CALISTHENICS October 27/28, 1981
TAKING CHARGE OF CALISTHENICS – MEANING OF SPIRTUAL MASTER –DEALING WITH SITUATIONS –LEADER/FOLLOWEER –MIND WITHOUT IMAGES –ASSUME RESPONSIBILITIES LIKE A SPORT ---LEARN NOT TO PLAN AHEAD ---ACT FROM WHAT YOU LIVE ---CHRIST, THE WORD, THE LOGOS – PUT THE VEIL AWAY
It happens that things go faster than expected and we are now confronted with a new possibility. I want to share it with you to see if you accept or refuse it. The proposition is that we work practically entirely on the so-called higher level and leave the calisthenics to you. This means that you would take over the calisthenics and the responsibility involved. We would handle the service and some specific training at the beginning of calisthenics (possibly for an hour or so)and you would find ways to bring it out.
For the last several years there have been more and more voices asking for the opportunity to take responsibility. We have now come to the point where we can live this opportunity and give it to the >groups as a whole. The opportunity is that of taking the responsibility of bringing what we do here into the world. The world, incidentally, is symbolized by your personality, so if you work for the world, you work throughout your mpersonality too. If you bring a new quality into the world, you bring it throughout your personality -- it goes together.
So my question is: Are you eager to do it, or are you against it?
Participant: I'm not clear exactly what you are proposing. chat specific form would it take?
Martin: Finding the specific form is part of the responsibility you take. You can expect a pretty nice confusion the first day, and possibly a little less with each try -- or possibly it might work right away – this is for you to find out, you are on your own. You move and you move collectively; this kind of activity asks for the participation of everyone.
Of course, there are rules to observe. One of the rules is if you want to bring out a deeper reality and express it throughout your person it is obvious that you have to live the reality in the first place, whether it is expressed consciously in your own consciousness or not; but you have to live it and this means it has to show. If you are eager to help mind-wise or personality-wise but the overall quality is missing, then think twice. The point is not to come out with forms but with the ability to bring the content throughout whatever form you are using.
I have an inkling that a few have the feeling of a generation gap -- that something with Martin is outdated -- that "he uses old forms and we need new forms for our life now which is different". That's fine with me, as long as you can do better. And this is not a joke, I expect you to do better, if not in this life then someday, because I'm not with you in the cycling. When you take over and assume the responsibility of cycling you are taking a big burden off of my shoulders, because it's not my job. My job is to bring something here to all mankind (which includes the groups).
Participant: You mentioned that there are rules, are there others than the one you mentioned?
Martin: We can make a lot of rules, but let's begin with just one; it's a major one and if you can work with it you can forget about the others:
In any discussion about ways of expressing or types of training you might want or need, it is mandatory that you have the ability to see when you lose contact. Otherwise you will devise ways of working that are not based on or not adapted to what has to come through and you will have to do the work all over again. So, the few who are able to pinpoint when the quality is here or not have to take the responsibility of saying so. There should be a person in any sub-group who is able to hold the note, whatever happens, and this takes pretty much spiritual strength it's not that easy to do.
Participant: Were you saying that all of the sessions with you and Georgette would be just music and that there would be no questions or talking?
Martin: There will be some talking, but a lot less, and specific to what we are working on at the moment. The more psychological side you will have to solve for yourselves. This is where you will come out with new abilities, because you will need them. If you always rely on me to know if every move you make is correct, you will never be able to move on your own -- and in this respect the point is not even to move on your own but to be of service for the work being done.
Practically speaking, what we will do is keep the service with music, for the beauty of it and for what you live. I imagine we will take an hour at the beginning of calisthenics to work with music and then you take over for as long as you want -- it's no longer my business. As far as economy of energy is concerned, when we play the music we will sound certain qualities that are present in the room, and you will take over afterwards and keep them going -- at least in the beginning -- or you can change the subject utterly" it's your freedom to decide.
There was a question yesterday from someone in an already existing sub-group about the proper way to apply an exercise, which brought to mind another rule :
Finally you might have quite an array of rules that you can forget anyway because you are on your own.
The shape of an exercise only exists as an example; you can apply the same principle in a different way, and, as long as it is applied, it's perfectly okay. I wouldn't like anyone to become rigid on the application of an exercise. The principle has to be lived,not the form, the form is incidental. If you become rigid about form, before you know it you have forgotten the principle behind and this is a serious danger.
