Zigzag Idiot

My interpretation of the material from the Ridhwan School is that the gift of full integration finds one able to fully be at home with oneself and ones understanding. Egoic identifications and attachments are let go of and metabolised with one's natural essential aspects,,, Probably excessive pasting of quotes and tmi ,,,, please excuse me Being a Human Being and Still Being the Absolute The development of consciousness has to do with living in this life from the perspective of the Absolute. The Personal Essence, the Pearl Beyond Price, has to do with being a human being and still being the Absolute. If you’re just the Absolute, you are not a human being. But you live in this world, you have a physical body and a mind, you have work and relationships. You need the Personal Essence in order to be able to live personally as a human being and still be the Absolute. So the development of the personal aspect has to do with integrating all of these things that are important for our life into the various levels of consciousness, and then into the Absolute. This is an actual process that has to do with the metabolism of the Absolute into the Personal Essence. Although it is rarely mentioned in spiritual literature, the integration of the person into the Absolute is vital because we live in the world and not in a monastery or cave. Integrating the person into the Absolute is more difficult than experiencing the Absolute. Integration requires that you deal with and metabolize your unconscious and your personal history. You have to really let all of the unconscious come out, to face all of your specific issues and areas of conflict and ignorance. Many traditions don’t care about integration but strive only to reach the Absolute. They don’t care about the personal life. The point for them is to know the Absolute and leave. In other traditions, and in our work, the point is to know the Absolute and live in the world as an expression of it. So how can you live a human life from the perspective of absence? That is the realm of development, change, and transformation within consciousness. Diamond Heart Book Five, pg. 145 is Possible to Experience Egoless Beingness Thus it is possible to experience egoless beingness, to be, as a substantial presence that is not a mental construct, and still live a human, personal life, in which love, work, knowledge, creativity and accomplishment make sense, a human sense. This true existence, this presence, this being beyond time that makes sense of human and personal life, is the Personal Essence. It is the reality of which ego is only a reflection. It is the truly integrated and developed human being. This is the beautiful presence that the traditional literature of work schools calls the “pearl beyond price.” The experience of universal impersonality of ultimate reality occurs when the separate individuality is transcended, when the separate individuality is seen not to be our true self. But this is the result of transcending the personality in its totality. Something different happens when we investigate the personality’s manifestations in more detail, exploring the hidden essential truth within it. The ego is a reflection of this true element of Being, the Personal Essence, and exploring the characteristics of the reflection can lead us to the reality being reflected. By isolating and understanding the elements of the false, we can begin to approach the elements of the real. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 32 The Essential Structure that the Soul Develops as She Metabolizes and Transcends her Ego Structure The pearl can also be seen as the essential structure that the soul develops as she metabolizes and transcends her ego structure. Ego structure gives the ego-self the sense of being an autonomous and unique individual. But this structure is constructed through fixed mental impressions in the soul; hence it both dissociates her from her essential ground and limits her development because of its rigidity and fixation. The essential pearl provides the soul with a sense of individuality and personhood that does not depend on fixed impressions, but on spontaneously arising forms of essential presence that structure her experience of herself and give her the capacity to function as a person. The soul matures and transforms into a person of essence. However, the qualities and actions of this person are quite fluid and flexible and are objective responses resonant to the needs and inputs of the environment. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 223 The Pearl is the Actualized Individuation of Your Soul When you are who you are, when you are just precisely yourself, you are your “point.” Just that. This has nothing to do with any qualities, functions, capacities, and skills you may have. It has nothing to do with your status in the world, and nothing to do with living this life in a body or not in a body. It is your nature. The Pearl Beyond Price is the connection between this genuine center and all the capacities, skills, and understanding that are a part of your growth as a human being. It allows your capacities, functions and accomplishments to develop in a genuine way as an outgrowth of your spontaneous unfoldment. It is the result of living in the moment, living in a way that is true to who you are. This is your genuine personal life, your own development, your own growth. The pearl is the actualized individuation of your Soul. So the personal essence is connected with your unique function, your unique work in this life. To actualize your particular unique work in this life means to be your personal essence. It is the essence of all that you have developed and integrated in your soul as you live a real life. Everyone is born with the true self, with the point. Although we feel that the point is unique in each of us, the quality of the point is universal. Then how do people become so different in their personal lives? This is due to the particular development of their personal essence. From- https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/pearl-beyond-price

From the Gospel of Thomas Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." 70. Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."

