This Is Deep

The 4th Way by Ouspensky and books by and about Gurdjieff started me on my quest of exploring life and living and eventually, after more than thirty-five years, I’ve arrived where I am today.  My starting point was this lifetime and this brain-body and my thinking took me to definitions of life, organized life, its purpose, and the interdependency of all forms of it.

As an aside, a long time ago I deduced that there must be what I called a cross-over particle that vacillates between energy and matter; so small that the energy absorbed or released by it is not significant.  Now that particle has a scientific name, the god particle, and the search is on for it in particle theory physics.

There are more levels of this being than I understand but a macro picture of it would be a physical brain-body, which has developed incrementally over billions of years into a work of grand complexity that has been studied scientifically and almost understood.  Genetic history is another  part of the brain-body and has not been fathomed to any meaningful depth.  There is personality, which is not quite physical and has been observed and described but never really understood on more than an empirical basis.  Then there are personae that are formed to cope with specific situations and once formed never disappear.

Some situations are repeated and eventually these oft used personae along with the personality and physical appearance become what is recognized as the named person.  The combination of brain-body, genetic history, personality, and personae combine to form one principal component of the being.

The other part of the being co-exists on a different plane; I call this Master.  Master is that part of the being that recurs through lifetimes until he is perfected into permanence and becomes an entity that continues existence without the need for a physical body; an entity that exists as a part of Essence,  a spiritual congregation.  Since we don’t have a clue other than imagination about this level of existence it isn't productive to formulate more than recognition of it.  It could be that the congregation of Essence lends encouragement and guidance to Master as he pursues his development.

One common problem in thinking about this is caused by our insistence on using the noun, time.  There is no such thing outside of the physical world.  Our definition of time is based on planetary movement; it is a measurement that we use to reference past, present, and future events and activities.  It is meaningless when one leaves the physical realm.  Brain-bodies are formed, born, grow, develop, deteriorate, and die.  Time is irrelevant to Master; he uses brain-bodies for his development. 

Brain-bodies provide Master a means for his development but they can never know or find out what Master wants or needs for it; he is mute and patient.  It seems that he is able to intervene when the brain-body is engaged in activities that are contrary to his development and the primordial battle between brain-body’s desire to satisfy appetites and Master’s desire to develop takes place.  Master wins the battle by effecting changes in behavior, causing the premature death of the brain-body, or simply waiting for death to occur.

The being is active.  There seem to be several levels of activity available: automatic body functions, responses to sensations caused by senses, organs, and glands, such as hunger, thirst, evacuation, sexual pressures, to name a few; and the satisfaction of imagination.  Imagination is the source of voluntary action and such actions may be compatible with the development of Master. 

All activities are carried out by personae that have been inherited through genetic memory or developed to cope with situations encountered as the being lives in the world with other beings and other forms of organized life.

Who does what and when is the job of a driver persona.  In a theatrical analogy where there is a multitude as a cast of characters as well as costume, lighting, sound, and scenery technicians, the driver persona would be the director.  He calls out the appropriate persona to handle the situation at hand.

There is likewise an observing persona who rates the performance of the persona called forth.  This observing persona is the judge and critic that have been described in another essay.  The driver is objective, the observer is subjective.  The propriety of selection and the extent of judgment and criticism are likewise subject to evaluation.  This would be necessary to maintain control, make appropriate selections of personae, and keep judgments and criticisms constructive.

This suggests a superior persona, one who is closer to Master than the driver persona and the observing persona.  If driver and observer are objective and subjective and each has an important oversight function; then the superior persona is that which keeps them in sync, in constructive balance, provides the equanimity that allows the being to develop along the path necessary for Master’s development.  Because Master is mute, there is no definitive way of knowing what his needs are; thus success of the superior persona in this endeavor is never consciously known by the being, except Master.

Master is patient as well; there is no time factor in his existence.  Yet an indicator of the compatibility of actions taken by the rest of the being are incremental revelations that are seemingly not connected to Master, a certain peace that comes with doing his will, and physical well-being that can be seen as an absence of disease and angst.  The reverse is also true.

The being has to cope with life as it is experienced now; external factors may dictate actions that are on a side track from the development of Master.  It stands to reason that as long as such actions are not detrimental to his development, Master abides.

Another aside, there are some new revelations included in this essay that have only recently been allowed.