We Are All ...

 

We are all so much of one body, 

a body that Mervyn put together, 

and we are linked in ways 

that our machines cannot understand. 

But I know, as all of you do, 

that we are reliant on each other in so many ways. 

The ladder has rungs above and below 

and we must support and pull each other up it.

~O

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When I Let Myself Really Feel...

Edvard Munch

When I let myself really feel my jealousy 

or pride or excitement or any strong emotion, 

really let myself indulge it, 

I find that I can't really sustain the feeling. 

It's actually uncomfortable and feels forced. 

I think it's because those aren't stable emotions. 

For example, 

if I let myself really go with a jealous “I”, 

I find myself having to justify it, 

back away from the negativity 

and draw in associative i's.

That's because I know that I am letting myself be false, 

even as I am feeling the jealousy. 

I know my part in it 

and where I am going "off the rails”. 

It's uncomfortable, yet it's in me. 

And again, 

our work is to hold the i's and not be identified. 

I know it’s the only place 

where I can find truth and something constant.

Further clarification - 

I am exhausted when I indulge in these strong emotions. 

My mechanics can't hold on to them. 

That’s a sign 

that many of our I's 

are NOT real - 

illusions, delusions, shadows.

~J

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I Want To Share A Realization...

 

Janet Boyd 

I want to share a realization I had this past week. 

I had no contact with students for around 10 days. 

During those days 

I had wonderful energy with myself. 

Then when I came to the meeting 

and felt the energy of being together 

with eight other students, 

It felt as a completely different state. 

I started pondering this, 

and maybe it is as if 

our soul needs three different states of presence, 

relating it to the three lines of work. 

Maybe the first one would be to be with our own soul, 

then for it to be reflected in others’ souls 

and maybe the third is to be reflected in the divinity?

~H

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Begin Again

 

In the Work, it is often said, “Sometimes you have to throw the machine a “bone”.” It is important that if you slip and express negativity, just begin again.  It’s important not to beat yourself up because then you are just more negative, and can descend more into negative vanity, self-pity etc.

~ M

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Merging

  George Tooker, Lovers I

                                                                          

George Tooker, Lovers II

Merging is the real state of love. 
For then the two persons contain nothing but love.
No thoughts or I's.
No intellect.
No emotions.
Just the merging and drinking of each other,
leading to a rebirth of each of them,
over and over again.

~ Mervyn Brady

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A Serious Thing

Francesco Clemente, "White Flag"

It is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

~ Mary Oliver

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Acceptance

"Lanterns" by George Tooker

Our work is to accept and not impose.  

Everything that fills us with ourselves 

is not work, but vanity. 

It is better to do nothing than to act from 

pride and call it work.

We have to attain harmony.

This means to be oneself.

But it also means to accept others,

respect them, learn from them,

become connected with something higher.

~Rodney Collin

From, The Theory of Conscious Harmony

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Relaxing

George Tooker, "Girl with a Basket"

Now the Work teaches that we have to relax. First of all, we understand by relaxing, relaxing the body and the muscles, especially the small muscles of the face. But the supreme feeling of relaxation is to relax from the picture of yourself—in short, from your False Personality, which means all the facade of pretence that you are always living by which conducts to you absolutely wrong experiences and makes you get involved in things that do not belong to the path of your essential life.

 - Maurice Nicoll

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As One Observes...

 Barbara Januszkiewicz

As one observes 

how the different colors in an artwork 

and the different threads of sound in a musical work 

intertwine and complement one another, 

to actually feel that resonate on oneself 

is so powerful.

I have been working with this 

in listening to and playing music, 

using sensation as a first gateway, 

then opening the heart, 

and finally inviting the higher intellectual center in. 

As a divided attention exercise 

this has been so powerful for me, 

and it allows that harmony to lift me higher.

~J

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Let Nothing Disturb You...

 

Pamela Padgett

Let nothing Disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you, 

Though all things pass, 

God does not change.

But he lacks nothing who possesses God;

For God alone suffices.

~St. Teresa of Avila

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Acceptance Of Myself ...

 

Acceptance of myself 

is a major part of becoming more real for me. 

This is the battle or the work with false personality. 

False personality simply cannot be bothered 

to do anything 

that will not support the picture it has of itself. 

Anything contrary is buffered outright. 

Unfortunately, 

it usually takes a shock of some kind 

to bring one down to one’s knees 

and see oneself for who one really is. 

This is not necessarily a negative. 

It can be quite a relief, 

as the machine, at least temporarily, 

no longer needs to support 

the false picture of itself, 

which is a lie, 

and which takes a tremendous amount of energy 

to support mechanically. 

The machine will act quickly 

to shelter itself behind the false personality, 

however, I feel this sheltering 

is slowed and even stifled through self-remembering, 

which leads one to acceptance and forgiveness 

and closer to one’s true self and ultimately, 

the gods.

~J

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I Have Observed...

 

I have observed in myself recently - 

the pressure to be still, 

and yet a certain frenzy of the machine when I try. 

It seems to search relentlessly 

for the next thing to fill that space - 

that beautiful, calm, 

clear space that can appear 

if only I could let that space 

unfold a bit more, bit by bit, 

let it open itself up to me. 

~J

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