Oversoul (R.W.Emerson)

"BUT souls that of his own good life partake,
He loves as his own self; dear as his eye

They are to Him: He'll never them forsake:

When they shall die, then God himself shall die:

They live, they live in blest eternity."
Henry More.

Space is ample, east and west,

But two cannot go abreast,
Cannot travel in it two:
Yonder masterful cuckoo
Crowds every egg out of the nest,
Quick or dead, except its own;
A spell is laid on sod and stone,
Night and Day 've been tampered with,
Every quality and pith
Surcharged and sultry with a power
That works its will on age and hour

THERE is a difference between one and another hour of life in their authority and subsequent effect. Our faith
comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to
ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.

For this reason the argument which is always forthcoming to silence those who conceive extraordinary hopes of man, namely the appeal to experience, is for ever invalid andvain.

We give up the past to the objector, and yet we hope. He must explain this hope. We grant that human life is mean, but how did we find out that it was mean? What is the ground of this uneasiness of ours; of this old discontent?

What is the universal sense of want and ignorance, but the fine innuendo by which the soul makes its enormous claim? Whydo men feel that the natural history of man has never been written, but he is always leaving behind what you have said of him, and it becomes old, and books of metaphysics worthless?

The philosophy of six thousand years has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul. In its
experiments there has always remained, in the last analysiss a residuum it could not resolve. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence.

Master-teacher

Listen. The present – right now – is before time was, and will be when time is no more. In it are all things that are eternal, and they are one. Their continuity is timeless and their communication is unbroken, for they are not separated by the past. Only the past can separate, and it is nowhere.

Did you hear that? Did you hear the simple statement of the idea – shall we share it when you came into this continuum? – say to me: Time is not passing.

Will you share this with me now as what we term a Master Teacher?
I appear to be, and many of you describe me as an occupant of this idea of body association within how you find your correspondence in the idea of sequential time. Look with me.

As a body there, as you identify yourself, you cannot not believe in the passage of time, which you then utilize
within your own body structure to make predictions concerning the future, which inevitably would have to be covering the moment of the power of my mind that I am offering you – practice – here and now. Practice:

Say to me: Here and now. Here and now? Now that was an accomplishment of the healing. That was an accomplishment despite all the apparent conceptual ideas you have about yourself in this body form, that all around you is a single moment in all of space/time of the power of light coming from Creative Source, instantly converting the fabric of the previous self-identity you have given to yourself in that body formulation

SRI AUROBINDO (FROM SAVITRI):

 “UNHAPPY IS THE MAN OR THE NATION WHICH, WHEN THE DIVINE MOMENT ARRIVES, IS FOUND SLEEPING OR UNPREPARED TO USE IT, BECAUSE THE LAMP HAS NOT BEEN KEPT TRIMMED FOR THE WELCOME AND THE EARS ARE SEALED TO THE CALL.”

RALPH WALDO EMERSON’S ESSAYS:

THE OVER-SOUL:

"A THRILL PASSES THROUGH ALL MEN AT THE RECEPTION OF NEW TRUTH, OR AT THE PERFORMANCE OF A GREAT ACTION, WHICH COMES OUT OF THE HEART OF NATURE. IN THESE COMMUNICATIONS THE POWER TO SEE IS NOT SEPARATED FROM THE WILL TO DO, BUT THE INSIGHT PROCEEDS FROM OBEDIENCE, AND THE OBEDIENCE PROCEEDS FROM A JOYFUL PERCEPTION.”


CIRCLES: “THE EYE IS THE FIRST CIRCLE; THE HORIZON WHICH IT FORMS
IS THE SECOND; AND THROUGHOUT NATURE THIS PRIMARY FIGURE IS
REPEATED WITHOUT END. IT IS THE HIGHEST EMBLEM IN THE CIPHER OF
THE WORLD.”

Master Jesus

"How can a wrong way be recognized?"


"It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way.
 
For example, you can see that the teacher always corresponds to the level of the pupil. The higher the pupil, the higher can be the teacher. But a pupil of a level which is not particularly high cannot count on a teacher of a very high level.
 
Actually a pupil can never see the level of the teacher. This is a law. No one can see higher than his own level. But usually people not only do not know this, but, on the contrary, the lower they are themselves, the higher the teacher they demand. The right understanding of this point is already a very considerable understanding.
 
But it occurs very seldom. Usually the man himself is not worth a brass farthing but he must have as teacher no other than Jesus Christ. To less he will not agree. And it never enters his head that even if he were to meet such a teacher as Jesus Christ, taking him as he is described in the Gospels, he would never be able to follow him because it would be necessary to be on the level of an apostle in order to be a pupil of Jesus Christ.
 
