The
Nature of Our Illusion
"Human
beings are profoundly influenced by their peers. They need to
"belong," and if they believe that they are "outcast" it
threatens their survival. That is to say, it threatens the
"predators" survival because, as we know, it is the predator
- the genetic body and its "hormonal swarms" that is the
source of this fear. Only very strong individuals whose
"essence" is stronger than the genetic body and its chemicals
are able to stand up for what is right against the opinions
of their peers; to stare down this almost overwhelming fear
that is evoked by "peer pressure" to get in
line."
-
Laura Knight-Jadczyk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of
Understanding"
-The Kybalion
What the statements above means is that not all information
is understood by everyone. The majority of people are not
able to see or grasp certain concepts and this is the nature
of our world. The ability to see 'lies and deceit' simply
depends on what kind of thinking the individual is employing
to observe the particular situation, whether Objective or
Subjective. To be able to objectively observe all available
evidence without emotional attachments, loyalties, fear of
retribution, assumptions, or wishful thinking, is paramount
for seeing lies and deception. This builds AWARENESS, and one
on the path of TRUTH will have it to some degree or another.
The word ‘ILLUSION’ as used here is the hard to imagine
concept of something you hold sacred, dear, unshakeable and
have been taught to believe all your lives as absolute truth;
is actually ABSOLUTELY FALSE in ways you are PREVENTED from
seeing. When unveiled, this situation is always extremely
disturbing because of the enormous emotional investments we
have tied into these beliefs. These illusions are mental
programs that are carefully installed in our minds starting
from the moment we’re born. They are programmed into us from
our environment through parents, friends, media, religion,
school, politicians, etc, and never cease through the end of
our lives. A hierarchy of deeper illusions such as
'tradition' and 'culture', which all together comprise the
GRAND ILLUSION we call ‘CIVILIZATION’, oversees these mental
programs.
Our illusions are based on DREAMS and the pursuit of them.
DREAMS are illusions and have no true value whatsoever from
the perspective OUTSIDE of the artificial construct
(civilization). The illusion of value for material things is
provided completely by the construct's mental programming.
Our self-image is a fabric of collected dreams, that we wear
constantly like a robe. It is a completely SUBJECTIVE thing
based on emotion, assumption, and wishful thinking that fills
our minds, directing our focus away from OBJECTIVE reality,
which is the road to AWARENESS, and AWAKENING FROM DREAMS. We
are unable to see this as artificial because of our total
immersion, and complete lack of a proper and effective frame
of reference. A proper frame of reference is definitely in
order, but to view from this perspective, we must first have
also an understanding of certain concepts.
5: "Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what
is
hidden from you will be disclosed to you."
-Nag Hammadi Library
The Danger Of Believing In Illusion
"Disinformation comes from seemingly reliable sources. It is
extremely important for you to not gather false knowledge as
it is more damaging than no knowledge at all. Remember
knowledge protects, ignorance endangers"
- Casseopaeans
The CONSCIOUS MIND is to the human being as the RAM (random
access memory) is to the computer.
The Un-conscious Mind has infinite potential to store
information, and could be very loosly compared (for the sake
of this analogy) to the hard drive of a computer. The
CONSCIOUS MIND (of a person who's unaware) simply 'runs'
mental programs in the foreground and background that it uses
to interpret the world in which it lives, and is akin to the
RAM of the computer. It is simply the 'space' where programs
'run', and like the computer, this 'space' is very limited,
but artificially kept this way. These programs are
UNKNOWINGLY ACCEPTED from the world around us because of our
indoctrination through total immersion, and are simply
ACCEPTED because of one's NOT KNOWING the concept, purpose,
method, or reasoning for such a diabolical thing. The
CONSCIOUS MIND is what interfaces the person to the world
around them. The programing in this CONSCIOUS MIND dictates
HOW this world is interpreted and the person's ability to SEE
deception or ACCEPT lies. The screen of the computer is where
others see these programs running, and is akin to the
person's self-image.
Continuing with the analogy of the computer, the programs
that occupy its RAM day-in and day-out, dictate the entire
energy, effort and purpose for the machine's existence to the
day that it burns out. This is so, regardless of any hidden
potential in the form of computing power, and unused
instruction on its hard drive.
Say for instance, that a machine was custom configured to be
included in a vast network of thousands of machines, but has
somehow missed being hooked up. While you wait for
technicians to arrive and correct the problem, you discovered
you could entertain yourself by installing and playing games
on this machine. As time goes on, and your many requests to
the technicians goes unanswered, you've adjusted your work
habit by using another computer nearby. In fact, you've
gotten so used to this arrangement that you no longer care
for a correction, now that you have your own personal video
entertainment system at hand.
This machine, regardless of the instruction pre-loaded on its
hard drive to perform its original role, is detached from its
'objective reality' and now functions in a dreamworld of
'programed illusions', inserted into the RAM (mind) BY
ANOTHER FORCE. It is a dreamworld because the unit has now
become totally UNAWARE of Objective Reality. The other
computers attached to the network are performing their 'true
purpose', and INTERACTING with Objective Reality. their
positions are recognized by the network because of their
contribution to it. Because of this, they are automatically
updated with the latest information to maximize their
potential by their act of 'SEEING, KNOWING, and INTERFACING
with their OBJECTIVE reality'.
As time goes on and wear takes its toll, ALL these machines
will break down. However, only the ones 'SEEING, KNOWING, and
INTERFACING with their OBJECTIVE reality', and by virtue of
their CONTRIBUTION to it, will have their positions
remembered for an upgrade. The machine that contributed
nothing to this OBJECTIVE reality is passed over and has
become a 'dream in the past', and not part of the network's
future.
In the analogy above, the computer's RAM is to the NETWORK as
the CONSCIOUS MIND is to the OBJECTIVE UNIVERSE.
"The ALL is MIND, the Universe is MENTAL"
- The Kybalion
There is only ONE Objective Reality, and It is INFINITE
POTENTIAL.
The dot in the center illustrates Infinite Potential. The
white area is Profound, Infinite Chaos because Infinite
Potential is All Possibilities, 'Past', 'Present', and
'Future' 'Existing At The 'Same Instant'. The outer edge of
the circle is Consciousness -- the faculty that 'Makes Order
Out Of Chaos'.
Within this concept of Infinite Potential, there exist ALL
posibilities of BEING, and because this potential is
INFINITE, it allows also for the conception of... THE
POSSIBILITY OF NON-BEING!
"To BE, or NOT to be -- THAT is the question"
- William Shakespeare
This instantaneously caused a 'split' to accomodate TWO
completely different kinds of existence. The existence of
BEING, and the existence of NON-BEING.
This 'split' resulted in the creation of TWO opposing kinds
of existence. BEING and NON-BEING. Within both however, there
exist the potential to become the other. The white and black
dots illustrates this.
Earth is currently in the domain of the Forces Of NON-BEING.
Illusions have been created to provide an 'answer' to the
various instincts of the Human condition. One important
illusion is created to govern instinctual understandings
pertaining to 'Opposites and Duality', especially in matters
of Spirituality. It is done thusly:
All knowledge and expression of 'BEING' is completely erased
and suppressed. 'Dark Spirituality' then creates the
'illusion of opposites' by dividing itself into two divisions
- 'Higher' and 'Lower'.
The Forces of NON-BEING supresses all knowledge of BEING
within the Realm it controls. It then 'divides' itself to
create 'the illusion of opposites' to determine 'Higher'and
'Lower' spiritual expressions.
The Forces of NON-BEING seats its own consciousness to
interpret illusion within the closed circle.
NON-BEING have identified the 'Lower' expression of
spirituality with Black Magic, Demonic Worship and Satanic
Rites and Rituals, and have identified the 'Higher'
expression of spirituality with institutionalized religions
such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Budhism, Hinduism
etc... to various non-traditional transendental spiritual
practices, and Secret Societies.
'HIGHER' AND 'LOWER' ARE ALL ONE AND THE SAME IN FUNDAMENTAL
WAYS YOU ARE PREVENTED FROM SEEING, THUS HAVING THE SAME
EFFECT ON THE SEEKER.
