Thread of Life and Thread of Consciousness

Wisdom Teachings
Inner Realities

In the wisdom teachings the I AM is described as a thread running through our whole life. All of us were born with a resolution to do this or that in life. But usually the goal gets lost somewhere on the way. The buds of the thread are scattered all over and get lost. Although we want to do many good things, body, senses and mind don’t cooperate with us. Desire has taken the place of the aim of life, the central thread. We do the contrary of what we wanted to do as a soul; we split up into many thoughts and activities and thus don’t come to ourselves. The busy mind cannot find the thread of life.

We have to recollect, re-form ourselves again and again in order to find the purpose of life. In silence we receive the knowledge how we can fulfil this purpose and act accordingly. Meditation is therefore called a process of centring and aligning, in which all buds are gathered on a thread and thus align to form a garland. Without the thread there would be no alignment, only through the thread the beauty arises.

The thread onto which all flowers are strung is also called the “path”, along which we can ascend. Another name is “sushumna”, the “good thread” of light. The sushumna runs in the inner of the spine and enables us to ascend from the individual to the universal plane. The thread holds together all planes of existence, even planets and solar systems seemingly far distant from another. It is the OM, the basic sound of all life. It is the thread of life, of vital force, and the thread of light, of consciousness.

The principle of life and the principle of consciousness are born at the moment when THAT divides into Spirit-Matter. The two threads come like two channels out of the one source, and thus OM leads us on the path of evolution back to the source of existence. The thread of consciousness is also called the silver thread and the thread of life the golden thread. The thread of life enables us to continue to exist, and the thread of consciousness enables us to continue to “experience life”.

The more subtle layers of our body are built of energy threads with different knots as centres. The life principle works through the arteries, the veins etc.; its main seat is the heart. The awareness works through the glands and the nerve tissues, the light tissue called “nadis”; its seat is the Ajna centre. Through the thread of life the soul is connected to the material plane, it ties the soul at three places in the body. Without this tie the soul would move out of the body like a balloon. One knot is between the Muladhara and the sacral centre, it fastens the soul to the matter. Another knot is between the solar plexus and the heart and connects with the plane of force. A third knot is around the pituitary gland and ties to the plane of consciousness. If the individual is not yet awakened, the soul is imprisoned in the body and the glands don’t function completely. When we progress and the consciousness develops, the glands also work with full potential.

We strengthen the thread of consciousness, which connects us with the soul, through meditation and prayer, through lived spiritual knowledge. We strengthen the thread of life and health through rhythmical breathing exercises. By working with the respiration the awareness grows near to the vital force. The thoughts become quiet, we get into the inner centre and the two threads are brought together in the silence of subtle pulsation. Thus the soul gains mastery over the personality.

During the hours of sleep the soul withdraws into the aura, however, it remains connected with the body through the thread of life. Thus the consciousness merges with the principle of life which continues to be there. In sleep we are a pulsating consciousness, but we don’t know how we are this consciousness. People who have gained the knowledge of the continuity of consciousness are regarded as knowers and masters. With the knowers the consciousness doesn’t get lost, they don’t sleep, but only give rest to the body. They also know methods in order to consciously leave their body and to consciously enter again into a new form.

As long as we live in the body, we remain in connection with it through the silver thread, which is fixed to the navel, even if we temporarily leave the body. When the thread of life is severed, the soul is liberated from the body. Some people can move to far distant places by means of astral travelling; they maintain the connection with the body via the silver thread. The ability to consciously stay out of the body during sleep can be trained by developing the habit of seeing the body and perceiving oneself outside of it. It is good to do these exercises in the presence of a person who knows this science. Otherwise there can be certain shocks or disturbances.

Yoga and meditation help to experience ourselves as the indweller in the body and separate from it. We learn this by observing the thoughts and where they come from. When we live in the state of the inner man, the outer man is visible to us. This is also called the third initiation. When the outer body then drops away, it doesn’t bother us much. An initiate can consciously untie the thread of life in order to continue with the thread of consciousness. When the thread of life is released from the body, the body dies.

There is also the possibility to leave the body together with the thread of life, though maintaining the connection to the body. This does a master of wisdom who can come out of his body and appear to those whom he gives guidance. Master CVV often has done such experiments. People thought he was dead, but after a while he deliberately re-entered into the body. He also used to send his wife and his disciples this way to higher planes in order to gather information.

However, it can also be that the thread of life continues and the thread of consciousness gets weak; then people no longer understand well. There are cases where the thread of consciousness severs and the thread of life continues to exist – and these individuals cannot die. Their bodies are kept alive in hospitals with a high expenditure. Statistics show that this is the case particularly in rich countries, where the attachment to the material is high.

What we call death is a discontinuation of the stay on the physical plane, not on the other planes. A conscious leaving of the body is therefore departing, not dying. However, people usually lose consciousness during the transition. Their thread of consciousness gets interrupted and it has to be re-found. In order to pick up the thread again, we have to take on a body and we grow up under the circumstances conditioned by ourselves. We seek and feel: This isn’t my direction, that isn’t either. This way we continue to seek until we settle with one thing where we feel: That’s it. Often we spend decades with this search before we can link up again with the work of the soul.

For strengthening the thread of consciousness there is a sacrament in the east which the father conducts directly after the birth of a child, even before of the umbilical cord is cut. The father touches the head of the child and invokes the thread of consciousness connecting the father and the son by uttering of mantrams meaning: “You are born from body to body. You are the ‘I AM’ in me in form of my child.” This calls on the subconscious nature of the child to the path of evolution. It causes the orderly development of the slowly unfolding mind.

The thread of the soul program runs through the births and carries the seed tendencies as a continuity of part of our consciousness, whereas the program of the mental plane is washed off by the consecutive deaths of the physical bodies. The earlier we pick up again the thread of consciousness, the better we can continue the work. For this it is important to remember the identity of the thread of consciousness when we cast off the body. In order to maintain the awareness the etheric body has to be perfected. This is the work Master CVV does with those who call the reservoir of “Plenty of Prana” into themselves by invoking the sounds CVV.

The master perfected his own etheric body and prepared a span of many thousand years for it. He has anchored the same kind of extraordinary longevity in the etheric bodies of those who really follow him. Whenever they shed their physical bodies and get new ones, they remember the continuity of their goal and the identity of their thread of consciousness throughout the reincarnations. This he has done so that the followers might conduct the same Plan as he does.

K.P. Kumar: Hercules / notes from seminars / E. Krishnamacharya: Music of the Soul. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.