Stages in the Work, limited time for progress, and karmic debt along the path

[Hesper]

While doing my morning routine today I realized that I could apply the enneagram to it, in order to help flesh out areas where I have been slipping. It reminds me of the quote from JFK that's often on SOTT: 'We must use time as a tool, not as a couch'. Here it goes:

The inner process goes 1-4-2-8-5-7-1... and is from the perspective of the cook who directs the process.

9 - The day begins

1 - Prepare for the day (writing/journaling/looking at what needs done)
2 - Begin work / accomplish daily chores with eye on Aim
3 - 'World' enters through job or new & unanticipated demands
4 - Learn how to meet those demands
5 - Begin meeting those demands
6 - Time to make 'super-effort' to finish 'worldly chores' and make step towards Aim
7 - Work for the day is finished
8 - Reflect on what was accomplished, needs to be done

9 - The day ends / begins again

This is just another exercise in learning how to use the enneagram. Any insights are welcome.

 

[obyvatel]

Some thoughts to structure the study and use of enneagram from a practical perspective.

The enneagram may be a way to better understand processes which involve transformation. There are 3 distinct elements in a transformative process:

- what is transformed
- how it is transformed
- why it is transformed

For the kitchen analogy,

what is being transformed is food
how it is transformed is through the kitchen, which involves fire, utensils and people
why it is transformed is to provide nourishment to someone

For the human transformation analogy

what is being transformed is being/soul
how it is transformed is through experiences which includes situations, people and effort
why it is being transformed is to serve a purpose at the higher level

What gets transformed changes irreversibly in the process. Raw food becomes cooked food in the kitchen analogy.

The method or circumstances or the tools that bring about the transformation goes through the process but generally comes out with less change. The kitchen goes through various changes during the process of cooking but is restored at the end of the process. So there is a renewal aspect to the process.

Another relevant analogy is the steel factory. The factory with its machines and workers are like the kitchen. The iron ore which enters the factory to be transformed to steel is like the food. The purpose is to serve various constructional demands.

Understanding the 3-fold aspect is useful in general and applicable to experiences. This is the foundation for putting things down in the enneagram form. Bennett categorized these 3 elements generally as being, function and will.

PS: Added

It is relevant to note that the material to be transformed has to match the method/conditions. Raw food brought into a steel factory or iron ore brought into a kitchen cannot undergo the proper transformation. Of course no one will do such a thing in real life. But this is applicable for human transformation. One has to find the right "kitchen or factory" to be transformed. A lot of waste of time and resources and even suffering results from incompatibility between material and method.

Even though there probably are very few people who reach the full potential of the transformation process, the very possibility of human transformation is quite amazing - or so it seems to me. Gurdjieff said that there is a need for human transformation at a higher level of existence. Jung said that there is a basic tendency in the psyche towards individuation. External life circumstances as well as unconscious forces play a role in pushing the person towards individuation.

We may have borrowed ideas towards what transformation may look like - and most of it is likely wishful thinking. A real I or individuated consciousness is not an idealized perfect person. Looking for such imaginary perfection in "idols" such that "their merde must smell like roses" may actually hinder one's own chances at individuation. So it is good to be inspired by exceptional acts that people perform and exceptional qualities that people have but imo stopping short of hero worship is prudent. But I could be wrong.

 

[Michal]

I wonder how this concept can be aligned with the idea of a tribal unit. If the Way can be described as an octave (a wave?) then the process of creating/developing a tribal unit can also probably depicted in this terms. And I think that if we all try to reach a certain stage of the Way (the same note of the octave) then we can create sort of creative interference by means if superposition of waves/octaves of our personal development and thus to strengthen the developmental octave of our tribal unit.

Does it make sense?

Makes sense to me.
Each dot is like a instrument string and in order to get to the higher vibrations it needs to be tuned like an instrument for which pitchfork is used. So for one on one level of vibration (being) another one on higher level is like a pitchfork supporting development of the lower one.

Maybe in order one progresses he/she needs some energy from below as support? for jump? Naive thinking. Is that something You was thinking of?

 

[Altair]

I wonder how this concept can be aligned with the idea of a tribal unit. If the Way can be described as an octave (a wave?) then the process of creating/developing a tribal unit can also probably depicted in this terms. And I think that if we all try to reach a certain stage of the Way (the same note of the octave) then we can create sort of creative interference by means if superposition of waves/octaves of our personal development and thus to strengthen the developmental octave of our tribal unit.

Does it make sense?

Makes sense to me.
Each dot is like a instrument string and in order to get to the higher vibrations it needs to be tuned like an instrument for which pitchfork is used. So for one on one level of vibration (being) another one on higher level is like a pitchfork supporting development of the lower one.

Maybe in order one progresses he/she needs some energy from below as support? for jump? Naive thinking. Is that something You was thinking of?

Mikel, the image you posted doesn't can't be displayed for some reason. Yes, I meant something along these lines and you probably meant support from above (and not from below)?

Interesting analogy, by the way. :)

 

[Altair]

I wonder how this concept can be aligned with the idea of a tribal unit. If the Way can be described as an octave (a wave?) then the process of creating/developing a tribal unit can also probably depicted in this terms. And I think that if we all try to reach a certain stage of the Way (the same note of the octave) then we can create sort of creative interference by means if superposition of waves/octaves of our personal development and thus to strengthen the developmental octave of our tribal unit.

Does it make sense?