Participant: I can see that as I go on my own path that a lot of what I am aware of is reflection and it's quite easy to get off the track; taking responsibility implies to me that one wouldn't get off the track. What happens if there is not sufficient ability to stay on track to complete the responsibility?
Martin: There are several principles involved. If you, as a group, are serious about what you do, there is what is called "intent" -- this is a polarizing agent, it gives a direction. If the intent is accepted collectively and is strong, it will bring you back on track practically automatically, without your having to make a special effort. Of course, you may go off the track, but then you will go around and finally hit the track again, because of the basic intent. This is the application of the A function. Whenever you work the A function has to be present and the A function can take many shapes, one of which is a definite intent.
You cannot wait to become absolutely fit. The situation in life is that when you are absolutely fit, you will be taken off your job and given another one for which you are not yet fit. What you understand as fitness comes with experience in the work you do. According to my standards none of you is fit to take the responsibility, but I encourage you to take it anyway. This will give you a chance to show a fitness that you ignore because your mind is not fit.
Look, for example, at the proposition of your taking over. We can forecast the mess that will result right away, but then there is something more serious in you and this broadcasts an intent and the intent has a directional action. This action will, little by little, bring you in tune with the direction you want to take. When the directionality is well established you will discover there is not only one way of doing something, there are an infinity of ways. And, according to how you are structured, from that infinity you have a pretty wide choice for yourself. You have a choice of form that is absolutely real. When you start and you don't find the right form, then if you want to be concerned about something, be concerned about the intent -- the form will come.
Participant: Will the other existing groups be withdrawn or will they continue to go on?
Martin: This is your choice. There are definite advantages to smaller groups. If you have newcomers to take care of it's much easier in smaller groups. On the other hand, the larger group is needed too. People have to come together, they belong to the same activity, they have to know each other and so on. So the smaller groups have to be outlets of the larger group, not a breaking apart.
Now I'm going to ask you a question to show you that the work we do is different from the general trend found in society. The question is: Is there anyone here who sees us as spiritual masters? I don't mean a belief, I mean something stronger than that, a reality.
I'll tell you now why I ask. The point is not whether I am a spiritual master or not, the point is that if this is meaningful for you then you connect to a certain level of functioning that is related with your understanding of mastery, you recognize that level of working. So the point in asking the question is to link you to a given level of activity. Now, if you join the activity then the activity starts for you from that level. When a master incarnates on earth, he is here to do a job. For those who connect to that, if you step in and help you forget about personal achievement, your concern is the work to be done and you help in any way you can. You are work centered. You have heard me say this for a long time; from this perspective perhaps it suddenly makes sense. I've told you I don't care about improvement for myself. You might notice that in this life Martin gained one further initiation, but this is not the way we work, it is not the way we see, and it is not the way we act. I gave this example so you can realize that when I speak of taking responsibilities it is very deeply real. If we are more than the usual for you, it means you have responsibilities in something that is more than the usual. In that position you cannot help but be work-centered, you are done with ego-centeredness. "Having-to-reach-something-first..." is gone. Whatever change you realize (make real) in your person, is made because of the necessity of the work and not because you want to reach a given level.
Here we meet the practical requirement of the Statement of Purpose. You are not here for your own benefit. Lived from that angle it is very, very real. You become action-centered and you become attentive to the action going on. Action is dynamics. Dynamics are not shapes. You can make the dynamics work, supported by a shape or carried through a shape, or you can make them work without a shape. I'll give you an example: When you first came in, before the music, we had silence. For your consciousness there was no shape, but you responded to a change. Something happened in the room and it continued to happen with the music (which is a shape). What continued to happen was the same happening, with or without the shape. I give you this example to help you realize that shape is not of prime importance, there are dynamics at play. When we speak of work, those who become conscious of the work being done tune to dynamics not shapes.
The big problem for the consciousness is that dynamics don't have the aspect of thingness that is proper to shapes, and the mind is trained to work solely with thingness. We have the English word "nothing", which means no-thing. This means when thingness is gone you can imagine yourself looking into the void for things, and you continue to be centered on things in terms of the presence or absence of things. Of course, with the void you follow a different procedure, but still, just to show you the trend of seeing in terms of thingness.
Now, when we work you learn to tune in to what is going on. What is going on expresses in ways that are not things, so you have to train your consciousness not only to stop thinking but also to stop "thinging". Then you can become aware, down to the level of the consciousness, of what is going on,and what you have to bring through that day, because each day it is different.
