Zigzag Idiot

I agree. I see this in myself and others. Roots of what turns into belligerence, perhaps. Allow me to be so pompous as to theoretically give a solution to this problem in education that would involve distancing from left brain rationality to include the Chaotic right brain as well as whole body awareness. Starting with Carol Anthony's take on commonsense which she makes one word out of. Commonsense: is a consensus of all the senses. The commonsense comprises the five senses of inner perception and the metaphorical senses. In humans, the commonsense is the "inner judge," which discerns what is in harmony with the person's inner truth (and therefore also in harmony with the Cosmos) and what is not. It's judgement is based on the inner senses, and is in the form of feeling. Another function of the commonsense is that of being the Helper of Transformation (This applies only to humans). This function is referred to in the Hexagrams 15, Modesty, 16, Enthusiasm, 17, Following, and 21 Biting Through. As part of our animal nature, the commonsense gets blocked when a person's animal nature has been slandered as "lowly" or as "the source of evil". Why education needs to include instructing that we are '3 brained beings' - Zigzag Almaas: “For the process of understanding to happen, three elements need to be there at the same time. The element of disidentification is one of them, involvement is another. The third element is the quality of allowing. These elements can be there when there is harmony among the three centers—the belly center, the chest center, and the head center. When there is this harmony, it is possible to experience fully, to allow, and to disidentify. Now, what do I mean by these three elements? Each center contributes to the process of understanding. If the head center is functioning correctly, it means that space or emptiness is allowed. What is the significance of space and emptiness? Space and emptiness make possible the quality of allowing. When there is space in the mind, there is no self-image. You’re not trying to stick to something in particular. You’re not trying to go somewhere. The mind is allowing whatever is there to be there. So the head center’s participation or contribution is space, which is an allowing, a welcoming in a sense—space for things to happen without rejection, without trying to hold on. You become complete allowing. The heart center’s contribution has to do with its central quality, which is the personal essence. The contribution of the personal essence is the diving movement, the actual living of the experience. You not only allow it, you’re in the midst of it, you’re one with it. You’re really it, you let it happen, you feel it fully, you sense it fully, you experience it fully, right? That’s the contribution of the heart center. The belly center has its contribution, which is represented by the self, the essential self. The contribution of the essential self is the disidentification, the turning away. When you are truly functioning in the belly, you are completely present, and being completely present, you are being yourself. So you are not identified with the usual activity of trying to get somewhere else.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 73 Almaas: “Distinguishing Physical Sensation from Essential Substance The capacity to sense oneself must become so refined that the individual can discriminate between physical sensation and the sensation of essential substance. It is not enough that the mind be quiet. It is also necessary for the body to be sensitive. The mind can be quiet while the body is deadened. The body has to be awakened so that the center of sensing, the belly center, can be activated. The belly center, or what Gurdjieff called the physical center, is the center of sensing for all parts of the body. Its deepest function is the subtle sensing, the sensing of essential presence, that the Sufis call the organ for touch. Touch is, in a sense, the most intimate of the physical senses. The skin must be directly against an object to touch it. There is no intermediary medium, like sound for hearing or light for seeing. So this subtle capacity is a very intimate one. Accurately speaking, it is sensing essence by being essence. It is the most direct way of perception. This capacity of touch, connected with the belly center, is very intimately connected with the embodiment of essence. It is the body center; its mode of perception is embodiment. Here, perception as touch, and being, are the same act. So this capacity is the most important one.” Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 130 “Functioning of the Essential Self in the Belly Center Yes, usually the belly center has to do with embodiment, with the capacity to sense oneself. However, the belly center is also the will center. In a sense, the ultimate function of the will is to surrender to what happens, surrender to the now. And surrender to the now means not to hold on to something. The true function of the will is complete surrender to what’s happening without holding on. That is will. The essential self, like all essential aspects, can function in any of the subtle centers. When one is being the essential self its location is usually the heart center. However, when the essential self is functioning in relation to identifying or disidentifying from any content of experience, it becomes associated with the belly center. The essential self is more like a potential for experience, and it also manifests as a capacity for identification. One of the results of that capacity for identification is embodiment. Embodying something means you are identified with what’s happening. An essential state is present. You are embodying it if you are it. The true self has the capacity to identify with something you are experiencing, but it doesn’t have to. It has a choice; it has the freedom.” Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 79 I guess my notions about commonsense have turned into an argument for education and Culture itself as being too left brained and doesn't include much in the way of whole body awareness or including the heart in the process of perceiving and understanding. This might be relating back to your mention of the paradox of commonsense and introspection. I may have gone off on a tangent but this is my version of fun,,,, Given also that my blindspot is still mostly intact, there is probably some form of me not seeing the forest for the all the trees,,,,

