DIAGRAM OF CONSCIOUS LIFE 
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to
survive and move toward higher levels.” - Albert Einstein
“I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental
laws of the universe through my rational mind.” - Albert
Einstein
© 2002 - All Rights Reserved
Dwight Ott
1436 Carroll 329
Diagram of Conscious Life
There are tremendous changes for humanity not only on
the horizon of the future, but in the very midst of
the
present. Forces have
been working throughout the history of life on earth to create the present
world. Whether one believes it is occurring by divine direction or by satanic
manipulation, by natural law or by chance, it must be acknowledged that life as
it exists now involves infinitely complex phenomena operating within basic
universal laws.
This
writing is an attempt to express, in quite simple terms, a view of humanity
that may seem new to some but is actually very ancient. The aim is to make this
perspective more accessible for any seeker who is looking for something more
trustworthy than the starry-eyed, feel-good, dream-based mysticism that is so
prevalent, or the philosophies or beliefs based on dead cultural systems,
romanticized back-to-paganism-longings, or imaginative metaphysical mish-mash.
Unnoticed, a new human being is in formation and is calling out for conscious
evolution. As present cultures and belief systems are crumbling apart, it is
important to bring awareness to every person capable of receiving a message
that is more than just pleasing to the ear.
While
most people today recognize the need for change and even see the urgency of the
human situation, when it comes to themselves, they
prefer merely a redecoration. A radical transformation is imperative for
survival. Furthermore, individuals think they personally are okay, — only
others must change. Some are willing to allow change if only they can keep
their own habits and vices in a “moderate” form. Most continue to look to
politics and social programs, or other exterior things, when real change has to
occur within one’s own conscious being. It is individual human beings who can
become more conscious and only those who recognize the need for help and are
able to accept it from a conscious source.
It
is further intended that these ideas will bring about an inner disturbance
rather than pleasant agreement. Only the reader who is willing to examine something
that is not usually “liked,” will be able to receive the ideas here in a new
way rather than in the customary manner of pigeonholing, associating and
dismissing.
It
is interesting that otherwise intelligent people will exert the most strenuous
and prolonged effort to obtain some trivial thing while believing that
“spiritual” knowledge should be free, without effort and immediate. Although in
one sense it is true that insight often comes in a flash, it is always as a
gift after long periods of work in the right direction or incentive to look
further. It is a universal law that everything must be earned and paid for if
it is of value.
The line of
my
∙ GEORGE
GURDJIEFF gathered knowledge and bequeathed it to me in
the form of a practical system and in writing — ALL AND EVERYTHING. Gurdjieff died in 1949.
∙ WILLEM
NYLAND gave me long and patient guidance via the
spoken word and by personal direction which is now manifesting in my life over
25 years after his death. Mr. Nyland died in 1975.
∙ JUANITA
BEE HARRIS through loving discipline and remarkable
conscious energy showed me how to apply the teaching in my life. Juanita Bee
Harris died in 1998.
This
trinity of remarkable human beings allows me to take the responsibility for my
own capacities and limitations as I make continuous efforts to live more
consciously.
The Octave
The circle
is a symbol of wholeness, enlightenment, and perfection. Circular shapes in
nature are planets, bubbles, droplets of liquid, seeds, fruits, and eggs.
Circular symbols are wheels, halos, mandalas, rose windows, etc. The circle
encloses full potential.
Duality is composed
of two apparent opposites. On the level of the earth the law of opposition
prevails.
yin-yang, day-night, light-dark, wet-dry, heat-cold,
male-female, active-passive, vice-virtue, pleasure-pain, success-failure.
