• Work Notes: Energies

    December 10, 2024

    According to the fourth way, there is a hierarchy of energies humans can access. I will give these keys to you but once and they will likely mean nothing to you. But perhaps there will be one or two among you who can make use of this teaching and discover for yourself the means of ascending the ladder.

    Vital energy is an energy of the body which enables us to do physical things. It is renewed with food and rest, especially sleep.

    Automatic energy enables us to perform repetitive tasks without intention or even noticing. Everything we do can run on automatic energy.

    Sensitive energy enables us to sense and to notice ourselves and our surroundings. It arises from stimulation of the nervous system via engagement with the environment. It has a cycle of charging and discharging. This is the energy of emotion. Self observation is possible with this energy.

    Conscious energy enables us to think, sense and feel simultaneously. This energy does not arise in the normal course of living. It requires intentional use of attention which is a true catalyst…it transforms sensitive energy without itself being consumed. Conscious energy is non-reactive; reaction pulls it down into sensitive energy. With this energy, observation of self becomes possible.

    Creative energy is the power to do. It is the marriage of will and possibility. Entirely new directions can arise with the creative energy which finds its own expression in us or around us. Attention resides here. This energy is a gift.

    The energy of Objective Love is the love our Creator has for us in which we may participate as His Beloved. This is not the love that we speak about in ordinary life. It is a mystery beyond knowing.

    His Endlessness has gifted us certain possible pathways that can enable us to climb the ladder of energies and become more useful to Him. The higher transforms the lower to create the middle. Attention transforms sensitive energy to create conscious energy. Conscious energy transforms automatic energy to create more sensitive energy. Conscious prayer submits to, and invites, Love which transforms conscious energy into creative, birthing a real human being.

    The transformation of energies is a capacity latent within the human organism and may arise to view without setting out to achieve it, simply by observing one’s experience. Begin with attention on sensation. Learn to marshal your attention by calling it back to you from all the places where you have unconsciously left it. Observe that you become more conscious. Then more is possible.

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  • Work Notes: Wanting vs Wishing

    October 28, 2024

    When I want something it is because it is wanting…there is a lack of that thing. Wanting begins in poverty.

    How will I go about satisfying this want? Likely I will use the pushing force. I will try to get what is wanting by looking for it and attempting to gain it from my environment, perhaps from others, perhaps by using money or persuasion or charm. My attention is on the getting.

    Or I could use the pulling force. I could make myself deserving of receiving what I want, exercise patience and allow the universe to present me with it, using my attention to be favorable in my disposition, creating the conditions for a gift of what I want.

    Because wanting begins in poverty, with what I lack, there is very little scope for will. The impulse of wanting ties me to the automatic functioning of the nervous system and the emotion of desire. Using the pulling force is more subtle, involving a different setting of the attention and the breath which are receptive and accepting. I can probably bring more of my sensations to the task. I can more easily note the contrary impulses or attitudes which may push the thing I want away from my grasp.

    And then there is the very different action of wishing. When I wish for something, I do not begin with a lack. I do not want the aim of my wish. I intend it. This is the beginning of will. The direction is up. There is none of the force of pushing or pulling. I place the wish at the feet of the universe and accept its sense of rightness. My wish is under the aegis of higher powers. Perhaps now, perhaps later or not at all, the wish will be realized. The communication of the wish is already its fulfillment and in this there is great richness.

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  • Work Notes: In Presence

    July 17, 2024

    Whole body attention on sensation, relaxation and presence steps in. ‘I’ am present.

    There is another step. I can enter His presence.

    When ‘I’ am present there is a feeling of being here as the being ‘I’ have always been. When ‘I’ surrenders, a larger Presence steps in. This is not a matter of effort but, rather, a deep release of effort. The heart reflexively turns up to invite this larger Presence.

    In Vajrayana Buddhism, they say the child jumps into the mother’s lap.

    The Universe experiences itself through me.

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  • Work Notes: Offending Others

    July 8, 2024

    Early in childhood, we learn the pleasures of being liked. From that moment, it becomes more difficult to be free to follow our conscience.

    Because we want to be liked, we do not want to offend. If we offend someone, we think we are responsible for their reactions. We may therefore decide not to speak our mind and lose access to our own sincerity. We risk becoming social creatures, molded by prevailing customs and the thinking of our friends and neighbors, not to mention media.

    All things being equal, it is generally preferable not to offend other people. Apart from the ethical issues involved, the reactions may be dangerous, hurtful, costly in terms of valued relationships and wasteful of time and energy. Unless the other person has agreed to be challenged, it may be better not to risk offense.

    But there is also a deeper issue of following one’s own conscience. The easiest way to deaden conscience is to lie, or to practice insincerity, in order to avoid conflict and get along. Our power as individuals, to do and to reason independently, depends upon our integrity. It can too easily be compromised by the desire to be agreeable and liked.

    I do not propose a resolution of the conflicts that may arise between our integrity and the relationships we have with others. You must find your own way which enables your conscience to flourish.

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  • Work Notes: Sensing/Feeling

    June 21, 2024

    Sensing is in the nervous system in response to a stimulus. Feeling is not.

    Sensing is the basis for emotion. An emotion, whether we consider it positive or negative, is a body state usually with a thought pattern to go with it.

    Anger is an excitation of the nervous system with thinking that identifies why I am angry. The sensations are localized, including adrenals, pulse, breath and so on, much of which we may not be conscious of but all of it within reach of our awareness.

    Pleasure is also an excitation of the nervous system with quite different physical effects but also with associated thinking. Pleasant emotions have physical benefits, negative ones have negative effects.

    Sensations not only affect us individually but also communicate beyond the body to other humans, plants and animals. So, curating sensations has value and real consequence.

    What is feeling? Enquire. Is it not something received? Is there not a range of thousands of different feelings? Consider freedom, purity, beauty, elegance, truth, loyalty and so on. These are qualities known by their feelings. They each have a particular vibrational or tone. They require us to be open, receptive and attentive. They are gifts of the unseen.

    As we enquire we may find that feelings have associated sensations such as sorrow and sadness, joy and happiness.

    To make way for feelings to enter, whole body attention is most useful. Allowing attention to fall directly on all the sensations of the body clears the palate, removing the localized, locked in sensations of ordinary emotions. Submission encourages feeling to enter. Humility is the most beautiful inner gesture we can make towards the realm of feeling.

    A whole human being has sensation, thought and feeling working together in body, mind and heart. Each domain has its organ of perception. How rarely do we use them to fully perceive.

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  • Work Notes: Impartiality

    June 6, 2024

    Question from reader: What does it mean to be impartial?

    To be impartial is not to be in parts. Mostly we observe by one part observing another. We comment on what we see. This is what we call self-observing (rather than observing itself). We have opinions. We have preferences. We have reactions. These phenomena intermediate, separating attention from what is attended to. To be impartial is for attention to have no observer to separate and label experience.

    The observer enters the observed and is thereby silenced.

    To be impartial is to be without like and dislike, clinging and averting as the Buddha said. Impartial is between them and not them.

    The opposite of impartial attention could be called headbrain attention. This attention is managed by thinking, funneled through thinking. In this way, it loses its force.

    Impartial attention is a direct connection of the source of attention to what is attended. Perception is united to will.  A bridge.  An enormous amount crosses this bridge if not interfered. Real knowing, the real nature of a thing, comes immediately over this bridge without the limitation of our past-determined opinions and reactions.

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