Consulted the Oracle just now. Received only one hexagram-

This morning I observed myself to be loaded up heavy with negative, nasty, angry thoughts. I wrote the following on a piece of notebook paper and thumbtacked it on the side of my house early today, where the driveway is. My diplomacy in regards to establishing healthy boundaries is not very polished at all. That’s pretty obvious. I feel fortunate though that I had this option today. Of just being a recluse and avoiding saying anything negative and reactive to someone. Anytime I speak out in anger or discontent, I always regret it later. I didn’t have to go to a job or take care of responsibilities that involved being around people today and for that I’m fortunate. That pissy inner dialogue is all gone this evening. It left about mid-day. As far as I know, there were no unexpected visitors to read my rude, crudely made sign. I took it down late in the day but saved it in case I need it again. I would just rather not be around people when I’m emotionally off balance. I’m grateful to be back to feeling lighthearted this evening. This is just how it goes with me sometimes. I notice that people tend to mellow out more the older they get, as a rule and I believe that applies to me as well. When younger, I was most always wound up pretty tight. A heavy pain body as Eckart Tolle would say. Observing and strategizing to avoid compounding a problem. The inner conflict got started last night late. Just some mechanical negativity followed by a vague guilt. That old monkey that gets on my back unnoticed and usually by then my degree of being or state of consciousness is already in decline. Sometimes a deep sleep cycle does the job or other times a few hours of physical labor does the trick in returning to emotional balance.

" If you could float above the earth and become aware of all the negativity that is going on, you would never laugh again. The world is ruled by negative emotions." - Ocke de Boer " I hate to bother God. Sometimes when I'm drunk I Pray to Judas instead of that little skinny Jew" - Gurdjieff

@fridjonk If you were working out of a front end loader bucket raised all the way up, I know what you’re talking about. Doesn’t take much for a front tire to roll over to create a huge sway 15-18 feet in the air. Not the best place to be running a chainsaw or power tools. Makes life exciting,,,huh In his blog @Leo Gura states “PURE INFINITY. It is so perfectly self-aware that it does not even have a form. At this point you become the 100% Godhead. There is no more life, no more death, no more world, no more people or other beings. You rest as absolute ONENESS & LOVE, FOREVER. It is a degree of enlightenment so total that it deletes the entire universe. Only near this point do you finally understand what reality/God really is. LOVE.” This reminds me of Gary Renard’s book. Gary has been a longtime student/Teacher in A course In Miracles.

@ted73104 There's a wide mixture as you can imagine. Many of these websites have the distinct smell of fundamentalists trying to insert doubt. This particular site from a Gnostic standpoint isn't bad- http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html. If you’re possibly interested books, I highly recommend these two for former christians who have been disillusioned by fundamentalists dogma and lunacy — The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault God Is Dissappointed In You by Mark Russell As bad as this sounds it’s an accurate yet highly irreverent and hilarious paraphrasing of the Bible. A paraphrasing by Mark Russell of logia 102 from The Gospel of Thomas - “Don’t worry too much about what the outside of the cup looks like, You only drink what’s inside.” “Do not let fundamentalists come between you and God’s Love. They are like dogs guarding a cow’s trough. They protect food they don’t eat from animals who are starving.”

@ted73104 I agree about the cult of fundamentalists,,,, I was just yanking on their chain a little. Didn’t the Jews kind of shit on JC also in the long run and call him a delusional visionary? I abandoned fundamentalist ‘churchianity’ but have found good things in the Gospel of Thomas as well as ACIM. A Jesus who teaches being nonjudgmental, forgiving, peaceful and overlooking others transgressions. Like an older brother who says just live and let live. This is not a Jesus that wants to be worshipped,,,,

I would ask God why he needed to let his boy Jesus get nailed to the cross like some kind of Cosmic scapegoat. And then say it was for my sinfulness. I wasn't even born yet. That just makes no damn sense at all.

Sounds good to me!

@ted73104 Excuse me, but God told me to quote Cynthia Bourgeault . Also, she, that is God, said being is the key word here. The repetitive motion of finding oneself through Identification (even true and worthy descriptions) keeps the being energy just below the critical velocity needed to escape the gravitational field of narrative selfhood.” - Cynthia Bourgeault Just doing as I was told. Respectfully, Zigzag Idiot.

