| Spiritual
|
[
Spiritual ] [ Main Menu ] |
|
|
|
26540 |
|
|
Date: February 08, 2019 at 11:06:08
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
Amwell, 25.10.52
THE WORK AND THE LOVE OF SELF
Maurice Nicoll
It was said in the previous paper that the external part of the
Emotional Centre is the seat of self-love. Why it is so necessary to
speak often about the love of self is that as long as this love completely
dominates us it cuts us off from the middle and interior parts of the
Emotional Centre which the Work
seeks to awaken. When the Work
says that its object is to awaken
the Emotional Centre eventually, this
is what is meant. When the emotion
of self-love dominates a person, the
Emotional Centre is asleep. It cannot awaken. What has to be understood and re-understood is
that the external side of a person is dominated by self-love. The psychological site of
this self-love is in the external
division of the Emotional Centre. As long as a person is dominated
and therefore guided by the love of self, he cannot be guided by anything else. That is the first point.
The second point is that as long as
anyone is dominated by his or her love of self, no development of the
inner divisions of the Emotional Cent
re is possible in that person. It
is not merely that the love of self
cannot connect a person to the internal
side of himself or herself. It is more
than that. The love of self actually
disjoins the external side of a person from the internal side—that is,
from the side of a person which the
Work seeks to awaken and develop.
The Work does not seek to develop
the love of self. On the contrary,
it seeks to diminish it. It seeks to draw energy out of the self-love so
that the freed energy can find a new direction. The action of the Work
on a person is not to make him or
her more proud and conceited or
selfish or self-centred or negative. It is designed to have the reverse
effect, provided a man does
it. It is designed to make people feel more
and more, in proportion to their powers of endurance and in different
ways, and after different periods of time, a process of
depersonalization,
so that they no longer have the same feeling of who or what they are.
This gradual withdrawal of energy from the customary narrow, easily
resentful and brittle feeling of 'I'
is accompanied by a gradual new and
broader feeling of I—as if one were
living in a large place. This
gradual new and broader feeling of I is not centred in the love of self.
It is not situated in the external division of the Emotional Centre. It is
internal to the external division.
It can hear, feel, value and understand
the Work. In short, it can do what
the self-love cannot. This new feeling
of I is highly desirable. It is like being introduced to a new civilization,
to another form of life. But for a long time the old feeling of 'I' reasserts itself temporarily
and seeks to resume its dominion. This is
where it is possible to speak of temptation, in the esoteric meaning of
temptation. If one ceases to keep the Work warm and viable in oneself,
if one lets it get cold too long, punishment comes. It takes the form of a
cessation of meaning, of a deadness inside. One is back in life. One
starts complaining again, feeling old grievances, making accounts against
others, and, in short, singing one's song. This is easy. It is mechanical.
It is not Work. Of course, there is no one who is punishing you. We
punish ourselves—by casting ourselves down to a lower level because
we allow ourselves to fall asleep. The remedy is to begin to work again
—seriously. For this, you must sacrifice your suffering. Of course, it
is easier to sleep—and suffer uselessly, and "feed the Moon". Are you aware that a single sentence
uttered by a negative 'I' and consented
to in your inner talking can let in a rush
of negative 'I's? Just a sentence
such as: "It's all very well her saying that . . ." Down goes the lift,
bang to your basement, and every devil of the night emerges ready to
eat your force, as it did formerly.
Now the self-love can imitate affection for others. One cannot,
however, help another through imitation affections. They are not
cognitive—that is, they give you no knowledge, no insight. Cognitive
emotions—that is, emotions which give you knowledge both of yourself and of others—belong to the
middle and inner divisions of the
Emotional Centre and not to the external division. A man or woman
powerfully affected by the love of self will have no love for anything
so abstract as knowledge. Why should they? They regard themselves
as everything. The self-love always regards itself. It cannot look up.
Underlying the love of self there is, inevitably, hatred. This is why
mechanical emotional love turns into
its opposite when it is affronted.
What the self-love really wants in its
heart of hearts is to have its own
way and dominate everyone else an
d make everyone a slave—the whole
world even, as history shews. However, it takes many forms. One
ought to observe some of the forms it takes for oneself—I mean, in
oneself. If you do not have too many false attitudes about yourself and
too many buffers, you can occasionally notice it at work in you and
catch a glimpse of some of its ways
of concealing itself and pretending
to be something quite different. Notice if you can how everything you
do for merit is self-love. Very much of what people call love—such as
love for their friends—is an extension of self-love. If you are nice to
those who are nice to you, do not think that the self-love has nothing
to do with it. Wait till the other person is not at all nice to you and then
observe your self-love blowing up for
a storm. The life of self-love is
death. People immersed up to the neck in it are really dead. They are
only external. There is nothing
internal. The most dangerous and
unhappy form of self-love is to love
power for its own sake—social,
professional, political, local or domestic. The love of ruling seems extraordinarily destructive of any justice or peace of mind and certainly
ruins the Work. A mother who love
s to rule can harm her children
very much, especially her sons. The love-pattern is wrong. Also this
evil attribute can lay down early bitterness or sadness in the children.
