Purification and Healing

The human personality is rooted in the past, a product of the totality of its history. Its unconscious mind is a storehouse of infinite impressions, memories and associations that projects the hologram of the personal self. Just as the soul evolves along a trajectory from the now into the future, the personality flows from the past into the present. However, when the personality is locked in the past, it cannot move into the present - it can only circulate within the prison of its own history. That which blocks the positive movement of personality is the presence of negative impressions, emotional wounds, energetic blocks and psychological dysfunction. For most human beings, it is essential to go through the processes of cleansing and healing in order to come closer to the experience of love, joy and peace. Even without spiritual awakening, the personality has the potential in itself to reach a certain degree of limited balance and harmony.

Awakening represents a positive movement towards a higher state of being and understanding, and purification, the liberating cleansing of the mind. The processes of purification and healing are indivisible from our evolution. They can be initiated either prior to or after our spiritual awakening. For a person who has not yet entered the inner path, purification and healing occur only within the sphere of personality. But for someone who has reached a level of inner awakening, purification and healing take place, although still associated with personality, within the realm of the soul and point to her freedom from the human self. It is essential to understand that even with inner awakening, expansion beyond the mind is not sufficient to reach complete emancipation. Unless the mind has become pure and the heart is healed, the burdens of our past will not allow the soul to achieve true freedom.

The Weight of the Past

The past manifests in our present as the force that shapes our thoughts, emotions and perceptions. This is perfectly natural, because without the past there can be no present for a human being. The inheritance of the past is a benediction for which we should be grateful. Though having the identity of our unchanging essence, we are the result of the collective and individual unfoldment of time as dynamic beings who are endlessly engaged in the process of becoming. Though true, the concept of freedom from the past should not be viewed in a simplistic way, for the evolution of intelligence is rooted in all its past stages of progressive understanding. Our present is created not only by our individual past, but by the past of the whole of humanity and all other species inhabiting the planet. We are all interconnected. Thinking that one can and should entirely disconnect from the past is a fallacy in understanding. The past should not be rejected, but outgrown and transcended, so that the power of the now can fully manifest the truth of the present.

Freedom from the past on the personal level refers mainly to those elements of our past that are not aligned with our present - all that pulls us away from the now with the dead weight of its limited ideas, conditioned behaviors, negative emotions and memories. Everyone carries a heavy load from the past that can be neither easily dropped nor transmuted into the present. Only by awakening the soul can one initiate the process of releasing oneself from this heavy yoke, and dissolve all that stands in the way of the creativity, wisdom and freedom of the now.

Subconscious Tendencies

All of our past impressions as well as the information of our past actions, thoughts and emotional responses, are permanently stored beneath the level of the conscious mind - in the unconscious. The subconscious mind is like a computer that processes all the material that enters our consciousness from the unconscious in order to protect our delicate inner balance and sanity. However, the subconscious mind is not able to process all the incoming negative experiences and thought forms to such a full extent that they are transformed and healed. Over time, these countless unresolved thoughts, emotions and impressions form energetic nodes that lock parts of our psyche in the negative past. This is the usual origin of psychological difficulties, neurotic and depressive tendencies, and even mental illness.

There are numerous subconscious tendencies that rule our personal life, mostly by-products of the frustrating struggle for physical and psychological survival in the conflicting circumstances of human life. These tendencies are based either on an imbalance in our relationship with either the world or our own self. Some of the most deep-seated subconscious tendencies are fear, anger, attachment, greed, envy, pride, egoism, self-centeredness, arrogance, self-pity, insecurity, lacking a sense of self-worth, and feeling oneself inferior, a victim or powerless.

Our conscious mind is only a surface of our reality. Before we become conscious of what we think or feel, it has already been processed in the subconscious. Most humans live in the illusion of having free choice, while in fact how they think, feel and behave is only a mechanical outcome of their conditioned past. It is actually not the conscious mind, but the subconscious mind that makes choices for them. The conscious mind just tries to organize and make sense of what the subconscious has already processed. Usually we do not pay attention to how the subconscious mind manifests in our consciousness, but by using a very sensitive type of mindfulness we can get in touch with this subtle area. We can become aware of various patterns, conditioned responses and habitual tendencies that program our behavior. Since it is the subconscious mind that rules the life of the personality, we must bring more consciousness and understanding into the subconscious in order to understand how it operates and affects us.

