JonnyRadar
The Living Force
I've been re-reading In Search of the Miraculous lately, and I came across this on pg. 48:
For my own part, I was living in a different state (in the US), "attempting" to make a living and not doing very well, all while chasing dragons in the forms of booze and other things. There was a great struggle in me, as I felt I was going to go "down the tubes" and end up like one of my gutter-punk acquaintances, chasing those dragons until it led to a pine box... One day my Dad called me, and asked if I would like to move home. They would help, I could live in a trailer by my sister's place, it might be long and hard but would I come with him? I said yes and two days later he was there with his truck.
After returning, it took me a while to get settled, and I was still drinking. Things came to a head with my sister and I went into the 12-step program, and at the time, it worked. Through a series of really bizarre synchronicities, I met a few people in the area (who are now dear friends) who were talking about this book, "The Wave." I read Wave 1, and it completely blew my mind. We all got together from time to time and eventually I was introduced to Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution. From there, I took to the material like a fish to water...
Part of my reasoning for this post was thinking about the circumstances that led me to this material. G says "Furthermore a man must be living in conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which do not render it impossible." At that time in my life, I was living alone in a trailer with nothing to do but physical labor and nothing else but time on my hands. I was also desperately seeking some sort of stability in my life, since it had been so chaotic the previous years. My family is quite heavily religious (Baptist), so I was attending bible studies and the like at the time, and going to church with them. Interestingly, or perhaps more fortunately, being in that religious environment - while at the same time reading the Wave and Ouspensky - only strengthened the desire in me to find the true meaning behind all of the gobbledey-gook.
I find myself, now in the present, with an extreme sense of gratitude and humility to the universe for that shift in my life. I still don't really know if I found the Work or if It found me.
So I'm curious, if anyone is down for some recapitulation, how did you find the 4th Way?
"The fourth way requires no retirement into the desert, does not require a man to give up and renounce everything by which he formerly lived. The fourth way begins much further on than the way of the yogi. This means that a man must be prepared for the fourth way and this preparation must be acquired in ordinary life and be a very serious one, embracing many different sides. Furthermore a man must be living in conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which do not render it impossible. It must be understood that both in the inner and in the external life of a man there may be conditions which create insuperable barriers to the fourth way. Furthermore, the fourth way has no definite forms like the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. And, first of all, it has to be found."
For my own part, I was living in a different state (in the US), "attempting" to make a living and not doing very well, all while chasing dragons in the forms of booze and other things. There was a great struggle in me, as I felt I was going to go "down the tubes" and end up like one of my gutter-punk acquaintances, chasing those dragons until it led to a pine box... One day my Dad called me, and asked if I would like to move home. They would help, I could live in a trailer by my sister's place, it might be long and hard but would I come with him? I said yes and two days later he was there with his truck.
After returning, it took me a while to get settled, and I was still drinking. Things came to a head with my sister and I went into the 12-step program, and at the time, it worked. Through a series of really bizarre synchronicities, I met a few people in the area (who are now dear friends) who were talking about this book, "The Wave." I read Wave 1, and it completely blew my mind. We all got together from time to time and eventually I was introduced to Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution. From there, I took to the material like a fish to water...
Part of my reasoning for this post was thinking about the circumstances that led me to this material. G says "Furthermore a man must be living in conditions favorable for work on the fourth way, or, in any case, in conditions which do not render it impossible." At that time in my life, I was living alone in a trailer with nothing to do but physical labor and nothing else but time on my hands. I was also desperately seeking some sort of stability in my life, since it had been so chaotic the previous years. My family is quite heavily religious (Baptist), so I was attending bible studies and the like at the time, and going to church with them. Interestingly, or perhaps more fortunately, being in that religious environment - while at the same time reading the Wave and Ouspensky - only strengthened the desire in me to find the true meaning behind all of the gobbledey-gook.
I find myself, now in the present, with an extreme sense of gratitude and humility to the universe for that shift in my life. I still don't really know if I found the Work or if It found me.
So I'm curious, if anyone is down for some recapitulation, how did you find the 4th Way?