Zigzag Idiot

A quote from Maurice Nicoll- THINKING VERSUS THOUGHTS “We are not responsible for our thoughts but responsible for our thinking...A thought enters the mind and seeks to attract you. If it does, you begin to ‘think it’—that is, think from it. You begin to enlarge this thought, by paying attention to it and thinking from it, until it grows in all directions and forms, as it were, a little tree of thought in you, that bears fruit, and seeds other similar thoughts. . . . What is necessary to realize at present is that thoughts are of every possible kind and that they are not yours, but that you make them yours by identifying with them.” V. 1, pp.289-90

Your Informed Heart by Dr. Jim Rosen ©2021 Dr. Jim Rosen In making relationship decisions, it's a good idea to use both your mind and your heart. It's called "the informed heart." If you rely on only one or the other, on just your head or just your heart, you're likely to fall prey to poor judgement. That's when you will get involved with that someone who isn't right for you, or when you will fail to give yourself to the someone who is right. In The Prophet, author Kahlil Gibran writes, "For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction." Reason and passion (or you might say logic and emotion) are both necessary ingredients in matters of healthy love. You can rely on your logical mind to help educate your heart, and you can rely on your passionate heart to help give you an open mind. You can learn to rely on both, and balance the two.

Notes on Nahm’s Actuality of Being YouTube talk. This was the first time that I’ve seen or heard Nahm talk. I like how chooses his words carefully and speaks somewhat slowly and deliberate. This to me suggests his center of gravity is most likely in the Kings or the intellectual part of the Centers. His phrase ‘Sensational guidance ‘ probably stood out the most to me along with the significance he gives to one’s fully feeling whatever it may be and not repressing. Wow, I love it! And so true. I equate this with Gurdjieff’s stressing about sensing the body in order to get out of the head. But also discovering and making the distinction between one’s sensing and feeling. In my mind they’re both talking about the same phenomena. A.H. Almaas in his Diamond Approach is very much on the same page. Nahm’s sensational guidance and Almaas’s Diamond Guidance have many similarities . The whole approach that each takes seems to be quite similar in many ways. Expressing is always the key and removing the charge,,,, he said, if I remember right. I’ve mentioned before about the technique in Scientology of what’s called auditing. It’s the one thing that really does help people more than anything in that organization,. Too bad though that it lends credibility to what is basically a rather malignant cult. The arc and the loop he talks about reminds me of Heinz Kohut’s tension arc. https://www.encyclopedia.com/psychology/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/bipolar-self Releasing emotional energy The off feeling Nahm mentions connected with the arc. That reminds me of the term Almaas uses in connection with his theory of holes. https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/theory-holes That is ‘deficient emptiness’. https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/deficient-emptiness Seeing so many similarities is encouraging to me because it points to truth being arrived at in independent ways. I may pick this up again in comparison sometime but I’m getting sleepy and starting to fade. @Nahm If you happen to read this. Thank you for your Work.

Variations of among the enlightened In some people anyway, I’m convinced the more purified the emotional center is, the more accurate their intuitive abilities are or eventually Clairvoyance in varying degrees. There is a stereotype of the stupid Saint that’s joked about in hushed tones in some circles. I’ve seen evidence of that too. As varied as human beings are so too can enlightenment be also. In all cases of enlightenment that I’ve seen non-violence is one of the most prevalent common denominators. Hammeed’s blog post from January touches on this just a little. Spiritual attainment and psychological balance. It starts like this- Spiritual, Emotional & Psychological Health The view we take, which happens to be the view of the major traditional spiritual teachings, is that spiritual attainment has many levels, and that psychological health improves with the deepening of this attainment. The latter will be the integration of one’s spiritual attainment in one’s life, an important dimension of spiritual maturity. Therefore, spiritual attainment might coexist with neurosis; however, spiritual attainment that does not heal one’s psyche is incomplete, or imbalanced. – The Inner Journey Home, Notes https://online.diamondapproach.org/spiritual-spirituality/