I never knew Bill Murray was a reader of Gurdjieff.

@tsuki Interesting. I immediately have 2 or 3 half formed responses in my mind. Maybe they will form better while I run errands this morning.

Rereading this I appreciate your description even more. Except for labeling common sense as a belief. It almost seems like we're talking about 2 different things in regards to teir One commonsense. I was pointing to those who have a natural ability to improvise practical solutions, Like any good car mechanic. This isn't a judgemental thing with me. It's making a distinction about a part of everyone's nature. Or more accurately, an ability tied to a behavioral quality or perceptual filter. What I'm reffering to is a quality that seems to disappear disproportionately among those who have an extensive higher education. I agree with your description so much I hesitate to send this. It's just I can't fit what I was reffering to as common sense into what could be called a belief or unexamined belief. im going to keep pondering about it.

If you really want to know what the Bible says read, GOD IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU. Understandably, Adam and Eve were consumed with curiosity about this tree. It was just one of thousands of trees in the garden, but now they found it impossible to resist eating its magical fruit… and having a talking snake constantly goading them into it didn’t help any. So Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree and were immediately endowed with the knowledge of good and evil, which mostly made them uptight about nudity. When God found out about the missing fruit, he went apeshit. He yelled at them, evicted Adam and Eve from the garden and, as extra punishment, he ordered them to become parents. This move backfired, however, because Adam and Eve simply filled the world with children who murdered each other, worshiped idols and had sex with giants, all of which really pulled God’s beard. God was so angry that he killed off the entire human race with a giant flood. Well, not the whole human race. He gave one guy named Noah a heads up. Before the flood, Noah built an enormous boat and filled it with every species of animal he could find, which made Noah not only the world’s first sailor, he was its first animal hoarder as well. As soon as he finished packing the boat, the flood began. After forty days and nights of rain and a meat-heavy diet, the water subsided and Noah found land. When God saw the millions of dead bodies littering the ground, he wondered if maybe he’d overreacted.

@tsuki Great addition! Your view of tier two common sense meshes with The Oracle of the Cosmic Way in which common sense is seen as practicality brought about by including feeling Consciousness with thinking Consciousness in a balanced way to produce beneficial exact answers or solutions to problems on the relative plane.

Great content in this talk! Very practical. Describes a very common trap on the path of chasing spiritual highs. For me it has manifested as trying to force the pendulum always to the high side instead of just letting things be. One can become exhausted Zigzaging between higher highs and lower lows. ?

@AstralProjection 20 years ago as a two pack a day smoker, I was unable to meditate with eyes closed because of vertigo. But having quit smoking I can now meditate with eyes closed. I appreciate the value of your method. It's very close to what's called the practice of the sightless gaze. Sightless Gaze - one attends to ones total visual field as one diffuse, panoramic field of light, taking in everything without identifying or labelling the impressions as things or actions, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. Incorporating the sightless gaze after straightening my posture works well for me sometimes in initiating a drop into witness consciousness. Placing a good percentage of the overall attention on the peripheral vision is good for allowing awareness to be about context of experience more than content of experience. Awareness of content is more prone to discursive awareness or monkey mind than context awareness which is more aligned with 'being'. I wear glasses as well and have noticed that leaving my glasses off when they are not necessary has the effect of quieting the mind to some degree. With the slightly blurred vision, it's easier to just be with context awareness. I would wager you're experiencing some good tastes of Witness Consciousness with your practice.

