Evolution of Consciusness(Post 18)-Time(2)

Psychological Time and Becoming

In the last post we mentioned about Physical and Psychological time and said

Physical time flows from Past to Future- Clock or Calendar time.

But, psychological time flows the other way, that is from Future to Past, in

 the sequence of Intention, Action and Realization .

It is obvious; this sequence is necessary and indispensable in any plan of action.

 From mundane acts like getting up from the chair, picking up an object to bigger

projects, the psyche follows the  sequence of intention, action and realization.

Let us go through this with an imaginary situation.

A poor man INTENDS to become rich, takes some ACTIONS to RELAIZE his aim.

Scenario -1

Say the poor man is in a kind of hurry, mentally he is unable to stay poor.

 He feels ‘I can not remain poor’, and start longing for the ‘tomorrows’ where he is ‘Rich’.

This mental longing and craving, psychologically creates a contradiction between ‘What 

is’ (Being Poor) and ‘What should be’ (Being Rich).

Actually, ‘Being Poor’ and ‘Being Rich’ are different beings or states, there is no 

inherent contradiction between them. 

Contradiction arises because both ‘Being Poor’ and ‘Being Rich’ are to be the ‘Present 

Being’ of the Poor-Man at the same time.

Giving rise to famous maxims ‘I am not I’ or ‘I am more than I’

 He begins to struggle psychologically because he is pushing himself into something which he is not.

In other words, he is psychologically trying to become something what he is not.        

               

It is impossible to either reconcile or end this struggle because

‘Being Poor’ is a FACT and ‘Being Rich’ is an IDEA (as of now).

It takes real physical time and events for IDEA to become FACT.

Where as the Psychological Time – Intention, Action and Realization is only a mental 

projection of plan or idea and unreal, as concrete TIME it doesn’t exist.

But ‘Poor Man’ in desperation to feel rich applies non-existent psychological time 

(Craving and longing) to ‘become’ or ‘feel’ rich.

It will end in frustration and failure.

Since there is no real Psychological Time, there is no Psychological becoming.

It is an illusion.

Psychologically one can be only what he is, there is no becoming.

That is one can be either ‘Angry’ or ‘Not Angry’, both can not be present.

One can clearly see it by testing it

 When one is ‘Angry’, If he/she TRIES to become ‘Non-Angry’, they will struggle.

Trying is applying non-existent time.

Since Anger is a FACT and Non-Anger is an IDEA.

It takes real time and events to become ‘Non-Angry’.

But one can end ‘Anger’ without becoming, that we will test later.

Now let us consider scenario ii

Poor Man is not in any hurry to feel rich,

He inwardly psychologically stays with the FACT that ‘He is Poor’, outwardly he

continues with the relevant actions to become rich.

In this scenario, there is no psychological becoming or craving and so there is no

psychological struggle or frustration.

He might face difficulties in the physical plane but psychologically he will remain

Undisturbed and clear headed.

And in course of time he may realize his aim.

Now,

Let us apply this scenario to ‘Anger’

One is ‘Angry’, but he/she is not trying to become ‘Non-Angry’.

Instead they stay with ‘Anger’ and also look at their ‘Anger’ totally without bias or 

Motive to become non-angry. 

What would happen?

 ‘Anger’ vanishes.

What happened here is, when the ‘I’ reflects and looks at the ‘Anger’ totally,

 the ‘I’ which sustains anger can not be  present.

According to Gurdjieff’s system one has multiple ‘I’s.

 

Evolution of Consciusness(Post 17)-Time

Physical and Psychological time.

Physical time as we observe flows from Past to Future- Clock or Calendar time.

But, psychological time flows the other way, that is from Future to Past, in

 the sequence of Intention, Action and Realization.

Physical Time

Time was once considered as absolute, but now it is another dimension like length or 

Breath.

It shrinks and expands like any other spatial dimension, though it is not part of day to day

experience.

Anyway, expansive scientific facts like billion galaxies, light years and shrinking facts

about subatomic particles, wave probabilities are remote to our experience.

As far as time.

