CALISTHENICS, JANUARY 1984
· FEEDBACK – FROM ITEMS TO DYNAMICS – A GUEST IN THE TEMPLE – WHAT IS GOING ON – FINER AND FINER –RELAXING –UTTER TRANSPARENCY
I wish you a Happy New Year, and I want to thank you for all your good wishes for the Christmas holidays. As you know live a little like a hermit, away from everything, but I do care about you a lot and I give you my best all the time. But, I'm always amazed when the reverse happens and I realize that you do care about me. So thank you.
Speaking of Christmas, I know it has been a long time, but still I would like to know who realized that something happened?
(A number of hands are raised)
Okay most of you acknowledge that something did happen. What? I'd like to have feedback or comments about what you can abstract from the event -- what you noticed consciously, or even intuitively.
(Silence)
You know, very often when I ask for feedback there is a long, long, long silence that is the main feedback. Then, maybe one or two or three have the courage to say a few words, maybe while wondering if they are right or wrong. Well, I hope you outgrow this stage. We are in a new year.
Very clearly, most of you, all of you in a certain way, live a condition that you cannot translate into words. You feel it. You live it. But you cannot translate it. Now it very often happens that someone comes out with a few words and suddenly it clicks for you -- it's a beginning of a formulation, then you can formulate. Yesterday, for instance, one person said something, just a few words, and that triggered a whole feedback from someone else, and, as she said, she was fully aware that if those words hadn't been said she couldn't have said a thing. Meaning, your feedback can very often help others to start giving form to whatever they live formless.
Then, also, you might have a mind, feelings, or emotions directed in a certain way, and through the feedback of others you discover that you are sensitive in other ways too, but you simply didn't think about it. so it broadens the scope as well. So consider the feedback as a service rendered to everyone.
Participant: I don't have a specific memory or conscious awareness of something happening the evening of the Christmas session that could comment about, however, one of the main movements I was aware of in the Christmas season was the feeling of something being born directly here -- in the cells of this body life, that birthed of its own initiative and had its own independent direction. It was not the experience of my reaching toward an image or an impression of something somewhere and trying to bring it through, but of something that became present directly because it chose to.
One of the phrases that caught my attention a lot was the phrase about the birth of Christ in the cave of the heart -- the cave being in the earth, rather than somewhere in the sky -- and the feeling of being born in the physical structure in a way...
Martin: ... whatever that means. I'm glad you realize how sensory it can be.
Another Participant: Since the Christmas session I would say something has been happening, and the way I would put it into words is that the backing has been more concrete. For the first time I have been able to see a pattern that I typically have been bouncing back and forth in, and, since the Christmas session, I have sensed a different position, one in which I can stand and look at the other two. I haven't known where that position was going, I've just been able to acknowledge it and sense it more concretely than ever. I still catch myself falling into the pattern, but very rapidly. My sense of it is also that it seems to me to be working on healing a deep level of fear.
Martin: Yes, that's rather nice.
Other comments?
Participant: For me there was a depth of activity in the heart that I can say I've never experienced before, ever. It was as if there was a lamp or a light ... a life. It was deeply, deeply moving.
Martin: Now suppose you live the condition and take away all activity, are you aware of what remains?
Participant: Nothing. In a sense ... I mean there's no materiality to it.
Martin: If there remains nothing, what is in that nothingness? It's not a dead nothingness.
Participant: No. It's very, very alive. Very alive.
Martin: Okay, what dawns out of that nothingness?
Participant: I hesitate to put a word on it.
Martin: Do you notice that on one side you can live that life and on the other side your mind is confused?
Participant: Yes. One of the experiences I had after the Service was the relationship that a concrete, solid mind has with that. How it wants to sort of cover it, put a veil over it, enclose it, hide it.
Martin: Right. What I want you to do seriously is to realize that you can live the condition even if your mind is confused and doesn't know what to do with it. It does not prevent you from living the condition. But if you go with the mind, then you experience that veil you speak of very correctly. See what I mean? If you face that void there is that life and you live it, even throughout your body, but with your consciousness you don't know what to do with it because it's not a thing and your consciousness is used to dealing with things. You can live, you can bloom in that life without the help of consciousness. It's a critical point and you need to face it intelligently, not passively. You need to see how things work.
