The Reflections
Study the following 10 paragraphs at the end of Chapter 38 – (from Secret Talks Volume 5, pages 92 and 93) – Choose a paragraph that appeals to you. Expand on the methods indicated within that paragraph.
[Paragraph #1] Everyone in the Work is equal in the Work. To become a member of the Work one must know what one is able to do; on must know oneself.
The more we can Recognize what makes us scared, what motivates us, how do we think when we are under stress, what are the darkest sides that we never have allowed to come, how do we indulge in things.
The more we will be able to serve and contribute, free from drama, confusion and manipulation.
As long as we keep bringing victimization instead acknowledgment, no efforts will be truly effective. (PG)
=====
This first paragraph was chosen for several reasons, the first of which is the experience of discouragement that every student of this method inevitably encounters. One soon finds out that they cannot really do much of anything. Only “it” does anything– our biological machines, bouncing off one unfinished task to another. This unpleasant realization is what the early church called “the conviction of Sin,” and is the only place where real Work can begin. So it is helpful to remember to use this discouragement as a reminding factor and thank it for reminding us to try again. So “try again” is the first thing we can do, maybe the only thing we can do for a very long time, but it is of great value because we will not quit trying, come hell or high water. This may not be much, but it is a lot more than we had when we began. This is a seed that will attract nutrients to itself, and begin to grow.
Another reason is that the first reason gives us a clue as to what to do next, and that is to ask ourselves what can we do in a very practical sense. Take it as simply stated—can we wash dishes? Can we do bookkeeping or accounting like Barbara or can we monitor multimedia communications as Lost Horizon does, or succinctly summarize a weekly class to insure we all get the gist of it like Marvette does? Can we respond to this request from David to offer our perspectives on what our group means, no matter how silly they may sound? We have already decided to show up, so what else needs doing that we have the experience (or moxie) to take on? We are reminded of the story of a sadhu who asked the Buddha “What can I do?” The Buddha replied “ I don’t know. What can you do?”
A final reason suggests itself as it segues into paragraph number three, where we understand that repetition makes habit. Since we already have the habits mentioned above, perhaps we can piggy-back Presence onto them and start putting muscle on our first Essence Habit. A new world begins to form. (HL)
====
It seems evident to me that in any real human organization all parts are important and have its function, even some of us individuals can believe to be more important than others. We should remind ourselves that no chain is stronger than its weakest link. As to the know oneself matter, we all bots usually believe that the only self that is in charge and real is the biological machine: that is all we are until something more subtle’ else’ can be experienced. While pondering and writing about all these I recall the advice I once heard from a Sage to an overexcited student seeking progress :“ Contemplate much less the concept ’ I ‘shall progress’, than the concept ‘ I ‘ stand in my way.
It looks that only working in a group we could fight the powerful ego and its conditionings. We usually lament “I can’t overcome” This can be true but that doesn’t mean that we cannot help others to overcome: and in that reciprocity they can- even not themselves able- help us to gain some freedom over ourselves. In this way the picture completes itself been the group the wheel that runs in its axis due to the energy of the individual efforts. (BB)
[Paragraph #2] The struggle against small ordinary habits is good for developing Will, in the sense of gaining authority over the machine. Learn to like what ‘it’ does not like, do not like what ‘it’ likes. Like and dislike, just as ‘imagination’, can be used for our work or forfeited to our inner evil god, ‘Chief Feature’.
“It is not so much weakness of the flesh, as it is weakness of the Will”
(Thoughts over the table talk given by Claude on last year , extracted from “ An everyday guide to your health” )
When we say we need will, we see this will as a static factor, not a live muscle than can be trained and developed. Here we can look at will not in the sense of strict discipline and regime, but will as a part of us which lovingly, creatively, and constructively directs our energies. Will helps us focus attention in order to find out our own needs. It also provides us with the power to choose and the power to change ourselves and the world. In a way will can be viewed as a muscle atrophied by disuse, but can be trained and strengthened with proper exercise.
Certain “useless” activities can be used effectively as “Will Training Exercises”. These are specifically intended to be of no intrinsic meaning, interest or worth. Their only virtue is that they are done solely because you “will” them to be done. They have no other purpose that exercising the “will”.
This could be as simple as folding and unfolding a piece of paper, or sitting silently for one minute. The idea behind this, is making a contract with oneself that you will do that task with precision, interest and persistence. You could contract yourself to do this each day during, let’s say, one week at a given time. The point is only to be present and focused while you do it. Strangely enough, these exercises can be very energizing.
Daily life, with its countless tasks, presents us with lots of opportunities to develop and strengthen will. The crucial factor is how we approach the daily activity: the attitude. If we do the tasks deliberately and consciously they surely can be invigorating. What about strengthening your will by delaying one minute in front of food taking, or deliberately taking five minutes rest periods from your work? Maybe it all comes down to this. Decide what you want to do and then there is nothing to it, but to do it. (BB)
======
Every aspect of our lives is already available to us to use it in our transformation, if we transcend the realm of our personality, we will benefit from the negative manifestations of the machine. (PG)
________________________________
[Paragraph #3] Repetition makes habit; in the end only habit survives; all strictly mental and emotional accomplishments are lost. To make permanent ‘I’ is a habit. What we are now is what we are bound to be again unless we make a great change in Being.
