Communing with the Master Within

What is the Master Within?

By Richard Duane Saxton FRC - AMORC

The Master within is that part of you which mediates between your everyday
consciousness and Divine mind or Cosmic Consciousness. It is your connection to the
universal soul. Some other names are Higher Self, Holy Spirit, Inner Guide, Inner
Teacher, still small voice, and God within.

The Egyptian god Thoth can be seen as a metaphor for the master within. According to
the Ebers Papyrus, a 68-foot-long scroll on alchemy that may be the oldest book in the
world: "Man's guide is Thoth, who bestows on him the gifts of his speech, who makes the
books, and illumines those who are learned therein, and the physicians who follow him, that
they may work cures." He was called the "Revealer of the Hidden" and "Lord of Rebirth".
Thoth was the guide to higher states of consciousness and initiator of human
enlightenment. One of Thoth's scrolls, The Book of Breathings, taught how people
could become gods through breath control and focusing of consciousness. Thoth, as
inventor of both mathematics and music, embodied the rational powers of the masculine
mind, as well as the intuitive, sensory characteristics of the feminine mind. Thoth was a
personification of the united powers of Cosmic Consciousness and the universal soul.

According to our Order's teachings, the soul of each person is an individualization of

this Universal Soul and therefore is an emanation of Divinity. It is referred to in some of
our rituals as "God of our heart, God of our realization".

The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in the essay "The over-soul", "The Supreme
Critic on all the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be,
is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that
Unity, that Over-Soul, within which every one's particular being is contained and made one
with all other; that common heart of which all sincere conversation is the worship, to which all
right action is submission; that overpowering reality which confutes our tricks and talents, and
constrains every one to pass for what he is, and to speak from his character and not from his
tongue, and which evermore tends to pass into our thought and hand and become wisdom and
virtue and power and beauty. We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within each of us is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to
which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.”

The soul is undefinable, unmeasurable; but we know that it pervades and contains us. We know
that all spiritual being is in us. A wise old proverb says, "God comes to see us without bell":

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that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is
no bar or wall in the soul, where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. The
walls are taken away. We lie open on one side to the deeps of spiritual nature, to all the
attributes of God." This quote is consistent with Rosicrucian teachings about the soul..

Since the human soul is part of the universal soul, it is presumed to be perfect. One
might wonder, if the soul is perfect, why aren't people perfect. The Order teaches that
the reason people do not reflect the perfection of the soul in their daily life, is because
we are not perfectly conscious of the qualities of the soul. In fact, the teachings indicate
that the main purpose of creation is for God to become conscious of itself through its
creation. The soul personality is that part of us which retains the lessons of life and our
ability to express the nature of the soul. This soul personality reincarnates until it has
perfected its awareness and expression of the soul as much as can be done on the Earth
plane. Thus, communing with your soul, or the Master within, is not only a way to
perfect your soul personality, but to participate in expanding God's awareness of itself.

Contacting the Master Within

There are many ways to contact your Master Within, your Inner Teacher. Some are of a
mundane daily nature, and some are through various methods of meditation.

During your daily activities you can:

*Have a dialog with your Inner teacher.

*Watch your life experience for sycronocity and repeated lessons
*Be mindful of your thoughts and emotions during the day.
*Keep a Journal.

All these things will be helpful in building a relationship with your

inner teacher.

You should also take time to commune with your Master Within through meditation.
Some types of meditation are:

*Communing in mental silence or meditation without seed.

*Using a mantra to still the mental chatter.
*Watching your mind and asking the question "Who is aware".
*Using physical movement in a mindful way.
*Being mindful of a your thoughts and emotions without being

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attached to them.
*Using visualization to attune to the Master within.
*Rosicrucian method of meditating which I will describe later.

The important thing in all these methods is intention. You must be aware of your
intention to commune with your Inner Teacher.

Developing a relationship with your Master within is like developing any relationship, in
that you have to work on it on a daily basis. Since communication with your Inner
Teacher is done through your subconscious mind, you have to impress upon it the
importance you place upon this communication. The subconscious mind is a mind of
habit and automatic responses. You have to get it in a habit of communicating with your
Inner teacher. You can have an inner dialog with the Master within whenever you have
a spare moment. Just mentally ask it a question about something of a spiritual nature
that you wish to know. Then remain silent and wait for the answer. At first, it will be a
one sided conversation. But with persistence, you will get a response. It will often be
rather subtle. More like a whisper or a feeling, but it will come with a sense of certainty.
It may be a knowing without words. It is helpful to keep a journal of your inner dialogs.
Not only will you have a record of your progress, but more importantly, journaling will
impress upon your subconscious mind how much importance you place on these
contacts. Also, a mental attitude of reverence for the Master Within will also favorable
impress your subconscious mind.

The Inner Teacher has other ways of communicating with you during your daily
activities. Synchronocity of events in your life may be telling you there is an important
lesson to learn. Journaling can help you here as well. We often allow our lives to
become hectic and get into reaction mode. By making journal entries as the end of the
day, you may find repeated patterns that were missed while in reaction mode. In many
ways, living Life is like attending a Mystery School. The purpose of this school is to
help your soul personality become aware of the Divine essence of your soul and to live
in accord with its nature. Just as you took notes while attending public school, you
should take notes while attending the School of Life.

