REFLECTIONS OF LIGHT ON THE JOURNEY
Edward R. Close
In the early evening
of September 17, 1960, I made my way up the steep winding switchbacks of Mount
Washington Drive, just north of downtown Los Angeles, much as I had many times
before. Approaching the summit of this outlier of the Hollywood Hills, I turned
right onto San Rafael Avenue just below the southwest corner of the beautiful,
well-tended grounds of the International Headquarters of Self-Realization
Fellowship. I was on my way there that particular evening for my initiation
into the practice of Kriya Yoga. I found a place to park, and as I walked through
the entrance gate of the SRF grounds and along the driveway beside the print
shop toward the main building, I breathed in the subtle aroma of gardenias that
were blooming somewhere nearby. I stopped and took a deep breath of the sweet
fragrance. When I exhaled and relaxed, I felt the deep peace that pervades
these hallowed grounds where saints have trod, filling my soul.
Kriya Yoga is an
ancient scientific method designed to speed up the natural expansion of
individualized consciousness and help wandering lost souls to reunite with the eternal
reality of the Infinite Source. The gradual reuniting of your soul with the
Infinite is accelerated when you choose to consciously focus on the life-sustaining
energies that operate involuntarily in the respiratory and circulatory systems
of your body. The practice of Kriya synchronizes these energies with the opposing
energies flowing in the spine, and the outward flow of energy is slowed to the
point of suspension, allowing the spiritual Light of Primary Consciousness to become
directly perceptible in the spiritual eye. Over the past 64 years, I’ve found
that the daily practice of the Kriya techniques that I began to learn that
evening so long ago, have proved to be very practical, producing positive results
that have greatly improved the quality of my life.
The initiation was
being conducted that autumn evening by Sri Dayamata, a direct disciple of
Paramahansa Yogananda, who was the last of a revered lineage of Spiritual
teachers originating in India. At the time of my initiation, Daya-ma, as
we affectionately called her, had been President of SRF for five years, and I
was living in Topanga Canyon, northwest of LA. I had been allowed to attend
evening meditations with the monks on Mount Washington while I was studying a
series of lessons that were written by Yogananda just before he entered Maha
Samadhi, his final conscious exit from the physical world in 1952. Because I had
been allowed to meditate and study with some of the most advanced kriya yogis
alive at that time, I was able to finish the one-year preparatory course in
just four months. I had passed the final exam, and I was prepared to be
initiated that evening.
At the time, I didn’t
fully understand what an honor it was to be accepted and initiated into this advanced
spiritual practice by Sri Dayamata, the way I was. It wasn’t until years later
that I realized that I had been involved in the effort to bring the science of
Kriya Yoga into the modern world for a long time, especially during one of my
previous lives in India and Tibet. There were indications of the importance of
this initiation for me, and some of the other events in my life, That were
accompanied by phenomenal bursts of spiritual light. The light I am talking
about is not just the electromagnetic vibrations that enable us to see with our
physical eyes, it is the total brilliance of the fundamental essence of light
that emanates from the spiritual domain.
At one point in the
ceremony, very suddenly, a fiery three-dimensional ball of light appeared, spinning
only a few inches in front of my forehead, and I could see it with my eyes open
or closed! I had never seen anything like this before, and I have not seen anything
quite like it since. I accepted it as validation that this was the right spiritual
path for me, but I didn’t know what it actually was. About ten years later, I
described the initiation light that I experienced to one of the monks who was a
direct disciple of Yogananda, and asked him what he thought it was, and why had
it appeared to me? He said he thought it was an unusual blessing given to me by
God through Dayamata, and that because I was a scientist, she knew that even a glimpse
of the light emanating from the crown chakra would encourage me to embark on a study
the spiritual eye and the source of spiritual light. Of course, she was right!
