General law strikes again/moving?

[D Rusak]

Over here it seems like the general law has really been coming into blossom. Just when I'd recovered from a robbery, another one occurs, and then another. Three computers were stolen in just over three months. My work computer's audio died (granted, it's 10 years old). Some crucial equipment I use for my career was stolen, and apparently, is now difficult (and much more expensive) to replace. I had to pick up and move because the police think I might have a stalker, and obviously my apartment was not very secure! My bike was stolen from my friend's house where I stayed in the meantime. I finally moved, hoping to use the computer-less time to do some serious reading. I then find (after moving in) that a roommate has to have me fill out some sort of certification of US citizenship/roommate approval form, as he works for some sort of project run by a government contractor, and works at home one day a week. I have no idea what happens if I'm not approved. I'm not bringing it up until he does. I check my email, and find out that a citizen-numbing exercise, involving a mock "realistic emergency" (according to the email) and medical reponse that will shut down parts of the city, is going to greet me on my walk home from work tonight.

Things have been very dead as far as gigs go here, and I'm wondering how much of this is me, and how much is that I'm not in the best environment for the sort of work I do (specific areas in music). The general consensus, which I agree with, is that if one's life is in shambles, one will not be able to Work effectively. I'm just not sure if I'm not working enough to find/create a niche for my career work here, or if I should try another place where demand for people in those fields of music is already higher. With all of the problems, present and foreboding, in the US, moving abroad is very tempting (especially to someone who has lived in the same place her whole life). But I don't want to run away from problems. I can't figure out if moving somewhere, especially somewhere drastically different, is so much working in favor of MY destiny as it is avoiding difficulties that are arising, that may or may not be related to the general law keeping me in check, or even just dealing with life in general. It seems that these more tangible roadblocks have come up once I had worked much in achieving an understanding of my relationships with family, friends, and others (thanks, SOTT reading list!).

I guess this is a bit of a rant-rambling sort of post, but I really am interested in other's thoughts on relocating and the Work.

 

[Zadius Sky]

As one is involved with the Work, things like harsh environment, losing friends, and other forces to hinder one's path will increase.

If you feel that your environment is hindering your Work, then moving might be a best option (one of few, anyway). Laura moved to France because of the environment where she lived (Florida), and in France, she is continuing on doing her Work. No environment is safer than others. Where you go, things like that will follow. If you stay, the General Law might keep on pounding you and 'orders' more 'units' into your life. There are always ways to deal with them. My environment is bad enough, but at least I'm trying to play a role and do the Work, balancing things out. Be as a gentle as a bird...I think.

Anyway, my advice - do what you feel what you should do. fwiw.

 

[Beau]

My two cents: Generally, a person's current situation is the optimal beginning for the Work. Trying to find an "easier" spot to do the Work is not really was should be desired.

Also, it doesn't really sound like you are being hit with the General Law. It sounds like plain old entropy is what you are dealing with. I doubt you were specifically targeted for robbery. General law is more like what Zadius Sky was going through with his "friend" Rachel. What you went through wasn't meant to discourage you from doing the Work, at least not directly. GL attempts to "put you back in your place". Your experiences were a pain in the butt, but they did not seem like messages that you should stop learning and doing the Work.

Of course, I could be off.

 

[CarpeDiem]

my less than one cent:
I think it's better to Work where you are right now, and don't wait for a right time and a right place to start conscious efforts, because the right place and the right time is here and now. I think, there is no safe place one can hide from general law, if one tries not to meet but 'hide' from challenges that general law tries to keep us 'in line' today, which are easy, who could one aspire to meet later challenges, more elaborated and difficult to discern?
Is it true if you don't meet challenge here and now, they later accumulate and hit you all at once? I think i read it in Mouravieff, but have to check.

 

[Miss Isness]

It would be interesting to see what's happening astrologically. I've noticed that in my life and the lives of people I know, difficult periods often coincide with challenging transitory aspects than can give a clue as to what to focus on. More specifically, I know of at least 3 people who have been robbed when transiting saturn squared their natal venus.