While there
is an appearance of duality in all things, there is always a third element that
is equal to both active and passive forces in every phenomenon. This is a
reconciling force — a balance. It can be called neutral but that implies
weakness and is not the case. It is said that humanity is third force blind
Male -
Female - Humanity
Active -
Passive - Function
Heat - Cold
- Atmospheric Moderation
Light -
Dark - Diffusion
Birth -
Death - Life
Life -
Death - Spirit
Quaternity means direction. The diamond with an internal cross
symbolizes possible human evolution. The four triangles stand for the four
aspects of consciousness — thought, feeling, intuition, and sensation. The
horizontal line of the cross is earthly, ordinary existence. The vertical line
means the connection of lower nature with higher forces.
The
pentagram symbolizes rebirth. It is the star announcing the new whole human
being -- the true individual. It’s five outer aspects
can symbolize the senses or five energies of a self-realized human
(instinctive, moving, sex, emotional, and intellectual.)
The Seal of
Solomon or Star of David, used as a yantra in
Hinduism and Buddhism, is the covenant between three-centered humans and
three-centered God. It unites the lower nature with higher potential.
Seven is
the mystical number. 1 ÷ 7 = .142857. This number contains
the vibration within all phenomena — the octave.
Centers of
energy in a human being are symbolically located in specific parts of the body.
Survival is at the base of the spine, Pleasure is centered in the pubic area,
Power in the stomach (gut), Compassion in the heart, Submission in the neck
(yoke), Wisdom in the head, and Enlightenment is like an opening through the
head. Conditioned humanity lives in the lower triangle with no connection to
higher centers except in imagination.
DIAGRAM OF HUMAN POTENTIAL
a. —
evolved human (no lines cross)
b. —
transformation
c. — ordinary
human (all lines cross)
d. — organic
human
Indications
Today
there is increased interest in things related to "spirituality" and
the paranormal. People are looking for meaning and purpose in all directions.
Religious institutions serve mainly as compartmentalized social clubs. Science
and technology are cold and often ruthless. Government is bureaucratic and
non-responsive. Materialism and consumerism do not offer security and
satisfaction. Therefore, people are looking for answers from aliens in UFO's,
from angels and spirit guides, from contact with the dead, from exotic eastern
gurus, from psychics, and from numerous "spiritual" fads-of-the-month.
It
seems that any kind of "way" will find followers -- especially the one
that requires little effort -- just belief. Seekers are not willing to take
responsibility for themselves but will gladly follow
any pied-piper who has an appealing ready-made tune.
There
are many who reject mainstream religions as superstitious yet are eager to
accept the most fantastic "miracles" and "new age" creeds.
What
is required is not a new teaching or new revelation, but a human with new organs
of perception. The direction has been given for many centuries in every culture
but has not been received but by a few. It has been covered over by dogma and
ritual allowing only a low-level perversion of the message. The teachings of
the Great Messengers have been packaged into exclusive paid-members-only clubs.
Yet the teaching is there for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.
These ears and eyes are not ordinary organs but are attributes of a
transformed, - a reborn- human being.
A
person is not re-born merely by wishing it. Rebirth occurs as a process. Just
as an ordinary person on the street cannot pilot a space shuttle just by
wishing, an ordinary person cannot function as an evolved person. Education is
necessary in "spiritual" matters as well. It has always been so. A
human being is incomplete and must be finished through personal efforts with
the help of those who have the understanding of what must be done.
Until
a person is able to consciously choose, anything can be believed. Until one is
able to consciously love, one cannot, even if God tells one to do so. The
important thing is to be able to choose and to do. For this, it is necessary to
learn what exists now, and then to learn what is possible.
In
the present age, when technology has broken down historical and cultural
barriers between people, and science has provided an abundance of factual
information concerning the human position in the universe, it is possible for
the individual to question life in a new way. No longer can religion,
philosophy, or science alone provide satisfying answers. The seeker is more and
more caught in the predicament of having to choose between many obsolete
approaches to life and innumerable nebulous new possibilities. The challenge is
so great that most will certainly continue their lives without examination and
simply attempt to react to the confusion at hand. Only a few will take the
opportunity to meet the challenge to face the actual present world and the real
human condition.
There
is evidence indicating that the present situation has long been anticipated.
