The rate of progress in Ascension is individually determined. In the final analysis, evolution depends entirely on individual desire, how quickly one wishes to rise in the full development of consciousness.
1. PRAISE. The Praise Ascension Attitude corrects the fundamental stress of the modern world, that something is wrong with the individual life. This Attitude by itself is sufficient to generate full enlightenment, but because of most individuals’ life-long habit of strain and divided minds, more techniques will usually be required to perfect growth. Nevertheless, the first Attitude is sufficient unto itself and will usually prove the most useful for transforming the grossest levels of beliefs and judgments about life. This Attitude above all others can be used any time of the day or night when it seems that individual life is not progressing as well as it could.
2. GRATITUDE. Similar in power for transforming the root stresses of modern life is the Gratitude Attitude. The focus here is on the objective world; this technique is designed to cure all erroneous beliefs and concepts about the body and the external Universe. It is the master key for unlocking belief in the limitations of the body, in sickness and in death; it also is the first stage in mastery of the outer world. As such, it is invaluable for healing disease of any and all kinds.
3. LOVE. For many, the Love Attitude is the sweetest of the first three; it is designed to heal all the misconceptions about our relationship with the Ascendant itself. Together, the first three techniques are capable of removing all beliefs and judgments about the limited nature of the three primary divisions of human life: subjective, objective and spiritual. These three Attitudes together are sufficient for anyone to climb to enlightenment. Further techniques are for greater acceleration.
4. COMPASSION. The Fourth Technique clarifies the relationship of the individual with all other human beings and animals. Invincibility in human life is the result of mastery of consciousness; this is based in harmlessness. (Harmlessness is called ahimsa in the ancient literature. Mastery of ahimsa means that no creatures ever have enmity toward you or will knowingly harm you.) Harmlessness is established by the full development of compassion, which is the automatic by-product of this technique. Universal Compassion is the requirement for enlightenment from the standpoint of the Ascendant. Only those who have proven they will not abuse their power are given the key to the Door of Everything.
The first four techniques are sufficient to establish Perpetual Consciousness, but the rate of growth will be slower than need be. As the body decreases in stress and the mind increases in clarity as a result of regular Ascension, the desire will naturally grow to learn ever more powerful and subtle techniques. Each Sphere of techniques is greater than the preceding: each Sphere is more subtle and more powerful than the one before. They make a spiral of increasing experience, perception and knowledge.
One function of the advanced Spheres is to develop the subtle energy centers in the body known in the ancient literature as the chakras (literally and in the West, “wheels of fire”). The chakras are scattered like so many jewels along the spine, starting at the base and rising to the crown of the head. Development of each of these seven energy centers is required to bring about full enlightenment; Ascension provides an effortless and highly effective method for accomplishing this. The chakras locations in the body correspond with the locations of the spine’s major nerve ganglia. Among other things, the chakras control hormonal secretions, changes in circulation rate, blood pressure, respiration, blood sugar level, neuro-muscular excitation, and the endocrine glands. In the West, the memory of the chakras is retained in the image of the caduceus, the traditional symbol for the healing arts: The open eagle wings represent fully developed consciousness, the highest degree of enlightenment, in the crown chakra. The staff represents the sushumna, the central channel in the spine through which the energy of life rises to bring enlighten-ment. The two serpents represent the two subtle channels that run alongside the sushumna, the ida and the pingala.
The chakras are located where the ida and the pingala cross. The ida and the pingala originate in the base of the spine and end in the sixth chakra, in the center of the skull. The pingala is white and carries solar energy and the forces of the day. This energy moves our consciousness upward toward the rational. The ida is black and carries lunar energy and the forces of the night. Its downward movement takes us into the unconscious where we experience regeneration and intuition. In the average person, life energy flows primarily along the ida and the pingala, supplying energy to the sense organs and faculties of awareness that maintain the illusion of the world. It is only with the awakening of enlightenment that the energy flows fully and completely up the central channel, the sushumna. When this happens, the chakras reverse their orientation from downward and outward to upward and inward. The chakras connect our consciousness with our bodies. In the waking state, the mind experiences chaos: at least 50,000 incoherent thoughts a day race through everyone’s mind, many of them mutually contradictory, many of them desiring the useless or the impossible. The physical body attempts to respond to these chaotic thought patterns; the impossibility of doing this results in sickness, failure of the organs, aging and eventually death. Most of our mental energy is literally thrown away every day in this self-destructive manner. Once the mind is freed from the source of these 50,000 thoughts -- the defenses, complexes and addictive compulsions of our habitual beliefs and judgments -- the energy of complete consciousness rises up the spine, enlivening each of the seven chakras, resulting in inner silence, perfect awareness of the Ascendant and complete and permanent bliss.