For most humans, ego only represents the self-conscious aspect of the mind theoretically. Their 'conscious' mind operates at such a low frequency that it would more accurately to describe it as subconscious. To be truly conscious, we must cultivate a quality of intelligence that can overrule the mechanical mind. Such intelligence functions in a clear space of mindfulness and silence, rooted in an awareness independent from the coming and going of thoughts and mental impressions.

Working with the Subconscious Mind

Work with the subconscious can only begin under the condition that we first become conscious and present to our true self. Prior to the awakening of consciousness, we are in fact impotent to deal constructively with our subconscious reality, for we are locked in the mind without any integral identity upon which we could possibly base the inner work. No space exists in the subconscious reality for intelligence to counteract the automatic and unconscious functioning of the mind.

To be conscious is not just to acquire psychological insight, but to awaken a degree of presence and intelligence of I am. Most therapies are fundamentally unproductive, because they operate solely within a psychological framework; they do not connect to the fundamental power of the soul. The term soul, as generally applied in alternative therapeutic environments, does not even remotely refer to the essence of I am, but is understood to mean a kind of positive and heart-felt ego. The ego certainly can have some understanding about the workings of its mind, but cannot transform it, being itself an expression of subconscious reality.

A human being has countless subconscious inclinations that disturb his peace and ability to function in a positive way. We call those subconscious tendencies negative that are not in accord with the natural criteria of peace, kindness, and harmony essential to our well-being. The moment we experience a negative emotion, we are disturbed - the heartbeat quickens, breathing becomes irregular, and we grow nervous, irritated, apprehensive and tense. On the contrary, positive thoughts and emotions in accord with the soul and our natural state of goodness expand the heart and increase our light.

Any work with the subconscious and mechanical mind must be rooted in meditation and abidance in the inner state. It is otherwise impossible to break through these dense layers. The mind cannot be transformed by the mind, only by the one who exists beyond it. Our aspiration to transform the mind must be founded upon the awakening to the essence of our pure subjectivity.

We can divide the work with the subconscious into three basic stages: first, we must go beyond the mind by awakening pure awareness and the inner state; next, we embrace and transform the mind from the position of the soul; and finally, we surrender the purified mind so it can merge with our higher self.

It is not our intention to delve too deeply into the psychological intricacies of the mind, but rather to portray a general picture of the essential work on the subconscious. The following nine steps represent the basic process we teach of how to relate to and transform the mind. This model as a whole is relevant only for those who have the potential to awaken awareness. For others, practice should initially be limited to the work with mindfulness and non-identification.

1. awakening to I am
2. non-identification with mind
3. awareness of mind
4. awareness of emotions
5. acceptance
6. understanding
7. embracing negativity
8. intention to change
9. surrender

Awakening to I am: Since we cannot effectively work with the mind unless we are able to step out of it, we must first awaken to our real center. In order for this awakening to occur, one need not be concerned yet with the transformation or pacification of the mind. Such is the liberating power of self-knowledge and sudden awakening. The mind, with all its countless problems can indeed be bypassed through the internalization of consciousness. Through the awakening to I am, one can move to a place within oneself that is unaffected by the coming and going of thoughts. The I am referred to here primarily relates to pure awareness, although in a larger sense, it connotes the entire inner state and the soul.

Non-identification with mind: Although after the awakening of I am one can dwell in a reality beyond the mind, the bonds of our identification with the mind still have to be severed. Due to our inherent tendencies, the mind has many different ways to attract our attention and keep us confined to its territory. This explains the confusion of many seekers who cannot understand why in spite of their initial awakening they remain so strongly identified with their mental self. This situation is natural, however, because regardless of whether one is awakened or not, the mind is an integral part of our multidimensional reality. The mind does not exist in opposition to our true self. Creating distance from the mind is just a necessary intervention that makes the process of regaining our true autonomy possible. By exercising non-identification with the mind, we learn how to regain control over our compulsive attraction to thoughts. Non-identification allows us to transcend the split between the freedom of I am and our defenselessness against the pull of the subconscious, thus empowering the soul's independence from the mind.

