Way

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 30, 2010

 

Today is Wednesday, the last day of June 2010, and we're about to enter the depths of summer. It's just after six-thirty and there's a group meeting scheduled for tonight at eight thirty. I heard that Merav and Adam were considering reading 'Freedom from the Known' by Krishnamurti, at the meeting.

 

I've been 'ruminating' for some time on how people take 'The Work' – and how they might relate that to Krishnamurti? How to 'shake' people into a serious consideration – as to what they believe they are 'doing' or would 'like to do', relative to these two approaches to the Truth, if by chance the subject interests them. 

 

To start with – a look at Krishnamurti's book 'Freedom from the Known'. What does the 'title' imply? 

 

There is so much happening around people and to them in the so-called 'realm of the known' – what is assumed to be 'known'. 'I am this', 'you are that', 'this is possible', 'that's not' and if we do or don't do this or the next thing – tomorrow will 'be better'. 

 

That's what everyone's busy with – 'tomorrow'. It could be the next day or ten years down the line – but making 'tomorrow better'. 

 

All material for such thoughts is collected within a person's 'inner world', using the 'as if known' elements. 

 

The assumption in the title of the book 'Freedom from the Known', is that you're not 'free' in that 'so-called known'. Your habitual thinking starts from there – some elements of which you hope will be 'useful', but where so much of the time you feel stuck and depressed within all its 'this, that and whatever'. In a word, you are far from 'free' in your inner world, with its 'known' elements. 

 

Krishnamurti's book suggests that you might 'free' yourself from this so called 'known' – mostly 'assumed' and blindly reacted to, for the most part.

 

Take a breath. I'll stop for a minute.

 

 

'The Work', as we relate to it around here, is sometimes referred to as the 'Fourth WAY'. 

 

There are three 'established' Ways:

 

* The Way of the ‘Yogi': 

the intellectual, mind approach to the issue. 

 

* The Way of the 'Monk': 

the more emotional approach. 

 

* The Way of the 'Fakir': 

where the physical elements are stressed. 

 

'The Fourth Way', is the so-called 'balanced' approach – where mind, emotions and body are dealt with more or less together. 

 

The first three Ways are not by accident called Ways – they are expected to LEAD to something! With Knowledge and proper circumstances each of the Ways is meant to lead to 'Something'. There is only ONE thing worth 'reaching'. The Jews call it 'chozer betshuva' (A Return) – the One and Only Final Answer. 

 

I hope you're not getting too excited with these fancy words. 

 

We'll take another breath.

 

 

Who is the Fourth Way for – what kind of people are particularly 'adaptable' to it? 

 

It's been said: 'For those that cannot go by any of the other three Ways'. 

 

That seems to give weight to those other three Ways, what ever they might involve – might just shake your 'confidence' in the Fourth Way. People that can't go the other three ways – sounds like a 'put down', maybe. But who would even want to think about such things – so many words floating around?

 

I would like to just stop and look at the word 'WAY'. 

 

 

I would like to see the word WAY tattooed on your wrist, on that hand you're using all the time – for god knows what. You could look, see the word WAY – and remember that it is meant to LEAD to 'somewhere'. Then to ask yourself, "am I ON the Way, now?" 

 

If you're not 'focused' on some aspect of some Way, then you're just drifting, as most people are – taking everything for granted within the picture of what they, 'as if' know. All generally taken quite for granted – within the as if 'known'. 

 

Without a WAY, people are really going nowhere fast, getting evermore confused and usually more than a little stubborn, as they 'think-up' their 'goings'. 

 

Everyone's 'known', different from anyone else's 'known', is basically constructed to accommodate their comfort and satisfaction in what they imagine 'is' – their own quite individual 'known'. This is totally 'understandable' – a kind of, 'my' way. Conflict, by the way, is but a byproduct.

 

Look at your wrists, now – 'see' the word WAY!

 

Do you think you are on a Way? Then, to WHAT? To 'freedom' (in Krishnamurti's terms)? To BEING (in the Fourth Way terms)? 

 

The common AIM – by the way – is far more and far more real than you can possibly 'imagine'. BEING, I guess, is the  key word.

 

BE now – just relax. I think I'm using language that for the most part you are more or less familiar with.

