Another related characteristic of the ordinary waking state that is a useless energy leak and an obstacle to the development of higher states of consciousness is unnecessary talking. We spend our lives talking, either outwardly or inwardly. Idle talk is mechanical, involves imagination and lying, and encourages identification. This is a key issue, a central theme in many sacred technologies. Unnecessary talking is related to other unnecessary physical movements and bodily tensions, twitches, fidgeting, finger drumming, foot tapping, grimacing, and so on, which serve to drain the daily ration of energy that might, if man but knew how, be used for increasing the level of available attention.

This brings us to the idea of fantasy or the noncreative use of imagination, that body of unrealistic notions about themselves that ordinary people hold as unquestionable truth. When the word “imagination” is used, creative imagination of the Great Masters is not meant. What is meant is something far more commonplace–the delusional system that each of us learns to believe to be the facts of life. This is a form of lying. For example, one is not typically conscious of oneself and yet one believes one is. One is not able to control one’s actions and yet one thinks one can. Imagination goes on overtly and covertly all the time. It saps motivation for self-development; for if I do not admit that I am in a state of inattention, what will cause me to wish to change? The urge or impetus to work toward self-consciousness can arise only when the illusion of having capacities we do not actually possess falls away.

The feelings of ordinary people are made up almost entirely of negative emotions, although they are often rather successfully hidden by a polite mask. These negative emotions are triggered by identification and internal considering. Much of what motivates human activity is negative emotion. Mankind has an enormous repertoire of negativities: there are the basic passions of anger, envy, pride, vanity, hate, sloth, fear; the negative moods such as self-pity, depression, resentment, despair, boredom, irritability; the forms of sentimentality; the forms of negative intellectual bias such as cynicism, argumentativeness, pessimism, suspicion. The list could go on and on. And what seems to be positive in the emotional states experienced by people in ordinary waking state can go sour and turn into negativity with just a little pressure on one of our sensitive psychological issues and images which are generally founded on pride or vanity.

Brother N. N.: Thank you Solator and Cognitor for your reminders of the pitfalls of our Work. Fratres and Sorors, our time together draws to a close and I suggest a last meditation before the Work and Worship of the morrow.

Brethren assume a meditative posture as the lights dim and soft music plays. Allow the audience to meditate for about 3-5 minutes. Adepti exit, house lights are slowly brought up. End of Act VIII: Intermission

NOTES:

1. Darwin, Charles. THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, Murray, London, 1859.

2. Speeth, K. THE GURDJIEFF WORK. Perigee Books published by The Putnam Publishing Group, NY, NY, 1989.

3. The normal sleep architecture consists of four stages as shown in the figure below. The time interval between the lightest stages, REM or dreaming sleep, coincides with a person’s usual ultradian, basic rest-activity cycle (BRAC varies between 90 – 120 minute).