This week in one of the pauses I read from Cynthia Bourgeault's, “Spiritual Practices from the Gurdjieff Work, in which she likens Self-Remembering to "awakening in a whole new way to the imperishable scent of your own aliveness." She says, "To know yourself deeply and truly, from deep within yourself, is to know God as well. In fact, it's the only way to know God."
Knowing yourself and knowing God within yourself is, re-membering who you truly are, is thus "a reawakening (sometimes an abrupt one!) to the vertical dimension: that deeper current of identity and purpose flowing beneath the horizontal timeline of our lives. It's so easy to get caught up in the daily shuffle with all its attractions and diversions that we lose ourselves in the roles we play!"
When we get an actual smell of our own aliveness it is much more than a spiritual practice. . . it is "a holy encounter with the deepest wellsprings of your own selfhood." And it is something you feel with a deep recognition in your very bones that reverberates through your entire being in sensation . . . "like touching the vibrational field of your own aliveness from the inside," always bringing "a certain sense of holy fear and trembling.”
It is important for us to continue to develop the capacity to awaken to and encounter the imperishable wellspring of our own vibrancy and profound sense of Self within. When we re-member our SELF, we re-connect with our SELF. When we re-connect with our SELF, we re-connect with the WHOLE. When we re-connect with the WHOLE, we are connected at every level. When we are connected at every level, we are aware that we are NEVER alone. When we realize the reality that we are NEVER alone, we have touched into a deep intimacy and interconnectedness with ALL. This realization allows us to move a bit differently in our world. . . a bit less lonely and a bit more freely and lightly. May each one of us move out into our lives from this place.
With Love,
Heather
Here the Readings from this week's pauses:
“In my habitual state my experience is vague and nebulous. Thoughts, waves of emotions and tensions arise. The thoughts do not come all at once; they arrive one after the other. It is the same with the emotions. When one thought has passed, another arises. But between the two there is an interval, a stop, a space that is extremely important. Behind the movement that has begun and finished, there is a reality that is hidden from me. In this interval I can become aware of what is behind the movement. No thought lasts; what appears must disappear. The disappearing is as important as the appearing. It is part of the same fact. And if I can live the two, accept them both, I am beyond the appearance and the disappearance. I contain them. In this moment, my centers enter into relation with each other, a relation that comes by itself.
Opening to our essential being, the higher centers, requires a state of unity. But, in our usual state, our center of gravity is always refused in favor of the ego and displaced toward the upper part of the body. This cuts us off from our true form. The separation from our essential nature brings suffering. When it is strong, this suffering brings an opening that allows a coming together toward unity. There must be a decision, a determination to follow the way through which our essential being is calling us. This requires a perpetual contact with this essential being if we are to become able to serve and express a force that transcends us. We need to die to one level – as ego – in order to be reborn on another.”
— Jeanne De Salzmann, The Reality of Being
“Learning the power of gratitude is not only wise, it is practical. When we understand how to feel grateful for what we have, we are free from the uneasy state of constantly wanting. A never ending hunt for more puts the mind in a continual state of anxiety. But when we are thankful for what we have and understand the difference between what you want and what we need, we are able to relax the mind and put less pressure on ourselves to obsessively upgrade the things in our life. Release the energy of more, more, more and replace it with the energy of thank you, thank you, thank you.”
— Cleo Wade, Heart Talk, p. 27
“But while Gurdjieff was himself deeply religious, he was only too wary of what ensued when human beings in their usual state of "consciousness" got their hands on religion. So his version of self-remembrance is not so much about remembering a divine "other" out there (an easy target on which to project one's own agendas), as about awakening in a whole new way to the imperishable scent of your own aliveness. To know yourself deeply and truly, from deep within yourself, is to know God as well. In fact, it's the only way to know God.
As in all remembrance practices, self-remembering begins with a reawakening (sometimes an abrupt one!) to the vertical dimension: that deeper current of identity and purpose flowing beneath the horizontal timeline of our lives. It's so easy to get caught up in the daily shuffle with all its attractions and diversions that we lose ourselves in the roles we play! Self-remembering has to do with going against the grain, intentionally moving in the direction of greater consciousness and inner freedom.
Gurdjieff laid out the stepping stones in one of his most famous aphorisms: "Behind personality stands essence. Behind essence stands 'Real I.' Behind 'Real I' stands God." From that perspective, self-remembering is a bit like peeling an onion. It is the vehicle that moves us from a complete identification with surface roles and personalities to an increasingly expansive and mysterious relationship with Being itself.
— Cynthia Bourgeault, Spiritual Practices from the Gurdjieff Work
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