ILLUSION
The Ouroboros is an ancient alchemical symbol depicting a
snake or dragon swallowing its own tail. It represents a
system that is constantly recreating or feeding on itself to
maintain the ILLUSION (Status Quo) within its closed circle.
It depicts the "The Circle of Lies", and symbolizes any
system, organization, or philosophy whose investment depends
upon maintaining such a state.
By systematically and carefully analyzing (objectively) every
piece of information encountered from our environment, or
from our minds, we gradually may come to some new meanings to
old ideas that may lead to a degree of AWAKENING. Below are
listed a few illusions as food for thought.
Illusion No.1:
I am a...
Your very self-image is an illusion determined by an accident
of birth into a particular nationality and culture. Depending
on a myriad of other circumstances and decisions by your
parents, you could’ve been born ANYWHERE, and very easily
into situations diametrically opposed to your current deepest
beliefs. Our self-image is a fabric of dreams collected, that
we wear constantly like a robe. It is a completely SUBJECTIVE
thing based on emotion and wishful thinking that fills our
minds, redirecting our focus from OBJECTIVE reality which is
the road to AWARENESS, and AWAKENING FROM DREAMS.
THINK about this.
Illusion No.2:
There is only one truth, and that its opposite is a ‘lie’.
There are actually two different kinds of truth as far as our
current reality is concerned. They can be differentiated as
‘truth’ and ‘TRUTH’. There are truths about this construct in
which we live that are categorized in subjects such as
History, Physics, Geology, Psychology, Astrology, Economy,
Business, etc. The truths contained in these subjects are
carefully chosen, passed on and overseen by various worldwide
peer-review ‘oversight committees’ with the agenda of keeping
everyone thinking ‘in the box’.
Anything that is discovered that does not support or fit the
established and accepted belief structure is suppressed
immediately. If the discoverer pushes his discoveries, then
he will become discredited, ostracized, and silenced to the
world. Only information along the lines of feeding the
illusory programs necessary to be ‘successful’ in this
reality and furthering its purposes are allowed to propagate.
On the other hand, ‘TRUTH’ is knowledge that builds
AWARENESS, which is the necessary perspective to think
OUTSIDE this box. It is KNOWLEDGE of the various methods and
techniques used since the beginning of time by Architects Of
Our Civilization to build and maintain their world of
illusion. It is KNOWLEDGE of the operation of the vast
Universe outside and how it TRULY interacts with us. It is
also KNOWLEDGE of the reason why Architects Of Our
Civilization NEED to work this way.
TRUE
POWER is gained by virtue of your KNOWING this, which
instills protection to a degree in balance with your level of
knowing.
THINK about this.
Illusion No.3:
I know who my leaders are...
No you don’t, and you never have. Most 'leaders' in power at
this point in time are mere puppets for puppeteers known or
unknown, who NEED TO OPERATE IN THE DARK by virtue of their
particular orientation. The more negative the orientation,
the more ‘invisible’ and untrusting the being. So much so
that it actually HIDES by placing others in front of others
to do its bidding. The true powers in our world are never
seen, and have always operated 'levels behind the throne'.
THINK
about this.
Illusion No.4:
I am in control of my life...
You have been bombarded with a barrage of programs for the
purpose of having as many as possible take root. Your
programs create ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ and govern the
emotional responses that it associates with them. This
programming now creates in the mind fantasies organized under
‘emotional-likes’ and ‘emotional-dislikes’ into a visualized
blueprint of illusions that you automatically start pursuing
to fulfil your quest for ‘happiness’. Everything from your
choice of necktie, toothpaste, vehicle, spouse, preferred
colors, foods, lifestyle, etc, etc, result from a program
that has taken root some time in the past.
THINK about this.
Illusion No.5:
Technology has made our lives happier and healthier...
There is a VERY ANCIENT CABAL OF POWERFUL AND UNKNOWN PEOPLE
whose purpose is to oversee and manage the secret agenda of
our entire civilization. They operate behind several layers
of worldwide power points and structures, and through a
bewildering network of influential connections which is
deliberately designed for them to touch every man, woman, and
child on the planet. Nothing revolutionary is allowed to
happen without their influence, approval and guidance. ALL
technology is approved through them, with several
classifications and categories designed in such a way that it
functions in a hidden secondary manner to manipulate,
control, influence, and decieve the population in some way.
All ideas and technology that have the potential to undermine
this established order is silenced.
THINK about this.
Illusion No.6:
My Government acts in my best interest...
Power is not just created out of thin air. To gain power, one
must have it GIVEN to them, TAKE it by force, or STEAL it
through deception. In our world, there are extremely few
genuine examples of individuals seeking power for purely
altruistic reasons. Most people who crave power do so because
of hidden or personal agendas. DECEPTION on many levels is
skillfully employed to manipulate the populace into giving
power away. A myriad of techniques using emotional triggers
and forced subjective thinking has always moved mountains
with an unknowing population. Could this be one of the
reasons why there’re so many broken promises between
politicians and the people they're supposed to serve?
THINK
about this.
Illusion No.7:
My God is the True God...
If you believe that God is ‘Infinite’, then how can INFINITY
be confined, interpreted, named, be owned, or reduced to any
particular belief or faith? Can you come to know the entire
ocean by only studying the water in an open bottle at the
bottom of it?? Can this pathetic example of water be THE
representative to the ENTIRE ocean?? I think NOT. And yet
even the mighty oceans put together is a FINITE thing! The
gap between INFINITY and anything claiming to know it is
INFINITE.
Left alone, human beings may naturally accept and be tolerant
of each other as their various faiths forever preach. However
this is not our reality and the reason is that our ‘belief in
OUR true God’ is one of the dials of the machine that can be,
and is usually manipulated when massive death and destruction
is being planned.
By virtue of the importance and prominence that religion has
in this artificial construct, most ideas of God as taught by
most of the major religions on earth may be false. Think
about this. The impulse to search for meaning to one’s
existence is human, and is as old as time. For the ‘Powers
That Be’, it’s a dangerous thing to have urgings be allowed
to evolve and compel you to find TRUTH in an illusory
environment. Measures must be designed to interfere and
re-interpret these messages from within, and this you can be
assured they have done.
THINK
about this.
Illusion No.8:
There is only ONE Spirituality which is incorruptible, and
only the uneducated and simpleton attempt to pervert it
through ‘negative’ practices such as Black Magic, and other
such nonsense...
There are TWO very distinct and diametrically opposed kinds
of spirituality existing in the Universe. They fall under the
categories of STO (Service To Others) and STS (Service To
Self). They are the exact opposites of each other with both
acknowledging that FREE WILL is the highest law in the
universe, however the latter aims to hide this knowledge.
The entire Earth is currently the domain of one of them.
Because of this, examples of the other are extremely rare and
have never been encountered by most of the world’s people.
Maybe after further reading, the reader can figure which one
in its various guises has dominion over our planet. The basic
descriptions of the two types of spirituality are thus:
Service
To Self (STS)
To serve All, through first serving the
Self.
To TAKE from all who ALLOW themselves to be deceived, either
consciously or unconsciously by default. Operates through
fear, deception, logic, omission/misrepresentation of truth.
Teaches that the human condition is a battle between the Soul
and Animal aspects. Teaches the existence of ONE
spirituality, thus misrepresenting the Soul by hiding the
TRUE nature of the DUALITY of Negative and Positive
existence. Represents the Descending Spiral of Existence or
'NON-BEING', with a distinct focus on physical life/Body, the
material Universe, subjective/emotional/assumption/wishful
thinking, and the total immersion into DREAMS. Hierarchical
organizational structure facilitating learning from the
bottom progressing through degrees. Places great honor on the
ability to produce material phenomena, which is used as a
tool to impress through emotional responses. Staged to
impress the senses with ceremony and ritual, which includes
various combinations of commands, demands, and invocations,
playing on themes of hunger, greed, sex, or fear. Teaches
faith in the material Universe through dogma, and on deeper
levels that the Universe is yours to command. Teaches that
their knowledge is ‘light’, and deceives that ‘darkness’ is
the absence of this light through which negative experiences
occur. Teaches that: ‘As A Man THINKETH, So Is He’.