We are told in HBM that within the dominant materialism of the organic body there is an electrical field called the essential self. This is the primordial Life Force that animates the actual organic machine.
Our work is to identify and experience this electrical field as a separate, independent, autonomous, diverse, co-equal yet heterogenous part of the totality of our experience as individual human beings.
The primary means available to us for this work effort is our organic body which gradually – overtime – is able to sense, feel, perceive and discern the essential self’s vibratory nature.
Once we are able to “touch” this vibratory sensation we instinctively and intuitively understand that it can be grown and developed by repeatedly “invoking” it’s presence within the organic body.
The repetition of this “invocation of presence” or “ touching” this vibratory sensation gradually becomes a naturally recurring habit that leads to the crystallization of Being as a center-of-gravity of our personal experiencings.
The habit of invoking presence creates Being which by habit invokes it’s presence into the present. (GB)
=====
By repetition we are overcoming the tendency to conform with automatism, we are declaring our intention and acting upon on it. (PG)
=====
Repetition makes habit; in the end only habit survives; all
strictly mental and emotional accomplishments are lost. To
make permanent ‘I’ is a habit. What we are now is what we are
bound to be again unless we make a great change in Being.
All phenomena is Illusion
Neither attracted nor repelled
Not making any sudden moves
My habits will carry me through.
What are habits? What is the nature of a conscious habit. It is the fall-back, the default, the what is left over when it all disappears.
As the plane banks crazily and the propeller makes a sudden coughing my immediate
unconscious response came tumbling out of my mouth — all phenomena is illusion.
Robbert & Tim hear me on the speaker phones of the little plane Robbert’s dad was
flying us in. They all laughed — it was not a big deal — the plane thing — but i was
not laughing – I was listening to my habit manifest in front of my very eyes —
or so it seemed to me.
Birthing chamber, November 1977, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada. My son arrives
doing the exact same specific “cha cha ” breathing taught in the Childbirth class
by me and his father – and the same breath were we doing at that moment. What habit is
that? Does it reside in the chamber? Is it in the spirit and transfers from lifetime to lifetime?
It’s the radiation chamber for cancer treatment. The radiation is everyday. The chamber is
cold, steel, and solitary. The machine goes all the way around my body 360 as the radiation
penetrates. I concentrate — Clear Light — but what comes forth??
“All phenomena is illusion,
Neither attracted nor repelled,
Not making any sudden moves,
My habits will carry me through.”
(PE)
________________________________
[Paragraph #4] Real self can be discovered by elimination of a seemingly endless, but really finite succession of temporary identities or ‘little I’s.
The human organism and the Essential Self are diametric opposites. This is to say that the human organism experiences the Multiplicity, Diversity and Variability of the Creation within the Sound and Motion of Time and Space.
On the other hand the Essential Self experiences the Unity of Everything Existing All-At-Once in the Stillness and Silence of Light in Infinite Extension.
As we “touch”, sense, feel, perceive, discern and experience the sensational vibratory nature of the Essential Self we are able to gradually disarm the temporary identities that arise owing to the flood of stimulants arising from a Creation comprised of Sound and Motion.
This is to say that we are able to shift the center-of-gravity of our experiencing from the multiplicity, diversity and variability of temporary identities within the organism to the Unity of Being. (GB)
The practices allow us to unmask the multiple personas/storylines the mind creates to engage us and reaffirm its existence, while our lives are limited and trapped in those identities. (PG)
________________________________
[Paragraph #5] If we were one identity, even in a very exalted state, since we are not the same now, it was not permanent ‘I’ . ‘Permanent I’ does not change, regardless of circumstance. Real ‘I’ always has the same mood.
It has become apparent to me that the Real I does not have any actions that may be considered in the human realm for such considerations as morality, popularity, beauty, success, responsibility. The real I seems to me to be above and beyond the conditions of an earthly existence with a more star like or luminous existence and be quite comfortable in other realms such as the angelic. (V)
=====
When the presence of our presence is present, we are experiencing the real “I” (PG)
________________________________
[Paragraph #6] Only by preparing to be accepted into the Work can we begin our own work, and obtain for ourselves , ‘Enabling Factor’ , (Baraka) which breathes life into otherwise dead work, regardless of how technically exact it may be .
