Fanciful depiction of “the last trump”
A reader asked why there is universal silence on the subject of Ascension among the great teachers of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.
The question can be considered from two standpoints. First, why is it that many modern spiritual teachers are not speaking out about Ascension?
I asked the Divine Mother that question in An Hour with an Angel on May 7, 2012 and this is what she told me:
Steve Beckow: Why is it that not many enlightened teachers, like Adyashanti or Mata Amritanandamayi, seem to be referring to Ascension?
Divine Mother: That is not where they have chosen to focus their energies. And they have always, in their journey, wanted to bring their devotees, their students, their family, directly home to full enlightenment.
So it is a difference in the fulfillment of their unique journey. It does not mean that they are not aware of it, but to them they feel that if they can bring their devotees directly home, then why bother with the human Gaia process of this Ascension to the fifth, to the seventh?
So it is a difference in their mission and purpose. (1)
Let’s leave that version of the question and look at a second one. The second version is why classical teachers have not mentioned Ascension. There actually isn’t universal silence on the subject of Ascension itself among classical masters, either long ago or in their channeled messages today.
It’s just referred to by different masters under different names.
Jesus talked about Ascension all through Revelation. He calls it in the Gospels “the Kingdom of Heaven” and uses parables to explain how to attain it: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” (2) I’ve explained what I think he meant by the parables elsewhere. (3)
He or his disciples called it redemption, salvation, overcoming, the rapture, and resurrection. It’s also been called liberation, moksha, etc. Any entry into Fifth Dimensionality, any instance of liberation from the wheel of birth and death is Ascension.
For instance, Archangel Michael told me that the Company of Heaven once called it the “rapture,” but the term had become politicized and so they settled on the term “Ascension.”
AAM: Now when the word … and this is a word that is highly charged, that people talk about … the “rapture.” Well I assure you, dear friend, that when you ascend, you will feel a sense of rapture! Now, because that is a highly charged word, I would say, “you will feel the bliss.” So we will not call it the “rapture.” But that is what it is.
S: I thought that might be the case, that it is a rapture.
AAM: But the word has become politicized. (4)
In 2009, the Buddha demonstrated that the ascended masters had not necessarily all finally agreed on the term “Ascension” when he called it through Marlene Swetlishoff “the Resurrection Dispensation”: “Know that the great Resurrection Dispensation is now in full effect for the Planet Earth and all upon her. All who choose will rise up with the Earth into the Higher Dimensions.” (5)
Here is a source calling itself the “Spiritual Hierarchy” equating Ascension with salvation: “To you we say, your salvation draws nigh.” (6)
Anyone who discusses liberation from the wheel of birth and death is talking about Ascension. Here are some masters discussing Ascension but using the term liberation:
Sri Aurobindo: “It has been said that complete liberation from the human birth, complete ascension from the life of the mental being is impossible until the body and the bodily life are finally cast off.” (7)
Sri Ramana Maharshi: “The Sahaja Nirvikalpa is permanent and in it lies liberation from rebirths.” (8)
Sage Vasistha: “The state of liberation-while-living is … the turiya consciousness. Beyond that is … turiya-atita (beyond turiya). In every atom of existence there is nothing else but the supreme being.” (9)
Another name for liberation is moksha and here Sri Ramana uses that term. But he could have spoken of Ascension: “Getting rid of non-existent misery and attaining Bliss which is the only existence, that is the definition of Moksha.” (10)
Wishing all our sources used common terms is a lament I had when writing New Maps of Heaven. (11) All my informants used different names and differing numbering systems for the planes or dimensions of existence in the afterlife.
It’s a complaint I also had when writing From Darkness unto Light because sages used different names for different levels of enlightenment: What some called Brahmajnana (seventh-chakra enlightenment), others appeared to call kevalya nirvikalpa samadhi, turiya, God-realization, and arahantship. (12) How is one to know which are equivalent and which not?
Thus it has always been. The situation is not unique to Ascension.
Ascension or sahaja or liberation is what’s being discussed in the following passages. King David calls it “salvation’: “He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. … I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.” (13) The “first born” is the Soul, the Christ, the Atman. Others have called the person who reaches this attainment a “Christed” individual. This individual will have ascended.
