It is very difficult for a man who returns home after having traversed the entire city to remember in detail all of his thoughts, ideas, incidents, things, etc. Upon trying to recall, he will discover huge gaps in his memory, which correspond precisely to the most profound states of sleep. To be conscious of oneself is something very difficult, but one can attain that state by learning to live alert and vigilant from moment to moment.
It is necessary to know that humanity lives with its consciousness asleep. People work asleep. People walk through the streets asleep. People live and die asleep.
When we come to the conclusion that the entire world lives asleep, then we comprehend the necessity of awakening. We need the awakening of the consciousness. We want the awakening of the consciousness.
Fascination
The profound sleep in which humanity lives is caused by fascination.
People are fascinated by everything in life. People forget their Selves because they are fascinated. The drunkard in the bar is fascinated with the alcohol, the place, the pleasures, his friends and with women. The vain woman in front of a mirror is fascinated with her own glamour. The rich avaricious person is fascinated with money and possessions. The honest worker in the factory is fascinated with the hard work. The father of the family is fascinated with his children. All human beings are fascinated and sleep profoundly. When driving a car we are astonished when we see people dashing across the roads and streets without paying attention to the danger of the running cars. Others wilfully throw themselves under the wheels of cars. Poor people...they walk asleep ... they look like sleepwalkers. They walk asleep, endangering their own lives. Any clairvoyant can see their dreams. People dream with all that keeps them fascinated.
Sleep
During the physical body's sleep, the ego escapes from it. This departure of the ego is necessary so that the vital body can repair the physical body. However, in the internal worlds we can asseverate that the ego takes its dreams into the internal worlds.
Thus, while in the internal worlds the ego occupies itself with the same things which keep it fascinated in the physical world. Therefore, during a sound sleep we see the carpenter in his carpentry shop, the policeman guarding the streets, the barber in his barbershop, the blacksmith at his forge, the drunkard in the tavern or bar, the prostitute in the house of pleasures, absorbed in lust etc., etc. All these people live in the internal worlds as if they were in the physical world.
Not a single living being during his sleep has the occurrence to ask to himself if whether he is in the physical or astral world. However, those who have asked to themselves such a question during the sleep have awoken in the internal worlds. Then, with amazement, they have been able to study all the marvels of the Superior Worlds.
It is only possible for us to manage to ask such a question to ourselves in the superior worlds during those hours given over to sleep by becoming accustomed to asking ourselves this question from moment to moment during the so-called vigil state. Evidently, during our sleep we repeat everything that we do during the day. Therefore, if during the day we accustom ourselves to asking this question, then, during our nocturnal sleep, while being outside of the body, we, consequently, will repeat the same question to ourselves. Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of the consciousness.
Remembering Oneself
The human being in his fascinated trance does not remember his Self. We must Self-Remember our Selves from moment to moment. We need to Self-Remember our Selves in the presence of every representation that could fascinate us. Let us hold ourselves while in front of any representation and ask ourselves: Where am I? Am I in the physical plane? Am I in the astral plane? Then, give a little jump with the intention of floating within the surrounding atmosphere. It is logical that if you float it is because you are outside the physical body. Thus, the outcome will be the awakening of consciousness.
The purpose of asking this question at every instant, at every moment is with the intention of engraving it within the sub-consciousness, so that it may manifest later during the hours given to sleep, hours when the ego is really outside the physical body. You must know that in the astral plane, things appear just as here in this physical plane. This is why during sleep, and after death, people see everything there in a form very similar to this physical world. This is why they do not even suspect that they are outside their physical body. Therefore, no dead person ever believes himself to have died; because he is fascinated and profoundly asleep.
If the dead had made a practice of remembering themselves from moment to moment when they were alive, if they had struggled against the fascination of the things of the world, the outcome would have been the awakening of their consciousness. They would not dream. They would walk in the internal worlds with awakened consciousness.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study during the hours of sleep all the marvels of the superior worlds.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness lives in the superior worlds as a totally awakened citizen of the Cosmos. One then coexists with the Great Hierophants of the White Lodge
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can no longer dream; here in this physical plane or in the internal worlds.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness stops dreaming.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness becomes a competent investigator of the superior worlds.
Whosoever awakens consciousness is an illuminated one.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study at the feet of the Master.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can talk familiarly with the Gods who initiated the dawn of creation.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can remember his innumerable reincarnations.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can consciously attend his own cosmic initiations.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can study in the temples of the Great White Lodge.
Whosoever awakens the consciousness can know in the superior worlds how there is the evolution of his Kundalini.
Every Perfect Matrimony must awaken the consciousness in order to receive guidance and direction from the White Lodge. In the superior worlds the Masters will wisely guide all those who really love one another. In the superior worlds the Masters give to each one that which one needs for his internal development.
Complementary Practice
Every Gnostic student after waking up from their normal sleep must perform a retrospective exercise based on the process of their sleep, in order to remember all those places they visited during the hours of sleep. We already know that the ego travels a great deal, it goes towards where we have physically been, repeating all that which we have seen and heard.
The Masters instruct their disciples when they are out of the physical body.
Therefore, it is urgent to know how to profoundly meditate and then practise what we have learned during the hours of sleep. It is necessary not to physically move at the time of wakening up because with the movement the astral is agitated and the memories are lost. It is urgent to combine the retrospective exercises.
Thus, as the miner opens his way through the bowels of the earth with the aid of dynamite, similarly, the student also opens his way into the memories of his sub-consciousness.