Friday, December 17, 2021
4:35 a.m. Setting switches. Gentlemen, yesterday you said specific next time. Ready?
What we meant by that is that we, having now set out the general background out of which you all are working, now feel ready to talk about the process as it emanates from these conditions. If we were trying to describe “What is possible for you to accomplish” to someone in the Middle Ages, say, or ancient Rome, or in Czarist Russia, or Meiji Japan, what we would have to say would be somewhat different, because to some extent you are your times, no less than your place, and time and place make a difference.
We can swim in water, but not necessarily in ink or in oil, and certainly not in a gas.
That’s s a crude analogy, but it is in the right direction. It is a great omission, to neglect one’s environment in weighing one’s possibilities. You know this as a matter of common sense in your everyday lives; it applies no less in the larger sense of where and when your non-3D self chose to plop you into 3D existence.
So we are between stable civilizations, I get that, which leaves us greater freedom of thought and action than we would have had if we have been born into more stable circumstances. We are like – oh, particles suspended between opposing fields that to some degree cancel each other out, leaving us freedom of action within greater limits.
You are repeating yourself. Look to your switches again. When you notice other trains of thought running in the background, it is a sign of incomplete focus. There is a difference, note, between background competition and “stray” thought that actually represent unexpected connection to what you are concentrating on. The latter is desirable, the former less so, and they blend into one another, often enough.
I find it difficult, often enough. My mind tends to be very discursive, making connections galore.
Yes. The point is, “making connections” is not “following background currents” like daydreaming about a movie one has seen. But as we say, it can be difficult to tell one from the other. You know the test, though.
“By their fruits you shall know them.”
Precisely. So when you recognize that your focus may be slipping, merely intend that it sharpen.
To continue: The peculiar qualities of your time are rooted in many decades of preparation, as we tried to show, and of course they will be in effect for many decades to come. This opportunity is not a one day white sale. But at any given moment within this larger cycle, the interaction of smaller cycles will have produced unique combinations of qualities; be alert to the very specific qualities of this moment, whenever you may happen to read or re-read these words. The “now” is always a different opportunity within a larger wave of continuity.
We are attempting, not to describe your time, but the clearest possibilities for people like you in your time.
“People like you” means – ?
It would be of little use to address ourselves to those who have no interest in communicating with us or of learning from us. This means, implicitly, that we address ourselves to those open enough, curious enough, hungry enough, practical enough (“grounded enough,” more or less), altruistic enough, to hear what we have to say. We seek the fertile soil of the parable, rather than the stony ground or the thicket of weeds.
I understand. All right, and that’s a flattering list of qualities that I’m sure my friends will appreciate as much as I do, Say that’s so. Then?
Then if you have been created with a set of qualities that predisposes and enables you to do a certain kind of work – maybe you’d be happiest, doing it!
Ah, as opposed to daydreaming about doing it, or thinking ourselves insufficiently prepared to do it?
Precisely. You should know.
Ouch.
You should also know what it is like to overcome these obstacles to proceeding. Your personal example is as much one of perseverance as it is of procrastination and evasion.
I’m not sure if I should say thank you, or just “ouch” again.
Probably it would be best to settle for recognizing when the shoe fits. If, when, it pinches, you can always go shopping for another set of shoes, another set of habits, as indeed you did (and may need to do again, at any time).
I have supposed that this is one reason why you have preferred that we leave a record of my stops and starts and wrong turns, and of your running commentary on the ins and outs of the process, to encourage others to look at their practice and perhaps amend their habits.
Of course. This is all about helping you – all of you, any of you who were created partly for the purpose of doing it. Nobody’s path will exactly follow yours, nor would it be to anyone’s advantage to do so. But everybody’s path will have certain similarities, and a mirror, even if sometimes a distorting mirror, is often of service.
So it this among the specifics you promised?
Well, we don’t intend to set out a list of “have to” instructions. We prefer “might do.”
And I’ve always appreciated that.
Not that you would have (nor should you have) preferred “have to” instructions anyway. “Have to” is suited to a certain type of person, and that type will find its instructors when it is ready for them. We, on the other hand, are suited for outliers, as you well know. The type of interlocutor suited to people who respond to set rules would strike you as a drill sergeant. It would be intolerable. But to another type of person, the structure would lend reassurance.
I’m getting that you’re tempted to make a larger point.
Only that things often look out of control when, from any given 3D viewpoint, you regard them from an implied comparison of how you and they interact or would interact. But they look differently to other viewpoints.
Let me. I get you saying, in larger terms no less than in personal terms, one size never fits all. What is experienced as tyranny by one may be experienced as firm, reassuring guidance by another. What is a healthy, enabling freedom to one is anarchy or the threat of anarchy to another. Neither is wrong, only the opposite may be true for others at the same time.
Yes, and bear that in mind in your individual lives. Things in your life that chafe may be reassuring if seen from a different attitude – and you always possess the potential to choose a different attitude. That is your freedom, your possibility. That is, ultimately, what freedom to choose is, a freedom to choose your second-tier, and ultimately your third-tier, reaction. That is, ultimately it is about creating yourself through your pattern of choices, but – and we’ve never particularly stressed this, but it is true enough – that freedom is also about your fitting yourself and your life into the situation presented by the interaction of the personal subjectivity and the shared subjectivity. Your present moment is always perfect, if you can adjust yourself to see it.
I get that you have just closed the book and said, “Thus endeth the lesson for today.” Our theme was what, specifics?
Maybe just point it up a bit. “Specific opportunities,” perhaps, or “A continuing opportunity.”
Yes, I like that second one. Very well, thanks as always. And next time? TBA?
Yes, let’s leave it open for the moment, and see what the new day brings. Plus you could take a day off if you wish. Only – try to remain conscious whatever else you do. That will become more obviously necessary as time goes on. Necessary, and never more so than now, and even more so as you proceed.
Okay, noted. I’ll try to remember.