“Knowing Ignorance is strength” (71) (Gia-Fu Feng) The fool believes he knows and trouble follows him as the cart follows the ox; the needy follow him and thus, shower him with praise, thus he believes himself wise; the weak always insist that they know, but real strength arises in one who knows his ignorance and places all praise and reliance on the Law to show him the Way; knowing nothing, he remains always a beginner, trusts the Law to speak and act for him and his strength lies in the faith that the Law will never fail From - Return To The Mother - A Lover’s Handbook: Poems of Self Remembering and Self Observation Inspired by LaoTsu’s Tao Te Ching From Ram Dass’ Be Here Now. I’ve been reviewing all my attachments that I’ve posted over time. Realizing that I can repost them and not take up anymore space I’ve started doing just that with a few. Mostly I’ve been erasing attachments that have little to offer.

THE FEELING OF NOTHINGNESS “When the Work says that a man must come to realize his own nothingness before he can be re-born, it does not mean that he must humble himself and so on, but that he must by long self-observation actually begin to realize that he is nothing and that there is no such person as himself. The object of this is to get into a position, psycho- logically speaking, between the opposites...Why is it so important to get somewhere into the centre of the pendulum and not swing to and fro? Because here, between the opposites, lie all the possibilities of growth. Here influences from higher levels can reach us. Here, in this place where one can feel one’s own nothingness (and where one is therefore free from contradictions), influences and meanings com- ing from higher centres, which have no contradictions, can be felt. Not regarding yourself as good or bad, not priding yourself on being just or otherwise, not thinking you are well-treated or badly-treated, not being caught by either movement through identifying, you come into this mid-position. This is not easy! With personality active, it is impossible.” V. 1, p. 329 - Maurice Nicoll Taken from - https://inner-world-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Gems_of_Wisdom.pdf

Another new one I just discovered to go with the last. I’ve followed this Teaching as a rogue student just by reading all of the books by A.H. Almaas and watching many of his talks. My progress has probably been slower than it would have been had I joined one of the active ongoing groups. It’s a very rich Teaching though which stands on its own and I’m very grateful for the person who pointed me in this direction almost 20 years ago.

This was just released. It’s more or less a commercial for the Ridhwan School but it’s short and well made I thought. It could be of interest to those who are looking to do group type work and are curious about the Diamond Approach.

In my understanding this points to the degree of being realized or possessed or as phrased in the New Testament - to have your being. In some contemporary circles it’s framed as mind/ego/false personality identified juxtaposed with realized essence/presence/being. An Important Difference Between the Mind and Being These fantasies, beliefs and misinformation actually accompany almost all internalized object relations to some extent. Internalized object relations are rarely true representations of actual events or relationships. One’s memory traces include all kinds of ideas, fantasies and images that never had an objective reality. Another source of extraneous material comes from the psychic processes of organization and integration themselves. These processes modify the original object relations as more impressions are internalized. This is necessary for the integration of object relations units of various affect and content. This extra material, whether it is attached to actual memories of object relations or consists of pure fabrications, cannot be absorbed into Being. This is an important difference between the mind and Being. The mind can absorb and identify with any psychic material it believes to be true. It does not have the capacity, on its own, to discern what is objective truth and what is not. In other words, the mind can be deceived, even by itself. Being, on the other hand, is pure reality. It is the actual stuff and consciousness of truth, and cannot be deceived. It does not try not to be deceived; it is simply truth by its nature, a self-conscious medium made of pure sensitivity. Any falsehood, that is, anything which is not the objective truth of what actually happened in past interactions which produced a particular object relation, is felt in comparison to Being to be dull, gross and distasteful. When one is in contact with Being, these falsehoods are felt to be lifeless, thick and heavy veils in comparison to the luminosity of Being. Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 163 Taken from - https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/being How Being Knows Itself Since Being is pure consciousness capable of direct awareness of itself, it does not require thinking and deduction for it to know itself. This is what most distinguishes it from the personality of the ego, which knows itself through reference to the past. One reason it is not easy to have a clear experience of Being is that the habit of ego is to know itself through reference to other perceptions, as in Descartes' "I think, therefore I am." Pearl Beyond Price, pg. 65

@LastThursday Well put! Exactly how I see it too,,,

Isn’t most complaining just a form of unnecessary suffering? Some might say that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Which is a good point. But how often is it that complaining accomplishes anything? Whoever has a perspective to share, please do.