As I look back on my
life of nearly ninety years now, I realize that the unusual spiritual light phenomena
that I saw during many of the most important events of my life, including the
spinning ball of light that I saw during my Kriya initiation, were glimpses of a
much greater reality, perceived through the functioning of the spiritual eye, a
feature of human consciousness sometimes called the “third eye”. Details about
what the “third eye” is and how it functions is beyond the scope of this
discussion, and I am constrained from discussing the details of the kriya initiation
and the techniques taught by the SRF lineage of spiritual masters by policies
that I agreed to long ago. It is still necessary to keep these policies in
place to safeguard against the ego-based misuse of the consciousness-altering techniques
of kriya. But I want to touch upon the nature of the eternal light of spirit and
attempt to explain how it relates to physical light, the expansion of
consciousness, and the all-important evolution of the human soul.
Individual realization
of the true nature of reality is called enlightenment for a reason: The
fabric of reality is light. Ultimate enlightenment is the realization that
we are eternal beings of light, capable of expanding and contracting our bubbles
of consciousness from one quantum to infinity. But when we choose to identify ourselves
with physical bodies to experience physical pleasure and pain, we limit our
growth and awareness to the space-time domain existing where the finite,
quantized reality of the physical universe and the infinitely continuous multi-dimensional
domain of spirit meet. Individual consciousness, as we know it, is a direct
result of this intimate contact of the finite with the infinite. It is as if we
have our feet planted in two different boats, each moving on the waters of
existence at different rates of speed, in different directions. Unless we
realize that we are beings of light, capable of expanding beyond space and
time, then, at critical junctures, we must endure great pain and suffering as
we are forced to choose just one of one of the two boats.
That evening in the
autumn of 1960, I saw the pure light emanating from the multi-dimensional domain
of Spirit for the first time in this life, and it certainly encouraged me to get
to work on expanding my consciousness. And I have since come to realize that
the narrow band of electromagnetic energy that we perceive shining through the limited
space and time of the physical world, is only a faint reflection of the awesomely
beautiful spiritual light that illuminates the spiritual domain of the soul.
Every life in the
physical world provides us with opportunities to learn and grow spiritually,
i.e., to become more and more enlightened. So, in case someone might be
interested, I will attempt to summarize what I have learned as a result of
using the kriya consciousness expanding techniques for 64 years, starting with
some astoundingly profound truths. But first, I must clarify what makes a truth
profound, as opposed to a less important, trivial truth. Danish physicist Niels
Bohr explained this distinction when he said: “The opposite of a
trivial truth is plainly false, while the opposite of a profound truth is also
true.” You may find this statement somewhat confusing, but it provides a way to
distinguish between a profound truth and a trivial truth. Here are some important
examples:
1. There is no such thing as nothing. This is
a profound truth arising from the fact that there is something real that
does exist. The undeniable truth that ‘something exists’ implies that
the exact opposite statement, i.e.: ‘nothing does not exist’ is also true.
2. A state of absolute
nothingness never existed and will never exist. Profound truth #1 and its opposite, coupled
with the law of conservation of mass and energy, verified by every scientific experiment
ever performed, allows us to definitively answer the question that the German
polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz called the first and most important question
that science should ask: Why is there something rather than nothing?
The profound truth that a state in which something presently exists, coupled
with the universal law of the conservation of matter and energy implies that ‘a
state of nothingness’ can never have existed, cannot exist now, and will never
exist in the future. Thus, the popular big bang theory of the origin of the
universe as an explosion of something from nothing, is pure science fiction. Something
has always existed.
3. Reality is the sum total of everything that has
ever existed, exists now, and will ever exist. This profound truth is implied by profound truth
#2 with the realization that space-time has no existence of its own.
These three profound truths verify Planck’s
breakthrough realization that he described with the following statements: “There
is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a
force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this minute
solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the
existence of a conscious and intelligent mind, and this mind is the matrix of
all matter.” As we shall see, Planck’s realization leads to a picture
of reality very different from the materialistic belief of mainstream science.
It’s very important to note that Albert Einstein
agreed with his good friend and colleague, Max Planck. Einstein said: “Concerning
matter, we've been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose
vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter
is spirit reduced to a point of visibility; there is no matter.”
