CALISTHENICS May 26-27, 1981
PRESENCE ACTING – CYCLING – BUILDING THE MASK –GO TO THE SUN –THE ORDER OF THE ROSE – PIONEERING –FLOWING THROUGH –BLOOMING –SOCIETY –SEX – MUSIC THAT DRAW DOWN –TEMPORANEITY OF THE ACTION –CHANGING THE RELATION –BUDDHA AND CHRIST – PROBLEMS IN THE GROUPS – POSITIVE, NEGATIVE POLARITIES –CYCLING – HIERARCHY –PRACTICE FOR THE SUMMER – LEARN FROM MOVEMENT –BE SPIRIT –KNOWING COMES WITH THE DOING --
We have now come to the end of a first phase in our work. We have come to the point where we could demonstrate what we did with the rose: the presence acting, symbolically speaking, incarnated in the rose, with an obvious action throughout the room, starting from the rose and not from us. Thus, demonstrating that when I say "we" I mean "we", and I demonstrate "we" -- we are not alone. Possibly you might have noticed that each one of us has a certain coloring and the rose had another one -- all were related but still somewhat different, so that you could see that it was not a projection from us onto the rose. We have worked in the past with a crystal with the same effect -- the crystal becomes alive. We have worked with you with the same effect -- you bloom. You can see when we work together that you change. You can see when we work together that we change -- we show something. We have demonstrated our part, now we would like you to become consistent with it.
We want you to face what we do, and not in an emotional or idealistic way, but in a factual way. The point is not what Martin says or tells or teaches, the point is to connect with the facts. When we make you experience the changes that you experience when we play the music you face facts, but as soon as you want to do the same you go away from the factual situation. flow is it done? I can tell you how, it's very simple: To do it you have to do it. All the comments and observations you make in your head are irrelevant because they don't allow you to face the facts here and now.
Now we have to go further. We come into a period when we need help from you -- meaning a few of you have to show the ability to cycle what we do.
I have often demonstrated this cycling with an image taken from Theosophy: Humanity goes from point A to point B, symbolically speaking, and what we do is inject new elements into that movement -- because the time has come for it. Injecting works at ninety degrees to the movement, symbolically speaking. You work in the movement. The ability required is to live what is injected (be that) and cycle it, or, in other words, make it work along that movement.
This means, for those who are more mature, it is time for you to face facts and not dreams -- in yourself as well as with us. You must face the way you work, if you work. You must face the way you handle your commitments, if you have commitments and so on, and you must face these factually.
There are requirements, lots of requirements. The more mature you are, the more drastic they are. I would like you to become aware of one point: We work essentially on what is called the "spirit level" -- very little with the personality. The personality goes along the way of cycling; we can bring an impulse, but you have to do something with it. This kind of work is seldom understood. You think we ought to take more care of your personal problems, and we are not here for that. It's time for you to realize what we do.
So, I'm going to read you an article I came across the other day that might help you to understand some things and possibly situate some of your problems.
The article is written by Michael H. Brown, who is a transpersonal therapist. He defines transpersonal therapy using the Latin roots trans meaning "to go across or beyond" and persona meaning "mask".
The danger we all fall prey to, according to Brown, is in not recognizing the difference between the mask we wear, that is, our identities as father, mother, student, therapist, intellectual and so on, and who we really are beneath these social roles -- very often it's called your ego image.
During Roman times actors in the theater wore masks, and that mask was called the persona. You have a personality which essentially is that mask.
As Brown points out, recognizing the gap between the mask and the essential self, and acknowledging the need for change is usually a painful process.
Many of you face bewilderment, confusion and so on. It's not easy to go through crises, but these crises are not spiritual work, they are simply related to the relation between the real you and your mask.
Recognizing the gap between the essential self and the mask and acknowledging the need for a change (as soon as you are aware of your essential self) is usually a painful process.
I read this article to you because I like to give you echoes from people other than myself -- so that you realize that something is moving in the world.
... This need may be known initially as a vague restlessness, dissatisfaction with the ordinary things of life, a sense of boredom or lack of meaning in your relationship with others. We may experience a lack of intimacy and depth of communication either at home or at work. We may find ourselves empty, lonely, trapped in thoughts about the past or concerns about the future, with no enthusiasm for the present moment. And the longer we resist the need for change the greater are the crises which confront us.
Unfortunately the tendency is to postpone the need for change, which often makes the problem more difficult.
Our personalities form very early in life as we adapt to the conditions of our childhood, as we perceive and then incorporate the roles our parents and significant others play and as we first try to meet our basic needs. The first education you receive is in building your mask.....
Brown believes it is not necessary to throw our childhood personalities away, but to consciously conform them in the light of love. He says that our greatest task in life, is to learn how to trust the inner self for guidance and inspiration.