Attempts have been made by conscious individuals and groups for millennia to provide
methods to enable humanity to realize its greater potential and to overcome its
limited lower nature. Most of these methods have been clothed in religious
systems but were intended to be practical techniques to accomplish the desired
transformation. Most teachings were based on faith or belief in a higher plane
than the ordinary world of humanity, and taught that perception of this
universe required tremendous personal change. Modern science has shifted the
focus from faith to physical fact, but even this path has lead to the
recognition that physical matter is the same as energy, which can be defined as
"spiritual." The technological extension of the human senses to the
greater universe and to the inner workings of atomic structure reveals basic
laws that are mysterious and paradoxical yet offer a promising appeal to those
who yearn for understanding.
For
the rare individual drawn to become serious concerning the sense and
significance of the universe and in particular one's own life, there are many
confusing signs. The first test is to discover and utilize assistance, because
on one's own, it is totally bewildering and practically impossible to find a
method for development which can lead to the highest levels of human potential.
Contact
with a valid method has to be established, and this contact is rare and found
by few, though it is possible in most parts of the world today. There are
teachers available who have traveled the path before and are willing to assist
anyone who is properly prepared. No one is denied this help but it can only be
received by those who know how to ask for it and do ask.
I. History and Destiny
It
is obvious that we are at a point in human history where an old world is dying
and a new one is being born. The requirements for humanity are different than
they have been in the past. The change is comparable to crawling out of the
cave. This explosive event has been building momentum since humans first walked
on earth.
Humanity
has within a history and a destiny. It now has the opportunity and
responsibility to take the awesome leap from the old universe to a new one.
History and destiny are at a meeting point.
Human
history is not at all clear. Contradiction and mystery cloud our view of the
past. We do not know our origin and only get clues from prejudiced cultural or
religious accounts. Science, while dealing with incomplete evidence, changes
its theory with each new discovery. Recent evidence points to a very different
past than the one taught by inherited cultures. There is much to learn and to un-learn.
There
are indications that human development occurs under a directive program. The
fact of survival through the millions of years of evolution on a planet that is
precisely located with many basic conditions so precariously determined that a
slight change would be fatal to all life precludes chance occurrence. The
universe is governed by law and purpose. Humanity and its conscious development
is a part of this purpose.
The
present view of reality is enigmatic. Humanity is now faced with having the rug
of its illusions pulled out from under it. The universe measured by human
senses is no longer the one in which we live. The theory of relativity fulfills
the old law but leaves a disturbing new picture of reality that changes when it
is viewed from more than one position.
Modern
technology has given the means to go beyond the senses to an artificial
collective brain that supersedes any individual human knowledge. This dominates
every aspect of life today. Humanity created technology which is now recreating
it in return. However, human nature in all dimensions ultimately determines how
technology is used.
II. What is A Human Being?
What
is a human being? Where did humans come from and where are they going? These
questions are paramount and cry out to be examined in the light of the urgent
present situation.
One
must first of all understand the basic components of a human being. In order to
do this somewhat objectively, one has to free oneself as much as possible from
religious, cultural, or scientific prejudice and illusion. One must not ascribe
qualities which one wants. Only then will it be possible to examine human
potential.
From
ancient teachings to modern psychology it can easily be understood that three
primary urges operate -
1.
The urge for survival.
2.
The urge for pleasure.
3.
The urge for power.
All
ordinary human actions result from one or a combination of these forces. While
occasional flashes of possible higher urges may be sensed, they do not reach a
person in a pure state and exhibit themselves in an incomprehensible language.
A
study of basic human nature reveals that it is incomplete, unfinished,
un-realized as to potential. The brain has tremendous untapped capacity. The technology
that has come out of human experience also reveals an unlimited universe to
explore. Still humanity remains in an embryonic state.
