Hi there,

Yes it’s an interesting question. Many people report experiences with the so called ‘Ascended Masters’. You can read endless channellings that reportedly came from them.

I have a view point which is based on my own experience which is subject of course to the model of reality I am experiencing (as it is for everyone else!). So I don’t claim it to be THE TRUTH, only the best articulation I can of my truth.

Initially I had absolutely no idea of what Ascended Masters were until I moved into a period where I was spending many hours each day meditating. Increasingly I found myself having deeper and deeper experiences uncovering many new layers of consciousness within.

As I was doing this, I noticed my perception of normal daily reality was changing too. I began to perceive patterning in and through all events. The level of observed synchronicity reached a level that was simply astounding.

I became able to interpret the patterning just like learning a new language when you are continually exposed to it. I felt the presence of formless guiding consciousness which began to represent itself through symbols in the outside world.

So for example, I would feel something inside and then a question would arise in my mind such as “what does this mean” then my attention would be drawn to a sign externally - a number or letter or shape for example.

Then I began hearing of particular Ascended Masters and their names seemed to resonate with me internally as a vibration. I felt encouraged to explore this further and so to connect with the writings of particular Ascended Masters or to meditate with particular images - Djwal Khul was a favourite.

As I did so, I found my understanding of complex levels of consciousness deepened together with my ability to explain them (at least that what others said!).

I then went through a period where I really wanted to see them in a particular form - I had heard of them appearing to various people ‘in the flesh’ so to speak.

However I realised this was just my own inner distortion to overcome. In this plane of existence we become attached to form but it was very clearly communicated to me that the ‘Ascended Masters’ simply do not work like that.

Having released this attachment, I had a deeply profound experience during a Sweat Lodge where my consciousness transcended the boundaries of this plane - I experienced myself existing in higher dimensions surrounded by what I can only describe as ‘higher evolved beings’ - however I must stress that I did not see anyone or anything. There was simple knowing of their presence and exchange of deep revelations which helped me to understand more of the nature of consciousness.

Over the following weeks and months the information was fully integrated internally and I found myself more able to express these deeper levels - the vocabulary just appeared. There was no need to read it from anyone else or to learn it.

This is a truly breath taking way of understanding - words expressed through channelling for example would have been entirely inadequate to capture the essence of the transmissions.

That’s why I am deeply sceptical of these long channelled writings - the meaning of abstract concepts can be so easily misinterpreted when expressed through words - generally I don’t think the masters communicate that way.

After I had become entirely accepting of this mode of communication and knowledge transfer and when I did not need the masters to appear in particular form, then paradoxically I began to see particular symbols and visual representations appearing more often.

Now for example, if I connect with the essence of consciousness I know as Djwal Khul, then I discover a certain vibration within and an intensified ability to express certain complex matters of consciousness. I ask myself, what else is needed of them?

Best wishes

Chris

Quan Yin is known as the great goddess and Mother of Compassion who is loved and revered throughout Asia. She works with the Ascended Master 'St Germain' the Lord of the seventh ray and so may appear in violet. She is the symbolic representation of the Divine Mother.

If you wish to know more about the other Ascended Masters and see visual representations, visit our Ascended Master gallery...click here (click on their images to read brief write ups).

Chris

Hi Chris,

Amazing insights, not what I was expecting, either - it is more frequent to hear doubt expressed about such uncommon experiences. I was intrigued by the strange beauty of what this master with a Chinese name was saying and the fact he would mention a catholic saint, St Germain. About masters appearing in concrete form, I once read on a site about the I Ching that people called "Ancients" sometimes appeared to enlightened practicioners of that book. To be perfectly honest I personally am nowhere near any kind of enlightenment - but my interest in things spiritual is growing stronger by the day.

Someone from your site made some very nice contributions on a site dedicated to the Conversations with God books (Friends of CwG) which is what brought me here.

My interest didn't begin with those books but they really drove the point home. What they describe is simply too powerful to ignore. You mention meditating several hours a day and this is quite intimidating - a bit discouraging too if it is what it takes to reach a high spiritual level. I wonder how I could ever reconcile that with the grind of my office-going, rather busy and sometimes dull life?

Thank you so much for your reply.
Best
m_b

I had no idea about Quan Yin and imagined a man so I'll take a look at the gallery. It's fun though to learn that she likes to cooperate with a Catholic saint!
m_b

Hi m_b,

Thanks for your response - it exposes a key danger in 'working with' Ascended Masters. That is, we can get attached to experiences - for they are just other experiences like walking in the countryside, driving a car or smelling the scent of flowers.

