The Walls of Mechanicality

The Walls of Mechanicality

The tools and techniques that schools have perfected are rooted in understanding the mechanical and habitual nature of the lower self.

“It is typical of the lower self to set foot repeatedly on the same spot.” ~ Abu Said

Abu Said points out one of our chief advantages. If the lower self had an unlimited repertoire of instinctive, moving, intellectual and emotional attitudes, opinions thoughts and feelings, there would be almost no hope to observe it and learn its unconscious habits and momentums.

One such tool that schools employ is doing something that the lower self resists. Shakespeare’s ‘thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to’ is the perfect description of the many opportunities. Working with the weekly exercise is an effective method of doing what the machine does not wish to do. This is already the beginning of school work.

If we study our external environment, even momentarily, there is almost always something that needs our attention which we put off. George Gurdjieff remarked that man is afflicted with the disease of ‘Tomorrow’. ‘Not now’, I’ll do it later’, I can’t be bothered’, ‘Now’s not a good time’, It’s unimportant’, etc, etc etc. Doing last night’s dishes, cleaning a speck of dust or dirt on the carpet, a scuff on the wall, wearing a seatbelt, making the bed, writing a Facebook post. These are mostly moving-instinctive center efforts. There’s also an effort for the emotional center,. Refraining from expressing a complaint. The driver in the fast lane crawling along at a fraction of the speed limit, the customer at the checkout paying a large shopping spree with coins, or the the customer who isn’t familiar with paying by credit card, your employer or manager asking for overtime, or asking your employees or subordinates for the same. People, right?

What would turn into disease,

We turn to what will joy and please

~ William Blake

The benefit of school is that it offers organized work. The opportunity to give up one’s opinion, to follow requests and direction regardless of one’s own opinions and attitudes are many and varied, and allows for efforts of doing what the lower self does not wish to do. This is one way that school assures and accelerates conscious evolution. Bear in mind, that we’re not working from a moral perspective, that is to become better people - i.e. better machines - even though our efforts will sometimes be externally considerate. All the above is work to prepare for the arrival of higher centers. Each time we do something the lower self does not wish to do, we learn more about it’s mechanical habits and attitudes, we learn what is the lower self, and what is the third state.

Everything in schools is designed to bring one to self-remembering. Paradoxically, to do something the lower self does not wish to do requires self-remembering. The ‘cure’ for mechanicality is also the catapult to higher centers.

You must remember, through self-remembering we have found the weak spot in the walls of mechanicality - Peter Ouspensky

Post by Charles R

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Image: Detail from The Resurrection of Christ by Hans Pleydenwurff (1420 - 1472)