You have by now sufficient experience to realize that when we work with you something happens which has a special aspect because it's not exactly a thing. Part of it is "thinged", as soon as it comes into the mental level, for instance, you have a thingness, but the movement is always generated from higher than that -- always -- from levels that are perfectly void for the consciousness. This does not mean that you cannot live it, it simply means that your consciousness is not yet fit. You are not your consciousness, consciousness is a tool. The problem we face, the problem you face, is to act, to move.
You have heard me saying many things, too many things, in the book, in the transcripts etc., there are plenty of things for you to practice. Find your own ways, but practice. The first thing you have to do is to find out what practice means, and you find this out by doing it. Practice is not thinking, it is moving, it is dynamics. And the mind always has to be on the lookout for different forms of awareness; livance, for instance, is one of them, it is all-inclusive, it's very, very different from the mind. You will have to learn to be centered on living a quality, a condition, a movement, rather than thinking about shaping it. Live it fully and it will shape itself.
Those for whom the deeper level is meaningful and who begin to realize what participating is, i.e., taking part in the movement, in what is to be done, will forget their ego-centeredness and be centered on what you really can do to help the action. From that moment you will work on your personality as a sample of mankind and not as if it were "you". You are in a situation in life, a human situation, and you take care of it, you take care of the situation not of yourself. Ego-centeredness really goes. You will have an awareness of the human condition you've never had before, one that you cannot have if you are ego-centered. You will begin to be able to tune in to lots of different conditions. You already know a little about the functioning of yourself, but this does not mean you know the functioning of the human condition. Did it ever occur to you that when we work every one of you responds? The ability to do this means tuning in to every individual quality present in this room and actually more than that. It is very simple provided you function differently, and provided you are no longer possessive, possessiveness is a very limiting factor. You will also learn to face situations as they are and deal with them rather than dealing with situations as you would like them to be.
There is another recommendation I can make: When you face a situation don't judge it. Learn to face the situation as it is. This might be a person in front of you, a group, or it might be yourself. A judgment of value, provided it is objective, can be reliable only from a certain point of view. If you change the point of view you have to modify your judgment. The point is not to label the situation, the point is to deal with the situation as it is, with as little wishfulness or fantasy as possible. The point is not whether you like the situation or not, the point is what can be done with it. When you take responsibility you assume a higher, more mature position, a responsible position, and you deal with your own personality as a sample of mankind, a situation. In this position it is easy to do. It is even interesting, you learn a lot about the human condition. Now remember, I speak about the human condition, man was created in the image and likeness of God -- he is more than human -- but he deals with the human condition. This means that you are definitely not limited to your human condition, definitely not.
if you follow the symbol of the square diagram in the book, you have three types of awareness. People say that the others are not yet developed, but "not yet developed" is only a point of view-of consciousness. Actually all nine work constantly, and you determine much of your action by-means that are not conscious. Be on constant lookout every day for other functions, other ways of functioning. Man has 3 1/2 eternities of experience behind him, so, very, obviously, you can do a lot more than you are aware of. However, you have an ego awareness that is possessive. Now I don't know if you realize what possessiveness means -- it means separation from the surroundings.
When you work you can observe, and I do encourage you to observe, that everything in the room changes, including the crystal and the flowers.. Their presence has a different quality. In a moment we are going to play some music and you will notice that under one type of action, which is related to an A function, the crystal responds stronger than the roses, with the other type of action the roses respond a bit more than the crystal. This can be seen. You will also see that the life emanated by both is the same life that you can see around everyone -- a oneness of life that is very different from your understanding. You have to face reality; your awareness, sensory, emotional, mental, is very, very poor.
You have to train your mind to realize that there is no "truth" in a reflective consciousness, there are only ways of looking at things. Now, depending on what you are doing, you might want to look at the situation in a certain way, but for another event you might look at it in a different way. Each way has its own usefulness, but these are only angles, once you realize livance then there is an awareness that has no angles whatsoever.
As of now it's an impossibility. You sense it, sometimes you live it a little, but the fullness of it and the use of it is not yet available, unless you can train your mind to recognize that there are other modes and train the mind not to interfere when you use these different modes. This can be and has to be done.
As an example, when we play music with you, you change. We have the collaboration of the real you, whatever the position of your person. of course, if the person is going with it, what shows is much more evident, but there is a change anyway. The action that you show is done from a level of awareness that is completely unconscious for some of you and partly conscious for others.
I work on the unconscious side, but it is quite effective, and I would like you to register that it is quite effective. You are able to come out and express field-wise without the support of your consciousness, and it is real.