---ASCENSION! An Analysis of the Art of Ascension as Taught by the Ishayas by MSI
2. GRATITUDE. Similar in power for transforming the root stresses of modern life is the Gratitude Attitude. The focus here is on the objective world; this technique is designed to cure all erroneous beliefs and concepts about the body and the external Universe. It is the master key for unlocking belief in the limitations of the body, in sickness and in death; it also is the first stage in mastery of the outer world. As such, it is invaluable for healing disease of any and all kinds.
3. LOVE. For many, the Love Attitude is the sweetest of the first three; it is designed to heal all the misconceptions about our relationship with the Ascendant itself. Together, the first three techniques are capable of removing all beliefs and judgments about the limited nature of the three primary divisions of human life: subjective, objective and spiritual. These three Attitudes together are sufficient for anyone to climb to enlightenment. Further techniques are for greater acceleration.
4. COMPASSION. The Fourth Technique clarifies the relationship of the individual with all other human beings and animals. Invincibility in human life is the result of mastery of consciousness; this is based in harmlessness. (Harmlessness is called ahimsa in the ancient literature. Mastery of ahimsa means that no creatures ever have enmity toward you or will knowingly harm you.) Harmlessness is established by the full development of compassion, which is the automatic by-product of this technique. Universal Compassion is the requirement for enlightenment from the standpoint of the Ascendant. Only those who have proven they will not abuse their power are given the key to the Door of Everything.
The first four techniques are sufficient to establish Perpetual Consciousness, but the rate of growth will be slower than need be. As the body decreases in stress and the mind increases in clarity as a result of regular Ascension, the desire will naturally grow to learn ever more powerful and subtle techniques. Each Sphere of techniques is greater than the preceding: each Sphere is more subtle and more powerful than the one before. They make a spiral of increasing experience, perception and knowledge.
One function of the advanced Spheres is to develop the subtle energy centers in the body known in the ancient literature as the chakras (literally and in the West, “wheels of fire”). The chakras are scattered like so many jewels along the spine, starting at the base and rising to the crown of the head. Development of each of these seven energy centers is required to bring about full enlightenment; Ascension provides an effortless and highly effective method for accomplishing this. The chakras locations in the body correspond with the locations of the spine’s major nerve ganglia. Among other things, the chakras control hormonal secretions, changes in circulation rate, blood pressure, respiration, blood sugar level, neuro-muscular excitation, and the endocrine glands. In the West, the memory of the chakras is retained in the image of the caduceus, the traditional symbol for the healing arts: The open eagle wings represent fully developed consciousness, the highest degree of enlightenment, in the crown chakra. The staff represents the sushumna, the central channel in the spine through which the energy of life rises to bring enlighten-ment. The two serpents represent the two subtle channels that run alongside the sushumna, the ida and the pingala.
The chakras are located where the ida and the pingala cross. The ida and the pingala originate in the base of the spine and end in the sixth chakra, in the center of the skull. The pingala is white and carries solar energy and the forces of the day. This energy moves our consciousness upward toward the rational. The ida is black and carries lunar energy and the forces of the night. Its downward movement takes us into the unconscious where we experience regeneration and intuition. In the average person, life energy flows primarily along the ida and the pingala, supplying energy to the sense organs and faculties of awareness that maintain the illusion of the world. It is only with the awakening of enlightenment that the energy flows fully and completely up the central channel, the sushumna. When this happens, the chakras reverse their orientation from downward and outward to upward and inward. The chakras connect our consciousness with our bodies. In the waking state, the mind experiences chaos: at least 50,000 incoherent thoughts a day race through everyone’s mind, many of them mutually contradictory, many of them desiring the useless or the impossible. The physical body attempts to respond to these chaotic thought patterns; the impossibility of doing this results in sickness, failure of the organs, aging and eventually death. Most of our mental energy is literally thrown away every day in this self-destructive manner. Once the mind is freed from the source of these 50,000 thoughts -- the defenses, complexes and addictive compulsions of our habitual beliefs and judgments -- the energy of complete consciousness rises up the spine, enlivening each of the seven chakras, resulting in inner silence, perfect awareness of the Ascendant and complete and permanent bliss.
---ASCENSION! An Analysis of the Art of Ascension as Taught by the Ishayas by MSI