This pertains to the realm of psychology. In the story Brown tells, our work situates, at it's lowest point, in what he calls your real self.
I know perfectly well, by experience, that you expect help on the level of the mask. We have given hints, ways, methods, shaped in lots of different ways, to deal with this problem -- but honestly speaking it's not our job. We are now hoping to have more and more people who are able to take this over.
In the example I just read to you, you look for your higher self -- I call this being ego-centered -- meaning you still don't meet your reason for being on earth.
Your reason for being on earth is not to find yourself because this you cannot do. In Switzerland I came across the possibility of using guided fantasy to "go to the sun"*. In each case (where the experience was genuine) we went through certain preliminary steps (outlined in the book) until the individual reached the sun. At this point I asked what they wanted to do. They responded: "Go into it". So the person went into the very center of the sun. Then I asked: "What do you feel?", and they responded "It's beautiful, the rays are all around, it's full of light". Then I told the person to turn around and face the way they came, and then asked what they felt. I remember some persons saying with surprise: "Why, I am the sun".
This experience shows that as long as you strive toward the sun (which can be a symbol of the real you, as well as the symbol of God, which is the real you), even to the point of being in the very center of it, you are still not "it". As long as you go toward the goal, even when you are at the goal, you are still not it. But when you turn around and face the way you came, which is the outgoing way (coming down on earth, giving out), then suddenly you are it.
*A warning for those who might want to try this fantasy with others: You cannot do it safely unless you can follow what the patient is doing. Anyone can imagine going to the sun, but very often the sun is not real, especially if the person involved has a slight understanding of symbols. The beauty of fantasy is that someone can express absolutely freely, not realizing what the symbols are -- then you have the full freedom. If you do it with a psychologist, for instance, they can be aware of the symbols and arrange them, and this would be a waste. I have another instance in mind where we had to go through three suns -- the third was the right one, the two previous, ones were artificial. Now, the one conducting the fantasy has to be able to follow these things, if you don't, you won't
have the results.
The beauty of this is that,even for people who are untrained in this respect, there is a situation that is built in -- it is unconscious, but it is there. It is not the result of training, it is not the result of reading books or of indoctrination, it is built in. The ability to turn around is there, and as soon as you do it, you are it.
There is no way to become efficient in the art of cycling if you don't turn around. You have to give out. As long as you reach for something you won't reach anything -- as exemplified by the technique I described: As long as you go toward the sun you are not the sun; even in the very middle of it, it's still around you; it can be beautiful but it is around, you are not it.
There are requirements. As you have seen, on the psychological level, if you postpone the move you have to make to keep a normal relation between the real you and the mask, you make the situation worse. So, if there are requirements on the psychological level, on the spiritual level there are many more.
I have tried for some time to give you an inkling of the difference in position needed to face the factual side of what is going on (not the daydream). Last time with the rose there was the presence of an action flowing all over the room and throughout -- making the room transparent to some degree. The action of the rose is related to what I call "The Order of the Rose" with which we are involved.
"The Order of the Rose" is composed of a few beings, some known historically, some not known. They convene as an order only when there are big changes going on -- it's not a steady, ongoing order.There is some "mysterious" relation between the rose and this order which has to do with the symbolism of the rose. This means that when you see it becoming active, you have the proof of something working, and we tell you we know what it is. Obviously we cannot let just anything happen in this room, it would be far too dangerous. This means that we are involved factually in what is outlined in the Statement of Purpose -- The Christ Impulse -- and you still have not realized it. You have heard it, yes, you might even remember it, but our work is not with the mask, it is with the real you. If the mask has heard, nothing happens. But you do respond in very definite ways -- you -- and then there is the mask and the awareness of the mask.
We, and I especially, have always worked, throughout history, in pioneering. It is my experience, up until yesterday, that I have not come through -- which means that the clues are registered but the change in position is not made. When you face a fact you become factual as well, you respond factually.
At the age of eight we went to live in the mountains and I learned to ski. At the age of fifteen I went with an older brother to climb a mountain and came down again --
it was a pretty hairy enterprise. I heard only one or two years ago that we were the first to bring what is called "ski extreme" to Switzerland -- meaning we initiated a movement. The next ones to follow came twenty years later. This is pioneering, opening ways.
I also climbed mountain faces with the same brother and we were the first to introduce climbing extreme in this region of the Alps. The article said that "it was surprising with the primitive equipment we had". Since then this face has been climbed only six times -- meaning it's still very difficult.or, later, to give you another inkling, I got acquainted with acupuncture. I got a professional feel of it and then I came out with other ways. They work. You can do acupuncture according to the dynamics of the field, and it works on the psyche as well as the physical -- to my knowledge I am the only one doing this.