Awareness of Mind: Some traditions of enlightenment consider non-identification and the surrender of the mind to be the ultimate means of liberation. But on the path of wholeness, which addresses the transformation of the human personality, the mind is not renounced but embraced and transformed. Although through non-identification we can completely move away from the mind, the negativity of the mind remains unresolved. Therefore, the work that follows non-identification begins the movement of returning back towards the mind in order to face its reality directly. To pretend that the mind does not exist, or has nothing to do with our essence is not an intelligent response to the mind's negativity.

Awareness of mind is a directionless seeing of arising thoughts. We do not judge the mind's content, nor attempt to analyze or understand it. We simply watch the mind with a choiceless yet attentive awareness. This phase of our work is a transition between disidentification and understanding that is essential to bring more consciousness into the mind and develop the quality of detached observation. Through practicing awareness of mind we learn how to maintain distance from thought while gradually beginning to understand the nature of our mental reality.

Awareness of Emotions: Many meditators experience that it is much easier to take a distance from one's mind than feelings. This is natural, for every human being is more identified with emotions than thoughts. Thoughts, unless linked with feelings, are emotionally neutral and therefore easier to observe. Since our experience of reality is primarily based on feelings, the emotional body is existentially much closer to us than the mind.

Practicing awareness of emotions is similar to practicing awareness of mind. However, in awareness of emotions one has to be more sensitive, and often more firm, in order to maintain a space of non-identification. What makes the work with emotions more difficult is the fact that to be aware of them does not always make them disappear. A thought cannot sustain itself longer than a moment if we do not fuel it with our attention. But deep emotions, such as sadness, have a continuity independent from our conscious involvement. Emotions are present on the energetic level and, unless shallow, cannot be dissolved through observation; mindfulness of emotions does not eliminate them. In our practice, we should maintain a calm, uninvolved consciousness within the presence of emotions. At times, deep breathing combined with surrender to the inner state can discharge and relax disturbing emotions. The purpose of this practice is to create a space within which the weight of our being can become much more pronounced than the emotional body, thereby superseding our habitual identification with arising emotions.

Acceptance: The next step in our work with the mind is acceptance. In this practice we begin to see the mind as it is without any particular desire to change it. We do not take the mind too seriously, but relate to it with gentleness and a sense of curiosity. We let the mind be as it is, and in this act we relax. The moment we relax, the grip of the mind loosens, because without our involvement it has no one to control.

One of the pitfalls in the work with the mind is aiming for perfection. In a misguided attempt to improve ourselves to the point of attaining a perfect personality, we fall into over-seriousness. Psychological sanity is not based on having a flawless mind, but on being at ease with its imperfections. In truth, the mind can never reach perfection. What it can achieve is harmony, purity and wisdom. In the act of accepting the mind, we actually transform a large portion of its unconscious energy into an open space of well-being. Acceptance is not psychological abnegation or indifference. It is a profound affirmation of the mind as an indivisible part of who we are.

Embracing Negativity: The acceptance we apply to deal with negativity is characterized by the absence of struggle, allowing the mind to be just as it is. It is crucial at this point, however, to relate to the negative side of the mind from a more positive place. The mind has to be seen as a part of our existence that needs not only to be accepted, but embraced with love and forgiveness. It is not an enemy, but an aspect of our identity that has been corrupted by the dust of negative impressions gathered along the journey through time. We tend to accept the mind horizontally as something existing in front of the observer, but to embrace the mind is to see it as contained within the soul's body. By embracing the mind with the light of I am one creates an environment of non-violent transformation and healing.

Understanding: Having embraced the mind, the next positive movement towards the mind is the attempt to understand it. Understanding the mind is a prerequisite for changing it, because we cannot master what we do not understand. Furthermore, that which we do not understand will naturally rule us. For example, if we do not recognize that the root of our envy is our own sense of deficiency, there is no real way to transform it. The role of understanding is to illuminate the mind with a non-judgmental consciousness that sees through and beyond the causal motives that form our thoughts and subconscious tendencies.

By 'understanding' the mind, we do not suggest an excessive psychological approach. Neither do we advocate being overly self-analytical and introspective. We can easily get even more confused becoming too involved in the complexities of the mind. The mind is like a mire of plants, trees and roots - the further in we go, the more difficult to find the way out. However, a gentle yet penetrating understanding is essential to gain clarity about the nature of the mind, its mechanisms and the psychological roots of our thoughts and emotions.

