Golden Keys to Achieving Ascension

The Complete Ascension Manual

Chapter 25

Golden Keys to Achieving Ascension in this Lifetime

Dr. Joshua David Stone

“God equals man minus ego”
- Sathya Sai Baba

one of the main purposes of all my books is to make the vast amount of spiritual and esoteric information that you are bombarded with easy to understand. In this chapter I have formed what might be called an "ascension checklist." I have listed over one hundred key spiritual practices to achieve liberation and ascension.

Very often you get involved in certain tangents and forget about the basic meat and potatoes (or should I say vegetables and potatoes for the vegetarians?) of the spiritual path. This is a very universal and eclectic list and it applies to whatever religion or particular spiritual path you have chosen.

I am sure you are already doing many of these things; other items on this list may remind you about something you have forgotten. I have purposely not gone into great detail, for that would have defeated the purpose of the chapter. For greater detail all you have to do is read all four volumes of The Easy-to-Read Encyclopedia of the Spiritual Path.

These are the golden nuggets I personally consider to be the absolute keys to realizing the self as God in this lifetime. As you read this list I would suggest doing an inventory of yourself, with devastating honesty, to determine your strengths and to note which practices need more of your focus and concentration. The key to self-realization is always well-rounded development.

The average disciple is usually very well developed in some areas and very weak in others. Never forget there are three levels to the spiritual path - the spiritual, the psychological, and the physical or Earthly levels. All three levels must be mastered separately and distinctly before full integration, synthesis, and union can take place.

As you go through this list, check off your strengths and weaknesses. Then set up a "battle plan," a routine and a spiritual regime for the development of those areas in which you are weak. If the list seems overwhelming, then set up a plan for the next five- or ten-year cycle in your life. For example, maybe every three months you can work on developing another aspect of self.

Djwhal Khul has said that it is possible for a person to move from the third initiation to the sixth initiation in six years during this most accelerated planetary cycle. This, of course, would take a 100% commitment. There is no limit to how fast you can grow; it is all based on your commitment. The most important thing is to be organized in the approach to your overall development.

With this brief introduction I bring you the one hundred and forty-seven golden keys checklist to achieving spiritual liberation and ascension in this lifetime.

1. The single most important golden key, in my opinion, is to see every person, animal, plant, and mineral as God visiting you in physical form. See everyone and everything, including yourself, as an incarnation of the Eternal Self

2. The first golden key then leads you to golden key number two which is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and might and to love your neighbor as you love yourself." It is easy to practice unconditional love when you remember that God is embodied in all forms.

3. Golden key number three is the famous definition of God given by His Holiness, the Lord Sai Baba. "God equals man minus ego." Negative ego is the mountain range that stands between you and self-realization. Die to your lower self and you will realize the higher self. In the beginning stages of the path the negative ego is in control. In the middle stages there is a tremendous battle for control. In the later stages, the negative ego which is embodied as the dweller on the threshold (glamour, illusion, and maya) has been mastered and subjugated.

4. Meditate daily. Prayer is talking to God; meditation is listening to and experiencing God.

5. Pray daily for help from God, the Ascended Masters, and your angels. God and the God force can help only if you ask. Why do it all yourself when there is so much help available? The Higher Forces evolve only by being of service, so they are eager and most delighted to help; however, because of humanity's free will they need an invitation.

6. Learn to channel. This spiritual practice will accelerate your spiritual progression one-thousandfold. It doesn't necessarily have to be voice channeling, but definitely learn how to consciously channel spiritual energy in as many forms and ways as are suited to your unique and individual spiritual path.

7. Learn to keep your mind steady in the Light. This means keeping your mind focused on the soul and spirit. Most aspirants and disciples are definitely attuned to the soul. but aren't able to hold themselves there. This is the real work.

