The third eye

In Hinduism and Buddhism, the third eye is a symbol of enlightenment (see moksha and nirvana). In the Indian tradition, it is referred to as the gyananakashu, the eye of knowledge, which is the seat of the 'teacher inside' or antar-guru. The third eye is the ajna chakra (sixth chakra) also known as brow chakra or brow centre. This is commonly denoted in Indian and East Asian iconography with a dot, eye or mark on the forehead of deities or enlightened beings, such as Shiva, the Buddha, or any number of yogis, sages and bodhisattvas. This symbol is called the "Third Eye" or "Eye of Wisdom", or, in Buddhism, the urna. In Hinduism, it is believed that the opening of Shiva's third eye causes the eventual destruction of the physical universe.

Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul Esoteric Healing

Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949), known as Alice A. Bailey or AAB, was an influential writer and teacher in the fields of spiritual, occult, esoteric healing,astrological, Christian and other religious themes. Alice Bailey was born as Alice LaTrobe Bateman, in Manchester, England at 7:32 am GMT.[1] She moved to the United States in 1907, where she spent most of her life as a writer and teacher. Her works, written between 1919 and 1949, describe a wide-ranging system of esoteric thought covering such topics as how spirituality relates to the solar system, meditation, healing, spiritual psychology, the destiny of nations, and prescriptions for society in general. She described the majority of her work as having been telepathically dictated to her by a "Master of the Wisdom", initially referred to only as "the Tibetan", or by the initials "D.K.", later identified as "Djwhal Khul."

The Ajna Center

This is the center between the eyebrows and is found in the region of the head just above the two eyes, where it "acts as a screen for the radiant beauty and the glory of the spiritual man." It corresponds to the physical sun and is the expression of the personality, integrated and functioning - first of all as the disciple, and finally as the initiate. This is the true persona or mask.

It achieves this functioning activity fully by the time the third initiation is taken. I would remind you that this initiation is regarded by the Hierarchy as the first major initiation, a fact which I have already communicated. It is the organ for the distribution of the energy of the third aspect - the energy of active intelligence. It is related to the personality by the creative thread of life, and is therefore closely connected with the throat center (the center of creative activity), just as the head center is related to the center at the base of the spine. An active interplay, once established between the ajna center and the throat center, produces a creative life and a manifested expression of the divine idea on the part of the initiate. In the same way, the active interplay between the head center and the center at the base of the spine produces the manifestation of the divine will or purpose. The forces of the ajna and the throat centers, when combined, produce the highest manifestation of "fire by friction," just as the energies of the head center and the basic center produce the individual "electric fire" which, when fully expressing itself, we call the kundalini fire.

It is the center through which the fourth Creative Hierarchy on its own plane finds expression, and here also this Hierarchy and fourth kingdom in nature, the human family, are fused and blended. The head center relates the monad and the personality. The ajna center relates the Spiritual Triad (the expression of the monad in the formless worlds) to the personality. Ponder on this statement, because you have here - in the symbolism of the head center, physically considered - the reflection of the spiritual will, atma, and spiritual love, buddhi. Here also comes in the teaching on the place of the eyes in the development of conscious expression, creatively carrying forward the divine purpose.

The Third Eye - the head center - Will. Atma.
The eye of the Father - the Monad - SHAMBALLA.
The first aspect of will or power and purpose.
Related to the pineal gland.
The Right Eye - the ajna center - Love. Buddhi.
The eye of the Son - the Soul - HIERARCHY.
The second aspect of love-wisdom.
Related to the pituitary body.
The Left Eye - the throat center - Active Intelligence.
The eye of the Mother - the personality - HUMANITY.
The third aspect of intelligence.
Related to the carotid gland.

When these three eyes are functioning and all of them "seeing" simultaneously, you will then have insight into divine purpose (the initiate), intuitive vision of the plan (the disciple), and a spiritual direction of the resulting creative activity (the Master).

The ajna center registers or focuses the intention to create. It is not the organ of creation in the same sense that the throat center is, but it embodies the idea lying behind active creativity, the subsequent act of creation producing eventually the ideal form for the idea. Its dense physical externalization is the pituitary body; the two lobes of this gland correspond to the two multiple petals of the ajna center. It expresses imagination and desire in their two highest forms, and these are the dynamic factors lying behind all creation.

It is the organ of idealism therefore, and - curiously enough - it is closely related to the sixth ray, just as the head center is essentially related to the first ray. The sixth is peculiarly linked to the third ray and the third aspect of divinity as well as to the second ray and the second aspect. It fuses, anchors and expresses. This is a fact which I have not hitherto emphasized in my other writings. The ajna center is the point in the head where the dualistic nature of manifestation in the three worlds is symbolized. It fuses the creative energies of the throat and the sublimated energies of desire or the true love of the heart.

This center, having only two real petals, is not a true lotus in the same sense as are the other centers. Its petals are composed of 96 lesser petals or units of force (48 + 48 = 96) but these do not assume the flower shape of the other lotuses. They spread out like the wings of an airplane to the right and left of the head, and are symbolic of the right hand path and the left hand path, of the way of matter and the way of spirit. They constitute symbolically, therefore, the two arms of the Cross upon which the man is crucified - two streams of energy or light placed athwart the stream of life descending from the monad to the base of the spine and passing through the head.

