I
TRANSFORMATION OF IMPRESSIONS
Conscious Attention excludes what is called Identification. When we identify with people, with things, with ideas, Fascination arises, and this produces A DREAM IN CONSCIOUSNESS.
This topic deals with the transformation of oneself. In past talks, we discussed the importance of life itself. We also said that a person is what their life is, and that life is like a movie. Upon death, we take it with us to experience it retrospectively in the Astral World, and upon returning, we bring it back to project it again on the screen of the Physical Body.
It is clear that the Law of Recurrence exists and that all events repeat themselves, that everything truly happens again as it did, plus the good or bad consequences. It is clear that the transformation of life is possible if one deeply intends it.
Transformation: This means that one thing changes into something different. It is logical that everything is susceptible to change.
The alchemists of the Middle Ages spoke of the transformation of lead into gold. However, they did not always refer to the purely physical, metallic aspect. They usually meant to signify the transformation of the Lead of the Personality into the Gold of the Spirit. Therefore, it is fitting that we reflect on all these things.
In the Gospels, the idea of earthly man being compared to a seed capable of growth has the same significance. As does the idea of Rebirth: a man who is born again. It is obvious that if the seed does not die, the plant does not born and grow.
IN EVERY TRANSFORMATION THERE IS DEATH AND BIRTH.
In Gnosis, we consider man as a three-story factory that normally absorbs three kinds of food:
- Common Food. This normally corresponds to the lowest floor of the factory, to the stomach.
- Air. This is on the second floor, which is related to the lungs.
- Impressions. These are undoubtedly intimately associated with the brain, or third floor.
We have:
IMPRESSION-BRAIN, AIR-LUNGS, FOOD-STOMACH.
The food we eat undergoes successive transformations. This is unquestionable. The process of life itself is transformation.
Every creature in the Universe lives through the transformation of one substance into another. Plants, for example, transform air, water, and the salts of the earth into new vital substances, into elements vital to us (fruits, etc.). Thus, everything is transformation.
Through the action of sunlight, the ferments of Nature vary. It is undeniable that the sensitive film of life that normally extends across the face of the earth carries all Universal force into the very interior of the Planetary World. But every plant, every insect, every creature, even the "Intellectual Animal" mistakenly called man, absorbs and assimilates certain cosmic forces and then unconsciously transforms and transmits them to the inner layers of the Planetary Organism. These transformed forces are intimately related to the entire economy of the Planetary Organism in which we live. Undoubtedly, each creature, according to its species, transforms certain forces that it then transmits into the interior of the Earth for the economy of the World. Thus, every creature that exists fulfills the same function.
Transformation exists in everything. Thus, the Earth's epidermis is an organ of transformation. When we eat food so necessary for our existence, it is transformed, of course, in stage after stage. Who within us carries out this process of transformation of its substances? The Instinctive Center—so wise is this Center; its wisdom is truly astonishing. Digestion itself is transformation. Food in the stomach, that is, in the lower part of the three-story factory of this human organism, undergoes transformations. If something enters without passing through the stomach, the organism could not assimilate its vitamins or proteins. That would simply be indigestion. Thus, as we reflect on this matter, we come to understand the necessity of undergoing transformation.
Of course, (physical) food is transformed. But there is something that invites us to reflect, and that is the proper transformation of impressions. For the purpose of Nature itself, there is no need for the "Intellectual Animal" to transform impressions on its own. It would be magnificent to transform Impressions. Most people, as they perceive the realm of practical life, believe that this physical world will give them what they seek and yearn for. This is truly a tremendous mistake. Life itself enters us, our organism, in the form of mere Impressions. One cannot truly transform one's life without transforming the Impressions that reach the mind.
There is no such thing as external life. We are talking about something quite revolutionary, since everyone believes that the physical is what is real. But if we delve a little deeper, what we are actually receiving at every moment, at every instant, are Impressions. If we see a person we like or dislike, the first thing we get are Impressions of that nature. Life is a succession of impressions. Not, as many enlightened ignoramuses believe, a purely material, physical thing.