I tell you these things to show you that whatever I get involved in I open ways. So, when we speak of pioneering we know what we speak of. Symptoms show even through the mask.
Our main activity is not on the mask level, it's on the direct level -- the real you. What I am trying to bring through is that you face something really happening now. We give the clues, we give the proof, but we have a very hard time to bring you to the point of realizing that it is for good and real now.
I am proposing that you take a deeper look at yourself and around yourself -- taking the mask away. We have asked you to let us flow through you; we do it anyway, but if it were conscious it would be much better. You see the mask alone and this you cannot swallow, so you have a "feeling toward" no, we work through. If you were to look at us in a different way you would see something. We show another body and something else that you might call a being if you want-- and this is acting throughout.
There is another point that you have never understood: When you work together you experience that you start blooming (these are my words). You change -- the change is a blooming. You have already seen that one of the characteristics is that it doesn't come from me toward each one of you, it blooms throughout your own identity as you.
Now I want you to face another fact. People often speak of unity. They hear the words: "You will love thy neighbor as thyself". You can understand this to mean that you should love your neighbor as much as yourself, or, you can love your neighbor as being yourself. This is the situation in which we work. How could it be otherwise if when you bloom, you bloom? We demonstrate everything we speak of, whether your mask understands it or not. However we want your mask side to take a position and be consistent. But this requires discipline.
We live in a society that has pretty much lost its balance. It is known in psychology that the whole education from babyhood on is geared in a one-sided way (for the left hemisphere of the brain -- the rational side). They also have discovered that there is the possibility of working with a feature that is able to balance both equally -- so that the output on both sides is the same.
In this society you are also geared toward consumerism. In our language it means that you are geared to sensory awareness -- consumerism is toward concrete sensory awareness not the abstract one.
Over the years I have watched some of you grow and become more refined from a condition that was rather primitive, but I have seen some doing the reverse. I have in mind a few who once showed very beautiful, very refined qualities getting heavier and heavier. Lately we saw one of these people and this person could barely remember having made a very definite commitment and the higher quality that was there at the beginning had nearly faded away. For what?
I am thinking of someone else who told us that with the awakening of the heart activity the sex urge increased. There are problems with sex in the group -- some even indulge in sex sprees. What you don't understand is what it does to you.
One person likes to go dancing. They spend the evening dancing and listening to the music. You ought to know by now that certain types of music have specific effects that are absolutely not harmless. You have a defense against words, against music you have none because you have not learned. Be very careful.
There are two rules to observe that are expressed in the book: The nature side in you has to become more and more sensitive and the spirit side has to become stronger and stronger.
Jazz, rock, all the related Negro-origin music, draw you down -- you can experience it -- you become animal-like. You might like it, yes, but you jeopardize the higher responses quite definitely. Now if you want to work you need the higher end, and you have to train it. So, don't fool around.
If you make a choice, or for some of you a commitment on the spiritual level, it is taken very seriously. A spiritual commitment means a path to initiation. We do initiate -- in a very specific way -- but it is not possible as long as you fool around.
Some of you have come to work with us-- you recognize it and then it fades away and you lose it. There is one point very few of you keep in mind: You have a reason to be on earth that is a creative reason (doing something useful). For those who work with us in this incarnation, I remind you that the "we" involved convenes for a certain time and then is gone. The order is not permanent, it is temporary. The work we do is temporary too, it applies to now. If you miss the boat, then you missed it. You can void your incarnation in this respect very easily, and I do mean void it. For those who are trained (even unknowing on the mask level), who have an acute feeling for what we do and have an acute feeling of being related, if you fool around on the mask level, you might void your incarnation. This is real.
You know about karma and so on, you know that some disciplines are needed, but you know it on a fantasy level -- you don't know it on a factual level. The next time the "we" won't be around in this way. If you are related with me, next time I might not be around, meaning you will have lost the opportunity.
Now I want you to face something: I am fully aware that the words I use can he interpreted as unverifiable, but it is. We always give you the means to verify what we say, and the kind of sensitiveness that you are developing little by little allows you to see/feel/live some of what we show.
We spoke earlier about sex. You have to be aware of one point: In the past sex was related with love, a deep relation. Now, over the whole country (and beyond), that deep relation has been lost as far as the average public is concerned, and people complain that they are no longer able to feel a deep relation. On the other end of the scale, sex has become an industry -- and its sex only (sensation) -- and they are quite clear about their purpose: enhance sensation in any way possible and it has nothing to do with love. This means that all the finer values are gone. If you follow that, you are gone too. Gone.