Einstein added to Planck’s enlightenment regarding
the fundamental variables of physics by pointing out that proof of general
relativity implies that the assumption that space is a uniformly existing background,
in which all things exist, was also wrong. In June 1952, less than three years before
his death in April 1855, in a special appendix to his popular book titled Relativity,
the Special and the general Theory, a Clear Explanation that Anyone Can
Understand, He made this point, stating that “Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially
extended. In this way, the concept of ‘empty space’ loses its meaning, and
space can claim no existence of its own.”
From 1981 until 1986, while living and working
in the Middle East, I had time between jobs to do some serious thinking about
what these bombshell statements made by Planck and Einstein really meant. I
reasoned that if the common assumptions about the most basic variables of our
scientific model of physical reality, i.e., matter, energy, space, and time, that
seemed so obvious were wrong, then our model of the nature of reality, being
based on those assumptions was also wrong.
If Planck and Einstein were right, the concept
of matter measured in units of mass mathematically equivalent to a huge number
of units of energy determined by the equation E = mc2, with the
concept of energy measured in units defined by the amount of force required to move
the mass of an electron through a unit of space in a unit of time, and all four
variables are dependent upon the “existence of a conscious and intelligent mind”,
then a new calculus, a new mathematical logic that includes a unitary measure
of consciousness was needed. So, I began working to adapt G. Spencer Brown’s
primary calculus of mathematical logic, as defined in his book Laws of Form,
for application to, and analysis of the interface of consciousness with relativistic,
quantized physical reality. No small task.
I realized that to create an internally
consistent quantum calculus designed to deal with the infinite continuity of
mind interacting with the finite quantized nature of physical reality in a
mathematically and logically consistent manner, I had to define a basic quantum
equivalence unit for all of the fundamental units of measurement. To avoid the
inconsistency of the basic unit of consciousness turning out to be mathematically
incommensurable with the basic units of mass, energy, space, and time, the basic
quantum equivalence unit had to be based on the mass or equivalent energy and the
volume of the smallest sub-atomic entity, which happens to be the free
electron. To emphasize the unit’s dimensionality, I called this basic unit of
the calculus the triadic rotational unit of equivalence (TRUE).
At this point, an important question arises: What
if mind and matter are intrinsically incommensurable? If so, consciousness
can’t be quantized in any logically consistent way. The obvious way around this
conundrum is: If physical reality reflects the logical structure of Primary Consciousness,
it will be internally consistent only if the logic of Primary Consciousness is
internally consistent. The fact that we exist in a complex, highly structured physical
universe that appears to conform to a set of cause-and-effect laws that we are able
to discover, and are in the process of discovering, suggests that the logical
structure of Primary Consciousness is internally consistent. The bottom line is
that the way forward is to assume that Primary Consciousness and its reflection
in physical reality are logically consistent and proceed to define the most basic
quantum equivalence unit by setting both the mass-energy equivalence and volume
of the free electron to unity and see what happens. In other words, the proof
is in the pudding!
When I applied the electron-based
quantum calculus to the analysis of the logical structure of the most stable
object in the universe, the proton, the quantized measure of organization linking
the conscious intelligent mind with physical reality emerged as the third form
of the essence of reality with no intrinsic mass or energy. We, Dr. Vernon
Neppe and I, chose to represent this new variable with Gimel, the third letter
of the Hebrew alphabet.
Converting the total
mass and energy of the proton to TRUE units of energy, we found that without
the presence of a specific number of mass-less, energy-less units of Gimel
contributing to the total volume and angular momentum of the proton, it would
not be stable. Including the units of mass-less Gimel allowed us to calculate the
exact mass and volume of the stable hydrogen atom in TRUE units. The addition
of units of Gimel in subatomic structure also allowed us to calculate the exact
mass and volume of the neutron and explain how and why neutrons are formed in the
more complex atoms of the periodic table. The success of this preliminary application
of the new calculus was encouraging.
