After the C’s recent comment of “cut off point” and thinking about the work. If time is short, what work can I do, what work should I do, and how fast should I do it? Hurrying down the path haphazardly getting things done is not good. Too slow, and fall back to sleep, also not good. I want to consider meaningful work, motivations, and working in 3D.
Motivating with fear:
I think fear as a motivation is a lesser tool, or not my thing, not my way etc., but I’ve observed how Don Juan regularly used it with Carlos, and he (Don Juan) had suggested that a friend scare the daily lights out of a young boy many times if necessary to “wake him up” Here’s a quote from Journey to IXTLAN;
“Don Juan then delineated a strange strategy. I was to instruct my friend to have the man follow him or wait for him at a place where he would go with his son. The man, in response to a prearranged cue to be given after any objectionable behavior on the part of the child, was supposed to leap from a hiding place, pick the child up, and spank the living daylights out of him”.
Then Carlos wrote this;
“I realized then that throughout the years of our association don Juan had been employing with me, although on a different scale, the same tactics he was suggesting my friend should use with his son”
There is an adage we used to use saying, “while on the path don’t rest under the shady tree, as when we return for you, we will find only dead man’s bones”, I was in a Christian church environment at the time but the point was the same, for fear of death don’t stop the struggle.
Gurdjieff also seems to have been a hard task master, pushing he’s pupils to make it, or lose everything.
Maybe G and DJ were tricksters, teaching with what they found to be useful tools. As they found themselves with the administration of awakening souls they must have decided to keep them awake and progressing at all costs. Use a stick, trick, a monster, “anything” just keep them awake. Soul development being the only goal, and body and emotional shocks are of lesser consequence than a soul gone back to sleep. I wouldn’t want to use fear or brow beating to motivate someone, yet after analyzing how these two teachers taught, I have to leave this open.
G. also had another motivation, one which he never discussed, but we know in his belief system he taught if the student doesn’t advance, neither does the teacher.
Does “scaring the daylight out of him” infringe on the boy’s free will? Was the father exercising his free will to save his son, caring more for his son’s soul than his machine? If the goal is to stay awake, how much shaking of each other is ok, and when does it infringe on free will?
G. and the de-motivation of reincarnation:
G. said in reference to what Ouspenky called reoccurrence (reincarnation)“If you tell him about repetition it will only increase his sleep” and to that, I agree it “can” have that effect…Oh well since we have eternity and as many lives as we need, then let’s take it easy, get it right, build things a little slower. But, was G. purposely holding back knowledge in an effort to keep up the pace of his students? The C’s too often say things of this sort (paraphrased) all there is are lessons, enjoy! (Maybe it’s just me but that statement relaxes me) On one side we have GET GOING! on the other we have TAKE IT EASY. I think both are true, and need to be moderated to each situation and person.
Meaningful work:
If I work in a soup kitchen is that good work? Mother Teresa did it, which was good… right? Well, no, or maybe not…why do I do it? Because I can’t find my own work (way), or I will receive respect from the others? I will feel good about myself. I think of Isaiah 62:6 these works can be “filthy rags”. Although if one goes out with pure intentions and does inappropriate work and “mimic” the real thing, than one could find their way. So, going out to do a dead work won’t necessarily lead to a dead end.
I think proper work is a gift, it wells up inside until you simply can’t do anything else but pursue it. The beginning is blunder, in time if we can stay awake and keep at it, we find our way. One person you will find working in a soup kitchen, another in the park recapitulating, each doing the work that is meaningful to them at the time.
If one did work with the homeless in a social setting would that work be about being “nice” to the disadvantaged? I don’t think so. Let say 50% were pure machines, all they wanted was to eat you, drain all your energy…that’s not a good work. Another 20 or 30% are unconscious sleepers who DO NOT what to wake up…no work there either. Then there’s a few percent left that you “may” be able to assist. A typical day might find you spending over the allotted time talking with one person, and later slapping someone else in the face and ordering them out of the soup kitchen, doing what you would want done to you in the same situation. The work is often not “nice”. Example: The Christ figure one time puts the roman (he’s capturer’s) ear back on and quietly goes along to prison telling Peter no violence is necessary. Same Christ figure up turns tables and takes a whip to some people who were just doing their job (money changers)…not “nice”. A kind of Mother Teresa/General Patton. To know what to do and when to do it, one must not be asleep under the proverbial tree, and sometimes not be nice. When is it appropriate to acquiescence, and when is it cowardice? When is it maintaining the strategic enclosure, and when is it internal considering? Keeping one self “tuned” and assessing each situation is the closest answer I can find, but no guarantees and pit fall abound. How about; stay “tuned”, evaluate each situation, and after you have blundered repeatedly…don’t give up!
Working in 3D
If I’m understanding the point in coming here, and having an incarnation it is because doing it here is harder, more laborious and repetitive. After one has learned to ride the bike here one could master it in a less dense places where learning to ride a bike isn’t one of the lessons anymore. In the Oct. 23, 1994 session the C’s discuss 3D as being a sped up process as far as learning (I can’t quote because I can’t access that session, but it was after the question “who is Lucifer?”) Also there are a few scriptures about working while we can for a time is coming when no man can work John 12:35. So, maybe there comes a “time out” period. And if riding a bike is a prerequisite for upward mobility, now would be the time to learn the machine, the field is open to work. Our present 3D world is a rock and roll, boiling caldron of elementary learning and Don Juan would be envious of us with all our petty tyrants, and complicated situations. We should probably feel privileged to be here, although at times I admit that isn’t easily to feel.
