Ingredients of a Living Spiritual Path — Seven Gnostic Sant Mat Parallels

In the Corpus Hermeticum and Nag Hammadi scriptures are/were described all of the ingredients of a living, viable mystical path:

1) living masters/teachers with students (past masters, scrolls, cuneiform tablets, or old scriptures are not enough; a living guide is required);

2) a cosmology of several heavens/inner regions/planes/spheres;

3) an understanding that souls can access these realms here and now during this present life (a present-tense Kingdom of Heaven available to souls right now, not a spirituality postponed till some magical date on a calendar or hypothesized future age);

4) initiation into the mysteries of the heavens, imparting to spiritual seekers the meditation techniques and sacred names;

5) visionary and auditory mysticism (inner Light and Sound, spiritual seeing and hearing) — descriptions of souls traveling within through various inner regions;

6) they have an ethical code, and this moral foundation includes a vegetarian diet, then and now;

7) The Goal of the teachings and meditation practice is experiencing direct union with God.