I have seen many such examples. When the love of ruling at all costs
for its own sake comes first, that person is really a devil inwardly, whatever the outward appearance. You can feel it by experiencing a cessation of everything in you, a drying up of all thought and feeling. Such
people may seek to appear as if charming. They worship themselves.
A man imprisoned in his self-love regards himself in everything.
He is surrounded by himself. His mind is placarded with his own
image. Even if he lifts his thoughts to heaven, he sees
himself there and thinks of himself
and of how he should comport himself
and what conventional remark he should make—such as "Jolly nice place up here."
For how can the self-love raise itself above itself? It would cease to be
self-love. How could it cease to care what happened to it ? How could
it cease always internally considering? You might think
self-knowledge
—for which one life-time is not enough—naturally springs from self-love.
If a man is interested only in himself and his own and always regards
himself, will he not necessarily know himself? On the contrary, he
will be blind to the kind of person
he is. Self-love is not cognitive. It
lays down no memory for "next ti
me". It makes darkness, not light,
within. The man will therefore hate
self-observation which is to let
a ray of light within. The first commandment of the Decalogue says:
"Thou shalt not worship other gods." To the sensual, literal mind
this means one must not bow down to
idols. The psychological meaning
is that you must not worship yourself. You can cease to do this only
by observing little by little what you are really like. A man who loves
himself before all things, adores himself. He (or she) makes himself a
god to himself. Now what you love
most is your God. Think for a
moment. What do you love most ? What is your God ?
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[26555] [26551] [26545] [26548] [26547] [26546] [26541] [26543] [26544] [26542] |
|
26555 |
|
|
Date: February 18, 2019 at 14:18:20
From: kay.so.or, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
real 'love' is the energy that powers the universe. It is misunderstood to be a 'word' or an 'emotion' etc...but my own experience showed me when I was just showered in pure love energy Ryan, that it is everywhere, all around us and in us, and opening up your mind, body and soul to 'it' is what gives you peace. I don't think you can 'work' to 'get there' or understand it with 'words', it is so much simpler but also I know that most are 'searching' for 'it'. Everyone understands about electricity, and other waves of energy, so this shouldn't be too far of a stretch to grasp too.
spirit told me: when you are in a state of fear, or hate, that you are in discord with your own 'being' and that is what causes so many discordant actions and brings so many to violence.
I do think that meditation for some bring that sense of peace to them, or other 'practices', but the key is to be able to tap into 'the source' of all.
this is not to say we won't still have emotions, or feelings of this or that, and get off balance at times, even be scared as that is a prime survival action.This is called 'self-preservation' in the scientific world.
*******************
Self-preservation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-preservation is a behavior that ensures the survival of an organism. It is universal among living organisms. Pain and fear are integral parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of adrenaline,which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing, smell, and sight. Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively, in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind (see Defence mechanisms).
Even the most simple of living organisms (for example, the single-celled bacteria) are typically under intense selective pressure to evolve a response that would help avoid a damaging environment, if such an environment exists. Organisms also evolve while adapting - even thriving - in a benign environment (for example, a marine sponge modifies its structure in response to current changes, in order to better absorb and process nutrients). Self-preservation is therefore an almost universal hallmark of life. However, when introduced to a novel threat, many species will have a self-preservation response either too specialized, or not specialized enough, to cope with that particular threat.[citation needed] An example is the dodo, which evolved in the absence of natural predators and hence lacked an appropriate, general self-preservation response to heavy predation by humans and rats, showing no fear of them.
Self preservation is essentially the process of an organism preventing itself from being harmed or killed and is considered a basic instinct in most organisms. Most call it a "survival instinct". Self-preservation is thought to be tied to an organisms reproductive fitness and can be more or less present according to perceived reproduction potential. If perceived reproductive potential is low enough, self-destructive behavior(the opposite) is not uncommon in social species. Self-preservation is also thought by some to be the basis of rational and logical thought and behavior.
