The Mystical Application of Concentration - Grand Master Julie Scott: transcript

hello everyone so nice to see you we're going to explore the mystical application of concentration and here is the definition that the monographs give to concentration concentration is the ability to channel physical mental and psychic energies to obtain a specific objective so what could some of these specific objectives be one could be that we concentrate in order to be more aware and this could produce the experience of awe i really like what henry miller wrote he said the moment one gives close attention to anything even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious awesome

indescribably magnificent world in itself betty smith wrote look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time thus is your time on earth filled with glory so some applications of of concentration include completing tasks so in order to complete tasks we need to concentrate it's very challenging to complete something when it doesn't have our full attention we can also use concentration to create for example to create a work of art to write a book or a poem or a mathematical formula we can use concentration to connect with someone that's

sometimes lost when we meet other people we may be thinking about what we're going to say or are observing what's going around observing what's going on around us it gives us such a different experience when we concentrate when we're fully present when we're interacting with someone we can use concentration to perform certain experiments meditations and exercises in the rosicrucian teachings and that's part of the mystical application of concentration that we're going to explore today some ways that this is applied is in visualization we must be aware of the details that we want to activate that we want to bring into existence so we're going to practice this in a few minutes we develop our ability to concentrate

through many rosicrucian monographs we also use the ability to concentrate in order to see people's auras in a very early monograph in the first atrium it says concentrating fixedly on an object produces ocular fatigue which numbs the physical vision and awakens the psychic vision all concentration used to perceive the aura must be achieved in a peaceful and relaxed way if it is performed correctly a moment will come when one's vision becomes slightly hazy that is when physical vision is being eclipsed by psychic vision now when we see an aura it's not with our physical eyes

it is our psychic sense that is our psychic vision that is picking up the vibrations of what we're looking at the aura results from the interaction that exist between vibrations composing the object and those of the immediate surroundings now the monographs tell us such an interaction is manifested as an invisible electro electromagnetic field that it is that is why it is futile to try to perceive the aura of things by using our purely objective site because then we remain on a mental plane which prevents any psychic impression from being interpreted by the higher levels of our consciousness another way that rosicrucians use concentration is to attune with and stimulate the

psychic centers in our being psychic centers are where a lot of nerves come together and they're associated with an organ or a gland or the solar black plexus which then influences a number of organs these are centers of energy and information and our attention helps us to develop awareness of these and strengthens these centers raises the vibrations in our being and we're going to be practicing that too the purpose of the rosicrucian monographs and all of us having our sanctum periods is to set the conditions for mystical experiences that's that's the purpose of the monographs and setting things up in our sanctum

so as we experience these mystical moments it creates experiences of awe we need to know how to concentrate in order to do this so this is one of the reasons that we're encouraged to have a sanctum that's set aside just for that work because it's very challenging to concentrate um on a bus or on your couch there are at least two things that affect our concentration you might think that one of them is that we have to learn how to concentrate but for me babies are born knowing how to concentrate have you ever seen a baby just focus on her foot she'll just have her foot right up there and just look at it with such concentration

or have you experienced a child totally engaged with a grasshopper or with bubbles children know how to concentrate but things happen in our lives cause distractions and cause overwhelm those are the two main reasons that we lose the ability to concentrate but both of those can be corrected and we can re-learn how to concentrate so as i mentioned one aspect of one thing that affects our ability to concentrate is that we are just overwhelmed we receive so much information so much arousal that it produces an overwhelm which leads to shutdown and some of the things that produce overwhelm are too much information too much to do

too many things to concentrate on and it seems that this is affecting everybody that we all have this this challenge right now of just so much coming at us so we can work to remove some of that overwhelm also distractions many people are trying to get our attention right now they don't want us to pay attention some of the things that distract us from concentrating are websites that take us down a rabbit hole we may think that we're going to a website just to look something look something up very quickly and then they're set up so that one thing leads to another until it's been a long time since we started what we thought would be a short search and

we just keep going seeing more ads receiving more influence there is there are many apps that are available for free that help us to track what websites we visit and we can note on those websites if we want to visit those or not and then we receive an alert if you find that if you go to a certain news channel or whatever website that is that takes you down that rabbit hole you can enter that in the app and then it just sends up a warning that says that remember you said that maybe you didn't want to go spend a lot of time on this website right now there are a lot of people and organizations that are trying to hijack our concentration they're trying to confuse us and when

