how advanced their capabilities actually were. The Bible’s patriarchal birthright was also defined by this practice, and thus it became precious knowledge granted only to the “anointed one” of each generation, to Aaron’s lineage of High Priests, and to the Biblical prophets. Within any of the Eastern religions, people of faith take their meditation practice very seriously, but, generally speaking, only yogis, lamas, and monks are dedicated enough to devote the time required to master the practice.
When a member of the Aryan community died, their funery rites would be officiated by a priest who would have mastered this practice. He would pray to ensure the safe passage of the man’s immortal soul, and then cremate his mortal remains. This explains the recent discovery of cremation remains at Stonehenge in England. Reconstructing ancient funery practices from Vedic hymns suggests that mortal remains were cremated on an altar, and the remains scattered nearby. Stories of the “gods on the mountain” appear in legend and myth within the art, architecture and literature of the various ancient cultures. In ancient Sumer, only one man was granted immortality by the gods. That man was Noah’s Sumerian counterpart, king Ziusudra, who was the sole survivor of the “great flood” and preserver of the seed of mankind. He was given “life like a god” and “breath eternal” just as Noah was said to have “walked with God.”
One of the most significant Sumerian and Babylonian myths is the search for a “magic elixir” of immortality that the Vedas call Soma juice or Amrita nectar (Sanskrit: immortality). Scholars still search for the mysterious Soma plant of the Rig Veda said to cause an ecstatic altered state of consciousness. But, a comparison of meditation practices across different cultures implies that Soma was more than a plant. Within Tibetan Buddhism there is an “ambrosia” of “Kundalini drops” that results from meditation. The New Testament speaks about “a true Baptism of the spirit” in contrast to a “Baptism by water.” Biblical allegory “anoints” the patriarch or king’s head with oil. The Hebrew word Meshiach means “Anointed One,” which translates into English as Messiah, and into Greek as Christos.
The Rig Veda describes man’s partial divinity as the reason for his continual search for immortality. In many Rig Vedic hymns, including: This Restless Soma and Soma Pressed in the Bowls, Soma juice is a liquid said to heal all who are sick. It is a sage and a seer, a crusader of truth, a King, a God. Soma is associated with the male Bull and the Sacred Cow’s milk. The hymn “Soma Pressed in the Bowls” describes Soma in metaphor as: “the pouring of the juices through a filter”; “the milking of rain out of the clouds”; “the pouring of seed into a womb”; “the downpouring of torrents upon the earth”; “the bull who rules over the rain”; “from the Navel of Order, the ambrosia is born.”84 According to the Rig Veda, the mathematical schematic of the cosmos also functions as a schematic describing the microcosm of the soul and its liberation (Figure 25).
Within the Vedic origins of Hinduism, Soma is interchangeable with Agni, the god of Fire. Tibetan Buddhists say that their “Inner Fire” practice, known as tummo, melts the Kundalini (Serpent) energy stored as Bodhicitta substance at the “Crown.” This substance melts at the Crown and white Bodhicitta drops flow down the central channel (spinal cord) when exposed to man’s “Inner Fire.” The practitioner is harmonizing the primordial elements of Fire and Water with Wind.85
I can share one personal anecdote with respect to this phenomenon as a result of my doctor hearing me “drip” as he entered the examining room while I was meditating. He asked me what that clicking sound was? I replied, “You’re the doctor, you tell me.” After ruling out reflux and post-nasal drip, he sent me to a Harvard educated specialist, who naturally inquired why I was there. I responded that Dr. Gerdis wanted me to drip for you. He looked puzzled so I waved him over to listen. He then accused my watch of ticking loudly, which struck me funny, so I gave him my silent watch to listen to. He then asked me to do it again while he looked down my throat with a scope to observe. After asking me to start and stop at least four times, he said: “You made my day.” He then explained that the medical term for what he observed was called palatal myoclonus, which is simply a spasm of the soft palate. But, he added that it was the first time in his career that he had ever observed someone who could control it at will.. Usually, he said, it was a condition that resulted from a brain lesion or epilepsy. To my great relief, he finally mentioned that it also occurred in healthy people when they were falling asleep. It is also called hypnagogic myoclonus. So, even with a Harvard medical education and many years practicing medicine, the doctor had no idea that an experienced meditator can quickly put themselves into a hypnagogic state. Although this explanation took a bit of the mystique out of the Soma plant for me, it should explain things perfectly for a modern scientific audience. The Tibetan Lama Thubten Yeshe used more of a traditional Buddhist vocabulary to describe his tummo practice of “flaming and dripping”:
Inner Fire meditation is far more effective than ordinary deep meditation. It quickly grows into an explosion of nonduality wisdom, an explosion of telepathic power, an explosion of realizations. It is the key to countless treasures... In inner fire meditation the approach is made through the navel chakra... igniting the inner fire, blazing the inner fire, blazing and dripping, and extraordinary blazing and dripping.86
“Blazing and dripping” explains why the god of fire, Agni, was considered interchangeable with Soma juice. In the Rig Veda’s “Funeral Hymn,” the hymn distinguishes between levels of spiritual attainment. For some, the Soma juice has already been purified, but for others, they must use a “sitting” practice and “sing” to invoke the “inner heat” for the “butter” to “flow like honey.”87
“With a heart longing for cows [the milk of cows, or Soma] they sat down while with their songs they made the road to immortality.”88
We have yet to discuss details of the “song” of the practitioner, as described by the mathematical discipline of music. There has always been an Eastern tradition of meditating in the quiet seclusion of caves. When we think of Himalayan monks, we often think of them meditating in caves. In the hymn, “The Cows in the Cave,” we are reminded of the sacred “cave practice” as a legacy of early man’s time spent in caves during the Ice Age.
The wise ones struck a path for those who were in the cave; the seven priests drove them on with thoughts pressing forward. They found all the paths of the right way; the one who knew was the one who entered them, bowing low.89
Within the Abrahamic and Vedic traditions, as well as the Tibetan Bon and Buddhist traditions, liberating the soul is a direct result of perfecting a “sitting” practice to simulate death. A man must “bow low” as he meditates, metaphorically surrendering one’s ego and all attachments to the material world if liberation is to occur. The Jewish tradition takes this simulation of death very seriously. An oath is recited to bind the soul to the body “for those traveling to the highest realms.”
• For some, the Soma is purified; others sit down for butter. Those for whom the honey flows — let the dead man go away straight to them.
• Those who became invincible through sacred heat, who went to the sun through sacred heat, who made sacred heat their glory — let him go away straight to join the immortal fathers.90
The Hindu Sun god, Sūryā, drives his chariot through Heaven harnessed by seven horses (the seven chakras of the soul). Sūrya represents both the sun and the soul. In the Vedic hymn, “The Marriage of Sūryā” (Sūrya’s daughter), we learn that the moon is Soma (it retains its identity as the sacred elixir, but appears only this once in the Rig Veda as the moon). The Aryans were known for their great chariots. Sūrya’s Chariot, like Ezekiel’s Chariot, is a vehicle for meditation that “presses the Soma” and liberates the soul for its journey through the Heavens.
Soma became the bridegroom... The two luminaries