There's a joke thats told among carpenters. Someone will say that if they ever fall out of an airplane that hopefully they would be holding on to an air hose or an extension cord because the damn things are always going to hang up on something,,,,,. @MuadDib mentioning his becoming reinterested in skydiving made me think of that. My fear of heights has grown as I've gotten older. In 2013, I reroofed one of our old barns and climbing to the breathtaking height of 18-20 feet gave me panic attacks. At the time I had a 2 cd set of Rumi that was read by Coleman Barks. Playing it as I went about my carpentry seemed to help a little bit. Still on the subject of me being nervous and highstrung. That weighted blanket I bought the other day seems to really be helping me get better sleep. The last couple of nights anyhow. If you , the reader, have trouble with insomnia. I recommend trying one. The weight in the one I have comes from tiny glass beads that are sewn in between the layers of the blanket. It feels like sleeping under an armoured vest. Amphetamines have always had a calming effect on me. (Except when used heavily, as I recently discovered, unfortunately), The calming affect has caused me to speculate that I probably could have been diagnosed as either add or adhd in childhood. In addition to my self-diagnosis as an adult of being on the autism spectrum. A few people who know me well are possibly vigorously nodding in agreement,,, The trouble is ,, my age. Asperger's and ADHD diagnoses were not being made when I was a kid. It's probably a good thing. Chances are I would have played up being an unfortunate victim of those maladies and rode them for all they were worth. Doing this might have prevented all those wonderful episodes in my life that were referred to as being of a character building nature. Not that I've really ended up with all that much character, either, as it's turned out. Oh well,,, Enough with all this self absorbtion. Time to read or to make some remarks on the forum until sleep overcomes me. Goodnight,,,

Found a Gurdjieff material blog spot with very many interesting links within it. http://mastergurdjieff.blogspot.com/2014/?m=1 @Petals Rereading that great material you shared last April revealed to me a degree of my own somnambulism of which I’m still under the influence of at times. Even though I’ve had awakenings in the past, I’m still prone to naps,,,,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff George Gurdjieff - A contemporary acquaintance of Valentine Thomberg. https://www.gurdjieff.org/lipsey1.htm

@SamC I can relate, Very similar to my history with Centrring Prayer meditation. Consulting The I Ching specifically a revised edition called The Oracle of the Cosmic Way often gives me some pretty good guidance even when a part of me has continued on with not so smart habits. The oracle isn’t concerned so much with issues of morality and societal concerns but is always helpful in steering me away from blatant and not so blatant forms of egoic corruption. I gain in stability and groundedness when I am able to force myself to go through 2 twenty minute Centering Prayer meditations a day but it feels like I have to really bully myself to do it and then there are days when it’s just not on the table at all. So I continue to consult the I CHING on a fairly regular basis.

I can't believe I lost Cynthia Bourgeault's new book Eye of the Heart. I had read only half of it in which she already shared where the Kingdom of Heaven is using Gurdjieff's Hydrogen scale and the Ray of creation. She said the kingdom is found at world 24. Take what I say with a grain of salt because I've slept since I read this a couple of months ago ,,,, I found it though. To translate, this would be the inner world of a person who has integrated and individuated along with whats reffered to in the Work as purifying the emotional center. This is someone who doesn't judge and is conscious to the point where they're basically incapable of commiting violence. This is one of the best descriptions I've heard in regards to higher Consciousness. A fully Awakened person is incapable of violence! They're not complainers,,, They don't bitch or fly off the handle in a reactionary way if unpleasant events are encountered in their life situation. So encountering the kingdom of Heaven is an inside job. The kingdom is within. It's good to have a journal and express oneself. Even if it does amount to bitching about something. Maybe that's what it takes sometimes to process and let it go. Whatever it is. It's also a way of letting others into your inner world. As cringe worthy as that can be at times ultimately it means integration of your personal fragmentedness. Why is that good? Its the path to having your being. To fully be yourself, flaws included. To be completely at home in yourself. There's a tricky thing in regards to being fragmented. People who are fragmented most often don't fully realise their own fragmentedness. They don't see how it leaves them at the mercy of those who are eager to manipulate them. On the path to higher awareness, forgiveness through understanding is mandatory. More awareness will not be granted if you cannot forgive those who are asleep. I found a weighted blanket on the clearance isle this morning. I thought it might help me with insomnia. The thought of Temple Grandin came to mind with her design of the squeeze chute made for the humane handling of cattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin

Sounds awfully close to objectless awareness or nonconceptual awareness. These two phrases are used in association with Centering Prayer meditation and Zazen practice.