There's synchronicity in being!

Meaning comes from being. Self Realization is Being. As@Markus said, "The path is the way." Self-Realization Brings the Sense of Meaning The sense of confidence, certainty, meaning, preciousness, and value implicit in the presence of a state of realization is not necessarily recognized. You just don’t question; you just live life as if it is precious and has meaning. There isn’t necessarily a particular meaning you can articulate. That’s not the point. The sense of meaning is there because there is self-realization. You are there. Your very reality is present and you are it. The very reality of you, or whatever dimension of reality you are realized on at that time, is the significance, the meaning, the preciousness, and it gives everything about you and your world significance, meaning, and value. When this sense of self-realization is absent you usually experience meaninglessness and emptiness in yourself and in your life. Nothing matters, nothing is important. You don’t count. You don’t know what you want to do, nothing that you want to do is important. You don’t have any sense of what’s right or what’s not right; there is no innate sense of orientation, of direction, or of what is valuable to do. The state of self-realization is better known by its absence than by its presence. When it is absent, you feel that you don’t know who you are, you don’t seem to exist. You feel that there is nothing to you: you don’t matter, you aren’t important. You feel insignificant, your life feels insignificant, you don’t even know what you want to do. You wonder why you should even live. A person can become suicidal at this point. Why live? You feel that there is no point in living. In the absence of self-realization you feel a sense of hopelessness about yourself, your life and all of existence. Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 103 The Meaning of Life is You When you know yourself, when you realize your true identity, the meaning of life does not come to you in the form of a conceptual answer to a question. It is not an answer in your mind. It is you. The Presence, fullness, and intrinsic preciousness is directly experienced; it is not in reference to anything else. It is complete autonomy; only the experience itself can give a taste of this satisfaction. This experience of self-realization is the answer, in the sense that it ends the drive. It is true absence of seeking. Diamond Heart Book Three, pg. 45

We apparently keep throwing away our common sense as we go up the Spiral. I just pictured it in the Shower.. Categorizing this as an imaginative conjecture in case it falls apart. This has obvious forms in the orange-green conflicts. Can orange learn SD well enough to see there is a return of common sense with yellow? This could be a huge mover in politics if there were a catalyst for producing this realization more readily in solid orange people. Probably would have little effect Politically with blue. The conservative blue will think that one who has just transitioned into orange with 10x the vigor towards entrepreneurial pursuits and leveraged financing Etc., will have lost their common sense. I'm thinking those in red will have an attitude towards blue as being 'suckers' or something kind of similar. I think there is very little actual thinking/pondering that takes place with red. It's mostly stimulus responses to everything. Negative and mechanical, self oriented thinking and feeling. So guess what yellow does from a certain perspective? ? Perhaps I can use this in my attempt to expand the Science of Idiotism. Leo mentioned in one of his last videos that we shouldn't get to attached to our pet ideas. I took this to heart. If insights and inspiration about the Science of Idiotism dries up, I'll let go of it. Anyone, feel free to pitch in with additions, corrections or comments if the Spirit moves you.

Spirituality and Psychoanalysis documents an all-day conference exploring the meeting ground between these two disciplines. A. H. Almaas was a featured guest who shared the podium with Zen Priest Dianne Musho Hamilton and Peter Carnochan, Charles Dithrich, and Karen Peoples of the psychoanalytic community. In his presentation that opens the day, Almaas has the opportunity to articulate the way he sees the Diamond Approach to spirituality drawing on the understandings of psychoanalysis, as well as going beyond them. Later, there is discussion between members of the panel and then questions from audience members to the panel. This is an unusual and fascinating context to experience Almaas in dialog with psychoanalytic practitioners—something he has been interested in since he wrote The Pearl Beyond Price and The Point of Existence. (Run time: 3 hours, 40 minutes) https://shop.diamondapproach.org/collections/video/products/spirituality-and-psychoanalysis-dvd This 2 DVD set is just $10.00. I've had this for 6 or 7 years and have watched it several times. I actually enjoyed what Psychotherapist Charles Dithrich had to say more than Almaas. Diane Musho Hamilton was representing Ken Wilber's Integral Community. It's quite a varied group. There is some problem with the sound a little bit during the question and answer period but this set is a good buy at $10.00. Congradulations on busting 1000 in Chess!

