Zigzag Idiot

ACIM quote about joy I want to record this quote I just ran across- This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. 7 Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. 8 This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. 9 The ego's beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. 10 The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. 11 He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous. Somewhere in ACIM it states that the only 2 authentic attitudes are either peace or joy and that all other attitudes are egoic. This is my paraphrasing and so the actual quote My be a little different in wording. The above quote kinda backs up the one I've been quoting from memory. I'm sure I'll run across it again and I'll be sure to mark it. Just watched Leo's latest video about life purpose. I've stated before that cultivating the Science of Idiotism may be my life purpose. I don't know, though. Don't seem to be cultivating it in a big way as yet. It would fall under a larger umbrella ( life purpose) of being a fairly steady student/practitioner of The Fourth Way. I've never written about the 3 lines of work in The Fourth Way because I was afraid it would be perceived as cultish. Here it is, though - First line of work - Work on oneself; I can only work and transform myself. I can't change others,,,, Second line of work- Work with others; I can possibly be of help to others in some way for them working on themselves Third line of work - Work for the Work; This would be a personal effort in passing on clean practices and information regarding the work. Possibly having a global worldview,,, Conscious circle of humanity is a phrase that's used,,,?‍♂️ Maybe I'll discover another Life purpose in the future. That's a possibility,,,

http://humanityhealing.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/The-Cerebellum-and-the-Alta-Major.pdf Its distinctly the sound of crickets that I've heard for the last 3 years.

T-6.V.C.6. You learn first that having rests on giving, and not on getting. 2 Next you learn that you learn what you teach, and that you want to learn peace. 3 This is the condition for identifying with the Kingdom, since it is the condition of the Kingdom. From - https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/course-miracles-chapter-6-v-lessons-holy-spirit/

According to A Course In Miracles- YES! It says just that. I'm looking for an exact quote now,,,

Sacred Clowns https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyoka

I've been going over the difference between being Awakened, being Realized, and being Enlightened. According to the Almaas Material. I take the term Self Remembering, as it's used in the Fourth Way as an equivalent to these, in a sense. Also, Fulasnitamnian awareness as Gurdjieff termed 'Three Centered Awareness' in Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson. Most of my reading has been in the two links below although I ran across these 2 excerpts and decide to copy and paste them. Many Capacities are Needed to Work Through the Personality and Its Patterns First of all, you need energy, energy to work on yourself and work through the personality and its patterns. Energy is the sense that you have the capacity, the strength, the courage to do something about it, about yourself, about your life... Another factor is determination. Without determination, the energy will be meaningless. You need steadfast determination and an unwavering will to go on, to continue in the face of discouragement and disappointment. The determination is what pushes you, what makes you persist. It is important to understand the personality issues around will and determination: what the issues are that make you feel frustrated, that stop your determination, that block your will, that stop you from feeling, "yes, I will do it"... Another factor that comes into the picture is a sense of lightness about the whole thing, a sense of joyousness. It is a specific kind of joyousness, a specific kind of lightness, a specific kind of the light. The delight and the joyfulness are the actual work itself. It is a delight in the truth, delight in seeing and experiencing the truth. It is a little like curiosity -- a joyful curiosity about things... The next factor needed to prepare ourselves for the perception of the experience of liberation is that of compassionate kindness. It is a very important necessary quality. You need kindness for yourself because the process is difficult. Since you're not liberated, it is natural that you will suffer, so why push yourself in a way that you'll suffer more? Why beat yourself up if you make a mistake? The factor of kindness also brings a quality of trust in yourself, trust in the process, a kind of trust in your mind, in your Essence... Another factor necessary in this work is peacefulness: the ability to be silent, the capacity to be still, not always in activity and noise. Stillness of the mind. In order to recognize true liberation you must have this capacity for stillness or peacefulness because liberation is so fleeting... The next factor which is needed is the capacity to be absorbed in something, to be totally absorbed with whatever you are doing, in whatever state happens to be there. You become so one-pointed in your experience that you become completely involved in it, and so involved that you are dissolved in it. This is a certain kind of relationship to experience, a certain capacity, a certain freedom from the personality... The seventh and last factor of liberation is awakening, the capacity to be awake in your experience. We talked about the capacity to be absorbed in your experience; there is also the capacity to actually be awake, to be aware. You are so aware that you feel as if you have just awakened. There is a feeling of light all around you. Diamond Heart Book Two, pg. 5 Endless Realization Our potential is infinite, inexhaustible; hence there is always realization after any realization. You'll have all kinds of experiences, states, and conditions that may feel like an ultimate state of realization, but then that too keeps changing. In my understanding, the truest state of realization is that in which whenever you realize something, no matter what it is, you go beyond it. The moment you say this is it, you will get stuck with a concept, and tomorrow there will be something else. So the true state of realization is more of a lack of attachment to realization. Diamond Heart Book Five, pg. 78 Excerpts about enlightenment- https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enlightenment Excerpts about realization - https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/realization