THINK
about this.
Service To Others (STO)
To serve the Self, through first serving All.
To GIVE to all who GENUINELY ask. Operates through absolute
openness, honesty, and lack of fear. Reveals the existence of
TWO kinds of spirituality, thus revealing the TRUE nature of
the DUALITY of Negative and Positive existence. Reveals that
the human condition is a battle between opposing
spiritualities for the MIND of the individual. Represents the
Ascending Spiral of Existence or 'BEING', with a distinct
focus on ethereal life/Soul, the ethereal Universe,
objective/observational/critical thinking, and AWAKENING from
dreams. Network organizational structure facilitating
learning from All. Reveals that KNOWLEDGE PROTECTS and
IGNORANCE ENDANGERS, and to have FAITH in Existence. Reveals
that your unknowns are the real ‘darkness’, and that STS
spirituality works through this darkness to touch and
influence. This is why STS relies on deception and the
limiting of knowledge to survive. Teaches that: ‘What A Man
DOES, Is MORE Important Than What He Thinks’.
THINK
about this.
Illusion No.9
Civilization is a natural organizational occurrence emerging
from the need to be efficient with resources, for the
betterment of all.
To a certain extent this is true, and I once again suggest
that one’s understanding of this matter is so determined by
their level of AWARENESS. CIVILIZATION is an artificial
construct and ‘yes’, it is necessary for the purposes stated
above on one hand. On the other hand, it is an ONGOING
DESIGNED PROJECT intensely overseen by a VERY ANCIENT CABAL
OF POWERFUL AND UNKNOWN PEOPLE whose purpose is to oversee
and manage the secret agenda for its construction. It is
created to harness and channel the enormous output of human
energy (passion) into carefully cultivated stages of
readiness such as, herding, conditioning, transformation,
energy-generation, energy-storage, and utilization, for
ultimate goal of providing efficient harvesting by the
construct’s OVERSEERS.
Our current worldwide civilization is only the latest version
of untold numbers to have taken root, flourished, and
destroyed (harvested) on this planet for the same diabolical
purpose. The subject of Forbidden Archeology has revealed
some startling anomalous evidence pointing to the existence
of these past highly technological societies.
THINK
about this.
Illusion No.10
I have ONE mind. And it is MY choice when it changes between
ideas, especially ideas that seem completely opposed to each
other.
You have one brain, but TWO completely different thought
patterns influencing from the TWO completely different
Thought Centers of BEing and NON-BEing. Each having a greater
or lesser influence in relation to the other at different
times. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW. This is the Universe, this is MAN.
One mind represents the Material part of our existence, and
the other urges from the Ethereal. Both locked in an ivisible
battle for dominion over your CONSCIOUS MIND. Our illusion is
greatly deepened because this simple Truth is kept hidden
from us by certain Forces in dominion of this world. Forces
in control from the Thought Center of NON-BEing. He that
controls the CONSCIOUS MIND of a being, controls the being.
Knowledge Protects, Ignorance Endangers.
Objective
Reality is One, and could be defined as - "the way the
UNIVERSE SEES ITSELF".
Subjective Reality is Uncountable, and is defined as
DREAMWORLDS composed of emotional attachments, loyalties,
assumptions, wishful thinking, and dreams leading to pursuits
colored by themes of hunger, sex, greed, and fear. It is an
ILLUSORY mindset, and the OPPOSITE OF OBJECTIVE REALITY. Our
entire civilization is built on dreams, dreaming, and the
pursuit of dreams.
We live in a Virtual Reality of interconnected, interacting
DREAMWORLDS. One belonging to every man, woman, and child on
the planet.
Such is the way of the Dark Force of NON-BEING that controls
this world. It creates illusions and manipulate you to think
you want or need them. It creates the illusion of freedom by
manipulating you to think you're CHOOSING, when the only
choice is between one illusion and another. It HIDES in plain
sight by 'dissappearing' in your DREAMWORLD by misdirection
and twisting of Truth.
He
that controls the CONSCIOUS MIND of a being, controls the
being.
The objective of the person that strives to AWAKEN, is simply
to VIEW ALL THINGS OBJECTIVELY on the EVIDENCE ALONE, without
emotional attachments, loyalties, fear of retribution,
wishful thinking, or being triggered by symbols. In time,
VALUES previously ascribed to all things, may begin to
change.
Q: Are we chosen?
A: What is chosen? Only you can choose. The choice comes by
nature and free will and looking and listening. Where you are
is not important. Who you are is and also what you see.
- Casseopaeans
When
one begins to AWAKEN, one begins to SEE the terrifying face
of this Dark Force, and this is only the begining...
----------------------------
Laura
Knight-Jadczyk wrote in The Adventure Series:
"The great Sufi Shaykh Ibn al-'Arabi explains that
"imperfection" exists in Creation because "were there no
imperfection, the perfection of existence would be
imperfect." From the point of view of Sheer Being, there is
nothing but good.
But Infinite Potential to BE includes - by definition of the
word "infinite" - the potential to Not Be. And so, Infinite
Potential - The ALL - "splits" into Thought Centers of
Creation/BEing and Thought Centers of Entropy/Non-being. It
can be said that Infinite Potential is fundamentally Binary -
on or off - to be or not to be. That is the first "division."
Since absolute non-being is an impossible paradox in terms of
the source of Infinite Potential to BE, the half of the
consciousness of Infinite Potential that constitute the IDEAS
of non-being - for every idea of manifestation, there is a
corresponding idea for that item of creation to NOT manifest
- "falls asleep" for lack of a better term. Its "self
observation" is predicated upon consciousness that can only
"mimic" death. Consciousness that mimics death then "falls"
and becomes Primal Matter. [...]
It has been represented for millennia in the yin-yang symbol,
which, even on the black half that represents "sleeping
consciousness that is matter," you can see the small white
dot of "being" that represents to us that absolute
non-existence is not possible. There is only "relative"
non-existence. [...]
At our level of reality, the understanding that "nothing is
real," as has been promulgated by gurus and teachers down
through history, is as useless as saying "gravity isn't
real." Such considerations are useful only for expansion of
perception. They are not useful for practical application
since the energies of creation apparently transduce through
several "levels" before they meet in the middle, so to say,
in our reality.
Organic life exists at the "crossroads" of the myriad ideas
or thought centers of being and non-being. As such, they have
the capacity to transduce energies "up" or "down" depending
on the "consciousness energy directors" of that unit. [...]
Against the opposition of those forces seeking to "capture"
energy of consciousness and induce it to the "sleep of
non-being," which is gravitational in a certain sense, the
energies of consciousness seek to "inform" matter via
awakening the self-awareness of those organic units on earth
that are capable of resistance to the gravity of non-being.
As self-aware "transducing units," the human being has the
potential for going either way - toward intensified being, or
toward intensified non-being. [...]
God creates the good and the evil, the ugly and the
beautiful, the straight and the crooked, the moral and the
immoral. Between these traits lie the manifold dangers of the
path of the seeker of Truth.
Many modern day "teachers" and "gurus" tell us "Since there
is only One Being which permeates all things, all we have to
do is see everything as only light", and that will transmute
the darkness, and we will "create our own reality of light."
Such a statement ignores the fact that the statement "God is
One" describes a reality that is a higher level from which
our own "mixed being" manifests. The man who assumes that he
can become like God at this level just by thinking it,
ignores the facts of Being vs. Non-being which outrays from
"God is One" at a level of existence that is clearly several
levels above our own. Evil is REAL on its own level, and the
task of man is to navigate the Cosmic Maze without being
defiled by the Evil therein. This is the root of Free Will.
Man faces a predicament as REAL as himself: he is forced to
choose - to utilize his knowledge by applying it - between
the straight path which leads to Being, and the crooked paths
which lead to Non-Being.