I welcome the new situation in which you take over and act because the sole problem we have is that you think instead of acting. When you respond to what is going on during the music the actor shows, so the actor is acting. There is evidence, evidence for your own eyes and so on. Then you go home and you turn into a mask and the mask tries to be the actor and believes it is the actor, instead of coming out exactly in the same way as you do here, whether the consciousness helps or not. I tell you it happens in spite of your consciousness. You experience it every time. Now the time has come to act on it.
There is another point that comes up again and again, that is, that you don't want the student-teacher relation or the leader-follower relation. Obviously if you have a group action this kind of relation is not very good, but much depends on your position. Instead I propose another name: coordinator. The action requires the participation of everyone and everyone might at one time or another be able to come out with an answer to a given situation. In this respect there are no leaders, but someone has to help coordinate the movements. For instance, not being lost in discussion when the intention was to bring out a certain radiance or a certain quality. Someone has to be on the lookout to bring you back to the topic you are dealing with -- this will be the job of the coordinator. I have appointed three: Francois, Chris and Chris. This does not mean that you will depend on these three only, anyone can help.
Participant: When you just play music will there be questions asked?
Martin: Ordinary questions will be left out because you have undertaken as a group to deal with them. If you have specific questions dealing with the level involved it's okay.
Participant: Do you mean that up until now they have been ordinary or have they been stemming from the level involved?
Martin: Up to now the questions have been ordinary. What I am speaking about are questions from someone who is more or less at home with what we do, then we can orient something. Otherwise it belongs to calisthenics and this is where you take over.
Remember, pertaining to questions, follow the movement not the words and answer according to the movement. We had a typical example yesterday. Someone was doing the desire exercise and finally got behind and reached a condition that was very clear, very nice, but still the heart was oppressed. Now the question was "What to do with the heart". Someone suggested that she deal with the heart in the same way as with the desire, but the movement behind was very different. That clear condition that was reached was simply a mental image, higher in level than the usual mental, but not the abstract mind because that is another function. So the so-called higher condition was simply of the same nature but more abstract and did not induce the "soul flow" that was expected here. Then it happened that the higher aspect, because of the intention behind, triggered a soul flow. The situation was not as the person believed it was. So I encourage you to look when a person is speaking, until you become somehow sensitive to the movements going on.
You can be caught when you live with images. You deal with images all the time, unless you retrain the mind. Then you discover that there is a possibility for the mind to function without images -- this has to be trained. The mind is reflective. You have to do something about it. Find what is reflected. Accept the reflection as a reflection, it can be useful, there are clues in the reflection, but don't stop at the reflection.
The case I just described is very typical. There was that lighter, brighter condition, but it was an image. I also have to say that this was not a deduction; I see the mind substance and because I saw it I could tell her. But as far as practice goes, you can easily get caught in thinking: "That's it!" When we see this kind of thing, it's as if your image were surrounded with a kind of film that separates the image from the dynamics of what is going on. It is enclosed, not open. Basically it's very simple, but it means training.
If you assume responsibility the training becomes very interesting. You face situations, you face difficulties, it's like a sport.
Another point I would like to bring along: When you meet together in calisthenics or in sub-groups, learn not to plan ahead, because if you do that you will lose the quality that has to be lived -- because it will be the mind planning to say this and that... Man has 3 1/2 eternities behind him which enables. him to face the situation as it is at the moment and come out with the means at that moment even if the means are poor, they will allow him to act. It doesn't matter how poor the means are, it is more important that you move. The freer you are from a system the more available are the possibilities of ways in which you can shape what you have to do at the moment.
When you act you act from what you live not from a scheme, or a map, or an image of your mind. If you mind has an idea, look behind to what it is referring. At first you will start looking from the same mind, but if you are adamant in your position and you tell your mind that you are making pictures again (because you recognize the quality of a picture), then at some time you will live a condition that does not have the quality, of the picture at all. Then you will see that there is something else. Learn to make the difference. When you are looking for something else, the mind is going to propose "something else" of course, but you have to say,"no. this is not what I want, I want a different mode". This is what I call applying a discipline. It's a practice.
And I repeat, for those who sense in us more than the usual, the responsibility involved is a lot greater, because you have to act according to it. And in that kind of action there is no room for ego-centeredness, it is replaced with work-centeredness. Right now work-centeredness is very vague for you.