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/centering-prayer/id844280857 Centering Prayer App

An Electrifying Analogy Sometimes I run on AC (alternating current). People will draw near and I pull away and after a time I approach for a form of close connection with them and then they pull away. When I'm running on D.C., everything is the same with no roller coaster effect, power surges, or blown fuses.There is no neediness or deficient emptiness. It's no longer me having a good day or bad day. Instead the Witness watches the Automaton have a good day or bad day. In a way the days, they are same - same.

Maurice Nicoll on INTENTIONAL SUFFERING from Gems Of Wisdom “Now self-observation is very harsh and becomes more harsh. If done sincerely it will hurt. But it lets light in and stops all sorts of rank weeds from growing within, and amongst them all the strange growths due to internal considering and self-pity and song-singing. And then at last we begin to see what it means that a man must realize that he is nothing beforehecanexpecttobesomething.”V.1,p.259 INTENTIONAL SUFFERING II “You may often say you are to blame for something, but if someone agrees with you, it is startling and you feel offended. Yes, we easily pretend we are wrong. But to see it, direct and unmistakeable, in one- self, is pain. This is real, and so useful, suffering, for all real suffering purifies the emotions.” V. 1, p. 166 INTENTIONAL SUFFERING III “I have found nothing flattering in this teaching. There is nothing flattering, for axample, in being told that we are machines that have no Real ‘I’, that we are nothing but pictures of ourselves, that what we call ‘I’ is nothing but imagination, that we have no Real Will, that we are a mass of contradictions which we do not notice owing to hav- ing so many buffers and different forms of padding, that we are not conscious yet, and so on...All awakening has a sour taste—like going back to school.” V. 3, p. 825 INTENTIONAL SUFFERING IV “A man must suffer from his observation of himself, but never become negative.” V. 3, p. 1203 SELF-SATISFACTION “Try to see what you are resting on, all of you. Try to see the basis of your self-satisfaction. You will understand that unless this basis is com- pletely broken up there can be no change of being.” V. 1, p. 338 SELF-SATISFACTION II “As regards the remark that this Work is selfish, you must all under- stand that this Work . . . is something that destroys your self-compla- cency, your selfishness, your self-esteem, your fantasies about yourself, your pictures of yourself and, in short, your False Personality. It makes you see yourself naked—makes you see that you have to do some- thing about yourself before you try to help other people.” V. 3, p. 849 SUFFERING ONE’S SELF “When I am in that state of insight I will continually suffer from myself—from Nicoll and his mechanical reactions. Then I will in a certain sense have to endure this external, mechanical, reacting person that hitherto I have taken as myself but which the Work has gradu- ally shown me I must separate from.” V. 2, p. 644 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Another excerpt from http://fourthwayschool.org/principles1.html The Work says that one is willing to give up anything but suffering; it is the last thing one wants to lose. But we must give up our unnecessary suffering. There is some suffering that it is necessary to endure, voluntary suffering. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Ocke de Boer from - http://www.higherbeingbodies.com/a-dialogue-with-ocke.html Ocke: Remorse will bring conscious suffering. This is to see and feel your own mechanical behaviour or negativity and seeing you can’t do anything about it. Conscious suffering will bring the Work deeper in you and therefore will increase your being so that conscience can speak. It will give a constant and unflagging need to work and enable you to pass the first threshold. Conscious suffering is the medicine to make the Automaton surrender to the Permanent Witness. The Automaton is an instrument. The Permanent Witness has to learn how to use it. This process comes into being with man number four.