Recognizing Presence When we discern the inner field that is the soul or individual consciousness, we experience it as presence, independent from and more fundamental than all the content of consciousness and all characteristics of subjective experience. When we recognize pure consciousness, then, what we become aware of is the process of consciousness, its existence, its truth. The presence—the “hereness,” the “beingness” of consciousness—is not something extra to consciousness; neither is consciousness an extra property of this presence. This is one of the primary discoveries in the inner journey: Presence is always consciousness, and pure consciousness is always presence. This is similar to how photons are always light, and light is always photons. It is not that photons have the extra property we call light, or light possesses an extra property we call photons. Light and photons are two names of the same thing, emphasizing two different ways of viewing the same reality. When we apprehend consciousness in itself, independently of the function of consciousness of objects, we experience presence. The term field of consciousness is an attempt to describe the presence of the soul. Furthermore, as we recognize that consciousness is fundamentally presence, the knowledge of our depth begins to open up. Recognizing presence teaches us a great deal about consciousness, soul, and essence of soul. In this recognition, we can know ourselves in our fundamental mode of existence. We begin to see, perhaps for the first time, that what we are is more fundamental than all the content of our experience. We are more fundamental than our sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, images, symbols, ideas, concepts, and so on. We awaken to our essential nature, which is more fundamental and more basic than our body, heart, and mind. We experience the fabric that is necessary for the existence of all that we have taken to be ourselves. We begin to recognize our real self, our soul. More precisely, by recognizing presence, we become aware of the fundamental ground of our soul; we discover the inner fabric that holds all of our experience; we are enlightened to what we are beyond time and space. -excerpt from The Inner Journey Home, Chapter 3 by A. H. Almaas

I had to laugh in recognition when Dispicable Me came out and I watched the kind of relationship Gru had with his mother. This dynamic can definitely take on many forms. Being turned into a situation of humor actually helped me to approach this thing with fresh insight which is a cause of very real emotional pain for many.

It's mostly in hindsight that one can see where imagination has ran wild.

I've encountered this also in myself also. In the Diamond Approach, Almaas contends that this can actually be a middle stage in Inquiry that's churning up Narcissistic Issues in one's shadow that need to be healed. A helpful ingredient in this healing is empathic mirroring. The Student's Need for Empathic Support Around Narcissistic Hurt The unique quality of narcissistic hurt is that when it is allowed—that is, not resisted—the rip in the shell will spread, and the hurt becomes deeper and more extensive, until the whole shell dissolves, which brings about the loss of the sense of identity. The student doesn’t just feel pain; she feels that if she experiences this hurt more deeply, she will disappear. This threat of destruction is what makes it so hard to tolerate, especially when it is first encountered. Because this narcissistic hurt is a very difficult and sensitive place for most people, at this juncture the student needs great empathy from the teacher. This is when the student most needs the “emerald mountain,” the aspect of Loving Kindness in the dimension of the Diamond Will. She needs then the greatest empathic support, the greatest empathy, the greatest attunement, and the greatest sensitivity from the teacher. The slightest thing could close down the student’s experience of this wound, or could bring in a reaction that closes it. The slightest lack of understanding, lack of attunement, or lack of consideration, and she will close down with some kind of reaction. This is the main reason for the necessity of empathy, and not the reestablishment of the mirror transference, as Kohut believes. Empathic mirroring touches the student with the Loving Kindness of the teacher, which will help her to tolerate her own hurt and not close it down. The Point of Existence, pg. 314

