Blog Posts - Panentheism

February 11th, 2017

2/11/2017

The Silence: The Void
Part III

In Chapter One we examined three levels, three categories constantly inundating the individual:

We then reconfigured the two dimensional depiction to a three dimensional depiction representing three regions, three locations …

We moved the two dimensional graphic into a three dimensional graphic to better grasp our three dimensional form taken while traveling within the physical universe which in turn helps us better comprehend what it is we are doing as we seek our true selves.

Invertebrates exist in level 1 and are incapable of rising to a ‘higher’ level, are incapable of moving into the second level known as the emotional/astral plane.

Animals such as dogs and cats exist in level 2 and, as far as we understand, are incapable of rising to a ‘higher’ level, incapable of moving into the third region/level 3, incapable of asking metaphysical questions.

Most humans live their lives in region 2, live their life asleep and function in a reactive manner as they walk through life.

The process of level 2s attaining level 3, stepping into region 3 is long, tedious, and time consuming. Most level 2s have no motivation to expend the effort necessary to step into level 3 for they cannot comprehend what it means to live in region three, cannot comprehend what it means to exist as thinkers let alone understand what possible rewards comes in expending the effort to become level 3s..

Level 3 humans are capable of various levels of deep analysis, dialectic reasoning, processing thesis/antithesis/synthesis investigations … are individuals capable of asking various levels of metaphysical questions regarding life. Most level 3s, however, turn away from the haunting questions regarding the interaction of God, the Cosmos and self. Most level 3s view the expenditure of energy needed to find truth to be a waste and an impossible task since they believe there is no such thing as objective, absolute truth.

A few level 3s have stepped into the silence and upon returning to the physical refused to go back. Viewing the purity of the silence is enough to give some individuals attacks of anxiety and can be traumatic to the point of generating nightmares.

February 09th, 2017

2/9/2017

The Silence: The Void
Part II

The journey has been traversed by others and they can assist in shortening the passage by marking the route, describing the obstacles one will encounter and sharing how it is they, the explorers of the silence, have overcome the obstacles.

This is not to say those that have come before you have all the answers or have the only answers regarding how to make the journey for they do not. But they do have some answers and as more individuals make the journey more solutions will begin to circulate through the sparse population of those haunted by the questions of life.

So it is we are ready to examine the silence from afar in preparation for stepping into the silence.

So it is our journey is about to take on a new dimension as we prepare to awaken from the deep sleep of being a slave to life.

Next: The Silence: The realm of one’s true essence
Part I

February 08th, 2017

2/8/2017

The Silence: The Void
Part I

The void is where one’s true self can initially be found.

If one’s true self is not the physical, emotional or mental aspects of the individual, if the true self is not found in the region of physical sensations, emotions or mental thinking, then what exactly is the true self and why is the true self to be found in the silence?

One can find one’s true self through the process of sensory, emotional and thinking deprivation. Sensory, emotional and mental deprivation mutes the demands, desires and questions presented by the physical, emotional and mental and leaves one with what many believe does not exist, namely the void, the nothingness, and pure silence.

Using the terms physical, emotional and mental provides us with a classification system, provides us with a means of categorizing the thousands of demands, desires and questions which inundate use as we go through life.

By quieting the three categories we are presented with a state of existence wherein, after much practice and patience, we are able to first familiarize ourselves and then eventually expose our true self, befriend our true selves, establish our true self as a permanent fully revealed factor accompanying ourselves as we traverse the physical universe.

There are many steps leading to our finding our true essence, finding our “I’. Some of the major steps include:

1.     Recognize the three categories of stimulation inundating and overpowering our daily consciousness

2.     Recognize, through self-examination, our true motives regarding our interactions within life

3.     Examine the silence from afar

4.     Step into the silence

5.     Become comfortable with the silence

6.     Master the silence

7.     Let the real self emerge

8.     Allow the real self to become a part of one’s physical journey as the master of the other three selves.

There is no doubt the list appears daunting.

No one is suggesting the journey is easy. No one is suggesting the journey is short, clearly marked, safe, secure, simple, a tunnel with a light at the end always shining. The journey is none of these. The journey is filled with constantly emerging abysses and filled with ladders missing their rungs and filled with long stretches of dry spells demanding the individual abandon the quest.

The quest is not for the faint of heart but I can tell you this, the quest is filled with many rewards for those who are tenacious in their efforts.

The Silence: The void

2/7/2017

The silence: The void

February 06th, 2017

2/6/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part VI

This blog is a way of sharing ‘how.’ This blog is a guide but this information cannot ‘teach’ one the experience.

It is up to each individual to make their own journey, exert their own effort.

The journey is long, arduous, filled with fear, failure, and self-doubt, but from personal experience I can tell you the journey, if successful, is well worth the struggle.