It is known that unless you have reached a stage called the "Free Man" you can always fall back. Always. To give you an example: It takes some time to build a house, but you can demolish it in a few seconds. When you have intercourse with a partner there is a mixing of the astral qualities. If the partner is lower than you in level he can draw you down. it is no joke. if you have the slightest tendency of going toward the lower end that you have already overcome, the simple fact of being once with a partner of the lower quality will draw you back. it might take years to clear yourself from that. Contrary to what some of you sometimes imagine, having a good diet with lots of raw food etc. to clear your body does not necessarily clear your astral condition.
Participant: Can you clear it through the "Down-and-Away" exercise?
Martin: Possibly , but you have to be very definite. Of course you can clear yourself, especially if you have some will power and commitment in doing it, but there is no safe place in life. Any excess is dangerous.You need high sensitiveness in the physical body. Sex brings you down --unless you love. If you are really in love then it doesn't bring you down.
What I am hinting at is not to get rid of sex -- not at all -- change the way you relate to it. There is a rule that you always have to observe in any problem area of your life: If you feel that a situation doesn't work -- with a partner, with society, your job, etc. -- your first reaction is to change the situation. I say, no! Change your relation toward the situation. Establish a relation that works, and if it (your change of relation) doesn't work look for another one and so on, until you find one that works really. When you have a working relation, then you will know if the situation is outgrown or not, that is, whether you actually have to change the situation. If you change the situation you will bring your problem with you -- please remember. There is no escape. These are facts of life. Face it. Stop dreaming.
When you have a situation, or any kind of condition, including physical that you feel is lower than your normal level, don't try to change it. Don't restrict it, but hold it so it doesn't disappear. In other words, keep it in front of you so you can observe what happens. Then, live the higher condition. Continue to live it, live it... and see what happens. What happens reminds me of a story that I read about a raccoon who was given a piece of solid sugar. The raccoon went to the river to wash it, because raccoons wash everything they eat -- and the sugar melted between the raccoon's paws. He held it but it melted. Exactly the same thing happens when you do what I have suggested.
But ... there is a but. You have to be very objective. There is no desire, it is practically scientific: You hold it, it is definitely so; you vibrate something else and the "sugar" is going to melt. You don't do anything to change the quality into a better one. This is where you have to be very objective, because if someone is too idealistic they will not be able to hold it as it is.
But if, in spite of your change of relation,the form of expression pulls you down or prevents you from vibrating higher realities, then you have to make the choice.
Yesterday someone asked whether there are different rules in the New Age. The answer is, yes, definitely. One is: With the Christ impulse the creator aspect of man comes out. Referring to the sun, you have to be the sun -- there is no creation ingoing, it has to be outgoing. There is a related symbol that can also be seen historically. There was a very great being whose name was Buddha. The name Buddha contains the Indo-european root Bd, which is related to knowledge and wisdom. When Jesus came he was called Christ. Christ contains the Indo-european root Kr, which means to do. One point that is happily forgotten by most people who follow Buddha: His action was supposed to last 2,500 years (according to himself), but his followers wanted a change in the organization to which he finally conceded. He told them that if the change would be made, the action would last only 500 years. They still made the change. The action lasted 500 years and then came Jesus.
You can learn some things from this. Those who worked with him limited his work considerably -- instead of lasting 2,500 years it lasted only 500 years. In our work it's exactly the same. As you might begin to realize, we can do a lot more than what we do. We simply have to wait until you stop daydreaming and become factual. Possibly you would prefer to call your daydreaming a certain idealism. Now idealism is fine because it has the tendency to refine you a little bit, which is good, but one day you have to move. In our work we are professionals, so you have to become professionals as well -- and this takes something.
The change between the root Bd and the root Kr, is the change from wisdom/knowing to creation which is related to the root Kr. This requires a complete change of position, you have to come out as creators and create/open new ways.
When you run into trouble with yourself at the mask level, which practically all of you have, and which is a normal situation, do you realize how much you can interfere with what is being done with your judgment and opinions? You can read in Patanjali that the Atman is the one that is aware -- not the mind. This was written about the same time as Buddha (about 2,500 years ago). I read an article today in which they tell that they begin to realize that the brain is not conscious -- it is a processing machine. The thinker is not the brain, the brain processes the thoughts. When you see that these things have been known for a long time, but are now being rediscovered. If you want to pioneer you have to keep up with the times. You have to react today, not tomorrow. You are not the mask, be consistent with it.
I told you you can retrain the mind. The mind contains undreamed of possibilities. You have the concrete mind and you know it in only one way. You don't know the direct way, you know only the reflective way-- but the mind functions in both ways, provided you stand behind.
Now I want to come back to some big problems here in the groups.
When you want to participate in the action in which we are involved, it means you decide something, you commit yourself in a direction. If you take a direction, each direction, each path has its own law and you have to act in accordance with it. If you have chosen a path that goes uphill, be ready to make a little bit more physical effort than would be required for a downhill path. It's obvious. If you hike, for instance, you know this, and you agree and go along. Spiritually it's the same.
