Chapter 15, Doorways
Posted: June 1st, 2010 | Author: Teresa Dietze | Filed under: UncategorizedSound file for Chapter 15:
15 Doorways
PWOS Group 16a
(Approx. 44 minutes.)
PWOS Group 16b
(Approx. 31 minutes.)
Please comment below.
Sound file for Chapter 15:
15 Doorways
PWOS Group 16a
(Approx. 44 minutes.)
PWOS Group 16b
(Approx. 31 minutes.)
Please comment below.
PWOS: “When passing the threshold of a portal, we can use this as a reminding factor to exert our will to awaken the machine.”
(What does the word “will” mean here?)
While I have been forgeting left and right at doors and portals, when I do forget and notice it some time later, I let this feeling sense or reaction be as it arises and say “may I be allowed to be open to sense this as it is now” (the implicit understanding behind these words is: may “this” serve as good food for the simple presence as the breath and the many energies of HBM flow through).
The mind’s tendancy is to over look sensation that is arising through the body-mind vehicle. We are coming to understand that all arising of sensation is really a kind of paydirt. Being in intimate and loving contact with the arising of all sensation is one threshold we can rest on. One way that E J refers to this is “sensing the sleep of the HBM”. We are sensing whatever is arising through the space of the bodily presence. Along with allowing the breath, allowing this taste/sensing as a steady diet makes for good food for simple presence.
One of the many things I love about Mike’s comment is that it points to the fact that when we notice that we have missed the chance to be aware of going through a portal/doorway, this moment of realization IS ANOTHER doorway.
Two things come to mind. First–in keeping with the previous chapter–we can apply a shift of focus similar to moving from mechanical guilt into the reflective state of remorse of conscience, creating possibility. Instead of feeling bad that we did not notice, we bring ourselves into the possibilities of the moment.
Second, this speaks to the urgency of our work. Every moment or doorway we pass through is an opportunity to awaken just a little. As I keep forgetting to notice going through doorways, and when I stop to reflect as Mike has done I know that each moment I have been asleep is gone forever.
And I wonder whether I will be awake in the next . . .
This chapter “Doorways” PRESUMES that the reader has knowledge and mastery of the following Gurdjieffian ideas.
A harmoniously developed human being is cognizant of the fact that he/she is comprised of a “particle-of-divinity”, that is, an Uncreated Unity, which is “manifesting” as a Created Trinity of three separate, diverse, independent, autonomous, CO-EQUAL and DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE Forces.
Each of the three Forces possesses it’s own Co-equal and Diametrically Opposite REASON and Consciousness – review Chapter One of PWOS.
The First Force is what each of us would regard as our historical personality from the moment of conception to the moment of last breath. This Force is a entirely a product of conditioning and thus an involuntary slave to the whole of life.
The Reason of this First Force is comprised of “six-gradations-of-Reason” which gradually unfold and may be developed over the course of a life time.
These gradations of Reason are related to the application of the mind, the emotions and the body in a world of Sound and Motion manifesting amidst a wide variety of multiplicity and diversity.
The harmonious development and “combination” of these six “gradations-of Reason” are intended to produce “serenity-of-mind”, tranquility-of-feeling” and “happy-nest-of-body”.
Failure to achieve this end is the right-full province of “Work-On-Self”.
The Second Force is what is called in PWOS the Non-Phenomenal or Essential Self. This course is intended to assist the harmonious growth and development of the Essential Self.
The Reason of this Second Force is comprised of “six-gradations-of-Reason” which gradually unfold and may be developed over the course of a life time.
These gradations of Reason are related to the application of the seven divine impulses uniquely inherent in man/woman in a world of Stillness and Silence manifesting as a “vibratory sensation” in an Ocean of Light in Infinite Extension characterized by Undifferentiated Unity.
A harmoniously developed individual will possess a cognizance of their Non-phenomenal Self which is as immediate as their cognizance of their historical personality.
The Third Force is nothing more than the conscious and voluntary “blending together” of the First Force and the Second Force and produces the individual Being-Nest – or “crystallized frequency” – of the relatively independent cosmic unity, that is, the “You of You” – the U of U.
The Reason of this Third Force is comprised of “six-gradations-of-Reason” which gradually unfold and may be developed over the course of a life time.
The reference to the “twenty-one gradations of Reasons” in this chapter implies that you have “personal experiences personally experienced” regarding these eighteen gradations of Reasons, as well as recognize that the Created, that is, gradations 1 – 18, can never know the Uncreated directly, that is, gradations 19 – 21, but only indirectly by personal inference.
the first times that I did this exercise I had strong feelings of self importance and vanity. Then I re-read the book and I realized the important of death in the exercise: passing through a door is a similar experience of dying. So, adding this ingredient of death helped me reachin the inner sobriety and humility that I was lacking.
Narisil, I am in awe of your courage to share this. Very cool.
Thank you for being that honest, and great self evaluation.