|
by Peter Fich Christiansen
THE
WESAK FESTIVAL
by Aeptha
EXCERPT FROM
SUNDAY SERVICE MAY
4 , 2003
NOTE:
The following was a teaching that was given at the time of the Wesak
Festival. Although this time has passed, these powers and potencies
are with us throughout the year, and this level of understanding of
these energies is of benefit at any time.
THE WESAK FESTIVAL
We are moving into the energies of the Wesak, which this year is on
May 15th. There is also a full lunar eclipse on the May 15th and 16th.
In many traditions the Wesak festival is considered the most powerful
time of the year, and teachers such as Alice Bailey put a tremendous
amount of attention within their teachings to prepare their initiates
for this time. It was very clear that this was not about personal
growth, although certainly this occurred. It was, and is, about service.
So when I was contemplating our movement today, there were twin energies
that were being called for. One of them is around the preparation
for the Wesak, and the other, which dovetails into that energy but
continues on into the Summer Solstice, is working with the energies
of the eight-pointed star and the Sun God energies, the Solar Hero
energy.
From an esoteric standpoint, the story of the Wesak Festival is that
there is a gathering of forces that are held under the consciousness
of Buddha, and a gathering of forces that are held under the title
and the authority of the Christos. These come together for the five
days of this festival, and pour out on the inner levels a formula
that is unique and one-pointed. These five days are the two days before
the May full moon, the day of the full moon itself, and then the two
days thereafter. The two days before are for preparation, the day
of the full moon is to receive and contain these energies, and the
two days after is for the pouring forth of these energies.
As I was considering this, one of the things that struck me is that
I do have some understanding of the energies and frequencies that
are held under the concept of the mystical, cosmic Christ. But I found
myself aware that I knew very little about the implication of Buddhic
consciousness. As a Westerner, I was not trained in this. There is
a book by Hermann Hesse called Siddhartha. It is the
story of Buddha, and it is considered a classic. I found myself really
feeling called to do a deeper study of this historical being that
we call Buddha, and I would like to share with you some pieces of
that study.
We must open up to new areas of consciousness, new areas of mind,
new areas of potentiality. Is it because an historical figure is standing
up on the inner planes at this time of Wesak? I would suspect probably
not. This historical figure has played a huge role in over 25% of
the world's population who have moved into Buddhism. And even more
than that, there is a whole movement within the Judaic community where
many people proclaim themselves to be Buddhist Jews, and there is
not a contradiction in those terms. Buddhism is a philosophy, a mind
map, an approach to life, and it can go hand in hand with a religious,
spiritual precept. It is not necessarily contradictory.
Siddhartha Gautama is an historical figure who was born in an area
that is now Nepal. The exact date has not been pinpointed but it looks
to be around 560 BC. He was born into the Warrior class and also into
a clan where his father was a ruler. He received a classical education
and was trained not only in the arts of war, but he was also trained
and taught by Brahmins, the highest level of holy people. It was said
that at his birth there were supernatural occurrences that happened,
and that his biological mother died seven days after his birth. He
was raised within the palace, and in some accounts that I read it
is said that his mother's younger sister raised him. One story said
that he was visited by eight Brahmins, and of those eight Brahmins
there were seven that predicted that he would go one of two paths:
that he would either be a Brahmin of the highest nature, a high and
holy person, or he would become one of the most powerful and noble
rulers. The eighth said that he would unequivocally be of the highest
holy order.
Because of all of this he was extremely protected as a child, although
there is one story that said that when he was a young child there
was a festival of plowing. This was a time when there was a crossing
over of the commoners and the noble caste, because there was the desire
to encourage, to bring forth the agriculture of the area. At this
time Siddhartha was allowed out more into the community. The nurses
looked him after, but they had wandered off to pay attention to the
festivities, and when they came back they found him under a blooming
apple tree, engaged in breathing exercises and he was in a meditative
posture. Thereafter he was kept cloistered, extremely protected from
the world around him. At the age of 16 he got married. He had the
very finest things in life, and yet his heart was not happy. It is
documented that at the age of 29 he slipped out of the enclosure,
the walls of the palace. For the first time he was out among the people,
and he saw four things. He saw a sick person, he saw the corpse of
a person, he saw an elderly person, and he saw a holy person. He came
back from his visit to his wife who had just had a baby son. He loved
his family, but he proclaimed that he was being called to something
greater, and he left. Not only did he leave, but he left to become
a practicing ascetic.
