Zigzag Idiot

Ok, I made a couple of wrong assumptions. I understand better, thanks.

I like Adyashanti on YouTube. Haven't read any of his books yet. Two very readable 'spiritual classics', Robert deRopp's THE MASTER GAME https://www.amazon.com/Master-Game-Pathways-Consciousness-Classics/dp/0895561506 Chogum Trungpa's Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Through-Spiritual-Materialism-Chogyam/dp/1570629579/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545284975&sr=1-5&keywords=chogyam+trungpa

Coleman Barks reads 12th century Persian mystical poet Rumi "Where did I come from?" "What am I supposed to be doing?" "What is the soul?" "If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks."

Good and very relevant question! A. H. Almaas's Diamond Approach was born partly out of his very intense early Gurdjieff group work. He describes 'basic trust' as a crucial element in one's realization of Being. From his online Glossary I picked out one of his book excerpts on basic trust and pasted below. The Innate Sense that Life is Fundamentally Benevolent The presence of basic trust indicates that you have the innate sense that life is fundamentally benevolent, and that benevolence exists independent of you and your actions. You will have this sense to the extent that your grounding in the universe has not been disturbed. The relative presence or absence of basic trust is a belly quality, something one’s whole being is either grounded in or not. The disturbance of basic trust is a significant factor in ego development because the perspective of ego is diametrically opposed to the sense of basic trust. The ego’s perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, on paranoia, on fear, on the conviction that you're not going to be adequately taken care of and that the universe is not there to hold and take care of you in the ways that you need. This conviction causes you to believe that you have to engage in all kinds of manipulations and games to get your needs met and to make things work out. Facets of Unity, pg. 25 From Almaas's Glossary page of his book excerpts about Basic Trust https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/basic-trust

I like this song. Reminds me to let go and see through the eyes of my inner child.

I've received some good help through a self study of the Diamond Approach in regards to shame. The book excerpt I share below may seem harsh but shame which comes mostly from super-ego attacks is dealt with head on. Dealing with shame as one of the first things in work on self frees up a lot of energy that can then be applied to further horizontal and vertical growth. Working with Shame Let's suppose a man feels ashamed every time he feels tenderness toward another person. The superego attacks him with shame and belittling, according to the judgment that tenderness in a man means he is weak and feminine. To begin work on his superego, first the man needs to be aware of the attack, its content, and the content of the judgment. Then he needs to understand the judgment psychodynamically. For instance, he might remember that his father had the attitude that men should be tough, that tenderness belongs to girls and women. Here he understands that he introjected his father's attitude and made it part of his superego. He usually responds to this attitude, which is an attack on himself, with shame and repression. Now, in applying this method, he envisions his father and tells him, in his mind: "Daddy, go to hell! Who cares what you think of me?" Here he is dealing with his superego in a way he could not have dealt with his father in his childhood. He was not able to defend against his father because he believed him, was scared of him, and needed him. This method might not work the first time, but if it is done repeatedly, it will bring out the man's aggression, and he will be able to assert himself and separate from his father's attitude. The defense needs to be intelligent to be effective. For instance, if the man responds with: "Father, it's not true I am feminine and weak. Tenderness is good and does not mean weakness or femininity," then he is being reasonable with a superego that is not really rational. Also, he probably has tried this response many times but without success because in this response the man is on the defensive; he is trying to justify his feeling and to account to somebody else for its being okay. Any justification already implies some guilt, and so it won't work. The response of "Daddy, go to hell" is effective because there is no attempt at explanation or justification and thus no implication of unconscious guilt. The man just throws back the attack and refuses to listen to its content. He completely disengages from the superego and does not give it any power over him. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 138 More excerpts about shame from A H Almaas Glossary https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/shame Getting more to the heart of it, excerpts about superego https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/superego I just recently discovered Leo's good work. I'm betting he's got a video related to this (super ego attacks) that I don't know about,,,,,

Me too. I'm a counterphobic type 6. These folks have described the enneatypes with each level of Spiral Dynamics. Type Six: The Questioner/The Trusting Self. In the Yellow level of consciousness, Type Six, the Questioner, is able to trust himself for the first time. The Trusting Self transforms rigidity and inconsistency into solidity as faith is embodied. From an understanding of the need for adaptive, flexible systems, the Trusting Self can operate under external authority when needed, or can serve as the authority. “Authority can be authorities because I’m the authority too, and I trust myself” (Ooten, Unpublished; Ooten, 2010). From: http://www.consciousdynamicsllc.com/home/levels_of_consciousness.html Connected with one's dominant endocrine gland and the enneagram are essence (body) types. I'm a Solar Saturn-Mars. http://destinyclemens.com/Destinyclemens/Body_Types.html

