Social Unrest and the Work

When the World Falls Apart, Pay Attention:

I. A cosmic prank
Reality, said Gurdjieff, is an exquisite joke—most of us are asleep, dreaming with our eyes open, and occasionally someone hurls a pie at the face of our felicitous illusions. And what better pie than social unrest? Let us begin with a paradox: turmoil is a ladder, and sometimes the ladder is set on fire. But it still gets us upward, if we climb with conscious attention.

II. The Work in the furnace of chaos
Ouspensky recounts that in In Search of the Miraculous, as “revolution and war are moving close; all around the madness of mankind is becoming more and more apparent,” he emphasizes that the only way to understand cosmic laws is “to observe them in himself, and this through the special forms of the work which are rapidly developing in the group”
Implicit here is a recognition that when external reality fragments—when society shatters in riot or upheaval—it becomes easier to spot the fracturing within.

The universe is poking the slumbering Work with its razor-sharp fragments. The noise of dissent, the clamor of the streets, are not enemies of the Work—they’re its percussion section.

III. Effort, Intentional Suffering, and group vibration
We turn to the Fourth Way teachings for context—Gurdjieff emphasized conscious labour and intentional suffering as the bedrock of transformation. “Conscious labour is an action… present to what is being done… and intentional suffering is the act of struggling against automatism... In Beelzebub’s Tales he states that ‘the greatest “intentional suffering” can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves…”

Imagine a group sitting in the Eye of the Storm—arguing, resisting, getting upset. In that friction, the Work reveals itself. The dissonance becomes the tuning fork for self‑observation. Social unrest isn’t a distraction—it’s the ember that scorches the veil of sleep.

IV. The “bone buried deep” and the necessity of effort
In Beelzebub’s Tales, Gurdjieff purposefully constructed his prose to be labyrinthine, stating that he would “bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it”.

In the grand allegory, layers of obfuscation are not obstacles—they are the Work in material form. Social unrest, then, is a similar kind of deliberate complexity: a challenge to be met, not avoided.

If life were a soporific lullaby, no one would be coaxed awake. But when the ground shakes—cultural norms detonate—our receptors awaken. The bone rattles, and the dogs (us) start digging.

V. Truth, study, and the communal furnace
Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff: “To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; and one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to be able to speak the truth… the wish alone is not enough… to speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself.”

Social unrest forces us to confront lies—not the easy ones that politicians propagate, but the personal ones inside the mirror. We cannot hide behind polite acquiescence when crowds roar. The Work, especially within groups, thrives when it's stripped of pretense, when its members must stare at their own reflections in the glass shards of upheaval.

VI. The Playful Cosmic Joke
Cosmic irony loves a riot. The Work wants drama—in the absurdity of the fray, we find opportunity. The group is neither safe nor still; it is a pressure cooker. Let the pressure build. Let social unrest be the tuning of the cosmic dial that clears frequency.

In Beelzebub’s Tales, Gurdjieff embeds layers of allegory—beings, satellites, Kundabuffer, cosmic law—yet beneath it all is the point: evolutionary jolts break ossified thought. Likewise, group work amidst external unrest cracks open the door to awakening.

VII. Conclusion: Unrest as essential ferment
So: if the Work in group form is an alchemical brew, social unrest is the yeast. The bubbles—self-remembering, observation, intentional suffering—will not rise without it. Ouspensky's moment of “madness of mankind” surrounding his group wasn’t coincidence—it was the crucible of awakening.

When daylight fractures, we see the divisions within us; when society reels, the Work is no longer abstract—it is urgent.

Let us then salute the riot, not as nihilistic chaos, but as the cosmic slap that enlivens consciousness. For as Gurdjieff’s deeply buried truths demand, the deepest work comes not from comfort—but from the soul-chilling hum of a world in vertigo.

