The Buddha's Rosary

CHAPTER XV

DIVISION OF ATTENTION

If those who have studied our Gnostic teachings and those who have studied this Christmas message truly become interested in the Path of the Razor's Edge and the inner self-realization of the Being, they will feel the longing to see, hear, smell, touch and feel the great realities of the higher worlds.

Every human being can arrive at the experience of reality. Every human being has the right to the great experiences of the Spirit, to become acquainted with the kingdoms and nations of the molecular and electronic regions.

Every aspirant has the right to study at the feet of the Master, to enter the splendid doors of the temples of greater mysteries, to converse face to face with the brilliant children of the dawn of the mahamanvantara of creation; however, it is necessary to begin by awakening consciousness.

It is impossible to be awake in the higher worlds if the aspirant is asleep here in this cellular, physical material world. Whoever wants to awaken the consciousness in the inner worlds must awaken here and now in this dense world.

If aspirants have not awakened consciousness here in this physical world, much less will it be so in the higher worlds.

Those who awaken consciousness here and now, awaken everywhere. Those who awaken consciousness here in the physical world, in fact and by their own rights remain awake in the higher worlds.

The first thing that is needed in order to awaken consciousness is to know that one's consciousness is asleep.

This matter of comprehending that one is asleep is something very difficult because normally everyone is absolutely convinced that they are awake.  When people comprehend that they are asleep, then the process of self-awakening begins.

We are saying something that no one accepts; if any intellectual person were told that they are asleep, you can be sure that they would be offended. People are fully convinced that they themselves are awake.

People work asleep, dreaming; they drive cars asleep, dreaming; they get married asleep; they live asleep and nevertheless they are totally convinced that they are awake.

Whoever wants to awaken consciousness here and now must begin by comprehending the three subconscious factors called identification, fascination and sleep.

Every kind of identification produces fascination and sleep. You go walking down a street and suddenly you encounter crowds protesting something in front of the palace of the President; if you are not in an alert state you become identified with the procession, you mix with the multitudes, you become fascinated and then comes sleep: you yell, you throw rocks, you do things that in other circumstances you wouldn't even do for a million dollars. Forgetting oneself is an error with incalculable consequences. Becoming identified with something is the height of foolishness, because the result is fascination and sleep. It is impossible for anyone to awaken consciousness if he forgets himself, if he becomes identified with something.

It is impossible for aspirants to be able to awaken consciousness if they let themselves become fascinated, if they fall asleep.

The boxer exchanging blows with another boxer sleeps deeply. He is dreaming, he is totally identified with the event. He is fascinated, and if he were to awaken his consciousness, he would look around in all directions and immediately flee from the ring, completely ashamed with himself and with the respectable public.

You go on some urban public transport in the city. You have to get off the vehicle on a certain street. Suddenly the memory of a loved one comes to your mind. You become identified with that memory, and then comes fascination and then daydreaming. Suddenly you exclaim “Where am I. My goodness! I passed my block! I was supposed to get off on that corner, on that street…” and then you realize that your consciousness had been absent. You get off the bus and you walk back to the corner where you should have gotten off.

Whoever wants to awaken the consciousness must begin by dividing the attention into three parts: subject, object and place.

Subject: Inner remembrance of oneself from moment to moment; not forgetting oneself when faced with any representation or any event.

Object: Not becoming identified with any thing, with any circumstances; observing without identifying, without forgetting oneself.

Place: Asking oneself, “What place is this?” Observing the place in detail, asking oneself, “Why am I in this place?”

The division of attention into three parts takes aspirants to the awakening of the consciousness.

To want to experience the great realities of the higher worlds without having awakened consciousness here and now is to walk on the path of error.

The awakening of the consciousness gives rise to the development of the spatial sense and the experience of what is real.