In your usual awareness you always believe you have to do something with your consciousness or nothing will happen. Here you face a situation in which it is not true. I agree it is not very strong but it is still there. Take the thingness away, take the concrete aspect of that heart activity away, and then you have that finer life that is "no thing" for the consciousness. I tell you this all the time, but when you face it it's another story.
Participant: I don't know how to describe it, but I sense it sort of as a presence, more in my body than in my mind.
Martin: "A sort of presence" -- what does that mean?
Participant: There's an aliveness that's very much there but ... that my mind isn't really participating in.
Martin: When you say "presence" does it mean another aspect of you or do you feel having company?
Participant: Both.
Martin: How does it feel?
Participant: I've been really surprised. It feels not quite familiar, but it's very sort of like myself.
Martin: You mean it has something known to it?
Participant: Known in a way, but not in the way I normally relate to known in terms of mind.
Martin: Not acquired knowledge?
Participant: Yes, I guess. Not something that my mind is familiar with anyway.
Martin: And still ?
Participant: And still it's totally here. There's a concreteness ... I don't know if concrete is the right word. There's just a participation that's real different.
Martin: Do you feel that presence sensorily? Like sharing your person with whatever that is -- sensing that presence including within the body?
Participant: Yes, right.
Martin: And that started at Christmas?
Participant: I think so. Somewhere around there.
Martin: Did it happen for someone else?
(others raise their hands)
Okay tell me about it.
Participant: I can say something. Most people describe it as a joy, I would say there was such a shock that for the personality it was more of a complete invasion ... an invasion where the old owner had nothing to say.
Martin: Could you elaborate on the last statement? It's not very correct.
Participant: That's the feeling that was very strong at the time, like there was such a disproportion in the one that was inhabiting ... I cannot say "the one" because it doesn't mean anything... but whatever was inhabiting. There was a concrete invasion and the old ownership, and no common denominator I would say.
Martin: Yes, but there is still the possibility that the old owner can always kick the guest out of the house. You might not want to do it, but you have the right to do it, so the old owner is not completely helpless.
Participant: He might have the illusion of kicking out the new one, he may apparently do that, but ... I don't know, it feels weird.
Martin: Sure it's weird, it's supposed to be,, isn't it?
Participant: But the order of invasion, it's as if a little ant decides to change the weather -- there's such a complete disproportion.
Martin: Yes, there is a disproportion, a huge one.
Another Participant: When the last participant said "invasion," it sort of woke up the experience in me, because it's the opposite of invasion. It was like what was invisible, well, it's not that it became visible, but it became apparent that it was the life that was already present in the body.
I had, at the Christmas session, and again at the last one, two flashes of realization. It's like I had some sentences or words that I heard with my mind during the year that suddenly meant something. I had the phrase "man created in the image of God," and the experience of "it's there in-the-first-place" -- that life. And all the other ...It's not an owner, the old owner, it's the old illusory pattern of the mind, or whatever that is on top of it, that was not active. It could really sort of let the sparkles of that life be really visible. I felt that in that instant, and I still felt it after. I still feel it now. It's like that phrase makes sense somehow. I don't have to think about it, but it sits somewhere in me and has it's place now. Not in my mind, somewhere else.
The other thing that came several times was all about the images that I've tried to create and couldn't about Christ, for example. I would have this experience like when I would feel nothing. It was not a presence, even the word "presence" was not right. It's more nothing than that -- more empty, more, much more ... I thought, "Ah, that's it!" and then it would go. Then I would have another of these flashes come, usually when I couldn't think somehow, and I would want to think, "oh, this is it!" but then it would go away. So it happened enough times that now it's not a mystery.
Martin: The art of speaking of the same situation in different ways.
I wanted you to notice one point in what you said. You cannot put a definition on Christ. Even the word "Christ" is misleading. So you have that kind of void, then you notice that when you start feeling or living whatever that is you abstract with your consciousness. You take from it a certain aspect, and you have a tendency to say "this is it." You notice it doesn't work. if you cannot define Christ in-the-first-place, any kind of "this is it" is unfit anyway. I'm quite happy you do not define Christ in any way, otherwise you reduce it to the size of your consciousness, which is possessiveness.