 

 

Krishnamurti doesn't talk so much of what freedom 'is' – he talks mostly about the 'known' that gets in the way (if you'll excuse the expression). 'Freedom' – as with Truth, Love, 'God', Being – there's not much you can say, if anything. You CAN address what 'gets in the way' – illusion, sometimes called lies, all the as if 'knowing'. 

 

All 'knowing' is packaged-up in 'personality' – your particular conditioning that makes you so 'unique'. To be really 'free' – is to be free from your own 'as if knowing', your own bubble, personality that got formed, you know not how. It's totally individual and no one else 'buys' it – unable to leave their 'own bubble' hardly for a moment. 

 

The WORK – by the Way – is not at all 'normal' – not 'comfortable' to what people are generally doing. 

 

'Oh, poor you' – if you should care about that, then you'd better find another Way. You can risk humility at the moment  – as if you are hearing something totally new. Good place to start from! 

 

We'll try to throw some light on a few elements that might bring in more clarity relative to Work, something it seems you are rather interested in. 

 

What is the deal, what is the hope, why the effort – why WORK? Most people take life's confusions as just about inevitable – and pretty much their very 'own'. They don't always realize that the confusion, differing in details from person to person, is but a most common reality. 

 

At the moment I feel like I may have flooded you with too many words.

 

 

Back to the word 'WAY'. 

 

People studying Kabbalah must know that it's meant to be a 'Way' – not merely being a 'good Jew', keeping the family together, kashrut and mitsvot etc. Not that that could not be useful to themselves. The religious Jews 'keep the Shabbat'. It's more like the Shabbat 'keeps them' – one day in the week they do nothing from their 'usual personality', so at a minimum they get the taste of real Being. 

 

SHABBAT – at the esoteric level – is really meant to have 'God' in it! There are essentials as to 'what to do' and what 'not to do' that would allow 'THAT'.

 

 

* You don't 'LIGHT A FIRE'. 

   People are generally 'lighting fires' all the time – disagreeing, arguing, challenging, 'rubbing'. Should you want to live at the level of 'Shabbat', in Peace, with 'God' . . . you don't do that!

 

* You don't CARRY anything on Shabbat. 

   You don't 'carry' what comes from 'yom-chol' (un-holy times), from your usual daily concerns. You don't carry the PAST! 

 

* You don't TRAVEL artificially. 

   You don’t take a ride on someone else's whatever, compliment or promise. You move on your own 'legs'. 

 

What really Works on Shabbat, at the esoteric level, you want it to work all the time – not just one day in seven. In Krishnamurti's terms you want to be 'free' from the 'usual'. In Gurdjieff's terms you want to fully BE. 

 

Do you realize how far you are from that reality? 

 

 

WORK is aimed at a level of Consciousness and Being, that people generally don't have – but might have. 

 

Gurdjieff points out how people generally 'think they are Conscious'. Should you talk to them about Consciousness – by merely 'talking' about it, at that moment, they are. Like now for instance, you are somewhat more 'present' – just by giving attention to something other than your own ruminations, the constant turning and twisting of the mind, your own personal dream land. Compare NOW to other parts of your day, if you can remember. That's another 'tricky bit'. When you're not present, not Remembering Yourself, you retain no clear memory. 

 

This is not a 'naughty, naughty, naughty, shameful, shameful', kind of talk. We're just looking at how things actually go. Until you fully recognize how it generally goes – you're not going to Work, make a conscious effort for 'something' different. Not to go through this life being a victim of everything that 'happens' – living under the 'Law of Accident'. All 'just happening' – accident on top of accident, on top of explanation, on top of accident . . . 'happening'. Be reasonable – you're intelligent beings. Were you fully awake, all would be very different. Would you like that – or are you a 'fatalist', think that what you've got, you've got, and that's it? Silly you!

 

Soldiers, having to take a fortified position at the very top of a hill, know that it's close to impossible. 'Statistically', they know – should ten men try to take the fortified position, only ONE might come down alive. Of course, each one thinks that HE's the one who's going to survive whole and healthy. 

 

And that's how most people take 'life'. If they're not already totally traumatized they see how the masses are all suffering from one thing or another, 'going nowhere fast'. But each man thinks that HE will be the ONE that 'makes it', survive, in 'good health'.

