Each man, of course, has the free will to be satisfied to spend the rest of his life at his present level of consciousness. As Gurdjieff, the Russian philosopher has said, every man may be compared to a person in prison, but he does not even know that he is in prison. The prison is one of our present level of consciousness but he has never related his consciousness to energy because he has never been taught anything about energy or the ability to develop it. He only knows that when he exerts himself he becomes tired and he does not think as well when he is tired as when he is refreshed after a good rest. Nor does he relate the way he tires himself through unnecessary worry or fear with his thinking processes.
When a man goes to university, he starts to realize the difference in other people's consciousness. He also discovers that many of the professors are simply repeating a lot of information that they have accumulated but are not teaching new methods of thinking. They are repeating other men's thoughts in the belief that this is the learning process. There are no courses, to my knowledge, in any of the present universities, on ways and means to increase consciousness and develop energy. It is the sterility of our present day educational system that is making thousands and thousands drop out, refusing to waste their energy trying to simply memorize a lot of useless and, in many cases, incorrect information.
It is only when a person becomes restless and rejects the old methods and has the desire and the energy to seek elsewhere that he begins to learn. Sooner or later, for at least a few brief moments, all of us start to feel pangs of curiosity to comprehend what seems to be a meaningless existence. We start to feel that there must be more to learn and more knowledge to know, but it appears very illusive. Nobody has explained to us the need or even the ability we possess to develop new brain cells, but once we understand this and accept the possibility, we have taken the first step in our long journey.
The law of attraction or the law of love is the law that is absolutely vital for any understanding of our ability to control our destiny. If you think about it, you will accept that our mental attitude is like a magnet and like attracts like. Consequently, one's mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions that correspond to its nature. Our mental attitude is in essence our personality, and this is composed entirely of the thoughts we have been creating in our own mind. Therefore, if we wish a change in our conditions, we must first, of necessity, change our mental attitude. Once we have changed our mental attitude our personality will change. This in turn will change the conditions and experiences we meet in life. We must accept however that it is not easy to change our mental attitude, but by persistent effort is can be accomplished.
Our mental attitude is patterned after the mental pictures that we have photographed on the brain. If you are not satisfied with these pictures, destroy the negatives and create new pictures. This is known as the art of visualization. This may sound difficult because it is new information you have not heard about in exactly this way. You haven't been sitting still long enough to comprehend the possibility that you can change your personality. But consider for a minute how your habits are formed. We do a thing or say a thing and we do it over and over again until it becomes almost automatic. The same rule applies in directing any and all bad habits. First we have to stop thinking or doing a thing and then avoid it again and again until we are entirely free of it. If we fail, we should by no means lose hope because only through our efforts is change possible. Right gestures lead to right ways.
If you truly desire to raise your level of consciousness, regardless of your motive, a start has to be made somewhere. Most men never even give any thought to the possibility. They use their energy totally on whatever level their consciousness is to simply reach the material aims they have set for themselves. They neither realize that the less they think, the more they will have to work for men who do think, nor do they question their aims, if indeed they have even formulated any, because the hypnotism of their own activity consumes their energy. It is only when they have suffered some illness or their first heart attack and they lie on their backs immobilized do they begin to even question their aims, their motives, and the pattern of their lives. Most men never experience the attainment of more than enough material goods, so they can never understand what enough is. A few desire that there be other things that should have their energy besides simply making money. I cannot speak for any man other that myself, but having achieved my material aims, I decided after a long and antagonizing period of restlessness to try and begin to comprehend all of the books I had read, only to discard them again in total frustration.
To Be Continued...
Greg
OVE alone is eternal and unconquerable.
and Smiling 
Previous Topic
Index