Human beings are required to discern between good and evil -
consciousness energy directors - at every stage of their
existence in this reality. Because, in fact, they must
understand that God is consciousness and God is matter. God
is good, and God is evil. The Creation assumes all the
different properties of the many "Names of God." The Cosmos
is full of Life-giving and Slaying, Forgiveness and
Vengeance, Exaltation and Abasement, Guidance and Deception.
To attempt to assume God's point of view and "mix everything"
at this level, results only in STAYING at this level.
Therefore, human beings must always separate God's point of
view from their own point of view and the fact that all
creation assumes the divine Names and Traits.
Following is an excerpt from:
Jupiter, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce,
and the Return of the Mongols
by, Laura Knight-Jadczyk
"People that believe in illusion, in lies, are making a
statement to life, to the real objective universe, that they
do not desire to exist in it. While very often we do not get
what we desire in life, we can be sure that, in the end, we
will get back that which we give to life. For those people
that align themselves with illusion, with that which is not
real, they will become just that - "a dream in the past."
Those who pay strict attention to objective reality right and
left, become the reality of the 'Future'."
The conditions of the present day are actually the best
possible for acquiring knowledge. But why, you might ask, do
we consider discovering the closest approximation of the
truth of our past to be a worthy occupation?
It's quite simple: in a universe where the observer is as
important as the observed, the closer they are in alignment,
the more order is possible from the side of the universe
which - being unimpeded by the barriers of lies - allows
creation to manifest unlimited possibilities. When there is
great disparity between the observer and the observed, it
naturally creates disorder, chaos, destruction due to the
conflict. This is why all the efforts of the New Age to have
"harmonic convergence" that focus on "peace and brotherhood"
- while the true foundation of our civilization is based on
lies and greed - has only served to add to the chaos and
disorder.
The universe - what is being observed - IS AS IT IS and
operates based on certain principles that are little known
despite millennia of claims by this or that group to "know
the secrets." When you observe the universe you are, in a
certain sense, observing "God." When you attempt to impose
your subjective ideas, notions, beliefs, on this vast primal
consciousness, you are acting "in opposition" to what IS, to
"God." You are therefore, not "in alignment" with the
observed, and contribute to the chaos.
It is only in purity, with the mind of the child that does
not impose beliefs or subjective opinions on the cosmos, that
objectivity can be achieved.
From our position of millennia of cultural and religious
brainwashing, the only possibility we have of achieving the
mind of the child that observes and does not judge is to
strip away as many lies and illusions as possible about our
reality as a whole. And the only effect we can have on the
future is to "allow it to manifest" according to our present
"observational state." That is: objectivity does not limit
creation while subjectivity attempts to limit, constrain and
inhibit that which is limitless.
Our observational state determines the shape of the future!
If it is in alignment with WHAT IS, then order results. If
our "observer status" consists in a "belief" that has nothing
to do with what IS, chaos results because of the conflict
between what IS and what is "believed" that is not true.
It then follows that if our present observational state is
based on ideas that have nothing to do with what may have
objectively occurred in the past, then our "now" is delusion,
and that creates a future of chaos.
The ONLY thing we have to practice this observation on IS THE
PAST! We cannot "observe the future" that has not yet
manifested. What's more, we cannot observe the NOW
objectively if our observations are based on lies of the
past!"
Knowledge
Protects, Ignorance Endangers
"...For
this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief
is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and
will not let the thief break into their house and steal their
possessions.
As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare
yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a
way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come.
Let there be among you a person who understands.
When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and
harvested it. Anyone here with two good ears had better
listen!"
-Nag Hammadi Library
Our universe seems to be made up of matter/energy and of
consciousness.
Matter/energy
by itself "prefers", as it seems, a chaotic state.
Matter/energy by itself doesn't even have a concept of
"creation" or "organization". It is the consciousness that
brings to life these concepts and by its interaction with
matter pushes the universe towards chaos and decay or towards
order and creation.
This phenomenon can modeled mthematically and simulated on a
computer using EEQT (Event Enhanced Quantum Theory). Whether
EEQT faithfully models the interaction of consciousness with
matter - we do not know. But chances that it does because it
seems to describe correctly physical phenomena better than
just the orthodox quantum mechanics or its rival theories
(Bohmian mechanics, GRW etc.)
What
we learn from EEQT can be described in simple terms as
follows:
Let us call our material universe "the system". The system is
characterized by a certain "state". It is useful to represent
the state of the system as a point on a disc. The central
point of the disk, its origin, is the state of chaos. We
could also describe it as "Infinite Potential." The points on
the boundary represents "pure states" of being, that is
states with "pure, non-fuzzy, knowledge". In between there
are mixed states. The closer the state is to
the boundary, the more pure, more 'organized' it is.
Now, an external "observer", a "consciousness unit", has some
idea - maybe accurate, maybe false or anywhere in between -
about the "real state" of the system, and observes the system
with this "belief" about the state. Observation, if
prolonged, causes the state of the system to "jump". In this
sense, you DO "create your own reality", but the devil, as
always, is in the details.
The details are that the resulting state of the system under
observation can be more pure, or more chaotic depending on
the "direction" of the jump. The direction of the jump
depends on how objective - how close to the reality of the
actual state - the observation is.
According to EEQT if the expectations of the observer are
close to the actual state of the system, the system jumps,
more often than not, into more organized, less chaotic state.
If, on the other hand, the expectation of the observer is
close to the negation of the actual state (that is when the
observer's beliefs are closer to being false than to being
true according to the ACTUAL state - the objective reality),
then the state of the system, typically, will jump into a
state that is more chaotic, less organized. Moreover, it will
take, as a rule, much longer time to
accomplish such a jump.
In other words, if the observer's knowledge of the actual
state is close to the truth, then the very act of observation
and verification causes a jump quickly, and the resulting
state is more organized. If the observer's knowledge of the
actual state is false, then it takes usually a long time to
cause a change in the state of the system, and the resulting
state is more chaotic.
What this means is that order can be brought out of chaos by
observing chaos as it IS and not pretending that it is
otherwise. In short, everyone who "believes" in an attempt to
"create reality" that is different from what IS, increases
the chaos and entropy. If your beliefs are orthogonal to the
truth, no matter how strongly you believe them, you are
essentially coming into conflict with how the Universe views
itself and I can assure you, you ain't gonna win that
contest. You are inviting destruction upon yourself and all
who engage in this "staring down the universe" exercise with
you.
On the other hand, if you are able to view the Universe as it
views itself, objectively, without blinking, and with
acceptance, you then become more "aligned" with the Creative
energy of the universe and your very consciousness becomes a
transducer of order. Your energy of observation, given
unconditionally, can bring order to chaos, can create out of
infinite potential.
In The Adventure Series, I concentrated to a great extent on
the problem of psychopathy in our world today. I was
motivated to do this by the fact that we had been victimized
by a psychopath whose behavior was utterly incomprehensible.
As a consequence of this research, I was much better prepared
to understand George Bush and his Reich and that served to
"inoculate" me against the fear tactics that are utilized by
the psychopath to paralyze their victims.
I realize that Americans who are "stupid" are that way by
design. In a sense, it is not their fault. They are no more
capable of thinking on their own than the mouse is capable of
escaping the claws of the cat determined to eat it.
But not everyone is a mouse. It is for those who are evolving
that we continue to keep the lighthouse going. But be aware,
the day may come - and sooner than you might expect - when
the storm is so violent that the keepers of the flame will
abandon the task, knowing that no light can be seen in such
Stygian darkness.
In The Adventure Series, Laura Knight-Jadczyk wrote the
following:
Could it ever be an evolutionarily stable strategy for people
to be innately unselfish? On the whole, a capacity to cheat,
to compete and to lie has proven to be a stupendously
successful adaptation. Thus the idea that selection pressure
could ever cause saintliness to spread in a society looks
implausible in practice. It doesn't seem feasible to
outcompete genes which promote competitiveness.
"Nice guys" get eaten or outbred. Happy people who are
unaware get eaten or outbred. Happiness and niceness today is
vanishingly rare, and the misery and suffering of those who
are able to truly feel, who are empathic toward other human
beings, who have a conscience, is all too common.
