The Diamond of Consciousness

There’s a kind of magic in the moment when we turn over to a new page on which to write, its pristine purity inviting the best we can express. It seems to magnetically call for something that resonates with that clean clear space. How much more magical is turning over to a new year. In that brief pause between the old and the new and before anything occurs, an infinite range of possibilities hovers mirage-like at the edges of awareness, faintly envisioned but not yet manifest. This precious moment is akin to the “diamond of consciousness”, when we are waking from sleep and are still between the inner and outer worlds – in that moment we can consciously be in all worlds at once. The Agni Yoga teachings explain:

Urusvati knows the significance of the moment that separates sleep from the waking state. This moment is called ‘the diamond of consciousness.’ During this transitory condition of consciousness man belongs simultaneously to both worlds—the physical and the subtle. … No mysterious initiations are needed for the realization of the sacred moment. Everyone is given the opportunity to perceive both worlds …
We intensify and deepen these diamond moments through a clear understanding of their significance. Indeed, they are so brief that no effort is required. Prolonged communication with the Subtle World can be achieved, but simultaneous awareness of the two worlds is momentary. …
…the diamond moment [occurs] between sleep and the waking state, at the moment of the return of the subtle body into the physical one. Each human being has the power to experience this moment that connects the two worlds, but for this one must develop a subtle awareness. All recollections of the Subtle World are extremely useful for human evolution, …the signs of all the three worlds are being manifested, and earthly man can even see the sparks of the Fiery World.” From Supermundane, 120.

Such moments are rich with potential when held in the dynamic silence of the heart. Time and space are transcended and the power of the possible vivifies and vitalises as it opens us to all that life may inspire. And so this pause in time is a potent interlude. The Tibetan Master explained the power of the interludes to a disciple:

In all breathing exercises, there are…the processes of inhalation and of exhalation, with two points intermediate between these two—that of the interludes… disciples… are preoccupied with what is proceeding within their consciousness during the interludes between the fixed inhalations and exhalations. These phases of registered consciousness are in reality points of detachment. They mark the cycles of tension… I would enjoin upon you the need to establish this rhythmic, cyclic “breath of consciousness.”
…The point I seek to emphasise…is the need… for the interludes. These interludes are…the growing times; they are essentially the ‘epochs for storage’ (if I may use such an arresting and unusual phrase), and they are the ‘seed of samadhi.’ What is samadhi…? Simply those interludes in the initiate’s life of service wherein he withdraws all his forces into a ‘well of silence’—a well, full of the water of life. In this state of consciousness two definite activities transpire: Tension and Recognition. Without these interludes of abstraction, his work would slowly weaken as the tension, earlier initiated, weakened; his ability to attract and to hold others true to the vision would likewise slowly disappear, as his power to recognise became myopic. The initiate, therefore, as he works within the Ashram, withdraws at the needed times. As he inhales the life of the [spiritual] Hierarchy, and increasingly that of the Monad (which he gradually learns to do), and as he exhales the living essence into the ‘world of serving lives,’ he becomes steadily more and more dependent upon the ‘interludes’ wherein both these phases of activity cease and he becomes immersed in Being and in Consciousness—the intrinsic parts of the animating Whole. I use this phrase ‘animating Whole’ advisedly to indicate that the points of interlude are not related to form life at all, but to the life of Life itself.” From Discipleship in the New Age II, page 451-453

Such moments have creative power which becomes available in the deep silence wherein we are aligned with the divine essence. A similar principle may be reflected in the time between the old year and the new, when we can be attentive to what life may be preparing to breathe into appearance. What fresh and vital intention might be grasped in the magical moment when all things are possible? Let us not limit this with old fears and faded visions but embrace the opportunity fully and, with an open heart, step boldly into the yet to be known and so expand the reach of our perceptive power:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour” From Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

As we expand our perspective, so we expand our sense of being beyond the confines of a personal life and live through the streams of divine thought and intention. Identified at such a point of being we can see through the vicissitudes of these times of turbulent world change and help open the way for others to look beyond the current chaos to the new world to which divine purpose is carrying us. The Tibetan Master spoke to a disciple of the inner dimensions of being and a consciousness free from worldly strife.

…refrain from expectation—from life, from people and from circumstances—except that expectation which concerns spiritual opportunity …Disciples need to regard the Ashram more definitely as a place of spiritual enveloping, if I may use so peculiar a phrase. They need to regard it as a circle of protection, remembering that if their consciousness can escape into the Ashram, they are in a place of complete security where naught can reach or hurt them. Neither pain nor anxiety can overwhelm the man who dwells in the consciousness of eternity; this sense of the eternal, coupled with the realisation of essential unity, marks all dwellers in an Ashram.
Herein lies your safety in the vicissitudes of your life. I am not speaking idly or symbolically, nor am I referring to the usual platitudes expressed in the injunction ‘dwell in the eternal.’ I refer definitely to the place of a disciple within an Ashram… This place is a reality and not a dream or a figment of wishful thinking; it is a sphere of focussed awareness where the minds, the love, the aspiration and the spiritual consciousness of many meet, and meet in truth.” From Discipleship in the New Age II, page 652

The magnetic power of the heart brings all eventually to that meeting point. The love that flows through it connects one to another and relates us to our beautiful planet. Its creative power will carry us to the shores of a new dimension of being.

 

…remember that love brings all earthly karma to an end. Love induces that radiation which invokes and evokes not only the heart of God but the heart of humanity also. Love is the cause of all creation and the sustaining factor in all living.” From Discipleship in the New Age II, page 541

The nature of the human soul is love and it lives in light. From the heights of love, we expand our vision and our being to become that loving Presence which can make all things new. May this new year help us to divest of the past and bring us closer to the realm where love reigns and fear is no more.

 

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