We found that every
stable atom contains the specific number of TRUE units of Gimel that are needed
to make it geometrically symmetric and stable. We were not surprised to find
that the elements and compounds that have the most Gimel are the elements that
support intelligent forms of life. Happily, the existence of Gimel also explains
many, if not all of the paradoxical puzzles and the “weirdness” of quantum
physics that physicists like to talk about. With dozens of successful
resolutions of the logical paradoxes of particle physics and some predictions
verified experimentally, we consider the theory we called the Triadic
Dimensional Vortical Paradigm (TDVP) no longer hypothetical, and the original assumption
of a logically consistent electron-based quantum equivalence unit has been verified.
The presence of volumetric
quantum equivalence units (TRUE) of Gimel in atomic structure turns out to be mathematically
related to the wave lengths and frequencies of light released by radioactive
decay. The exact volume of TRUE units of the orbital electrons and Gimel
existing in each energy shell explains the complex electron energy-shell
geometry of atom structure. I want to use the rest of this discussion to focus
on the knowledge of this intimate relationship of Gimel to consciousness and
light at the quantum level because I believe
that a deeper understanding of this relationship can help us to understand how meditation
techniques like Kriya can accelerate the growth of mental and spiritual virtue and
affect positive results in the physical world that could very well save human
civilization from self-destruction and extinction on this planet.
The discovery of
Gimel and its role as the measurable organizer of subatomic structure, provides
us with a new understanding that allows us to focus on ways that we can consciously
connect with the infinite continuity of Primary Consciousness while occupying finite
physical bodies. Visualizing the geometry of progressive unitary projection into
hyperspace provides us with a way to project our individualized consciousness
from the finite, quantized world of physical existence into the infinitely
continuous domain of Spirit. This is possible only if the most basic phenomena that
make up all aspects of reality, including mass, energy, gimel, and
consciousness, is light.
The images of the reality
that we are aware of through our senses, we conceptualize in our minds as
objects interacting in space and time according to the logic and intent of
Primary Consciousness, and we call our descriptions of the elements of that primary
logic that we have been able to discover and formalize in the language of
mathematics, the laws of nature. I am forever grateful for the realizations of the
Spiritual Masters of all times and for the insights of Einstein, Planck, and
Bohr, that led to the discovery of Gimel, the link between mind and matter,
between the finite and the infinite, because otherwise, most of us alive on
this planet today would only be able to imagine what it might be like to
experience the perfection from which the divine light that forms all of reality
radiates.
As conscious beings,
we can never be satisfied with the forms that manifest at the low vibratory
energy levels available to us as finite physical beings evolving toward the
perfection of the infinite, timeless, all-pervasive expanding form of Primary
Consciousness that we so imperfectly reflect. What we see and think of as solid
matter and tangible energy in the form of objects and living beings in the
dimensions of space and time, are really only incomplete images of perfect
forms, vibrating and flickering like faint reflections of the divine light dancing
in the multi-dimensional domain of Primary Consciousness.
Individual conscious
beings in the physical universe are animated and motivated by an innate desire
to live, feel, and experience progressively greater dimensional domains of reality.
This innate desire for more awareness originates in the spiritual nature of the
substrate of reality coming out of Primary Consciousness, and it drives the long-term
physical, mental, and spiritual evolution of cosmological reality.
Understanding this intellectually is the first, and unfortunately, the easiest
step toward conscious positive expansion of individualized consciousness. The
concrete visualization of a path from intellectual understanding to spiritual
enlightenment is possible in one lifetime for any human being alive on this
planet, but the road from imagination to actualization is very difficult.
Thinking about enlightenment and actually achieving it are two very different
things.
Fortunately, help is
available from a few historical figures who have achieved ultimate
enlightenment and in the teachings of others who have achieved high levels of
enlightenment beyond that available to the average person. You will be able to find
the enlightened souls, whether they are in physical form or not, when your urgent
need to know the true nature of reality becomes greater than your desire for
physical pleasure. If you seek them in earnest, and you develop the ability to
see the divine light of the spiritual eye, then you will know them by the light
that shines within them and by the fruits of their actions.
As we descended from
the last highest age of mental and spiritual virtue into the dark age that
reached the lowest point around 500 A.D., techniques for consciousness
expansion were still being taught by a few individuals who reached the ultimate
enlightenment as spiritual masters in previous lives. Small groups developed in
the presence of these special beings to enjoy the loving fellowship they
engendered, but when they were gone, the groups they established soon devolved
into social organizations that we now call religions, as their teachings were
subverted by political opportunists incapable of understanding the actual
meaning and intent of the teachings, into ways and means to control people.