Some direct students of Gurdjieff used the term 'conscious suffering', instead of intentional suffering. I'm looking for the verification now or later today. When i was a kid, we sang these songs at Church. When I hear these songs, I can have 2 or more opinions usually. This is a bunch of horseshit. What was I thinking? Asks prepersonal and conditioned personal. When heard with allegory and metaphor, they are beautiful. Say's transrational while the ego is, at least for a while, temporarily shattered. Or sometimes with the ego as servant, in a way. Sometimes it's the Witness only who sees and who has absolutely no opinions. Would that be both paradoxical and ironic also that most who sing this song do so with the literal in mind? The transrational can also say objectively, with sincerity and without passion- "This is a bunch of horseshit". This seems more paradoxical maybe.

Only knowledge and understanding can consume desires" Martin says. This is a good follow up to his Conscious Labors and intentional suffering podcast. He's has some tough news for a lot of people.

Purifying the emotional center Watching Arnold Keyserling give a talk years ago, there was one thing he said that really stuck with me. This goes along with the Fourth Way practice of not expressing negative emotion. NOTE: This doesn't mean repressing! In fact, one should feel everything maybe even more fully, but just not give expression to it if it involves negative emotion. Easier said than done. Arnold said that if you can go through the cycle of Mars, (2 years) and not express outward any negative emotion, you will never again take anything in a negative way for the rest of this life!

Reincarnation framed as Cosmic Bowling Arnold Keyserling made the case that basically the 12 potentials of the Zodiac are to be actualized and mastered in a series of lifetimes. After which, eternal existence is only then assured. Not surprisingly, very similar to Gurdjieff's notion that just because we're born, eternal life is not a guarantee. I like that Leo used a quote from Don Juan Matus in his last video regarding Controlled folly in relation to fulfilling one's life purpose. Arnold Keyserling used the same phrase here in describing his notion/theory about attaining immortality. Keyserling- "You must choose to use all twelve of the basic potentials, both in language and in life, when the opportunity is presented by life. Otherwise, they will remain latent. These potentials do not automatically grow. They require choice and intentional efforts. First, your language must become holistic and coherent. To make sense of your life you have to make sense in your speech. The twelve basic concepts presented in the chart above are the keys to making sense. You have to learn to use these concepts in your speech, your language. Then, eventually, you will learn to master these conceptual cluster-words in a three step process: apprentice, companion, master. This mastery of language allows for mastery of the human faculties which they represent. This means mastery of the full human capacities in controlled actions, or as Don Juan said, "Controlled Folly". Both learning processes - language and life - must go hand in hand. One without the other will not allow for full development. Words alone are hollow. Life alone is incomprehensible. Only both - language and action - allow you to actualize these potential powers. With both you can integrate them into your being, and thereby make sense of life. You can walk your talk. You fully master the twelve time potentials in a three step process. First, you learn them. Next, you learn them even better by acting them out. Finally, you master them after you have taught them to others. In the final Master teaching stage the Self can merge with the Sun. The Self then can become radiating, full of life giving light. But, until all nine of the potentials are integrated, and the whole potential of your Being is realized, you will be submitted to reincarnation. As Keyserling says, you will be stuck in the "cosmic game of bowling". Only when all of your pins, your potential, have been set up and mastered, can you survive the inevitable black ball of death." from - http://www.chanceandchoice.com/course-overview/time-cycles/ He makes the case that the nine potentials of the Enneagram are basically key and the other three have to do with those life plans which have to do with playing a larger historical role in a particular lifetime. I' ve paraphrased some so, grain of salt,,,,,

I'm gonna have to watch that Teal Swan video on the Heart chakra. This is a post I made on the subject a couple of weeks ago. In other talks she has given and in online courses she references Robert Sardello's little 150 page book SILENCE and credits him with having some very advance knowledge and practices. He has since released even more in depth books on this subject.

It was nonpossessive Love. I found it again at 2:16:50 in his part 2 of The 9 Stages of Ego Development. I like that description.