To
call a human an individual is wrong. A person is not indivisible but rather is
divided. A person does not possess one constant personality but changes
identity depending on which center of energy operates dominantly at a
particular moment. Even casual observation reveals this separation. Often a
person will resolve to act a certain way or do a certain thing, only to find himself
or herself an hour later doing the very opposite
thing. Another self has overcome the resolving self. A human being as it is, is
unconscious, scattered and multiple, being pulled about by the strings of its
changing urges.
A. Survival
Self-preservation
is the most fundamental drive in life. Human security is approached only by
constant vigil, group effort, and a fight-or-flight response. When a real or
imagined threat appears, the body is inundated with adrenaline which prepares
one to attack the enemy or to run. It is the same for a modern human caught in
a traffic jam as it was for a primitive threatened by an animal. Yet modern man
or woman is not free to fight or to flee, so the adrenaline rush has a toxic effect
on the system. This response, so necessary in the past, is now inappropriate
and its lingering function leads to anxiety, confusion, and imbalance.
Although
human survival is today much easier in many ways than in the past, and
individuals have potential to live a long life, they now fight dragons in the
form of institutions and machines, face human beasts rather than animals, and
are threatened mainly by failure to adapt to new circumstances.
B. Pleasure
The
urge for pleasure is directly connected to survival. It includes not only the pleasure
derived from the senses but also the avoidance of pain. For a human being,
pleasure and its pursuit becomes intertwined with and often opposed to social
mores of the culture. It is directed through forced sublimation. Much of
culture as it has existed is the collective attempt to bring individual urges
to pleasure into restraint. No culture, no matter how authoritarian, has been
able to completely control the actions of individuals operating from this
center. The notion of sin is very much allied to pleasure and its abuse. Lust,
gluttony, pride, greed, and all "sin" are threatening to the group as
well as to the individual. Today, institutions fail to keep these abuses in
check and they are often viewed as virtues rather than vices. It is the addiction
to the pursuit of selfish pleasure, not pleasure itself, which causes humankind
so much misery.
Humankind evolved a very strong
sex drive due to the frail, lengthy period of human infancy. Babies require a
great amount of energy and time in order to reach the point of independent
survival. In the past, many babies died in infancy, so it was imperative for
survival of the species to produce as many as possible, in order that a
sufficient number could reach adulthood. The breeding period was extended from
puberty throughout the average life of the adult. Most other animals are free
from the sex urge, except for short periods, in order to devote full attention
to other things.
In
a modern human being, the organic sex drive requires an inappropriate amount of
attention due to the ease of survival of infants and to overpopulation.
Although this drive is very strong, a way of separating and re-directing it by
denial, sublimation, suppression, guilt, etc. has developed, which leads to
neurotic and psychotic behavior.
An
evolved human being re-establishes the proper position of sex within the human
system. This powerful energy, when operating in an appropriate manner, on a
level higher than the organic, is vital to conscious development and
maintenance. This level of sex energy, however, is unknown by humanity as it
is.
C. Power
Most
human actions are motivated by individual and group desires to have power over
others and situations. The existence of personal and group power is not unique to
humans. In the animal world there are many similar struggles for dominance. The
most powerful is able to get the greatest benefit from the group and also is
most likely to pass on genes to the future. In human experience it is the same,
but it becomes very complicated since it goes beyond instinctual urges to be
affected by social and cultural influences. The urge to power is mechanical,
not conscious.
Institutions
evolved to control power struggles between individuals and groups. Marriage and
family, religion and government, economic structures and social hierarchies are
systems used to keep power in check and also to provide an acceptable
expression of it. Today institutions do not work as they did in the past. With
changing sexual roles, economic requirements, and a bombardment of information
through technology, humanity is left without the structure that has always
sustained and defined it.
The
need to express power, to dominate others and situations is, for humans as for
animals, a function of the drive for survival, or for pleasure, or the
avoidance of physical or psychological pain. It is very complex in its human
expression. A person would much prefer to justify behavior by believing one is
acting out of love for God or for the neighbor, or even for
"self-expression." But as humanity exists, every act is brought about
by the three primary forces. Civilizations are built, machines are invented, and
works of art are created, all by the motivation of the three primary centers.