Here is a definite law. The higher the teacher, the more difficult for the pupil. And if the difference in the levels of the teacher and pupil go beyond a certain limit, then the difficulties in the path of the pupil become insuperable. It is exactly in connection with this law that there occurs one of the fundamental rules of the fourth way. On the fourth way there is not one teacher.
 
Whoever is the elder, he is the teacher. And as the teacher is indispensable to the pupil, so also is the pupil indispensable to the teacher. The pupil cannot go on without the teacher, and the teacher cannot go on without the pupil or pupils. And this is not a general consideration but an indispensable and quite concrete rule on which is based the law of a man's ascending.

(From Gurdjieff's "Views from the Real World," )

The more a man studies the obstacles and deceptions which lie in wait for him at every step in this realm, the more convinced he becomes that it is impossible to travel the path of self-development on the chance instructions of chance people, or the kind of information culled from reading and casual talk.

At the same time he gradually sees more clearly--first a feeble glimmer, then the clear light of truth which has illumined mankind throughout the ages.

The beginnings of initiation are lost in the darkness of time, where the long chain of epochs unfolds. Great cultures and civilizations loom up, dimly arising from cults and mysteries, ever changing, disappearing and reappearing.

Remember

Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught. And who would keep a senseless lesson in his mind, when he can learn and can preserve a better one?

When ancient memories of hate appear, remember that their cause is gone. And so you cannot understand what they are for.
 Let not the cause that you would give them now be what it was that made them what they were, or seemed to be.

Be glad that it is gone, for this is what you would be pardoned from. And see, instead, the new effects of cause accepted now, with consequences here.

They will surprise you with their loveliness. The ancient new ideas they bring will be the happy consequences of a Cause so ancient that it far exceeds the span of memory which your perception sees.

Teilhard de Chardin ( Phenomenon of Man )

Let us try then, step by step, to localise the source of our disquiet, eliminating the illegitimate causes of disturbance till we find the exact site of the pain at which the remedy, if there is one, should be applied.

In the first and most widespread degree, the ' malady of space-rime ' manifests itself as a rule by a feeling of futility, of being crushed by the enormities of the cosmos.

The enormity of space is the most tangible and thus the most frightening aspect.

Which of us has ever in his life really had the courage to look squarely at and try to ' live ' a universe formed of galaxies whose distance apart runs into hundreds of thousands of light years ? which of us, having tried, has not emerged from the ordeal shaken in one or other of his beliefs ?

And who, even when trying to shut his eyes as best he can to what the astronomers implacably put before us, has not had a confused sensation of a gigantic shadow passing over the serenity of his joy ?

Enormity of duration-sometimes having the effect

Reflections

The reflections you accept into the mirror of your mind in time but bring eternity nearer or farther. But eternity itself is beyond all time.

Reach out of time and touch it, with the help of its reflection in you. And you will turn from time to holiness, as surely as the reflection of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt aside.

Reflect the peace of Heaven here, and bring this world to Heaven. For the reflection of truth draws everyone to truth, and as they enter into it they leave all reflections behind.

In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected. By sharing its reflection here, its truth becomes the only perception the Son of God accepts. And thus, remembrance of his Father dawns on him, and he can no longer be satisfied with anything but his own reality.
 
You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you seem to live in is a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that anything without order of difficulty can occur.
 
The miracle, therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality.

Compensations

 Each of us covers the feeling of having been separated from our divine principle through compensations, tools of the ego to keep us believing our life has meaning outside our true nature.

These compensations eventually wear thin, and we keep having to find ever new ways to not face the truth or facts of our mortal life and our near complete identification with it.

The only way out of this trap is by the trick of letting the compensations run their course, or seeing through them at once. Through this loss of footing we come face to face with inner truth through humility.

We cannot work at becoming humble directly, for that is yet another form of pride, but we can face our mistakes and humiliations, and thus see ourselves more clearly. This is another of the paths of retraction, a retreat from error rather than a gathering of ego and will.

We come to see we are in reality what Benoit calls the conciliatory principle, the top point of a triangle, the base-line being our constant struggle to uphold one or another of the opposite poles.

This principal is always present, regardless of our feeling of angst or loss, and comes into play when we realize our helplessness in solving the problem of life through ego and its illusory will.

We have never been truly abandoned, but have become lost through identification with one of the inferior points.


( From The Supreme Doctrine) Hubert Benoit

Laws

The laws of time and eternity are illogical laws. They cannot be studied with the four rules of arithmetic. In order to understand them one must be able to think irrationally and without " facts ".

There is nothing more deceptive than facts, when we cannot have all the facts referring to the matter under discussion and are forced to deal with accessible facts which instead of helping us only distort our vision.

