[from Marsha:\u00a0\u00a0 For many years now I\u2019ve heard that statement and never considered what it might mean.\u00a0\u00a0 And so here\u2019s a wonderful description that adds understanding.]<\/p>\n
The type of work that we are involved with has been referred to for hundreds and hundreds of years as \u201cthe way\u201d. Now \u201cthe way\u201d to some people means they\u2019re looking for a particular method to an end or a goal, but \u201cthe way\u201d is a way of looking at things, a way of seeing and a way of being.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not a means of behavior because one\u2019s behavior is not very much to one\u2019s own discretion of whatever is to their advantage.<\/p>\n
The very ancient origin mentions that there was two ways — a broad wide way that leads to destruction and a narrow straight way that leads to life.\u00a0\u00a0 That narrow straight one doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve got to get on the ball and do all the certain little things and not a bunch of other things. In other words self improve to some stated ideals.<\/p>\n
It is a \u201cway of being objective or consciously aware of things as they are\u201d and not as they \u201cappear to be\u201d through a group of conditioning.<\/p>\n
Way back down the road was a statement attributed to Moses that says \u201cI set before you this day two ways \u2013 choose what you will \u2013 one is life and one is death.\u201d And these two ways are always around; and all the work that we consider is always about \u201cthe way\u201d. \u201cThe way\u201d is first off knowing the self.<\/p>\n
Now we didn\u2019t say to \u201cknow the self\u201d but to be \u201cknowing the self\u201d. When something has \u201cing\u201d on it, it\u2019s in present tense, right?\u00a0\u00a0 Right now!\u00a0\u00a0 Now this knowing is not to sit down and go through a bunch of things and say, \u201cWell now I\u2019ve learned all about me, I can rest in peace.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 By that time there\u2019s already a different thing happening; and \u201cknowing\u201d is to be conscious \u2013 conscious of the self at this moment.<\/p>\n
Now the \u201cself\u201d is usually designated with a little \u2018s\u2019 and is, of course, the subconscious mind; and it\u2019s always telling us little stories \u2013 talking all the time \u2013 in other words we experience it as thought.<\/p>\n
Now are you going to get involved with the lies it tells and try to straighten it out. Are you going to try to find an \u201cideal\u201d way for it to function. Are you going to identify with one part of it [B side] and resist the other part [A side] \u2013 this is the broad wide way that leads to destruction.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the way of conflict. It\u2019s a very broad way \u2013 it gives you thousands of ways to have conflict, right? You\u2019ve tried several from every direction. There\u2019s a million more that you haven\u2019t tried.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s all these ways that we can go. We can go the way of \u201cself improvement\u201d. We can go the way of \u201cbeing good\u201d. We can go the way with \u201cfighting with all society\u201d. We\u2019re gonna straighten everything out. We can have a revolution \u2013 destroy this and create something else that will be better. We can have the way of building us a utopia. We can have the way of designing \u201cideals to live up to\u201d; and we can have the way of chasing fantasies into never never land. All of these are ways that most of us have attempted to use at one time or another. We\u2019ve tried all of \u2018em. And these all lead to conflict of one sort or another; and conflict is the disintegration factor.\u00a0\u00a0 And so it all leads to disintegration. What is disintegration? — deterioration physically, mentally, emotionally and finally total death \u2013 expiration, out of awareness et all.<\/p>\n
The other way is to be conscious of \u201cwhat is going on\u201d and to be conscious is to be objective. If you\u2019re subjective, you\u2019re dreaming; and you\u2019re subject to thoughts, to ideas and to ideals. You dreamed there\u2019s a state called happiness; and if I could just have the right set of circumstances, they would bring about the right sensations; and that right sensation would result in me being happy then, wouldn\u2019t it? \u00a0As though happy was a permanent state.<\/p>\n
And so there is a consciousness that we are objective about all the things that\u2019s within man.\u00a0\u00a0 Being objective we have ceased to make idols; and we\u2019re living in conscious objective ways at all times.\u00a0\u00a0 That is a narrow straight way — being conscious.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t allow for all the dream states that we can indulge in.\u00a0 And that is \u201cthe way\u201d that leads to life; and as the man said, it leads to life everlasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[from Marsha:\u00a0\u00a0 For many years now I\u2019ve heard that statement and never considered what it might mean.\u00a0\u00a0 And so here\u2019s a wonderful description that adds understanding.] The type of work that we are involved with has been referred to for … Continue reading