III. Choice or Fate
The
perpetuation of the low level conditions controlling human life is a result of
the hypnotic delusion that a person is a free agent. The last thing a person
will give up is the belief in personal free will. Yet it cannot be reasonably
denied that every phenomenon in life has a cause or causes. Nothing
materializes out of nothing. The occurrences of today come from those of
yesterday. Every thought is connected to other thoughts; every so-called
"choice" is the result of forces, influences, and thoughts that
brought it about. Everything is interconnected and dependent.
A
conditioned human attributes to himself or herself the ability to make choices.
In fact, those choices are made through a person rather than by a person.
So-called “choices” or decisions are the culmination of a very complex
programming. It may seem to come "out of the blue", but everything
results from a cause or causes.
The
debate over free will versus determinism may lead one to the conclusion that
every human is simply a puppet with no responsibility, no power to do the
slightest thing, no hope. It also may reinforce the illusion that a leopard can
change its spots, and that one can simply choose to be free from conditioning
by an act of will. Both ideas are incomplete and insufficient.
What
is called "free will" is an exertion of the
primary forces and the effect of outside influences on them. Repression,
training, and fear, among other causes, play their part in any so-called free
choice. Even "accidents" have their causes. Indeed, not one minute
occurrence results without connection to the entire system.
With
conscious evolution, choice does become possible. Choice and will are
attributes of a higher human being — of one who has awakened to a greater nature.
While
a human can be called unconscious and without choice, there is the possibility
of acquiring consciousness, and will. Just as a person in the ordinary state of
sleep has potential for different levels of consciousness, one in the ordinary
waking state has everything necessary for greater levels of experience. It even
occasionally happens in what have been called "peak experiences" or
in moments of trauma or in times of great emotion. This higher consciousness
cannot be accessed simply by desiring it. Ordinary man or woman does not have
this mainly because they believe they do. They would not work to earn something
they already believe they possess. The first and most difficult step is getting
beyond this grand illusion.
IV. Functions of Higher Attributes
While
humanity is defined by the primary forces, it also is drawn toward higher
experience. Most people even believe they have it, or can have it easily by
choice, but in reality this is only self-delusion -- a dream.
Instead
of real compassion, there is ego-centered sentimentality. Instead of real love,
the object of "love" must be under one’s (imagined) power... it is
conditional, and therefore, not love. In giving, one must derive pleasure or
power by the giving. Though there is a claim of loving the neighbor, it is
something other than real love.
There
have been attempts at various times in history to introduce methods to lead a
human being to the higher potential. “Holy Messengers” have delivered instructions
as to how this could be accomplished. It is evident that these attempts have
not yet achieved their ultimate goal. People have been told to love their
neighbor yet they do not know how to love or even what love is. When they see
others suffering, they identify their own pain or fear with them and transfer
what is called "compassion". The recognition that this emotion is not
what they believe would reveal that they are ego-occupied and do not possess
the higher quality of real compassion. Some people, however, suspect that real
love does exist and are disappointed in counterfeit love.
Once
a person begins to understand that humanity (including one's self) is not what
was previously believed, but is living at the mercy of three basic urges, he or
she will re-evaluate everything. Many become cynical, and go into a condition
of numb denial. Others intensify one or all of the urges to the point of
fanaticism. For those who become disillusioned and are able to face their fear,
the greatest opportunity of life presents itself. After a period of observation
and learning to be more objective, one accepts the real condition of humanity.
A human being as it is, is a complicated reacting
organism with no ability to act, to choose, to love, on its own. All things
happen through it, good or bad, by the forces of survival, pleasure and power
reacting with life. It becomes evident that a human being is not a conscious,
responsible creature. The world turns upside down.