You might wonder sometimes why I let you go downhill. Usually (not always -- depending on how your mind works), I give a warning. Most of the time the warning is not heeded. And there is a point that you might not realize: As you know, I see you differently than you see yourself. I see a lot more than you are aware of and in ways that are different from the mask, so we don't meet on the same references. But sometimes we see someone make a mistake that can be dangerous; we tell the person and the person doesn't follow -- what can we do? The person has not yet learned to be factual, they are still daydreaming. They see what I tell them as my opinion, and they have another one. We don't deal with opinions -- not at all --the warning is factual, but not everyone is ready for this.
I try to tell you that I am a pioneer, it's in the genes, in blood -- actually it's behind the mask. How tuned are you to the condition of Pioneering? Pioneering is a giving out. How many of you are aware, that the work we do is world-wide - and actually more than that ?
As a group you offer an average field of human constitution, and, as I told you, most of our work is to adjust to that human level, and some of these impulses have to be cycled into humanity now. For this we need help.
We have observed a classical situation: People relatively young, having a family, the job gets better, and the income increases, they become more earthbound, desires begin to be fulfilled because of more money -- and that's life. Some of these people lose contact with their reason for being on earth. Little by little the body gets coarser instead of getting more refined -- it's a tragedy. I have in mind a person I followed since that person came to the groups. At one period of time there was a choice and I wondered if that person would become more refined or the other way round. It went to the more refined. A nice potential began to show, the material situation improved and then little by little everything began to fade away --that person hasn't moved in three years. I don't like to see this kind of thing, it's painful. Who cares? The person doesn't.
You have gratified the senses again and again throughout incarnations -- there is nothing new to it -- and you tell yourself that this is the goal of life. I wonder if you see what I mean about how you can waste your time on something that is already known ? If you make a choice to go in a given direction, be committed. Some discipline is necessary.
There are two symbolic articulations in the body: the hips with the legs and the shoulders with the arms. When you go dancing the movements are centered on the hips. When you are at home I want you to experience this -- walk around centered on the hips. Most of you are centered on the hips naturally. Remember you belong to society, it's not a criticism. Then change and center on the shoulders-- this does not mean that you ignore the body, but the body is, like a true dancer, centered high up, not on the hip level. You might think of Ki -- it centers in the abdomen and it's powerful. Zen derives from Buddha which means that it was created at that time. There has been a change and there is a change in position that goes along with it.
There is another point, and I'm always amazed that up to now no one has come out with it: In life on earth, man is a positive being, a true spirit. otherwise you have nature beings (beautiful ones, sometimes). Man is not a nature spirit. If you reach a certain initiation you might have a choice to go either way, but before that time you don't have the choice. You are by your own constitution positive. When you are hip-centered you are sensory-centered not spirit-centered,, or, to use other words, you are mask or person-centered, you are not yourself. What you don't know is that at one time (symbolized by the story of Atlantis) quite a few people had a lot of magical power. Meaning you have possibilities related to the past and possibilities related to what is coming -- one is of negative polarity and one is of positive polarity. You might not make the difference but there is a difference. Once you have learned about polarities you are able to recognize it. The oriental power of the Ki is not spirit, but it is powerful. You can have experiences along the negative polarity that are absolutely beautiful, yes, but you are here for something else because you are of positive polarity. And this is where most of the confusion comes in. Learn to make the difference.
Spiritually, if you ignore the Law, the Laws of Karma will catch you anyway . and don't worry, you don't need to phone them. This is shown mask-wise; I am actually hinting at the fact that I want you to become serious and stop bickering with the mask.
We have told you, the lowest level is soul level (whatever soul is). Actually I could tell you it's higher than soul -- for those who use the term "soul" it's on Monadic level -- below this point it is just a courtesy, not the real action.
You happen to be here, and most of you very steadily, so apparently you mean it. I would like you to take over some control of your mask -- you are not that mask. For instance, when I tell you that I see you differently than you see yourself, I would expect you to hear that and look for that -- not according to the mask, according to something that is different. You hear the words spoken, you respond all over (including the fields as you can see/experience), so actually you follow more than the words. Sensorily you hear the words, but factually there is a lot more. You have the proof in yourself that you act as "a lot more", so you are bound to be more than that instrument called a personality. It's obvious.
I have used a lot of time to come through and kind of prove what we say. Of course, the proof is not on the level of the mask, but little by little some sensitiveness in the mask has developed and you are obliged to recognize it -- at least some points. Now I ask you to be consistent with it. We lose a lot of time. The symbol of this is that when we ask if you have questions there is always a long delay before someone speaks. There is a kind of passivity --actually you practically defeated the idea of calisthenics, which was meant to be movement. If you act you have questions, you make discoveries, instead of always expecting me to ... whatever. We need to have some interrelation on the mask level, so that finally you gain some control over that mask.