Nevertheless, a predisposition to, conscience, ethics, can
prevail if and when it is also able to implement the deepest
level of altruism: making the object of its empathy the
higher ideal of enhancing free will in the abstract sense,
for the sake of others, including our descendants.
In short, our "self-interest" ought to be vested in
collectively ensuring that all others are happy and
well-disposed too; and in ensuring that children we bring
into the world have the option of being constitutionally
happy and benevolent toward one another.
In short, if psychopathy threatens the well-being of the
group future, then it can be only be dealt with by refusing
to allow the self to be dominated by it on an individual,
personal basis.Preserving free will for the self in the
practical sense, ultimately preserves free will for others.
Protection of our own rights AS the rights of others,
underwrites the free will position and potential for
happiness of all. If mutant psychopaths pose a potential
danger then true empathy, true ethics, true conscience,
dictates using prophylactic therapy against psychopaths.
It seems certain from the evidence that a positive
transformation of human nature isn't going to come about
through a great spiritual awakening, socio-economic reforms,
or a spontaneous desire among the peoples of the world to be
nice to each other. But it's quite possible that, in the long
run, the psychopathic program of suffering will lose out
because misery is not a stable strategy.
In a state of increasing misery, victims will seek to escape
it; and this seeking will ultimately lead them to inquire
into the true state of their misery, and that may lead to a
society of intelligent people who will have the collective
capacity to do so.
And so it is that identifying the psychopath, ceasing our
interaction with them, cutting them off from our society,
making ourselves unavailable to them as "food" or objects to
be conned and used, is the single most effective strategy
that we can play. [...]
To allow oneself to be conned, or used by a psychopath is to
effectively become part of his "hierarchy" of feeding. To
believe the lies of the psychopath is to submit to his
"bidding" (he bids you to believe a lie, and you acquiesce),
and thus, to relinquish your free will.
In strictly material terms, this doesn't seem to be much of
an issue, right? After all, somebody lies to us and who
really cares? Is it going to hurt us to just let them lie? Is
it going to hurt us to just go along with them for the sake
of peace, even if we know or suspect they are lying? After
all, checking the facts and facing the psychopath with truth,
and telling them "no" is generally very unpleasant. Remember,
the game is set up so that we pay a lot for being ethical in
dealing with the psychopath. In material terms, it really
doesn't seem to be worth it because we suffer all kinds of
attack - verbal, psychological, and even physical abuse - so
it's just easier to let sleeping dogs lie, right? [...]
At best, we can only really penetrate to the level of the
psychological reality, observed behavior that is discordant,
or self-destructive. And we are thoroughly programmed to help
by giving until it hurts, or trying to fix, or to make nice.
All of these things, all of these accommodations of
psychopathy, on just a practical level, can be seen to
"select for psychopathy"
in terms of the gene pool.
But on another level, considering the great amount of
evidence we have that there is something very mysterious
going on that has to do with "controlling the minds of
humanity," and covering up something that may affect every
single human being on this planet, we find that the issue is
crucial. Refusing to accommodate the manipulations and
maneuvers of the psychopath may, indeed, be critical to the
positive transformation of our planet. [...]
And we see that the ultimate aim of the psychopath, as living
representatives of the Universal forces of Entropy, of
Non-Being, is to MASTER creative energy. To assimilate it to
the self, to deprive others of it by inducing them to believe
lies.
Because, when you believe the lie of the psychopath, you have
given him control of your Free Will - the essence of
Creativity. [...]
Thus, the first Divine Command is BE! And that includes Being
and Non-being instantaneously. Therefore, the second law is
"follow Being or Non-being according to your choice and your
inherent nature."
All creation is a result of this engendering command. So, in
this respect, there is no Evil. But the second, prescriptive
law determines to which "Face of God" one will return: Life
or Death.
There
ARE such things as "evil planets," and dark stars. And the
real question at this time is: Is Mother Earth about to
become one?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To try to make the point even clearer, here is what Gurdjieff
had to say
about it from: In In Search Of The Miraculous:
G. began the next talk as follows:
"Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot conceive even
a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But nothing can
be attained in sleep. In the consciousness of a sleeping man
his illusions, his 'dreams' are mixed with reality. He lives
in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And
this is the reason why he can never make use of all the
powers he possesses and why he always lives in only a small
part of himself.
"It has been said before that self-study and
self-observation, if rightly conducted, bring man to the
realization of the fact that something is wrong with his
machine and with his functions in their ordinary state. A man
realizes that it is precisely because he is asleep that he
lives and works in a small part of himself.
It is precisely for this reason that the vast majority of his
possibilities remain unrealized, the vast majority of his
powers are left unused.
A man feels that he does not get out of life all that it can
give him, that he fails to do so owing to definite functional
defects in his machine, in his receiving apparatus. The idea
of self-study acquires in his eyes a new meaning. He feels
that possibly it may not even be worth while studying himself
as he is now. He sees every function as it is now and as it
could be or ought to be.
Self-observation brings man to the realization of the
necessity for self-change. And in observing himself a man
notices that self-observation itself brings about certain
changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that
self-observation is an instrument of self change, a means of
awakening. By observing himself he throws, as it were, a ray
of light onto his inner processes which have hitherto worked
in complete darkness. And under the influence of this light
the processes themselves begin to change.
There are a great many chemical processes that can take place
only in the absence of light. Exactly in the same way many
psychic processes can take place only in the dark. Even a
feeble light of consciousness is enough to change completely
the character of a process, while it makes many of them
altogether impossible. Our inner psychic processes (our inner
alchemy) have much in common with those chemical processes in
which light changes the character of the process and they are
subject to analogous laws.
"When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for
self-study and self- observation but also for work on himself
with the object of changing himself, the character of his
self-observation must change.
He has so far studied the details of the work of the centers,
trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an
impartial witness. He has studied the work of the machine.
Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not
separate details, not the work of small wheels and levers,
but to see everything taken together as a whole-the whole of
himself such as others see him.
"For this purpose a man must learn to take, so to speak,
'mental photographs' of himself at different moments of his
life and in different emotional states: and not photographs
of details, but photographs of the whole as he saw it. In
other words these photographs must contain simultaneously
everything that a man can see in himself at a given moment.
Emotions, moods, thoughts, sensations, postures, movements,
tones of voice, facial expressions, and so on. If a man
succeeds in seizing interesting moments for these photographs
he will very soon collect a whole album of pictures of
himself which, taken together, will show him quite clearly
what he is.
But it is not so easy to learn how to take these photographs
at the most interesting and characteristic moments, how to
catch characteristic postures, characteristic facial
expressions, characteristic emotions, and characteristic
thoughts. If the photographs are taken successfully and if
there is a sufficient number of them, a man will see that his
usual conception of himself, with which he has lived from
year to year, is very
far from reality.
"Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be he will see
quite another man. This 'other' man is himself and at the
same time not himself. It is he as other people know him, as
he imagines himself and as he appears in his actions, words,
and so on; but not altogether such as he actually is. For a
man himself knows that there is a great deal that is unreal,
invented, and artificial in this other man whom other people
know and whom he knows himself.
You
must learn to divide the real from the invented.
And to begin self- observation and self-study it is necessary
to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists
of two men.
"One is the man he calls 'I' and whom others call
'Ouspensky,' 'Zakharov' or 'Petrov.'
The other is the real he, the real I, which appears in his
life only for very short moments and which can become firm
and permanent only after a very lengthy period of work.
"So long as a man takes himself as one person he will never
move from where he is. His work on himself starts from the
moment when he begins to feel two men in himself. One is
passive and the most it can do is to register or observe what
is happening to it. The other, which calls itself 'I,' is
active, and speaks of itself in the first person, is in
reality only 'Ouspensky,' 'Petrov' or 'Zakharov.'
"This is the first realization that a man can have. Having
begun to think correctly he very soon sees that he is
completely in the power of his 'Ouspensky,' 'Petrov,' or
'Zakharov.' No matter what he plans or what he intends to do
or say, it is not 'he,' not 'I,' that will carry it out, do
or say it, but his 'Ouspensky' 'Petrov,' or 'Zakharov,' and
of course they will do or say it, not in the way 'I' would
have done or said it, but in their own way with their own
shade of meaning, and often this shade of meaning completely
changes what 'I' wanted to do.