There will be many along the way who will tell you to ‘just accept’ this or that, who will tell you to be at peace and not question.

I will tell you quite the opposite. Question, question and question yet again. Question even more deeply with each question.

"The teaching is the guide, and only he who questions more deeply can be responsible to serve."
The Reality of Being,The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010, p. xvi

Understanding cannot come without knowledge but knowledge can come without understanding. So it is one must experience personally if one is to understand the knowledge which others can provide them.

"You have to see for yourself.” For her the idea alone, the concept without experience, was not enough – truth could not be thought. Indeed, the knowledge of the thinking mind, especially thoughts about “who we are,” was an obstacle, a veil hiding reality."
The Reality of Being, The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010, p. xvii

Every journey begins with the first step and knowing and understanding our physical, astral (emotional) and mental selves is the first step to finding our true selves. The next step emerges in understanding The Silence: The Void.

February 04th, 2017

2/4/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part V

So it is I bring you what it is I have been given. So it is I expose myself to the potential of ridicule, skepticism and ostracism.

It is said when it comes to ‘teaching’ how to experience that there are no teachers.

"Indeed, there are no teachers."
The Reality of Being,The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann Shambhala, 2010, p. xv

There is no doubt one cannot ‘teach’ an experience. Only through personal experiencing can one experience.

It is also true, however, that those that have experienced can share the experience and share the means by which they came to experience.

In fact, those who have experienced, those who have found the path, those who have journeyed into the silence, have an obligation to cut a verbal trail for others to follow, for others to build upon and for future generations of our species to advance themselves up the spiral of evolutionary development so as to make the journey for future generations less difficult allowing a flood of humanity, as opposed to a trickle of humanity, to know both worlds, the world of the physical as well as the world of the spiritual.

Many have come before and attempted to teach.

"Regarding the book The Reality of Being, de Salzmann said: I am writing a book on how to be in life, on the path to take in order to live on two levels. It will show how to find a balance, to go from one to the other, or rather to find the way in between. We have to see beyond, and through, our ordinary thinking in order to open to another mind. Otherwise, we remain at the threshold in front of the door, and the door does not open. "
The Reality of Being, The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010, p. xvi

Not all teachers are ‘great’ teachers but all teachers, be they ‘great’ teachers or ‘ordinary’ teachers, have one thing in common, namely, they all ‘share’ what it is they know and understand.

Thus one who wishes to share is by definition a teacher

Previously we examined the physical machine we call ‘man’, now it is time to begin our examination of level 4 as we begin our journey to know and understand the ethereal, spiritual aspect of one’s self.

January 27th, 2017

1/27/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part IV

There are several unique events facing us as individuals and as a species, in this, the beginning of a new millennium, the beginning of the third millennium.

The unique events:

1. Organizations are finding it more and more difficult to ‘compete’ with other organizations if they do not have a unique message to give to individuals, if they do not have a unique message which is succinct, understandable, rational and valuable.

2. Present day society is facing a crisis generated by secularists, atheist, and radical religions. The concept of materialism, monism, nihilism, moral relativism … is rapidly encroaching upon modern day society, encroachment upon the individual’s sense of self-worth and the individual’s God given inalienable rights.

3. We as a species are on the threshold of stepping beyond our home, the Earth, and into the heavens. Once we have made significant inroads into the stars, it will be more difficult to establish a commonality, establish a universal understanding regarding who we are and why we exist.

As such we will enter the heavens as ‘confused slaves’, as a chaotic force spreading violence, nihilism, chaos wherever we go.

We, level 4s, need to ask ourselves: Is chaos and the concept of individuals being slaves to their environment and being slaves to those who wish to use them for their own ends what we wish to observe inundating human perception as we step into both the third millennium and step into space or are we as level 4s ready to risk the wrath of society and our islands of esoteric schools and clearly demonstrate and teach the rationality, attainability and rewards of stepping into region 4, understanding the meaning of man being made in the image of God and the process of acquiring contact with the divine.

It is said:

I need to collaborate in a common effort of ascent. If I do not, whether or not I wish it, I am responsible for the stone I do not bring to the edifice. So, we have to reflect deeply on our work together …
The Reality of Being, The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010, p119

So it is I bring this stone, the stone of knowledge and understanding to the edifice known as the Cleveland Gurdjieff Society and the Gurdjieff Society in general.

January 27th, 2017

1/27/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part III

Reaching level 4 is no different than the early settlers reaching the West side of the Appalachian Mountains. In order to experience level 4 one must personally go to level 4. One can journey to level 4 with or without the aid of individuals that have been there just as in the 1500’s the settlers of the East Coast of North America could journey to the West side of the Appalachian Mountains without the knowledge others had regarding how to get to the West.