Also, when we play the music at the end, I suggest that you watch a little bit because both of us show another body. Look for an otherness, not for the body and possibly another one -- which is the mask procedure. There is an otherness, and if you see it you might sense an otherness in yourself as well. And related to this we/I work to bring an impulse to earth -- incarnating it, bringing it into action --which has to do directly with Christ. (By Christ I mean the Logoic level, at the lowest --- I do not mean people representing that.) We do not expect any one of you to work the same way as we do. I know that some people would like to be in the same work, working in the same way, but you cannot -- as of now it's impossible.
Your relation to what is done is cycling or bringing into action. Cycling pertains to what is known since Theosophy (since a century ago) as being the work of the Hierarchy. So, for instance, some of you are interested in the Full Moon (of course, this is one aspect, there are many other aspects), so here you have an opportunity. You learn from books that Full Moon means this and that. You go there and you live this and that -- no these are words, where is the fact. When you do it, get sensitive to the movement itself. There is always a misunderstanding and a big one. If I read, for instance, that a thermometer says the temperature of the water is 100 degrees, it means doesn't mean I read the temperature, it means I read a number. The temperature is not the number. If you put your hand in the water, then you have the temperature. Most of the time, with the Full Moon, you are reading a number not the temperature. So, here you have an opportunity to practice until your personality is tuned. If the personality is tuned to what is behind then finally you will become sensitive to what is behind. And, believe it or not, the real activity is always different from anything you imagine.
Now, some people shun all that comes from the Hierarchy because they think we do something different, but we do work with the Hierarchy, it's simply that your understanding of the Hierarchy is enormously different than the reality. Don't underestimate any activity on the spiritual level. If you want a clue, there is a saying that there is as much difference between an ordinary man and an initiate as there is between an animal and an ordinary man. I suggest that you take this as a reality, then you will begin to awaken a little bit.
In the case of the Full Moon (for those who are interested), I suggest you work with it, There is an action going on, follow the action. Be sensitive to what's really going on.
Related to this, you might have observed, and possibly resented, that when you ask questions I look at you and follow a movement -- sometimes to the point that I miss part of your question, because the wording is not that important to me. Of course, for the one who is wording, the sounds are very important, so, sometimes I miss the question and orient the answer according to what I see in the movement instead of according to the orientation of the words.
Practice for the Summer
We need to orient your personality into an outgoing movement -- it's absolutely needed. if you are alone with yourself and you want to use all of your time for yourself, you are of no use -- possibly we are beneficial to you to a certain degree, but, in the work in which we are involved you are strictly of no use.
What I want you to do is actually simple, but it requires some movement: This summer, meet some people where you feel you could help establish a relation between the self and the mask -- this means outgrowing the mask condition and becoming sensitive to the self behind. Maybe you already know some, maybe you're already engaged in such an activity, but for those who aren't, come out of your shell and make yourself available and useful-- and useful in a specific way: Learn to show someone else how to live the real self behind the mask and make the difference between the real self and the mask.
And don't tell me you don't know enough -- just do it! Start doing it! If you don't -- move you won't have the necessary inspiration, but if you move it will come. There is no approach, you do what you can, not what you ought to do. If you do what you ought to do it will be a disaster. You have natural abilities that are yours, find your own way.
But, if you are asking for a method to use: If I were to use a very primitive method, I would tell you a few truths and then hit you on the head with something solid to make it enter. So in this case, you might ask yourself if it really helps. Possibly it harms. So if you try this and you find it harmful, you would then refine your methods -- it's as simple as that. If you are afraid of harming someone you will never move. The very fact of not moving is harmful to your surroundings. There is no escape. There is no easy way. Do your best, it's all you can do -- but move, you have to. To stay stagnant is, at the least, a bad example.
Participant : I notice that in approaching and being with people where I see a possibility of making a contribution in terms of establishing more of a connection, there's a possibility of an infinite involvement between me and them, even in terms of time, until the job is completed. This is pretty impractical. it makes me wonder what my actual responsibility in that ongoing exposure is.
Martin: The way you ask the question means that you see in the possibility of helping someone only the actual physical presence. We see some people only once a year, for instance, or not even that. In between, the relation can still exist and can still be working. Some people would say meditate with that person, I mean "with" -- in the distance, abstractly. Some people do that very effectively. You have to realize that the method you use has to be your own and your own might vary. Usually people think only of having to speak to someone -- telling the person to do this or that -- but this doesn't help. You have to live the condition, and, because you live it, your words have some power. But if you tell them what they should do, this has no power. There are people who have a greater ability to work abstractly. They see the need, make contact, see the response, and then go home and work in meditation. Some people are quite efficient in this way. There are many ways of working. If one way is impractical, use another one. You might work with both, in an actual connection and in a more abstract connection.