Well put @Nightwise @SgtPepper @kag101 Being someone with a history of many addictions and wrestling with them. I’ve seen this phenomena many times. Associated with this is the law of three. The addiction is 2nd force in this instance. Whenever you fight or strongly resist 2nd force, it only makes it stronger. Sometimes expressed as that which you resist persists. This doesn’t mean complete indulgence though but I guess it could. More important, IMO, is to approach it in uniquely in your own way with deep understanding which means objective uncritical self-observation which everyone has kinda expressed in their own way. Another phenomena out of the law of three. Never start a new octave with a lot of gathering of attention and fanfare. Referred to as an active do. As in do ra me of an octave. You have a much better chance of success by starting with a passive do. Starting low key, in other words. Below isn’t the precise enneagram to display for what I’m trying to express but it maybe kind of gives you an idea. The first major hurtle in an endeavor is getting past the me-fa gap in the first octave between the point 3 and point 6. Good luck to you,,,,

I’m glad you understand my attempt at humor. Nicoll, in his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky stressed the importance of being lighthearted. Although the 5 volume set is around 1760 pages, I enjoyed reading it so much, I read it a second time. Osho, I once saw, recommended it and remarked how much he liked it. Actually the set is comprised transcripts of his talks given to his work group over a ten year period. One of my favorite quotes of his in the category of what I view as being lighthearted is his talking basically about the condition of monkey mind- Nicoll psychological commentaries page 683. Have you got sufficient inner observation? Have you cleared and well dug a big space in your mind through the practice of inner attention and put a hedge round it and a gate so that you can hear the click of the gate and watch this darling little thought coming up the drive all ready to say: “Oh, how tired I am,” etc.? I fancy that once we let it in very far every thought gets hold of us and wrings us, takes our blood, makes us react, talk, behave, in a certain way, and then, satisfied with having dined off us, it retires for a time. Quite a few of his statements have affected me similar and I have had to do the same. There is one in particular that I still don’t have any clear understanding on. I may mention what statement that is some other time. That a good insight. Although I no longer crave alcohol. By common standards, I fit the description of being an alcoholic because of how my life was 20-30 years ago. The Serenity prayer with what it encompasses is an excellent example of how there can be areas of ones life that at times completely rule over some of us. For others it will be something different that renders them helpless in trying to overcome it on their own. Associated with what in the Work is called chief feature or sometimes one’s blind spot. @Corpus Also in what you describe. I’m reminded of an axiom in the work that states - nothing can grow us in terms of being more than having to endure an injustice.

