Emergence and freedom – what a beautiful picture!

February 25, 2012

This image is beautiful! I think it says it all when we are attempting to emerge with our own individuality from any mass mind. When we work for an institution we are obliged to merge our sense of self with that organisation. It is difficult to break free psychologically and spiritually so that one emerges like a butterfly to express what is within. I know all about this process because I left my job from a huge public service organisation where I merged my identity with its educational and training goals. Along the way I lost my sense of self. Now I feel I am emerging. Where am I in this process when I look at this wonderful picture? I think at the third stage. However, I could still be cemented in the first stage with my dreams of being free and this comment is one of many illusions I carry in my bag of ego, see the First Initiation post below.
This is the first time I have reblogged so I am not certain if the original blog address is shown. But here it is anyway : http://geerthofman.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/breaking-free/ .

Geert Hofman

 

Heya!

The first time I saw this picture on facebook: I was blown away. What an expression of liberating oneself from…., from what exactly? From some kind of casting mould it seems. The statue depicts a person who expresses a deeply felt connection with his higher purpose, He celebrates being an integral and indispensible part of the universe, ready to fully and unconditionally participate in the perpetual process of co-creation. Allowing himself to wonder, to enjoy life, to laugh, to love and to be free. Free and yet connected to everything else in the universe. An individual yet part of the collective wisdom and intuition of the universe. Free of the shackles of forced uniformity dictated by an obsolete worldview, free from being told what to do by everyone and all. Free from living a life which is not his. Free to accept responsibility for himself and the context in which he…

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The First Initiation – G.I.Gurdjieff

February 24, 2012

G I Gurdjieff

 

 

The First Initiation

G.I. Gurdjieff

The following is a translation of words recorded by G. I. Gurdjieff‘s pupils during a meeting in Paris on December 16, 1941.

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You will see that in life you receive exactly what you give.  Your life is the mirror of what you are.  It is in your image.  You are passive, blind, demanding.  You take all, you accept all, without feeling any obligation.  Your attitude toward the world and toward life is the attitude of one who has the right to make demands and to take; who has no need to pay or earn.  You believe that all things are your due, simply because it is you!  All your blindness is there!  None of this strikes your attention.  And yet this is what in you keeps one world separate from another world.

You have no measure with which to measure yourselves.  You live exclusively according to “I like” or “I don’t like”; you have no appreciation except for yourself.  You recognize nothing above you—theoretically, logically, perhaps, but actually no.  That is why you are demanding and continue to believe that everything is cheap and that you have enough in your pocket to buy everything you like.  You recognize nothing above you, either outside yourself or inside.  That is why, I repeat, you have no measure and live passively according to your likes and dislikes.

Yes, your “appreciation of yourself” blinds you!  It is the biggest obstacle to a new life.  You must be able to get over this obstacle, this threshold, before going further. This test divides men into two kinds:  the “wheat” and the “chaff.”  No matter how intelligent, how gifted, how brilliant a man may be, if he does not change his appreciation of himself, there will be no hope for an inner development, for a work toward self-knowledge, for a true becoming.  He will remain such as he is all his life.  The first requirement, the first condition, the first test for one who wishes to work on himself is to change his appreciation of himself.  He must not imagine, not simply believe or think, but see things in himself which he has never seen before, see them actually. His appreciation will never be able to change as long as he see nothing in himself.  And in order to see, he must learn to see:  this is the fi rst initiation of man into self-knowledge.

First of all he has to know what he must look at.  When he knows, he must make efforts, keep his attention, look constantly with persistence.  Only through maintaining his attention, and not forgetting to look, one day, perhaps, he will be able to see.  If he sees one time he can see a second time, and if that continues he will no longer be able not to see.  This is the state to be looked for, it is the aim of our observation; it is from there that the true wish will be born, the irresistible wish to become:  from cold we shall become warm, vibrant; we shall by[sic] touched by our reality.

Today we have nothing but the illusion of what we are.  We think too highly of ourselves.  We do not respect ourselves.  In order to respect myself, I have to recognize a part in myself which is above the other parts, and my attitude toward this part should bear witness to the respect that I have for it.  In this way I shall respect myself.  And my relations with others will be governed by the same respect.

You must understand that all the other measures—talent, education, culture, genius—are changing measures of detail.  The only exact measure, the only unchanging, objective real measure is the measure of inner vision.  I see—I see myself—by this, you have measured.  With one higher real part, you have measured another lower part, also real. And this measure, defining by itself the role of each part, will lead you to respect for yourself.

