The Origin of Ascension

THE ORIGIN OF ASCENSION

Origins of Ascension

The Ishayas maintain that there is a single Source spirituality from which all major religions have sprung-much as the branches, leaves and fruit of a tree emanate from a common trunk and root system. We see this root tradition echoed clearly in the transcendent non-dualism of India's Advaita Vedanta ("not-two" + "end of words"). But this Absolute Oneness is equally present in the Echad (Sacred Oneness) of Judeo-Christianity ("Hear, O Israel: The Lord your G-d is Echad," "I and my Father are Echad"), in the Islamic Qul Hu-wallahu 'ahad ("Say: He is Allah, the One!"), in China's unspeakable and unknowable Tao, in Buddha's proclamation that "Of all conscious beings in the universe, only I exist!" The Truths to which we must all eventually awaken comprise the core of every spiritual tradition, even if somewhat obscured by centuries of abstraction and dogmatism.

When in history did this Source Tradition exist? In Atlantis? Ancient India? Off-planet? In the Norse or Celtic Otherworld? Such questions are distractions only, for the Tradition of which we speak is not some utopian form of spirituality that existed eons ago and has long since devolved or disappeared altogether. It is a living, present, and pragmatic function of full human consciousness and its relationship to All-That-Is. It is fully present, right here, right now, even as you read these words; if this were not so, neither you nor these words could exist. But it is present only in the form of experience, not as knowledge that can be wrestled from a text.

Simply put, the transcendent experience of every enlightened Master that has ever existed is equally available to everyone today, from the busiest businessman to the most self-debased street person, if they but turn to it. "It" is not just for the "deserving": It simply is.

Outside of Time, Outside of Space: Perhaps it's starting to dawn in your mind that the "Root Tradition" of which the Ishayas speak is not just the historical "root" of every major religion? That it is also the "root" of the archetypal "Tree of Life," as well as the "root" of the human nervous system? That it need not flow to us-and cannot be cut off from us-linearly through time because it is eternal, and can therefore be experienced only as the ultimate reality of each present moment? If this is so, then you are beginning to grasp that the Ishaya Tradition is much more than a tradition, in the 'traditional' sense of the word.

The Ishaya Tradition is not a set of doctrines, or even a proclamation of spiritual truths: It is a bridge, a connection, a pathway of re-establishing relationship between self and Ultimate. Even modern Christianity has begun to replace the concept of "Original Sin" with that of "The Human Condition," defined as "being without the assurance, through direct experience, of one's connectedness to the Divine." In other words, what our spiritual forebears called Original Sin is none other than separation, the source of all alienation, fear and grasping.

The antidote to the human condition is obvious, even if the method is not. It is even spelled out in the deeper understandings of Genesis: The divine Oneness that is the Creator, having manifested Itself fully, in infinite diversity as every detail of creation, then completes the cycle on the seventh "day." We are used to hearing that "God rested." But the Hebrew word isheboth really means to "come to completion by returning to full experience of one's origins or Source." This is why the seventh "day" is so sacred, and why the word "Sabbath" comes from the same Hebrew root: In the successful completion of the Divine "experiment," the Divine is able to experience itself fully in every aspect of infinite creation, and every aspect of creation is able to experience itself fully as the Divine, in perfect Unity.

The Experiment Not Yet Complete: Even as the possibility of individual selfhood dawned in Holy Mind, resistance to that possibility came into being-as did also the Pathway of Return. As creation has evolved into present-day personal experience, the tendency to resistance has manifested as chaos and separation in all of its permutations; basically, everything that we perceive as being "wrong" with life. The Path of Return is equally present today as ever, awaiting discovery by those who seek it. Ironically, it is a Path of no distance at all; for the Truth of divinity-in-self is eternally true, no matter how many lies we have chosen to believe. It simply awaits our welcome, and our experience.

This is the promise of every spiritual Master who has ever walked this earth. Nonetheless, every individual who wishes to experience the destination must undertake the Path. It is a grace-ful journey, but it cannot be experienced by osmosis, or by reading about it, or by darshan or any other form of "trickle down." The Ascendant One is already fully dancing in every nanosecond of Creation; the only way to join the circle is by completing it from the experience of separation. The sabbath unfoldment of the seventh "movement of light," (translated "day") back to "I am That" is what makes it Holy.

The Ishayas: If we envision Ascension as the Pathway, then the Ishayas are its guardians, or perhaps its gardeners. The Ishayas have been present in every age to ensure that the Way remains open to those who seek it, instead of becoming overgrown or even lost through neglect or misuse. They have played many roles throughout history, but their job has always been supremely simple: to point the Way to the Ascendant One.

The Sanskrit word Ishaya derives from Isha, which has many levels of meaning including "The aspect of the One that destroys ignorance," "The Lord of evolving consciousness," and "Christ." The Greek word Christos (as well as the Hebrew Messiah) means "The Anointed One." In the Ishaya Tradition, this refers to the Ointment Stick of Knowledge, which wipes the scales of ignorance away from the eyes of humanity.

An Ishaya is one who has fully experienced, and who can therefore teach others how to experience, the powerful and joyful Truth of humanity's birthright: That we are not, nor have we ever been, separate from the Oneness of All That Is. By definition, then, a true Ishaya is not a product of one particular practice or doctrine. The source or root Tradition embraces one Truth only and therefore all valid approaches to that Truth; every Master who has stabilized his or her experience of that Truth, and lived it, is therefore honoured as an Ishaya.

The Origins of Ascension: Ascension is an extremely effective methodology for self-realization. It does not need to flaunt its historic pedigree in order to seem effective; the proof, after all, is in the pudding. The techniques of Ascension are particularly suited to the western mind, however, because they are completely effortless, require no lengthy discipline, and bring almost immediate results.

The Truth of Ascension is that you are a vastly grander and more glorious Being than you could possibly imagine; that it is possible for you to experience this Truth for yourself; and that Life lived from this Truth is an experience that also transcends your capacity for imagination.

It is That-that living, conscious, infinite, eternal, unbounded Truth to which we have been pointing-that is also the source, the origin, of Ascension. It is that aspect of you that has never forsaken its destiny, and that fullness of the One that has never broken the connection, that has kept the Tradition alive and whole for this fortunate age.

The techniques we teach, the Ascension Attitudes, have their origins in that same Reality. Many years ago, enlightened minds brought the Ascension Attitudes from that wordless "place" and put them into verbal form; this enables us to simply think the Attitudes and then let our minds effortlessly ride them back to Source.

And why has this Teaching been suddenly released back into the world after being preserved in the Himalayas for nearly 2,000 years? The Ishayas have always known that this would be the time, but they did not decree it. Could its reappearance in this age be because, at some deep level of desire, you have decreed that this is your time of Return? If so, it is our pleasure to put an extremely powerful, ancient, and time-honoured Tradition at your disposal.
 

Continue to Ascension: Just Another Meditation Technique?

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Last updated: 08/15/08