Hameed Almaas incorporates an abundance of Gurdjieff's Work and combines it with many traditions in the articulation of his Teaching that has become The Ridhwan School. The quotes of his below concern the Sufi tradition and their languaging of 'the Latiaf. Specifically here referring to the heart center and the phenomenalogical transformations that takes place aFter a good deal of innervwork. Lataif Level is the Transition from the Level of Energy to Essential Presence The Sufi tradition uses the lataif system. This is somewhat deeper than either of the above energy systems. In fact at this level it becomes difficult to speak of energy. We can still use the term energy, but the lataif really operate with the higher, more diluted forms of Essence. We can say that the lataif level is the transition from the level of energy to the deeper level of essential Presence. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 40 Presence of the Lataif Can be Overlooked This particular one of the lataif, the heart center, is connected with the experience of compassion. At this level of experience, all of the excitement, glitter and drama of the heart chakra are gone. Instead, what is experienced in the chest cavity is emptiness. The whole chest feels as if it is gone. There is nothing left but a very clear, peaceful and silent emptiness. It feels as if nothing is occurring there, yet it is open and lucid. If the person pays closer attention, it will become apparent that this peaceful emptiness is pervaded by a very fine and subtle Presence, so fine and subtle that it is usually overlooked by the one having the experience. This fine and subtle Presence pervading the emptiness of the heart is the latifa or the first manifestation of it. The person will experience a subtle but exquisite sense of compassion, for himself and all others. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 31p

Basicly a contemporary how to manual,,,,,,Note the subtitle- Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice - I highly recommend it. Also her book The Wisdom Jesus. Also here is a good ACIM site. https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/ There are several different ACIM websites to be found online. Most of them are really decent.

A few minutes ago I spontaneously expressed the importance of lightheartedness in The Fourth Way thread on the forum. Afterward I watched your latest video which I took as very similar to this theme. Neat synchronicity.

I cleared of part of a hillside with a machete today. A lot of saplings, vines, and briars. It was good exercise that required balance, attention and concentration, and agility. Im watching Leo's last video which is third the series on ego development. I appreciated the phrase he used talking about a higher Love in the previous video. Dang,,, I've gone blank. If I don't remember the word soon. I'll watch it again. I want to say he called it nonpossessive Love. That doesn't seem it, though, but it might be. Does anyone remember the exact word he used as a discriptor? '______ Love'? Give a shout out if you do..

