Sufi Vibrational Scale

I wanted to share a framework that helps to understand more about the relativity of time, space, and being. This framework is present in the Fourth Way and in the teachings of some Sufi orders. The framework has been revised and simplified by one of my teachers whose name is Etabah. What is interesting is that I found his revised version fits the ten world teaching that the Bodhisattva scholar Tendai derived from the Lotus Sutra.

The framework is based on the following number series: 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192, 384, and 768. The numbers keep doubling from 3. If you assume that the distance between the Sun and Mercury is one unit of length, then all the planets fall into approximately the corresponding distances from the Sun, if you assume that the asteroid belt was a plant at one time. The numbers represent orders of fundamental laws which govern one vibrational level. There is the world of pure unity where there is only one law which influences everything. This one law may be called love, wisdom, creativity, beauty, harmony, awareness, joy, or freedom. The word does not really matter, since pure unity cannot be really expressed in dualistic parts which are playing off of each other or opposing each other even mildly. Language itself starts to break down in describing this unity. But it can name that it exists. The Madhyamika Buddhist philosophers asserted this unity through showing the logical fallacy of any sense of separation and by showing that unity is presupposed in how everything arises interdependently upon everything else. They even negated the word "unity" since its usual meaning carries a tension with the word "duality". The unity behind what was realized behind what was realized is beyond even this tension.

The next level below this vibration of the world of unity is where there are 3 laws. Gurdjieff called them the active, the passive, and reconciling forces. In terms of chemistry, he talked about the active as Oxygen, the passive as Nitrogen, and the reconciling as Carbon, and a generic element as Hydrogen. In Hinduism, there are three gunas that correspond to these forces. Some people have assumed that the Christian Trinity also has correspondence, with the Holy Spirit being the reconciling force (the law of grace), Christ being the active element (active choice), and the Father being the passive or resistant element (the law of karma).

The next level below has 6 laws and relates to how samskaras and karma create the manifest universe. The New Age teaching of "your thoughts create your reality" operates on this level.

The next level below has 12 laws and relates to how everything is vibration. Sound healing, overtone chanting, and bija mantras operate on this level. Sound has geometry and form. String theory in Quantum physics has to do with this level.

The next level below has 24 laws and relates to the division between the conscious and subconscious mind as we know it now. This is the level where psychotherapy and hypnotherapy is useful. Each individual has his or her own process. We can support this process by empathetic listening, radical acceptance, and trusting innate goodness to evolve a person from within.

The next level below has 48 laws and relates to human artistic and scientific culture. It represents finding fulfillment through being a householder, raising a family, having a profession, having a spiritual purpose, doing daily meditation, and being a good citizen.

The next level below has 96 laws and relates to biological animal evolution and humans as biological beings. This is the level of the genetic code and the mitochondria driving celluler evolution and manifesting individual bodies to further its own evolutionary agenda. This is sexual energy as a biological and evolutionary force.

The next level below has 192 laws and according to Etabah it is the first of the unnecessary worlds. The sorrow of this level is not necessary for humans to experience and it was not really designed into the cosmos. This is the world of addictions and compulsive habits. This is where some emotional process is being avoided by a habitual pattern and a chemical indulgence that blunts the sensitivity so that the emotion cannot be fully felt and moved through.

The next level below has 384 laws and is the world of deep unfulfilled longings and dysfunctional family systems. The law of a dysfunctional family is "do not tell, do not feel, and do not even acknowledge". There is a focus on manipulation, lying, seduction, and possessing, focusing on changing, keeping, and holding others so that one does not feel abandoned.

The next level below has 768 laws and is the world of self destruction, deep anger, and constant struggle. There is a battle going on.

Our energy field can have different percentages of each vibrational level vibrating within us. Each thought that we think has a vibrational level and links us to one of these worlds. Every world has its own time and unfoldment. Etabah shared that each world is in logarithmic relationship to the worlds higher and lower to itself. For instance, if some growth process takes 1,000,000 years in world 96, then it will take 10,000,000 years in world 192, and 100,000,000 years in world 384, and 1,000,000,000 in world 768. Correspondingly, devoting yourself to human culture and mastering any art to a certain level will allow the growth to happen in 100,000 years. If you commit to psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, involve yourself in self help and methods of psychological growth, then the growth will take 10,000 years. If you get an energy initiation, like abhisheka in Tibetan Buddhism or a Reiki attunement, and do chanting, get acupunture, run energy through your etheric body, do energy breathing, and open up to all the emotional content flowing through the body, then the same growth will take 1,000 years. If you realize that, without any exception, that your entire life is a manifestation of your conscious and subconscious thoughts, learn to gently correct your thoughts, and release outmoded beliefs, then the same growth will take 100 years. If you link with higher sources of wisdom, telepathically commune with higher beings, allow their wisdom to flow through you and purify your mind, and let feeling understanding emerge from this communion, then the same growth can take place in 10 years. If you remain in rigpa, without identifying with anything other than the one energy of all life, never falling to any lesser state, then the same growth can take place in 1 year.