And how can we know that we have a sufficient quantity of facts for judgment in one direction or another if we have no general plan of things and know no general system?

Our scientific systems based on facts are as deficient as the facts themselves. In order to come to the laws of time and eternity we must start with the understanding of the state in which there is no time and no eternity opposed to one another.

The " Eternal Now " is the state in which " everything is everywhere and always ", that is, in which every point of space touches every point of time, and which in symbolism is expressed by two intersecting triangles, a sixpointed star.
 
( The Fourth Way)

Eternal Sky

The Thoughts of God are far beyond all change, and shine forever. They await not birth. They wait for welcome and remembering.

The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. So high in Heaven is it set that those outside of Heaven know not it is there.

Yet still and white and lovely will it shine through all eternity. There was no time it was not there; no instant when its light grew dimmer or less perfect ever was.

Who knows the Father knows this light, for He is the eternal sky that holds it safe, forever lifted up and anchored sure. Its perfect purity does not depend on whether it is seen on earth or not.
The sky embraces it and softly holds it in its perfect place, which is as far from earth as earth from Heaven. It is not the distance nor the time that keeps this star invisible to earth. But those who seek for idols cannot know the star is there.

Magnitude

Every decision you make stems from what you think you are, and represents the value that you put upon yourself.

Believe the little can content you, and by limiting yourself you will not be satisfied.
For your function is not little, and it is only by finding your function and fulfilling it that you can escape from littleness.

There is no doubt about what your function is, for the Holy Spirit knows what it is.
 
There is no doubt about its magnitude, for it reaches you through Him from Magnitude. You do not have to strive for it, because you have it.
 
All your striving must be directed against littleness, for it does require vigilance to protect your magnitude in this world.

From the Fourth Way (Ouspensky)

So many opposing principles struggle in man that a harmonious coordination of them is quite impossible. This explains why a " positive " type of man is impossible.

The soul of man is far too complex a combination for all the voices shouting in it to become united into one harmonious choir. All the kingdoms of nature live in man.
Man is a little universe. In him proceed continual death and continual birth, the incessant swallowing of one being by another, the devouring of the weaker by the stronger, evolution and degeneration, growing and dying out. Man has within him everything from a mineral to God.

And the desire of God in man, that is, the directing forces of his spirit, conscious of its unity with the infinite consciousness of the universe, cannot be in harmony with the inertia of a stone, with the inclination of particles for crystallisation, with the sleepy flow of the sap in a plant, with the plant's slow turning towards the sun, with the call of the blood in an animal, with the " three-dimensional " consciousness of man, which is based on his separating himself from the world, on his opposing to the world his own " I " and on his recognising as reality all apparent forms and divisions.

Searching

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.

When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them.

All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment.

You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception.

Learning and wanting to learn are inseparable.

True learning is constant, and so vital in its power for change that a Son of God can recognize his power in one instant and change the world in the next.

That is because, by changing his mind, he has changed the most powerful device that was ever given him for change.
This in no way contradicts the changelessness of mind as God created it, but you think that you have changed it as long as you learn through the ego.

This places you in a position of needing to learn a lesson that seems contradictory; - you must learn to change your mind about your mind. Only by this can you learn that it is changeless.

From the "Phenomenon of Man " (Teilhard de Chardin)

Man came silently into the world. As a matter of fact he trod so softly that, when we first catch sight of him as revealed by those indestructible stone instruments, we find him sprawling all over the old world from the Cape of Good Hope to Peking.

Without doubt he already speaks and lives in groups ; he already makes fire. After all, this is surely what we ought to expect. As we know, each time a new living form rises up before us out of the depths of history, it is always complete and already legion.

Thus in the eyes of science, which at long range can only see things in bulk, the ' first man is, and can only be, a crowd, and his infancy is made up of thousands and thousands of years.'

It is inevitable that this situation should be disappointing, leaving our curiosity unsatisfied. For what most interests us is precisely what happened during those first thousands of years.

And still more, what markcd the first critical moment. Dearly would we love to know what those first parents of ours looked likc, thc ones that stood just this side of the threshold of reflection.

As I have already said, that threshold had to be crossed in a single stride. Imagine the past to have been photographed section by section : at that critical moment of initial hominisation, what should we see when we developed our film ?

If we have understood the limits of enlargement imposed by nature on the instrument which helps us to study the landscape

Imagination

You can violate God's laws in your imagination, but you cannot escape from them. They were established for your protection and are as inviolate as your safety.

God created nothing beside you and nothing beside you exists, for you are part of Him. What except Him can exist?
Nothing beyond Him can happen, because nothing except Him is real. Your creations add to Him as you do, but nothing is added that is different because everything has always been.

