Chicago Gnosis Podcast

“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 Gnosis

While sincerity takes precedence over scripted prayer, many religious traditions like Tibetan Buddhism still preserve beautiful exemplars of how to pray to, provide offerings for, and develop a personal relationship with divinity. Although languages and forms differ, the principles of prayer are universal. Therefore, they are useful to study and practice no matter one’s faith, denomination, or creed.

This lecture examines the path and qualities of a bodhisattva as taught by Shantideva and Gnostic masters, focusing on initiation, bodhicitta, prayer, and selfless service to humanity. Explore practical methods and esoteric symbols: the Tree of Life, the five lower initiations, sexual alchemy, the six paramitas, and the mantra Om Masi Padme Hum, all of which emphasize meditation, introspection, and ethical transformation.

By examining Shantideva’s confessional prayers, one discovers the upright attitude and longings of a bodhisattva: an initiate who perfects bodhichitta, renounces heavenly power, and aspires to the spiritual heights to better serve suffering humanity. These reflections on humility and sacrifice can guide students to develop more patience, concentration, and wisdom to truly help others and incarnate the Christic force within. See also what how any spiritual student can cultivate bodhichitta on a daily basis.

Resources and References:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/becoming-a-vessel-of-compassion

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 virtue and strengthen our best qualities (because if we are blinded by our passions and desires, we are less effective in serving our communities). Learn how to develop concentration, imagination, and prayer in combination to produce a profound synthesis: the rare virtue of impactful, divine compassion in service of others' wellbeing.

This exercise accompanies the lecture Cultivating Bodhichitta Through Intention and Practice from The Way of the Bodhisattva course.

Resources and References:

“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 both needed to awaken and develop bodhichitta. See how through an exploration of Tibetan Buddhist psychology and Gnostic exercises.

Resources and References:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/cultivating-bodhichitta-through-intention-and-practice

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:

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 desires are transformed into unlikely and impactful virtues: generosity, altruism, ethics, patience, diligence, concentration, meditative serenity, and wisdom, otherwise known as the paramitas or perfections of a genuine spiritual master. It is also the fuel by which real faith is generated—the direct spiritual experience of divine, ultimate reality—which inspires any initiate to serve and sacrifice for humanity.

Resources and References:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/bodhichitta-alchemical-medicine-for-the-soul

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 gold (elevated spiritual consciousness). Such mutations constitute the central tenet of spiritual rebirth, for by perfecting the creative sexual energy, an average or degenerated person can be born again as an enlightened sage (John 3:3-5). For these reasons, the Nativity was and is celebrated by gnostic magi: true priest-kings who worship and strive to resurrect Christ within their being. See how through the writings of Samael Aun Weor and an explanation about the esoteric symbology of Christmas.

Resources and References:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/alchemical-nativity-of-the-magician-christ

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:

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 information on this topic, you can also reference the following resources:

"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 embodies the compassionate spirit of enlightenment, the state of ultimate reality, and the happiness experienced by those freed from confusion and suffering.

Resources and References

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/bodhichitta-liberation-through-enlightened-compassion

4th Movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (YouTube) with English Lyrics

Lyrics to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

For as long as space endures

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 all of the psychological contaminations and defects that make us suffer. What is also empowering is that we have the potential to become like these enlightened masters, whom in the east are known as bodhisattvas: "the essence or incarnation of wisdom," the latter word indicating Prajna in Sanskrit, or "vis-dom: the power of vision / perception." The equivalent Hebrew term is Chokmah חָכמָה, signifying Christ in the mystical Kabbalah.

The essence of genuine spirituality is kindness, selfless service, and comprehension of the root nature of all existence: the unsurpassed wisdom of emptiness, Prajna, Śūnyatā, or uncreated light of the Kabbalists, denominated in Gnostic terms as Khristos, Christ. Christ is not a human person, but the intense, primordial root energy of boundless compassion for suffering beings trapped within cyclic or manifested existence. This divine force, the emptiness of enlightened cognizance, sustains all of the universe and sacrifices itself by entering within those practitioners who are properly cultivated and prepared through the great perfections or paramitas, the trainings, principles, or qualities of awakened consciousness within Tibetan Buddhism.

Learn about the path of enlightenment through a gnostic exegesis of Shantideva's seminal Mahayana text, The Way of the Bodhisattva, and how the enlightened mind / heart of wisdom, bodhichitta, can be developed within the practitioner of any denomination, religion, or tradition.

This lecture introduces Shantideva's text, the purpose and contexts of its composition, and its practical application within the art and science of meditation. The lecturer also explains how the mystical kabbalah and the gnostic tradition of Samael Aun Weor can elucidate the esoteric nature of this scripture.

Resources and References:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/introduction-to-the-way-of-the-bodhisattva