I have noticed that there are apparent inconsistencies in your explanations about the work. What you say from one day to the next sometimes seems to be contradictory.
Yes, I’m sure that is true, even allowing for the fact that you may have been subjective in what you think you heard me say. Why is this important to you?
I think something as important as the work should be coherent. There should be basic agreement among the ideas and instructions that have been given.
You have made a very important point but perhaps not the one you intended.
In my view, there is no value in having a coherent set of ideas about this work. None whatsoever. There is no unified theory of the work, no set of principles that cannot be challenged or restated in a clearer or more effective manner in order to better suit the needs of the moment.
The aim of this work is to wake up. That’s it, that’s all. As far as I know, there is no exact definition of what that means that can be systematically applied to everyone but it is clear to me that being awake enhances our capacity to perceive. The ideas of the work are valuable if they provide the basis for insight into oneself. Insight can lead to observation and observation can lead to insight. When this occurs, you are working. When work ideas lead to analysis, comparing ideas and looking for exact formulations or fixed rules, you are thinking. Thinking is not working.
If there is one overarching principle here, it is ‘Know Thyself’. You can discover and realize all and everything by pursuing this direction. This knowing is the action of direct perception, not a collection of ideas. Knowing and knowledge are two very different things in the context of this work.
As for contradiction, it seems to have great value, at least in part because it challenges us to inquire further. Contradiction is built into the way of all things. The qualities inherent in human nature are themselves in constant conflict. I value agreement as an expression of our potential for real will but that does not mean that agreement is expected or desirable in all things.
You do not seem to value thinking very much.
On the contrary, thinking has great value when it follows perception and then acts as the springboard to look further. Thinking has far less value when it becomes self-referencing. It is the interplay of thought, sensation and feeling, held by attention and presence, that makes us human beings. We are not thinking beings, as Descartes proposed. We are perceiving beings.