After a relatively long encounter with the Work I find myself missing some ingredient that would enable me to fully immerse myself in the River of Initiatism. Thanks to the efforts of several individuals in possession of ‘Enabling Factor’ and unbeknownst to me, I was able to make some progress in my quest for understanding. I can discern certain stages along this path, notably:
1. Preparation (Journaling with Ira Progoff)
2. Impulse (Aikido and Beelzebub’s Tales with Bob Lumish)
3. Action (Formation of a reading group at home)
4. Instruction (Rochester Folk Art Guild with Louise March)
5. Practical Work On Self (Allen MacCormack’s Susquehanna Group Initiative)
At this point I find myself stuck at the inertial “dead spot” of a flywheel where none of my efforts to breathe new life into my efforts succeed. The hope of receiving Baraka via someone like EJ is just wishful thinking as it becomes evident that I must find a way to work that will produce in my organic self the “essential oil” of this “enabling factor.” Work of groups might help breathe life into my efforts. Here’s hoping!
For the benefit of all….. (DP)
________________________________
[Paragraph #7] Without a catalyst, real work is impossible. Sincerity, effort, mechanics, preparation, even necessity, are not sufficient in themselves.
Catalyst: “A substance that causes a chemical reaction to happen more quickly.” Also, “A person or event that quickly causes change or action.”
Because the human biological machine and the Essential Self are diametrically opposite forces they share virtually nothing in common with one another.
The organic machine is comprised of a variety of tangible and relatively dense materials whereas the Essential Self that interpenetrates the human biological machine is primarily comprised of a light-based materiality that is inaccessible by the organic machine.
The “ladder” or “elevator” that connects these two diametrically-opposite ends of the material spectrum is the air that we breathe.
The air we breathe can serve as a “catalyst” for the blending together of these two diametrically-opposite ends of the spectrum if the air is “ingested”, “digested” and “assimilated” consciously, intentionally and voluntarily.
When the air we breathe is used as a “catalyst” we are able to more efficiently and effectively, productively and profitably, consciously and intentionally blend the vibratory sensations of the Essential Self together with the gross materiality of the organic machine and thus achieve the “spiritualization” and “crystallization” of our Being.
In addition – each of us pursuing work on self is a “catalyst” for enabling such an extraordinary event to occur. (GB)
________________________________
[Paragraph #8] Man in his ordinary condition cannot obtain the catalyst necessary for transformation of substances, and must be given the catalytic substance from someone who has stored a great deal of it, or who is able to manufacture it at will.
Man in his ordinary condition cannot obtain the catalyst necessary for transformation of substances, and must be given the catalytic substance from someone who has stored a great deal of it, or who is able to manufacture it at will.
In my response to [7] I suggested that the air we breathe can serve as a catalyst for the accelerated “blending together” of the two diametrically opposite ends of the material spectrum that conjoin our Essential Self together with our human biological machine.
The air we breathe is comprised of three fundamental and primary components.
Man in his ordinary condition is only able to utilize, that is, to “ingest”, “digest” and “assimilate”, one of these three primary components. The other two components are automatically “eliminated” and in no way serve their intended catalytic purpose which is required for evolutionary transformation.
The catalytic substance can be obtained from someone who has stored a great deal of it IF we are able to properly and correctly identify who has it and how to transfer it to ourself.
Alternatively, the individual who has acquired Being is able to “manufacture” this catalytic substance, that is, an individual possessing Being is able to “utilize” the second and third components of air which would otherwise simply be excreted without having served their intended transformative purpose. (GB)
[Paragraph #9] ‘Essential oils ‘ , or ‘enabling substances’ , can be provided like any other material substance . Although finer than planetary matter, it can be contained and transmitted in planetary substances.
lines of work using the mundane in a very specific way to transcend the organic (PG)
‘Essential oils’, or ‘enabling substances’, can be provided like any other material substance. Although finer than planetary matter, it can be contained and transmitted in planetary substances.
The person who wrote this “truism” either didn’t understand what they were writing or presumed that whoever read these words would automatically understand the gist of the matter.
In my own words: diametrically opposite “final products” created within the human biological machine (referred to here as “essential oils” and “enabling substances”) are important secondary catalytic elements in evolutionary transformation.
When combined together with the second and third components of the air we breathe there can be an augmentation and acceleration of the productive and profitable, effective and efficient use of these “essential oils” and “enabling substances”. (GB)
[Paragraph #10] The process of separation and return of elemental parts of each body to its corresponding cosmos-of-origin depends on which bodies have been perfected and stabilized. This is why ‘the answer’ is not the same for everyone.”
If there is something that remains even after death depends on what was done during the lifetime. (PG)
The process of separation and return of elemental parts of each body to its corresponding cosmos-of-origin depends on which bodies have been perfected and stabilized. This is why ‘the answer’ is not the same for everyone.
In sum and in short – owing to the unalterable facts that individually we are: (1) the result of our parental heredity; (2) a product of environmental and societal conditioning; and, (3) involuntary slaves to unforeseen circumstances far beyond our ability to either influence or control we begin work on self in order to mitigate our individual liabilities.
As we climb the “ladder” – or ride the “elevator” – of evolutionary transformation and achieve higher gradations of Being and Reason the “lower bodies” gradually separate and degenerate having served their timely purpose. (GB)
This is why “the answer” is not the same for everyone.