Etabah shared that the best level to focus on is world 12, because it is more within reach of our understanding and that 1,000 years of lifetimes and growth is a relatively short path. The initiation into this kind of work starts when we feel the kundalini energy flow through us and wish to surrender to its ascending current. Gurdjieff called this "the solar octave". The lunar octave is the energy of creation and manifestation. The lunar octave is about energy flowing down the vibrational scale from the world of unity. The solar octave is about energy flowing up the vibrational scale back to the world of unity. The Taoist phrase, "The path of return is the way forward" symbolizes the two octaves and points to the one that is relevant to our growth.

Because the worlds 192, 384, and 768 are the unnecessary worlds of an artificial ego, they are meant to be dissolved completely. It means learning to completely release our toxic addictions, our dysfunctional patterns of relating, and our self destructive moods. When these artificial worlds are released, then the remaining seven worlds correspond to the seven chakras in the human body. The sex center corresponds to world 96 and drives biological evolution.

Many verbal confusions can be sorted out by assuming that every word has a different meaning in each of the worlds. For instance, sex-96 is pure innocent biological lust which motivates animals to procreate and perpetuate their species. Sex-192 is sex merely for pleasure and for emotional repression. It is pornographic and nonrelational. Sex-384 is a dysfunctional bonding which has jealousy, possessiveness, and control as its issues. Sex-768 is sex with sadism and masochism involved. Normal courtship, romance, and family formation is sex-48. When a couple can share with each other and process emotional issues with each other, with compassionate acceptance, active empathic listening, and genuine care for the other, and a willingness to look at and release ego patterns, then they function as process partners in world 24. When a couple can feel kundalini energy arising between them and surrender to its ascending current, then this is sex-12. When the energy starts releasing samskaras in the subconscious mind, and there is a certain kind of attention and presence to notice the thoughts which are arising to be released, and there is a unity of purpose consciously created by common thought intent, then sex-6 has emerged. When it feels like the couple is always together, always in telepathic communion, and field merged, then sex-3 has emerged. When the bodies of the two dissolve into light, the sex-1 has emerged.

The path of celibacy, renouncing sex, is about purifying sex-192, sex-384, and sex-768 from the energy field. It also renounces sex-96 in the sense of shifting from the lunar octave to the solar octave. Every word can have a different vibrational meaning depending on what level it was formed on. For instance, remorse-24 is purifying and healing, whereas remorse-384 (guilt) holds one in a dysfunctional pattern. Many of the conflicting views about what a word means can be resolved through application of this vibrational scale. One can assume that each person is right depending on which world the word is spoken from and about.

The vibrational scale matches the Ten Worlds teaching of Tendai (which he derived from the Lotus Sutra and which Shingon Buddism and Nicherin Buddhism took on). World 768 is the demon or hell realm. World 384 is the hungry ghost realm. World 192 is the animal realm (compulsive habits, insensitivity, and chemical addictions). World 96 is the asura realm of animal (predator) humans. World 48 is the realm of human culture and is the human realm proper. World 24 is the deva realm where humans have accomplished survival and are working on their purpose. World 12 is the saint realm of beings who are purifying themselves. World 6 are the meditators and geniuses. World 3 are the bodhisattvas and dakinis. World 1 is the dharmakaya realm of the Buddhas. There are some differences between the vibrational scale and the worlds teaching. Buddhism has sometimes placed the asura realm above the human realm, because the human predator types seem able to exploit ordinary humans through conquest and intimidation. Shingon Buddhism places them below the human realm, because they are parasitic and do not have their own culture. They steal from human culture. Humans-48 just want to live, love, work, and be creative.