Sometimes moving is the right thing to do, but I think you'd have to do a lot of research to get a thorough enough understanding of the pros and cons to make a good decision. What type of musical work do you do? There absolutely are some places that are better than others for specific types of musical work. Of course, that is only one consideration. The logistics of moving can be a serious setback to career momentum. It takes time to get settled, get to know your new environment, and build a new network of professional acquaintances - especially if learning a foreign language is necessary, not to mention financial considerations.

As far as doing the Work, well, I think it can be done anywhere. If you're not stuck in survival mode, so much the better. Aside from moving you might also want to consider ways of supplementing your musician's income, or expanding your market (adding new styles/genres, focusing on obtaining different types of gigs, publishing books, branching out into studio work, doing promotion for other groups, etc.)

Regarding the form your roomate had you fill out, did you feel comfortable giving him that information? I mean, did he even give you a choice? Instead of worrying about what's going to happen if you don't get approved, I would look deeper into whether or not you feel it's possible to find a better living situation, if I were you. I imagine that moving again is the last thing you want to do, but nobody says you have to stop being open to better alternatives. Since the U.S. is hitting hard economic times, it's important to consider ways of reducing the risk of becoming a victim of theft. I know that musical equipment/instruments is/are costly, and it's not unusual for musicians to be sought out, followed and robbed.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I hope things ease up for you.

 

[wodasi]

my cross to bear sure seems small after reading some of the posts,
at any rate , I drive Taxi and on top of the local police doing a background
check, now the state and the feds want fingerprints,( as well as moving company-household goods
owners-which I thought was wierd)

my advice move west ( but not the coast)

 

[CarpeDiem]

'Found' Les Visible blog, if it 's possible to cite from there? Mods, please delete if the author wouldn't wish to post here. It feels like stealing from there

http://lesvisible.blogspot.com/
A Wine Maker's Primer to Heaven on Earth
You don't have to live where everyone else lives, even if you live in the same town. Even everyone else doesn't live in the same place exactly. It's all changed by degrees according to how they see it. But you could live in Heaven on Earth if you wanted to and people could visit you there; if they could recognize the place, if they might be comfortable to be there. Heaven doesn't begin somewhere up in the sky. Heaven begins where your soles meets the pressed dust of the Earth.

We move through this world or seem to move through this world, even though we are moving through our mind's idea of this world inside our minds while projecting it outward; you get the idea, if not the immediate reality of it.
[…]
There is something about the process of wine making that has a great deal to do with humanity. Our grapes are affected by experience and environment and pressed by them too. The quality of the wine is determined by our reactions to these things. A fine wine is what it is because it is rare by comparison with other wine. Ordinary wine is common and vinegar can be had for pennies. Ironically there are fine vinegars as well. The finest of vinegars rival the finest of wines in cost. They are also rare and take the same amount of attention and care. It's something to think about. Then again, in the human spectrum it may well be something you don't 'think' about. Since masters are involved in the making of fine wines and vinegars it could well be assumed that the same is true of humans.

We become what we aspire to. Plants reach for the sun. Some of us reach for the sun too after a different fashion. Many more people bathe in it for a change in color or pursue it as an environment for easy living. Perhaps they have mistaken the purpose of the sun or perhaps the sun is multi purpose. Probably the reason so many of us are unhappy is due to what we aspire to. Why would we aspire to anything less than our highest possibility? We're afraid we won't get our piece of the action. Well, that's not enough is it? Many of us want more than our piece of action. Often our piece of action only has value by comparison with those who have less.

The same way that the sun can shine forth from a clear blue sky, this same sun can be obscured by clouds. Our minds can be clear or cloudy. The wind clears the air and sometimes the wind spreads dust. These are all simple details of observation but they have profound implications. Sound is transmitted through the air. All sounds are forms of information. In this world there are many forms of information clamoring for attention. They have their reasons, whether they are the result of one individual or a group of individuals. You can figure that out.

Messages appear and are geared to direct our attention to certain things. It could be the announcement of a new car; a war abroad, a religious movement, a cry for help, a shout of joy, someone weeping or someone laughing, a collective indistinguishable chatter of many voices in market places or concert areas. You can well imagine any of this. Some of the messages are designed to influence the way you think about what you see and hear and some of them are directed at the mind or the emotions or the body. Some are personal and some are not.

