Zigzag Idiot

Oceanic experience - primary narcissism - primordial presence nonbeing the other side of being Following this trail of breadcrumbs facilitates understanding and an increase in Being. IMO, what’s being offered here is a parallel process to that of a certain partial process of awakening and Self realization reflected in the following condensed explanation. First you must Awaken, then you die, then you can become a twice born.

Nirioonossian World sound Over the last few months I had noticed a drop off of hearing the chorus of crickets that began about 2017. Today I did a NN Dmt trip. As soon as I was emersed in that world/state of consciousness I noticed a return of that phenomena with quite a loud volume. As I write this, it is still with me quite loudly. I like it. It’s a peaceful sound. Synchronisticly, I encountered this website a few months after it originally began. http://humanityhealing.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/The-Cerebellum-and-the-Alta-Major.pdf

An idea that caught on with me is that we have to develop a healthy ego before it can be transcended. Maybe I heard Ken Wilber put it that way. The idea is also repeated elsewhere such as the Fourth Way. I just got 2 entries out of 18. Confusion About the Term "Ego" Here we digress to point out a source of confusion about the term “ego.” Readers who know both the spiritual and psychological literatures will find the term freely used in both, but with no general agreement on what the term refers to. This ambiguity often leads to confusion. The literature on spiritual development, on essential or inner development, on all matters of religious concern, generally uses the term “ego” to mean something which is seen as the barrier to spiritual realization. The literature on depth psychology, however, uses the term with a very different meaning. The ego referred to by Freud, and which ego psychology studies, is not the ego which is the barrier to spiritual development. They are two different concepts. The psychoanalytic term “ego” refers, rather, to the functional self, which is the site, organizer, and coordinator of the functions of perception, memory, mobility, and so on. There is, however, a concept in depth psychology and ego psychology that coincides with the ego of spiritual literature: it is called the “ego-identity,” and is sometimes referred to as the sense of self, or the sense of identity. This sense of self or separate identity is the main concern of ego developmental theory. This identity is, in fact, the acme, the most important outcome of ego development. It is ultimately the organizing center of the psychic apparatus. This psychic apparatus includes as one of its units the Freudian ego. In other words, the Freudian ego is part of the mind, is a structure or a structured process in it, while the self is a sense of identity and a center of action. The exact sense in which the ego identity is a barrier to spiritual development will become clear in later chapters. The Void, pg. 9 Object Relations Theory Object relations theory has become the dominant psychoanalytic theory of ego development. Its main insight is that the ego develops, primarily through the integration of early experiences, into organized mental structures. These mental structures, termed ego structures, are systems of memories that have become organized through the processes of assimilation or introjection, identification, integration, synthesis, and so on, into an overall schema patterning the self. The Point of Existence, pg. 54 Taken from https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/ego Other categories in the glossary Ego Ego Activity Ego Alien/Ego Syntonic Ego Boundaries Ego Death Ego Defense Ego Deficiency Ego Development Ego Functions Ego Ideal Ego Identity Ego Inadequacy Ego Life Ego Line Ego Metabolism Ego Self Ego Structures

Received Pronunciation in the old school style. If I got that right. That’s a new one for me. Thanks for the reply @LastThursday From Sheldrake to the Beatles, Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to Maurice Nicoll to Monte Python. I’ve always been heavy in interest and admiration for things British. I’ve wondered if at some point I might uncover past life memories from that part of the world. Being a descendent of Oliver Cromwell as well. Long live a John Cleese! If You Feed It, It Becomes A Monster by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen Don't feed that ugly emotion. Emotions are like living, breathing creatures. When you act on a negative emotion, such as insecurity or anger, and you do or say the insecure or angry thing, you are feeding the very emotion you don't want. So it grows bigger and bigger, sometimes into monstrous proportions. Then it seems to take control of you and it dominates your life. But if you don't feed it (if you don't act on it, if you don't do or say the ugly thing), it shrinks little by little. So instead, no matter how small they may seem in comparison, you can feed your beautiful emotions (such as security and outward loving and confidence). By doing the secure and loving and confident things, your beautiful emotions are the ones that grow bigger and stronger. Slowly and surely, these positives become the dominant emotions in your life.

I most always enjoy Rupert Sheldrake’s talks. Here he gets into telepathy and similar topics. Is it a specific kind of regional accent that I’m unaware of that makes him sound so proper? Or just what is it? It goes well with his dry sense of humor, anyway.

Anthropology Merle Haggard was very stage blue back in the day. Compare it to the video of him and Willie pasted below. Merle’s dead body was put into the earth in 2016.

