The Hidden Paths of Non-Seeking and Non-Enlightenment (2)

October 27, 2016

Eventually, the higher states of true conscious presence require sacrifice of all things composing the lower ring of the esoteric ladder, including, egoism and eventually individuality itself (from the human, earthly understanding). In other words, all the Work tortiously conducted for the sake of individual enlightenment and awakening must be forfeited to rise ethereally.

The seeking of enlightenment is directed towards the perfection of the human personality by a long process based upon consciously working so to observe the sundry egostates composing our ‘personality clusters.’ I utilize the word ‘clusters’ purposely, as the standard human belief that each possesses one, unified personality is a false belief, reinforced by modern psychiatry and its ongoing efforts to force complexity into simplicity (some eleven or more personality adaptations of variable intensity).

While, it is true that each person tends to display one of three broad, patterns, or clusters, of perceiving and reacting to specific life events (odd/eccentric, dramatic/emotional, and anxious/fearful), such being consistent with evolutionary adaptation, such disorders are often not clinically more specific. Over the years, I treated many persons showing clinically significant personality pathology (harmful, not useful, maladaptive, exaggerated and so on).

However, using carefully constructed psychometric tests, I found, even though, individual personality types tended to group within one primary cluster type, significant maladaptive traits existed within specific subcategories of a non-dominate cluster. Subsequently, I found that utilizing the psychometric test pattern in its full form was clinically most expedient.

The sole importance of psychiatric classification of personality types in an esoteric school is threefold. The first is to prevent the entrance of sociopaths (persons without a normal moral conscience). The second is to prevent the inclusion of persons whose maladaptive symptomatology will be aggravated by impeding their grounding to normal reality. The third is to decide upon which method of instruction is best suited to a seeker’s temperament and character.

When, the instructors in an esoteric school speak of personality, they are referring to particular ‘personas, masks, or identities’children introjected into their personal unconscious minds during maturation so to learn behavioral patterns useful in specific social situations. These personas are attached to well-delineated complexes associated with specific autobiographical memories, physiological states, desires, cognitions, affects, and motor actions. I call such complexes, ‘state-dependent action patterns associated with specific autobiographical memories and learning which automatically arise when properly stimulated.’ More simply, these are ‘stimuli-driven evaluation with response patterned actions,’ or ‘Serpas.’

Such stimuli are generally from the external world, but they can also arise internally secondary to the many desires evolutionarily bequeathed to each one of us. Desires motivated by survival, reproduction, sexual pleasure, power, wealth, fame and so on. In truth, we are a grand cesspool of self-aggrandizing and hoarding behavior predicated on selfishness and not altruism (though we clearly do possess the later).

Most of the time, we automatically respond to such desires so to evoke well-learned Serpas, as standard men and woman are fully programmed as to how they respond and how they behave–deny it or not–it is the truth. Generally, we are only partially conscious in times of high danger, highly novel situations, or when someone claims we are not and we pay a smidgen of attention to our situation.

For instance, let us imagine that a book case fell over behind you onto a wooden floor and made a very loud sound. Everyone would look around to see where the noise came from and what caused such noise. If I asked anyone of you, “What happened? Why did you look around?”

Each one would respond, “I heard the book case fall over onto the floor. All the books are scattered everywhere. It is a mess.” Moreover, everyone else would say the same.

However, this is not true. What happened is that a loud sound impacted upon your ear drums and you exhibited an automatic startle-response, or a protective Serpa. This response was 100% automatic, physiologic, and driven by your brain. A true answer to my questions would have been, “Michael, I experienced a startle response which showed that the source of the noise was caused by the bookcase falling over onto the floor.

I do hope all of you will think upon the above and see that it happens similarly with other stimuli. Moreover, many of these Serpas are associated with a particular persona. This can be discovered by self observation of your body states, mood states, desires, and cognitive states present at that moment. With practice you will discover that these personas, or egostates, arise, are sustained, and then decay away in a manner similar to surface ocean waves. Egostates do not arise acausally, but come into view under rather well-defined life situations.

The reason I took time to explain such is that self-observation begins as a process of ‘not doing,’ or ‘not controlling,’ or ‘not looking ahead.’ Self-observation of your body-mind complex must be non-emotive, nonjudgmental, and non-forceful. It is the application of bare attention or minding. It is a method of ‘non-seeking’ for it is concerned with ‘seeing’ what the creature does in different environments. It requires emptying the mind of preferences such as ‘yes-no, like-dislike, pleasant-unpleasant.’

Proper seeking and reformation come much later. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be more specific as to the matter at hand? We shall see. If all goes well, I will discuss “The Curious Law of the Strange Mirror.”