GNOSIS Volume 1 Table of Contents 1) Acknowledgements p. 4 2) Index p. 7 3) Warning to the Reader p. 15 4) Author's Foreword p. 21 5) Introduction p. 25 First Part: MAN CHAPTER I ‑ p. 33 Interior life of man. Instability of the I. Introspection as a method of work. What we can gather by introspection. The three currents of psychic life. Particles of iron powder. Rubbing, heat & fixing. The Law of Hazard or of Accident. Plurality of the I. What is man ? The body & the Soul. The Personality. The three psychic centers. CHAPTER II ‑ p. 43 Knowledge (savoir) & understanding. Consciousness & its functions. Four levels of Consciousness: Sub‑ consciousness, waking consciousness, Real I consci‑ ousness & Consciousness. The problem of being. Four levels of being. Containing & contents. Knowledge, understanding & know‑how (savoir‑faire). CHAPTER III ‑ p. 51 The Personality enjoying a certain autonomy. The intimate link with the body. Mastering the latter. Pose of the Sage. Study of the structure of the Personality. The three psychic centers: intellectual, emotive & motor; their structure. The three fundam‑ ental types of exterior man: men 1, 2 or 3. their characteristics. CHAPTER IV ‑ p. 60 The three I's of man: the I of the body (physical), the I of the Personality (psychic), the real I (spiritual). Their relation in theory & practice. The 987 little I's & the results of the possible comb‑ inations of the three centers & their sectors. CHAPTER V ‑ p. 67 The physical I as the consciousness of the body: its field of action ‑ The psychic I as the consciousness of the Personality. Illogicality of the psychic life of man. Explanation of his apparent continuity. Interior & exterior conflicts. Buffers. The auto‑ tranquilising mechanism. Various cases of juncture. Lumps. Pathological cases. Division & dissolution of the Personality. The constant number of elements com‑ posing the Personality. Personality of the child. Formation of the Character. CHAPTER VI ‑ p. 78 The Personality of the adult man. His components. The active & dominant position in the Exterior man. Manifestations of the real I. Man taken no more as a fact but as a possibility. Aptitude of evolution. Resistance of the Personality. General notion of esoterism & its three degrees. "A" & "B" influences Formation of a fourth center i.e. the magnetic center. CHAPTER VII ‑ p. 92 The superior centers & their structure. Conditions of their connection with the Personality. The ties bet‑ ween the inferior centers & the growth of the magnetic center. Repercussion of its development on the Person‑ ality of the Exterior man. Instrument of morality in the Exterior man. Junction with the superior centers. Man 5, 6 & 7. SECOND PART: THE UNIVERSE CHAPTER VIII ‑ p. 105 Man in so much as being an integral part of the Uni‑ verse. Conception of the Universe as a living organ‑ ism. The double meaning of man's existence. The Gen‑ eral Law & the Law of Exception. The Absolute. His non‑manifested state & manifestation. The three fund‑ amental conditions of creation: Space, Time & Equili‑ brium. Three basic principles of life: static dynamic & neutralising. Eternity. Accomplishment. General notion of the structure of the Universe. CHAPTER IX ‑ p. 116 The first fundamental law of the created Universe. The Law of Three. Discernment between the "A" & the "B" influences. Structure of the Ray of Creation. Rectifying laws corresponding to each echelon of the Ray of Creation. CHAPTER X ‑ p. 127 Functioning of the created Universe: the second fund‑ amental law of the created Universe. The Law of Seven or the Law of the Octave. Principle of Equili‑ brium. Problem of material‑energy. CHAPTER XI ‑ p. 142 Plan of Creation & its application. The Cosmic Octave. The Lateral Octave, its functioning & its significance in connection with the Cosmic Octave. CHAPTER XII ‑ p. 154 Life of the Universe along the Ray of Creation. System of the Cosmos. Significance of the names attributed to the various echelons of the System of the Cosmos. Ascending & descending Octaves. CHAPTER XIII ‑ p. 169 Principle of Relativity. Objective & subjective notion of Time. The units of Time. Table of equivalence. The constant correspondence between the different units of Time: impression, respiration, waking & sleep, life. Table of evolution. Dimensions of Space & Time. Their parallelism. CHAPTER XIV ‑ p. 183 Principle of Equilibrium. Principle of Imperfection. Life ‑ Love ‑ Death ‑ Individuality. Perfect couple formed by two polar beings. Karma. Influence of the principle of Equilibrium on the Law of Seven, allowing among others, the explanation of the nutrition of the Universe. Organic correspondence existing between the form & the contents. THIRD PART: THE WAY CHAPTER XV ‑ p. 203 Definition of the Way. Illusion. The Way & the Brush. The Route & Path of Access to the Way. Return is prohibited for him who engages on the Way: the Way is in a one way direction. Resistence of the General Law to the seeking of the Way.Evolution of the Personality & birth of the Individuality. The real I & the real Life. CHAPTER XVI ‑ p. 217 Moral bankruptcy to which exterior life is drawn. Exterior man experiences the need to search for the Way when he ascertains & recognises his own moral bankruptcy. Arrangement of his interior "cage" & sheltered from the "A" influences. Discrimination between the "A" & the "B" influences. Exterior consid‑ eration. The leven of the Pharisees. The invisible conflict. The Mystery of Accomplishment. CHAPTER XVII ‑ p. 233 Lying & stealing are the dominant characteristics of exterior man. Different categories of lies. Ceasing to lie to oneself: first condition of success in the search for the Way. Access to Love suppressing lies. Access to the Truth frees from slavery. Independance Salvation. Success is obtained by conscious efforts joined with divine grace. Four elements are at the base of progress in the search for the Way. Negative & positive methods. CHAPTER XVIII ‑ p. 248 Relations between man & woman viewed from the esoteric angle. Role of the woman in the fall & in redemption. The inspiring woman. The three routes of Access to the Way.The possible targets to be reached.The problem of the new man. Representative types of the elite taken in historical evolution. Four modes of percep‑ tion, of study & of influence over the exterior world: Philosophy, Religion, Science & Art. Alternation of types 2 & 3 in the past. The actual epoch tends to favour the apparition of men 4, agents of a synthesis where the goal to be solved is the dilemma between cataclysm & the apparition of a New Earth (according to the prophecy of St. Peter). The magnetic center of humanity, actually in formation in its ensemble. CHAPTER XIX ‑ p. 269 Being & seeming to be. Confusion between these two notions in Exterior man. The Principle of Imperfection as a first condition of Creation. The meaning of Creation resides in the realisation starting from the Zero of a unity similar to the Infinite, composed of an infinity of unities issued from imperfect zeros representing the Souls after the fall. The doctrine of the Present. The Present is situated outside Time. The Present of Exterior man. The ga The three dimensions of the Present. CHAPTER XX ‑ p. 283 Esoteric exercises are aimed at acquiring the real Present. Mastering of the body, of the Personality & getting into contact with the higher levels of Consci‑ ousness. Eight groups of exercises physical & psychic between which the technique of respiration constitutes a bridge. Passive ascertainment. Superior group of exercises: concentration, contemplation & extacy. Schematic drawing of the Way. The seven sections of the three thresholds: the crossing of the first leads from the brush to the Steps which, in its turn, leads to the second Threshold. The latter crossed, the disciple enters the Way, properly speaking,which leads towards the third Threshold. The final limit of possible evolution in the terrestial conditions. Desc‑ ription of the stages of the Way. CHAPTER XXI ‑ p. 312 The trench between the wanting & the capability in modern man. Evolution allows the surmounting of this trench. Knowledge ‑ Understanding & Know‑how (savoir‑ faire). The Androgyne. Return of the pre‑adamic unity by the fusion of two polar Individualities. Stopping of the growth & the development of the Personality as an obstacle for such a fusion. The Personality must be developed alongside the stairs up to its integral expression. Desire, faith, force, discernment. Love. The plan of eternity as the domain of the possible. Realisation in Time. Pseudo‑reincarnation. True reinc‑ arnation: conscious, volontary, individual, situated in Time. The original film such as it is conceived in eternity. Its introduction inside time. The eternal return in a reincarnation so to say, unconscious, in‑ volontary & non‑individual. The teams. Free movements of the Exterior man charge the original film. Karma. Conscious efforts can transform the film, which revo‑ lves in a spiral approximately. Collective pseudo‑ reincarnation, conscious work on the film, neutralisa‑ tion of the Karma & the return to the original film. The esoteric short cut by the joint work & by the conscious efforts of the two polar beings, forming one Microcosmos for both of them.The primordial importance to find & to recognise the polar being. Preliminary condition: renouncing the free movements. Criteria of polarity. The crossing of the first threshold needs a renunciatiation; the second threshold needs a positive program. Postscript p. 349
Biblography p. 351 ®
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