There are other messages that are not so loud and it is quite possible that they cannot be heard due to the greater noise of the other messages. Let us imagine that there is a single message that comes from the sun and that all of the other messages serve to create the environment that occurs between the sun and yourself. Let us imagine that this sun shines both outside and within you and that the messages create weather both inside and outside of you.

You can imagine that there is weather created for the sole purpose of distracting you from what the sun might be saying. Then there are messages that are designed to interpret what the sun is saying but are not actually what the sun is saying. Sometimes a new car is not just a new car. It might be a new political system, or religious system or something that doesn't seem to be about a new car to begin with but which deposits you in a showroom full of cars by virtue of some strange magic. You could imagine that this could happen. You might have even had it happen to you.

Many messages are designed with the implication that they will bring you close to the sun and the warmth of the sun and yet leave you in another place entirely and you can't figure out how that happened. Many people become discouraged about this sort of an event and blame it on the sun. It could be that this actually is the real purpose of the message.

Have you ever been in a funhouse where there are warped mirrors that change your appearance? Mirrors are very interesting. If you set a mirror outside, after awhile it will become covered with dust so that you cannot see into it. Dust is a naturally occurring thing. Sometimes the spread of dust is greatly assisted by the messages on the wind which are a form of dust and which write themselves upon the mirror in layers over one another so that you cannot see yourself at all. Then you might even forget who you are and there will be messages that will explain this to you for whatever reasons there may be.

There are ways to polish the mirror and there is the consideration that even the sun might have something to do with some of the dust that appears on the mirror. Sometimes the weather that appears between the sun and yourself may be mistaken for the sun and have the effect of making you angry or frightened because it is not the sun, even though the sun is shining behind it.

Sun and rain have a lot to do with making wine and vinegar, even if the rain is only a result of the action of the sun. You would have to decide whether it was worth it to make the wine and how important it might be that the wine was of a particular quality. It depends on what you think of the guests who visit you on the street where you live that is actually here or in Heaven or somewhere. It depends on what you think of yourself and the sun.

Heaven is possible where you touch the pressed dust of the Earth. Many things and places begin there. It really comes down to where you want to live based on what you aspire to. Meanwhile, some kind of wine is being made no matter what.

 

[D Rusak]

Hi,

I want to say a big ol' duh, even if it doesn't mean anything. I re-read ISOTM last week after I realized that I needed some good checking up on the concepts. I guess the general law DIDN'T strike again (although, how could it, it's the law of accident ; )

I think that moving may be a good move professionally- if I go somewhere, it will either be on a grant to study somewhere (which means that I won't be spending money or loans, and will be learning and putting something on my resume), or will be getting my doctorate, so I can teach. The states don't have a lot of places I can work (early music, which is just barely getting started here, especially on my instrument, and contemporary music, for lack of a better word- both composed and improvised, which seems to be more popular in Europe). Anyway, it would be at least a year, so I have plenty of time to think about it, even if applications are due much sooner than that. In the meantime I guess I'll keep on trying to get work here, but it really seems like there are not a lot of opportunities in my current location for what I do.

As for all of the things that happenned, they are accidents, more likely than not. It's good to keep a tally of what things happen when, but it likely is unconnected with anything. One thing they definitely provided was a chance to not show negative emotions, and remember myself, which I must say I did pretty poorly.

Reading Ouspensky's account of the war years was very helpful for me. It seems like he did not fully get why G was hanging around (although I think G did not, in some cases, judge correctly how bad things were). In any event, the war conditions provided the right atmosphere to Work in, both by not attracting undue attention from the authorities, and by giving the students something to struggle with.

 

[connei]

my cross to bear sure seems small after reading some of the posts,
at any rate , I drive Taxi and on top of the local police doing a background
check, now the state and the feds want fingerprints...

The FBI started a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics. It will give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone - _http://backgroundsearch.com employee - criminal background search so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

 

[PepperFritz]

Hello connei, welcome to the forum.

Seeing as this is your first post on the forum, we would appreciate it if you would post a brief intro about yourself in the Newbies section, telling us how you found this forum, how long you've been reading it and/or the SOTT page, whether you've read any of Laura's books yet, etc.

:)

 

[Bar Kochba]

Perhaps you should perform a moral inventory of yourself. Are there any issues you need to resolve or loose ends to tie up? These things have a way of negatively manifesting in your daily life if left unattended. That's my theory, fwiw.