 

Now, think about it – why a WAY? Has it 'meaning', importance to you – a function that you think can really make a difference? 'A life for a life' – without a WAY, no one is yet really alive. 

 

We're in 'life'. Work aims at becoming really alive in ESSENCE – not in subjective personality, imagination, in wishful thinking or 'nightmares', dreams at 'best'. 

 

Yes, 'die before you die'. Enough of the non-sense, see the situation without 'judging'. You might then get to understand how to Work the WAY. 

 

Look at the word on your wrist! Most of the time people are looking there for their watch – considering what to do 'after'. That's Krishnamurti's specialty (TIME). We are generally 'caught in time' – our mind 'works' that way at the mechanical level. We must Observe it in detail. 

 

 

Maybe you have to get to know more about Krishnamurti and The Work, in order to ponder THAT.

 

Krishnamurti says, freedom is when you're 'free from time' – the psychological implications that is. It's so true. In more detail, he points out that there are three things that inevitably 'exist' together:

 

 

How is that? Try this paraphrasing: 

 

We're inevitably THINKING about one of two things. Either we're trying to repeat something from the past that was pleasurable, or trying to avoid something from the past that was painful. That's in TIME. In either case, there is always the possibility of 'failure' – so inevitably FEAR. 

 

‘No', someone says, 'we're doing it for God'. Maybe, but that's already a 'religious approach' – already in the realm of the 'un-known', has the smell of Work in it. But generally speaking we're thinking about the future in anticipation of something 'pleasurable' or wishing to avoid something 'painful'. Both have fear in it because the 'good' we want, we might not get and the 'bad' that we wish to avoid, we might not be able to. 

 

 

Wow, when I ran into that angle some forty years ago it was like someone hit me over the head. It was so obvious. But it's not so simple to stop – one must have a 'Way' to replace it with. Nature abhors a vacuum. 

 

THE WORK has some 'suggestions' for you in that area. It is far more comprehensive within its Knowledge of what keeps us in that mechanical prison of time and imagination.

 

 

Take a moment and feel good. You're listening to something that is talking kind of clear. Never mind what you can or cannot do with it, yet. 

 

You're sitting here right now – free from the past and not having to worry about what will be next. Give attention to your feet – they have been working for you all your life. There's a mass of vibrations, sensations in your feet – your attention there could amaze you. I'll get back to you in a minute.

 

Gurdjieff said, 'people don't know they've got a toe, unless someone steps on it!' That works as well psychologically: they don't know they lie until someone holds up a hand, and says – hey, wait a damn minute! 

 

BE in your body – that's 'a third' of your challenge in this world. It's all about Attention. It's Work, and it takes a Conscious Effort. People generally don't like those words – Work, Effort or Attention. They are so emotionally loaded – like someone telling you what to do.

 

 

Let's sit for a moment. We're not in a rush. Let's look at Jewish law again – adding the 'esoteric’ angle.

 

On 'Shabbat', you don't talk or think about what you will do when Shabbat is over, when the 'regular world' clicks-in again. No carrying from the past. No thinking about the future. There is: 

 

 

And what do you do?

 

* You 'Pray' (see 'Geschrei' paper). 

 

* You Study. 

 

* You Rest.

 

* You make love to your 'wife'.                                                                                                                                     

 

Speaking 'exoteric-ly', 'your wife' implies a carnal connection – you 'enter' your wife. At the 'esoteric level' – your Body is Female (-), and your Psyche is Male (+). ATTENTION, entering                   your Body, would be the esoteric equivalent of 'making love to your wife'. To BE in your body, where you become ONE. When you have sex with your wife, ideally you become ONE in the perfection of the encounter.

 

Everybody is feminine in the face of 'God'. We are all at the receiving end.

 

 

In that Consciousness is ENERGY that can fuel your Attention to the most obvious truth of your present existence – your BEING in a BODY. 

 

 

Your primary 'external', actually, is your Body – first, BE 'aware' of your Body. Then you are in a position to 'consider' your Emotions and Mind – both of which, are also external to YOU.  (1)

 

You can FIND yourself – 'behind' body, emotions and thoughts.