Sri Ramana called it the estate of the turiya-atita, the overcomer of the turiya or Fourth State of pure consciousness. The Fourth State is akin to Brahmajana. But the overcomer of the Fourth State has reached a higher state – sahaja. He tells us that “the Self is described as beyond the fourth (turiyatita).” (14) “The Turiya … is the self or ‘I’-nature; and what is beyond that is the state of Turiyatita, or pure Bliss.” (15) The Turiyatita is one who has ascended.
Here’s another form of the discussion. In the New Testament, there are references to the “end times.” These are the times that culminate in Ascension; namely, the times that are here today. Hilarion told us in April of this year: “These are the end times spoken of by seers and prophets from the days of old. These are the times of tribulation that have been forewarned.” (16)
SaLuSa of Sirius also identified Ascension with the end times here: “You were always promised that the end times would see you restored to the higher dimensions, and in reality you have never lost faith in those who made it to you.” (18)
The end times, which bring liberation, are not the end of life or end of history, as American sage Franklin Merrell-Wolff explained:
“I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that Liberation is no more the end of life than is a college commencement the end of the young man or woman who graduates. It is simply the end of one stage and the beginning of another. The really worth-while Life begins after Liberation. When this new Freedom is attained, a Man may return Home, as it were, and spend a long period enjoying the warmth and comfort of that Home.
“On the other hand, He may return and continue with his chosen profession on a larger field. Some, who have been highly exhausted by their labors at college, may need a long rest, but obviously Those who are strong should occupy Themselves with the Activities of Real Life.” (19)
The Bible called these times of Ascension the end times. But does it matter that they didn’t use the term “Ascension”?
No matter what name is used, Ascension has been known and has been in the work for millennia, which is why Jesus spoke so much of it in Revelation. SaLuSa reminds us:
“The process of Ascension … has been taking place for many years, and has now reached its final stages in readiness for the great upliftment in 2012.” (20)
“From the commencement of the last cycle over 12,000 years ago, it was known that it would be completed through the process of Ascension. It is therefore an extremely important time for all souls engaged in the experiences of duality. At the end of every cycle there is an emergence of those who are ready to move on to the higher realms.” (21)
The very best description of Ascension from long ago is found, as far as I’m concerned, in St. Paul. St. Paul’s description of what happens at the last trump is a description of Ascension. (22) However because it’s so long, I’ll place it in the footnotes along with an interpretation of the terms of the Biblical code he uses.
But just briefly here, the trumpet is the Universal Mother’s divine sounding of Aum, the music of the spheres, the sound of the cosmic motor, which releases us from one dimensionality and raises us to another, just as it brought us into that dimensionality in the first place. The dead that are raised up are the unenlightened, who must suffer birth and death until the time of their Ascension, which for us is now. The explanation of more terms appears below the passage in the footnotes.
So it isn’t accurate to say that Ascension as a process or as an event isn’t discussed elsewhere. The entire chapter of the Bible called Revelation is given over to discussing it. All the masters discuss it as a process of liberation or redemption or salvation. The only difference is that our mentors of this generation have settled on the term “Ascension” to denote it and that one term has stuck. But Ascension by any other name is still Ascension.
Footnotes
(1) “Transcript of the Divine Mother on An Hour with an Angel, May 7, 2012,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/the-2012-scenario/what-role-are-the-angels-playing/transcript-of-the-divine-mother-on-an-hour-with-an-angel-may-7-2012/.
(2) Jesus in Matthew 13:44. “Heaven” is a common term used for the Mental Plane or Fifth Dimension, the attainment of which constitutes our “Ascension.”
(3) See for instance “I Am the Light of the World” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/cross-cultural-spirituality/i-am-the-light-of-the-world/; “Jesus was a Non-Dualist” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/cross-cultural-spirituality/jesus-nondualist/; and “This is the Christ” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/cross-cultural-spirituality/this-is-the-christ-2/.
(4) “Archangel Michael: Creating a World of Peace,” Sept. 15, 2011, at https://stevebeckow.com/2011/09/archangel-michael-creating-a-world-of-peace/.