The reality of life is its impressions. Of course, the ideas we are emitting are very difficult to grasp, to apprehend. The person we see sitting, for example, in a chair wearing a certain colored suit, the one who greets us, the one who smiles at us, etc., are real things for us, aren't they? But if we meditate deeply on all of them, we come to the conclusion that what is real are the impressions. These, naturally, reach the mind through the senses. If we didn't have senses, for example, eyes to see, ears to hear, or a mouth to taste food, would what is called the physical body exist for us? Of course not, absolutely not. Life comes to us in the form of impressions, and it is there that the possibility of working on ourselves exists.
First of all, what must we do? We must understand the work we must do. How can we achieve a psychological transformation within ourselves? By working on the impressions we receive at every moment, every instant. This initial work is called the First Conscious Shock. It relates to those impressions, which are all we know of the external world we are receiving. What is the true nature of things or true people? We need to transform ourselves internally every day. To transform our psychological state, we need to work on the impressions that enter us.
Why do we call the work on transforming impressions the First Conscious Shock? Because the shock is something we cannot observe in a merely mechanical way. This could never be done mechanically; it requires a self-conscious effort.
It is clear that when we begin to understand this work, we begin to cease being a mechanical being who serves the purposes of Nature. And this goes against our Intimate Self-Realization. You, then, are beginning to understand the meaning of everything I am saying. If you now consider the meaning of everything taught here through your own effort, beginning with self-observation, you will see that on the practical, esoteric side, everything is intimately connected with the transformation of energies and what naturally results from them.
For example, working with negative reactions to angry moods, with the issue of identification, with self-regard, with successive selves, with lying, with self-justification, with apologies, with the unconscious states in which we find ourselves, is all related to the transformation of Impressions.
Thus, you will agree that, in a certain way, the Work itself is comparable to a decision, in that it involves a transformation. It is necessary, therefore, that we reflect on this, that we understand what the First Conscious Shock is. It is necessary to create an element of change at the point of entry of Impressions. Do not forget this!
Through the Understanding of the Work, you can accept life as truly a Work. Then you will be in a constant state of self-remembering. This state of Consciousness itself will lead you to the stark reality of the transformation of Impressions.
These same Impressions, normally, or rather, supra-normally, would lead you to a better life as far as you are naturally concerned. Life will no longer work on you as it once did. You will begin to think and understand in a new way. And this is, naturally, the beginning of your own transformation. But as long as you continue to think in the same way, it is clear that there will be no inner change. To transform the Impressions of life is to transform yourself. This entirely new way of thinking can be effected.
You will naturally understand: Reacting continually. All these reactions form our personal life. Changing one's life is not really changing one's own reactions. But external life comes to us as mere Impressions that compel us to react.
Life consists primarily of a successive series of negative reactions that arise as a ceaseless response to the impressions that reach the mind. Our task, therefore, is to transform life's impressions so that they no longer provoke such responses. But to achieve this, we must be constantly observing ourselves, moment by moment. It is therefore urgent to study our own impressions.
We cannot allow impressions to arrive in a subjective, mechanical way. To do so is to begin life, to begin living more consciously. An individual can afford to let impressions arrive mechanically, but if they avoid this error, if they transform the impressions, then they begin to live consciously.
This is why it is called the FIRST CONSCIOUS SHOCK .
This First Conscious Shock consists of transforming the impressions that reach the mind at the moment they enter; we can always work on their outcome. Of course, This could never be done mechanically; it requires a self-conscious effort, which is always disastrous within our psyche.
I'll try to simplify this: For example, if we throw a stone into a crystal-clear lake, Impressions are produced, and the responses to those Impressions from the stone manifest as waves that travel from the center to the periphery, right? Well, now this example. Let's imagine the Mind for a moment as a lake; suddenly, the image of a person appears. That image is like the stone in our example that reaches the lake of the Mind, and then the mind reacts in the form of Impressions, right? I mean, in the form of Reactions.