"From this point of view there is a very definite danger
arising from the very first moment of self-observation. It is
'I' who begins self-observation, but it is immediately taken
up and continued by 'Ouspensky,' 'Zakharov,' or 'Petrov.' But
'Ouspensky' 'Zakharov,' or 'Petrov' from the very first steps
introduces a slight alteration into this self- observation,
an alteration which seems to be quite unimportant but which
in reality fundamentally alters the whole thing.
"Let us suppose, for example, that a man called Ivanov hears
the description of this method of self-observation. He is
told that a man must divide himself, 'he' or 'I' on one side
and 'Ouspensky,' 'Tetrov,' or 'Zakharov' on the other side.
And he divides himself literally as he hears it. 'This is I,'
he says, 'and that is "Ouspensky," "Petrov," or "Zakharov."'
He will never say 'Ivanov.' He finds that unpleasant, so he
will inevitably use somebody else's surname or Christian
name.
Moreover he calls 'I' what he likes in himself or at any rate
what he considers to be strong, while he calls 'Ouspensky,'
'Petrov,' or 'Zakharov' what he does not like or what he
considers to be weak. On this basis he begins to reason in
many ways about himself, quite wrongly of course from the
very beginning, since he has already deceived himself in the
most important point and has taken not his real self, that
is, he has taken, not Ivanov, but the imaginary 'Ouspensky,'
'Petrov' or 'Zakharov.'
"It is difficult even to imagine how often a man dislikes to
use his own name in speaking of himself in the third person.
He tries to avoid it in every possible way. He calls himself
by another name, as in the instance just mentioned; he
devises an artificial name for himself, a name by which
nobody ever has or ever will call him, or he calls himself
simply 'he,' and so on. In this connection people who are
accustomed in their mental conversations to call themselves
by their Christian name, or surname or by pet names are no
exception. When it comes to self-observation they prefer to
call themselves 'Ouspensky' or to say 'Ouspensky in me,' as
though there could be an 'Ouspensky' in them. There is quite
enough of 'Ouspensky' for Ouspensky himself.
"But when a man understands his helplessness in the face of
'Ouspensky' his attitude towards himself and towards
'Ouspensky' in him ceases to be either indifferent or
unconcerned.
"Self-observation becomes observation of 'Ouspensky' A man
understands that he is not 'Ouspensky,' that 'Ouspensky' is
nothing but the mask he wears, the part that he unconsciously
plays and which unfortunately he cannot stop playing, a part
which rules him and makes him do and say thousands of stupid
things, thousands of things which he would never do or say
himself.
"If he is sincere with himself he feels that he is in the
power of 'Ouspensky' and at the same time he feels that he is
not 'Ouspensky.'
"He begins to be afraid of 'Ouspensky,' begins to feel that
he is his 'enemy.' No matter what he would like to do,
everything is intercepted and altered by 'Ouspensky.'
'Ouspensky' is his 'enemy.' 'Ouspensky's' desires, tastes,
sympathies, antipathies, thoughts, opinions, are either
opposed to his own views, feelings, and moods, or they have
nothing in common with them. And, at the same time,
'Ouspensky' is his master. He is the slave. He has no will of
his own. He has no means of expressing his desires because
whatever he would like to do or say would be done for him by
'Ouspensky.'
"On this level of self-observation a man must understand that
his whole aim is to free himself from 'Ouspensky.'
And since he cannot in fact free himself from 'Ouspensky,'
because he is himself, he must therefore master 'Ouspensky'
and make him do, not what the 'Ouspensky' of the given moment
wants, but what he himself wants to do. From being the
master, 'Ouspensky' must become the servant.
"The first stage of work on oneself consists in separating
oneself from 'Ouspensky' mentally, in being separated from
him in actual fact, in keeping apart from him.
But the fact must be borne in mind that the whole attention
must be concentrated upon 'Ouspensky' for a man is unable to
explain what he himself really is. But he can explain
'Ouspensky' to himself and with this he must begin,
remembering at the same time that he is not 'Ouspensky,'
"The most dangerous thing in this case is to rely on one's
own judgment. If a man is lucky he may at this time have
someone near him who can tell him where he is and where
'Ouspensky' is. But he must moreover trust this person,
because he will undoubtedly think that he understands
everything himself and that he knows where he is and where
'Ouspensky' is. And not only in relation to himself but in
relation also to other people will he think that he knows and
sees their 'Ouspenskys.' All this is of course
self-deception.
At this stage a man can see nothing either in relation to
himself or to others.
The more convinced he is that he can, the more he is
mistaken. But if he can be even to a slight extent sincere
with himself and really wants to know the truth, then he can
find an exact and infallible basis for judging rightly first
about himself and then about other people.
But the whole point lies in being sincere with oneself. And
this is by no means easy.
People do not understand that sincerity must be learned. They
imagine that to be sincere or not to be sincere depends upon
their desire or decision. But how can a man be sincere with
himself when in actual fact he sincerely does not see what he
ought to see in himself?
Someone has to show it to him.
And his attitude towards the person who shows him must be a
right one, that is, such as will help him to see what is
shown him and not, as often happens, hinder him if he begins
to think that he already knows better.
"This is a very serious moment in the work.
A man who loses his direction at this moment will never find
it again afterwards.
It must be remembered that man such as he is does not possess
the means of distinguishing 'I' and 'Ouspensky' in himself.
Even if he tries to, he will lie to himself and invent
things, and he will never see himself as he really is. It
must be understood that without outside help a man can never
see himself.
"In order to know why this is so you must remember ...
self-observation brings a man to the realization of the fact
that he does not remember himself. Man's inability to
remember himself is one of the chief and most characteristic
features of his being and the cause of everything else in
him. [...] And a man particularly easily forgets what relates
to himself, those 'mental photographs' of himself which
perhaps he has previously taken.
"And this deprives man's views and opinions of any stability
and precision. ...
"This in its turn is connected with one of the fundamental
characteristics of man's attitude towards himself and to all
his surroundings. Namely, his constant 'identification' with
what at a given moment has attracted his attention, his
thoughts or his desires, and his imagination.
"Identification' is so common a quality that for purposes of
observation it is difficult to separate it from everything
else. Man is always in a state of identification, only the
object of identification changes. [...]
"'Identifying' is one of our most terrible foes because it
penetrates everywhere and deceives a man at the moment when
it seems to him that he is struggling with it. It is
especially difficult to free oneself from identifying because
a man naturally becomes more easily identified with the
things that interest him most, to which he gives his time,
his work, and his attention.
In order to free himself from identifying a man must be
constantly on guard and be merciless with himself, that is,
he must not be afraid of seeing all the subtle and hidden
forms which identifying takes.
"It is necessary to see and to study identifying to its very
roots in oneself.
The difficulty of struggling with identifying is still
further increased by the fact that when people observe it in
themselves they consider it a very good trait and call it
'enthusiasm,' 'zeal,' 'passion,' 'spontaneity,'
'inspiration,' and names of that kind, and they consider that
only in a state of identifying can a man really produce good
work, no matter in what sphere. In reality of course this is
illusion. Man cannot do anything sensible when he is in a
state of identifying. If people could see what the state of
identifying means they would alter their opinion. A man
becomes a thing, a piece of flesh; he loses even the small
semblance of a human being that he has. [...]
Look at people in shops, in theaters, in restaurants; or see
how they identify with words when they argue about something
or try to prove something, particularly something they do not
know themselves. They become greediness, desires, or words;
of themselves nothing remains.
"Identifying is the chief obstacle to self-remembering. A man
who identifies with anything is unable to remember himself.
In order to remember oneself it is necessary first of all not
to identify.
But in order to learn not to identify man must first of all
not be identified with himself, must not call himself 'I'
always and on all occasions.
He must remember that there are two in him, that there is
himself that is 'I' in him, and there is another with whom he
must struggle and whom he must conquer if he wishes at any
time to attain anything. So long as a man identifies or can
be identified, he is the slave of everything that can happen
to him.