As Fonzi would say, Correctimundo. We should always fully and completely feel whatever it is we feel and not repress and very importantly, as you have written,“expressing is different.” This is where we have a choice. This is where understanding or projection occurs. If we understand something completely it can’t make us have a negative reaction. For instance if you see that someone is caught up in being passive aggressive towards you, it has no effect. You see through understanding that they are deeply unhappy in some way and are projecting the responsibility for this onto you. You see that they are completely asleep in the spiritual sense and although it may be unfair, you simply don’t take it personal. Clearing this hurtle in acquiring understanding takes quite a long time. IMO. I’m not claiming either that my work is complete here either. Precaution here. It’s going to get hot. For good reason though. Not just for the sake of being provocative or grandstanding. Please bear with me and try not to take it personal. I want to finish my response here with a series of quotes from Maurice Nicoll. To summarize in short what he says here is - You’re all a bunch of liars and don’t realize it because you lie to yourself backed up with the lies of self justification and along with it not taking responsibility for your inner world. I include myself here as well. If reading this makes you angry then it just proves the accuracy of what is said because taking something in a negative way is a sign that understanding is incomplete. Also, IMO, it is behind the meaning of why Christ said “forgive them for they know not what they do”. OBEDIENCE III “The Work begins in a man or a woman who is beginning to understand that he or she cannot with impunity think or feel mechanically. Higher Centres are near or far according to the inner state of yourself. If your inner state of yourself is one of envy, malice, hatred, bitterness, judgment, your psychological body—that is, your inner state—is wet, a sodden mess, and will never conduct the higher vibrations of intel- ligence and meaning that come from Higher Centres. That is why the Work starts with self-observation, observation of what’s going on, observation of what your state is...You must observe how you take in the impressions of life, and transform them through your understanding of the Work. Then you begin to hear Higher Centres.” V. 4, pp. 1233-1323 AIM OVER TIME “If you make an aim in the Work—as, for instance, not to feel always this background of tears, discontent, of not being appreciated. . . it will be given to you not to have it—usually in short flashes. But only if you really want this aim and have realized what it might mean not to have it will it eventually be given you fully. You are tested first. People love their negative emotions. Remove these by magic—then do you think they will praise you? No—they will hate you. This is our curious situation.” V. 3, p. 1097 ASSIMILATING PARTS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS “Let us take an example, step by step. Someone speaks and behaves in a way I resent violently...First step: I observe I am violent and bitter. This is quite different from just being violent and bitter...Second step: I recall that no matter who is to blame I am to blame for being negative...Third step: I must ask what is it connected with in the custom- ary feeling of myself, that is behind the outburst...I decide that it seems to be a criticism of my efficiency. Have I then a picture of my being efficient and is this a component part of my customary feeling of myself? I did not quite realize it. As time goes on I become more and more conscious that it is so...My task is then clear. I must notice where I am not at all efficient and slowly include this in my feeling of myself.” V. 5, pp. 1529-30 SELF-JUSTIFYING “You know that one of the specific efforts we are taught to make in our personal work is the effort against self-justifying. Self-justifying is a complicated and very interesting process of inner and outer lying whereby we put ourselves in the right...If you are always going to be right, you will never be in the wrong, and if you are never in the wrong, you will never change. To feel one is always right is to block the way to any self-change...Remember, the more you find yourself self-justifying the more certain you may be that you are lying.” V. 1, p. 142, V. 2, p. 558 SELF-JUSTIFYING II “Suppose a person is suddenly asked why he is so negative? Probably either he will indignantly deny that he is negative or say that he has good reason to be. In both cases, he justifies himself—that is, he justifies his negative emotions. . .The root of the matter lies in this picture of always being right and so never being actually in the wrong. Here a very powerful force is at work to keep us asleep in illusions about ourselves.” V. 3, p. 999 SELF-JUSTIFYING III “If you justify everything in yourself, all you think and feel and do, of course you will never see that you are a machine. Have you realized this? Seeing that one is a machine therefore demands non-justifying.” V. 3, p. 1012 SELF-JUSTIFYING IV “When we know a thing is true about ourselves, and acknowledge it internal- ly, accusation can never make us indignant...Self-justifying cannot work in the presence of acknowledged truth.” V. 1, p. 144 THE BASIS OF SELF-JUSTIFICATION “Justifying yourself is always from your own idea of justice...Everyone has a sense of what is justice for them and finding that life does not correspond to it they cling to this sense of what they think should be justice for them. Consequently we justify our negative states, our internal considering, and our account-making.” V. 3, p. 851 LYING TO ONESELF “If you observe wrong inner talking you will notice it is only half- truths, or truths connected in the wrong order, or with something added or left out. In other words, it is simply lying to oneself. If you say: ‘Is this quite true?’ it may stop it, but it will find another set of lies. Eventually you must dislike it.” V. 1, p. LYING TO ONESELF II “The first form of lying we have to study in ourselves, the Work says, is that in which we always tend to tell about something that happened to ourselves to our own advantage. When you have to report what you said and what the other person said in some Work conversation you will find that it is practically impossible to put the matter rightly. You will tend to put the whole report to your own advantage, by leaving out some things you said and slightly over-emphasizing other things you said.” V. 2, p. 609 LYING TO ONESELF III “Begin with one thing and observe it in yourself. Begin, say, with observing that you pretend you know. This is one of the worst forms of lying. Many people pretend they know what they do not know and keep up the picture all their lives. You must, in the Work, try to see that you follow, and are a slave to, life-long ideas. Only then can you begin to understand what inner sincerity means.” V. 3, p. 1160 LYING TO ONESELF IV “What is the whole object of this being truthful in the Work? It is not based on moral grounds. It is based on the possible development of something called Essence that can never grow through pretense or falsity. All those ‘I’s that lie habitually, all those ‘I’s that protect the central kingdom of the False Personality and justify everything, twist everything, turn everything to their own advantage, prevent this inner development of Essence from taking place. For this reason, the Work teaches, it is so important to tell the truth to your teacher, because by this exercise you learn how to tell the truth to yourself.” V. 2, p. 609 LYING TO ONESELF V “A person can lie with a single gesture, a single look, a single intona- tion, a casual mannerism, a sigh, a heartbroken expression, an illness, by a hearty manner, by being always fit and well. We all know how marvelously we have behaved and we all know what intolerable conditions we have been subjected to. The Work says we all lead an imaginary life with ourselves. Now this romance may take a great deal of strength from us and in all cases it prevents us from any real self-observation. It has to be torn out of the heart.” V. 2, p. 610 LYING TO ONESELF VI “Have you ever come to the point of really seeing that your suffering is all lies, and experienced that extraordinary inner calm that results through seeing the truth about yourself? Because just as all lies make us restless, so does truth make us calm and at peace with ourselves.” V. 2, p. 616 ANOTHER SIMPLE STATEMENT “All negative states make you lie.” V. 2, p. 720 AWAKENING “All this ascription to ourselves of powers that we do not possess is the real lying that the Work is ultimately concerned with. And this unconscious lying is what through self-observation we have to become gradually conscious of. Unless this begins in us, Personality—which of course thinks it can do—remains active and Essence passive. This becoming gradually conscious of the part that pride, vanity, buffers and deep sleep play in our ordinary thinking and behavior is called the first phase of the Work. What is this phase called? It is called Awakening.” V. 3, p. 1160 Taken from= https://inner-world-books.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Gems_of_Wisdom.pdf ?✌️