Intention to Change: The intention to change is the next step in transforming the negative tendencies of the mind. Non-identification and awareness of the mind, accepting and embracing its negativity, and seeking to understand the mind, are all strategies that gradually saturate it with the higher consciousness of the soul. Upon this foundation we can finally begin to align the mind with the soul's intelligence. It is our deep intention to change that is the ground of our real transformation.

Most often we cannot do anything about our disturbing state of mind. When all other relative means prove insufficient, we find our deepest power in the strength of our intention. The intention to change is not merely an honorable wish, but an act by which we can actually alter the past. It is not merely an intellectual gesture we make while moving on with 'the rest of our lives' - it is the continuously reinstated intent of our intelligence. The unyielding intention to change that which no longer serves us clears away the inertia of the past and opens the way to inner freedom.

Surrender: Transcendence of the mind does not occur through negation, control or repression, but through transformation and surrender. Only a mind that has reached a high level of maturity, wisdom and purity can be renounced. Surrender of the mind, unlike non-identification, is a vertical release that signifies our true absorption in reality. It is the final stage in the intricate process of moving beyond the mind.

Cutting Through the Ego-image

We often speak about an awakened ego as the illumination of our relative consciousness. Within its limitations, the ego can indeed attain a significant degree of wisdom, humility and light. Regrettably, however, in this plane of unconsciousness, the ego of most humans remains insensitive, unintelligent, arrogant and extremely greedy. It is by its nature insincere because its existence is not founded upon the purity of our higher being. Only an ego that submits itself to the higher wisdom and purpose of the soul can reflect the principle of sincerity. Cutting through the lower tendencies of the ego is an essential part of the spiritual path and a critical step in the process of our purification.

The core of all negative ego tendencies is a compulsive attachment to one's own image based on obsessive self-concern and a total fixation on how one is seen by others. Suffering a permanent inferiority complex, the ego constantly checks itself and fashions its performance for the eyes of other people to try to assure its self-worth. The less it trusts itself, the more it tries to prove its own importance.

As we have already pointed out, the fixation with the ego-image can slink into even high levels of spiritual realization. An example is a seeker who competes with others on the path to surpass their states of attainment; he feeds his pride and craving for recognition from his spiritual environment rather than nourishing his inner self. The way the ego operates is truly embarrassing. Its exceedingly immature inclinations are so deeply rooted in the human psyche that their removal presents a lifetime challenge.

To appropriately deal with the addiction to one's ego-image, one must apply discriminative wisdom and bring real understanding into the workings of the mind. Without humility, honesty and purity, one cannot drop egomania. Going beyond the ego-image is primarily a function of our spiritual awakening, and indeed a flowering of true understanding.

The Purification of the Mind

Although our lower tendencies are undeniably the cause of our suffering and ignorance, not all negative reactions - for instance, justified anger or fear - are expressions of an impure mind. Many such automatic emotional responses are in fact perfectly natural. One cannot actually function in the complex reality of the earth-plane without 'negative' emotions, for they very often safeguard our survival and reflect the need of the moment. However, negative emotions that originate from our lower nature and express our basic impurity do not serve the necessity of the now, as they are entirely conditioned by our past ignorance. Unless we purify the mind, we will never reach human wholeness or become ready to merge with our higher being. We must be freed from the burdens of the past in order to achieve a new expansion and awaken the soul.

How does the mind become cleansed? Because of its unknown nature, purification is often believed to be a function of grace. This is true, provided we take grace to be a natural law of evolution, rather than a miraculous event. Purification is a natural occurrence - fully in accordance with our evolutionary timing, karma, destiny and blueprint. Grace is eternally present in the heart of the soul, progressively manifesting as we mature to the point of transformation. As the amount of light increases in our being, all that is not of the light gradually dissolves. Darkness is a form of lower intelligence that represents the denial of love and truth. Since darkness is the sheer absence of light, it cannot withstand the luminosity of the self.

The most critical condition for purification is our cooperation, which we have already elaborated upon in the section on the subconscious mind. However, even this cooperative work cannot result in complete purification; it is more a preparation for higher energies and consciousness to enter our being. Purification cannot be achieved through personal effort alone. All efforts to purify oneself come from the conscious mind, which cannot enter the unconscious where impurities are stored. The conscious mind can only be aware of, and respond to, what manifest from the subconscious; it cannot access the immeasurable amount of information, impressions and energies that constitute the very material of our unconscious.