we're confused our logical mind our analytical mind shuts down and this allows them to plant seeds for what it is that they're selling or trying to promote or ways that they may be trying to control us and i know you know this i know you have seen things either on the news or on the internet and you think why would anyone in the world believe that and it's because that person's analytical mind has been shut down probably confused so that it just gets overwhelmed and it shuts down now it's easy to think that this only happens to other people however it's valuable to consider that it may be happening to all of us that for various purposes again there are people and organizations that want to create confusion in the

world right now so that we're just really not thinking clearly and we have an opportunity to apply our skills and concentration for that not to happen we have to concentrate to prevent this from happening and this is a responsibility of those of us who benefit from the rosicrucian teachings we have received these tools this is a very important time for us to apply them so that we can help stop this challenge right now where people are not thinking before they take actions or share a tweet

or well i think you know what i mean and we have the ability to to develop our skill in concentrating as part of concentration we can develop analytical thought and we can do this by researching a subject thoroughly excuse me the monographs give us many techniques to improve our analytical thinking we can as an exercise research something that we find interesting but are open to having a different opinion on it we haven't definitively said this this is the only thing i'm comfortable believing and then we can research that subject and defend all positions we can defend the position that we may have already held we can defend the opposing position

and we have to use our concentration to come to a conclusion so this is going to take some time and concentration here's how we can do this we can locate objective or nonpartisan resources we can determine how did we decide that these were objective resources we can find out who is funding the issue that we're looking into both for and against it we can also look at who stands to benefit from this issue being accepted maybe it's something that's being voted on if that's the case we can see who placed it on the ballot how is this related to other issues past and present all of this takes concentration one way

that helps us to be more objective about this is to act like we're an alien from another planet and we're observing whatever this issue is i'm sure you can think of several hot topics that um people are very passionate about on each side or just something maybe not so important but you find interesting and want to research and pretend you're this alien who is explaining back to the other aliens on her planet the different perspectives okay this group believes this this group believes that here's where all of those beliefs came from to help them better understand what is going on with all this craziness on earth right now so we have an opportunity to apply our concentration our concentration to

to improve our analytical thinking so again concentration is the ability to channel physical mental and psychic energies to obtain a specific objective this helps us to be more aware we can concentrate on our physical body in order to do certain things we can apply mental concentration concentration and we can do this by becoming one with the object of our attention have you ever tasted a piece of fruit let's say a really juicy peach that just was so delicious there's an exercise in the monographs where we eat a piece of fruit or something else that's really tasty and we

completely concentrate on the taste on the fragrance on the field and we can concentrate so deeply that our brain accepts the data as real even when we think about it again later so we can use that skill for other things i've mentioned previously my experience with the first temple degree initiation that i took many years ago where between parts one and part two i was outside and it was a full moon and i was just gazing upon the moon and and it was the moon beams were on me and my concentration was completely on the moon and this experience and the moon it was it was just me and the moon in the world and i was the moon

and the moon was me this again helps us to get out of our analytical thinking this type of concentration and beyond our objective senses the monographs remind us that there are a number of ways that we can develop our ability to concentrate and one of those is to read we can read in order to better understand what the person wrote as well as to understand what they wanted us to experience and we're going to read just a few short passages right now i will share my screen here so just concentrate on this saying by h spencer lewis i'll read it once and then i invite you to really really concentrate on what h spencer lewis is trying to

communicate to us within us are powers and abilities that are like invisible sparks waiting to be fanned into brilliant flames now we're going to concentrate on another one by henry david thoreau

i went to the woods because i wish to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life and see if i could not learn what it had to teach and not when i came to die discover that i had not lived from

rosicrucian poet ella wheeler wilcox so many gods so many creeds so many paths that wind and wind while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs again through the skill of concentration we can attune and underscore tune with and understand what these authors hope to express to us

the monographs also encourage us to appreciate art so i invite you to look at this painting by h spencer lewis this is the full painting and then i'm going to show you a little more close-up view so there's the full full painting on the right and then the close-up on the left to develop our skill of concentration we're encouraged to look at images and memorize as much of it as we can so really concentrate on this and see what you can remember all right so there's going to be a test

are you ready all right your last your last look because i'm going to ask you what did you see there and we're going to open the chat so that you can put the different features that you see here so all right what do you remember seeing okay an open book with bookmarks two men quarterly belt wow you saw a lot there's so much i can't read the whole thing billows you see concentration excellent point mortal and pestle lots of bottles dolphin wooden board