Motion on the Plane of Mind

The effects of the synthetic activity of the centers, sheaths and causal body produce:

Periodicity of manifestation.
The linking of the Triangles.
The relation between:
The alta major center.
The throat center.
The centers on the mental plane.

If we summarize the thoughts conveyed here, we will find that it deals with some aspects of that very necessary alignment which must take place prior to full ability to serve in final liberation. We have studied from many angles the component parts of man, the microcosm, and the mode whereby he manifests on earth in order to express that which lies hidden, and to make his energy felt in the group and place where he finds himself. The constitution of the causal body has been seen to consist of a triple form of energy, with a fourth and more dynamic type of force latent at the heart, ready to demonstrate when the other three forms are active, thus utilizing them as a vehicle. We have noted also that there are also three forms of energy which we call the sheaths of the personal self, and which have also to be actively functioning before the triple egoic force can make itself felt through their medium. Added to these factors, must be mentioned the seven centers in etheric matter which find their place in the etheric body, and which awaken and become active as the sheaths swing into rhythmic activity. Of these centers the three major are of the main importance where egoic alignment is concerned, and their vital force only begins to make itself felt after the lower four are fully active.

A second factor which works into the general scheme here is the latent triple kundalini fire which is aroused and mounts through the triple spinal channel just as soon as the three major centers (the head, the heart and the throat) form an esoteric triangle, and can thus pass the fiery energy hidden in each center in circulatory fashion. To summarize therefore: we have perfected alignment just as soon as the following factors have been put in touch with each other, or as soon as their motion or activity is synthesized; this is a most important subject for students of meditation, and for those who tread the Path of attainment to consider and practically realize.

The three tiers of petals.
The three sheaths.
The three major centers.
The threefold Kundalini fire.
The threefold spinal channel.
The three head centers, the pineal gland, the pituitary body, the alta major center. Another factor which must be allowed for in advanced stages of development, is the third eye which is to the occultist and true white magician what the fourth energy center (the jewel in the lotus) is to the lotus, or to the three tiers of petals. The correspondence is interesting:

The jewel in the lotus is the director of energy from the monad, whilst the third eye directs the energy of the Ego on the physical plane. The jewel in the Lotus is the center of force which links the buddhic and mental planes. When it is to be seen and felt, the man can function consciously on the buddhic plane. The third eye links the awakened physical plane man with the astral or subjective world, and enables him to function consciously there. The jewel, or diamond concealed by the egoic lotus, is the window of the Monad or Spirit whereby he looks outward into the three worlds. The third eye is the window of the Ego or soul functioning on the physical plane whereby he looks inward into the three worlds.

The jewel in the lotus is situated between manas and buddhi whilst the third eye is found between the right and left eyes. One of the main functions of the Master in this cycle (though not in all cycles) is to teach His pupil how to reconcile all these factors, how to synthesize their various modes of motion or expression, and how to coordinate them all so that the vibration is uniform. When energy from the Ego controls, or imposes its rhythm upon the various sheaths via their respective major centers, when the triple fire is mounting in orderly fashion via the triple channel, and when the three head centers are united in triangular fashion, then we have illumination or the irradiance of the entire personality life, darkness gives place to light, and the Sun of Knowledge arises and dispels the darkness of ignorance. The minor centers are concerned with the internal coordination of the sheath, the major with the group coordination or the interrelation of one sheath to another. The man becomes a burning and a shining light, radiating forth a light which burns from within.

When the next step is accomplished, and the energy of the Monad, focused through the jewel, makes itself felt also on the physical plane, passing through the triple egoic lotus via the channels already utilized by the Ego, we have a man who is "inspired," who is a spiritual creator, and who is himself "a Sun of Healing Radiance."

These are the objectives before all those who tread the path and the goal ahead for those who follow the necessary discipline of life, and the stages of unfoldment through meditation. There are, needless to say, certain modes of work and mantric formulas known to the Masters which enable Them to hasten the process (when necessary) for Their disciples, but these are secrets scrupulously guarded and not frequently used. The usual method, a lengthy and laborious one, is to let the pupil find out each step of the way for himself, to teach him the constitution of his own body, the nature of the sheaths, and the function and apparatus of energy and so let him gradually become aware of the forces latent in himself. What is meant by the "three periodical vehicles" and the seven principles or qualities of force, is slowly revealed to him, and through experience, experiment, frequent failures, occasional success, mature reflection and introspection, and frequent incarnation, he is brought to the point where he has produced a certain measure of alignment through self-induced and continuous effort. He is then taught how to utilize that alignment, and how to manipulate energy consciously so that he can bring about on the physical plane results in service that for many lives have been probably a dream or an impossible vision. When he is proficient in these two things - stabilization and manipulation - then, and only then, are committed to him the words and secrets which produce the demonstration on the physical plane of spiritual, or monadic, energy by means of the soul or egoic energy, utilizing in its turn the energy of the material forms in the worlds, or what we might call bodily energy. This has been expressed in the following mystical and occult phrase:

"When the jewel sparkles as does the diamond under the influence of the rays of the blazing sun, then the setting likewise gleams and rays forth light. As the diamond shines with increasing brilliance, the fire is generated which sets on fire that which held and enclosed."