But you will see that it is not easy.  And it is not cheap.  You must pay dearly.  For bad payers, lazy people, parasites, no hope.  You must pay, pay a lot, and pay immediately, pay in advance.  Pay with yourself.  By sincere, conscientious efforts.  The more you are prepared to pay without economizing, without cheating, without any falsification, the more you will receive.  And from that time on you will become acquainted with  your nature. And you will see all the tricks, all the dishonesties that your nature resorts to in order to avoid paying hard cash.  Because you have to pay with your ready-made theories, with your rooted convictions, with your prejudices, your conventions, your “I like” and “I don’t like.”  Without bargaining, honestly, without pretending.  Trying “sincerely” to see as you offer your counterfeit money.

Try for a moment to accept the idea that you are not what you believe yourself to be, that you overestimate yourself, in fact that you lie to yourself.  That you always lie to yourself, every moment, all day, all your life.  That this lying rules you to such an extent that you cannot control it any more.  You are the prey of lying.  You lie, everywhere.  Your relations with others—lies.  The upbringing you give, the conventions—lies.  Your teaching—lies.  Your theories, your art—lies.  Your social life, your family life—lies.  And what you think of yourself—lies also.

But you never stop yourself in what you are doing or in what you are saying, because you believe in yourself.  You must stop inwardly and observe.  Observe without preconceptions, accepting for a time this idea of lying.  And if you observe in this way, paying with yourself, without self-pity, giving up all your supposed riches for a moment of reality, perhaps you will suddenly see something you have never before seen in yourself until this day.  You will see that you are different from what you think you are.  You will see that you are two.  One who is not, but takes the place and plays the role of the other.  And one who is, yet so weak, so insubstantial, that he no sooner appears than he immediately disappears.  He cannot endure lies.  The least lie makes him faint away.  He does not struggle, he does not resist, he is defeated in advance.  Learn to look until you have seen the difference between your two natures, until you have seen the lies, the deception in yourself.  When you have seen your two natures, that day, in yourself, the truth will be born.

 

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A Nano-Flash from reading “The Theory of Celestial Influence”

February 21, 2012

I wrote the stuff below after I read Rodney Collin’s book, “The Theory of Celestial Influence”. I was attempting to put in my own words a ” flash ” his book gave me. Rodney Collin began writing this book during P D Ouspensky’s last illness. He completed it soon after Ouspensky’s death. In fact, Collins believed that much of the book was transmitted to him by Ouspensky both before and after his death. Whether this is true or not doesn’t concern me.

“The Theory of Celestial Influence” is one of those books which have thrilled me with the vision of worlds within worlds with onion skinned layers of Eternity and Time. He sets out to reconcile the considerable contradictions of the rational and imaginative minds and of the ways we see the external world versus our inner selves. It is subtitled MAN, THE UNIVERSE, AND COSMIC MYSTERY. You feel that it is an on the spot documentary report of the way the world is. It is staggering in its reach and depth.

For readers familiar with Gurdjieff’s cosmology you will here find further examinations of the systems outlined in by Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous. If you get a chance read it.

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Let us attempt to visualize the metageometrical form of a four dimensional solid using as a model the planetary world.

From this view when looking into the sky we are actually observing cross sections of the sun and the moon. Planetary movement is no more than our perception of a succession of discrete points along the greater line of time. Yet in order for us to appreciate the magnitude of a four dimensional form we must take as our subject of investigation a sufficient number of points along the timeline of our solar system. But inasmuch as our own individual lives are quite trivial relative to the solar existence we cannot hope to formulate an interesting or even approximately accurate representation unless we view a much longer span of time than that occupied by the mere life of either a human or, for that matter, humanity.

Therefore, let us take as our “point in time” a one million year segment. In order to simplify our model let us first presume that the direction of the sun comprises a straight line. The four dimensional body or form of the sun over a million years would appear to an observer capable of perceiving such a thing as a large burning rod . Bound and tightly coiled about the rod spiral twelve much smaller concentric threads These are the planets. Upon closer examination we detect even smaller ridges spiraling the planetary threads. These are various moons and satellites. We could further complicate our model to include asteroids and comets as they traverse the sun, and as a matter of course we would have to significantly expand this now growing model if we were to place the sun in its proper place, because the sun itself spirals “through space” on its own predetermined path within the much larger galactic cosmos. Thus, instead of a straight rigid rod we would likely observe a curved, twisted, and spiraling rod. In fine, within this new model our time has become space. Imagining space thusly (i.e. in four dimensions) begs the question, “What of a man’s life?” Dissecting tightly wound threads from the central core and subsequently stripping away the outer threads (planets) we would eventually reach the third to the last thread, our earth. 

Living Solar System “Sperm” from book.

If we had a powerful enough viewing instrument we might discover various geologic ages. If our microscope were capable of finer resolution we might even be able to discern the age of man. As yet, an individual man, or even a single civilization would not be apparent. Perhaps certain age old relics would be observable such as the Sphinx or the Great Pyramids. And maybe the period between 1945 and 1965 would somehow be detected as the many above ground atomic explosions conducted by the U.S., U.S.S.R., and China were measured as strange bursts of nuclear energy.