Now,
rather than directing blame and hate toward others, one begins to see that
everyone is the same. Nobody has chosen their race, religion, language,
economic position, family, education, culture, etc. When one realizes this
intellectually, emotionally, and physically, COMPASSION is born -- not the sentimental, emotional
"compassion", but an objective connection with the other. This
compassion is the first taste of real love. It is unconditional and
non-judgmental. It is all inclusive. It is an expansion of the self to include
all other humans, other forms of life, and even the infinite universe. Now,
there is no need to control others, to be egocentric, to be addicted to
pleasure and power. One even feels a sense of security in the face of death.
The basic urges do not disappear; they take their proper position and open the
way for compassion to guide them. This is rebirth.
The
three higher attributes that are possible for a human (submission, wisdom, and
enlightenment) can only be activated when compassion has become the master of
the lower centers.
Compassion
leads one to the realization that everyone and everything is connected to a
larger system. The human ego now relinquishes its imagined freedom. This is SUBMISSION, the fifth level. The only prayer
becomes, "Thy will be done." This is the only real power for a human:
the choice to participate in the will of the Conscious Cosmos.
As
compassion directs the three primary levels, the resulting new creature has
much in common with all other reborn people. True
individuality is a result of connection of lower levels with higher ones. The
great variety of human essences can now express itself in harmonious unity.
The
one who arrives at this point is no longer an ordinary person. Direction can
now come from the sixth level, WISDOM,
which comes about with the total understanding (standing under) of the workings
of humanity within the Greater System. No more than this can be explained. Achieving
this level without a long period of conscious living is not to be expected.
Still
further away, but possible for a human, is the seventh level. This is ENLIGHTENMENT, or full consciousness.
It is awareness of the Self as the Universe. One is free from the restraints of
the earth. Those few humans who reach this level have extraordinary powers. It
is very, very far from ordinary humanity although flashes of its energy will
occasionally reach it.
V. To Evolve
An
ordinary human cannot come to compassion and the three higher levels through
the mind alone because it is (in its undeveloped state) an expression of the
lower levels.
When
life under the operation of the three basic levels is recognized and begins to
seem futile and unsatisfying, a person will try to find relief. It may be
through religion, drugs, a frantic unconscious activity (eating, working,
exercising the body, entertainment, etc.) or a preoccupation with the material
world in some form. Few will look for the path to evolution.
Realized
men and women have used many techniques to try to bring others to their higher
selves. It has been learned that what works for one type of person does not
work for all, but there are common principles. Much has been learned.
When
the compassion stage becomes active it begins to connect higher with lower levels
which start to function in their proper manner. Everything is different yet the
same. An evolved human cannot be recognized as such by un-evolved persons. He
or she becomes an actor on the great stage of earthly life, yet they know their
role and they know who they really are. They are conscious.
While
it is possible to evolve to the highest potential, it is very rare. The aim of
real religion has been mainly to bring a human being to the compassion stage,
with only hints at the other three. Ordinary persons hearing about these levels
will either believe they already have them or will try to reach them through
the exercise of power. It is therefore dangerous to approach these levels
alone. A teacher or guide must be there to keep the imagination in control. The
blind cannot lead the blind. This does not mean that a person desiring to
evolve must seek out a "guru" of the highest degree. The teacher is
only one who has traveled the road before and can warn about the pitfalls and
occasionally push or pull the learner in the right direction. The teacher’s
role is temporary.
In
the western culture, the ideas of democracy, equality, and freedom, all limit
the growth of higher development. A hierarchy of people or even ideas maintains
a mediocre mentality and prevents growth. In actuality, the fact that there are
levels of human experience does not at all justify seeing lower levels as
worthless or evil or higher levels as lords and masters. All levels are
valuable and necessary, while each is unique. The acknowledgment of scale, of
value, is imperative for creative change to occur.
Help
is available when it is needed for those who can take it. The problem is not
finding help; it is the realization of the need for it.
