On Using TMO to Investigate Past Incarnations, Converse With One's HGA, Etc.
© 2003 by Rawn Clark and Peter Reist
>> First, there are options listed where you guide light down to past incarnations, or to other individual selves. Why would you want to do this? And if there is a good reason to do so, how would you imagine these other incarnations? <<
These are not actions that can be *imagined* -- they must be *perceived* and *experienced* in order for them to be valid.
There are a variety of reasons why one might choose to do this, other than mere experimentation. For example, it's a good method for exploring one's past incarnations and the other Individuals that are a part of one's own Greater Self. Another example would be if you know that a specific action during a past incarnation generated a heavy karmic debt, you could use TMO to understand that past action more thoroughly, bless that past moment and in this way, aid your redemption of that specific karmic debt. This also presents a method whereby you can bless the whole of your Self.
>> Secondly, when you are following the light down with your consciousness (during the breath IHVH) and then following up (during the ADNI breath), it seems like it would take a lot more time than one breath, if you want to really experience each level. Related to this I am wondering how much consciousness of the different levels are we expected to achieve when we working at this Lesson? For example, at Tiphareth how much awareness of our whole life, past incarnations etc., should we have at this stage? <<
I suggest that you insert as many "empty" breaths as you need to firmly grasp each level. Take as much time as *you* need so long as you don't lose your continuity of awareness. This is just like leaning Bardon's Magic of Breathing in that at first, you go very slowly, concentrating upon the quality of your ideation and its impregnation, and then as you become more and more accustomed to this process, your practice naturally speeds up.
When I designed these audio Lessons, I had never taught TMO before, so my perspective was of one very accustomed to performing TMO very rapidly. These shifts in awareness are very fluid and quick for me and it was impossible for me to judge their relative speed for others who didn't have the years of practice that I have. I did my best to slow things down for the recordings but obviously, I didn't slow them sufficiently. :)
>> Lastly, when we are 'breathing the unity' from Kether, Should we be expiring rainbow hued light to 'Ribbono Shel Olam' and inhaling it and saying Amen afterwards, over and over, or is there a different method we should use? <<
There are many possible variations on this but for the purpose of learning, you should perform the entire canticle as you've described.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
06 Oct 2003
As I have stated previously, there are multifold applications of TMO. The exploration of the various levels of selves and incarnations would be one of these applications that can be done for many different reasons and with many different goals in mind. One such example would be those put forth by Rawn in the previous post, using the TMO as a methodology through which to explore previous incarnations and the karma that has been accumulated through those lives. Using this knowledge to help absolve this karma within this lifetime, bringing you a step closer to liberation.
The main problem that you are running up against is something that happened to me when I was working with step 6: I couldn't figure out how to manifest down into another incarnation and perceive it. And when I could, I didn't really seem to see any significance in it. It wasn't until I finished with lessons 7 and 8 did I start to break out of temporality and was able to locate a specific incarnation, and live it. Which, for me, is a very useful tool since it allows me to draw upon the knowledge of hermetics and kabbalah that I garnered during previous lifetimes. After all, those that do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. As such, I'd suggest working on exploring the various levels of self and leaving the exploration of the various incarnations of self until you have a good handle upon lessons seven and eight of TMO.
Exploring the various levels of self can be a very fruitful experience. Especially since it can put you in direct contact with your HGA, that is, your Binah and Chokmah selves. Which is extremely useful, to say the very least. Also, understanding the Individual, Tiphareth self, allows you to take a step back and look at the conditions of your life in a somewhat detached way that is conductive for soul mirror and meditative work.
One thing that I would suggest you do when doing any such workings with the exploration of the various levels of self or incarnations is to suspend your expectations as to what is going to occur when you come in contact with this layer of self or incarnation.