My level of understanding of asceticism is limited. I have an image
of people starving themselves, thrashing themselves, and of not being
very physically comfortable. And I have to say that my personality
self makes a judgment about what asceticism is. But at that time,
and still today in some cases, to move into the path of the ascetic
was one of the highest of holy callings. It required a tremendous
level of discipline, of focus, of concentration, as well as commitment.
He entered the order and asked to be trained. He engaged in the most
rigorous and arduous of practices and these developed in him a one-pointed
concentration and focus, and took him out of the identification with
self.
He had studied for so many years with the Brahmins and developed his
intellectual capacity, and he now moved into a relationship with his
thoughts, his body, and his emotions. During this process he also
developed many of the extraordinary capacities that were true of the
highest ascetics of that time. These were the capacity to mesmerize,
the capacity to virtually stop breathing, to actually have such control
over the body and the breath that he could contain the breath and
breathe within himself. He developed the capacity to control the body
so that he could stand for hours, and to control his heart. And yet,
what he found was that in the midst of this he was returned back to
himself. In his search to move beyond his identification with self,
while it served, it was not the complete picture. This took six years,
and he was at the age of 35. He realized that there was another way,
and it was a way that had not been traversed. It was a way that included
elements of what the Brahmins had taught him, and included the path
of the ascetic that was focused, clear, with one-pointed concentration,
but there was something else.
It is said that he went back to the memory of being a small child
and sitting underneath the tree and going deep within. At this point,
there were those who had joined him, but when they saw him partake
of food, they judged that. They felt that he had stepped off the path,
and they walked away and left him alone. He went deep within and in
that process he achieved what is called Buddhic consciousness, which
is enlightenment. He was a living, breathing human being, just like
you. Buddha is indeed the term for the Enlightened Ones, but Siddhartha
was destined to be not just a Buddha, but a unique type of Buddha.
It is said that there is only one of these unique individuals born
for each eon of time, for he was not only someone who had the capacity
to achieve enlightenment, but he also had the capacity to teach how
we might go about achieving enlightenment. That was what he was called
to do, and he went about his task. He would not have proclaimed himself
to be a savior, for he would say to you that everything you need to
be enlightened is already within yourself.
His first teachings concerned the Four Noble Truths, which is the
foundation of what led to what became known as the Eightfold Path,
the Middle Way, that takes you to enlightenment.
The
first of the Four Noble Truths is the recognition that suffering does
exist. It is the suffering that occurs due to the transitory nature
of happiness. It is the suffering that occurs at what seems to be
irreconcilable in our perceptions of the world around us. It is the
suffering that occurs when our highest, seemingly selfless desires
do not always manifest. It is the suffering that occurs when there
is chronic pain. It is the suffering of the broken heart.
The
Second Noble Truth was that we are the cause of the suffering, and
because we are the cause, the Third Noble Truth is that we can be
free of the suffering, and in that freedom hold the space, just as
Buddha did, for all to be free of suffering. The Fourth Noble Truth
is that there is a middle way to achieve the cessation of suffering,
and this is known as the Eightfold Path.
The first step upon the Eight-Fold path is to challenge how you perceive
things. It concerns Right Belief, which is the recognition that what
you believe is probably not right. We are unrelenting when we believe
something. We will not give it up. We will not let it go. The second
aspect is to hold Right Aspiration, Right Intention. It's fine to
believe something, but what is your intention, your focus, your power
behind it? Do you intend and hold to the clarity of that intention?
We make moment to moment, second to second choices in life, when we
are behind the wheel of the car, when we come into this temple. Are
you just going to sit here, or are you going to be present? What is
your intention? You may intend to be present, and then you come in
here and you get bored, and your thoughts start wandering off somewhere.
We
then move on to ethics, proper behavior. You have a belief, you've
got aspiration, but what is your speech, what is your conduct? How
do you make your living? How do you exchange your energy in the world?
It is an exchange of energy when you work and receive money, but your
livelihood is also your exchange of energies in everything you do
where you receive something back. What is your exchange? What is your
livelihood? What is your interaction, and do you shave corners? Right
effort is the energy that you are putting behind things. Where is
your effort and your energy going? Then there is the meditative, mindfulness
portion, which is having the capacity and courage to go into deep
contemplative states and to be truly honest with ourselves, to not
deflect, project or go into denial. A misuse of energy is when we
start to defile, degrade, humiliate or judge ourselves or anyone else,
because the Noble Path goes two ways. The eighth is concentration,
one-mindedness, which is focus of will, as well as focus of intent.
