Thursday May 30rd 2013
We first heard Gurdjieff's concept of "waking up" from a friend in London. Gurdjieff (1866-1949) was a Russian philosopher and spiritual teacher who taught his own brand of metaphysics called "The Fourth Way", the other three ways being that of the Monk, the Yogi and the Fakir. Gurdjieff said that people do not possess consciousness but live their lives in a state of "hypnotic waking sleep" and "man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies". My friend used to talk a lot about people NOT being awake in a sort of "them and us" fashion which sounded intriguing but was also confusing. I really didn't understand the concept then; I don't know that she did either. But she was one who introduced us to I Ching and Tarot, so she was both helpful and influential in what she offered us. I Ching and Tarot are, to my mind, important tools to waking up. That time period in London was a very rich time in terms of our more formal introduction to metaphysics and a different way of viewing the world. One of the most important instructions as to 
how you stay awake came from our Buddhist friends in London, namely: step back from your life and become both the watcher and the watched. Observing self is key to waking up. "Know yourself and you will understand the whole universe" is also the central theme of Western mysticism. It was first associated with the Delphic oracle and later with Tarot. Along the way mystical teachers have taught the need to observe, see and understand in order to become more conscious.
The major shift in worldview that comes with all of this is the recognition that you create your own realities. This, to my mind, is the main difference between being "awake" and being "asleep". If you are asleep, you believe that everything happens TO you and comes from the outer world. If you are awake, you realise that you are the creator of your experiences, that you contribute to the collective concept of reality, that you draw events and people to you in direct relation to what is going on in your own mind. "As above, so below". Or, "as on the inside, so on the outside." You are not a victim or an idle bystander in the world. You are one of its creators. The world you experience exactly mirrors at any time what is going on in your own mind. If you are asleep, you fall lock, stock and barrel into the world. If you are awake, you step back and observe what is going on as key to understanding both it and yourself.
A Course in Miracles also states that " you create the world" and that it came and still comes about as a result of your need to separate from your Source. Of itself, that would not pose a problem, provided that you did not forget your Source. But since amnesia sets in, and Source and Origins are all completely forgotten, you now experience "the hypnotic waking sleep" that Gurdjieff talks about. You no longer understand the powers of your mind, nor the nature and power of mind in general. Which in turn means that if you are religious, you might see all of creation coming from God and deny your own part in it. If you are scientific, you might simply understand yourself as a product of evolution and not go beyond that. If you are just a materialist, you might be a cynic, you might be 
greedy, you might experience the earth as "the waste land" that TS Eliot once wrote about. In any or all of these cases, you experience the world as the source of your experience and mostly with a great deal of fear or frustration. Or, again, if you are religious, you might blame God for all of it, or at least the parts that you don't like, and think that he was somehow absent and asleep himself! Life is often a hellish nightmare and you feel helpless. This existential crisis is what we all need to awaken from.
A Course in Miracles teaches a concept of "forgiveness" that, when properly understood, nothing can harm you, only contribute to your healing and evolution of consciousness. To get to that state of "forgiveness", you have to practice much observing of self and the world and their relationship to each other, and a lot of what Buddhism calls "right thinking". You direct your consciousness inward to understand what is going on outside. ACIM offers the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help you in this process. Buddhism offers Higher Mind. In all spiritual traditions, there is some version of the inner teacher. In Tarot, it is the High Priestess card of the major aricana. In all cases, you need to learn to listen to what ACIM calls "the voice for God", instead of always just listening to "the voice for the world." Your mind is part "God" and part "World", loosely put, right and left brain. These are the two pillars of Qabalah depicted on the High Priestess card. Learning to work with both parts of your mind in a constructive fashion, instead of just letting it run away with itself, is what meditation is all about.
There is no wastage in life. Everything contributes to awakening and becoming conscious when clearly seen and understood. White Eagle, who was once channelled by Grace Cooke, makes the statement "how beautiful is the path that I have trod". There is no argument with life when you see what it is GIVING to you, as opposed to what it is DOING to you. That is WAKING UP. In the meantime, PRACTICE!!
