Chapter Two
The Journey
In a Body of Prayer
In our study of the book, The Invocation of Presence by E.J. Gold, we understand that the journey of development is done individually. Each of us makes our individual effort, one step at a time. We learn to cultivate a stance of Aloneness. We assume the responsibility for our individual work. We perform that work with each internal effort as we stretch toward the Absolute.
But, this practice in Aloneness, is different from loneliness. We look for, we seek, and we find a circle of like-minded workers. The need for co-workers is as great as the need for teachers.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live. (Gibran, on Friendship)
“Tomorrow all day and for the next several says, with all your force invoke the presence of your presences in the present, no matter in what circumstances you may happen to momentarily find yourself.
Remember to sense – not just place ordinary attention on – your invoked presence. Reverberate this sensation in your solar plexus continually.” [Chapter 2 page 8, English Edition]
If you had to, how would you introduce this exercise to a new candidate for the study circle?
In Chapter 2, E.J. Gold re-emphasizes the concept of two worlds.(See Chapter 1 for a more detailed discussion of the ‘Bow and Arrow’ stance.) Here he more directly discusses the term Maya. Maya is the illusory nature of the phenomenal world – it is fully a part of the Dream – we construct our dream. We buy into a shared reality – a consensus reality. But, change cultures – spend a few weeks on a small island off the coast of Morocco, or in a mountain village in Japan – you begin to see the nature of the consensus.
But Maya is not the problem here. The entire issue is our “identification” with Maya. Let it be what it might be, but rather observe it and notate its structures and its belief. When we fall into the identification with Maya – at that moment we lose our Self.
We closed the class on September 28th with a reading in English and in Spanish of the following paragraph:
“We cannot feel real Being-satisfaction if we fail to use our lives for voluntary evolution. At the end, we will feel remorse if we had wasted our Life on phenomenal fixations.”
Maya-weaving-the-world
As we continue with Chapter 2 – EJ discusses the following:
“In a male, his presence is female and passive, while his organic machine is male and active. In a female, her presence is male and active, and her machine is female and passive. This is one reason that a woman cannot work in the work – although she is able to work for the work – without a male partner, except under very extraordinary conditions.”
Though ordinary man is only dimly aware of his nature, as we continue to invoke our presence and as we develop a ‘sensation of presence’ – we begin to learn these principles directly.