Self-explorers,
Before tackling free will, a comprehensive overview of what
constitutes the self, will be the proper order. One of the best
introductions to "what is this thing called self" can be viewed at:
http://www.lifementoring.com/lm4links/112.html
No metaphysics (analysis or description of reality) can be anywhere
close to completion or even consistent without the consideration
of the self, since reality is primarily the experience of a living
being or self. The Universe and the worlds within it exist FOR the
Beings that constitute or are a part of the worlds. When the Beings
that constitute a world, knowingly or unknowingly intend it, the
world will come to an end. The moral or immoral acts of the beings
in a world gives rise to this intent to sustain or end the world.
Thats the theory anyway. So we must first know ourselves, in order
to know and give shape to our intent or will.
In order to be clear about the use of terminology, i will first of
all define the meaning of the terms used here:
SELF: The totality of one's being.( Same as dictionary meaning)
BEING: The state or Quality of existing. One's essential nature.
( Same as dictionary meaning ).
SELF-REALISATION : To experience the totality of one's being.
The complete realisation and development of one's own potential.
( Thus the goal of self-exploraton is self-realisation or
discovering, knowing and developing one's Real Self or as
Buddhists say - True Self)
CONSCIOUSNESS : Having an awareness of one's environment and of
one's own existence. Capable of thought, will or perception.
( same as dictionary meaning )
PERCEPTION : The process, act or result of percieving.
These can be related as : A Being's consciousness percieves
reality and this act is termed as experience.
PHYSICAL: That part of reality that is detectable, derivable
and definable in terms of sensory data. That is, the physical
world or the physical environment is connected to the
consciousness of the being through the sensory systems(sensory
perception). Thus the physical world is percieved as consisting
of static patterns of sensory data.
NON-PHYSICAL: That part of reality that cannot be derived or
sensed or percieved in terms of sensory data - rather the term
data itself is invalid here. Therefore to describe the process,
seperate terms like flux or emanation can be used with the
understanding that these may not be accurate representations and
thus are not generally valid. However in any Metaphysics the
underlying assumption being that reality is not all physical,
and in order to talk about anything non-physical, we do need to
use certain terms and concepts but with the understanding that
these terms and concepts are only one such description.
These terms were introduced by Joao in last months posts.
FLUX : A flow or flowing. Constant or frequent change,
fluctuation. Act of flowing, act or state of changing.
EMANATE : To recieve or send forth from a source; issue; stem.
[from Latin - emanare, meaning - flow out]
We can now say from this that the non-physical environment
consists of a flow of dynamic emanations or FlUX and that
the consciousness of a being emanates to and from this flux
and also that the consciousness is connected to this flux in
a non-sensory mode of percieving, and that this mode is active
when the sensory mode is inactive or temporarily suspended or
inhibited.
With these terms we can proceed with the metaphysical analysis
of the self. To start with we should focus on the known or
more easily analysable component of the self- its physical
manifestation in terms of a "body" that has a definite physical
boundary and location and which houses the "data processing
organ" called the brain, which is also the physical control
centre, emotional control centre, memories, the process tools
of analysis (reason) and synthesis (intuition).
The physical control centre has all essential inbuilt programs
(static patterns) and mechanisms for the physical survival
and the functional stability of operation, which is accomplished
by establishing a structure of operating or active static
patterns (programs) acquired, built or developed over and around
the initial survival programs. This STRUCTURE and mechanism that
consists of active or operating static patterns in terms of
programs, concepts, beliefs,etc can be called the MIND of the
being (or to make a loose analogy - the operating system and
software of the brain).The understanding of this basic structure
is essential not only for general use in metaphysics but also
to know and thus to restructure oneself. The importance of this
structure/mechanism cannot be overemphasised. In this analysis,
therefore by Mind i mean the operating mechanism. So i can say
as a simplification that Being = Mind + Body/Brain + Potential,
and Self = Being + Its real worth (Essence of its values/actions).
The first model that i am taking up here is of Dr Lilly's :
"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world
today are programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own
nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be
our programs, nothing more, nothing less. When I said we may be
our programs, nothing more, nothing less, I meant the substrate,
the basic substratum under all else, of our metaprograms is our
programs. All we are as humans is what is builtin and what has
been acquired, and WHAT WE MAKE OF BOTH OF THESE.
(To avoid the necessity of repeating learning to learn, symbols,
metaphors, models each time, I symbolize the underlying idea in
these operations as metaprogramming.)