You wouldn't believe some of the things you can find in the urtext. The urtext is absolutely everything Jesus communicated through the channel Helen Schumann. This included channeling sessions required for correcting for misinterpretations from earlier channeling sessions. The official Course in Miracles Book has a lot left out. Most of which for a good purpose like eliminating redundancies. I've stated earlier in the Joural my study of ACIM. I've not read much in it in the last couple of months. Looking for a relevant quote for the topic I started in the forum - What is Love? I found this section which I cant remember ever reading. I hauled more out than I intended so I thought I would park it here for a good example of the 'urtext'. This is Jesus mansplaining things to Helen and Bill about the ego in which he makes a reference to Freud's interpretation of one thing in particular. Elsewhere in the text in the past, I've read where Jesus mentions a couple of things related to Carl Jung. These things I hold as true but still really in the "as if" category, if that makes any sense. Love without Conflict (December 27, 1965) When Helen reads this to you, Bill, try to listen very carefully. You have never understood what "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" means. The reason you cannot understand it is because it is NOT understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, which does not mean anything. The word "within" does not belong. The Kingdom of Heaven IS you. What else BUT you did the Creator create, and what else but you IS His Kingdom? This is the whole message of the Atonement, a message which in its totality transcends the sum of its parts which we have covered before. Christmas is not a time; it is a state of mind. The Christ Mind wills from the Soul, not from the Ego, and the Christ Mind IS yours. You, too, have a Kingdom which your Soul has created. It has not ceased to create because your ego has set you on the road of perception. Your Soul's creations are no more fatherless than you are. Your ego and your Soul will never be co-creators, but your Soul and YOUR Creator will ALWAYS be. Be confident that your creations are as safe as you are. The Kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected, and the ego will not prevail against it. Amen. That was written in that form because it is a good thing to use as a kind of prayer in moments of temptation. It is a declaration of independence. You will both find it very helpful if you understand it fully. In its characteristic upside-down way, the ego has taken the impulses from the superconscious and perceives them as if they arise in the unconscious. The ego judges what is to be accepted, and the impulses from the superconscious are unacceptable to it, because they clearly point to the non-existence of the ego itself. The ego therefore experiences threat, and not only censors but also reinterprets the data. However, as Freud very correctly pointed out what you do not perceive you still know, and it can retain a very active life BEYOND your awareness.,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,You who identify with your egos cannot believe that God loves you. YOU do not love what you have made, and what you have made does not love you. Being made out of the denial of the Father, the ego has no allegiance to its own Maker. You cannot conceive of the real relationship that exists between God and His Souls, because of the hatred you have for the Self you have made. You project onto your own idea of yourself the will to separate, which conflicts with the love you also feel for what you have made because you made it. No human love is without this ambivalence, and since no ego has experienced love WITHOUT ambivalence, the concept is beyond its understanding. Love will enter immediately into any mind which truly wants it, but it MUST want it truly. This means that it wants it WITHOUT ambivalence, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego's "drive to get." There is a kind of experience that is so different from anything the ego can offer that you will never recover. The word is used quite literally here, - you will never be able to hide again. It is necessary to repeat that your belief in darkness and in hiding IS why the light cannot enter. The Bible has many references to the immeasurable gifts which are for you, but for which YOU must ask. This is not the condition as the ego sets conditions. It is the glorious condition of what you ARE. No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. In this you are as free as God, and must remain so forever. The above is just a small portion from this page. Link to urtext webpage http://a.courseinmiracles.com/urtext/chapter-4/section_4.php#gsc.tab=0

Sensing the physical sensations in the feet can help. The kind of fear you mention happens when we're completely stuck in our head with all the thoughts racing. Focusing on sensations in the body can help one to get grounded through the physicality of the body. Breathing deeply into the belly is also good.

I remember the day John Lennon was murdered. Standing in front of the tv, inside me was a mixture of sadness and fury, although I was just 13 years old. Elton John wrote a song about the loss of John Lennon.