Though time is abstract, it is measured through periodic events – arm of the clock, sun’s

cycle, atomic decay and so on.

Time in Life

In life, time is perceived through events in life arranged in a chronological order,

connecting thread being the Self/Ego which goes through the events.

We know there were yesterday / past because we remember the events.

Similarly,

We know there will be tomorrow / future because we remember past ‘tomorrows’ came

into being.

One can also think about the past or future and indulge in nostalgia or day dreaming.

Both are only ‘Thinking’, projections of the mind, mental concepts, not real.

That is living in an ‘unreal’ world, which exists only in the mind or thoughts.

 Actuality or Reality or ’The Living Truth’ is only in the Present or Now.

All around us there is only NOW.

Whatever happens, can happen only in the NOW.

Past and Future are only mental projections.

We are not suggesting about ‘forgetting the past’ or ‘not planning for the future’.

We need to remember the past and plan the future.

It is about ‘living’ in the present.

Normally, one do not live in the ‘PRESENT’, one’s thoughts are everywhere, in to the

past or into the future .

To live really, one must be entirely available to the present.

To understand, one can recall an incident of joy one went through.

One could notice,

- Entire being was available to that PRESENT,

- Absence of ego/ego-self,

- No good or bad past interfered, not even sickness or pain

- No struggle of becoming something

- Energy level was optimum

-  and was not even aware that one is in joy.

All the above qualities can also be found among children, though unconscious.

 

The reason being,

In Gurdjief’s terms ,

Children possess only essence (Real-Self), ego-self is not yet developed, and personality

is not taken root because their interaction with the outer world is minimal.

Their consciousness is all in the present – no nostalgia about the past or day dreaming

about the future.

That is why in some religions, it is said ‘BE LIKE CHILDREN’.

It is obvious one can not become a child, and it is also senseless.

The point is to make one’s being entirely available in the present,

Being entirely in the PRESENT means stepping out of time.

Past and Future belongs to time, but present is ‘timeless’ and ‘beyond measure’.

It is not something mystical.

One can test it by looking at familiar people with a fresh/new mind, which is without the

aid of past experiences (a measure in time).

It is more than fun.

We will continue with Time.

Evolution of Consciusness(Post 16)- Sense of LACK

Sense of lack

It is a fact that people are not content, what ever be their achievement and status,

people always feel they lack something in their life.

Good Scientists, Thinkers, leaders are all working to make life better, not only physically

but also psychologically.

Can they ever succeed in their mission?

Physical Plane.

 Science and technology may succeed in improving the quality of life (Best food,

shelter, Medicine, long life and so on) .

But, as knowledge is never complete and as it always grows, there will be always ‘better’

quality of things to come, better life to be attained.

So, sense of lack and insufficiency will be there in the physical plane.

How one tolerates or live up to it is a different issue.

Psychological Plane.

Ego or Ego-Self or Personality is made up of choices.

Choice means inclusion of some and exclusion of the rest.

So, one’s ego is limited by its own choices, however proficient and skillful it is.

When ego reaches its limitation, it will face resistance, that will cause conflict and 

discontent.

So, sense of lack and insufficiency will be there in the psychological plane as well.

Where it originates

Where is the root of this ever present sense of LACK in the psyche?

This sense of lack or insufficiency one feels normally is not genuine and can not be

resolved.

Because, what one lacks is own True or Real-Self, not external objects.

To make it clearer, let us step back and bring Gurdjieff

In the earlier posts we mentioned the following

-     a person is born with unique essence( True or Real-Self)

-         later conditioned by external factors, cultivates a personality and  pursuits.

-          Ego-Self or personality pushes back the True or Real-Self and essence.

-         In time one takes the Ego-Self for the True-Self

One is born with essence (True-Self), so it is choice less and natural self.

Where as ego-self is acquired and made up of choices and so limited.

Though it has taken the place of True-Self, its achievements can not truly reflect the

aspirations of one’s True-Self and its essence.

This is the source of discontent and the origin of ‘Lack’

One is not conscious of it because True-Self and Essence is pushed back or buried,

So, on the conscious level (Ego-Self), one feels this lack is due to lack of something

external and can be set right.

