Enlightenment is a concept spoken of in many religious and cultural traditions. The idea of becoming enlightened or awakened is especially popular in eastern religious traditions but there are also similar concepts in western traditions, such as Christianity with ideas such as ‘finding the kingdom of God within you’, which perhaps were simply altered interpretations of the same notion of changing ones psychology and emotional composition in order to become closer to the source of creation and experience greater levels of peace in life.
Spirituality or a system of understanding creation has been a consistently present facet of human civilization throughout all of known history. From indigenous communities around the globe to organized religions which have spread over the world and have been founded by individuals claiming to be prophets of god, to the great thinker philosophers of all cultures, the human mind is ever drawn to seeking answers in order to understand its origins and purpose for existence. The fact that this is a core behavior illustrated throughout human history indicates there must be a specific driving force behind this innate search, being somewhat intuitive, and is expressed in a yearning to become closer in nature to something greater than ourselves, to be closer to or to experience the source of our origins as sentient beings.
Throughout almost all ages and civilizations men and women have searched for a meaning to the mystery that is human existence. Many sages, gurus, prophets, artists and philosopher scientists have been able to access higher knowledge and understanding which has led to the spreading of ideas and the changing of established systems of culture. In the past the nations of the world were separated and fictionalized by defining differences in culture, language, race, religion and philosophies but now as we set off into the 21st century, this age of globalization has yielded the possibility for the clashing of cultures, the mixing of populations and the sharing of ideas or knowledge. The abundance of information available to the developed world has given us opportunity to see the similarities and parallels of the abundant number of belief systems that have been created throughout time. Stepping back from our own cultural context and attempting to view beliefs or religions through an objective lens, we can see that the core principles are quite similar and that they appear to represent the longing for the continual improvement of individuals, and hence, society as a whole.
The Path to Enlightenment . . .
If we consider Enlightenment as the ultimate goal of all spiritual and philosophical thought then we can postulate that many of histories sages and prophets who propagated new systems of understanding ‘divine concepts’, or new ways of living/being, which were more in line with the ‘Will of the Divine’, were actually teachers of the same fundamental knowledge and walkers of a sacred spiritual Path to Enlightenment which has been shrouded in much secrecy, mystery and misunderstanding over time. Each of these teachers may have taught a specific part of a greater truth. The teachings may have been developed with the aim of being the most appropriate and intelligible doctrine for the time and place in which the teacher lived but at the core of the teachings or in their hidden aspects they all may have communicated the same secret path and techniques to walk along it, so that one may experience a higher way of being and understand the origins of their creation.
Sages like Buddha and Jesus gave lessons designed for the broader populous but it has been suggested that they also gave advanced secret teachings to their most intimate of followers, or what has been referred to as their disciples. Thinking about this objectively, it seems logical, as with any system of learning, that there exists a graduated process of attaining higher and higher levels of knowledge and spiritual experience, in which the student develops their understanding until eventually they are capable of teaching others and creating a work or system of their own that suits the needs of the times and is in line with their own individual life purpose. Perhaps, this is how the secret wisdom has always been passed down through time, from teacher to student, who then took what was learned and adapted it to the time and place they lived in, often choosing to spread the teaching to areas where it wasn’t currently available. The student then becomes the teacher and as a teacher, seeks to find students of their own to share the knowledge with.
Today in the western world, we live in a climate best described as a melting pot of traditional religion and New Age spirituality. With the advent of the Internet and the increase in migration, alternative beliefs systems to those one may have grown up within are readily available for individuals to explore and pursue in those countries which allow such freedoms to their people. New Age spirituality has yet to be given a solid definition but can be seen as the result of the mixing of traditional religious concepts, the exposure of ideas, the continual passing down of wisdom from teacher to student and is essentially a continuation of the innate human desire to seek answers, experience something other than our everyday reality and gain an understanding of who we are or where we come from. With the New Age being born from the amalgamation of past traditions and spiritual experiences, the teaching of the path is molded to the current spiritual climate and taught in a way that is appropriate for our times but the fundamental elements remain the same.
A common New Age belief transmitted by many mystical figures of the past century including HP Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, GI Gurdjieff, Max Heindel, PD Ouspensky, the Curtiss’s, the Prophets and Samuel Aun Weor is in the existence of a Spiritual Brotherhood for Humanity led by the Ascended Masters who work for the benefit of human destiny. It is taught that this brotherhood has existed throughout time guiding all those who have walked the path to enlightenment and created a spiritual teaching for humanity to contribute to the gradual unfolding of higher knowledge. The teaching is available today, just as it has always been, to those who wish to awaken their consciousness in a permanent way, as opposed to the transitory sense of being awake that practices such as meditation or yoga may provide. By walking this path people are attempting to contribute to the uplifting of global consciousness in a profound way and spiritually tangible way. The three major aspects of Enlightenment are –
1. The Death ~ dissolution of the subconscious
2. Alchemical Sex ~ white tantra sex
3. Dharma ~ helping humanity through ones life purpose and contributing to the spreading of the Path to Enlightenment
The details of each of these keys to enlightenment are taught by modern esotericists who have inherited the lamp of dharma, as it is described in Buddhist literature, from the lineage propagated in the late 19th century known as Theosophy but also has its roots in many ancient traditions, most notably, Esoteric sects such as Gnosticism and Hermeticism along with many other esoteric offshoots of all the major religions in the world.