Building the Bridge

Wisdom Teachings
Inner Realities

The timeless wisdom proposes that we constantly connect ourselves with the source from where we have been expressed. Connected with the basis of our existence we remain in the awareness of synthesis and can enter into multiplicity without losing ourselves in it. Today the continuous effort to connect in daily life with the awareness of existence is called discipleship or building the bridge between the lower and the higher, between the objective and subjective world. The Old Testament speaks of Jacob’s Ladder, which helps the Divines to descend into the mortal worlds, and the mortals can take the ladder to get into the divine spheres.

Between one plane of existence and the next one there is a minute gap which has to be bridged. The first inner bridge leads from the solar plexus to the heart, and those who try to cross the bridge are called aspirants. When the awareness shifts from the solar plexus to the heart centre, from the beastly man a refined human being is born. The ordinary man is centred in the solar plexus, he is full of emotions and confined thoughts. He thinks that what he thinks is right, and he isn’t able to get out of his mental patterns. He first thinks of himself and what is good for him before he thinks of others. When we primarily think of what others need and engage in thoughts and acts of good will, we are in the heart centre. However, there is a gap between our knowledge and our actions: In action we often loose our better knowledge. To reduce and finally overcome the gap is the work of bridging. We can easily find out where we are, if we observe our actions.

For the solar plexus the heart is the higher centre, for the sacral centre related with the organs of procreation it is the throat centre; it can transform the procreational forces into creative activity. The throat is the centre, which causes the integration of the lower man, who works through the three lower centres: the solar plexus, sacral and base centre. Thus the throat centre is particularly related to humanity. All wisdom teachings emphasise the control of speech and thus of the throat centre. Speech is one of the most powerful principles. Depending on our use of speech, it can be constructive or harmful and destructive. As long as we don’t use speech in the right way, we can’t construct the bridge to the higher worlds.

In Sanskrit the throat centre is called Visuddhi, signifying great purity and meaning purity of the mental matter. We gain purity of the throat centre through a chastity of mind. Breathing exercises and singing of holy sounds help us in this. This way we build the secondary or lower bridge from the throat to the ajna or the forehead centre, whereas the higher bridge leads from the ajna to the centre at the top of our forehead. The path of the lower bridge leads from the yellowy-gold light of the purified throat centre to its culmination of dark blue in the ajna centre. The entire process from the throat upwards requires that our personality is well organised: Our thoughts have regular patterns, our speech is pleasing and our action has become well-balanced. The ajna is the seat of the soul, from where the human life is governed, the physical correspondence is the pineal gland. The ajna centre, also called third eye, mustn’t be confused with the centre between the eyebrows. The latter is the highest point up to which the personality can rise; it belongs to the pituitary gland.

When the bridge between the pituitary and the pineal gland is built, light gets created and the soul radiates through the lower bodies of personality. The bridge isn’t built on the physical or the astral plane, but in the matter of the mental plane, between the lower and the higher mind, between the objective and subjective side of mind. The lower mind is the highest point of the personality, it is the “manager” of our everyday life and can organise; the higher mind is the light of higher intelligence, it can intuitively grasp things. The spirit can descend from the three higher worlds up to the higher half of the mental plane. The bridge between the lower and the higher mind is built through a regulated activity of the personality and deep meditation. One of the oldest meditations is to meditate at the bridge between the eyebrows about a radiant five-pointed star above.

The brain is like a bulb, which has not yet been switched on, when the soul energy has not poured in. By building the bridge the head becomes an enlightened globe, and the heavenly mind expresses through the human mind. In meditation we can visualise that our brain, the lower mind, is a lotus, which opens and, waiting, aligns with the light of the soul. If thoughts emerge, we come back to this imagination. We visualise how the light streams down into the mind. This is what the Great Invocation speaks about: “From the point of Light within the Mind of God, let light stream forth into the minds of men. Let Light descend on Earth.”

The etheric brain is the brain of the soul, it is not so densely physical as the brain of the body and has a much greater knowledge. To think with the etheric brain means to think outside the physical brain, in the substance of Buddhi. Initiates don’t think with the physical brain, but outside, therefore their actions aren’t understood by normal people and often considered to be crazy.

Whenever the soul intends to manifest an action, it contacts the personality from the ajna centre. As a result a bridge is made between the pituitary and the pineal gland. For ordinary people both glands don’t have any function. In a disciple a luminous, immaterial tissue develops through a secretion of the pineal gland a connection of the two glands. It is called Antahkarana by the Tibetan Master and the realisation of the light of Gayatri by the Vedic seers. In this sparks are flying between the two glands and thus form a light bridge like between the two carbon rods of an arc lamp. “Higher Bridge Beginning”, Master CVV calls this, and “Pituitary Hint”.

For building the higher bridge right aspiration and service aren’t enough. We are helpless without a teacher or master. He helps with the construction of the bridge from above downwards. Master CVV said: “I know that you cannot build this bridge, because you are confined as by the mind of a mosquito. I shall begin from the other side and drill through. I shall build the higher bridge and from the universal mind reach the solar mind. It is a matter of constructing from above downwards in order to lift up the earth. We shall let down a kind of fishhook and draw you up with it. You call and I shall answer! Just phone Me every day. I shall come to you and build the bridge. You phone and I will answer via the telegraph.” People thought this to be crazy statements. But when there is a connection, the teacher can bring about the higher bridge for the disciple. Thus the Great Ones stand as intermediaries between the Divine and the Human in order to help us and guide us to become ourselves a bridge between the divine and the material worlds, ambassadors of God on earth.

The zodiacal sign of Pisces is particularly related with constructing the higher bridge and gaining universal consciousness. The symbol of the sign ♓ consists of two fishes swimming in opposite directions and linked up by a horizontal line. The line stands for the higher bridge. Past and future run in opposite directions and meet in man. After the construction of the higher bridge, the symbol changes its shape: The two fishes come together in “head to tail – tail to head – heart to heart” position. The two fishes rotate in opposite directions and meet each other to form a circle. The horizontal line turns vertical and the figure becomes a circle with a vertical diameter Φ.The diameter stands for the vertical path of ascent from base to head centre through the vertical column of the spine, up to the meridian (MC), to Aries, where man enters into the Light of Eternal Presence.

Sources used: K. P. Kumar: The Path to Immortality - Venus / seminar notes / E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology / Mystic Mantrams and Master CVV. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.