But,

By acquiring more and more, becoming better and better, one can not eliminate this

sense of lack.

One has to transcend the ego-self to the True or Rea-Self to end the Sense of lack and

attain wholeness.

 Ego-Self is like a soul lost or fallen from grace.

Note : According to Gurjieff’s  system,  a person is born with essence and not soul, it has

to be acquired.

  

It is something like,

Crescent moon trying to become a Full Moon by growing bigger, but it can only become

a bigger Crescent Moon.

To become a Full Moon,

It has to recognize its true nature (Full Moon), stop identifying with the ‘Crescent

Moon’ and that will throw light on the hidden portion to make it full.

Evolution of Consciusness(Post-15)-Fear Of Death

 Fear of Death and Grief

In the last post we saw about Sense of Mystery.

And, how objects of mystery changes over time and become mystery of death at the 

end.

Mystery of death is haunting and cause of great fear unlike fantasy of younger age.

Fear of death is considered to be the primary fear.

At secondary levels it is manifested in fear of losing job, dear ones, status etc, gradually

leading to fear of death.

So, Fear of Death can be seen as ending of something known rather than beginning of

something unknown.

Looking closer,

It can not be Fear of the Unknown but Fear of losing the Known.

The reason is,

The very structure of Ego/Ego-self is such it is always BECOMING something from

BEING something.

Poor to Rich, Illness to Well Being, or seeking pleasure, avoiding pain and so on.

There never been an instant where ego-self is not in the process of becoming except in

states like JOY, where ego-self is not becoming anything and also not present.

Otherwise,

It  projects a FUTURE based on the PAST and works towards it in the

PRESENT and on realization that becomes the PAST, the cycle goes on.

In this cycle, there is always a FUTURE, ego-self never encounters a state where there 

is NO-FUTURE or ENDING.

So, Ego-Self can not have any idea about DEATH/ENDING of itself from its own

experience.

Its knowledge regarding death comes through seeing the end or death of others.

When it extrapolates its own death through this experience, it projects absolute 

‘Absence of itself’ as it has seen absolute ‘Absence of others’ after their death.

It projects a void and fears its own extinction, not what lies beyond.

So it is not fear of the unknown death but fear of extinction of the known, and it is only

a projection of the personal mind or ego-self not necessarily true.

The reality could be anything, need not be extinction of the self.

So, ‘DEATH’ means ‘Extinction of the Self’ as far as Personal Mind or Ego-Self is

concerned.  

This feeling generates tremendous fear paralyzing the mind – at the extinction of self,

everything done or not done are in abeyance, meaningless, nullified including the self.

Grief

Now, coming to grief caused by death.

If dead ones are remote, it has very little impact, in fact people endorse killing ‘others’

for Common Good, Nationalism, Religion, Ideals etc.

But, if ‘others’ are dear and near ones grief takes over.

So, it is not Death parsec but attachment is the real cause of numbness, despair and

sadness surrounding death.

 

On the surface, it looks one grieve and feel sorry for the dead, actually one feels sorry 

for One-self over the loss of solace, comfort or joy derived from the dead.

It appears untrue and cruel too.

But, there can be some truth in it because healing reveals something about it.

It is common to say ‘Time is the Healer’, in course of time grief and sadness will be

healed.

In fact, through time one compensates the loss by gradually filling the void created

by the dead with new things (Physical or Psychological) and comes out of 

grief/sadness.

This is done by the unconscious part of the ego-self making one believe that time has 

healed it, at unconscious level ego-self  can be extremely subtle and selfish.

Perhaps, this could be the reason why in some traditions, it is equated to sin or evil.

Now the inference,

Mystery of death remains a mystery-Beliefs of after life etc, are comfortable but not 

real.

 

But, fear of death is real and unavoidable because of very structure of the ego-self -We

have explained it already.

Conditioned and limited (Finite) Ego-Self can not contain solutions for all the problems

thrown by the infinite- Cosmos.