A Nagual or Shaman's way of describing non-dual Love or Unconditional Love - a state of consciousness called the place of no pity. Half a dozen short excerpts grouped together from Castaneda's THE POWER OF SILENCE: The place of no pity is the site of ruthlessness. Let's say that ruthlessness, being a specific position of the assemblage point, is shown in the eyes of sorcerers. It's like a shimmering film over the eyes. The eyes of sorcerers are brilliant. The greater the shine, the more ruthless the sorcerer is. The nature of ruthlessness is that it is the opposite of self-pity. All sorcerers are ruthless. The origin of the anxiety that overtakes an apprentice with the speed of wildfire is the sudden movement of his assemblage point. Get used to the idea of recurrent attacks of anxiety, because your assemblage point is going to keep moving. Any movement of the assemblage point is like dying. Everything in us gets disconnected, then reconnected again to a source of much greater power. That amplification of energy is felt as a killing anxiety. When this happens, just wait. The outburst of energy will pass. What's dangerous in not knowing what is happening to you. Once you know, there is no real danger. The position of self-reflection forces the assemblage point to assemble a world of sham compassion, but of very real cruelty and self-centeredness. In that world the only real feelings are those convenient for the one who feelings them. For a sorcerer, ruthlessness is not cruelty. Ruthlessness is the opposite of self-pity or self-importance. Ruthlessness is sobriety. The nagual entices the assemblage point into moving by helping to destroy the mirror of self-reflection. But that is all the nagual can do. The actual mover is the spirit, the abstract; something that cannot be seen or felt; something that does not seem to exist, and yet does. For this reason, sorcerers report that the assemblage point moves all by itself. note: assemblage point = one's temporary perspective.

Now I declare the capacity for expressing Individuality which is not a separate self but rather understanding. Our individuality is our understanding. This kind of understanding is like Cosmic soup mix. How can I declare my multiplicity and simultaneously declare expression of Individuality? In the Reason that we're two natured beings having both a 'planetary' physical body and an Astral body, some call an energy body. My animal is a combination of my Automaton and my ego. Where multiplicity comes from. Understanding becomes more available to relate the clearer the connection is with Astral body. Negativity causes the biggest distortion in having better contact with the Astral body. I'm a better tuner/receiver of vibrations as more and more shadow gets processed and more integration occurs. Habitual and conditioned, mechanical or 'autopilot' negativity takes time to transform and this is in everyone.

Pains can be taken to write of one's experience without using the word "I". It's also understood that whenever I use the word I, technically I'm a liar because there is no individual I, but rather a multitude. But on the other hand, communicating is the main point and so I will continue to use the word I just as many times as what feels natural. Putting this in print, in the Journal will allow me to freely express and not neuroticly 'inner consider' the next time I load a Journal post up with many uses of "I". So, I declare myself to be slightly more of a liar than a hypocrite, and carry on.

Nonduality is multiple choice. ????????‍♂️??? Become a Universal Heretic.

Duality is confined to just two options. Yes/no good/bad black/white -mechanical part of the Human centers/auto pilot Duality + 1(third force/self conscious awareness-Will-attuned to strange strange attractor/Holy Spirit) = Being/nonduality Love is nondual Beingness is nondual -- multiple choice living in the present Awakened Human Being ?

THE FEELING OF NOTHINGNESS “When the Work says that a man must come to realize his own nothingness before he can be re-born, it does not mean that he must humble himself and so on, but that he must by long self-observation actually begin to realize that he is nothing and that there is no such person as himself. The object of this is to get into a position, psycho- logically speaking, between the opposites...Why is it so important to get somewhere into the centre of the pendulum and not swing to and fro? Because here, between the opposites, lie all the possibilities of growth. Here influences from higher levels can reach us. Here, in this place where one can feel one’s own nothingness (and where one is therefore free from contradictions), influences and meanings com- ing from higher centres, which have no contradictions, can be felt. Not regarding yourself as good or bad, not priding yourself on being just or otherwise, not thinking you are well-treated or badly-treated, not being caught by either movement through identifying, you come into this mid-position. This is not easy! With personality active, it is impossible. - Maurice Nicoll