The way of the Sly Man It's almost imperative that if we are to become Realized, the capacity for lightheartedness must be cultivated if one does not have this attribute naturally. I was going to make a foolishly bold claim just to be lighthearted. Maybe include that Gurdjieff sometimes referred to 'The Fourth Way' as 'The Way of the Sly Man.' I did a google search on -The Way of the Sly Man and found a -new to me,- e-magazine. At first glance, it looks like you get fairly regular free material but if you subscribe, as it always is the case, you get more stuff. As synchronicity would have it, I stumbled upon a good article which articulates the idea of Self Remembering much better than my hodgepodge of quotes from yesterday. I just copied and pasted a small section from the article. https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/the-way-of-the-sly-man-the-teachings-of-g-i-gurdjieff Unlike these paths, the Fourth Way, “the way of the sly man,” does not require withdrawal from the world, but can and should be pursued in the course of everyday life; and instead of working with the mind, the body, or the emotions alone, it works with all three. It is, Gurdjieff claimed, faster and more efficient than the other three ways. “The ‘sly man’ knows the secret,” said Gurdjieff, “and with its help outstrips the fakir, the monk, and the yogi.” What is the sly man’s “secret”? It is a higher force, an energy that is able to penetrate the being of man and create unity in his centres where there was none before. This energy must come from above, but it will not come by itself; Gurdjieff does not preach quietism but advocates “conscious labours and intentional suffering.” (Indeed Gurdjieff’s disciples refer to his teaching as “the Work”; those attempting to follow it are said to be “in the Work.”) For a long time these “labours” and “sufferings” will consist, not in some sophisticated form of masochism, but in striving to overcome the slumber of daily life and see oneself as one really is. A central practice of the Fourth Way is self-remembering. “You do not remember yourselves,” Gurdjieff chides Ouspensky’s Petersburg group. “You do not feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, ‘it observes’ just as ‘it speaks,’ ‘it thinks,’ ‘it laughs.’ You do not feel: Iobserve, I notice, I see.” Anyone who has read even a little in the literature of contemporary spirituality will find familiar resonances here, for many books emphasise the need for mindfulness. Gurdjieff’s teaching goes still further, for it puts this effort at the centre of the spiritual search. It also gives many more specific practices for “self-remembering”: people in the Work often receive instructions about being consciously present at certain moments of the day or during particular tasks. Many who have read about – or even practiced – Gurdjieff’s teaching seem to fall into the trap of seeing “self-remembering” as a completely cerebral practice; trying to carry it out, they end up simply being self-conscious in the ordinary sense. They miss an essential part of the practice: that self-remembering entails a conscious effort of sensing the body. Self-remembering begins with the body because, as the French Gurdjieffian Jean Vaysse puts it, the body “is solid and concrete, with an apparently stable form which can… be relied on to some degree. It is the instrument through which we perceive and our means of action. It can stay still voluntarily and thus is easier than the other parts for us to observe. It is relatively obedient, and we have a certain amount of control over it (in any case more than over our other parts). In addition, it is the one solid material base in us.” Hence a Gurdjieffian reading this article might attempt to read while giving some attention to the sensation of some part of the body, the foot or hand, say, or even the body as a whole. This may sound simple, but if you try it, you’ll find it isn’t. If you’re lucky, you may be able to keep this “divided attention” for a few seconds before you lose it again. For a long time the Work involves returning to this sensation of the body over and over again no matter what you’re doing. Such attempts are known as “efforts.” They are meant to counteract the sleep of everyday life. Those who persist in this practice find that some of the “maleficent consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer” are, if not destroyed, at least interrupted, for these efforts help to dissipate daydreaming, absentmindedness, and the hazy stupor in which we stumble through our lives. These efforts of attention tie into other aspects of the teaching as well. Gurdjieff defined attention as “the direction of the thinking centre’s activity.” Self-remembering, at least in the early stages, directs the “thinking centre” toward the body, which is governed by the “moving-instinctive centre.” Self-remembering brings these two centres closer together. When the mind is paying attention to the body, they are working a bit more in harmony, and the practitioner is slightly closer to becoming a unified being. (See the accompanying article on page ,,,,,,,, There is more to this article. For those who are interested, click on the link above or this one. https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/the-way-of-the-sly-man-the-teachings-of-g-i-gurdjieff

Many Opportunities & No Time Limit by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2020 Dr. Jim Rosen This week’s mini-column is dedicated to a special person who is thinking about making a life change. I want this person to know that there is no time limit on your growing. You don’t have to rush to complete it so that you can then enjoy the rest of your life. Your purpose is to be growing and learning throughout your whole lifetime. The planet Earth is a great big school, and your Higher Power will guide you along to acquire all the teaching and the teachers you need. As you learn, you will evolve and develop. It’s a long-term process. But the more immediate goal is something you can start accomplishing right away. You have to make the decision to be intimately involved in this process of growing and learning. You have to make the commitment to carry it out. It won't always be easy. But sometimes it will be downright joyful. It is definitely not a one-time process. You will need to actively work on it many times. But don’t worry about ever running out of time or opportunities. Life will give you all the opportunities and time you need. Life is not in a hurry, nor should you be.

It's also a matter of context in addition to tone,,, I'm glad to see a move toward a more thoughtful, higher quality forum. Just hope my occasional irreverent moods don't get me into trouble. ??

Gru has Superego issues because he never got his mother's approval,,,

@Petals That book looks interesting. I may order it myself sometime. I just made a post specifically about Self Remembering in The Fourth Way thread recently started. Books that I,ve enjoyed from specific women's perspectives who were students of Gurdjieff - https://www.amazon.com/Undiscovered-Country-Spiritual-Kathryn-Hulme/dp/0955909082/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= https://www.amazon.com/Gurdjieff-Women-Rope-1935-1939-1948-1949-ebook/dp/B086SGN1JK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Women+of+the+Rope&qid=1599982267&s=books&sr=1-1