Rita — “do the work”

Saturday, March 5, 2016
F: 4:05 a.m. Michael [Langevin] and Sofia [Axelsson] suggest that I print out a one-paragraph precis of each day’s session, for people who can’t necessarily take the time to read each installment as it comes. What do you think of that idea, Rita?
R: Like most things, it has its advantages and disadvantages. The major advantage would be for you; the major disadvantage, for others.
F: And I get that quite clearly as you say just that much. An advantage for me to have to acquire that extra edge of clarity that the effort of summarizing would provide, corresponding disadvantage to others in encouraging them to skim, thinking that recognizing words is the same as absorbing the underlying concepts.
R: I will remind you – you plural, that is – that all the grounding that takes place between the lines is an essential part of assisting the material to change you. If you wanted entertainment merely, it could all be said more concisely, without the dialog, or it could be said more dramatically, less matter-of-fact-ly. On balance I think the idea would be a mistake, although I would like it well enough if you, Frank, would provide such a one-paragraph summary for each session and keep it to yourself.
F: At least until this turns into another book?

R: You have no guarantee that that is what will happen. In any case, the same objections would apply. But anything that aided your mental clarity would be all to the good, except in so far as it represented wasted work. That is, if you have absorbed the connections, there isn’t more to be gained. On the other hand, how do you know you have absorbed all there is to be absorbed unless you try?
F: I’ll think about it. Okay, today’s episode of The Perils of Pauline?
R: More like “As the World Turns,” if you remember that old soap opera. And no, I never saw it either.
Now, I remind you, without any intent to chide, but as a reminder, that I had suggested at the end of yesterday’s session that you try to experience whatever would follow an attempt to let go of your accustomed self-definition.
F: And I entirely forgot about it, as soon as I finished typing it in.
R: So you did. Would you like to take the day off – you haven’t had one since we began on the 11th, as opposed to the suggestion that you schedule a break regularly – and do the work beforehand?
F: I don’t know that I would actually do the work, even with the break, Rita. What would your choice be?
R: My choice would be that you and anyone else so inclined do the work, not just read about it. So I think maybe we’ll cut this short right here, and try again tomorrow. If you don’t do the work by then, I can’t help it – I’m not trying to blackmail you into doing something you don’t really want to do – but it will be better if you spend even ten minutes actively trying to allow another definition of yourself to surface. Or rather, to try to lay down your accustomed self-definition and not so much replace it with another as experience how much your self-identity interacts with a way of thinking about yourself.
If your hold on yourself depends upon a thought and the thought depends (ultimately) upon the reinforcement provided by your 3D environment, what are you going to do when you lose your sensory connection to the 3D and you’re on your own?
F: I didn’t think we would really be on our own.
R: In an ultimate sense, no, of course not. But if you can’t sense it, or can’t find it, let’s say, how much good is that invisible support going to be, when you are blind and deaf and confused and alone? For that’s what it will feel like, if you don’t keep your sense of connection. That’s how people wind up creating those “hollow heavens,” those belief-system territories. That is how they get lost.
So, take the time you would have spent writing (or reading) this if it had been a full session, and try to let go, trusting that there really is someone on the other end of the line. You aren’t looking for proof or concept or a new starting-point or anything definite or practical. You want to leave yourself open to receiving a sense of the parts of yourself that have not been defined or consciously lived out but are nonetheless integral to you. and whether you do or don’t make the effort, I’ll see you next time, but not today.
F: All right, well, we’ll see. I’m a little vague about this, but I suppose no harm in that. I was going to ask, should I try writing as I do it and of course I get that doing what is familiar is the last thing that would aid the process.
R: That’s right. Now, sink into it and see what happens.
F: Okay.
4:55 a.m. All right, I’ve made a beginning, anyway. I’ll write out what has come to me, but whether I get a lot or a little, I won’t post it until tomorrow, so as not to steer people’s experience.