Today I came across an interesting excerpt from The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher by Jane Roberts. It's from session 775, May 10 1976:

Consciousness forms patterns of identities. They move faster than speed of light. They can be in more than one place at one time. They can operate in a freewheeling fashion, as identities in themselves, or as "psychological particles."

They can also operate in a wavelike fashion, flowing through other such particles. They can form together into endless, infinite combinations, forming psychological gestalts. Certain portions of these gestalts can then operate as psychological particles in time and space, while other portions operate in a wavelike manner outside of time and space.

These represent the unconscious elements of the psyche, which become "particleized" in physical existence.

Your own purposes, intents, and desires attract to you, so to speak, those "other" fragments of consciousness that mix and match to form your psychological being as, for example, atoms and molecules mix and merge to form your physical being.

 

[Michal]

Technical question: the image cannot be displayed? I see it in my post thou. I downloaded it to google pictures and copied link to the picture to the post. Shall I do something more here?

 

[Altair]

Technical question: the image cannot be displayed? I see it in my post thou. I downloaded it to google pictures and copied link to the picture to the post. Shall I do something more here?

Perhaps because it's stored in your private google account. Try to download it and post it as attachment.

 

[Michal]

Hmmm. Now I see it. Thanks.
I will try if that works now.

 

[Palinurus]

Hi Mikel,

I cannot see any image either. First I thought you attached an uploaded image file to your post --and one has to be logged in to get a view of those-- but after logging in I still can't see any image.

To display an image in your post you have to use the image icon (first to the left, second row) which gives you the following: [ img ] - [ /img ] but without the spaces inside the brackets. Your cursor will be blinking in the in between space where I've put the '-' sign, again without the spaces added here in this example (it won't show up properly without them).

All you have to do is to place the image link in the in between space in the middle for the command to display your image properly. I think you didn't do that or made some mistake with the address itself.

The fact you yourself can see the image whereas others can not, may be due to your browser cache saving the image on your computer only. I doubt you will still be able to see it after you refresh the page or clean out your browser cache -- but I may be wrong about that.

Hope this helps a bit. :)

 

[Michal]

one more try. Does this work now? Sorry for noise.

 

[Palinurus]

Both now work perfectly for me, the attached one as well as the in-post one -- but the latter is much more 'loud and clear' so to say. ;)

 

[Michal]

Oh great! Thanks for feedback and advises.

And Altair I meant also from below. It was something about this or so I think in session 11th October 2014

Q: (L) So, in a sense, what you're saying is that there is a need for the network to expand as in connecting chakras and so forth which is probably what helps with these “helper” things described a few minutes ago. When people are connected, they can help each other, both in and out of the body to make DNA changes and changes in their whole system. So, that's important. Also, people need to graduate when they get these DNA changes going on in their bodies that are helped by their helpers because of their connecting chakras because the network has strength. Does that make sense, everybody?

And I was having this thought that this connecting chakras is like creating new organism. I mean that all are needed but 7 types as minimum to create something like human organism but in bigger scale. Something like repeating pattern in fractal? ... That human has 7 chakras and new organism, tribe, has to be or may be like organism of human that it also needs to have seven chakras. But in tribe chakras are people??? As above so below - and opposite???
I mean that one person for example being on level red is needed for all to create this "new body" because this body needs it and without it it won't be created.
So maybe this new organism is like a school but to create this school there are needed all chakras then it is fully functional whatever that means.

 

[Temperance]

I read this thread for the first time a few months ago, which sparked a sense of urgency in me, mostly regarding to the "limited time at certain steps". This lead me to begin reading Gnosis book I, which I recently finished, so I figured I should come back to this and re-read the thread, with the question of "What stage am I in?" in order to orient myself and figure out what to work on. As I started typing out my post, I realized it might be better suited for the swamp.

Looking at the stages of evolution in the ascending scale has made it easier for me to understand, as well as Obyvatel's description of the stages. The Kitchen analogy has also been very helpful.


This thread has been really insightful, so thank you! :D

 

[Temperance]

And I wonder what happens, if one "falls" - death?

It could be equivalent to physically falling: Potential for serious injury, depending on the circumstances and the 'height' of the fall. In short: a fall out of order, into entropy and all it entails.

M says at the same location about the second Threshold:

If he runs away from this monster — in which he must recognize himself — this will be the fall, full of the worst dangers.

While reading Gnosis volume II, pg 73, I came across this passage:

We shall measure the magnitude of the work this evolution requires by remembering that the disciple who has reached that level of being [4 or 5?] is not yet immune from falling, as shown by the example of the denial of St Peter[Denying that he knew Jesus while the latter was arrested?]. But such a fall is usually a temporary deviation, and the being who has reached this degree of evolution will sooner or later find the Way again. The more he has already progressed on the path, the less prolonged will be the consequences of a fall. The latter is to be feared above all immediately after the passage of the second Threshold, if the man does not keep watch but lets himself be overcome by self satisfaction. He still does not possess Consciousness, the characteristic of man 6, nor above all Will, proper to man 7.

By the way the falls are described in this passage, I get the gist that it refers to a falling asleep and returning to being mechanical, and a suspending of judgement perhaps in differentiating A and B influences. This would put the seeker in a state of vulnerability to change even his mechanical habits acquired up to that point (the beneficial ones, as beneficial as mechanical habits can be) for either self-destructive habits or perhaps even making decisions which put him in unfavorable life positions which may further extend the duration of the fall. In this sense, I'm thinking that others around us who are familiar with the work could act as alarm clocks to wake us up, or if unavailable we have to wait for the proper shock or internal alarm clock to go off and we "wake up" again. Just a few thoughts, fwiw