Fear
must be replaced by objective faith in life. Conditioned humans fear that God will
not do things as they should be done. With objective faith, all things are
occurring as they must occur. Nothing is wasted. Everything plays its part in
the grand scheme of the universe. The only decision necessary is to participate
with creation rather than to rebel against it. Evil is only the temptation to
stay in the lower nature and to deny the higher.
In
all major human traditions there is the teaching that a human needs to awaken,
to die and be reborn, to repent and be saved, to be converted, etc. This shows
the recognition that a human exists on at least two different levels and that
the higher level is preferable to the lower. It also shows that these different
levels are a matter of consciousness. It has always been the case, in every
known human culture, that the great majority of people belong to the sleeping,
"sinful", unconscious group and that only a small minority is awake,
"saved," and conscious. This minority has always tried by any and all
means to awaken the others, and the majority has always resisted the
disturbance of their comfortable sleep. Moreover, most believe they are awake.
The desire to sleep, by most, and the attempt to wake up by a few, has resulted
in great drama and tragic comedy throughout history. Today the situation can be
compared to a child trying to awaken a drugged sleeping family in a burning
house. The challenge is accompanied by terror.
VI. Overview of Human Possibility
Parallel
with the possibility of the individual is that of greater humanity. The same
centers, urges, forces, exist for humanity as a species as for each person. At
this particular time it is urgent that a core of humanity evolve but the
individual may or may not do so, yet humanity can only evolve through
individuals.
As
the individual is restricted by his or her lower nature, humankind as a whole
is in a similar state. The world is changing from moment to moment. Humanity is
captivated by the growth of the technology which came out of it and has taken
on a controlling role in life. The global collective consciousness of this
network erases cultural and political boundaries while reshaping the way people
think, feel, and act. Globalism as a culture is spread by the electronic
network of communications, economics, and political/social currents. The entire
planet is one organ connected to the solar system by the energy of the sun and
the balanced movement of the planets, making a complete organism within the
galaxy, itself another organism. Particles from the universe are streaming
through the earth at every moment.
VII. Consciousness
Consciousness,
the greatest evolutionary aspect of a human being has been studied very little
and is taken for granted. Even so-called great thinkers have contributed little
to the study of consciousness. It is an example of one not learning what one thinks
is already known.
We
know a little about only two levels of consciousness -- 1. ordinary
sleep, and 2. the ordinary awakened state. The
awakened state is wrongly considered to be a fairly constant condition in which
normal people function. Certain aberrations are acknowledged such as mental
retardation or mental illness, and substance-induced states, but present
knowledge does not concern itself with states such as those claimed by eastern
thinkers or even consider that there could be higher levels of human conscious
experience than that of consensus consciousness. It is generally considered
that a person is either asleep or awake and that is all that is possible.
A
simple self-observation reveals that waking consciousness has levels, which are
affected by things such as foods, rest, activity, events, etc. Consciousness is
always in flux.
An
occasional peak experience is not controllable and is seen as always coming
from external life. Drugs may open a door but prohibit entry.
Consciousness
as we know it is at the mercy of habits of thinking and feeling, of
conditioning and the human social environment. A person has little control over
his level of consciousness at any particular moment.
Ordinary
consciousness is dependent on the operating basic urges, chemistry, and the ego
(the feeling of the self as a separate being). It is seen by evolved people as a
kind of sleep-walking (there are many observances you can make of yourself that
confirm this. (For example, you find yourself going into a room to get
something but you do not remember what... You were unconscious. Or, you notice
that while doing an activity an hour has gone by without notice. You were
asleep. Or, while reading, someone has been talking to you but you didn't
hear.) So much of a person’s life is occupied with habit that even complex
activity can be accomplished with a very low level of consciousness. Work-hour
traffic is full of drivers who are barely conscious.
While
it is impossible to explain the waking state to a person in deep sleep, it is
equally difficult to explain higher consciousness to ordinary consciousness.