When all this doesn't work there is a third way: Ask the events to take care of it. if you cannot do it, but you feel it has to be done (by feel I mean that there is a certainty, an evidence), then you can ask the events to do it. You don't need to know what "events" are -- things will simply combine in the life of the other person and bring along what is needed. But, of course, you have to be very consistent and really involved in what you do.
Participant: If, at one time, in living something that another person can respond to, the situation leads to a discussion of spiritual things, but I'm not consistent in living that, it feels that there is a lie in my life, because I'm not always prepared to come to the fore with the same fullness as I did once. This feels like hypocrisy -- it feels irresponsible.
Martin: I can understand your meaning of hypocrisy, but you have to make allowances for training. Your ability to help is primitive at first, then, you become aware, little by little, and your personality becomes much more refined. The ability to sense what is going on, first psychologically, then dynamically, comes with practice. There is a simple rule: Simply do your best. Don't ask yourself too many questions -- especially not about what you "should" do. Put your successes and failures on an equal level. Until you can recognize the difference in position, you might sense a difference in dynamics -- not the rational explanation of what you did wrong, but something more refined, more holistic. You might realize that in one situation you were in a given position that was not effective and in the other you were in another position. You have to learn to see the differences. If you have a failure and you "down-and-away" with it because you don't want to see it, you don't have the contrasts. You're not supposed to be successful all the time.
Sometimes you will see what someone needs, you will act on it, and forget that the person is not asking for it at all -- so you suddenly have a defeat and it's kind of sobering. It's not because you see something going wrong with a person that you can correct it -- there has to be a collaboration, a willingness. So, if you meet someone you cannot just say: "Let's sit down and I'll show you some things"; you have to have an approach in which there are suggestions, and, according to that you see what happens. or, if you have a higher ability, you sound a note and see what the response is. You might see a deep need from the higher part -- then you might act on it. If you don't see it, then pouring theories into the mask does not help -- the mask is not the self.
Participant: You spoke to us about taking heed and gave us a long talk about the nature side and just now you said to do our best and not do what we " should" do. It seemed to me that for the first three quarters of the evening you were telling us What we "should" do.
Martin: If you take a direction, the "should" is gone and you simply have to -- but this is the overall theory. In practice, you have your own situation, and in this situation there are variables. So, there are principles to be observed and applied in your own way. If you want, the rules become principles to be applied or put into motion. Now principles do not criticize, they do not speak of good or bad, they are simply principles to be applied. Simply that.
Earlier I spoke of being hip-centered and shoulder-centered. These are symbols which pertain to the two main articulations of the body (not related to the nine centers): one makes us walk and the other makes us shape. Actually we need both, but in the present condition it happens that hip-centeredness is more nature related. This means the spirit hasn't come down all the way, or, is not master to the whole mask.
Participant: Is this shaping an attempt to create?
Martin: Yes, creation implies shaping, but there is a next step: spirit has to come down. You have to be spirit. You cannot take the next step until you are aware of the difference between you and the mask. But, for instance, when I tell you to do your best and you practice this difference, then you will do it when you deal with someone. You will be surprised at how much more sensitive to the condition behind the mask you are when you,live shoulder-centered, and how much less you are when you are hip-centered. And there is fine point: If you happen to feel no difference between the two it means that the sensitiveness of your organism is not sufficient, because there ought to be some evidence of difference right away. Sometimes someone has a body that is too coarse and it actually does not respond to this fine point. If this is the case something must be done, about it.
Participant: We won't always get the results that we want, right?
Martin: Of course and this is quite welcome, it teaches you not to mistake the real identity of the person with the mask. Most of the time people who act psychologically expect the person to respond in a way that is conventional. This increases the strength of the mask and decreases the relation between the mask and the real self behind. This is what Brown called "building of the personality". Society expects us to behave in a certain way and from childhood we learn to do just that. Then we discover that something is malfunctioning because something is forgotten.
As you practice and you have actual, factual situations to deal with, then possibly we may suggest different ways, different nuances, or show you that you are taking this position rather than that. The most common mistake you will make is to assume the position of the other's mask because of the words being said --if you are caught in the words you are caught in the mask. Your purpose is not to make people happy, not unhappy either -- there is a purpose to life that is more than words like "happiness". of course, when you are genuinely you, there is fullness, there is tremendous bliss, but you have only sporadic happiness, that's all -- one day it's here and the next day it's forgotten.