But there is a fine point, and you have to learn to stay with it. There is an "other" condition that you labeled "man created in the image and likeness of God" -- you suddenly started feeling, the quality of life in which this is true in-the-first-place. Now there is an important task. You have to live this as life being lived. Do not reduce it. What you have to do is, little by little, make your mind, and whatever is in your mind, familiar with that situation. Live that situation until consciousness is at ease with it. Then something can start formulating itself -- from the action of that livance, definitely not from consciousness up. But a very important point is that there is something else here in-the-first-place, whereas prior to that you had consciousness in-the-first-place. Even if you intuited something else, it was still consciousness in-the-first-place, meaning the center of gravity was rooted down here.
When you live the other one, the center of gravity has a tendency to become loose, then it can shift. But it has to loosen itself. You cannot train consciousness to adjust to the situation by formulating for consciousness because then you fall into a trap: It's your mind formulating for the mind. It doesn't work. If we put that in other words your consciousness as you know it belongs to the persona. The persona is a mask used by the comedian. If the consciousness of the mask is as you know it, logically the comedian ought to have other features in his "awareness." When you live that other condition in-the-first-place, something sounds clear and true. Why does it sound clear and true? Because there is an awareness, but it's a different one.
Participant: I think that's why I'm able to be looser with this. It's not a mind decision to drop something. It goes ... or I stop. I don't try to process it. it doesn't come to that point. Another thing that has loosened up too is that at different times of the day there is a sense of movement. Presence and movement. You move with it, or you are in the movement. There is something completely different each time, and I cannot really figure it out with my mind -- it's more an experience.
Martin: Now I would have a way of translating that in other words. What you feel in what you call "movement" is dynamics. I would say you have graduated from items to dynamics. Usually untrained people sense what is going on as items related to the body, emotions or thoughts. Now you begin to realize that behind the items you have movement. You learn to be aware in terms of dynamics. I don't know how to put it into words because words work like items -- until your consciousness becomes used to it. It's a very important point too. You become less attached to the form itself. If you want to help someone, the active part is in the dynamics, not the words.
Participant: You know, you have said all of these things before and the mind would say: "Oh I understand," but it's only when it's done that it is done.
Martin: Let's continue with the same example. If you notice that when I speak to you, what you begin to be aware of that is here in-the-first-place is fully active in the dynamics. You feel a movement going on in you and then you suddenly realize that if you don't hear the dynamics and you only hear the words you miss everything. The words are not important at all. The words within the dynamics make sense, without the dynamics you can forget it.
Participant: I want to add just one thing. Since Christmas I can really feel and see the backing is very different. When dynamics are recognized or left fully living and not interfered with by the mind trying to shape something or make something happen, there is full participation. With the person there is an awareness of the backing and the effect of the backing in the words, for example, with other people. So it's interesting for me now to use my mind to observe that, not make it a thing, but just see that it is working. It's to start to trust that other position, I guess. It really is very different.
Martin: It's quite an adjustment, as you say, to start trusting something that has no consistency. For the mind it's kind of weird, but you will notice that it is precisely that which has no consistency that is effective.
Other comments?
Participant: I didn't raise my hand when you asked the question, but it's possible that maybe I have something to say. Many years ago when you first started talking about the field and how we are not the center but an effect of ... Well this has been very evident to me. A few weeks ago I had a crisis point with this where it seemed like the person was crystallized in relation to that. I'm kind of struck tonight by the fact that the person seems to be almost giving that out. It's very different. My experience before was that it stopped at the person, and now it doesn't stop at all.
Martin: Do you mean a person in the group or in society?
Participant: Well I notice it very easily here, but, if I think about.it, I notice it with other people I come in contact with. What made me think about it was when D said "invasion." I feel oppressed by that, if I can say that, I really do.
Martin: Can you say a few words about that? How can you describe your feelings?
Participant: My feeling is that I feel oppressed. I feel forced or pushed -- invaded. I mean I really understand, in my way, what that invasion means.
Martin: Could it be that what you call being oppressed could be translated as a closeness?