I think it’s possible to be quiet and still be responsible. This was a realization I had a few years ago. - “It’s okay to have nothing to say”

I became depressed for a while today. Reflecting on what a shit I’ve been at times in the past brought it on. Not a distant past either. Kind of a mixture of recent and distant occasions. Fell into self criticism I guess, actually. I don’t feel I’m any improved for putting myself through that. Along with the useless self criticism though was something else. Remorse. The Oracle of the Cosmic Way points out the fallacy of guilt. With guilt we only put poison arrows in our psyche. These poison arrows perpetuate a fate that keeps the whole thing going. More or less it says the idea of sin and guilt is just plain bullshit that divides people against themselves. If we’re out of balance with the Cosmos, remorse of conscience can make the necessary adjustments. No need for a permanent stain of guilt that only cripples us psychologically. To me it jives perfectly with what Jesus is teaching in ACIM. Forgiveness or overlooking of grievances. Letting go of grievances. Not holding grudges. Not getting caught up in the glue-like stickiness of self-criticism or guilt or judgment or keeping score. No need for keeping accounts or seeking merit either. Everyone is innocent in a sense. Even Hitler. Just let go. Go beyond. Metanoia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(theology) My sister shared this YouTube with me and I watched it later in the day. This guy makes sense. Has a sense of humor too. https://youtu.be/53RX2ESIqsM

I’m enjoying a lot of Leo’s short clips. We all lie to ourselves. As unflattering as it is, I still do I have to admit. Do you acknowledge any of your lies that you tell yourself? Do you justify your negative emotions when they crop up? I view expressing negative emotions to be about on the same level as lying. I’m not encouraging the suppressing of them. Just the non-expression of them. There’s wisdom to be gained whenever you’re able to hold your tongue. Do I still express negative emotions at times? I do. Red Hawk uses an interesting expression in his book Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience. An Owners Manual- which is - “Sometimes I eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats me.”

I forgot to post Jim’s mini column on Sunday. An interesting one for sure. Her Angry Rash by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen It certainly wasn't all in her head. It was right there on both arms. Red - swollen - broken skin - oozing pus - and it itched terribly. She'd had it for ten years by the time she came to see me. She had been to several medical doctors and taken numerous medical treatments for it, but none gave her lasting relief. After some initial psychotherapy, including hypnosis, the source of the rash came to the surface. There had been a very loud disagreement with her boss at the time, and she had erupted with a kind of hostility that disgusted her and frightened her badly. From that point on, she was too afraid of her own anger to let it come out. So, consciously she didn’t let it come out. Instead, anger had been expressing itself unconsciously by erupting on both her arms. Well, a psychological problem deserves and requires a psychological solution. After some additional psychotherapy, she learned to not be afraid of her anger. The rash soon disappeared. She learned to assert her anger appropriately, without damage to herself or other people, and the rash stayed gone.

”He was born in the summer of his 27th year,,,,,,” That would be close to his Saturn return.

We certainly cover a wide spectrum of music. That’s good!

It did. @UDT Thank you for the detailed response!

I think this may count. Back in the 1930’s and 40’s there was a group of women artists and writers. Most who happened to be lesbian that we’re interested in the Work that Gurdjieff was teaching. One book called The Rope was specifically about this group which included Kathryn Hulme, Margarette Anderson, Georgette Leblanc, Solita Solano and others. Besides The Rope, Two books of Kathryn Hulme’s that I really enjoyed was The Nun’s Story and Undiscovered Country. https://www.gurdjieff.org/rope.htm

Some people will fully admit to having an addiction but will flatly refuse any kind of help or treatment. Often saying that they simply don’t want to quit. That was me with cigarettes. From the first time I really considered it until the day that I actually wanted to sincerely give it a try. It was 4-5 years. You can’t make someone want to quit an addiction. A lot of people, professionals included will often try shaming the addict. As far as a lot of Trump supporters go that I’ve observed. There often seems to be an ingrained cynicism or often taking pleasure in negative circumstances. Very often also having an ax to grind on some particular issue related to some aspect of liberalism. You can very much sense the feeding on negativity. That seems to be where they get ‘the juice’. Many of them anyhow.

I was shocked to see that about Ivermetin. Before the patent for Ivermectin expired I switched my method for deworming cattle to mixing diatomaceous earth in with their minerals. Had great success with it also. At the time I think the cost was around $7.00/head per treatment with Ivermectin to about about .30 cents/per head with diatomaceous earth. Its too bad diatomaceous earth couldn’t be as effective against COVID as it was for deworming and delousing cattle. The thought crosses my mind about the placebo effect maybe contributing to the success of Ivermectin against COVID ???? Any thought? Excuse me if this has already been discussed. If so, I just overlooked it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

This one and the next are promotionals for The Point of Existence. I probably struggled more with this one than any other of Almaas’s books. But in the end, it was very fulfilling and quite rewarding!

