Three Stages of Centering
on the Path of Spiritual
Self-Realization
Many years ago we created a 20-hour video film titled Three Steps of Centering. But since that time much technical advancement has been made in the field of video production, and unfortunately this film is out of date now due to its old technical quality.
But we ourselves have managed to make significant progress in gaining knowledge and experience on the Path of spiritual development. And it makes sense now to discuss this subject again — at the current new cycle of its development.
It is not necessary to describe all the numerous nuances of the spiritual Path in this short article. Let us just point out basic milestones for the travelers. One can continue the research with a help of the literature given in the end of this book.
Stage 1
In any country and in any large town people differ significantly among themselves. This concerns not sexual or national differences. The main difference here is the quality of incarnate souls according to their evolutionary age and according to what qualities these people have developed during the time of their incarnations.
Some people are capable of leading a way of life which is not better than the life of animals or even worse. Such people are driven by emotions of aggression, envy, greed, lust (egoistic sexual desires), revenge, jealousy, etc. If they come to a religious environment, they can only beg from God forgiveness for their real or imaginary vices, to participate in allegedly “saving” rituals, to take part in feasts (to drink heavily) when celebrating certain events from the history. And if they are influenced by strong personalities (quite often of devilish nature), then they join masses of religious fanatics who are similar to gangs of rowdy football fans or to functionaries of criminal political regimes…
Completely different from them are people possessing an intellect developed in the process of their personal evolution. They are, for example, true scientists (contrary to those who came to the scientific field by chance), writers, people of art, journalists, successful businessmen and politicians.
Such people do not accept primitive religious forms. Therefore many of them live as atheists — until they encounter a wise religious-philosophical concept.
Yes, it is people with a developed intellect that are capable of mastering successfully the stages of the spiritual Path. On the other hand, without a developed intellect, one cannot comprehend even the basics of ethics. And for these people, the Creator does not allow approaching Him!
… The intellectually developed person can discover true religious-philosophical knowledge, become acquainted with it, and accept the principles of life on the Earth suggested to us by God. Then such a person can begin to master the first stage of psycho-energetical development. This stage implies development of oneself as a spiritual heart.
… In the human organism there are seven bioenergetical organs which are called chakras.
The most important of them is the central chakra anahata located in the chest. It is an organ responsible for producing the entire spectrum of the emotions of love.
Above the anahata there is the neck chakra vishuddha responsible for aesthetical appraisal of situations.
Above it, in the head, there are two chakras (ajna and sahasrara) responsible for intellectual functions.
Below the anahata, in the upper half of the abdomen, there is the chakra manipura. Its function consists in supplying the energecity of the organism.
In the lower half of the abdomen, there is the chakra svadhisthana producing, in particular, sexual emotions.
And in the lower part of the pelvis, there is the muladhara chakra, whose function consists in taking part in accumulating the energy of the organism. (For more details about the chakras see [9]).
All the chakras are necessary. There are no good or bad chakras. It is desirable that all the chakras be purified from energetical contamination and developed.
Another chakra, which is very important on the spiritual Path, — the sahasrara located in the top part of the head at the place of the cerebral hemispheres. A high level of development of this chakra signifies one’s large intellectual potential, which is very important for successful spiritual development.
But for further spiritual advancement, such a person has to abandon the tendency of centering oneself in the head and has to begin to center the consciousness in the chakra anahata.
It is in this way all true spiritual seekers from different religious movements, including Christians-Hesychasts, achieved success [9].
It is possible to say that those, who have mastered the centering of themselves in the anahatas, have mastered successfully the first principal stage of the spiritual Path.
This achievement is significant not only for advancement of the spiritual heights. Anahatic, cordial qualities of a person allow him or her to continue living in harmony, in happy state — independent of the circumstances. For most people, it is pleasant to communicate with such a person. They become the sources of spiritual light for others! They also become invincible to diseases, which plague those who always live in negative emotions.
… The Creator is the most subtle form of consciousness.
Opposite of Him are inhabitants of hell, which is the “rubbish heap” of the evolutionary Process. They are most coarse by their energetical status, which have been developed by them during their incarnations.
So the Path to the Creator implies, among other things, refinement of the consciousness. How can one do it? — Through the control over emotions with the help of the art of psychical self-regulation [9].
Let me explain that those emotions are the states of the consciousnesses (souls). And after the death of the material body, we continue to live in the state which was most habitual for us during the incarnate life. In this way we predetermine ourselves to live either in hell or in paradise!
This is one of the reasons why to work with the anahata chakra is so important. In this chakra, no coarse emotional states can occur; it produces only subtle emotions of love: emotions of tenderness, care, gratitude, reverence, etc.
And if we live constantly in this chakra, we can easily rid ourselves of all coarse emotional states and habituate ourselves to subtle states.
Moreover, it is the emotions of love that can bring souls to mutual mergence. By learning love in contacts with such objects of the Creation as other people, animals, plants, living nature, etc. — we prepare ourselves to the Mergence with the Divine Souls — the Holy Spirits and then with the entire Primordial Consciousness.