In helping I would suggest that you do the following practice:
Sit down and be quiet. Watch your mind functioning; be aware that it's not alone -- there is something else. Do the same with your sensations and feelings. Then, drop your thoughts, drop your feelings, drop your sensations and focus on that something else. Now when I say "drop" I don't mean block -- the situation is that you are simply not interested because there is something else. Live it, or with it (according to your ability), as freely and relaxed as possible and then you stop doing. Just live it and it acts -- see what happens. It makes you change after a while, then you know by experience that you are not the mask -- then you can help. This is what makes what you say alive and this is what creates the response -- not only of the other being, but of the very mask of the other. Things get more aligned. Learn to stay in this position because this is the working principle. The words may be right or they may be wrong, but if you learn to stay with the working principle you will have the same result. The active principle is not the form called "procedure". I suggest that when you are more handy with it that you drop all form and do nothing but stand present. It works just as well. Because of the mask you imagine that you need lots of steps and that they are the power to the healing, but they are not, they are just shapes.
Another point: If you decide to live a higher quality of life, then hold it in spite of whatever your mind, your feelings, or your body say. If you are able to hold it you will break through any,I repeat any, condition. This is where the master behind the mask begins to assert itself. You do it in spite of the personal condition. Most people try it, find it difficult and then quit. I am referring to that directiveness in which you sense the opposition but it doesn't change what you do one bit -- you do it anyway. If you do it anyway, everything else aligns. You own mind might not believe in it, but what matters is the directiveness behind. You do it anyway.
There are conditions you just can't allow yourself to be in, so you just don't express that way. Let's say you are down. It effects you, it effects your work, and it effects people around you. You don't have mastery over it, but at least you can be aware that you have to exert the mastery you have. if you awaken in the morning and you are just gray -- change! The Christ Impulse is not just an impulse, it deals with life itself. It means that you can change the flow of life in you, at least to some extent -- it's not full mastery, but it's something. You can refuse to continue to be in a given position -- you just decide you won't play the game any more and you mean it and you do it!
Participant: You spoke earlier of making a choice, is there a technical way this choice is made?
Martin: The choice has to be deeply, deeply felt, because technically it's a soul choice, it's not the person, not the mask. It's simply a deeply felt something that comes through the mind and the mind goes with it. But if you have a choice of the mind it's not sufficient.
Now, if you are referring to a technical way of expressing it, making it active, then there is not. It's a decision you make and when you make it you stick to it -- this is mandatory.
…..And this brings up the other aspect of what I call training the ability to switch at will is the result of much practice. You have to do it repeatedly, and when you do it be aware as much of the position when you make a mistake as when you do it "right" --you need the contrast, this brings along the awareness of position. You could describe it as a range of quality of vibration. When you are "wrong" you experience one position, when you are "right" you experience another. The more aware you are of it, the greater your ability to change at will. For instance, you just experienced some difficulty tuning into the other condition -- this is already a beginning -- it's a lot better than not being aware at all and just living in a fantasy. In this case the acting is in your ability to switch from one position to the other -- every time the opportunity arises.
As the average goes, it shows sporadically, spontaneously in some conditions. Little by little you can bring it along; first you take some time, then it's quicker and quicker, until you can switch at will. Of course, the ability to switch exists right away, it's just your imagination that stands in the way. You simply think you cannot.
….when the instrumentation perceives the true self there is still no changeover. Even if the mask knows that this is the self it doesn't take the position. It's kind of silly. if you awaken from a dream and realize that you are not the dream, why do you continue to dream? You continue to dream, happy to know that you are the real self. It's an image. You have to turn around and live what you have perceived.
……This is where practice comes in: Be aware that there is an overall presence of something else transpenetrating the whole activity. It's a something else that works differently and you focus your whole livance on that difference (that which is fully, completely different). You will have awareness based on thoughts, feelings, sensations, realize that none of these are present in the other activity. They are simple interpretations, reflections worked out by the mask about that presence behind, so when you try to reach that presence behind according to the mask it doesn't work. You have to learn to do some form of down-and-away, and the more mature form is to put your attention on what you want. Then when someone speaks, for instance, you can relate every word to what is behind without being caught by the form of the word (because the words bear evidence of what is behind). When we speak there is always something behind, but the mask is so used to the form that you forget to live with what is behind.
…. There is the genuine intuition and then there is the image of your ability to do it and this one is not valid. This is what I call following an image. You create a condition that is here already, but you don't recognize it, so you duplicate it. This is an imitation, not the original.
…..Knowing how comes with the doing. There is no map. It's not related to a map, it's related to dynamics. Dynamics are essentially movement, not forms. But you will delay the doing until you can find no other way and then you'll just do it. Most people look for the "hows" all over the world first, and then when they have a collection of "hows", none of which are applicable to the present situation because they are the "hows" of others, they forget about "how" and find themselves free to move. Then they see that they could have moved in the first place.