Participant: Yes, but too close. I mean I feel a pressure from it. It's like a part of me doesn't want to ... I don't know how to put words to it except to say I feel oppressed.
Martin: It's always funny to see how you can make resistance to what you are looking for -- but it happens.
Participant: Obviously. I think the hardest part is that I still see no reason for any of it. It just doesn't make any sense. If there was a reason for any of this ...
Martin: Most people see reasons all over the place and they don't fit. If you fix a reason, you do it with the tools of today. Most of what is going on is unknown to consciousness. Consciousness is going to give reasons according to consciousness, which obvious y does no correspond to what is going on. So If you don't see any reason, be happy, it means you have not fixed an image and limited the "whatever you're dealing with" to the dimension of your awareness of now. So the fewer fixed images your mind has the better.
Another Participant: In one of your transcripts, talking about the hologram, you said that you cannot have any idea about it, and that is very fortunate because the hologram doesn't have any idea either.
Martin: Speaking of the hologram, any reason established on the level of the greenhorn is done according to measures used by the greenhorn, they are not valid in other orders of life.
First Participant: But if what I experience is what is going on, then the greenhorn has been invaded by something, right? I mean it seems logical to me.
Martin: Don't address the question to me, address it to D, she chose the word "invasion."
Participant: I'm talking about my own experience now.
Martin: I don't know if you realize that, yes, something is happening. You feel it because you were never as you are now. Do you realize that it's the first time you begin to be lively centered on something that is not the persona. Yes, something happened, and you have to learn to take it into account because from now on it's going to be different -- period -- and that means a readjustment.
Another Participant: As people started talking the experience came back to me. The single idea that kept coming to me was beauty, incredibly deep beauty.
Martin: Glad you lived that.
Participant: It's like it arose out of the center of everything.
Martin: Good, good, good.
Participant: Everywhere I went it would pop up, even in mundane things. I started thinking about the idea of beauty and this is really different from the usual. This beauty is very encompassing and inclusive. It includes love. And it's more than just a heartfelt beauty, it's a beauty that includes the mind too somehow.
Martin: That's rather a good description. I like the point where you realized that it doesn't come from somewhere. I say this because of the usual tendency of consciousness to try to reach toward. Here you have something that surges from everything, so there is no "toward" -- it's outside, but it's also inside. It's everywhere.
Participant: The thing that draws me or compels me in that beauty is that it makes me want to come out it makes me want to share and participate. That's in contrast or up against my persona. When you ask why we don't participate when you ask a question, for me it's my persona -- a typical kind of fear of judgment. In contrast to that this beauty wants to share, it wants to participate.
Martin: Good. There is a relation described in the hologram that you might never have understood before: "When the Pilot dwells in the all-encompassing beauty, He is said to be the Doer." You expressed the relation between beauty and coming out -- most people don't realize that the relation is true.
Another Participant: I think the difference for me is the sense that the concreteness is there to a degree that I am trusting. This feels really different because before I always had to deal with a saboteur that was interfering with believing that it was real. I didn't feel like I could bring that out. It felt to me like I couldn't carry it, that it would go away. My sense of it now, more and more, is that it's not going away. It's something real and something that my persona can trust.
Martin: And when did it change?
Participant: I'd say it's been changing. It changed at Christmas. I went through a period of feeling like everything fell out from underneath me, like everything that I knew and could rely on was in jeopardy. At the same time there was a real clear sense that was good.
Martin: It is good. Definitely.
Participant: So I just kept rebalancing and trusting.
Martin: One point. The word "trusting." Most people use the word to describe a kind of "believing in." You can also use the word because of evidence. Be careful with your mind to stay with the evidence side. It's true that consciousness has to learn to trust what is beyond consciousness, but because of experience not because you oblige yourself to believe. See what I mean?
Participant: I would say that the strangeness for me is that I'm flipping back and forth between the memory of it and the experience of it.
Martin: Right.
Participant: It's work.
Martin: Training is a reality. You have to repeat and repeat and repeat until your automatic awareness gets used to a new pattern. It's usually not instantaneous. You might have a fantastic experience, but then you still have to adjust your awareness.