Within the work there are specific points, and one of the most important is what we call the Christ -- Christ according to the definition of John in the Bible -- the Word, the Logos. In Theosophy and in the Arcane School they have adopted the word Logos to define the planetary spirit or the solar spirit, or something like that. Now, be very careful when you read descriptions in books about what the Logos is or what a master is; take it all with a grain of salt. You have to be aware that what is written is written for an average mind and in a form accessible to that average mind. They are symbolic images, they are not the situation ever.
Yesterday I asked the same question about who sees us as spiritual masters and I caught in the mind of one of the participants a quick verification between what that person had read about spiritual masters and what that person guesses of us. What was forgotten was that these books are published for general use and they speak in generalities not of the specific situation. If you are a master and you act in a specific situation, you only use what is needed for that situation and that's all. I have a very famous example in mind: A long time back people were not very willing to incarnate, it was a difficult period. There came a master who was the greatest of them all and in order to show them how to incarnate, he never manifested any power at all.
You never read in these books about the type of awareness the master uses, what happens in that awareness, how he uses it, how he shapes the action. You read only of the outward symptoms, how things appear to be. So be very careful with what you read not to make images and limit yourself because of it. In my book I say that these Prepare you for something totally different and it is true. There is a reversing and the reversing is accomplished by you taking responsibility and acting from what you are.
In books you learn that the soul is something high, spirit is higher, Atman still higher, the Monad still higher... What about turning around? We work on the Monadic level, we work on the Atman level, we work at soul level too, and it's practically the lowest level on which we work. But you accept from books that you are a person growing. You don't accept what is in the Bible, that you are made in the image and likeness of God, you believe instead that you have to become it.
If you want what we do to relate to the personality, the A function has to be active. You know the A function in a certain way, I will show you other ways. To begin, I would like you to generate an A on the top of the head.
( Everyone attempts to show an A )
As you do it, see what it does all around. When you do that in your groups, those who can do it will have to help those who have a hard time... and find ways. The way described in the book is seen from the person, it's a preparation. Now I'm going to give you the other way around. The other way around is a lot more effective.
( Everyone continues in their attempt to show an A )
Now look around carefully, feel how you feel yourself, how everyone shows, what the atmosphere in the room is, how things in the room respond.
Okay, now we are going to play a piece of music and relative to what you just did you will be pretty much lost, but you will notice that something happens in the room. The crystal as it is now will change. The roses will change too, to a lesser degree, but each one of you will show something as will the quality of the room; be especially attentive to the beauty of the quality in the room.
( music )
Look carefully around. You will notice that everything in the room responds, the flowers, the crystal have lives of their own that didn't show before. You will also notice the same for you. The life you see around each one of you, that same life is in the roses and in the crystal, and throughout the room. Those who can, observe the sameness.
Now, a moment ago I spoke about the Logos, whose body is the planet with all the life on the planet. This means there is a oneness, a Logoic oneness in that life. This is what you begin to see. I want you to face the reality. when you live that sameness, it's very different from the oneness people speak of or that they imagine.
You will also notice that when I speak you begin to lose that oneness, because you are back in your mind. There is still a clearer quality than before, but some of that directionality of the A function is lost already.
In calisthenics you have to train to bring it back. You have lived it and this means that the ability is here. Or rather, let us say, the proof of it is here. If you lose it, it is because your mind is inadequate and puts up a veil, it does not mean that you have lost it. It is simply veiled. The true meaning of "development" is to put the veils away.
Now I want to show you another aspect. First we are going to play a little bit of the same music. Don't move, don't think, don't whatever, and forget the don't -- live that quality. Then we will play Paganini and you will notice a change. The quality will come closer to the consciousness, it will shape itself. Here you will have an A that has no definite shape for your consciousness, but it will be sufficiently evident anyway. Those who can, notice that there is a tremendous beauty in it.
( music )
When you look around you will notice that the center at the top of the head is showing more definitely with everyone. The action is much more defined than it was before. If you look in the room, the roses, etc., there is a certain quality of presence that radiates a kind of sharpness or directionality that is proper to an A.
In both cases, you will notice that the forthcoming of the A action did not require and does not require directionality from the mind. It is done the other way around, and, as you can notice, it is quite effective. You have to get used to it, there is a quality to the group that was not there when you consciously triggered the A. There is a tendency from the lame mind to say that Martin did it. I did something, yes, but you, whatever that is, triggered the reaction. You cooperated.
It's time for you to act. I've told you for a long time that I see you differently than you see yourself, it's why this action is possible. Why don't you join in? Practically. It's not my sole privilege. You are different than you think you are.