Still, the life of any individual would not be missed. The wars, deaths, and all the suffering of humanity would be a minor thing indeed. And what we revere in our science, religion, and art would be nothing. In reality and if such a thing were possible it would be even less than nothing since we must remember that we are dealing with an almost instantaneous fragment of the life of the sun, i.e., a mere one million years.

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Starry, starry questions?

February 21, 2012

Does astrology really let me hear the echo of bells on Earth? Do stars really pull the heart strings of a doe and petals of a rose? Is my life only one long bale of circumstantial strings held by mind stuff that is on the same pallete as every other bale of humanity? Whose pallete, and, whose Farm do we belong? The bale of wheat that we are according to this image must be food for someone or something. Perhaps not food but material or ingredients. a part of a recipe Man eating gods? Why not? After all we have a major religion that practises on a regular basis god eating.

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River of Text

February 21, 2012

Well, this river of text is making me get homesick for a bit

of feeling. Not that it is wrong to float down a stream of

words. It’s only so, if you forget to paddle.

 

Sometimes, it is easy to get lost in the whirling drain hole of concepts

that go round and round and then gurgle down the drain of memory.

But if there is a kitchen sink drain then obviously it is not a river.

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Australian Mining Industry wants to take over our Media

February 4, 2012

It wasn’t enough that they convinced the Australian people that a tax on their super profits was a bad thing because it was far more important that Gina Rhinehart and the others get super rich rather than give the Australian people funds to help the disabled, funds to give Australians Dental Care along the lines of Medicare, funds for hospitals and schools …..no, their $20 million advertising war chest wasn’t enough. Well, it was enough to get rid of a Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd, and for his replacement to water down the original idea. The original Mining Tax would have given the Australian people enough extra money to fund much of the above.

I remember the image on TV, these billionaires chanting, sounding like, “Billionaires united, we’d never be defeated!!” with all these pathetic little people carrying pristine clean, fresh off the printing press placards supporting the billionaires. Unbelievable! Until you remember the same kind of images of Tea Partiers in the USA. The Tea Party, it would be OK if they used the word Tea to mean what it meant in the 1950’s, the street name for marijuana because it would be a joke. Alas, it doesn’t mean that and when they talk about the movement being a grass roots one, well, it has now been called an astroturf movement. The right wing in Australia has taken any lessons from the Tea Party and have imported them into the Australian context.

The truth has just come out via a video recording about what the Australian 1% really are planning. They want a Fox News kind of media that is a propaganda machine for the 1% super rich and right wing free market believers. In many ways they already have it in Australia with Murdoch owning over 70% of news outlets. However, this isn’t enough. They want to take over Fairfax which runs the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review. This means that the 1% (actually we are talking about mining magnates that are probably in the top 0.0000001%) will have ALL media outlets sympathetic to climate change denialists and billionaires who believe that corporations are people.

One of the most worrying aspects to all this is the following quote :

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini

This is happening in the USA, UK and now most of Europe. In Australia it is beginning to do so in a big way and if the conservative Liberal/National Coalition wins the next election it will be done. Corporatism / Corporatocracy / Fascism does not necessarily have to embrace racism, though it does most of the time. As long as there is access to cheap labour, the transnational corporations are happy. This is why Gina Rhinehart and her buddies are keen to have temporary visa holder workers in their mines.

Watch the video below and see why Rhinehart is buying Fairfax shares. Watch it and make a vow that you will do whatever you can, in a peaceful way to stop them. Labor are you listening?

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/mining/monckton/monckton-speaks-to-mining-industry-share-this-video

Gina Rhinhart at the Billionaires' Demo Against the Mining Super Profit Tax

Billionaires United Will Never Be Defeated!!! Mining Tax Rally in Perth, Western Australia

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Standing at the Gate – Haruki Murakami

February 3, 2012

I’m having issues with my writing. In particular with the novel I’ve been working on. Haruki Murakami’s quote below reminds me that I am always a beginner, in a Zen way when I write. The quote below also reminds me that whatever comes out of me, if it is a genuine expression of my deeper nature, will always have an unknown and magical quality.

“…in China today there are lots of wonderful gates still standing. Do you know how the Chinese built these gates? People would take carts out to old battlefields and gather the bleached bones that were buried there or lay scattered about. China’s a pretty ancient country– lots of old battlegrounds– so they never had to search far. At the entrance to the city they’d construct a huge gate and seal the bones up inside. They hoped that by commemorating the dead soldiers in this way they would continue to guard their town. There’s more. When the gate was finished they’d bring several dogs over to it, slit their throats, and sprinkle their blood on the gate. Only by mixing fresh blood with the dried-out bones would the ancient souls of the dead magically revive. At least that was the idea.     Writing novels is much the same. You gather up bones and make your gate, but no matter how wonderful the gate might be, that alone doesn’t make it a living, breathing novel. A story is not something of this world. A real story requires a kind of magical baptism to link the world on this side with the world on the *other* side.”