flasks a younger and an older man a castle in the background scenery hourglass small journal oh you are very good at it concentrating it's dimly lit so here's another look at that is there anything you missed i think you may have gotten everything here so this painting by h spencer lewis is called the alchemists apprentice and some of you saw that with the older man and the younger man the teacher and the disciple the alchemist apprentice okay we're going to do another one of these this painting is by rosicrucian nicholas rorick

who was the orders legate in the himalayas and it's called the mother of the world so this is the full image and just get your impression what was nicholas rorick expressing what did he want you to experience when you looked at this it takes our concentration we can't just just glance at it although we receive some messages with a quick look but there are a lot of symbols in this painting i'm going to switch to a closer view can you see both there okay so again through your concentration

open yourself to what nicholas roaring was nicholas rorick was hoping to express if you'd like to share that in the chat so crystals of the third eye trinity colors and hues a blue pink and purple eleven angels cloaked in nature sanctum fish violet color citation to the pineal gland awareness mother with hidden eyes a rose in hand hand gesture the veil of isis and um two people praying that is in the larger view on the right that's a i

wanted you to be able to see the details in the close-up but the people um honoring her in the foreground of the painting seemed to be an important aspect okay so next we're going to do one more and this painting is by omimota who was a symbolist painter in france and h spencer lewis was standing before this painting when he was invited to meet with the imperator of the rosicrucians in france in 1909 he was gazing he was concentrating on this painting when the grand master of france came up to him and said you seem to find this painting

interesting so again i'll show you a close-up and but it's going to take away some of the details but i'm going to show the next one there so if you share in the chat what what do you notice here what do you think ari martin was was communicating with this invitations definitely the rose yes callings woman in white communion with the divine roses aw cloaked wise men the everlasting light transformation troubadours yes some of you are familiar with this tradition those are the troubadours who because of the persecution of the mystics in the south of france the area called the longadoc they

they existed in the forest and this beautiful being in white she is called clemency which is um she's the the golden isis and she is showing them the charter of the mystical organization around toulouse with which the rosicrucians are associated and she's the figure in white and to to our right is minerva who was the predecessor or no actually successor to the ancient isis uh part of the perpetuation of those traditions but this is the golden isis who is transmitting our tradition and it's an invitation to answer our call so good job you all been doing your concentration

exercises concentration can also be used to create art not just to appreciate it and attune with what the artist hoped to express to us but also to create art for those of you who are artists in many different forms i would guess that it's challenging to create a work of art if you're not concentrating on it and in many cases becoming one with it this is a buddhist monk creating a sand mandala and he has a tube in his hand and he clicks it with a little stick and tiny grains of colored sand come out the end to create that mandala before him so it's like a few tiny grains of colored

sand at a time to create this beautiful mandala so there are many ways that we can develop our concentration again through observing concentrating on appreciating really the the point is to get us to attune very deeply by reading or appreciating art or architecture certainly being out in nature so there are other techniques that help us as well we can listen to music and we're going to listen to two pieces of music now for the first one we're going to do the rosicrucian exercise where we identify the instruments that we hear so i will share that all right so for this first piece of

music as you hear an instrument enter that instrument in the chat please [Music] can you hear it okay oh so

[Music]

isn't that a beautiful piece ingrid pointed out in the chat that this was uh fredder ed lee's favorite exercise the name of this is concerto for oboe and orchestra and the composer is marcelo so next we're going to listen to a piece of music and i'm not going to tell you the name of it i want you to concentrate on it and see if you can experience what the composer wanted to express can you hear this

[Music] so [Music]

okay so a gently flowing stream serenity growth ebb and flow oh nat you know the name of the song you put what was in there it's a reverie by our fellow rosicrucian claude wc the very amazing french composer and reverie is daydream or imagining or daydreaming pleasant events so that's what he was hoping to express and a lot of you certainly pick that up developing our ability to concentrate also helps us for our psychic and spiritual work in our sanctum periods among other

benefits finding this place having our sanctums where we go undisturbed where we just use our sanctums for our mystical work it removes distractions and it prevents overwhelm we can know that every every week for many of us it's every thursday night but every week we set up a period where there are no distractions and there is no overwhelm so and hopefully people around you respect that and don't interrupt you there's no tv or computer it you're able to completely concentrate in your sanctum as i mentioned earlier the point of our monographs and our sanctum periods is to set the conditions for us to have mystical experiences so

being able to concentrate naturally concentrate gently concentrate contributes to that also with the council of solas healing meditation that is done in the grand temple every day at noon and that all of us can attune with we use concentration to to attune with and to focus on high rates of vibrations high level high frequencies the frequencies of radiant health and healing and peace we concentrate on those we gently concentrate on those in order to attune with them we have many rosicrucian exercises that require concentration and build concentration for example there are several breathing exercises one is that we