Freedom is first of all freedom from identification.
"After general forms of identification attention must be
given to a particular form of identifying, namely identifying
with people, which takes the form of 'considering' them.
"There are several different kinds of 'considering.'
"On the most prevalent occasions a man is identified with
what others think about him, how they treat him, what
attitude they show towards him. He always thinks that people
do not value him enough, are not sufficiently polite and
courteous. All this torments him, makes him think and suspect
and lose an immense amount of energy on guesswork, on
suppositions, develops in him a distrustful and hostile
attitude towards people. How somebody looked at him, what
somebody thought of him, what somebody said of him-all this
acquires for him an immense significance.
"And he 'considers' not only separate persons but society and
historically constituted conditions. Everything that
displeases such a man seems to him to be unjust, illegal,
wrong, and illogical. And the point of departure for his
judgment is always that these things can and should be
changed. 'Injustice' is one of the words in which very often
considering hides itself. When a man has convinced himself
that he is indignant with some injustice, then for him to
stop considering would mean 'reconciling himself to
injustice.'
"There are people who are able to consider not only injustice
or the failure of others to value them enough but who are
able to consider for example the weather. This seems
ridiculous but it is a fact. People are able to consider
climate, heat, cold, snow, rain; they can be irritated by the
weather, be indignant and angry with it.
A man can take everything in such a personal way as though
everything in the world had been specially arranged in order
to give him pleasure or on the contrary to cause him
inconvenience or unpleasantness.
"All this and much else besides is merely a form of
identification. Such considering is wholly based upon
'requirements.' A man inwardly 're-quires' that everyone
should see what a remarkable man he is and that they should
constantly give expression to their respect, esteem, and
admiration for him, for his intellect, his beauty, his
cleverness, his wit, his presence of mind, his originality,
and all his other qualities.
Requirements in their turn are based on a completely
fantastic notion about themselves such as very often occurs
with people of very modest appearance. Various writers,
actors, musicians, artists, and politicians, for instance,
are almost without exception sick people. And what are they
suffering from? First of all from an extraordinary' opinion
of themselves, then from requirements, and then from
considering, that is, being ready and prepared beforehand to
take offense at lack of understanding and lack of
appreciation.
"There is still another form of considering which can take a
great deal of energy from a man. This form starts with a man
beginning to think that he is not considering another person
enough, that this other person is offended with him for not
considering him sufficiently. And he begins to think himself
that perhaps he does not think enough about this other, does
not pay him enough attention, does not give way to him
enough. All this is simply weakness.
People are afraid of one another. But this can lead very far.
I have seen many such cases. In this way a man can finally
lose his balance, if at any time he had any, and begin to
perform entirely senseless actions. He gets angry with
himself and feels that it is stupid, and he cannot stop,
whereas in such cases the whole point is precisely 'not to
consider.'
"It is the same case, only perhaps worse, when a man
considers that in his opinion he 'ought' to do something when
as a matter of fact he ought not to do so at all. 'Ought' and
'ought not' is also a difficult subject, that is, difficult
to understand when a man really 'ought' and when he 'ought
not.'
This can be approached only from the point of view of 'aim.'
When a man has an aim he 'ought' to do only what leads
towards his aim and he 'ought not' to do anything that
hinders him from going towards his aim.
"As I have already said, people very often think that if they
begin to struggle with considering within themselves it will
make them 'insincere' and they are afraid of this because
they think that in this event they will be losing something,
losing a part of themselves. In this case the same thing
takes place as in attempts to struggle against the outward
expression of unpleasant emotions. The sole difference is
that in one case a man struggles with the outward expression
of emotions and in the other case with an inner manifestation
of perhaps the same emotions.
"This fear of losing sincerity is of course self-deception,
one of those formulas of lying upon which human weaknesses
are based. Man cannot help identifying and considering
inwardly and he cannot help expressing his
unpleasant emotions, simply because he is weak.
Identifying, considering, the expressing of unpleasant
emotions, are manifestations of his weakness, his impotence,
his inability to control himself.
But not wishing to acknowledge this weakness to himself, he
calls it 'sincerity' or 'honesty' and he tells himself that
he does not want to struggle against sincerity, whereas in
fact he is unable to struggle against his weaknesses.
"Sincerity and honesty are in reality something quite
different. What a man calls 'sincerity' in this case is in
reality simply being unwilling to restrain himself. And deep
down inside him a man is aware of this. But he lies to
himself when he says that he does not want to lose sincerity.
"So far I have spoken of internal considering. It would be
possible to bring forward many more examples. But you must do
this yourselves, that is, you must seek these examples in
your observations of yourselves and of others.
"The opposite of internal considering and what is in part a
means of fighting against it is external considering.
External considering is based upon an entirely different
relationship towards people than internal considering.
It is adaptation towards people, to their understanding, to
their requirements.
By considering externally a man does that which makes life
easy for other people and for himself.
External considering requires a knowledge of men, an
understanding of their tastes, habits, and prejudices.
At the same time external considering requires a great power
over oneself, a great control over oneself.
Very often a man desires sincerely to express or somehow or
other show to another man what he really thinks of him or
feels about him. And if he is a weak man he will of course
give way to this desire and afterwards justify himself and
say that he did not want to lie, did not want to pretend, he
wanted to be sincere.
Then he convinces himself that it was the other man's fault.
He really wanted to consider him, even to give way to him,
not to quarrel, and so on. But the other man did not at all
want to consider him so that nothing could be done with him.
It very often happens that a man begins with a blessing and
ends with a curse. He begins by deciding not to consider and
afterwards blames other people for not considering him.
This is an example of how external considering passes into
internal considering.
But if a man really remembers himself he understands that
another man is a machine just as he is himself.
And then he will enter into his position, he will put himself
in his place, and he will be really able to understand and
feel what another man thinks and feels.
If he can do this his work becomes easier for him.
But if he approaches a man with his own requirements nothing
except new internal considering can ever be obtained from it.
"Right external considering is very important in the work. It
often happens that people who understand very well the
necessity of external considering in life do not understand
the necessity of external considering in the work; they
decide that just because they are in the work they have the
right not to consider.
Whereas in reality, in the work, that is, for a man's own
successful work, ten times more external considering is
necessary than in life, because only external considering on
his part shows his valuation of the work and his
understanding of the work; and success in the work is always
proportional to the valuation and understanding of it.
Remember that work cannot begin and cannot proceed on a level
lower than ordinary life. This is a very important principle
which, for some reason or other, is very easily forgotten.
G. began one of the following talks with the fact that we
forget about the difficulties of our position.
"You often think in a very naive way," he said. "You already
think you can do.
To get rid of this conviction is more difficult than anything
else for a man.
You do not understand all the complexity of your organization
and you do not realize that every effort, in addition to the
results desired, even if it gives these, gives thousands of
unexpected and often undesirable results, and the chief thing
that you forget is that you are not beginning from the
beginning with a nice clean, new machine.
There stand behind you many years of a wrong and stupid life,
of indulgence in every kind of weakness, of shutting your
eyes to your own errors, of striving to avoid all unpleasant
truths, of constant lying to yourselves, of
self-justification, of blaming others, and so on, and so on.
All this cannot help affecting the machine.
The machine is dirty, in places it is rusty, and in some
places artificial appliances have been formed, the necessity
for which has been created by its own wrong way of working.
"These artificial appliances will now interfere very much
with all your good intentions. "They are called 'buffers.'
" 'Buffer' is a term which requires special explanation. We
know what buffers on railway carriages are. They are the
contrivances which lessen the shock when carriages or trucks
strike one another. If there were no buffers the shock of one
carriage against another would be very unpleasant and
dangerous. Buffers soften the results of these shocks and
render them unnoticeable and imperceptible.
"Exactly the same appliances are to be found within man.
They are created, not by nature but by man himself, although
involuntarily.
The cause of their appearance is the existence in man of many
contradictions; contradictions of opinions, feelings,
sympathies, words, and actions. If a man throughout the whole
of his life were to feel all the contradictions that are
within him he could not live and act as calmly as he acts
now. He would have constant friction, constant unrest.