A Guest in the Temple
So now I am going to play the Ave Maria, just to bring one aspect forth. In the second phase of the protocol we speak of contemplation -- sharing the temple. Whether you believe it or not Christ is present. As we play, put your attention on that guest in your temple.
Just to help you I would like to make an analogy. Let's say you are a couple and you have a style of life that is familiar to you. Then comes a child and it changes everything. From that time on you have to take the child into account because there is a basic change in life due to that child. It is exactly the same when you share the temple. When that presence has become tangible -- meaning it has left the desire or mythical realm and become reality, then you are two sharing the temple and you have to act in accordance with that other. You have to learn to be aware in a way in which the other is understood.
So let's play the music and be with that guest. And be very honest, don't oblige yourself to feel emotions for that guest. If the guest is not real naturally, then just stay completely quiet and see what happens. If you already have experience with the guest then start right away, but otherwise simply be quiet. When it's over see how it feels.
(music)
I wonder if you realize how much more concrete these so-called abstract situations are. Do you begin to realize the strength of the presence of the comedian all around in the room? I told you in the past that in the way we work we address the comedian a lot more than the persona. Now you begin to realize that it's true. It becomes more objectified, closer to consciousness. In this condition the presence of Christ is a lot closer too. Realize, when looking around the room, how much more consistent, how much more solid that presence is, in and around you and in the whole room -- and it comes of it's own authority.
Putting Your Attention on what is Going on
I would like to take advantage of the situation to repeat something that I have said so many times before. We are in an action, this means we are linked to events, and changes occur according to what is going on, not according to a teaching. You begin to realize this.
I was asking myself what we could formulate in order to help you change your position from mask to comedian. one of the possible ways of changing very quickly is to tune into what is going on. You can experience it right now. If you take the position: "What do I have to do in order to..." Look around, you see thoughts spinning, head activity that goes from the head up etc.
Now suppose you take the position of putting your attention on what is going on here, now. Do you notice how you change? Symbolically speaking you have your antennae out. Your attention is out in space instead of confined.
Those who somehow sense what is going on, even if it is only a little bit, stay with it, and when you stop you will have changed -- because your attention is not on you, the small ego.
Living Finer, Finer, Finer
There is one other practice that I have already spoken of, but that I will speak of again because it is beginning to be mandatory. Before Christmas we spoke of living finer, finer, finer. You have to practice this. How much? Day and night -- twenty-four hours. Of course, I don't doubt you will find ways, original ways or proven ways, to do less that that. I leave it to you, but the proposition is to live it all the time.
And it has to be done facing Christ. Now I'm fully aware that for some of you "facing Christ" has absolutely no meaning -- it's a desire perhaps but not an experiential reality. In this case do something else. Instead of doing it in front of (the label) "Christ," do it in front of (the label) "other." Not "the" other. Not "otherness." "The" other is an item and "otherness" is a condition. It's not an object, it's not a being, it's "other."
"Other" has something very special about it, and that is the feedback it gives you. For example if you live finer, finer, finer and you realize that "other" is this ... the feedback from "other" is: "other." Then, if, a moment later, you decide that "other" is that... the feedback from "other" is still "other." Whatever proposition you have for qualifying "other" will always face the answer: "other." Respect it, it's different from everything you know.
What you might not yet realize is that with Christ there is less leeway because Christ has, let us say, specification. Christ has something very definite to it, along the lines of an action that is too big for you to consider with your consciousness. Still it has a definite note to it, where "other" leaves you with the whole field open. once you face "other" and you are used to it, then you might try Christ again. We work for Christ so it shouldn't be that difficult for you to sense Christ.
This practice has to be done again and again. Live finer,, finer, finer. I don't say feel finer or have finer emotions or finer thoughts. The whole of your life comes out finer, finer, finer.
Relaxing
To help you with this there is another discipline that you have to do along with it: relaxing. Relaxing has to be done intelligently. It's not the type of relaxation you do, for instance, after you have done some hard work -- we call that passive relaxation. I'm speaking of an active, intelligent relaxation.