(5) “A Message from Maitreya and Buddha,” April 1, 2009, through Marlene Swetlishoff, at https://www.therainbowscribe.com/.
(6) The Spiritual Hierarchy, “Welcome the New (7th) Day!,” November 02, 2010, through Lauren Gorgo, at https://transmissionsfromhome.blogspot.com/.
(7) Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1983, 379.
(8) Sri Ramana Maharshi in S.S. Cohen, Guru Ramana. Memories and Notes. 6th edition. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1993, 88.
(9) Sage Vasistha in Swami Venkatesananda, ed., The Concise Yoga Vasistha. Albany: State University of New York, 1984, 314.
(10) Ramana Maharshi in M. Subbaraya Karnath, Sri Maharshi: A Short Life-Sketch. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasaramam, 1986 51.
(11) New Maps of Heaven at https://goldengaiadb.com/New_Maps_of_Heaven.
(12) From Darkness Unto Light at https://goldengaiadb.com/From_Darkness_to_Light.
(13) Psalm 90:26-7.
(14) Sri Ramana Maharshi, Spiritual Instruction of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Eighth Edition. Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam, 1974, Chapter 4, Question 8.
(15) Sri Ramana Maharshi, Self-Enquiry. Trans. T.M.P. Mahadevan. https://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/self/self_0.htm Downloaded 1 August 2005, Question 28.
(16) Hilarion, April 7, 2013, at https://www.therainbowscribe.com/.
(17) SaLuSa, June 15, 2009, at https://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm.
(18) Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Pathways Through to Space. A Personal Record of Transformation in Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1973, 89.
(19) SaLuSa, May 20, 2009.
(20) SaLuSa, April 3, 2009.
(21) This is the best description of ascension I’ve seen in the ancient masters. With the physical ascension that’s happening now, a new innovation in the Ascension process, it can no longer be said: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Oh, yes, we can! Is this an example of what Jesus was referring to when he said you shall do greater than I?
Some will say, How are the dead (1) raised up? (2) And with what body do they come? (3)
Thou, fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: (4)
… There are … celestial bodies, (5) and bodies terrestrial: (6) but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (7)
… So also is the resurrection of the dead. (8) It is sown in corruption; (9) it is raised in incorruption. (10)
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. …
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; (11) neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (12)
Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (13)
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, (14) at the last trump: (15) for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (16)
For this corruptible must put on incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. (17)
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (18)
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (St. Paul in I Corinthians 15:35-55.)
(1) Mortals, the unenlightened, who are “dead” to Spirit or unconscious of It.
(2) Made immortal, enlightened.
(3) To God.
(4) The lower self or ego the carnal self, is not profitable except it be transcended.
(5) The eternal Self and its higher sheaths or koshas.
(6) The lower physical and astral bodies.
(7) The glory of the celestial bodies is in enlightenment, Self-realization; the glory of the terrestrial bodies lies in lesser worldly aims like gratification of the senses, ambition, pride of accomplishment, etc.
(8) The attainment of full enlightenment, raising one from mortality (“the dead”) to immortality.
(9) We are ordained to attain God by overcoming the conditions of the world through mastering the lessons of physical, worldly life.
(10) We then leave the world behind, unstained, perfected, raised to immortality and able to enter the New Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven.
(11) Nothing physical can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
(12) Neither can evil deeds and sensuality win us heaven.
(13) Not everyone shall remain unconscious of God and the spiritual life, as the unrealized are. Some will wake up and realize the Self. All will eventually do so.
(14) Enlightenment happens in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
(15) Yogananda suggests this “trumpet” is the sound of OM heard in the energy centers of the body. (Cf. Paramhansa Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ. Dallas: Amrita Foundation, 1979, 1, 15-21.)
(16) The unenlightened shall be purified and raised beyond the touch of materiality forever, through Self-realization.
(17) It is God’s plan for everyone that they move from darkness into light, from unenlightenment into enlightenment.
(18) For the liberated or ascended, there will be no return to the Third-Dimensional realm: they will then be immortal. There will be no more birth into the physical world and hence no more death.