Just passing on info on 2 different online courses that look interesting Discover the Truth of Who and What You Are For the very first time, the Ridhwan School will be offering a deeper level of the Diamond Approach teaching online. “Lightness of Being” is a six-part series that will run over six weekends between February and August 2021. It will explore the lataif (plural of latifa), those subtle qualities of our being that invite us to experience the pure, unshakable truth of what we are, which helps dispel the belief that we are individuals who are somehow separate from our spirit. Each latifa takes us beyond our ordinary cognitive world into the realm of lived, embodied experience of subtler qualities, allowing us to touch into our inner seeing, inner hearing, even our inner tasting. This in turn makes our experiences richer and fuller, allowing the human spirit to thrive and expand. An Introductory Experience for New Students Though the lataif are exquisitely subtle, they are nevertheless relatively easy to access and can be experienced in both dual and non-dual states of being. For this reason, “Lightness of Being” is both an excellent introduction to the Diamond Approach – as well as an opportunity for seasoned spiritual seekers to sink more deeply into each of the qualities and to taste the depth this path has to offer. The series will also be required for all students who enroll in our first-ever Diamond Approach Online group, expected to begin meeting in Fall 2021. Since COVID-19 began, we moved all current in-person groups online for the sake of safety. The kinds of experiences that emerged from this transition have been inspiring, so we feel there is real possibility for offering an ongoing group in this format. At the heart of this offering is our intention to develop an international group of committed students from many cultures and backgrounds who can continue with the group for some time. This is a novel opportunity for those who want to engage with this path in an ongoing way but are unable to participate in our usual, preferred in-person style. This group is for new students only. https://online.diamondapproach.org/lob-lightness-of-being-series-lb-lob-wi21/ Spiritual Gifts from the Imaginal Realm By Cynthia Bourgeault Thursday, February 18 - Thursday, April 01 Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom paths. She is profiled in our Living Spiritual Teachers project, and this will be the 12th e-course she has presented through Spirituality & Practice. We are excited about this offering because it delves into some ancient Wisdom roadmaps that many of us may not be familiar with and yet which hold the key to understanding what's happening in our world (why are we so polarized, unable to take the steps needed to address global problems?) and where the path of healing lies. These perennial maps speak of mutually nurturing realms of being bound together by a continuous energy exchange. In this e-course, Cynthia will specifically explore the gifts of the imaginal realm that can help us adopt a larger perspective and make a difference today using the cosmic assistance available to us all. She will be introducing us to the teachings in her latest book, Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm, but approaching the material afresh — cognizant that we are in a worldwide pandemic and that the e-course is coming to you during Lent. This e-course will begin the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 18, and conclude on Maundy Thursday, April 1. You will receive: 13 emails on Mondays and Thursdays with an essay by Cynthia Bourgeault, a text and questions for your conscious reflection, and a spiritual practice to try; access to the online Practice Circle (open 24/7 to accommodate people from all time zones) where you can post comments on the teachings and the practices. Cynthia will be in the Practice Circle to respond to your experiences and encourage your further explorations. a link to join us on Zoom twice during the e-course (March 8 and March 29, 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET both days) to hear Cynthia address our comments and questions. At the risk of sounding too casual, let us say that in these times, we need all the help we can get. Join us to discover how to tap into and offer some cosmic help more intentionally. https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/course/view/10285/spiritual-gifts-from-the-imaginal-realm

I like the distinction made by some in the Fourth way Work between acquired conscience and awakened conscience. Acquired conscience is equated with morality which changes over time and between different cultures. Awakened Conscience is claimed to be the same among all who possess it. One statement that frames this is that Awakened Conscience is the intelligence of the universe. Cultures are an enforcer of acquired conscience and is usually what we all are loaded full of in our childhood conditioning to different degrees. Maybe in the future when there are cultures with a center of gravity in tier two SD, this conditioning will be closer to awakened conscience. But now I’m speculating,,,,

Some good answers and food for thought in these reply’s. I’ve recently had to out myself and fess up to a meth-amphetimine habit that I thought I could get away with. This is only one example of where my self deception comes in and swallows the whole frame of reference posed by the question. It’s still a good question though,,,, Maybe by integrating all the methods and reply’s that’s been given, people like myself may stand a chance,,, See Leo’s 3 part series on self deception,,,,

@mmKay Yes, indeed. Not to forget possums and eccentrics like Marlon Brando’s character Lee Clayton.

Rules? In a knife fight?,,,,