We fail to see how contradictory and hostile the different
I's of our personality are to one another.
If a man were to feel all these contradictions he would feel
what he really is. He would feel that he is mad. It is not
pleasant to anyone to feel that he is mad. Moreover, a
thought such as this deprives a man of self-confidence,
weakens his energy, deprives him of 'self- respect.' Somehow
or other he must master this thought or banish it. He must
either destroy contradictions or cease to see and to feel
them. A man cannot destroy contradictions. But if 'buffers'
are created in him he can cease to feel them and he will not
feel the impact from the clash of contradictory views,
contradictory emotions, contradictory words.
"'Buffers' are created slowly and gradually.
Very many 'buffers' are created artificially through
'education.' Others are created under the hypnotic influence
of all surrounding life. A man is surrounded by people who
live, speak, think, and feel by means of 'buffers.' Imitating
them in their opinions, actions, and words, a man
involuntarily creates similar 'buffers' in himself.
'Buffers' make a man's life more easy. It is very hard to
live without 'buffers.' But they keep man from the
possibility of inner development because 'buffers' are made
to lessen shocks and it is only shocks that can lead a man
out of the state in which he lives, that is, waken him.
'Buffers' lull a man to sleep, give him the agreeable and
peaceful sensation that all will be well, that no
contradictions exist and that he can sleep in peace.
'Buffers' are appliances by means of -which a man can always
be in the right.
'Buffers' help a man not to feel his conscience.
" 'Conscience' is again a term that needs explanation.
"In ordinary life the concept 'conscience' is taken too
simply. As if we had a conscience. Actually the concept
'conscience' in the sphere of the emotions is equivalent to
the concept 'consciousness' in the sphere of the intellect.
And as we have no consciousness we have no conscience.
"Consciousness is a state in which a man knows all at once
everything that he in general knows and in which he can see
how little he does know and how many contradictions there are
in what he knows.
"Conscience is a state in which a man feels all at once
everything that he in general feels, or can feel.
And as everyone has within him thousands of contradictory
feelings which vary from a deeply hidden realization of his
own nothingness and fears of all kinds to the most stupid
kind of self-conceit, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, and
self- praise, to feel all this together would not only be
painful but literally unbearable.
"If a man whose entire inner world is composed of
contradictions were suddenly to feel all these contradictions
simultaneously within himself, if he were to feel all at once
that he loves everything he hates and hates everything he
loves; that he lies when he tells the truth and that he tells
the truth when he lies; and if he could feel the shame and
horror of it all, this would be the state which is called
'conscience.
A man cannot live in this state; he must either destroy
contradictions or destroy conscience.
He cannot destroy conscience, but if he cannot destroy it he
can put it to sleep, that is, he can separate by impenetrable
barriers one feeling of self from another, never see them
together, never feel their incompatibility, the absurdity of
one existing alongside another.
"But fortunately for man, that is, for his peace and for his
sleep, this state of conscience is very rare.
From early childhood 'buffers' begin to grow and strengthen
in him, taking from him the possibility of seeing his inner
contradictions and therefore, for him, there is no danger
whatever of a sudden awakening.
Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it,
for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work
on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in
order to attain it.
For this it is necessary to destroy 'buffers,' that is, to go
out to meet all those inner sufferings which are connected
with the sensations of contradictions.
Moreover the destruction of 'buffers' in itself requires very
long work and a man must agree to this work realizing that
the result of his work will be every possible discomfort and
suffering from the awakening of his
conscience.
"But conscience is the fire which alone can fuse all the
powders in the glass retort which was mentioned before and
create the unity which a man lacks in that state in which he
begins to study himself.
"The concept 'conscience' has nothing in common with the
concept 'morality.'
"Conscience is a general and a permanent phenomenon.
Conscience is the same for all men and conscience is possible
only in the absence of 'buffers.'
From the point of view of understanding the different
categories of man we may say that there exists the conscience
of a man in whom there are no contradictions. This conscience
is not suffering; on the contrary it is joy of a totally new
character which we are unable to understand.
But even a momentary awakening of conscience in a man who has
thousands of different I's is bound to involve suffering. And
if these moments of conscience become longer and if a man
does not fear them but on the contrary cooperates with them
and tries to keep and prolong them, an element of very subtle
joy, a foretaste of the future 'clear consciousness' will
gradually enter into these moments.
"There is nothing general in the concept of 'morality.'
Morality consists of buffers. There is no general morality.
What is moral in China is immoral in Europe and what is moral
in Europe is immoral in China. What is moral in Petersburg is
immoral in the Caucasus. And what is moral in the Caucasus is
immoral in Petersburg. What is moral in one class of society
is immoral in another and vice versa. Morality is always and
everywhere an artificial phenomenon. It consists of various
'taboos,' that is, restrictions, and various demands,
sometimes sensible in their basis and sometimes having lost
all meaning or never even having had any meaning, and having
been created on a false basis, on a soil of superstition and
false fears.
"Morality consists of 'buffers.' And since 'buffers' are of
various kinds, and as the conditions of life in different
countries and in different ages or among different classes of
society vary considerably, so the morality created by them is
also very dissimilar and contradictory.
A morality common to all does not exist.
is 'Christian morality.' But first of all the idea of
'Christian It is even impossible to say that there exists any
general idea of morality, for instance, in Europe. It is said
sometimes that the general morality for Europemorality'
itself admits of very many different interpretations and many
different crimes have been justified by 'Christian morality.'
And in the second place modern Europe has very little in
common with 'Christian morality,' no matter how we understand
this morality.
"In any case, if 'Christian morality' brought Europe to the
war which is now going on, then it would be as well to be as
far as possible from such morality,"
"Many people say that they do not understand the moral side
of your teaching," said one of us. "And others say that your
teaching has no morality at all."
"Of course not," said G. "People are very fond of talking
about morality. But morality is merely self-suggestion. What
is necessary is conscience.
We do not teach morality. We teach how to find conscience.
People are not pleased when we say this. They say that we
have no love. Simply because we do not encourage weakness and
hypocrisy but, on the contrary, take off all masks.
He who desires the truth will not speak of love or of
Christianity because he knows how far he is from these.
Christian teaching is for Christians. And Christians are
those who live, that is, who do everything, according to
Christ's precepts. Can they who talk of love and morality
live according to Christ's precepts? Of course they cannot;
but there will always be talk of this kind, there will always
be people to whom words are more precious than anything else.
But this is a true sign! He who speaks like this is an empty
man; it is not worth while wasting time on him.
"Morality and conscience are quite different things. One
conscience can never contradict another conscience.
One morality can always very easily contradict and completely
deny another.
A man with 'buffers' may be very moral. And 'buffers' can be
very different, that is, two very moral men may consider each
other very immoral. As a rule it is almost inevitably so. The
more 'moral' a man is, the more 'immoral' does he think other
moral people.
"The idea of morality is connected with the idea of good and
evil conduct. But the idea of good and evil is always
different for different people, always subjective in man
number one, number two, and number three, and is connected
only with a given moment or a given situation.
A subjective man can have no general concept of good and
evil. For a subjective man evil is everything that is opposed
to his desires or interests or to his conception of good.
"One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at
all, that there exist only different conceptions of good.
Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of
evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests
of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it
in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill
one another in the interests of good. The reason is again
just the same, men's ignorance and the deep sleep in which
they live.
"This is so obvious that it even seems strange that people
have never thought of it before. However, the fact remains
that they fail to understand this and everyone considers his
good as the only good and all the rest as evil. It is naive
and useless to hope that men will ever understand this and
that they will evolve a general and identical idea of good."
"But do not good and evil exist in themselves apart from
man?" asked someone present.
"They do," said G., "only this is very far away from us and
it is not worth your while even to try to understand this at
present. Simply remember one thing. The only possible
permanent idea of good and evil for man is connected with the
idea of evolution; not with mechanical evolution, of course,
but with the idea of man's development through conscious
efforts, the change of his being, the creation of unity in
him, and the formation of a permanent I.
"A permanent idea of good and evil can be formed in man only
in connection with a p