Stage 2
On the spiritual Path we have to strive to achieve the level of subtlety of the Primordial Consciousness. Also we need power of the refined consciousness, which is important for the soul to be able to act actively inside and outside its current material body. Without this power one cannot even move from one spatial dimension to another, say nothing of staying in other dimensions. And the power of an individual consciousness depends directly on the size of the consciousness.
How can one become a great soul (mahatma) during the current incarnation in a reasonable period of time? Only with the help of special training of oneself-consciousness.
The spiritual heart is a structure of the consciousness that can begin to grow inside the chakra anahata if there are conditions favorable for this. Further efforts on a) developing the spiritual heart, and then b) developing oneself as a spiritual heart — allow one to overgrow in size the anahata chakra, then the entire material body, and then one can grow more and more — up to infinity…
What such trainings consist in? In the beginning, if we have mastered the chakra anahata, we can learn to push its walls from inside with the hands of the consciousness. Then we can learn to fill “cocoons” of energetically subtle and powerful plants (plants of power). Then — to fill in the same manner the Forms of Consciousnesses of our Divine Teachers — the Holy Spirits — at Their working sites.
It is clear that for perceiving Them and communicating successfully with Them, we need to refine the consciousness to the necessary level.
Holy Spirits, penetrating easily — in Their eon — through the matter of the Earth and through any material objects, come out from Their Abode and manifest Themselves for incarnate people in the form of Mahadoubles: giant anthropomorphic Forms consisting of subtle flame-like Light. These Mahadoubles can be from tens of meters up to kilometers in height; Their width at the level of the ground ranges from several meters to kilometers.
If we have learned to merge with Them by entering Their Forms, we can grow as consciousnesses with Their help inside these Forms.
Many Divine Teachers are ready to help us in this growth: Jesus Christ and His Apostles, Krishna, Babaji from Haidakhan, Sathya Sai Baba, Ptahhotep, Elisabeth Haich, Ngomo, Pythagoras, Thoth-the-Atlantean, Adler and many Others [5-6,8-9]. But let me repeat that we have to prepare ourselves for this, so that we become able to see Them and to communicate with Them as easily as we communicate with incarnate people.
… And then the question is: how can we cognize the Creator?
One of the ways to realization of this goal consists in settling oneself (as a consciousness developed as a spiritual heart) in the core of our planet.
The Fiery core of the Earth is that part of the planet which is most close — in the corresponding eon — to the state of the Creator. It is as if a connecting link between the Creator and this element of His Creation (planet Earth). And it can serve us as a passage to the Abode of the Primordial Consciousness.
The criterion of success in this work is the ability to feel the center of oneself in the core of the planet. This would mean that one has mastered the second stage of centering.
… One has to begin mastering the core with filling — with oneself-consciousness — our entire multidimensional planet — in its subtlest light-filled components, first of all.
Having cognized thus our planet through love for it and mergence with it, we can feel then very well the entire scale of multidimensionality: from the boundary with hell — up to the subtlety found in the planet’s core. If we have mastered this, it would be easy for us to submerge into the Abode of the Creator. Thus we begin the direct cognition of the main Goal of our existence, the main Goal of all our spiritual efforts.
Yet I have to warn you against an illusion which our imagination can create: one has to understand clearly that the distance to the core of our planet is measured by thousands of kilometers. Therefore it makes sense to ask oneself honestly: can I really expand the consciousness to such a distance now? Or I need first to continue growing as a spiritual heart, for example in the expanse over the sea, in the expanse of the steppe, in the majestic expanse seen from tops of mountains?
Stage 3
The third stage of centering implies fullness of Mergence with the Creator, which enables one to feel the center of oneself in His Abode. And all the rest existing in other eons is located as if around and outside this Center.
Let me note that the Creator calls Himself the Heart of the Absolute.
Moving from the second stage to the fullness of mastering of the third stage, requires, at least, years of unceasing spiritual efforts. It does not make sense to speak much about them in this article: those who have reached this summit are guided further by God.
But I want to mention two very important aspects of work at this stage:
The first one is the ability to enter the state of Mergence with the Divine Consciousness. The path to gaining this ability begins with developing in oneself a very important ethical quality called lowliness of mind — lowly, humble feeling of oneself. If one has not developed this quality, he or she has no chances for spiritual success.
Let me note also that Jesus Christ attached much importance to this!
I should also stress that the true lowliness of mind (contrary to its false imitations) can be gained only after mastering the first stage of centering.
One also strengthens the skills of Mergence with the help of special trainings in mastering the state of non-I. In this state the feeling of oneself is merged completely with the object of one’s love. And this object, in the end, has to be our Creator.
The second aspect is the necessity of developing the arms of the consciousness, which grow from the spiritual heart and are consensual to it. It is best to develop the strength of these arms by giving through them the power of one’s love — first to some particular incarnate beings, then to whole parts of our planet with all the beings living on them, and then by permeating with these arms the layers of the Absolute surrounding the Heart of the Absolute.
One can find more details about mastering this stage in the historical spiritual classics [8]. For example, one has to master the mergence of oneself — simultaneously with That Which Is Above and with That Which Is Below, as it was recommended by Hermes Trismegistus in the Emerald Tablet [8].
Vladimir Antonov, Ph.D. (in biology)
(chapter from the book Anatomy of God)
Translated from Russian
by Mikhail Nikolenko