Go through all of the functions and relax -- physical, emotional, sensory, mental, intuitive -- relax, relax, relax. You relax whatever is functioning. You address all of the functions and actually you address the tensions in the functions. You see a tension here and you follow it. You see to what it is related. You make a lot of discoveries on how you work. How, for instance, some physical tensions are related directly to emotional tensions. You can trace them. You have, let us say, something tight in your brain. You release it. Then you follow and realize that it stems from a tension in the plexus. By now you know if you have a tension in the plexus it's most probably emotional, so you go around the dynamics of the emotions and you find the tension -- not an emotional item but emotional dynamics.
As soon as there is an awareness of an existing or a rising tension, you relax it. You watch the game as you do it, until you become aware of what creates the tension. You will notice that there is a very common denominator -- possessiveness. In the past, the ego, in order to develop and preserve the persona, used the modus known as possessiveness, but in this time of bridging the gap, the role of the ego begins to subside, at least for those who are the first to do it.
You will notice that as soon as you tell yourself: "I have to..." you immediately have a tension -- because it is an ego proposition, you are possessive of the act itself. When you relax a tension you just relax it. Period. If you start processing you simply create more tensions.
As you can see, it's a whole world and you need some keen awareness. If you do it you will be surprised at what you will find. You will discover how these systems work, and you will begin to have a hand in it. You can help a lot in the balance of your physical body just by doing this. You will be amazed at what you can do. Of course, you must relax within that finer, finer, finer, so that the relaxation always touches more and more subtle points.
But I have to repeat, do it intelligently. Then you discover something else. There are modes of action, typically from the comedian or more than that, that do not necessarily imply tension. So you begin to have second thoughts about possessiveness. In this respect there is, once you begin to be trained, a moment in which you are asked to relinquish the possessiveness of the whole temple -- practically speaking, not symbolically speaking. But I have a warning: Knowing some of you, because I have said it you might have the desire to relinquish the persona, not because you have been asked to do it, but because Martin has said it would happen at some time and you want to do it right now. You cannot, because the persona cannot relinquish itself. It is done when you are asked to do it. You can learn, train to loosen the possessiveness of the persona, yes, this you can do. But one day you are clearly and definitely asked to do it. You will be fully conscious of it. It's more than consciousness, I agree, but it goes down even to the level of the persona.
When you practice, the quality of life becomes finer and finer. Please be aware that "quality of life" means in you and around you -- the very atmosphere in which you live. It's not just the hidden part people don't see, the surrounding that you have created around yourself is involved too. That surrounding is permeated by that finer and finer quality, until you experience standing utterly and completely transparent facing the void. It's tremendously beautiful. If you really practice finer, finer, finer, finer, this will happen. You will be fully aware of it. There's nothing special to it ,except that there is a quality of life that is, some say "out of this world" …
Utter Transparency
If you know transparency a little bit, you will notice that, depending on how you relate to what is going on, there is a veil, no veil, or anything in between. In the situation I speak of all veils are gone, there is utter transparency. When there is utter transparency, there is the utter void also. From there on many things may happen, depending on the type of maturity you have used. When you are aware of what is here in-the-first-place, you suddenly realize that what is here is enormously more beautiful -- you don't have words for it -- than you ever intuited before. It's not to minimize what was before, you needed it in order to orient yourself, but reality is another story. When you face reality without a veil it's a fully different story.
To help you in this direction, we are going to play the Ave Maria again, but this time you will orient
yourself differently. The Ave Maria is dedicated to Mary, the symbol of the mother. Now you have two aspects of mother: your own "flesh" mother and mother earth. What I want you to do is to express your gratitude for being authorized to be here on earth, to your mother and to mother earth. Grateful is the greatest fullness. So be careful, it's not the tiny full, it's the great-full that you have to express -- all of it.
(music)
Do you notice the change? You all show a finer quality -- see around the heads? You feel being somewhat different in yourselves. You are not the same as you were before. All because of one small change: you gave out instead of taking for yourselves. Do you begin to realize how insidious possessiveness is? Change your position and suddenly you are here more completely, more real, and with some sort of beauty around.
Just to give you an experience of the difference in position between taking for yourself or giving out. The same applies to Christ -- it's not for you to have.
So much for the old habit of working for yourself. We are here to do some work.
Do you have remarks or questions about what we just did?
Participant: Only that the giving, as demonstrated now, is totally natural, totally natural.