"Long used by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was brought to the attention of settlers in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer. The path was widened by a team of loggers led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Gap

The settlers who listened to and heeded the knowledge of those who had traveled the Cumberland Gap were much more likely to be successful accomplishing their goal of reaching the West side of the Appalachian Range than were those settlers who ignored the information passed on to them by those who had taken the journey before them.

So it is with level 4.

While there is no denying one can experience level 4 by entering level 4 without the help of others who have been there, it is also true one can shorten the time needed to complete the journey of stepping into region 4, one can increase the probability of successfully completing the journey, if one heeds the descriptions of the journey taken by successful travelers who have gone before them.

In spite of the potential to be the target of ridicule, scorn, mockery and potential ostracism, it is now time at this point in human history to openly examine, in detail, the process of finding one’s true essence.

But why is it ‘now’ time?

January 25th, 2017

1/25/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part II

Different people have different bridges available to them. Some people have only one bridge available to them, some two bridges and some three bridges.

What then of level 4? What then of region 4? Level four, region four, island four is shrouded in fog to almost everyone and has yet to be discovered by the vast majority of people. There are a few people who have managed to vaguely make out a faint outline of island four through the fog.

"My deep wish is to submit entirely to an inner voice, the feeling of divine, of the sacred in me. I know that a higher energy – what religions call God or Lord – is within me. It will appear if the mind and the body are truly related. God is here when two forces are opposed a third unites them. We can ask for help in order to unite these forces in us. We can say, “Lord, have mercy.” In order to Be."
The Reality of Being, The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff, Jeanne De Salzmann, Shambhala, 2010, p 260.

Some of these people are curious; some have even attempted but failed to reach the island. Then there are the very, very, very few who have in fact built their bridge to island four and stepped onto the island, stepped into region 4.

Those that have stepped into region 4 are the Jonathon Livingston Seagulls of the fourth way and the reaction to these individuals is no less than the reaction Jonathon Livingston Seagull received from his fellow seagulls.

Are there different degrees, variations, and bridges regarding stepping into region/level 4?

Reaching level 4 is ...

January 24th, 2017

1/24/2017

Diversity: Degrees, variations and bridges
Part I

People are born into one particular predominating physical level, be it level 1 the physical level, level 2 the emotional level or level 3 the mental level.

Everyone has experienced level one, experienced the physical through one or more of their five (perhaps more) senses.

Most individuals are born as level 2s, meaning their emotional experiencing dominates their existence over their physical experiences.

Emotionally intense individuals are often told to ‘slow down and smell the roses’, meaning they should awaken to the physical wonders surrounding them every day.

Individuals born as level 3s are individuals who, having reached adulthood, spend most of their time analyzing, reasoning, questioning abstract ideas, seeking answers to life, trying to understand the true nature of the universe and life, manipulating mathematical concepts …

There are all types of degrees of levels one, two and three.

For example: People who primarily occupy region three are not all at the level of Einstein, Aristotle, Copernicus, Aquinas, Kant, …

Personal note:
I am aware the shallowness of my educational background is showing through here. There are huge numbers of great thinkers in fields other than Western science and philosophy.
I am not trying to imply I have great knowledge, I am simply who I am. I am simply passing on to you what has been given to me to pass onto you.

The degrees of level threes are innumerable. The three levels are experienced in multiple degrees of intensity and ability.

In addition to degrees of each level, there are many variations of level combinations.

To better understand the concept of regions it will help if we take the diagram of levels 1, 2 and 3 and change them to regions.

If we then dismantle levels 1, 2 and 3 and then place them as random regions, our whole perspective changes.

We then need to connect the regions. To connect the three regions we will construct a bridge from one region to another. Each region is like an island and as is the case with all islands, each island can vary in size and content

Just as all islands can vary one from another, bridges vary one from another.

Some bridges are passible. Some bridges are elegant. Some bridges need repair. Some bridges are impassible.

Some bridges are in the planning stages. Some islands are inaccessible since no bridges have been built to them. And some islands are shrouded in fog and as such have not yet been identified let alone had a bridge connected to them.

primer_for_the_fourth_way_minus_most_of_gs_quotes.pdf
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Part I: For the novice
Intro & General Comments
10/16/16 - 12/31/16
The work begins:
Reality 1: World One: The physical
1/1/17 - 2/6/17
The Silence: The Void
2/7/17 - 2/23/17
Preparation: Conquering the Physical Machine
2/24/17 - 3/11/17
Taking a Peek: Viewing the void
3/12/17 - 3/17/17
Stepping into the silence:
Walking over the abyss of fear
3/2o/17
The silence: The region between two worlds
3/21/17
The void is not a reality: The void is nothingness
3/22/17 - 3/26/17
Entering the void: A regionless region
3/27/17 - ...