Impressions are what produce the image that reaches the mind; reactions are the responses to those impressions. If you throw a ball against a wall, the wall receives the impression. Then comes the reaction, which consists of the ball returning to the person who threw it. Well, it might not arrive directly, but the ball still bounces, and that's a reaction.
The world, then, is made up of impressions. For example, the image of a table reaches our mind through the senses. We can't say that the table has arrived or that the table has entered our brain; that would be absurd. But the image of the table is there. Then our mind reacts immediately, saying: this is a table, that it's made of wood or metal, etc. Now, there are impressions that aren't pleasant, for example, the words of an insulter, right? We could transform those words of the insulter. Words are what they are. So, what could we do? Transform the impressions that such words produce in us. Yes, that's possible.
Gnostic teachings instruct us to crystallize the second force of Christ within ourselves through a postulate that states: "WE MUST RECEIVE WITH PLEASURE THE UNPLEASANT MANIFESTATIONS OF OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS." This is how we transform the impressions produced in us by the words of an insulter. This postulate will naturally lead us to the crystallization of the second force (Christ) within us, allowing Christ to take form within us. It is a sublime postulate, one hundred percent esoteric.
If we know nothing of the physical world but Impressions, then the physical world is not truly as external as people believe. Immanuel Kant rightly said: "The external is the internal." Therefore, if the internal is what matters, we must transform the internal. Impressions are internal. Thus, all objects and things, everything we see, exist within us in the form of Impressions that vibrate incessantly within our psyche. The mechanical result of such Impressions has been all those inhuman elements we carry within us, which we normally call EGOS, and which together constitute the self.
Let's suppose, for example, that an individual sees a provocative woman and does not transform his Impressions. The result will be that these Impressions, of a naturally lustful nature, produce in him the desire to possess her. Such a desire becomes the result of a mechanical nature, the received Impression crystallizes and takes shape in our psyche. It becomes another aggregate; that is, an inhuman element that in its entirety constitutes the EGO.
Let us continue reflecting, then. Within us exist Anger, Greed, Lust, Envy, Pride, Sloth, and Gluttony.
Anger. Why? Because many Impressions reached our interior and we never transformed them. The mechanical result of such Impressions of Anger forms the SELVES that exist and live in our psyche and that constantly make us feel anger.
Greed. Undoubtedly, many things in us awakened Greed: money, jewels, material things of all kinds, etc. These things, these objects, reached us in the form of Impressions, in something different, in an attraction to beauty or something else, etc. Such untransformed Impressions naturally become SELVES of Greed.
Lust. I already said that different forms of Lust reached us in the form of Impressions; that is, erotic images arose within our minds, and the reaction to them was Lust. Since we don't transform these lustful waves, these Impressions, this lustful feeling, this unhealthy eroticism, the result was naturally inevitable. It was completely mechanical: new selves were born within our Psyche, morbid SELVES.
No one could say they are seeing a tree itself; they are seeing the image of the tree, but not the tree. The thing in itself, as Immanuel Kant said, no one sees: one sees the image of the thing; that is, an Impression of a tree, of a thing, arises within us, and these are internal. The mechanical result is not long in coming. It is the birth of new Selves that come to further enslave our Consciousness, that come to intensify the dream in which we live.
When one truly understands that everything within oneself, in relation to the physical world, is nothing more than impressions, one also understands the need to transform those impressions. And in doing so, one's own transformation occurs.
Nothing hurts more than slander or the words of an insulter. If one is able to transform the impressions such words produce, then those words become worthless; that is, they become like a bad check. Certainly, the words of an insulter have no more value than that given to them by the insulted. So, if the insulted person doesn't give them value, I repeat, they are like a bad check. When one understands this, one then transforms the impressions of such words, for example, into something different, into love, into understanding for the insulter. This, naturally, means transformation. Thus, we need to be constantly transforming impressions, not only present ones but also past ones.