Another analogy between public school and the School of Life is that the teacher expects
you to pay attention and not day dream. Most of us are continually day dreaming. We
think about the past, about possible futures and fantasy's. But to hear the Inner Teacher,
you must be conscious of the present. During the day, we often have periods of waiting
such as waiting in line, waiting for an appointment, and riding on the bus or walking.

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These are excellent opportunities to practice living in the present. You can observe your
thoughts without commenting on them or getting involved with them. Perhaps
consciously searching for their source. Not by more thinking, but by turning your
consciousness inward. While watching your thoughts, you might wonder "Who is
thinking these thoughts, or Who is aware of these thoughts". Follow your thoughts back
to their source.

You can become aware of your emotional response to various thoughts. You can also
watch your breath. Again, not interfering, but just watching. Yet another thing you can
do is to observe your posture. Are you tense? Are you leaning forward? Just be present
in your body and aware of all the sensations. As Meister Eckhart, a medieval theologian
said "There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new.
There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as
it will be a thousand years hence."

Formal Meditation techniques

Each day you should also set aside some time to commune with the Master within by
meditating. It is best to do it in your sanctum if possible. But it is better to do it
anywhere you can be alone, rather than not at all. As I mentioned before, there are many
techniques for meditating. One way involves communing with your soul. Plotinus, who
is considered the father of Neoplatonism, has this to say about meditation. "You can only
apprehend the Infinite by meditation, a faculty superior to reason, by entering into a state in
which you are your finite self no longer; in which the divine essence is communicated to you.
This is ecstasy. It is the liberation of your mind from its finite consciousness. Like can only
apprehend like; when you thus cease to be finite, you become one with the Infinite. In the
reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union, this
identity."

This identification with your soul is the ultimate goal of meditation. But it can take years
or decades to achieve even occasionally. That is why daily practice of mental discipline
such as concentration, mindfulness, as well as inner dialog and attunement with the
Master Within is so important. It has been said that "When the student is ready, the
master will appear". This is your Master Within. It's purpose is to teach you to attune
and identify with the Divine soul.

The Rosicrucian method of meditating has two phases; An active phase in which you
consider the purpose of your meditation. If the purpose is to receive guidance about a

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problem in your life, you should review the situation and analyze what you know about
it including possible solutions. Do so with the idea in mind that you wish to know how
to deal with the situation. This is different than visualizing a thing or situation that you
want to manifest. The purpose here is to get wisdom from your Higher Self rather than
build a thought form.

The second phase is the passive phase. You should ask your Master Within for guidance
about your problem or revelation about the subject of your meditation. Then remain
passive and receptive to your Master within with an attitude of expectation. This will
release the object of the first phase into the Cosmic Mind. This is very important.

Remaining passive is difficult for most of us. That is one reason to practice mindfulness
at convenient times during the day. It is a skill that can be learned, but must be practiced
to achieve. But until then, there are techniques you can use to still the objective mind.
You can intone vowel sounds or mentally rehearse a mantra. You can use visualization
to see yourself in your inner sanctum along with your master within. Waiting for him or
her to speak to you. But to empty your objective minded completely would be the best.
As Meister Eckhart said "If a man will work an inward work, he must pour all his powers
into himself as into a corner of the soul, and must hide himself from all images and forms.
Then he must come into a forgetting and a not-knowing. He must be in a stillness and silence
where the ineffable word may be heard. When one knows nothing, it is opened and revealed."

The desired answer may come to you during the passive phase and be quite clear to your
objective mind. Often as a series of especially significant ideas that seem to come of
their own accord. Otherwise, it can be received many hours, even many days later,
either as a dream, a vivid intuition, or an unconscious need to act in a certain kind of
way. It is also possible that the answer will be given through an encounter, a book, or
some other event capable of providing the required solution. Synchronocity can be be a
communication from your Inner Teacher, but of course not everything that happens to
you is a Divine communication.

This type of Communion with the Divine Mind has been practiced for thousands of
years. The Corpus Hermeticum is a series of Hermetic essays written about 2000 years
ago. In closing, I wish to read what it has to say about how to commune with the
Divine Mind. "My Thoughts were seriously busied about the things that are, and my
Understanding lifted up, all my bodily Senses being exceedingly held back, as it is with those
that are very heavy of sleep, by reason either of fullness of meat, or of bodily labor. I thought I
saw one of an exceeding great stature, and an infinite greatness called me by my name, and
said, "What would you Hear and See? or what do you wish to Understand, to Learn, and to

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Know!"

Then I said, " Who are you?"

He said "I am Poemander, the mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperor:
I know what you would have, and I am always present with you."

Then I said, "I would Learn the Things that are, and Understand the
Nature of them and know God."

"How?" he said.

I answered, "That I would gladly listen.''

Then he said, "Have me again in your mind, and whatsoever you would
learn, I will teach you."

When he had finished, he was changed in his Idea or Form and straightaway in the twinkling
of an eye, all things were opened to me: and I saw an infinite Sight, all things were become
light, both sweet and exceedingly pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding
it."