Love and Live well,
Peter Reist
06 Oct 2003
>> One thing that I would suggest you do when doing any such workings with the exploration of the various levels of self or incarnations is to suspend your expectations as to what is going to occur when you come in contact with this layer of self or incarnation. <<
Yes. :) This is essential. This aspect of TMO is very similar to the transference of consciousness work in IIH. You can experience these levels of Self in several different degrees. You can be your limited self-awareness within a level and see it through the lens of the limited self, or you can set aside these filters and completely open your self-awareness to the experience of that level and thereby experience it as it experiences itself, so to speak.
The greatest impediment to that opening is our attachment to expectations and preconceptions. This is why I rooted the "Center of Stillness Meditation" in *letting go* of the sensory inputs and the various levels of Self. In essence, a "lower" level of Self cannot comprehend the fullness of a "higher" level (nor truly understand itself, for that matter) until it *lets go* of its own boundaries and *becomes* that "higher", more inclusive level.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
06 Oct 2003
>> I suppose, as Peter says below, that I should postpone this work until I finish Lessons Seven and Eight. <<
That sounds like good advice to me. :)
>> Of course I am very interested in this possibility, but perhaps I need some clarification. When you are imagining yourself to be your Binah Self, of Chokmah Self, are you contacting your HGA, or are you becoming your HGA? This sounds like 'becoming' which is like the end of step 10 of the IIH, I believe. Are you then 'leaping over' the step 5 and early step 10 contacts with the HGA? <<
As I said, this is very much like the transference of consciousness work and has several degrees of accomplishment. If you are *visualizing* then this is a matter of "contacting". This however does lead to *experiencing* and "becoming". The TMO context seems to speed this transition between visualizing and experiencing, between "contacting" and "becoming", since by its nature it supports the process of integrating the levels of Self.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
07 Oct 2003
>> Of course I am very interested in this possibility, but perhaps I need some clarification. When you are imagining yourself to be your Binah Self, of Chokmah Self, are you contacting your HGA, or are you becoming your HGA? This sounds like 'becoming' which is like the end of step 10 of the IIH, I believe. Are you then 'leaping over' the step 5 and early step 10 contacts with the HGA? <<
Yes and no. Yes, due to the fact that you are coming in direct contact with your HGA as opposed to the indirect contact that occurs in step 5 of IIH. No, due to the fact that there is a little bit more to the work of step five than just coming in contact with one's HGA. Doing this sort of work via TMO does not satisfy all of the criteria for step 5 in IIH.
While you're beginning the work with TMO, you visualize the spheres and/or the appropriate visualizations that Rawn puts forth within the lessons. Ultimately, at one point in time you'll eventually abandon all of these visualizations in favour for actually feeling and adopting the qualities of the sepheroth. It's sort of hard to explain. Using the example of the Pattern on the Trestleboard by Paul Foster Case would be the easiest way that I know of. The statement for Binah, within the Trestleboard meditation is:
3. Filled with Understanding of it's most perfect law, I am guided, moment by moment along the path to liberation.
By meditating upon this statement, you'll gain an understanding of the quality of this sepheroth and you will realize that this qualities resides within you, guiding you gently upon the path that the divine providence has set out for you. However, at the same time, you'll come to realize that just as you are filled with this understanding, so is everyone, and everything else. Though they may not necessarily accept this fact. It is possible to focus' exclusively upon this quality within the self, it is also possible to expand one's awareness to encompass all the various sepheroth at the same time. In fact, this sort of expansion of awareness to encompass a number of sepheroth at once is something that is *essential* for the more advanced applications of TMO and is something that the Trestleboard meditation can help very greatly in achieving.
Love and Live well,
Peter Reist
07 Oct 2003
>> This brings up a whole slew of questions about how to use 8TM. Given that you have facility entering each temple, can anyone say more about the ways the temples can be used for self expansion? I mostly use them to answer questions, and I find them very effective tools for this, but what about in combination with other exercises- like transferring consciousness, perception of essential meaning, mental wandering etc.? <<
In my next installment of TMO in Theory and Practice, I'm going to be looking at other potential practices that can be effectively used in conjunction with TMO. Among these being the Center of Stillness Meditation, the Eight Temples, the Archeaous and the Pattern on the Trestleboard Meditation by Paul Foster Case. However, due to the fact that I only really know the Archeaous and the Trestleboard meditation, I'm probably going to be glossing over the general ways in which the Center of Stillness and the Eight Temples meditations inter-relate to the practice of TMO: how they work towards the same goal in different ways, and how the practices of one meditation can compliment the other.
