thinkers particularly those on the Left. “Serve the People!” declared Mao Zedong, who secretly was an engaged seeker and was no atheist. This society, in their mind, should also be a ‘rational society’, so that the cognitive principles of ‘rationality’ should harmonize with the non-rational axiological principles or value-based rules. They envisioned integrated societies, where the detached rationality of modernity would harmonize rather than clash with the value-based axioms of the ethicists and spiritual masters.

At this point, let me stress the narrative of Mother Theresa of contemporary India. This great soul is the exemplar of a saint or master who ascended to the level of a Mahatma or Ascended Master via the Path of Service. It pays to contemplate and meditate on her wisdom adages regarding service and love. She counseled us all to do service no matter what response (indifference or sympathy) would be exhibited by the recipient of your altruism. Even if the recipient hates or scorns you for your behavior, love and serve them just the same, quipped this indubitably holy being. No wonder that she won a Ramon Magsaysay Award (Asia’s Nobel prize) for service, which she truly deserves.

We sorely need the likes of Mahatma Theresa today, and we miss her so much. But we need not worry much, as her likes left the world with large cadres of Godly servants who are referred today as Lightworkers. The increasing presence and influence of the Lightworkers is changing the social landscape of the planet. Every institution of society will more or less be transformed in the decades ahead, as the numbers of Lightworkers increase all the more and their altruism becomes the sacrosanct standard behavior.

One last point that I need to stress is the distinction between the “service-for-self” and “service-for-others”. Because altruistic service had become pervasive for the last successive decades, there are those hoarding-oriented or egotistical types who rode the wave by exhibiting “service-for-self” behavior. In this case, one does service so as to be noticed by others. It isn’t serving others due to a “call of the heart” but rather due to selfish pursuits. It is service that won’t allow you to ascend for sure.

 

After our periodic conduct of service, it would be fruitful if we meditate on the service that we have delivered. We can make self-assessments whether the service is egotistical or altruistic. It would also be great if some sensitive souls among our fellows (seekers, mystics, masters) would help us in our self-assessments. It should be the job of a spiritual Teacher to be a seeker’s mirror or feedback-giver and self-development counselor, but with the reality that we have a scarcity of teachers this option is equally scarce. If one is already well connected to one’s Inner Guide, then the guide can be a surrogate for the teacher and can share the feedback through dreams or intuitive thoughts.

To conclude, let us all be like Mahatma Theresa, and let’s hasten the construction of the ‘compassionate society’. Let us serve God, our Fellows, Mother Nature and her biological endowments, and show the greatest respect for all life forms around us including minerals. Who knows, the 6^th Ray could be the last lingering alchemical agent that could make one ascend to the next level of soul evolution. Try it, amid risk, for God Almighty provides the blessings in your Path and protects you along The Way.

Amen. Aum. Om Tat Sat Om.

 

[Writ 23 October 2007, Quezon City, MetroManila]