8. Learn to master your physical body and all its appetites. This is the golden key for passing the first initiation.

9. Learn to master your emotional and desire body. This is the golden key to passing the second initiation. Don't let your emotions push you around. You are God and must learn to choose your own emotions. When this golden key is mastered you will have longer and longer periods of sustained inner peace, tranquillity, and joy.

10. Learn to master your mental body. You are not your mind. Your mind is your tool for creating your reality. This is the golden key for passing the third initiation which leads to soul merge and a fully integrated personality.

11. Eliminate all desire except the desire for liberation, ascension, and God-realization. Material desire is one of the major stumbling blocks for aspirants and disciples on the spiritual path.

12. Make a lifelong practice of repeating the name or names of God in your daily life. As you do this, also visualize the form of God you are chanting. This is one of the most important practices for achieving self-realization. Do this throughout your day as you walk or stand in line at the grocery store or in meditation. Whatever your challenges in life, this is your spiritual antidote.

13. Never give your personal power to anyone or anything ever again. Don't give it to other people. Don't give it to the Ascended Masters of God. Don't give it to your subconscious mind, inner child, negative ego, desires, five senses, or physical, emotional, or mental body. This lesson may be the single most important lesson of all. Your spiritual path begins when you start to own your personal power. Without personal power you will be a total victim in life, and you will be completely dysfunctional. Without personal power you can't even be loving or really do any of the other practices. This point cannot be emphasized strongly enough.

14. The next golden key follows in line with the last one. Use your personal power only in the service of unconditional love, in the service of God and humanity. This is why you don't have to be afraid to own it 100%.

15. Be sure to acknowledge that you have an inner child and learn to parent it properly. Many spiritual people get so involved with God and spiritual realities that they forget they have an inner child who needs to be taken care of and loved. God and the Masters will not do this for you. This is your job. This is part of being integrated as a person. Talk to your inner child and see that it is getting its needs met. The ideal is to treat your inner child with firmness and love.

16. Dedicate your life to the service of humanity. Be sure you are self-actualized first, however, so you are serving out of wholeness and not emptiness.

17. Read spiritual scriptures and books of all religions and spiritual paths. Spiritual reading sometimes gets a bum rap by many on the spiritual path and this is not valid. It is a very important spiritual practice.

18. Remain balanced at all times. Learn to live in the Tao. The Tao is like surfing a wave. You don't want to get ahead of the wave or you will get dumped. You don't want to go too slowly and get behind the wave or you will miss it. Learn to live in the Tao and in the harmony of life at all times. Be moderate in all things. Let go of extremism. Follow the middle way.

19. Practice attitudinal healing. When you start feeling had, examine the attitudes and beliefs, that are causing you to feel that way. Never forget that it is your thoughts that cause your reality, and this includes your emotions. "As a man thinketh, so is he." "Be it done to you as you believe." Practice affirmations and positive visualizations.

20. Stay grounded and connected to Mother Earth. Many spiritual people get ungrounded and are not properly integrating the Earthly and material face of God. God lives as much in matter as He does in the higher dimensions. The idea is to bring heaven to Earth.

21. Learn to balance the feminine and masculine aspects of self. This is a prerequisite for ascension.

22. Learn to integrate your three minds. All three must be utilized and integrated, with full power at each level. Don't overly rely on just one mind.

23. Demonstrate and practice all that you know, and more will be given. Many people are filled with book knowledge, but they don't practice or demonstrate what they are learning. What you learn is useless if you don't demonstrate and apply it in your life.

24. Do some form of protective prayers, visualizations, or affirmations every day as a standard spiritual practice throughout your life. This is just a basic simple practice that all people on the path need to do.

25. Learn to balance your four bodies - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This is another prerequisite for ascension.

26. Get some form of physical exercise every day or at a minimum every other day. Being spiritual does not mean that you can stop your physical disciplines.

27. Forgive everything and everyone, including yourself. As A Course in Miracles says, "Forgiveness is the key to happiness." Grudges hurt only yourself and are just binding you to the reincarnational process.