As out of several hundreds of thousands of the substrate programs
comes an adaptable changing set of thousands of metaprograms,
so out of the metaprograms as substrate comes something else-the
controller, the steersman, the programmer in the biocomputer, the
selfmetaprogrammer. In a wellorganized biocomputer, there is at
least one such critical control metaprogram labeled I for acting
on other metaprograms and labeled me when acted upon by other
metaprograms. I say at least one advisedly. Most of us have
several controllers, selves, selfmetaprograms which divide
control among them, either in time parallel or in time series
in sequences of control. As I will give in detail later, one
path for selfdevelopment is to centralize control of one's
biocomputer in one selfmetaprogrammer, making the others into
conscious executives subordinate to the single administrator,
the single superconscient selfmetaprogrammer. With appropriate
methods, this centralizing of control, the elementary unification
operation, is a realizable state for many, if not all
biocomputers. So we are one more result of the program substrate-
the selfmetaprogrammer."
....................
Now compare this to the Gurdjieff explanation :
Gurdjieff sees man as composed of a mass of contradictory feelings
and thoughts, each one of which he mistakenly thinks of as himself.
So each man is a whole mass (or mess!) of fluctuating "I's",all
of them fleeting and none of them a real "I" at all. The central
core of man, that which he COULD call "I" can only crystallize
into existence when man becomes aware of the impulses that move
him - when he can act or "do" instead of merely reacting. The
crystallized core is there when a man is born, Gurdjieff seems
to believe - it is his "essence"- the sufi word for the true
individual. But as he grows up, this unique individuality gets
dispersed, swallowed up, captured and lost by the thousands of
thoughts and feelings that assail us all the time, which are
produced by contact with the outside world. The loss of the "I"
or the real individual, means that a central energy is drained
from the person. Instead of being one, he is many, and thus his
energies are always being diverted so that he can never act in
harmony with himself. Man is a mechanical puppet twitched by
every outside event, a prey of his fears and desires. He is
such a bundle of impulses and reactions that his individuality
is non-existent.." all the people you see or know are machines,
actual machines working solely under the power of external
influences... Machines they are born and machines they die..."
So is it possible to stop being a machine? asks Ouspensky.
"Ah! That is the question", said Gurdjieff, "it is possible to
stop being a machine, but for that it is necessary first of all
TO KNOW THE MACHINE. A machine, a real machine, does not know
itself and cannot know itself. When a machine knows itself it
is then no longer a machine, at least, not such a machine as it
was before.IT ALREADY BEGINS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS ACTIONS"
The Gurdjieff system of the functional self is divided into three
distinct entities that have almost nothing in common, being
different both in substance and their function- the intellectual
(thinking centre), the emotional, the instinctive-moving centre.
A complete apperception in any given case is possible only if
all three centres work together, but because of the many and
varied influences which disturb and affect modern man the
working of the centres is almost always unconnected, with the
result that they fail to complete and correct one another, they
travel along different paths, rarely meet and so the moments of
real consciousness are very few. So there are so to speak three
men in a single individual, the first only thinks, the second
only feels and the third only lives by instinct. So we have a
logical man, an emotional man and a instinctive man, and all three
never understand each other, not only that, but consciously or
unconsciously INTERFERE with one another. A man cannot be a
master of himself because he himself cannot control the work
of his centres. He does not know which of his centres will
begin to function next. He never acts on his own initiative and
for reasons within himself but by his actions, only expresses
the changes that are brought about in his mechanism by causes
outside him.
.....................
One of the best Metaphysics of the Self and that which comes
closest to MOQ is the Nagual (Dynamic Self) / Tonal (Static
Self) split in Castaneda's book "Tales of Power" :
Every human being has two sides, two seperate entities, two
counterparts which become operative at the moment of birth;
one called tonal and the other nagual. The tonal begins at
birth and ends at death.The tonal is everything that we know
and everything that we are. Anything that we have a word for
is the tonal. And since the tonal is its own doing, then
everything obviously has to fall under its domain. The tonal
is the social person. It is rightfully so, a protector, a
guardian - that protects something priceless, our very being.
Therefore an inherent quality of the tonal is to be cagey and
jealous of its doings. And since its doings are by far the
most important part of our lives, it is no wonder that it
eventually changes, in every one of us, from a guardian into
a guard. A guardian is broad minded and understanding. A guard
on the other hand is a vigilante, narrow minded and most of
the time despotic. The tonal in all of us has been made into
a petty and despotic guard when it should be a broad-minded
guardian.
The nagual is the part of us that we do not deal with at all.
It is that part of us for which there is no description, no
words , no names, no feelings, no knowledge. The tonal is
like an island and the nagual is what lies beyond it. And
what can we find in that area beyond the island ?
There is no way of answering that. If i would say nothing,
i would only make the nagual part of the tonal. All i can say
is that there, beyond the island , one finds the nagual.
We sense that there is another side to us. But when we try
to pin down the other side, the tonal gets hold of the baton
and as a director it is quite petty and jealous. It dazzles
us with its cunningness and forces us to obliterate the
slightest inkling of the other part of the true pair.
................
In these three models, a common theme is that the human
physical self is the critical and limiting factor to whatever
we are or become. It is the proper order of this part of the
self that determines how far we can go to discover that part
of us that is unknown to ourselves and which carries our
true potential.
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