So, fear of ending or something going wrong will always be there.

Suicides and life sacrifices are committed over fear of life or denial of life, not

Over acceptance of death.

Fear in all its forms can be ended only when one transcends the finite Personal

Mind(Ego-Self)  to  General Mind(Real-Self) and to the unconditioned and infinite

Absolute Mind( Uni-Being or Objective Reason).

In that plane of consciousness, fear ceases and bliss prevails.

Halloween- Gangam Style

Halloween Light Show

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Evoution of Consciousness(Post 14)- Mystery

 Sense Of Mystery

Sense of mystery is another innate quality of human beings like expectation of miracle.

One lives with it from birth to death.

In childhood and younger age, it is wonder and awe.

The games children play (Hide & Seek), the stories they prefer (something hidden

beyond the mountains, underneath the sea etc) all creates sense of mystery, wonder and

awe.

Recent Harry Potter series captured the young minds all over the world with its magical

story and surrealistic / super realistic visuals.

As one grows the mystery may become mystery of opposite sex, love and romance.

Childhood search of magical objects now becomes a search for mysterious and forever

‘Love’ and ‘Soul Mate’ – another magical object but for the grown ups.

Anyway later on, people accept the human limitation ( limitation of the egoor Ego-Self)

 and settle down with ‘wonder’ Gadgets and a ‘understanding’ Life Partner.

Mystery does not disappear, at old age it comes back as fear of death – what lies beyond.

The sense of mystery which gave wonder and curiosity of the unknown at the younger

age, now gives despair and fear of the unknown.

Both (Pleasant and Unpleasant) are projections of the Personal Mind (Ego-Self) and not

real.

In the case of ‘Fear of Death’ it is not really ‘Fear of the unknown’ but ‘Fear of losing 

the known’.

We will see more about ‘Fear of Death’ in another post.

                                                                                                                         

The primary reason for taking up ‘Expectation of Miracle’ and ‘Sense of Mystery’

is because we are born with them,  objects of mystery changes as we grow but the

sense of Mystery remain with us.

Scientific explanations can ‘explain them away’ and add them to ‘knowledge’,

giving an impression that there are only unknowns not mystery and everything will be

known in course of time.

Skeptics may dismiss it all as

‘Fear of the unknown’,

‘Reluctance to accept the indifferent attitude of the universe towards human life’,

‘Trying to give Anthropomorphic meaning to the universe’ and so on.

But, they (‘Expectation of Miracle’ and ‘Sense of Mystery’) can also be

Indicator of limitation of the ego/Ego-Self and a pointer towards the possible existence

of other levels of  consciousness. ( Real-Self and Uni-Being).

Evolution of Consciusness(Post13)-Miracle

Expectation of Miracle – 

 

It is an innate quality and manifested partly in our fascination towards Magic.

In a serious note,

It is hope or anticipation of divine intervention for believers and interference of

Supernatural  in the human affairs for non-believers.

Naturalists believe everything is natural there is nothing more, subsequently 
 everything will be understood.

Super-naturalists believe that there is more to nature, ‘Supernatural’ is what we don’t see 
 and measure but interferes with Natural law . 

How do we define a Miracle in our life?

All the events in one’s life has a Cause followed by an Effect and the effect 

becoming a cause, producing another effect and so on.

Everything in life is linked and understood through this chain of Cause and Effect.

According to this theory there can be No Effect without a Cause behind it.

But, Miracle is supposed to be something out of the blue, belongs to the domain of the 

Divine or  Supernatural.

It can not be part of Cause and Effect chain.

So, we can say ‘Miracle’ is something that has no cause.

Is there any thing in our day to day life which has no cause?

Consider our emotions, take anger,

There is no anger without a cause/motive behind it (A Person, an Event or a Desire).

It is obvious, one can’t be angry without any reason (Cause). 

Now, let us take compassion,

Does one need a cause to express compassion? 

In other words, does one require a motive to be compassionate?

No need, one can be compassionate without any personal motive.

In fact, one can not be compassionate with a personal motive. 

That is, Compassion is without a cause/motive.