28. Transcend duality. This means learning to remain even-minded, and in a state of equanimity whether you have profit or loss, pleasure or pain, sickness or health, victory or defeat, whether people praise or criticize you. This is the consciousness of the God-self. It is a consciousness of remaining in inner peace, happiness, and joy, regardless of what is going on outside of yourself. Outside things don't make you feel anything. It is your attitude toward outside events that make you feel everything.

29. Cultivate preferences, and not attachments. As Buddha said, "All suffering comes from your attachments."

30. Learn to develop self-love. If you don't love yourself you will end up seeking love, worth, approval, and acceptance from other people, which will throw you totally out of balance.

31. When you physically die, even if you have ascended, let the only thought in your mind be to merge with the clear Light of God. As you die let the last thought on your mind be the name of God. Where you go when you die, as the Bhagavad-Gita says, is determined by the last thought in your mind. When you leave this physical body, leave through your crown chakra.

32. Be vigilant for God and His kingdom. This is another crucial key. Too many people operate on automatic pilot and are not vigilant enough over the thoughts and energies they allow to enter their minds.

33. "To have all, give all to all." When you hold back giving to any aspect of creation, in truth you are holding back from yourself. You are all of creation, for your identity is the Eternal Self, not your physical body.

34. See with your spiritual eyes, not your physical, egotistical eyes. You see life either through your Christ mind or your negative ego mind. There are no other choices. What you see is a mirror of what you are giving to yourself. You will not realize God unless you see your brothers and sisters as God. What you see in others is what you are seeing in yourself. What you give to your brothers and sisters is what you are giving to yourself and to God.

35. Cultivate compassion. Never forget that another person's suffering is, in truth, your suffering. This is not just flowery talk. If you are the Eternal Self which is the consciousness of ascension, then you live as much in the physical body of your brothers and sisters as you do in your own physical body. The Eternal Self or the Christ lives within all people. There is only one Eternal Self. God has only one son, and we are all part of that sonship.

36. Release all consciousness of separation, fear, and selfishness for this is the cancer of negative ego.

37. Take extremely good care of the physical body for spiritual growth on Earth becomes very difficult once it begins to break down. The physical body is the temple for the soul and spirit you are.

38. Become a renunciate. This is the key to passing the fourth initiation which is liberation from the wheel of rebirth. What this means is to renounce material desire and attachment to the material world. It means to live in this world but not be of this world. It is the vow to live in life with total detachment, yet still be involved in service and in demonstrating God.

39. The spiritual path is really very simple. If you want to be with God in heaven, then act like Him. Be God. Be Christ. Be the Buddha, the Atma, the Eternal Self on Earth.

40. Cultivate a flawless character and embody virtue in everything you do.

41. Purify all four of your bodies of physical toxins, emotional toxins, mental toxins, and energetic toxins.

42. Love your enemies.

43. See only perfection. When anything other than perfection occurs, pray to your mighty I Am Presence to heal and remedy the situation or do an affirmation that affirms the true perfection of the situation as God sees it. This state of consciousness causes you to be a healing presence and consciousness wherever you may be.

44. Be the total cause and creator of your reality. Do not be a victim or at the effect of anything.

45. Call forth the twelve rays throughout your day, choosing whatever quality and color energy you need at a given moment. The rays and energy come the second you call them, but they must be requested.

46. In every situation of life, especially when you get into a sticky situation, ask yourself, "Do I want God or do I want my ego in this situation?" It is only by giving into the negative ego that you can be taken out of oneness, unconditional love, joy, and the realization of God. You can, in truth, never be taken out of oneness with God. However, you can be taken out of the realization of your oneness with God and your brothers and sisters if you choose the negative ego.

47. Look at all mistakes as just learning experiences. Gain the golden nugget of wisdom. Forgive yourself and move forward. Don't waste time with guilt and regret. Mistakes are positive, not negative. You don't go out of your way to make them; however, when they happen they are good learning opportunities.

