Chicago Gnosis Podcast

Perception has many depths, heights, and qualities depending upon its level of conditioning. The more conditioned our perception, the greater our limitations and suffering; the less conditioned it is, the more alert, clear, and free our state becomes. By eliminating mistaken ways of seeing and experiencing life, we clarify our ability to discern the fundamental reality of all things: a state of li...

Those who wish to comprehend and eliminate the internal causes of suffering must cultivate meditative concentration: the ability to serenely focus attention upon one thing with continuous application, so that the mind settles, thoughts diminish, and clarity opens one's consciousness. In this state it becomes possible to receive insights or visions with one's imagination: the capacity to perceive n...

As practitioners conserve, elevate, and purify their energies through ethics and patient discipline, they need to enact and direct such forces for the edification of theirs and others' spirituality. Such empowered efforts amplify benefit for oneself, community, and world through the laws of karma: cause and effect. By understanding such dynamics in oneself, it becomes possible to cultivate the rea...

Our modern world deifies, celebrates, and defends anger. However, the world scriptures detail infinite reasons why this negative emotion is destructive and harmful. Despite conceptual knowledge about anger's detriments, extricating this afflictive state from one's mind stream is a daunting task. Fortunately, Shantideva's scripture expounds upon methods for identifying and transforming anger in the...

A continuation of  Mayan Principles of Being , this lecture explores the nature of psychological forces, attention, divine states, and mystical reality within The Flight of the Feathered Serpent, a book of Mayan esotericism. To understand the clarion call of its author, it is necessary to confront our current condition and the common state of humanity. Despite our best intentions, we live in a sta...

Real ethics is not a dogmatic system of principles, parameters, or prerogatives that one must strictly follow to achieve enlightenment. They instead constitute psychological ways of being that permeate our mind stream, atmosphere, relationships, and communities. By modifying our conditioned states of mind and curtailing states that produce suffering, we in turn ennoble ourselves and the people we...

The sexual force is the power of divinity to create through love, constituting the basis for generating and cultivating genuine virtues. Learn how the Buddhist paramita of generosity is taught within the three levels of religion (introductory, intermediate, and advanced); the nature of giving material goods, fearlessness, safety, protection, and spiritual teachings (dharma); the four ethers that i...

A prayer, relaxation, and visualization exercise from the Gnostic tradition of Samael Aun Weor, specifically an esoteric pronunciation of the traditional Buddhist mantra Om Mani Padme Hum.  This exercise accompanies the Becoming a Vessel of Compassion lecture from The Way of the Bodhisattva  course. For further study: (Glorian Publishing Lecture) The Mantra of Christ: Om Manipadme Hum

“When the mind has achieved absolute calm and silence, it can concentrate on the Inner Self. This concentration is done with the help of prayer. Pray to your Inner Self. Try to converse with your Inner Self. Remember that praying is conversing with God. You can pray without formulae; in other words, talk to God: tell him what your heart feels with infinite love.” —Samael Aun Weor, Introduction to...

This spiritual exercise is known in some gnostic circles as the prayer for the irradiation of love, a direct means for awakening, developing, and empowering bodhichitta. Such an exercise can be practiced any time to inflame and inspire the consciousness towards alleviating humanity's suffering. It is also a remedy for reducing one's own pain, because by focusing on others, we develop genuine virtu...

“People are weary of so many theories, now they want practical matters. They do not want more theories, or more intellectual vagueness, or more exploitation. So, let us come to practical facts. Let us come to the point.” —Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries Enacting enlightened, compassionate, or conscious love is different from intending it. While intention and action are different, they are bot...

Learn a simple relaxation exercise combined with self-observation and sexual transmutation, whereby one stills the mind, heart, and body, separates from the ego, and transforms creative energy to awaken consciousness. This exercise of Ham-Sah Pranayama accompanies the lecture on Bodhichitta: Alchemical Medicine for the Soul . For further study: Ham-Sah Pranayama (Guided Practice)

While a Mahayana text, The Way of the Bodhisattva encodes tantric teachings about harnessing the creative sexual energy. Literally the seminal force in Tibetan Buddhist tantric texts, bodhichitta is the power of awakening enlightened compassion through selfless love, especially within a perfect matrimony. In other words, bodhichitta is the power of ennobled or chaste sexuality, whereby dense desir...