Within us exist many impressions that we made the mistake of not transforming in the past. Many of the mechanical results of these actions are the very egos that must be disintegrated so that Consciousness may be free and awakened. Things, people, within you, within your minds.
If you transform these impressions, you transform your life. For example, if someone is proud of their social standing or their money, but that person thinks, for instance, that their social standing is merely a mental construct, a series of impressions that have reached their mind—impressions about their social status—when they consider that such status is nothing more than a mental construct, or when they analyze the question of their worth, they come to realize that their position exists in their mind in the form of impressions. The impression produced by money and social standing is nothing more than the internal impressions of the mind.
Simply by understanding that these are only impressions of the mind, and by transforming them, pride itself diminishes, collapses, and humility is naturally born within us. Continuing with these processes of transforming Impressions, let's move on to something else. For example: an image of a lustful woman comes to mind. Such an image is an Impression, obviously. We could transform that lustful Impression through Understanding. It would suffice for us to think at that moment that this woman is going to die and that her body will disintegrate into the burial. This would be more than enough to transform that lustful impression into chastity. If it is not transformed, it will become egos of lust.
Therefore, it is fitting that through understanding we transform the impressions that arise in the mind. I think you are beginning to understand that the external world is not as external as is commonly believed. Everything that reaches us from the world is internal. They are nothing more than internal impressions. No one could put a tree, a chair, a house, a palace, or a stone inside their mind. Everything reaches our mind in the form of impressions, that's all.
Impressions of a world we call external, which is not really as external as is believed. It is fitting, then, that we transform these impressions through understanding. If someone greets us, praises us, how would we transform the vanity that such a flatterer might provoke in us? Obviously, praise and flattery are nothing more than impressions that reach the mind, and the mind reacts with vanity. But if these impressions are transformed, vanity becomes impossible. How, then, would the words of a flatterer be transformed? Through understanding.
When one truly understands that one is nothing more than an infinitesimal creature in a corner of the universe, one actually transforms such impressions of praise and flattery into something different. One converts such impressions into what they are: dust, cosmic dust. Because one understands one's own position. We know that our planet Earth is a grain of sand in space. Let's consider that in the galaxy in which we live, composed of millions of worlds, what is Earth? It is a particle of dust in infinity, and we, so to speak, are microorganisms within that particle. So what? If we understood this when we are flattered, we would transform the impressions related to flattery and adulation or praise, and we wouldn't react as a result with pride, would we? The more we reflect on this, the more we see the need for a complete transformation of Impressions.
Everything we see externally is internal. If we don't work on our inner self, we are on the path of error, because we don't modify our habits. If we want to be different, we need to transform ourselves completely. And if we want to transform ourselves, we must begin by transforming animalistic, bestial Impressions into elements of devotion. Then sexual transformation, transmutation, arises within us.
Undoubtedly, this matter of Impressions deserves to be analyzed clearly and precisely. The Personality we have received or acquired receives the Impressions of life, but it doesn't transform them because it is practically something dead. If the Impressions fell directly upon the Essence, it is obvious that they would be transformed because, in fact, the Essence would deposit them in the corresponding Center of the Human Machine.
Personality is the term applied to everything we acquire. It is clear that it translates all impressions from all aspects of life in a limited and practically stereotypical way, according to their quality and association. In this respect, in the Work, the personality is sometimes compared to a terrible secretary in the next room, who deals with all the ideas, concepts, preconceptions, opinions, and prejudices. She has countless dictionaries, encyclopedias of all kinds, reference books, etc., and is incommunicable in the three centers: the mental, the emotional, and the physical centers. And as a consequence, or corollary, it almost always communicates with the wrong centers. This means that the impressions that arrive are sent to the wrong places, that is, to centers that do not correspond to them, and naturally produce the wrong results.
I will give an example so that you can understand me better. Suppose a woman attends to a gentleman with great consideration and respect. Of course, the impressions the gentleman is receiving are processed by his personality, which then sends them to the wrong centers. Usually, it sends them to the sexual center. This gentleman then comes to firmly believe that the lady is in love with him and, naturally, it doesn't take long for him to make amorous advances. Undoubtedly, if the lady has never had such feelings for the gentleman, she can't help but feel very... Surprised reason. That is the result of a terrible transformation of Impressions.