Martin: Sure, it's more natural than your awareness of nature. I'm glad you pick it out because I pick up in some minds: "Okay, I have to give." If you have to give it's not natural. In the change of position, that giving out flows naturally. You nearly can't help it. It is only the persona that works for itself, beyond persona this is gone. And if you are grateful to mother earth, it's a dimension that's a lot bigger than the flesh mother, so you come out differently. And for that one to give is natural -- there is no effort, no desire to give, it just goes.
Also another point. The gift was silent. It did not imply a specific action of your persona toward your physical mother or the physical earth. You didn't go into the garden, for instance, and accomplish a ceremony of gratefulness. But it still was sufficient to change the quality of the life here. What I am trying to say is that on the level of consciousness there is the strong belief that you have to do something -- meaning the action comes as a result of using a definite form such as spoken words etc., then it seems real. But I have told you for years that what makes the action effective is not the form. Now we just had a small example. We skipped the form but that expression was going on and was sufficient to express itself as a different quality in the room.
What I am going to do now is to play music without sound just to show you that without the support of what you believe is music you still have music and it has an effect like any music. That also reminds me that the same implies to beauty -- when you have that incredible beauty that has no shape, no form, no object, but that is more beautiful than any object you know.
So let me play music for you for awhile -- and I'm not alone in playing it.
(Silent Music)
Do you notice that you find a feeling in your body that is kind of weird -- the body is not as set as it was. It's as if the particles of the body were more loose.
Participant: I have this feeling that the body becomes like a swarm of bees.
Participant: I would say there is the feeling of ... I don't how to express it. It's like a substance without substance which is interwoven.
Martin: You are trying to express the dynamics of the music.
There is one general point you can possibly acknowledge: you live it moving. You know sometimes you sit passive in your chairs and that's about all. You don't feel that with the music playing, you feel moving.
Just to show you that apparently nonexistent music can have quite an effect. Could it be that what we call effectiveness comes out of nonexistent conditions? Nonexistent conditions according to your persona of course. It is important for your consciousness to realize that things can be done quite effectively without the help of the persona. Here you have something that works. It does not have the support of my consciousness. On the level of consciousness I do not know exactly what happens, because consciousness is a lot too small. It does not prevent "me" from doing it. I have tried time and again to convey this to you so you realize that you can act with or without the support of your persona -- and that means also with or without the support of your consciousness. There are situations in which consciousness is inadequate, so you act without it. Intelligence is not limited to consciousness and it's time for you to realize -- experientially, not as information.
Do you have questions or comments?
Participant: It's the best demonstration of doing by living.
Martin: Depends on the content you put in "living." I say this because we have to take into account all the minds. We have minds that still believe that what they figure out with those minds or emotions or a combination of these is the living. You are a speaking of something else -- where you have that living with or without the support of consciousness. But it is true that if you want to convey something you have to live it. As far as words are concerned it sounds pretty adequate, but the sentence is not foolproof because what is implied in "living" is not always fully understood. For instance, I speak of livance, and you use the word pretty often, but I practically never hear it in its own range, which is free of any consciousness -- truly all-encompassing.
Incidentally, you have heard me say that we modulate the music. It's a way of conveying that something is added to the music itself. The level from which modulation comes is the same level as was just used now in the demonstration. So don't cultivate the idea of modulating music on a level that is too low. For instance, a common understanding of "living" with the music to convey something is to generate a strong emotion relating to what you want to give. It's not that at all. The modulation is not based on sensory, emotional, or mental, it pertains to the comedian.
So remember to practice finer, finer, finer ...facing Christ, or facing "other." Facing. It's concrete. In front of you. You don't do it for you, you do it -for Christ or for "other." And as you do it, practice relaxation -- wherever you sense a tension. And don't relate to items, relate to functions. It's not this muscle or that nerve, it's this function or that function, or a new movement you see coming. Find out how they interrelate -- not by analysis, but experientially, because relaxing here triggers a response there, etc. See how the functions are related, and so on.
When you practice finer, finer, finer, you will be aware of a guest in your temple. If you have lost the guest, by practicing finer, finer, finer you will find it again.
So now we will play one last piece of music, a flute piece by Zamfir. You can take to space if you want.
(music)