I approach actualization as a 3 centered being. The 'Hara' is a part of my Instinctual Center. The feeling center is concentrated in the heart area and the front side of the physical body. The Intellectual center is in the head brain of my Automaton. When my 3 centers are out of balance, I'm spiritually asleep, disconnected from Being. A common condition is when I just have 1 or 2 centers online. Usually for me it has meant being stuck in my head. Neurotic,,, non-stop internal dialogue. No inner quiet. Disconnected from the groundedness in my Instinctive (Belly) Center. Making my Automaton do Centering Prayer twice a day is key for me to stay balanced. Typologies I heard Ken Wilbur describe himself once as an cerebrotonic ectomorph so I went and investigated and determined that I was a somatotonic mesomorph. Of the endocrine typology, I'm an adrenal (mars) type. Or rather my body is that type. Im not my body though. I have a body. I refer to it sometimes as my Automaton. I have to take care of my Automaton. My Automaton has a Virgo filter software program running in it. I'm not my software though. I'm not my hardware and I'm not my software. Being is who/what I am. My being is partly comprised of my understanding.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might appeal to those in Orange. Maybe??? I think Power of Now is a much richer book, though.

"Conscience is the inner memory for those actions necessary to bring any given situation back in tune with Unity. Although this definition of Conscience is correct, it stays incomplete, because Conscience cannot be reasoned but must come into Being." From Higher Being Bodies, Ocke de Boer

Just to be the 'Devil's Advocate',,,, I keep thinking about the 2 Buddhists monks at the river crossing. The monk who did not touch or carry the woman across the river couldn't get her out of his mind the rest of the day. All these Catholic Priests getting twisted the way they do,,,,? Doesn't sexual repression divide one against themselves?

In the meantime, I can relate to having non-stop internal dialogue or as some call it, being 'stuck in the head'. A quick and simple exercise for this is -sensing the feet- By focusing attention on the physical sensation on the feet, with all of the nerve endings there, spaces of inner quiet can be brought about by this grounding into the body. Helps break the worry cycle,,, Puts us more into Being and less in narrative consciousness. Hope this helps.

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault of the Christian Contemplative tradition promotes two practices that work good for me. Centering Prayer - Has nothing to do with petitionary prayer. It's a 20 minute meditation. Recommended twice a day. Also, Welcoming Practice. This one is good to use on/for fear.

Typologies I heard Ken Wilbur describe himself once as an cerebrotonic ectomorph so I went and investigated and determined that I was a somatotonic mesomorph. Of the endocrine typology, I'm an adrenal (mars) type. Or rather my body is that type. Im not my body though. I have a body. I refer to it sometimes as my Automaton. I have to take care of my Automaton. My Automaton has a Virgo filter software program running in it. I'm not my software though. I'm not my hardware and I'm not my software. Being is who I am. My being is partly comprised of my understanding.

I experienced a lot of Kundalini phenomena 2001-2008. Experienced also what Jana Dixon in The Biology Of Kundalini called a die off and an exhaustion phase and for me connected with it were some 'Dark Night' experiences. Its good to have a heads up when it's a possibility,,,,, I found her book back then before she put up a website and it helped me understand some of the things that were going on. http://www.biologyofkundalini.com/index.html

I like the style of Inquiry in AH Almaas's Diamond Approach. Sitting with whatever comes up. If it becomes too painful and you drop it, that's ok. Just drop it and not bang your head against the wall. Just let it go. Later, I can return and sit with my shadow material as spontaneous as I dropped it. Over time, developing more of the capacity to sit with the feeling of deficient emptiness. What's it about? Become curious about my shame for instance, if possible. Not reaching conclusions about anything. No self criticism. Just sitting in the middle of all my messed-up-ness and giving it a good look all over,,,, whatever shows up In time, whatever we are 'sitting with' begins to transform.

I've been going by the formula that my understanding comes from combining 'work on knowledge' and 'work on being'. i have to acquire knowledge and then try to apply it to my being. My understanding is my Individuality.

My being attracts my life. Maurice Nicoll said it and I continue to observe it. He also said: The essence of the idea of Karma-Yoga is to meet with unpleasant things equally with pleasant things. That is, in practicing Karma-Yoga, one does not seek always to avoid unpleasant things, as people ordinarily do. Life is to be met with non-identifying. When this is possible, life becomes one's teacher; in no other sense can life become a teacher, for life taken as itself is meaningless, but taken as an exercise it becomes a teacher. It is not life that is a teacher, but one's relation through non-identifying makes it become a teacher. Nothing can change being so much as this practice - namely, to take the unpleasant things in life as an exercise. (Maurice Nicoll, Commentaries, Vol. 1) This is worth watching just for the guy answering his phone @ 1:42 while working on a Statue.