What can upset you except the ephemeral, and how can the ephemeral be real if you are God's only creation and He created you eternal?

Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. Every response you make to everything you perceive is up to you, because your mind determines your perception of it.

God does not change His Mind about you, for He is not uncertain of Himself. And what He knows can be known, because He does not know it only for Himself.

Communication

Communication is not limited to the small range of channels the world recognizes. If it were, there would be little point in trying to teach salvation. It would be impossible to do so.

The limits the world places on communication are the chief barriers to direct experience of the Holy Spirit, Whose Presence is always there and Whose Voice is available but for the hearing.

These limits are placed out of fear, for without them the walls that surround all the separate places of the world would fall at the holy sound of His Voice. Who transcends these limits in any way is merely becoming more natural.

(From Ouspensky).....But knowledge cannot be given by force to anyone and, as I have already said, an unprejudiced survey of the average man's life, of what fills his day and of the things he is interested in, will at once show whether it is possible to accuse men who possess knowledge of concealing it, of not wishing to give it to people, or of not wishing to teach people what they know themselves.

"He who wants knowledge must himself make the initial efforts to find the source of knowledge and to approach it, taking advantage of the help and indications which are given to all, but which people, as a rule, do not want to see or recognize.
 
Knowledge cannot come to people without effort on their own part. They understand this very well in connection with ordinary knowledge, but in the case of great knowledge, when they admit the possibility of its existence, they find it possible to expect something different.

A Course in Miracles

Pray for God's justice, and do not confuse His mercy with your own insanity. Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect.

God's justice points to Heaven just because it is entirely impartial. It accepts all evidence that is brought before it, omitting nothing and assessing nothing as separate and apart from all the rest.

From this one standpoint does it judge, and this alone. Here all attack and condemnation becomes meaningless and indefensible. Perception rests, the mind is still, and light returns again.

Vision is now restored. What had been lost has now been found. The peace of God descends on all the world, and we can see. And we can see!

From: "In search of the miraculous" (Ouspensky)

"In Christian worship there are very many prayers exactly like this, where it is necessary to reflect upon each word. But they lose all sense and all meaning when they are repeated or sung mechanically.


"Take the ordinary God have mercy upon me! What does it mean? A man is appealing to God. He should think a little, he should make a comparison and ask himself what God is and what he is.
 
Then he is asking God to have mercy upon him. But for this God must first of all think of him, take notice of him. But is it worth while taking notice of him? What is there in him that is worth thinking about?
 
And who is to think about him? God himself. You see, all these thoughts and yet many others should pass through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then it is precisely these thoughts which could do for him what he asks God to do.
 
But what can he be thinking of and what result can a prayer give if he merely repeats like a parrot: 'God have mercy! God have mercy! God have mercy!' You know yourselves that this can give no result whatever.

The Fourth Way (Ouspensky)

The human being is a very complicated machine and has to be studied as a machine.

We realize that in order to control any kind of machine, such as a motor car or a railway engine, we should first have to learn.

We cannot control these machines instinctively, but for some reason we think that ordinary instinct is sufficient to control the human machine, although it is so much more complicated.

This is one of the first wrong assumptions: we do not realize that we have to learn, that control is a question of knowledge and skill.

Normally nobody remembers himself, nobody is aware of himself. This is the ordinary state of a human being, of a man-machine. But if he knows about it, if he realizes it and thinks about it, it becomes possible.

Only, in the beginning self-remembering is very slow in coming and very small, with long lapses of not remembering.

Knowledge

Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him. You had already taught yourself wrongly, having believed what was not true.

You did not believe in your own perfection. Would God teach you that you had made a split mind, when He knows your mind only as whole? What God does know is that His communication channels are not open to Him, so that He cannot impart His joy and know that His children are wholly joyous.

Giving His joy is an ongoing process, not in time but in eternity.

God's extending outward, though not His completeness, is blocked when the Sonship does not communicate with Him as one. So He thought, "My children sleep and must be awakened."


How can you wake children in a more kindly way than by a gentle Voice That will not frighten them, but will merely remind them that the night is over and the light has come? You do not inform them that the nightmares that frightened them so badly are not real, because children believe in magic.

You merely reassure them that they are safe now. Then you train them to recognize the difference between sleeping and waking, so they will understand they need not be afraid of dreams. And so when bad dreams come, they will themselves call on the light to dispel them.

A wise teacher teaches through approach, not avoidance. He does not emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm, but what you need to learn to have joy.

Consider the fear and confusion a child would experience if he were told, "Do not do this because it will hurt you and make you unsafe; but if you do that instead, you will escape from harm and be safe, and then you will not be afraid." It is surely better to use only three words: "Do only that!" This simple statement is perfectly clear, easily understood and very easily remembered.