Each human tends to have three vibrational frequencies that they primarily inhabit. One is the highest possibility that they can reach and easily comprehend through present centered intention. One is their normal state where the highest percentage of their thoughts vibrate within. One is the vibration they fall to when their trauma circuit is activated. Every world, however, is accessible to all beings through thought, intention, and surrender. Gurdjieff defined several evolutionary types by this threefold classification. Persons number one, two, and three are on the same level with one being physically focused, two being emotionally focused, and three being mentally focused. Person number four is harmonizing the physical, emotional, and mental through the introduction of consciousness. Person number five is resting in consciousness, but still has a subtle feeling of duality. Person number six has surrendered into cosmic unity. Person number seven has surrendered into nirvanic unity (the formless level before any manifest cosmos).

The vibrational numbers workout for these evolutionary types in this manner: #7=1,3,6, #6=3,6,12, #5=6,12,24, #4=12,24,48, #3,2,1=24,48,96. Gurdjieff also mentioned the hasnamous, lunatic, and tramp are types that will not be attracted to the evolutionary process. They would have t=48,96,192, l=96,192,384, and h=192,384,768. The hasnamous would be a sociopath, predator, or asura. Lunatics are wrapped up in some crazy dysfunction that makes emotional processing very complex, time consuming, and slow (hungry ghost). A tramp is a person who indulges in an addiction at the expense of being a responsible social person. When we have one vibrational world in common, then we are more able to understand a person. In the system of correspondences, the asura hasnamous has the basic world 96, but does not have a personal frequency match. This is what Gurdjieff would call a "lawful inexactitude". Humans are meant to have human social culture. When a human falls back to being a "natural human" is never really natural. There is a rare exception when a human is raised by animals in nature. They tend to socialize when found by humans-48. The animal realm really functions at world 96, but Tibetan Buddhism has used animals to symbolize compulsive emotional states that are vibrational level 192. The tramp can rise to responsibility. They know what it is and it is their highest possibility within reach. It takes some commitment and concentration for them to do this. The lunatic has his or her naturalness distorted and twisted, usually by some trauma and/or long term deprivation of a basic human need in childhood. Their highest possibility is to become a natural biological human again and then become socialized on this basis. The asura can be very clever, but it is the cortex being driven by the lower brain which are locked into predator and survival mode, but targeting other humans instead of other animal species (except for dinner). If you felt their thoughts, though, you would feel something that felt hostile, insane, and impersonal. It feels very alien to the human world. When an asura dies, they will likely be reborn in a lesser world filled with much pain and sorrow. You can already see this world like a shadow in their aura, as if they are already living in that world in their dreams and thoughts, and will by cosmic law manifest it in their next life. It is like their foothold in world 96 is tenuous, due to some good karma that will exhaust itself unless they commit to a compassionate life path and generate more good karma.

There are many ways of working with this vibrational scale. One is to notice where the thoughts are that one is dwelling on. The dharma teachings of any higher religion come from higher worlds. It is why sutras and scriptures are considered inspired by the divine. Most of the teachings of the world religions, though, are a little impure. If you tested the thoughts in most sutras, there are some thoughts that fall below the frequency of the total message. It is up to future generations to question these thoughts and adjust them. Some of these thoughts were concessions to the dogmas that mind locked previous generations of humans. Jesus said that they were due to "hardness of heart" and that the totality of laws that those humans could agree on would soften the heart enough for compassion to expand further than before, in other lifetimes. For instance, the Old Testament seems more complacent about slavery. Most humans are still complacent about hunting, killing, and eating animals when it is, from a higher standpoint, savage and unnecessary for good health.

Higher vibrational thoughts are not merely positive thoughts. They are a higher view of everything that is happening. It is realistic about suffering and the need to heal suffering. Every thought derives meaning from the world or vibrational level that it emerges from. When we immerse ourselves in higher thoughts, we always feel better, even if we are undergoing some intense life challenges. For instance, when someone hurts us, we can feel that life is unfair (v192,384,768) and be angry, or we can assume it is old karma coming to end and be grateful (v12,24). Or we can assume that we created the whole event through our thoughts (v6). Each will be a shift in how we experience the event and life itself.

There are different levels of time associated with each world. Time-192 is driven by the feeling of have to have it and frustration. Time-384 feels like a murky heaviness infused with not feeling fulfilled and feeling that nothing can satisfy us. Time-768 feels like tension, annoyance, and pain. Time-96 has an evolutionary feeling, but feels impersonal, like its timescale is too big for any one lifetime. Time-48 has a feeling of "the way of all Earth", of going through social rituals. Time-24 has a feeling of emotional process. Time-12 has a feeling of energy flow. Time-6 feels like you can insert things into the time stream and experience them. Time-6 also has the feeling you can be above it and travel back and forth across it. Time-3 feels like a time of ever unfolding wisdom. Time-1 feels like one vast eternal now.