48. Practice a religion based on a universalistic premise. This means that all religions and paths are equal, and they all lead to the same place. No competition or comparison among paths is needed or necessary.

49. Be eclectic in your spiritual education. God is too vast and limitless to be understood in just one form.

50. Transcend carnal sexuality. Pornography is of the lower self. Learn to practice moderation in your sexual habits and learn to raise the energy to the higher chakras.

51. Help the poor, sick, and disabled. It is only by the grace of God that you are not in that position.

52. Give up all attack thoughts. Attack is not of God. It stems from fear which is the essence of the negative ego. An attack, in truth, is a call for love.

53. Completely surrender your life to God while simultaneously owning your power.

54. Keep a journal and write down your dreams every morning upon waking. They are guidance from your subconscious and superconscious minds.

55. Keep your inner and outer environments clean.

56. Every night before bed, ask to be taught on the inner plane by your soul, monad, and the Ascended Masters. Take advantage of your sleep time for accelerating your path of ascension.

57. Give up all drugs, coffee, liquor and artificial stimulants and cut down on sugar and sweets. Just as we are striving for even-mindedness on the psychological level, we are all striving for evenness in our physical body's energy throughout the day.

58. Fulfill your dharma and mission in this lifetime. Don't let the negative ego and other people take you on side roads that your soul and monad would not have you follow. This lifetime is too precious and important.

59. Seek to balance your karma by building only good karma in your every thought, word, and deed.

60. As Edgar Cayce said, "Why worry when you can pray?"

61. Have implicit faith, trust, and patience in God and in God's laws.

62. Never forget that it is your mind that creates bondage and your mind that creates liberation.

63. Transcend all beliefs that you are superior or inferior to anyone else. All are the Eternal Self in truth, regardless of their level of initiation.

64. Seek to cooperate and never to compete. Never compare yourself with others, only compare yourself with yourself.

65. Never forget your worth comes from God. Could what God created not be worthy? You are the Eternal Self. Of course you are worthy. The negative ego will tell you that you have to do something to have worth. Don't believe it.

66. "Judge not that ye be not judged." "Let he that hath no sin cast the first stone." "Don't try and take the speck out of the eye of your brother when you have a log in your own eye."

67. "Hands that help are holier than lips that pray."

68. Create a spiritual shrine in one corner of your home for prayer, meditation, and devotional practices.

69. Get rid of your bad habits now so you don't carry them to the inner plane when you pass on to the spirit world.

70. Constantly ask yourself, "Who am I?" (I am the Eternal Self, I am Brahman, I am God.)

71. Drink six to eight big glasses of water a day, get lots of sunshine and fresh air.

72. Constantly discriminate between the real and the unreal, between that which is permanent and impermanent, between truth and illusion, between physical appearances and the true reality behind all form.

73. Cultivate constant remembrance of God.

74. Spiritualize all activities, which means seeing yourself as an instrument in the hands of the Lord. You are God's hands, eyes, mouth, and feet in action on the Earth. You are God interacting with God. You are the Eternal Self serving and administering the Eternal Self in form.

75. Practice loving kindness toward all sentient beings.

76. Take responsibility for being the elder brother or sister and spiritual guide for the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms.

77. Cultivate an absolutely burning desire to achieve ascension and liberation so you can be of greater service to all sentient beings.

78. Practice humility. Jesus Christ said, "If anyone give you a slap on one cheek, show him the other cheek also."

79. Bless the person who curses you.

80. Transmute a good amount of your sexuality into Ojas Shakti (brain illumination).

81. Take the vow of physical immortality.

82. Take the vow of Bramacharya (purity of thought word and deed).

83. Eat a sattvic physical diet (more bland, organic, and natural food).

84. Give yourself an intense daily time of self-analysis, introspection, and self-examination, especially before bed.

85. Be a love-finder, not a fault-finder.

86. Keep logs and charts of your spiritual development as you would keep an accounting of your budget and taxes.

87. Serve your fellow man with an attitude of indifference to the fruits of your actions.

88. Chant the Om mantra at every appropriate available opportunity. (The Bhagavad-Gita says that he who meditates on and chants the Om at the time of death attains the supreme state.)