Below is the third excerpt out of 12 about reification. Not to be confused with Californication. Just joking,,,, link at the bottom. Mind's Tendency to Reify As we look closer at these subtle ego activities, we discover the tendency to reify reification itself and make it a kind of object to reject. In our minds, we make it something from which we can push away and separate ourselves. The same process can happen as we reify doing, making it something to reject or judge. Even more subtle than that—we can reify nondoing, such that nondoing becomes an object, a thing we can value or cultivate. The truth is that nondoing is really nothing. No such thing exists that is called nondoing. Nondoing is the nonexistence of doing, but we make it something to aspire to, which can become a subtle obstacle. Something similar can happen to those who work exclusively with a nondual perspective about reality: at some point, they begin to reify nonduality, and it becomes for them an objective to aspire to and reach. So, as you see, the tendency of the mind to reify in order to create stability, a fixed center, or a particular orientation is unlimited. The mind, then, is a mixed blessing, a double-edged sword. And that is the condition of humanity: Our intelligence, our mind, can liberate us but it can also ensnare us. Our learning, our maturation, and even our realization and enlightenment, require the capacity for discernment, for clear discrimination, of what is true and what is not true. The Unfolding Now, pg. 188 Taken from: https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/reification

I just stay logged in all the time if I can. Although I’ve had the issue of having to log in every time I click to a different section of the forum but I think that was because I was on incognito and didn’t know it.

Thank you for putting yourself out there and expressing yourselves @Nos7algiK @LastThursday @Preety_India @Applegarden8 @Loving Radiance I agree in general and this may seem like splitting hairs but I see a clear distinction when complaining is also giving voice to a negative emotion regardless of how reasonable or even noble it might seem. When I give voice to that part of me that has a trace of violence in it, I can tell. Sometimes immediately or as it’s often been in the past, when I cool down and am reflecting. Maurice Nicoll said that all negative emotion all leads to violence. That may need to be framed by statements that at the present, are not with me. Another statement he made which stands better on its own and is somewhat related is the claim that a fully awakened person is actually incapable of violence. Yes, incapable,,,,, It deserves pondering I think. I have pondered it a lot and at times have felt like I’ve truly seen the truth in it. Arnold Keyserling said if a person can go 2 years (a Martian year) and not express any negative emotion at all then that person for the remainder of their life will never experience anything in a negative way again!