I went into meditation with this formula and asked about the difference
between my understanding of this Buddhic energy, which is a path of
wisdom and an interior path of enlightenment, which is not only a
path, but you become the path, you are the enlightened one, you embody
it and hold the space in the absolute knowingness that everything
and everyone can and will do this; and that of the Christos, the anointed
one, the bearer of love, the savior god. What was shown to me was
that there are two pillars and that we should consider the Buddha
as being the pillar that we would associate in our Western culture
as being the energies of the Priests.
The
priestly energies are the energies that are the law, and not necessarily
man-made laws. I'm talking about law and order. A huge piece of this
was the recognition that much of what Buddha taught was the recognition
of the laws of karma, which have to do with the laws of the universe.
So we have these moving, living, priestly energies that are embodied
in the pillar of the Buddhic principle. And we have in the second
pillar, the Christos, the anointed, Kingly one, who carries the power,
the authority, and the responsibility to the kingdom. Go back to your
teachings of the grail quest and King Arthur, the wounded Grail King.
It is only when that wound is healed that the kingdom can be regenerated
and restored. It is not unlike the teaching that the Christ will not
rest until all are gathered. That is the responsibility of the king
to the totality.
So you have these two, the Buddhic pillar and the Christos pillar,
and then you have the arch. The arch is not talked about very much,
but in Freemasonry and also in Rosicrucianism, the most powerful symbol
is the two pillars that are connected by the arch. We know architecturally
that when two pillars are too far apart, the arch is not stable. We
also know that when they are too close together, that again architecturally
the arch is not stable. It is only when they are poised in a perfect
point of balance that the arch is also perfectly poised. And what
is the arch? Some would say that the arch is the principle of Fohat.
It is the electromagnetic field from which all things are generated.
In another languaging, it is the energies of the Divine Mother, the
arch of creation.
Last night They took me on the inner levels to show me a new understanding
of the Wesak Festival. I saw a vast array of living chalices, matrices,
but they were very fluidic, and I realized that they were the initiates
who were offering themselves as holders of the energies. I saw this
energy being poured out like a living stream that was flowing into
the earth, and it looked like a waterfall. And above that I saw two
pillars and one was of the Priestly way. It had frequencies and symbols
that I would associate with the Buddhic Principle. And the other was
what I would associate with the energies, the frequencies, the powers
and the potencies of the risen Christ. These two pillars were standing,
and over them was an arch of colors that are indescribable, for I've
never seen such colors before, but they were not unlike a rainbow.
And what I heard was the promise that was given after the flood when
the rainbow appeared, and that this will not happen in this way again
because these two pillars are now in a place of perfect balance.
They
are joined by the powers and the potencies that gather all things
together, that bring balance to all things, that rectify all things,
that restore and reclaim all things. These two pillars, these two
mighty forces, these two mighty streams are now in their place in
such a way that as we move into this time, this promise will indeed
be fulfilled. The arch is the commitment, the promise, the authority,
the electromagnetic ability of creation that is held in the divine
feminine that will restore and bring back the balance. It has always
been understood that the two pillars alone, without being connected,
were not in a place of perfect balance. Interestingly enough that
is what the symbol 8 is about. Eight is the point of perfect balance.
It is alpha and omega. It is the restoration, the regeneration, the
revitalization, and the resurrection. It is the 8 that has always
been.
I invite you, as we move into the Wesak energies, to place yourself
as a living vessel, container, chalice, between these two vast pillars,
the Priest and the King, over which are the powers and potencies of
the Divine Feminine that not only form the arch, but connect the two
pillars. Visualize your own physiology, your left and right hemispheres
and the corpus collosum. Let the energies pour into you, and pour
yourself out onto a thirsty world.