Personally, I find the 8T to be useful for getting a general understanding of the quality of the various spheres. However, as the 8T does not include both Kether and Chokmah, I've found myself falling back more upon the Trestleboard meditation which I find to be quite profound in it's simplicity. However, as of late, especially after I went through he Hod temple, I've found myself using the 8T as a method of spirit contact. In each temple the methodology that I use is slightly different, though in each case it comes down to a combination of (a) trusting your gut intuition and walking in the right direction, and (b) calling out for guidance from an external source, oftentimes the guardians of the four quarters. In the Malkuth temple I will walk up to one of the guardians of the four quarters and as of them what I need to be taught, and would they kindly direct me towards a spirit of that quarter that could teach this to me. At which point in time I am usually transited to the realm of that quarter where I patiently wait for the spirit to speak first, as per Bardon's instructions in PME. By the end of the first contact I will usually ask for a sigil with which to contact them easier. These sigils can then be impressed upon the Adonai light and direct contact with that spirit can be made via the teachings of lesson 8 in TMO. Which I find to be much simpler, quicker, and efficient, than going through all the visualization work of the 8 Temples meditation. Moreover, using a similar methodology, one can connect with a spirit solely via the methodology of lesson 8 in TMO as well.
This sort of work is something that has been quite fruitful for me, and can be used to get in contact with the spirits that Bardon presents within PME, as well as spirits that will go "Who?" when you mention Bardon's name. However, there is a certain amount of intrinsic danger in performing any sort of spirit contact as there is the potentiality of being deluded that you are operating with a spirit that has an existence independent of the self, as opposed to the potentiality that this spirit is just a chunk of your psyche that wants to teach you something, but can not through ordinary means. Personally, I work on the assumption that any spirit I come into contact with is a portion of my own psyche until proven otherwise. And each and every spirit that I have come in contact with will respect this, oftentimes even giving me fairly convincing proof that they are very much real, and very much not a part of me.
Because of the potentiality of delusion, spirit contact and evocation is really something that Bardon thinks should be kept till the scholar has progressed a fair ways down the path of Hermetics. Step five being the first real instance where spirit contact springs up in IIH and the work of PME isn't really to be undertaken till the scholar has progressed past step eight. As such, this sort of work isn't for everyone. Though I do believe that doing such working within the context of the 8T is a trite bit safer than attempting to do as such through other means.
Love and Live well,
Peter Reist
09 Oct 2003
>> Lastly, it seems like using the 8TM temple visualizations would help with Lesson 6 of TMO. Good idea? <<
As a starting place, perhaps, but what's really the most helpful will be the *feel* of each Temple. With TMO, what starts out as *visualization* must become *perception* and, most importantly, *experience*.
For example, with Binah and the first 'Heh', you want the Binah Temple *feel* of being rooted upon something solid and unique that is alive and conscious, surrounded by infinite space which is filled with an infinite number of other such Greater Selves. There is no sense of time, sequence or duration. "Below you", in the metaphorical sense, lies the realm of sequence and duration.
With Tiphareth and the 'Vav", you want the Tiphareth Temple's *feel* of detachment from the personal self "below" and dependence upon the Greater Self "above". You exist, *within* the sea of time as an Individual unit of awareness which emanates the personal self within the minutia of time-space.
And with Malkuth and the final 'Heh", you want that Malkuth Temple *feel* of solidity and enclosure. Of involvement with the immediate present moment of time-space and being at the center of things, so to speak.
I suggest that you read Lesson Seven. In that Lesson, I speak a little more about the visualizations/perceptions that accompany the five stations of the 'Ani-IHVH'.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
09 Oct 2003