Thank you, @Eternal Unity I appreciate you for letting me know,,,

This ranges from the imagination of self deception to manifesting through visualizing in the Causal realm aka the Imaginal realm. It can be our biggest stumbling block or our saving grace. Like a lot of my posts, I use Fourth Way Jargon but I welcome all sincere perspectives which can often dovetail nice with one another. From my study of Gurdjieff’s magnum opus - Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. He repeatedly points to man’s imagination, ungrounded with no embodiment amounts to contemporary humanities downfall. My homegrown condensed formula after study of the book. Prana = chi Kundalini = Prana = Kundabuffer = imagination Kundalini + 3 Centered Awareness = Holy Prana A kundalini awakening in which we become all enthusiastic and big eyed is what he called kundabuffer. The remedy for this is becoming grounded thru the body. This is just my take. All sincere perspectives are welcome.

Purification of the emotional center as it’s referred to in the Fourth Way is the elephant in the room. This task isn’t accomplished in just a few months or even a couple of years. Some may scoff at this claim but I would hold the mirror up to reflect their derision as a pointer to how we are all prone to feed on negative emotion. As has been said by others, it’s not sex that makes the world ‘go around’ but the feeding on negativity. Look at our culture and other cultures and see how it manifests. Having grievances and keeping accounts, complaining, gossiping, displays of one-upman-ship in found in most areas of life including spiritual communities,,,, How many can say that they have seen these aspects in themselves previously or more importantly presently? Who is willing to potentially lose face this way? Who is willing to look at or even admit to a deeper level of self hatred that is often encountered by those who do very in-depth shadow work? Emotional mastery is realizing that we have a right NOT to feel and be negative, to paraphrase Maurice Nicoll. It is to have an awakened conscience. Gurdjieff remarked once that in the world, a man who has an awakened conscience among contemporary men will often be considered as,,,, well,,,, an embarrassment. To me, a sign of having emotional mastery is to truly wish others well. It means forgiveness or overlooking others transgressions. It means inspecting the world through a perceptual filter of Love. Am I there? No. I’ve had brief instances of it though. Also it’s how I make sense of the phrase “the kingdom of Heaven is at hand”.

The Actualized.org forum moderators. ?❤️?

I see people who are deeply insecure do this the most. Unconscious or low consciousness people in general tend to feed on negativity. Look at most media and news broadcasts,,,,

Cool! I’ll add a little more with some links. Facets of Unity is just about my favorite book on the enneagram. By the way, I’m a counterphobic 6. Mapping Certain Levels of Reality We use the Enneagram as a tool and a map at specific junctures in our work of spiritual unfoldment. Initially, we use it as a psychological map that aids self-observation and study. Students also work with our theory of holes (see Essence, Almaas, 1986), which describes the loss of Essence and the consequent development of the personality. Then the work of uncovering the essential aspects proceeds. The theories of depth psychology on object relations, narcissism, and the like, constitute a major portion of the tools used to access the various essential dimensions. The Enneagram is then used at particular points as a map of certain levels of reality, in order to facilitate spiritual transformation. For example, work on the Passions and Virtues helps students in the process of purification of the soul. The Enneagram of Holy Ideas is most useful at the juncture between personal and cosmic realization of Being, as previously mentioned. As with other concepts from various schools, our approach utilizes the Enneagram for the purpose of direct, experiential understanding. It is not used only for psychological observations and typology, nor only for guiding various spiritual practices, but specifically for guiding and supporting open inquiry into one’s experience. Facets of Unity, pg. 16 This is the forth of nine excerpts. Link just below https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-and-diamond-approach https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-holy-ideas O https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-specific-delusions https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-specific-difficulties https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/enneagram-specific-reactions