We are moving into our pathworking. I invite you to move now into
your breath. And we find ourselves moving as one heart, one mind,
and one purpose, and we find ourselves moving along a grassy, lush,
green, slightly rolling set of fields. The sky is blue, and the sun
is shining brightly, but it is not hot. It's as if it is the time
between the morning sun and the noonday sun, and there are a few rolling
clouds and a gentle breeze. We see up ahead of us, atop a slight hill,
the shape of stones and some greenery. We find ourselves drawn to
that, and we make our way up to the hill, and we see a circle of stones
jutting up out of the ground. They are natural stones, and are of
different shapes and sizes, and in between them there are some holly
bushes. The circle is not too big, nor too small.
We
see what is clearly an entrance, for there are two larger stones and
lying flat across the top is a huge stone that is upheld on either
side. And so we walk up to, and we stand before this entrance, and
we know that if we step through this doorway that everything changes,
and yet appears to remain the same. We reach down and slip off our
shoes, for somehow taking with us the dust from our worldly experiences
does not feel right here. We feel the earth underneath our feet, and
the cool grass, and as we look up it seems like the stones are growing
larger or perhaps we are feeling small, in the hugeness of the spirit
of this place. In our hearts we find ourselves asking permission for
entrance, and we feel the response, and our heart is glad, for we
are welcome here, and we bow and we step forward between the mighty
pillars that are joined.
In the center there is a collection of what appears to be kindling,
small pieces of wood. We gather in a circle ourselves and sit down.
We look about and realize that there are no matches. There is no way
to light the wood, but we sit and wait. And as we sit, we consider
that of the Eight Ways. We consider right action, right thought, right
speech, right perception, mindfulness and awareness, right livelihood
and effort, and as we do so, we see the tongues of fire that are beginning
to come up from the kindling. And the fire is burning brighter now,
and we feel our own heart fire, and it too is becoming enlivened.
We feel the light from our inner fire, and it is lighting up those
places inside of us that have been dark, constricted, hidden. And
as we do so we become aware that this fire in front of us is growing
brighter. It is orange with cobalt blue, and it is glorious, beautiful,
wondrous, living tongues of fire. And our own fire, our own light,
is stronger and clearer, vaster and pure, sanctified, holy consecrated
fire. And as we gaze at the fire it seems as if the orange and the
cobalt blue are separating.
They
are quite tall now, and they form a living tongue of orange fire and
a living tongue of cobalt blue, and they are tall, taller than we
are, and they burn, but they burn with a fire that does not burn you.
They burn with a fire that is all consuming but does not consume.
They burn and they live and they move, and as we see the orange, as
we see the blue, they seem to take upon themselves the shape of two
serpents with heads reaching toward the sky, and bodies twirling.
And as we watch these serpents of orange, these serpents of blue,
they intertwine and become the double helix. They are consciousness.
And in this sacred place I invite you now to open yourself to the
Buddha and to the Christos in this place, this womb of the Mother,
of the Mothers. And as you connect with this helix, this living consciousness
that is held in the womb, that is sanctified, that is holy, that is
in you, I invite you to allow your consciousness to embody the energies
of the priest, priestess, king, queen, in the living matrix of the
form. For you are the Pillar of Wisdom, you are the Savior of Love;
you are the Living Arch of the womb of creation.
And
as we watch, the orange and the cobalt blue are turning into gold,
for they have merged and they are now gold and white, and they are
aflame again. And allow this energy, this frequency, this flame that
has now become gold and white, to seal you, to protect you, to sustain
you and nourish you, to bring balance so that as you leave this place,
you leave knowing that you are different. You leave choosing every
moment to be of the highest intention. You leave with the will to
good. You leave with the focus, the one-pointed concentration, with
the awareness to be liberated, and therefore to liberate. And the
fire now is leaving, and we look and we see that the kindling is there
again. It is always there ready to burn.
You
can visit this place anytime to be restored and revitalized, and with
great love and gratitude we gather ourselves and we leave this holy
place, but we leave a part of ourselves, which is our love, here.
And as we walk back out of the gateway and put on our shoes, they
feel different, because we will walk our path in a different way,
for our consciousness is different. And as we walk we feel the breeze,
and the noonday sun is at its zenith. We see the greenness of the
earth around us and the beauty of the trees, and our hearts are glad.
You will begin being aware of your breath as you bring your consciousness
back into this time and into this place. Please join us in saying
the Mantram of Unification:
The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate.
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the soul control the outer form,
And life, and all events,
And bring to light the Love
That underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.
|
The documents on this site are
property of Light Haven© and are not to be displayed on other
websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed
or in any other format without permission from Light Haven. |
|