89. Take the vow of nonviolence.

90. Say the So Ham mantra in coordination with your breath throughout your day. Also chant the Om mantra.

91. Practice denial and affirmation. As A Course in Miracles says, "Deny any thought not of God to enter your mind." Then switch your attention to a positive or Christ-like thought or image.

92. Build your antakarana to your soul, your monad, and then all the way up to God.

93. Learn to soul-travel consciously and cultivate the ability of lucid dreaming.

94. Intensely study the exact workings of the seven levels of initiation.

95. Master and subjugate the dweller on the threshold (glamour, illusion, maya).

96. Practice being an Ascended Master and God-realized being even though you have not taken that initiation yet. Fake it till you make it.

97. Discover the ray structure of your monad, soul, personality, mind, emotions, and body to more fully understand your exact mission in this lifetime and your ashramic connection.

98. Call forth your higher chakras to become anchored in your crown chakra.

99. Remove all sense of separation from your consciousness on all levels.

100. Be politically active on some level as an integral part of your spiritual practices.

101. Recognize that extraterrestrial life on all the planets in God's infinite universe are as brothers and sisters in a universal family.

102. Honor and revere Pan and the Nature spirits as you do the Ascended Masters and God.

103. As you pass the third initiation (the soul merge), begin polarizing your consciousness into your monad (the I Am Presence), upper spiritual triad, and upper three permanent atoms. As you evolve and go through the initiation processes, you become polarized at a higher and higher level after each initiation.

104. Have all your extraterrestrial implants cleared. (Terri Sue Stone can perform that service for you within one hour and I can't recommend strongly enough that you have this done either by her or by some other qualified person.)

105. Never forget that you are the soul and monad living in your body on Earth.

106. Live with absolute supreme integrity, for to cheat another person is to literally cheat God and yourself which are all one.

107. Seek and find a spiritual teacher, or spiritual teachers, on this plane or on the ascended plane or both. I am not recommending here a guru but rather a teacher. There is always someone above us we can learn from and beneath us whom we can serve. This is the true spiritual hierarchy of life.

108. Affirm that you are creating within your physical body and vehicle the twelve strands of DNA that are appropriate to your ascended self.

109. Visit holy places and spiritual power spots on the planet.

110. Develop "equal vision," no matter what it is that you see.

111. Take a vow of silence for a certain part of every day and practice speech control. In the mystery school of Pythagoras (Kuthumi) at Crotona, disciples had to remain silent for three years before they were even allowed to be initiated into the hidden mysteries. We can certainly practice this a little bit each day.

112. When temptations arise turn your consciousness from them and turn your attention back to God. Sin is not being without temptation, but rather being tempted and not acting upon it.

113. Give up arguing. You must ask yourself, "Do I want love, or do I want to win?" You can't have both.

114. Eat lightly. Eat to live. don't live to eat.

115. Identify yourself with your higher self and die to your lower self. This is the way to God.

116. Make spiritual vows and commitments and stick to them once you make them. This is one of the spiritual practices that will accelerate your path of ascension the most quickly. Spiritual vows take all choice out of the situation and lock you in, so your consciousness is free to work on the next level of refinement and purification.

117. Develop absolute one-pointedness in your spiritual quest for ascension and liberation, and you will achieve your goal in due time.

118. Develop the quality of being a courageous "spiritual warrior" in life. You are in truth a great spiritual warrior battling against glamour, illusion, and maya, and seeking only the self.

119. Keep satsang (company) with uplifting spiritual people. Spend your time going to uplifting spiritual classes, lectures, and seminars. Go to see saints and sages when they come into town. Avoid bad company and people who are run by their lower selves. When you are around those types of people, put up your protection and psychic self-defenses.