*************************
the term 'self-love' itself just doesn't resonate with me, and all those 'words' that person writes about it. That just seems to be focused on this 3-d plane of what people 'think' love is....but then I haven't followed 'his' works and maybe I misunderstand what he is saying. I just think 'words' cannot explain what any person 'experiences' because 'it' is beyond words'
just saying....:-) (and yes, this is a lot of 'words') to say it...LOL
k
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26551 |
|
|
Date: February 13, 2019 at 20:04:07
From: pamela, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
URL: http://huttoncommentaries.com/article.php?a_id=12 |
|
Thanks. I agree with his writing by the way.
I found another Maurice Nicoll writing paraphrased by Hutton Commentaries who has written much on Cayce:
What does it mean to be unfaithful? Indeed, what is faith? The word is not easy to understand but, as paraphrased from Maurice Nicoll's psychological commentaries (v. 3, 1952, Vincent Stuart), in the Gospels, faith is referred to as a seed in one's mind. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” Christ spoke these words to the disciples after they were unable to cure an epileptic boy who kept falling “into the fire and oft-times into the water.” In answer to the disciples' question, “Why could we not cast it out?” Christ says, “Because of your little faith.”
I posted the whole article of Huttons over on Bible forum called 'Will Pole Shift And Solar Heats
End The Present Cycle?'
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26545 |
|
|
Date: February 10, 2019 at 07:31:13
From: Akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
“This is where it is possible to speak of temptation, in the esoteric meaning
of
temptation. If one ceases to keep the Work warm and viable in oneself,
if one lets it get cold too long, punishment comes. It takes the form of a
cessation of meaning, of a deadness inside. One is back in life. One
starts complaining again, feeling old grievances, making accounts against
others, and, in short, singing one's song. This is easy. It is mechanical.
It is not Work. Of course, there is no one who is punishing you. We
punish ourselves—by casting ourselves down to a lower level because
we allow ourselves to fall asleep. “
For me, there is no other area of my life where I experience this more than
when I come to this website. I do my own inner work and see the way my
outer life, work & the roles I assume reflect those efforts, but wrestle with
myself continuously & habitually when I put energy here - way too much
energy. I try to convince myself there’s a reason for it aside from
recognizing that.
It's easy to love animals. They have no egos so they don't trigger ours. The
just reflect back unconditional regard.
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[26548] [26547] [26546] |
|
26548 |
|
|
Date: February 10, 2019 at 11:43:45
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
|
the reason is the "natural" side of you wants you to give up your energy to feed the creation...nature is very selfish and self-serving...of course you do this no matter what but conscious work can save some of the energy you "create" for yourself...for the creation of an evolved you...
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26547 |
|
|
Date: February 10, 2019 at 08:47:21
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
|
that is why i continue to run this site...an invaluable tool for evolution...
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26546 |
|
|
Date: February 10, 2019 at 08:30:38
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
"For me, there is no other area of my life where I
experience this more than when I come to this
website. I do my own inner work and see the way my
outer life, work & the roles I assume reflect those
efforts, but wrestle with myself continuously &
habitually when I put energy here - way too much
energy. I try to convince myself there’s a reason for
it aside from recognizing that.
It's easy to love animals. They have no egos so they
don't trigger ours. The just reflect back
unconditional regard."
Thanks for this, Akira... ;-> Though my version and
experience of the conscious self-awareness process is
quite different from Gurdieff's, the overall
observation you offer, after reading that excerpt, is
something I identify with totally... What comes out
of me in my most-asleep moments at this forum has
pretty much become my litmus test as to how awake I
truly am, regardless of how well I feel I'm doing
everywhere else in my life... ;->
And yes...I agree, the nonhuman/egoless grace of
animals that provides us a level of unconditional
love we rarely manage is a teaching and blessing we
can hardly begin to comprehend... ;->
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26541 |
|
|
Date: February 08, 2019 at 11:39:32
From: Jody/Concord,CA, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
Then there's the old adage:
"We cannot love another until we can love and accept ourselves"
Love you Ryan! ;)
Blessings, Jody
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[26543] [26544] [26542] |
|
26543 |
|
|
Date: February 09, 2019 at 01:16:36
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
“Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
[26544] |
|
26544 |
|
|
Date: February 09, 2019 at 07:55:55
From: EVe, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWakW7wdXR4 |
|
...yes, love the other animals please.
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
26542 |
|
|
Date: February 09, 2019 at 01:14:41
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: The Work And Love Of Self |
|
|
|
similar but different concepts...
|
|
|
|
|
Responses:
None |
|
[
Spiritual ] [ Main Menu ] |