ALL EXPERIENCES ARE TRANSIENT. They have a beginning and also an end. But we are the ever present, all encompassing 'seer' beyond limitation without constriction and without end.

You don't need to meditate at all to move to this place of the ever present seer - because you ALREADY are that. It is an awesomely ordinary state of perception that is somewhere in the background of your every experience.

And every experience has but one purpose - to reveal that state of perception to you - even the grind of your office life.

To realise this simple state of perception, we have to move to the place of the observer of ourselves - in other words to watch ourselves in the comings and goings of everyday life. This is really what meditation is.

So when something happens that stirs our emotions, do we descend into those emotions and loose ourselves in them? Or can we remain as the passive unattached observer of ourselves as our personality is experiencing those emotions?

With practice, we can learn to do the latter all the time. Then we find our negative responses to everyday life begin to dissolve. If we persevere at this, then at some magical moment, even the observer will dissolve and we move into the formless witnesser - the consciousness of the one life - the absolute.

We already are that - its just we get lost in our perceived separation from it and all things. Once we've had this 'one taste', what some refer to as 'awakening', the tendency is to associate it internally with memories and ideas once more. Again we move back into the separation but if we continue to adopt the place of the observer, 'one taste' will happen again.

If we persevere, it keeps happening until at some point, we make the shift from identification with the personality to being what we truly are - the absolute - the all present seer.

Meditation - in terms of sitting still and exploring the depths of our consciousness - can greatly help us move to this state but it is not ultimately necessary. That’s why at Openhand, we help people explore ‘one taste’ in all types of experiential exercises and moving meditations.

It is when we are in this place of the seer, that we can then freely explore all states of consciousness - we find they become increasingly sublime and magical.

Again, I stress however, that various consciousness states - such as ‘communing with Ascended Masters’ - are not AT ALL necessary for you to be enlightened.

Best wishes

Chris

As I mentioned in my original post, there is a tendency to associate the Ascended Masters with a particular form - the mind wants to do this - if we as 'the seer' allow ourselves to be dictated by it, then we find we need these fixed points of reference.

I have experienced the essence of the consciousness known as 'St Germain' directly (as too Quan Yin). However to liken that to a 'Catholic Saint' I have to say is very amusing to me!

The essence of consciousness (to me) is about 'spontaneous energetic ceremony' (amongst other things). That means being thoroughly present in the moment and feeling the way the surrounding energy field is flowing. Then allowing myself to spontaneously act in some way to change that field - to bring a greater sense of unity within it.

So you could apply it even at the office (especially at the office!). Watch for the opportunity to change everyday routine patterns to bring a moment of upliftment and light to those around.

The consciousness of St Germain works on the seventh ray of light - the colour purple - so you may like to have something that is purple with you. You might like also to tune into the images on this website - but please treat them only as essences to generate internal feelings around the consciousness.

Quan Yin works on this ray too - the consciousness helps us retain compassion for all - whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

As you work with these essences, you may see the energy of the moment somehow helping you to make the spontaneous changes you feel inside are necessary.

When this happens, if you stay open, you might find your consciousness is drawn to a symbolic representation of the essences - a letter for example. Then you know you have made the internal connection to that particular 'Ascended Master'.

Best wishes

Chris

I thought it important to explain a little of what ‘the seven rays’ are. They are seen as the sum total of the divine consciousness of the universal mind - all things are formed from these rays of light, your personality and soul included.

Each ray expresses an aspect of divine purpose and we each incarnate with various essences of the rays. You may see your own characteristics in the following descriptions:

1. The energy of will: purpose or power - a driving force to bring about 'right action' of the universe
2. The energy of Love-wisdom: bringing about greater awareness of divine love
3. The energy of Active Intelligence: using mind to resolve complex ideas and philosophies
4. The energy of harmony through conflict: bringing about construction by recognition that we must also break lower harmonies
5. The energy of concrete knowledge or science: bringing others to realisation through application of scientific principles
6. The energy of devotion or idealism: applying ourselves to a particular cause
7. The energy of ceremonial order: changing the surrounding field to foster new ways of living in civilisation

Our soul will have incarnated with the over riding condition of one of these rays and also with essences of the others. If we can identify the key rays within ourselves, it helps us understand the reason we often act the way we do and we can enhance those key strengths (at Openhand we call them 'gifts' - see Openhand Way).