Haruki Murakami, from Sputnik Sweetheart

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Astromusings

February 3, 2012

Someone asked me the other day, “So, how do you use this astrology stuff?” Good question.

Firstly, I’m not that interested in personal horoscopes, you know, character identikits made from cook book recipes. Don’t get me wrong, I believe there’s a lot to it, it’s just not interesting for me.  Mind you, I have analysed, synthesized and delineated my own horoscope and my immediate family. I have also done it for friends and with the software available now, if you wanted, you could just read the automated printouts and you would find some meaningful statements. Does this mean that a software produced cook book reading of astrological data shows that there may be an objective meaning to astrology? No, not necessarily because of the predisposition of human psychology to find patterns of meaning almost anywhere so that software output can be read as if it is uniquely true for the reader. This is the phenomena called apophenia, a term coined by Klaus Conrad in 1958 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia) which is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random data.

After going through the narcissistic labyrinth that new students of Astrology go through (in ways akin to Freudian psychologists who have to be psychoanalysed before they call themselves psychoanalysts) you are left with the bare essentials. Why does “Mars” mean something different to “Venus”? What is this “something” that elicits the difference? Is this “something” made up in my mind with no connection to the “real” world? Obviously, the “something” that I deal with in astrology does not have to do with Mars rocks and Moon dust or Venusian heat, though in some contexts, it may very well do.

The meaning that arises from considering a horoscope is similar to that which arises from a mandala, or even a playful glance at Rorschach ink blots and clouds drifting by.  The meaning is not implicit in the horoscope or clouds that float by but rather in what is evoked in the reader / observer.

So, if this is the case, then why bother studying something that has no overt connection with the meaning extracted from it? Why don’t we just slaughter an animal and read its entrails, like some ancient people did? Well, it’d be messy and besides, it would not be a loving gesture to another sentient being. Well, why don’t we just read tea leaves, coffee grounds and cracked tortoise shells (the origin of I Ching hexagrams)? All of these carry something other than just the object observed. They carry a history, an accretion of observations and readings that assist the reader ascertain meaning. If someone drops a bucket of sheep entrails, with the liver in a dominant position, how would one know where to start reading it? There would be nothing to inform a beginning, a middle and an end. The history, or the tradition of readings that come with entrail reading would at least give the reader a start. The question then becomes, why would the history / tradition of readings carry any weight in meaning, at all? The tradition may well be full of misguided, random guesses systematised to give the illusion of structured meaning. This is what sceptics of Astrology, Tarot and the I Ching say in their own words. And, you know, I have no problem with this conclusion.

If I have no issues with the stance of a sceptic, then why do I still dowse for meaning in Astrology? If I was dependent on reading passing clouds in the sky for situational prognosis I would not have an on call “object” with which I could play for meaning because, each moment the cloud changes shape and may disappear within a short time. However, a structure, a blueprint that has its origins in Number and can be called on at any time has the possibility of a systematic reading. Astrology and the I Ching, even the Tarot have as their foundation Number. Notice how I use the capital letter “N” here for Number. Number to me is a living Being, it is not just a quantity, but a Quality. Number, for me has Pythagorean connections. Have a look at an earlier post called Time Body https://dodona777.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/time-body/, also check the post https://dodona777.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/is-consciousness-a-function-of-the-brain-or-vice-versa/

It is Number that speaks to me in its geometrical placement. All Astrology is geometry and the meanings that ensue from the horoscope are numerological.

I know this raises more questions and perhaps I will write some more on this later. I also know that I haven’t answered the original question of this post, “So, how do you use this astrology stuff?”. I will attempt a short answer. Astrology gives me the means to step outside my ordinary sense based mindset and to approach a world that is non – sense based. So, is it nonsense? Yes, but in a way different to the ordinary meaning of non sense 🙂

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Why do many Americans vote against their own interests?

February 3, 2012

I’ve often wondered why ordinary working class Americans often vote against their own interests, particularly when they vote for the Republicans. I have wondered the same thing about Australians when they vote in the misnamed Liberal Party (should be Conservative or Tory Party).

I came across a brilliant quote by John Steinbeck on this issue. He wrote:

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

In Australia, even conservatives, look in horror at the USA medicare system. The workers there are convinced that a Universal Health Care system, like Australia’s, is a great big socialist / communist plot. When the Tea Partiers rallied against the Obama medicare policy initiative, I couldn’t believe it! They even had placards stating that this Obama medicare policy was a conspiracy to kill old people!

Hopefully the OWS Movement will inject some much needed reality into the peoples’ consciousness.

The Great Awakening – Occupy Wall Street Movement

 

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