Purification is a natural by-product of our evolution that occurs when the soul is ready to drop all her subconscious burdens. What most supports our cleansing is having an open heart that can bridge the human psyche with the plane of the soul and serve as a portal to the grace of the divine. Since our unconscious has been formed by our countless previous births, only higher intelligence, the aspect of universal consciousness that links our evolutionary now with our future self, can transmute the totality of our past. The force of universal intelligence, based on the wisdom and grace of the creator, naturally responds to the sincerity of our intention to seek purity and freedom, manifesting the necessary assistance.

Healing the Heart

Healing is an aspect of purification. While cleansing refers more to the mind, healing is experienced solely in the heart. Over the course of the infinite past, we have all accumulated an enormous burden of suffering and traumatic experiences that manifest as emotional wounds in our subtle bodies. Because life on earth is an existential struggle on all levels, the experience of emotional hurt is universal. However, it is not the experience of pain itself, but our inability to heal and transform it that scars us emotionally.

Instead of learning from our lessons, we falsely presume that we are a victim of circumstance or blame the merciless nature of life for our misery. When we feel that we have been treated unfairly by others we respond with self-pity and resentment. The experience of being hurt renders us fearful, vulnerable and helpless. Our healthy relationship with ourselves is compromised and we close down our positive perception of life. We develop anger, animosity, distrust and bitterness towards the world and others, and damage our primal connection with the reality of love, tenderness, beauty and openness.

Because unhealed emotions stand in the way of our positive expansion, it is essential to let go of past wounds and courageously face our unresolved issues. In so far as possible, we need to bring all that blocks our positive experience of life to the threshold of the conscious mind. To do this, we must be introspective, conscious and sensitive. When we become more aware of what needs to be healed, we can consciously initiate healing in the heart. The function of the mind is only to recognize what needs to be healed and direct our awareness to these areas. Ultimately, the heart heals itself. Its incredible capacity for self-healing is activated the moment we embrace the denied aspects of our past self with the light of love, consciousness and understanding.

Spiritual Awakening: The Foundation for Transformation

As we have made clear in our discussion of the subconscious mind, the transformation of personality cannot be achieved through psychological means alone. Therapeutic models can help us to become conscious of what needs to be changed, but do not actually enable us to make any changes. On the whole, psychological therapies are based on the illusory assumption that by manipulating the subconscious or becoming more conscious of the unconscious we can be transformed. They fail, because they give too much power to the past. By overemphasizing our personal history, they perpetuate our dependence on the past rather than freeing us from it. For example, by delving too deeply into childhood issues we can actually reactivate memories no longer relevant to our present identity. If we put too much energy into the past, we resurrect it, and end up making it stronger and more real than the present.

It is certainly important to address past issues, but only productive if we are empowered by the now. The true strength and autonomy we derive from abiding in the inner state, enable us to face our inherent tendencies in a new way. We are indeed both dependent on the past and independent from it. Therapies believe in the former, traditions of enlightenment in the latter. Only by combining these two viewpoints can we gain a balanced perspective on human evolution. We must see that, by fusing our expansion into the realm beyond the mind with psychological work, we create the necessary holistic base for our growth into awakening and completion.

Spiritual awakening is the foundation of psychological transformation. Unless we are grounded in the self, we cannot purify and alter the negative inclinations of the mind. Only by positioning ourselves beyond the mind can we transform it. Awakening to the soul immensely empowers our ability to face our psychological existence by enabling us to work through psychological patterns from a space of wisdom, clarity and understanding. A person who does not have presence is not just experiencing the mind - he is the mind. Unless we master our consciousness and break free from the mechanical mind, we will never find peace. Only a silent mind can be transformed, and the mind is never silent unless it identifies the soul as the host. To be present to one's true self is the foundation of transformation.

The deeper we enter the realm of awakening, the more power we generate for the transformation of our personality. It is indeed the supremacy of the inner self that governs transformation. The light of the soul gradually envelops the shadow of personality, gradually transmuting and merging it into her wholeness. The same energy that created the mind eventually returns to the integral consciousness of our original I am.