See what a poor secretary the Personality is. Undoubtedly, a man's life depends on this secretary who mechanically looks up the transformation in her reference books, without understanding at all what it really means, and transmits it, consequently, without concern for what might happen, feeling only that she is fulfilling her duty. This is our inner state.
What is important to understand in this allegory is that the human Personality that we acquire begins to take charge of our lives. This is something too important; it is unquestionably useless to imagine that this happens to certain specific people; it happens to everyone, whoever they may be.
It is obvious that these reactions to the impacts of the external world constitute our very life. Humanity, in this sense, we can emphatically say that it is completely mechanistic. Every man, in life, has formed a number of reactions that amount to the practical experiences of his existence. It is clear that, as every action produces a reaction, certain types of actions produce certain types of reactions, and these reactions are called Experiences.
The important thing would be, for example, to better understand our actions and reactions, to be able to relax the Mind. This mental relaxation is magnificent. Lie down in your bed or in a comfortable armchair, patiently relax all your muscles, and then empty your Mind of all kinds of thoughts, desires, emotions, and memories. When the Mind is silent, we can know ourselves better. In such moments of stillness and mental silence, we truly come to directly verify the stark reality of all the actions of practical life.
When the Mind is at absolute rest, we will see a multitude of elements and sub-elements—actions and reactions, desires and passions, etc.—as something external to us. But they await the precise moment to exert control over ourselves, over our Personality. That is why the silence and stillness of the Mind are worthwhile. Obviously, the relaxation of the understanding, in the fullest sense of the word, leads us to individual Self-Knowledge.
Thus, all of life—that is, external life, what we see, hear, and experience—is, for each person, a reaction to the Impressions received from the Physical World. It is a great mistake to think that what is called life is something fixed, solid, and the same for everyone. Certainly, no two people have the same Impressions regarding life; those that exist in humankind are infinite.
Life, certainly, is our Impressions of it, and it is clear that we can, if we so choose, transform these Impressions. But as mentioned, this is a very difficult idea to grasp because the hypnotism of the senses is so powerful. Although it seems incredible, all human beings are in a state of Collective Hypnotism.
This hypnosis is produced by the residual state of the abominable Kundartiguador Organ. When it was eliminated from the human being, what remained were the various psychic aggregates or inhuman elements that together constitute the self. These elements and sub-elements, in turn, condition Consciousness and maintain it in a state of hypnosis. Thus, there is a collective type of hypnosis..
The Mind is so engrossed in the world of the five senses that it cannot grasp how it could become independent of it. It firmly believes itself to be a god. Thus, our inner life, the true life of thoughts and feelings, remains confusing to our merely rational and intellectual conceptions. However, at the same time, we know very well where we truly live, in our world of feelings and thoughts. This is something no one can deny. Life is our Impressions, and these can be transformed.
Therefore, we need to learn to better transform our impressions. However, it is impossible to transform anything within ourselves if we remain attached to the world of the five senses.
As I said in past talks, work teaches us that if the work is negative, it is due to our own fault. From a sensory perspective, this or that person in the outside world, whom we see and hear through our eyes or ears, is to blame. This person, in turn, will say that we are to blame. But truly, the fault lies in the impressions we have of people.
Many times we think a person is wicked when deep down that person is a gentle lamb. It is very beneficial to learn to transform all the impressions we have about life.
To learn to receive, we might say with pleasure, the unpleasant manifestations of our fellow human beings. Speaking scientifically about the impressions we receive and how to transform them, we can say the following: The impressions we receive correspond to Hydrogen 48.
EXTERNAL WORLD ---IMPRESSIONS---PERSONALITY
ESSENCE---MACHINE CENTERS---LIGHT—UNDERSTANDING--EGOS
Achangel Samael Logos Planetary of Mars
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