gently focus on our breath no no special breathing technique and if our mind wanders we gently bring it back so this is a really really gentle concentration it's still concentration though it's not letting our mind go wherever it wants it's gently saying okay i see my mind is not concentrating right now i've lost my focus let me get my concentration back in the overall exercise we concentrate on a tiny vibrating cell in our toe and then our foot and then our leg we go throughout our entire being so we use this ability to concentrate in order to be more aware of the energy that is us the vibrational frequency that the frequency at which we're vibrating

we also use concentration to gently concentrate on our psychic centers again these are centers in our being that are where there are a lot of glands where there are a lot of nerves and it's either a gland an organ or the solar plexus and these are centers of energy and information and we can use our concentration in order to build and stimulate those centers we can also concentrate on certain parts of our being as part of healing as part of strengthening ourselves many of the six temple degree healing techniques involve using our thumb and first two fingers on certain places on our spine and we use a technique that builds that energy

we concentrate on the the bones the muscles the tissues in our hands and we in tone the vowel sound raw and then we're able to feel the energy there we can we can put that on different places on our spine so now we're going to practice just a few of these exercises in concentration that again they require our concentration but they also build our concentration so to begin please sit in whatever way is most comfortable for you take three deep breaths becoming more relaxed with each exhalation now

gently focus your attention on the air as it goes in and out of your nostrils breathe normally concentrate on the air going in and out of your nostrils and if your mind wanders just gently bring it back to that place now focus your attention on a tiny

vibrating cell in your left big toe feel its vibrating energy expand your awareness to your entire left foot now concentrate on a tiny vibrating cell in your right big toe and expand your awareness to your entire right foot now your left lower leg

your right lower leg your left upper leg your right upper leg your hips your abdomen your chest feel the energy vibrating in the fingers

on your left hand expand your awareness to your entire left hand now the fingers on your right hand and expand your awareness to your entire right hand now your left forearm your right forearm your left upper arm

your right upper arm now bring your awareness to the energy vibrating at the base of your spine as you draw your awareness up your spine be aware of the energy in your lower back your middle back your upper back your shoulders your neck your jaw your mouth

your ears your nose your eyes your forehead the top of your head concentrate on the energy vibrating just

above the top of your head now we're going to focus on the seven major psychic centers we're going to concentrate there are vowel sounds and colors that go with these we are going to use the power of concentrating our thoughts beginning now with the solar plexus just above the navel concentrate on the center of energy and information now concentrate on the super renal

center above our kidneys place your focus there concentrate on the center of energy and information now your heart center place your concentration in the center of energy and information now your thymus center in the chest

behind the breastbone on the center of energy and information feel its frequency its vibrations now the thyroid center in your throat concentrate on the center of energy and information now the pituitary gland the pituitary

center in the center of your head the level of the bridge of your nose so right in the middle of your head the middle of your brain focus on the center of energy and information feel its frequency extend beyond just the pituitary gland and your head feel all of this concentrate on all the energy around that area and now move your concentration up about a half an inch into the back of your brain to the pineal center concentrate

on that center of information and energy now have your hands in front of you with the palms facing each other either at the level of your solar plexus or your chest have them facing each other and focus your vision concentrate on the bones the muscles the tissue the blood vessels

we're going to in tone the vowel sound raw seven times while you are concentrating on your hands ready inhaler [Music] right [Music] right [Music] right

[Music] right [Music] right [Music] right [Music] now with your eyes closed slowly bring the palms of your hands together once they touch

take your hands apart again palms facing each other and this time with your eyes open bring your palms together looking at the fingers of your hands looking at both hands as you bring the palms together when you're ready drop your hands and if you'd like to share in the chat any experiences you may have had with

bringing your hands together or at any point during the meditations sense of warmth frequency vibration vibrations seemed to connect the hands aura in the hands felt nice and warm hands a little warmer peace warmth heat peace and relaxation feel magnetized tingling feeling and saw the wave behind my eyes vibration in the brain and hands so these are some applications of concentration in our mystical work and with practice we can develop this ability especially with the last exercise that we did

it's important that you in tone raw out loud while you're concentrating on your hands and if you're not able to feel that energy in your hands yet it won't take long with these exercises to be able to feel and see that energy and again this is the basis of the energy that we use in the healing techniques for the sixth temple degree exercises where we use the thumb and the first two fingers and place them on specific places of our body for different purposes so it's been so nice to spend this time with all of you you