@tsuki Glad you mentioned that. I almost quoted you from last week in the post above about how much you liked and learned from that book of Bennett’s.

The Causal realm has also been referred to as the Imaginal realm. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the word imaginal does not mean “imaginary.” That unfortunate but all too understandable confusion was created by Henry Corbin, the noted Islamic scholar, when he introduced the term Mundus Imaginalis to name that intermediate, invisible realm of causality that figures so prominently in mystical Islamic cosmology.,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,This is exactly what Corbin was trying convey by the word “imagination,” understood in the traditional sense. Imaginal reality is a valid construction which, by changing consciousness in its inner ground, changes the nature of reality in the outer world. For this world as we know it is simply the outer form—Isaak Dinesen’s snake skin— within which runs that fiery, innermost aliveness. At least when things are working well, that is. A reference about the Islamic Scholar Henry Corbin in 3 part blog written by Cynthia Bourgeault- https://northeastwisdom.org/2018/12/is-the-imaginal-realm-real/

Leo, I felt the question asked by @Adam M last Saturday and his requesting your time of birth so he could do your birth chart didn’t seem all that unreasonable. Especially with how he prefaced it. Would you care to elaborate on why you poo pood it? Do you really think it’s nonsense or are you just wanting to prevent anything that might over time get twisted and start to give the appearance of cult phenomena or cult of personality phenomena?

The first one of these excerpts I’ve posted so much I bet some may be getting sick of seeing it. These excerpts about basic trust go so well with what @Intraplanetary wrote so beautifully I couldn’t resist adding a few more from that glossary page. I didn’t get all of them though. Basic trust is such a crucial element,,,, ',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The Innate Sense that Life is Fundamentally Benevolent The presence of basic trust indicates that you have the innate sense that life is fundamentally benevolent, and that benevolence exists independent of you and your actions. You will have this sense to the extent that your grounding in the universe has not been disturbed. The relative presence or absence of basic trust is a belly quality, something one’s whole being is either grounded in or not. The disturbance of basic trust is a significant factor in ego development because the perspective of ego is diametrically opposed to the sense of basic trust. The ego’s perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, on paranoia, on fear, on the conviction that you're not going to be adequately taken care of and that the universe is not there to hold and take care of you in the ways that you need. This conviction causes you to believe that you have to engage in all kinds of manipulations and games to get your needs met and to make things work out. Facets of Unity, pg. 25 Trusting the Dynamism of the Inquiry In time, you develop basic trust and you learn to trust the dynamism of the inquiry. This will happen as result of several things: first, clearly recognizing the optimizing force in the dynamism of your own unfolding; second, truly seeing that optimization is the nature of the dynamism; and third, having faith that the optimizing is occurring even when you can’t feel it in the moment. Then you are trusting the guidance and the unfoldment. Basic trust – the knowing that you just need to relax and things will work out fine – is an automatic result of this developing knowledge of reality. Spacecruiser Inquiry, pg. 122 With Basic Trust You Take Risks When you have a lot of basic trust, you are courageous and authentic. You take risks. You don't sit on your capacities. You engage in life wholeheartedly, doing what feels appropriate to you with the confidence that it will work out. Without much basic trust, you are paralyzed with fear of failure and fear of rejection. ',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Facets of Unity, pg. 28 Without Basic Trust We Live Our Lives Defensively If basic trust informs your experience, your psyche is relaxed. Your soul is at peace with itself and with your situation, resting in the unquestioned confidence that the universe provides, that you have, and will receive, what you really need, and that things are workable. If we really have this trust, this deep inner relaxation, it becomes possible to live our lives out of love, out of an appreciation of life, out of enjoyment in what the universe provides for us, and out of compassion and kindness for others and ourselves. Without it, we live our lives defensively, in conflict with others and with ourselves, becoming self-centered and egoistic. To find our basic trust is to reconnect with our natural state that we have become separated from. When we are innately infused by reality, our soul or consciousness is completely transparent to the truth that we and the universe are one, that we are supported by reality and that reality is by its very nature good, and that what happens is inevitably right since it emerges out of that inherent perfection. When you understand this, it becomes obvious why it is so difficult to relax and let go, and why it is so important regain our basic trust. Facets of Unity, pg. 32 Without Basic Trust We React According to Our Conditioning Now we can see how the presence or absence of basic trust is crucial to the initial step in the process of the transformation of any sector of the ego. This step is only completed by giving up the particular structure we have been holding on to. Basic trust gives you the capacity and the willingness to let go of the images, identifications, structures, beliefs, ideas, and concepts -- the remnants of the past that make up the ego. Implicit in this initial step is the second one: If you are able to surrender, then you are willing to be. You are willing to not try to change things, to not manipulate them, to not push and pull at them. You are willing to just be present, which is a sort of realization itself. First, then, is the death of the old; second is the realization of Being. If you don't have basic trust, you will react to what arises in accordance with your conditioning and will want your process to go one way or another. You won’t let yourself just be present; you’ll be tense and contracted. So basic trust is needed for you to be able to allow the ego to die, and also for you to be willing to just be, without reacting. Facets of Unity, pg. 26 taken from - https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/basic-trust