Comments, Corrections, and Criticisms welcome
Motivating with fear:
I think fear as a motivation is a lesser tool, or not my thing, not my way etc., but I’ve observed how Don Juan regularly used it with Carlos, and he (Don Juan) had suggested that a friend scare the daily lights out of a young boy many times if necessary to “wake him up” Here’s a quote from Journey to IXTLAN;
“Don Juan then delineated a strange strategy. I was to instruct my friend to have the man follow him or wait for him at a place where he would go with his son. The man, in response to a prearranged cue to be given after any objectionable behavior on the part of the child, was supposed to leap from a hiding place, pick the child up, and spank the living daylights out of him”.
Then Carlos wrote this;
“I realized then that throughout the years of our association don Juan had been employing with me, although on a different scale, the same tactics he was suggesting my friend should use with his son”
There is an adage we used to use saying, “while on the path don’t rest under the shady tree, as when we return for you, we will find only dead man’s bones”, I was in a Christian church environment at the time but the point was the same, for fear of death don’t stop the struggle.
Gurdjieff also seems to have been a hard task master, pushing he’s pupils to make it, or lose everything.
Maybe G and DJ were tricksters, teaching with what they found to be useful tools. As they found themselves with the administration of awakening souls they must have decided to keep them awake and progressing at all costs. Use a stick, trick, a monster, “anything” just keep them awake. Soul development being the only goal, and body and emotional shocks are of lesser consequence than a soul gone back to sleep. I wouldn’t want to use fear or brow beating to motivate someone, yet after analyzing how these two teachers taught, I have to leave this open.
G. also had another motivation, one which he never discussed, but we know in his belief system he taught if the student doesn’t advance, neither does the teacher.
Does “scaring the daylight out of him” infringe on the boy’s free will? Was the father exercising his free will to save his son, caring more for his son’s soul than his machine? If the goal is to stay awake, how much shaking of each other is ok, and when does it infringe on free will?
G. and the de-motivation of reincarnation:
G. said in reference to what Ouspenky called reoccurrence (reincarnation)“If you tell him about repetition it will only increase his sleep” and to that, I agree it “can” have that effect…Oh well since we have eternity and as many lives as we need, then let’s take it easy, get it right, build things a little slower. But, was G. purposely holding back knowledge in an effort to keep up the pace of his students? The C’s too often say things of this sort (paraphrased) all there is are lessons, enjoy! (Maybe it’s just me but that statement relaxes me) On one side we have GET GOING! on the other we have TAKE IT EASY. I think both are true, and need to be moderated to each situation and person.
Meaningful work:
If I work in a soup kitchen is that good work? Mother Teresa did it, which was good… right? Well, no, or maybe not…why do I do it? Because I can’t find my own work (way), or I will receive respect from the others? I will feel good about myself. I think of Isaiah 62:6 these works can be “filthy rags”. Although if one goes out with pure intentions and does inappropriate work and “mimic” the real thing, than one could find their way. So, going out to do a dead work won’t necessarily lead to a dead end.
I think proper work is a gift, it wells up inside until you simply can’t do anything else but pursue it. The beginning is blunder, in time if we can stay awake and keep at it, we find our way. One person you will find working in a soup kitchen, another in the park recapitulating, each doing the work that is meaningful to them at the time.
If one did work with the homeless in a social setting would that work be about being “nice” to the disadvantaged? I don’t think so. Let say 50% were pure machines, all they wanted was to eat you, drain all your energy…that’s not a good work. Another 20 or 30% are unconscious sleepers who DO NOT what to wake up…no work there either. Then there’s a few percent left that you “may” be able to assist. A typical day might find you spending over the allotted time talking with one person, and later slapping someone else in the face and ordering them out of the soup kitchen, doing what you would want done to you in the same situation. The work is often not “nice”. Example: The Christ figure one time puts the roman (he’s capturer’s) ear back on and quietly goes along to prison telling Peter no violence is necessary. Same Christ figure up turns tables and takes a whip to some people who were just doing their job (money changers)…not “nice”. A kind of Mother Teresa/General Patton. To know what to do and when to do it, one must not be asleep under the proverbial tree, and sometimes not be nice. When is it appropriate to acquiescence, and when is it cowardice? When is it maintaining the strategic enclosure, and when is it internal considering? Keeping one self “tuned” and assessing each situation is the closest answer I can find, but no guarantees and pit fall abound. How about; stay “tuned”, evaluate each situation, and after you have blundered repeatedly…don’t give up!
Working in 3D
If I’m understanding the point in coming here, and having an incarnation it is because doing it here is harder, more laborious and repetitive. After one has learned to ride the bike here one could master it in a less dense places where learning to ride a bike isn’t one of the lessons anymore. In the Oct. 23, 1994 session the C’s discuss 3D as being a sped up process as far as learning (I can’t quote because I can’t access that session, but it was after the question “who is Lucifer?”) Also there are a few scriptures about working while we can for a time is coming when no man can work John 12:35. So, maybe there comes a “time out” period. And if riding a bike is a prerequisite for upward mobility, now would be the time to learn the machine, the field is open to work. Our present 3D world is a rock and roll, boiling caldron of elementary learning and Don Juan would be envious of us with all our petty tyrants, and complicated situations. We should probably feel privileged to be here, although at times I admit that isn’t easily to feel.
Comments, Corrections, and Criticisms welcome