I agree very much. Passion is being identified with something so much we forget ourselves. Anger, lust, blind ambition,,,,,

From a Gurdjieffian perspective. For whatever it's worth,,,, In Talks on Beelzebub's Tales, J. G. Bennett distinguishes four types of suffering - Unnecessary Suffering, Unavoidable Suffering, Voluntary Suffering and Intentional Suffering: The first is Unnecessary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we incur because of our unreasonable attitudes and expectations towards others, from our ill-will, hatred and rejection of others, from doubt, possessiveness, arrogance and self pity. In other words, suffering arising from our self-importance. The second is Unavoidable Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that comes to us by accident or from events beyond our control, such as interpersonal conflicts, war, disaster, disease or death. Third, we have Voluntary Suffering. This would be the type of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish a personal aim, such as an athlete who disciplines himself to win a race, or a student who labours to get good grades. And finally we have Intentional Suffering. According to Bennett, this would be the kind of suffering that we take upon ourselves in order to accomplish an impersonal or altruistic goal, one that is directed more towards service to others or to the Work, and not for any personal gain. Bennett assumes that this is what Gurdjieff meant by Intentional Suffering.

In the spirit of Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson and "feeding hot peppers" I like the symbolism @ 2:30 with the Flag over the Bible and the Bombers dropping ordinance.

I approach actualization as a 3 centered being. The 'Hara' is a part of my Instinctual Center. The feeling center is concentrated in the heart area and the front side of the physical body. The Intellectual center is in the head brain of my Automaton. When my 3 centers are out of balance, I'm spiritually asleep, disconnected from Being. A common condition is when I just have 1 or 2 centers online. Usually for me it has meant being stuck in my head. Neurotic,,, non-stop internal dialogue. No inner quiet. Disconnected from the groundedness in my Instinctive (Belly) Center. Making my Automaton do Centering Prayer twice a day is key for me to stay balanced. Cynthia Bourgeault gives the best instruction for Centering Prayer, IMO.

http://www.ichingoracle.com/ This is their Website. There is quite a difference between this and the original I CHING. Everyone needs to decide for themselves about the value of what Carol and Hanna have done in their reworking of the IChing. Hope this helps,,,, I got the book from Amazon a couple years ago. Doing a google search just now l noticed that there are free PDF downloads available.

I welcome comments and easy-to-answer questions. This is a simple overview of where the Idiots are stationed on ladder of Being and some connections with my inner world development. By the way, no one is being mean spirited here. I've seen where a lot of time, people who are solid in the green worldview will get offended over this stuff. This can be brutal on one's self importance, though. But this is what makes it effective work on self. One can only work on oneself. I can work WITH other people but I can only work ON myself. And so this is an articulation of part of my actualization process. I return to Ordinary Idiot frequently and as needed to rest in 'beginners mind'. We all the same here,,,, no one is better. 1 - The Ordinary idiot - Ordinary Idiot is always with me in my Belly Center (hara). 2 - The Super idiot 3 - The Arch idiot - I spent 10 years looking at the World as a Scientologist which helped me fulfill some requirements and resolve disparities connected with this Station. 4 - The Hopeless idiot - There are 2 kinds of Hopeless Idiot. Will eloborate later. 5 - The Compassionate idiot This is a sticking point for a lot of Green as well as those who have a 'spiritual ego'. I've paid my dues. I was a Compassionate Idiot for a long time. 6 - The Squirming idiot 7 -The Square idiot 8 -The Round idiot - When I spent time as Round Idiot, I saw and understood how my negativity was hooked into and propelled my reactive self. 9 -The Zigzag idiot - Experiences of self reflective and narrative consciousness dominate up to here. This is where the path of Knowledge ends and the path of Being begins. 10 - The Enlightened idiot - Experiences Witness Consciousness 11 - The Doubting idiot 12 - The Swaggering idiot. People are often bothered at first that Swaggering Idiot is so high on the ladder of Being. I was. But that's the way it is. Swaggering Idiot sees the interconnectedness of things,,,,, Many call it good here and go no further. 13 - The Born idiot 14 -The Patented idiot - aka Authentic Idiot 15 -The Genial idiot 16 -The Polyhedral idiot 17 - The Master idiot 18 - The Perfect idiot - aka The Realized Idiot This is as far as human beings can go. 19 - The Holy idiot 20 - The Cosmic idiot 21 - The Unique idiot God is Unique Idiot