It is not part Cause and Effect Chain.

Then, is compassion a miracle?

 Yes, for two reasons,

1.     It is not an act of Ego because Ego can act only through Cause &

         Effect Chain-Mechanical response
         Its origin is elsewhere, not in the ego-self.

 2. It can bring about extraordinary (miraculous) effect on the person.

For the proof of 2^nd reason refer the post 'WORLD'S HAPPIEST MAN-10/31/12'

We saw in that post, How meditation on compassion altered the brain of Mr. Matthies Ricard 

giving him abnormal (miracle!) capacity for happiness. 

Where Miracles belong?

Anger is Personal because it has personal cause/motive.

Compassion is Non-Personal because it has no personal cause/motive.


Anger belongs to the plane of ‘Personal-Self’/’Ego-Self.’

Compassion belong to the plane of ‘Non-personal’/’Uni-Being’

Note:
Compassion is a self-less act, should not be confused with un-selfish deeds.

Stretching it further,

‘Cause and Effect’ belongs to the plane of ‘Personal-Self’/’Ego-Self’.

‘Miracles’ belongs to the plane of ‘Non-Personal’/ ‘Uni-Being’.

Expecting Miracles

So, can one expect miracles?

Yes, but one can’t wait.

According to Gurdjieff ‘One can’t wait, because death is waiting’.

In other words, one must start the resurrection of Uni-Being(ObjectiveReason) - the 

plane where miracles belong.

Evolution of Consciusness(Post 12)- 4th WAY

In the earlier posts we have seen various aspects of human mind with respect

to Gudjieff’s philosophy and ideas.

Brief  list :

 -3 Centers Instinct-Body, Emotion-Feeling, Intellect-Knowledge

 -Dominant Center, Balanced centers

 -7-Types of Men

-Types of consciousness

   Sleep, Waking-Consciousness, Self-Consciousness and Objective Reason

-Personality based Consciousness of person, Ego-Self

-Essence of a person, Real-Self

-Objective Reasoning – Enlightenment – Uni-Being

Now we will come to the formal method of Gurjieff .

Gurdjieff called it as Work or Work on One-Self.

His famous disciple Ouspensky named it as the Fourth Way.     

Why the name Work on One-Self?

We have seen objective of Gurdjieff is expansion of subject’s consciousness

from ‘Ego-Self’ (personality) to ‘Uni-Being’ (Objective Reason).

Gurdjieff’s basic argument is expansion (evolution) of consciousness is

possible only through conscious expansion(evolution).

(We have already mentioned that Evolution of Consciousness can not be Unconscious like Natural Evolution) 

That is one’s consciousness can not evolve unconsciously, others can give

only objective knowledge about it, but for subjective experience one has

to work on the consciousness one self.

Furthermore tradition and faith can make one complacent expecting a

Miracle or Grace for liberation.

(‘Expectation of Miracle’ and ‘Sense of Mystery’ is part of normal human

Psyche according to experts. We will see about them later.)

So, Gurdjieff emphasized on self-work, not giving much room for miracle or 

Grace.

For these reasons Gurdjieff called his method Work or Work on one-self.

Why Work is named as The Fourth Way

Gurdjieff  classified existing religious and spiritual traditions into three broad categories.

1. Way of Fakir – Self Mastery through Pain (Physical)

2. Way of Monk – Self Mastery through Faith (Emotional)

3. Way of Yogi – Self Mastery through Knowledge (Intellect)

One can see, the above methods focused on only one aspect of the Mind.

But, Gudjieff  envisioned and founded a new method forintegrated development 

 of all three aspects unlike the above three.

Though Gurdjieff called his method as Work, his disciple Ouspensky called it the 

Fourth Way since there are already three traditional methods in existence.

What is the need for new method?

Gurdjieff felt that ancient traditions had lost their true meaning and not serving the

Original purpose of liberating human beings from ‘Sleep’.

More over, the above paths tend to develop one aspect of individual (Body/

Emotion/Intellect)   leading to lopsided development.