Christ was a divine magician (from the Persian magoosh, magushan, or high “priest”), demonstrated by his self-mastery and command over the elements (transforming water into wine, walking on water, healing the sick, etc.). His transformative abilities were also symbolized by the principles of alchemy: the transformation of base metallic substances (negative psychological qualities) into superior go...

This guided practice accompanies How to Meditate on Melchizedek . Learn how to prepare the body, heart, and mind for meditation, for by entering the eight steps of Raja or Royal Yoga, meditators can receive divine help from the mysterious Master Melchizedek. To learn more, you can reference the following resources: Chicago Gnosis Article and Guided Practices: Spiritual Practice with Melchizedek Gl...

On any Saturday the 13th, meditators can concentrate upon, visualize, and receive special spiritual help from Melchizedek: a mysterious Biblical figure representative of the earth’s divine intelligence. The guest instructor provides the necessary practical skills to perform this meditation, so as to perceive, understand, and apply wisdom gained from interacting with this figure. For extensive info...

"There is no loftier mission than to approach the Godhead nearer than other mortals, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind." —Beethoven to Archduke Randolf when composing the Missa Solemnis Learn about the rare and impactful nature of bodhichitta: the joyful attitude that selflessly loves, serves, and redeems humanity. See how through the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, whose masterpiece e...

For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world. ―Shantideva Compassion and generosity are the hallmarks of the most elevated souls, fully manifested within beings like Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Moses, and all the prophets. The amazing fact is that such beings were once like us: filled with greed, envy, resentment, and...

The Age of Pisces was defined by a conservative adherence to lineage and tradition, since the deepest spiritual knowledge was never written down, but secretly transmitted from master to disciple. Only initiated candidates could receive tutelage under the auspices of a qualified adept, whereby the mysteries of esoteric religion were discreetly communicated from mouth to ear. While an effective mode...

Celebrate both the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur: Oct. 2nd) and an upcoming Gnostic holiday (Saturday, December 13th) in relation to the spiritual Master Melchizedek. Discover how to atone for one’s defects and receive divine blessings from this enigmatic initiate on any day, but especially every Saturday the 13th at the 13th hour (12 - 1 pm). To learn more about this event, you can reference the f...

After tragically failing Margherita, Faust longs for the perfection and beauty of Ancient Greece (Arcadia, the prelapsarian world of Eden) where Mefistofele transports him to administer a more subtle, daring, and intense temptation: that of remaining in the lower heavens of the gods (initiates of the superior worlds). There in the bliss of Nirvana, one easily forgets the sorrows of humanity and th...

Margherita (the trapped and conditioned feminine consciousness), has lost her reason due to Faust’s abandonment and the death of her (divine) mother, since the sleeping potion had deleterious effects. Driven to insanity, the distressed Margherita, having born Faust’s child, drowns it in a pond to spite her absent lover. Faust is driven by remorse to seek her in the bowels of a prison with the help...

Through the gifts of his newfound diabolic companion, Faust recuperates his vitality and youth, capitalizing on his new abilities in the effort to seduce Margherita, a beautiful but naive young woman from town. To assist in the magician’s sensual escapades and dangerous liaison, Mefistofele provides him with a sleeping potion to drug Margherita’s mother and therefore avoid detection during the lov...

Like Beethoven, Arrigo Boito composed only one opera (Mefistofele), yet whose mystical allegory, musical power, and masterful lyricism continues to resonate with audiences worldwide. This clever yet profound opera also inspires, alarms, and, quite frequently, amuses. Based on medieval legends and Goethe’s play Faust, this work depicts the famous and jaded scholar who makes a bet with the devil: to...

The Greek brother-deities Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) symbolize the deep significance of these phenomena in relationship to spiritual awakening. By learning about the ways humanity is unenlightened or unconscious, it becomes possible to develop our complete potential and awaken to the realities of the spirit beyond death. See how through an exploration of four states of consciousness as we...