 

(1)  Your mind and emotions are taking place in this EXTERNAL to YOU physical thing called a body, and are external in themselves. 

 

Then the mind – which makes such a 'terrible master' – can become the so very needed 'good servant'. The question is always – are YOU there to use 'it', or is 'it' using you?

 

Again with the 'Jews', on Shabbat. If they can 'stop' for that one day in the week – they may stop, and catch their breath on occasion, during the week. 

 

Some say, 'Judaism' is a way of life. No, that's a mis-take. 'Real Judaism' would be a 'Way', 'out of life'. Of course it might function 'in life' – as is said about 'The Work'.

 

'In life' you are working with what you are, and what is. Hopefully with a clean and clear, intelligent relationship to it – at the level at which you have CHOICE.

 

 

The Work, as any Real Teaching, must have three active elements – a Philosophy, a Theory and a Practice. 

 

* Philosophy:

 

Not just another subjective philosophy as might be taught by someone in University. The philosophy of The Work makes an unmistakable claim – that this is the way things ARE, not some clever speculation. You are 'asleep', controlled by habits, in 'personality', imprisoned there, attaining nothing of lasting significance. A most specific 'Level of Being'. It IS possible to 'free yourself' – not be overwhelmed at that level. There's a great deal more to it.

 

* Theory: 

 

HOW you can free yourself. What Conscious Efforts are necessary. 

 

*  Practice: 

 

Must be functional in life – the Philosophy leads to the Theory, and the Theory to Practice. Practice VERIFIES, proves, the Truth of it all.

 

Isn't it amazing that you've never quite thought of it that Way?

 

 

Generally one is functioning from within their own very personal 'philosophy', actually, a multiplicity of 'personalities', giving an as if 'I'dentity – a sense of 'I'. One is generally 'active' (+) in personality – trying to make it ever more clever, as if 'efficient'. 

 

What one is ESSENTIALLY, becomes 'passive' (-). That's where you suffer most. Your Essence, which wishes to BE now – in love, in peace, in good conscience – is always 'taking a battering' from the aggressiveness of 'personality active'. 

 

Note, the 'Law of Three'. Every manifestation has three elements:

 

 

    NEUTRALIZING force

                       * 

 

 

        

 

         *                          *          

        ACTIVE        PASSIVE 

 

 

In your so called 'normal' life it is:

 

 

* Personality active (+)

 

* Essence passive (-)

 

* 'Life' the neutralizing force (N)

Politics, war, money, struggles, sex, marriage and family, friends – all collected in 'personalities' forming very, as if 'unique' individuals – all the 'before and after' that you slip into when 'Shabbat' ends. 

 

The Work aims at developing your Essence – what you ESSENTIALLY are! That requires a new neutralizing force (N), that expands from the Ideas of The Work – a WAY! Then Essence becomes active (+) and personality becomes passive (-). 

 

But you have to WORK it! 

 

There's a tremendous amount of habit to overcome that you picked up in the 'land of the so called living'. Now, will you 'stand up', and WORK. It's not 'a little bit of something' – not Alan, not the house – it's EVERYTHING. You've seen enough already to know exactly what we're talking about. 

 

Everything with a 'beginning has an end' – nothing permanent to it – it really doesn't 'exist'. Your Personality is definitely not permanent. Your Essence potentially is. It can survive the death of personality and the death of the body. Essence is the one thing really useful to develop in life – the only thing that will last. THERE is the MEANING of 'life' – if you 'work' the issue.  

 

How do you work the issue?                                                                          

 

You need a WAY! That definitely requires Knowledge. You don't have to re-invent the wheel. 

 

Let's be modest – let's get our sights straight. Is 'life' your Neutralizing force now – or is it The Work, for the development of BEING? Are you WORKING, the WAY?

 

'Walk the talk'. Put your energy where your mouth is! Don't look ahead too much – just watch your feet, like walking on a tightrope. 'Personal ambition' is deathly relative to where you want to end off – it 'gets in the way'. 

 

 

The more patient you are – the CLOSER you are to what you want. Patience AND Perseverance – that's the balance. 

 

Take yourself 'in hand'. If you don't – you'll just end off being another 'rolling stone'.