 It is easy to see; ancient traditions have been institutionalized and have developed 

Institutional ambitions, moving all the time further and further away from the 

purpose for which  they were initially founded.

These traditions also require people to renounce their formal life to take part in 

the spiritual quest.

But, demands of Modern society on individuals are such People can not resign 

from their formal life to enter in to spiritual quest. 

These things made traditional methods hardly suitable for a modern man,

esspeially more so in the west than the eastern world.

Taking all this in to account, Gurdjieff felt the need to have new system which 

would attract and enable people to pursue the spiritual journey without renouncing 

their formal  life.

Based on these findings, Gurjieff developed a Philosophy to explain the World 

View and a method to realize the envisioned truth. 

One may find parallel elements in other traditions, but the vital difference is that 

his philosophy and methods are designed in such a way that they CAN be and 

SHOULD be practiced in daily life, not away from it.

Funny Video - Dragon Baby

I received this Video link from a friend, click the link to watch the video. 

 

                                        

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Evolution of Consciusness(Post-11)-Escape from Prison

Escape from the Prison. 

Gurdjieff compares Ego-Self to a Prison.

To escape from this prison is not easy and he expressed this clearly:

 "If a man in prison was at any time to have a chance of escape, then he must first of all realize that he is in prison."

Gurdjieff also maintains, realizing that one is in prison is the first

step, also the hardest and most significant .

Firstly, Why it is so hard to realize that one is in prison?

When a child is born, it is all ESSENCE( Innate real qualities)

As it grows, it gradually develops Ego-Self while acquiring skills,

values and traits from the society in order to find  Safety, Recognition

and a place, which is normal and necessary.

But in time, ‘Essence’/Rea-Self are pushed back and Ego-Self is

taken as the Real-Self.

Now a man is all Ego-Self, no idea of Real-Self and that makes it

 hard to realize that one is in ‘prison’.

And also the ‘Prison’ has its own charms and attractions that will

retain the person in the ‘Prison’

Secondly, why it is very difficult to give up the ego-self?

Let us see how the ‘Ego-Self’ or the Mind works.

Mind always projects FUTURE in terms of its PAST, better or worse. 

And, it can project FUTURE only in terms of the known that is its

 PAST.

Let us leave the WORSE and take the BETTER future that is what

one work towards.

For instance,

Mind knows what a Car is and so it can project a BETTER Car.

That is one will give up the old car for a BETTER one.

 Similarly, Mind can project BETTER House, Job or Status etc.

To put it generally,

Mind is ready to give up what it has for a BETTER one.

So, it can give up the Ego-Self   for a BETTER Ego-Self.

In fact people have even sacrificed their life for a cause, to have a

BETTER nation, society etc.

The word ‘BETTER’ is the key here.

When we say better, it is always with respect to the past or what one

already has.

So,   

If mind can have some idea about the future outcome based on what

it has, it is ready to give up what it has.

The shape of future outcome (modified past) must be known to the

mind.

That is why,

Mind can give up the Ego-Self for a BETTER Ego-Self (Behavior

Modification stuff).

But, now the demand is,

Give up the Ego-Self for the Real-Self , Soul or Uni-Being or

whatever.

Real-Self is not a better Ego-Self, in a sense it is Ego-less-Self,

antithesis of Ego-Self.

If Ego-Self tries to project Ego-less-Self, it can project only

Nothingness because there can not be any ego-element in ego-less-self.

In other words personal Mind can project non-personal Mind as

emptiness  because Non-personal mind can not contain personal elements.

Since Mind is all Ego-Self, if at all it projects anything, it can project

only a BETTER of  'ego-elements' or Nothing.

So the Mind is caught in uncertainty, confusion and fear.

It can’t leap into nothingness.

It can’t give up what it has for nothing.

It is better to hold onto what it has.

That is, it is not easy to give up the Ego-Self without facing the

Nothingness.

If the Mind refuses to face the nothingness, it will remain in prison,

working and hoping for a BETTER prison.

Anyway, It is not so hopeless, because everyone one time or other would 

have acted without the interference of ego-elements. Perhaps that will open 

the window.