J G Bennett lived a very long life with many chapters. He met Gurdjieff in Constantinople as a young Officer in the English Army. He had an off & on relationship with Gurdjieff until late in Gurdjieff’s life where he spent two years or so with Him until Gurdjieff’s death in 1949. During that time Bennett and his wife Elizabeth kept diaries. It was from these diaries that the book - Idiots in Paris - was put together. Bennett was very much a free thinker. There’s a lot about his life after the death of Gurdjieff that I’m unfamiliar with. A quote from his website- To replace all negative attitudes towards the existing world by a feeling of confidence and love towards the new world which is being born, towards the still unborn child that is the future mankind, to arouse in oneself constantly this love of the future humanity. Every time one observes in oneself some kind of negative attitude, to take this as the reminder that we human beings live on this Earth in order to serve and particularly to serve the future, and to serve with love, with hope, with confidence that it is possible for mankind to be born again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Bennett https://www.jgbennett.org/ https://www.gurdjieff.org/bennett.htm

Yep and all of us are right. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Being as the Actual Presence of True Nature We are in not using the term "being" in its everyday sense. Usually, "being" means mere existence, and that "existence" is, like everything else, experienced conceptually. The spiritual traditions, on the other hand, use this term to refer to the actual presence of true nature, which can be directly experienced. We are using the term in this latter sense. As human beings we are Presence, we are Being, we are actuality; we are not simply mental constructs. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 27 The Experience of True Nature as Nonbeing Does Not Mean that there is No Reality, No Soul or Manifestation True nature is absolute being, but also absolute nonbeing. It is both presence and absence of presence. It is both but not exactly, because these are conceptual elaborations of which true nature is innocent. We say it is both being and nonbeing, or neither, only because these are fundamental concerns for the soul. Being is the last thing the soul needs to surrender as she opens up to her true nature. As she does this she learns about nonbeing. She experiences the emptiness and ontological absence of her existence, and everything else in manifestation. So she may believe that true nature is total emptiness, absolute nothingness, complete absence of existence. The experience of true nature as nonbeing or emptiness does not mean that there is no reality, no soul or manifestation. This is a nihilistic perspective that experience and understanding do not support. The wisdom of emptiness or nonbeing is an attempt to understand the final ontological mode of things. We normally believe that things exist when we perceive them. This belief is accompanied by a subtle underlying feeling or sense of what existence is. Things feel real in a substantial way. We consciously or unconsciously feel that the existence of things is a substantial solid quality. Existence becomes the existence of substance and solidity, which becomes opaqueness if we continue in this direction. In other words, we not only perceive that things appear to our perception, and not only believe that this appearance is objective and independent of our imagination and mental construction, but feel at the same time a sense of substance to this appearance, a sense of solidity. Existence for us then is not only the true appearance of things in perception but the imbuing of what appears with a quality we call Being. The Inner Journey Home, pg. 258 None of Us is to be Blamed for Our Shortcomings Each of the boundless dimensions in our work reveals to us and teaches us something about reality and about experience. We learn that reality has true nature. We’ve been using the concept of true nature in our teaching for a long time, and now I’m introducing Total Being, which is an overlapping, though not completely identical, concept. I am leaving it ambiguous on purpose. True nature is total purity and freedom all the time. If we only say, “Everything is always true nature,” that doesn’t account for the fact that most people don’t experience things that way. We could explain this by saying, “Well, that is because they are not aware of it.” But when we understand reality or true nature, we realize that people don’t really exist the way we think they do. So when we say, “They don’t understand true nature,” we believe that they are responsible for not understanding it. But when we blame somebody for not understanding it that way, we ascribe to them an independent existence apart from Total Being. They don’t have that; nobody does. So actually, it is Total Being that is ignorant—not the individual. An individual does nothing on his own because he is a manifestation of Total Being. So none of us is to be blamed for our shortcomings. Runaway Realization, pg. 170