Interestingly we have just moved out of the 2000 year age of Pisces which was a manifestation on the 6th ray - that of devotion and idealism. This is why we saw the rise of the religions in the way we did.

Now we are in the age of Aquarius which is manifested on the seventh Ray. It encourages us to move on from devotional behaviour to mastering our own inner passions and revealing our own truth.

That’s why both St Germain and Quan Yin are appearing here as topics of conversation because they are the guiding presences of the seventh ray incarnations (there are no coincidences in the universe!).

I have only really scratched the surface here of a very deep subject that influences us all (whether we know it or not). If your interest is inspired, a great book I would recommend is “The Seventh Ray: Revealer of the New Age”. It was written by Alice Bailey who worked very closely with Djwal Khul (picture above).

Chris

Welcome to the Openhand forum mb.
Looks like you have inspired quite a flow of interesting writing here

Warmly
Trin

Thank you Trin and yes, interesting to say the least, and expressed with such clarity.

Chris I haven't checked my facts yet about St Germain, e.g. if he actually is a saint of the Catholic church - I just assumed he was - and the concept of ascended masters was entirely new to me. I like his name, too, and grew up near an eponymous town; used to support the Paris St Germain football team (no more, they are just too bad, and look like only divine intervention could save them). And I love the colour purple (plus PSG's colours are blue + red). Joking aside, I enjoyed the gallery very much. St Germain was quite a guy. I suppose there are other ascended masters, or are these the only ones that are known? About the 7 rays: surely while one dominates at a given time those energies are mixed, e.g. the 5th ray, scientific knowledge, must have been important in the past 200 years along with the 6th.

Also, what types of things do you do to change the surrounding energy field? A big part of my work is quite cerebral and done in solitude unfortunately, so I don't interact a lot in the day.
I suppose you have to be aware of it in the first place. Then being a master of your own energy you are able in turn to influence it by thought, word and deed - or something like that. I have some experience with meditation (based on a taoist technique) but don't do it systematically, can't find the discipline. More and more what I try to do when feeling agitated at any moment is try to re-center and "go within". It works sometimes, sometimes not. I do tai-chi also but am still at a point (beginning of part 3 of the Yang long form) where I struggle with technique - working for instance on the kicks at the moment, my thigh muscles are still too tight, so my kicks don't whip and some sections of my form don't flow, and I don't get the meditative benefits.

Best,
m_b

Hi m_b,

I'm sure there are plenty of other so called 'Ascended Masters' yes. These are just the ones we've come across.

Yes with regard to the 7 rays, one is dominating but all have their influence - just as in us.

With regard to influencing the field - I believe the point is to first connect with your heart - the true self - and understand what you are being invited to do in every moment. Some believe they should try to shape the field and so seek to influence it with intent.

This is completely against the principle of Openhand however. In our opinion, to do so is to create yet another internal identity efforting to do something.

However if we can fully connect to the heart, then we find we are guided to do things. The things that we do shape the field in a particular way - we may never know how that is happening. I find the key is to trust. The more we trust, the more we end up seeing the beneficial effect we are having.

Speaking of the true self, perhaps it is your true self which is causing you to struggle with the kicks? Everything happens for a reason - if you kick fast and you do it frequently over a number of years - then all the snapping movements can seriously damage the joints.

I speak from experience having developed arthritis in the elbows and knees at a relatively young age. This was one of the reasons I switched fully to meditation in movement rather than martial arts.

Having practiced Openhand for a few years now, my arthritis has more or less completely healed. This kind of meditation is more about bringing awarness fully into the body, in so doing we connect to the true self more completetly and healing can take place once we let go of the old conditioning. Maybe this is what you are being invited to do?

Best wishes

Chris

Just a few points.

When we are mentally agitated, working on breathing exercises like chakra opening helps calm the mind and redirect it inwards.

If we are feeling stress due to the chaos of urban living, getting away into the country or by the sea helps us unwind and reconnect to nature. Time for a weekend away?

I don't aim to change the surrounding energy field: really I'd say I'd like to attune myself to it so I could sense it and its purpose even better. When this happens, we come to the blissful 'one taste' Chris refers to above.

Really, if there was anything I am trying to do, it simply would be in every moment coming from the place of love. But this is not easy: society and one's whole conditioning favours separation, not union.

Thanks m_b for asking the questions, interesting thread!