Fortunately, the
essence of the knowledge and technologies developed during previous ages of
enlightenment are stored in stone structures around the world both by
technological means and natural processes. Such storage comprises the planet’s
memory and preserves information that might have otherwise disappeared along
with most of the evidence of the last post-materialist civilizations, destroyed
by natural weathering, cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, and platonic subduction.
We should also be thankful that practical methods of consciousness expansion
like the kriya techniques mentioned here have been preserved by a few advanced
souls reincarnated for the specific purpose of helping humanity survive. Thankfully,
the knowledge and wisdom needed for spiritual evolution is never completely
lost. But, because of the great disparity between the slow progress of cosmic
time and the brief endurance of human life, the efforts of individual lives may
seem tragically futile unless effective consciousness-expanding spiritual
techniques like kriya are known and practiced diligently.
Research and
application of the mathematical logic of the quantum calculus has proved that the
structures of energy and mass that comprise physical reality are stable only
because of the existence of Gimel, and total mass as energy and Gimel are
conserved in every experiment and observable natural process. Therefore, Gimel
and the consciousness its existence implies have always existed and will always
continue to exist, even if human beings foolishly destroy themselves during the
dark ages of mechanistic materialism.
Primary Consciousness
is expanding into and back out of the infinity of itself in hyper-dimensional
reality, but the individualized bubbles of consciousness that we possess as
human beings in the four dimensions of space-time, are capable of expanding and
contracting. This is what makes practices like the kriya techniques so useful. To
understand how and why an energy focusing technique like kriya can be very practical
and effective as a spiritual practice, it is helpful to think of reality, from
electrons to atoms, from molecules to living cells, from plants and animals to
human beings, and everything else that exists in the universe, as consisting of
light.
By simply beginning to
concentrate on the sensations of your breath flowing in and out of your lung as
light, you can gradually increase your awareness of other deeper, more subtle
movements of energy in your body that are associated with consciousness, and become
aware of the movement of consciousness itself, as light.
There are some
venerable traditions hidden within the major religions of this world,
discounted by modern science as arcane and mysterious at best, that are
remnants of the original teachings of fully realized spiritual masters from previous
cycles of enlightenment. These venerable spiritual traditions include Sufism in
Islam, Tibetan Yoga, Zen Buddhism, Jewish and Christian Mysticism, Sikhism,
Jainism, various forms of Raja Yoga in Hinduism, and other cultural traditions
now forgotten and/or hidden in the illusions of space-time and matter. All of
these traditions contain some form of concentration on the spiritual light of
the soul, similar to the kriya techniques. For example, Sufi Pir Vilayat Inayat
Khan advises the advanced seeker to “fashion a body of light and become a being
of light”.
Everything is ultimately
made of some form of light, and every conscious entity has a radiant aura of
light associated with its existence. Subtle spiritual bodies exist, whether you
can see them or not. But, if you see no light within yourself, don’t be discouraged.
With some determination and effort, you may be able to tap into the spiritual structures
manifested by some of the various traditions mentioned above. Jesus, as a Rabbi
teaching his followers how to pray and how to live, is quoted in the Book of
Matthew saying, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” I can attest to the truth of this,
having experienced it personally on occasion while focusing on the light of the
spiritual eye.
Based on experiences
with the higher-dimensional phenomena of spiritual light like the one I’ve
discussed here, I conclude that physical vision is a dim reflection of
spiritual vision, and I believe that “if therefore thine eye be single, thy
whole body shall be full of light” was a metaphor that an enlightened man named
Jesus used to direct spiritual seekers to turn their attention to the spiritual
reality within. If we consciously withdraw the energy normally wasted on distractions
and focus it on the spiritual eye and the light existing within, then we can allow
the whole spectrum of the light of Primary Consciousness to fill our minds and bodies,
and God’s healing Love will begin to manifest in our lives.