120. Don't waste a single moment of time or energy. Death is around the corner for everyone and can happen at any time. Don't waste time on those things that are impermanent. Can hedonistic sensuous pleasure compare with the reality of realizing God?

121. Simplify your life. Reduce your wants and needs.

122. Think of God the first thing as you wake up in the morning, and let the thought of God be the last thought in your mind as you go to bed. (if you really want to accelerate your path of ascension, let God be the only thought in your mind throughout your day.)

123. Be much more discriminating about your mental, emotional, and spiritual diet. Don't waste your time reading trashy novels, seeing violent movies, watching meaningless or violent television shows. Everything you experience creates an impression on your subconscious mind. Life is too short and too precious. Most definitely enjoy yourself, however, do it in the context of being about the Father's business. Ascension takes a total commitment, twenty-four hours a day, even while you sleep. once the habit of this type of consciousness is developed it is not even hard to do. It is actually fun, for true pleasure is serving God.

124. Give 10% of your salary, money or energy to some charitable cause. You must be generous with others if you expect the universe to be generous to you.

125. To everything that happens in life say, "Not my will, but thine. Thank you for the lesson."

126. Remain the same in consciousness whether people criticize you or flatter you. If you give in to either you are back in the negative ego system instead of transcending the negative ego. Never forget: "After pride cometh the fall."

127. Know thyself, which really means know God. for that is who you are.

128. Your spiritual practices should be steady, gradual, full of sincerity, common sense, and perseverance.

129. Do not use the Lord's name in vain; give up all swearing.

130. Remove the blemish of selfishness and negativity from your consciousness.

131. Set up a spiritual routine and regimen for yourself that is not too hard and not too easy and then stick to it. This includes your physical disciplines such as physical exercise, diet, and so on as well as your spiritual practices.

132. Never forget there are only two emotions. love and fear. There are no neutral thoughts. All reality stems from one or the other.

133. Avoid looking at people with lustful thoughts. See the Eternal Self and Christ first before seeing people with your physical eyes.

134. "Unceasing effort," no matter what the obstacles, is the key. "Seek and ye shall find." "Knock and the door shall be opened."

135. Remain obedient to God and God's laws. It is through this understanding that you avoid suffering.

136. Your salvation is up to you, not up to God. God has already given you everything. The question is, what are you willing to give yourself?

137. Be positive and optimistic in all things.

138. "Be still and know I Am God."

139. Call forth the golden twelfth ray and the energy of the Mahatma, for they are the two highest frequencies that are available to us on Earth.

140. Work with the MAP team (Medical Assistance Program of the Ascended Masters) to upgrade your physical health on a regular basis. (See my book on soul psychology for more information.)

141. Constantly affirm that your pituitary gland has stopped producing the death hormone and is producing only the life hormone.

142. on a daily basis call forth an axiatonal alignment as described in The Keys of Enoch to balance your entire meridian system and spiritual and electrical fields.

143. Call forth your fifth-dimensional ascended self (who has already achieved ascension in non-time and non-space realities) to merge its consciousness with your consciousness and aura throughout your day.

144. Call forth the Mahatma on a daily basis to infuse and blend His energy and aura with yours on Earth. This is a sure-fire method to accelerate your path of ascension literally one-thousandfold.

145. See yourself as the monad and your teacher now as God. The monad or I Am Presence is no longer up above you. The consciousness of ascension is that you are the monad. You are the I Am Presence on Earth.

146. Do the ascension meditation and treatment I have provided in this text on a daily basis. If you do this meditation on a regular basis for three months you will see yourself become completely transformed.

147. In your meditations and prayer sessions, call forth and attune to the Galactic Core and the Galactic Teachers. This level has just been made available to humanity and is guaranteed to help You fully anchor your body of Light into the physical level, not just the mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. Two of the teachers on this galactic level. that you can attune to are Melchizedek and the Master Averran. Tapping into the Galactic Core level will help your ability to teleport, instantly manifest, and communicate with the language of Light.