Just as dreams have a different language, time and pattern from waking
consciousness, higher consciousness operates in its own manner.
Humankind
has the potential to realize inner powers that are presently not even imagined.
Higher functioning imparts information and understanding that goes far beyond
language, formula, ordinary reason and the physical senses.
VIII. The Work
The system of
transformation introduced by Gurdjieff is called the
The
two obligatory practices in
One
obstacle to clarity in both these practices is the sense of familiarity the beginner
has with the ideas. Each person does have similar experiences but there are
vital components missing in them and they do not provide the material for
conscious Work. These practices come from the
The
Work explains and helps one affirm that there are 5 lower centers within every
human being:
1.
2. Moving
Center (learned physical function)
3.
4. Emotional
Center
5.
These centers have little real connection
and often work against each other. There are 2 Higher Centers that are blocked
from contact with the lower centers, but are fully complete and waiting to be
connected.
This
Work is to prepare lower centers for a connection with the two higher centers
within each human being:
6. Higher
Emotional Center, and
7. Higher
These
centers understand and unify the human system and contain everything needed for
living in the state of order that has been called the
IX. A Gloomy Picture Brightens
The
newspapers and electronic media show us a picture of humanity immersed in war
and desperation, mass indiscriminate murders, children killing children, rapes
and abuses, disease, institutional crimes, homeless and starving masses of
people, and scandal at the highest levels of society.
Due
to the breakdown of the hunter-based way of life (patriarchy) a dangerous breed
of humans has been created. At the time when the greatest promise of human
evolution is at hand, the most pathetic condition of humanity reveals itself.
This is, of course, as it must be. Wars and hatred cannot be abolished by those
living under the forces of survival, pleasure and power. Compassion can
scarcely be born in the horrible, unconscious conditions of much of human life.
Only vicious reactions from human monsters created by the nightmares of
sleeping humankind can result from the present situation. The change must occur
among those who are in the position to change. The majority will not be exposed
to evolutionary ideas, even though they are influenced by them. There is no
injustice in this. It is organic. Some cells are created to maintain, some to
transform, and reproduce. All are equally valid and necessary.
Throughout
history humans have looked to gods, chiefs, kings, armies, political and social
philosophies, to define and take the responsibility for their lives. The time
has come for a new force to operate in humanity and that force is necessary for
survival. It comes out of the tremendous inherent potential that is within the
human creature. It is the next step in evolution — greater consciousness.
X. A Promising Glimpse
Out
of the crumbling structures of the old world a new species of human is emerging
largely unnoticed and unrecognized. For thousands of years the human race has
been marching toward this time. This evolution is not a socio-cultural event,
but one that unfolds person by person.
Many
people believe humanity is locked into a "fallen state" by its very
nature, and has little hope except perhaps by direct intervention by God. They
do not know about the power of higher consciousness which provides the
connection to not only the next level of human potential, but to the greater
Conscious Universe. There is yet hope that out of humanity a flowering of
conscious beings will result. It is not guaranteed by any means. If this
evolution does not occur, humankind will be destroyed. Its mission will have
failed.
Any
person with even a small degree of insight can see that the future of humanity
is promising, but radically different than either the past or the present. It
is the archaic sentimental, nostalgic, historical view that must be sacrificed
in order for evolutionary change to occur. There are still many, perhaps most,
who are so attached to the ancient definition that they would prefer death to
change. This has always been true at any time of rapid transformation but the
present situation is so urgent because all life on the earth is involved.
The
promise is great. A human being is equipped with the necessary attributes to
change into a much superior being than the present state allows. Humanity must
realize its potential -- its birthright or the opportunity will be lost
forever.
XI. Becoming dis-illusioned
• Disillusionment is necessary for truth.
• Freedom
is an illusion. Nothing is free. All things are interdependent.
• Nothing
exists without a cause or causes -- even a thought.
• Competition
is dualistic; Cooperation involves three forces.
• When
one thing changes everything is different.