The Sleeping King

There we go, you needn’t look down to see how it is that you are moving. No, no, don’t look down, for if you should happen to catch a glimpse of what is carrying you, you may become paralyzed with horror and fall clean off the edge of the world. That scurry, scatter, pitter, patter is the sound of the busy feet of many little demons, and you, their great lord, sit atop the rigshaw being pulled along by their whim and urge, their fevered desires, their insistent directives.
They are good little demons, helpful little demons, demons that assist you in the act of passing yourself off within the society of human kind as something exactly the same as your neighbor. They move you through the big fierce world, smile for you when it is appropriate to smile, turn red in the face and storm off when it is appropriate. They pay compliments to the beautiful and readily available members of that gender opposite to your own, or even to that gender the same as your own. Whatever program it is they have learned, they execute it with lightning speed and precision so that you, oh mighty emperor, can lay back and enjoy the ride in a soft blue haze of apathy and delight.
Isn’t that ,after all, the way things have come to be all throughout this opium dream? Doesn’t the master ride like a bloated invalid upon the backs of his servants with out glancing below to see what is happening down there in the dark places below the mist enshrouded castle?
Long gone are those days when the Emperor commanded his people, and likewise suffered for his people, taking responsibility for them. We have come into the bleak and black valley of this dream in time. There are few masters worthy of their charge. Those little demons, like hordes of tiny yapping dogs drag their ward up and down the road so that they may piss on this hydrant, hump that other king’s Chihuahua, or nip this ankle over here. The great king has become a slave shackled to a wriggling animal mass doing what it does best.
The fault, you see, is all yours, you who are drowsy, and perhaps even well meaning in your hands off approach to their care. You must exercise your power, command the demons rather than leave them running the show so that you can catch a few z’s. You may well think that you are just going to settle down for a little catnap, leaving things on auto pilot, entrusted to their eager little hands. Suddenly you will find that you have snoozed away an entire life time and in your absence the kingdom has fallen to ruin. You will not be a king anymore, no, indeed you will be a vagabond, living down in the gutter, the only empire you can manage.
Don’t look down until you are ready to face the frightful truth, that you have been a complacent passenger, that much of what you have considered to be you, is in fact, your dark carnival entourage. They are like pets, like little children that have been left with all of the responsibility, they have chewed the blinds, crapped in the corner behind the sofa, jumped onto the table and eaten the chocolate cake, all in your name. There is no sense in blaming them, nor any sense in trying to cover up their wrong doings in order to hide your own negligence. When you are ready just look down and begin to give them the loving guidance they need to be truly helpful little demons.
Buckminster Fuller, of course, has said that there is no up or down in this universe, only in or out, in which case, when you are quite prepared, look inside and see what they have been doing while you were smoking in the back bed room. Of course you will have a hard time recognizing them all to begin with. Don’t worry, you’ve been asleep for a long time, as the lethargy wears off you will come to know them each. You will be able to assign them names and call them out to perform their tricks when you will it.
There may be an appropriate time to smile, and they will execute this action with your approval or they will abort the mission if you give the sign. There will be no smile, however socially appropriate it would have been, unless the emperor has nodded, likewise no red faced storming, compliment paying, nor nose picking.
If you wish to see your kingdom restored, then rouse yourself from the dreams of what was or what will be and see what is REALLY happening in there, carrying you along until death.
Awaken Oh King. Awaken and rule your people while there is still time.

In The World

There are a thousand different ways of doing The Work. There is no one way that is the best for everyone. Different approaches will work best for different people in different situations. Anyone who tells you differently is a fool and probably a dangerous fool.
There are many traditions that require complete renunciation from the world and all things of it. In these traditions, you would retire from ordinary life into a monastery or the equivalent and dedicate your life to the Work away from the daily struggles of the human world. You would then dress a certain way that signifies your new status in society (a "monk" or similar), you would live according to certain predetermined rules, you would follow a predetermined daily schedule and you would have no access to outside influences (or, at least, very little). The advantage of this approach is that it sends a very clear message to the machine. "Now you are working on something different. Now you are not like the others." And others will see that difference in your machine as well and they will treat you differently.
We don’t work this way. We do Otherwise. We live our lives as normal human beings. We have a job, we go out shopping, we dress like anyone else in our society dresses (or pretty close), we don’t use any symbols or special adornments that would signify that we are in some kind of spiritual quest, we associate with all kinds of people and conduct business as usual. Our work is deep inside ourselves and invisible to sleeping eyes. Only the people that we work with directly will know that something else is going on. To anyone else we may be artists, programmers, musicians, office assistants, cooks, retail workers, babysitters. Once in a while, by sheer accident, they may notice something unusual is happening but they will forget it as quickly as it came through and we will do nothing to remind them. Our Work must remain invisible.
Instead of stepping away from the world, we use the world as our resource. The human world, the world of daily stress, sudden excitement, seductive trinkets, powerful temptations… all of it becomes an endless fountain of raw material to work with. Every day is a new obstacle course for you to develop your abilities. You can remain unidentified in a mountain retreat surrounded by friendly smiling people but can you maintain that same unidentified state when your landlord is angrily asking for the rent, or your friend is angry at you for something you didn’t do? Each day will present a new slate for you to work with. Whatever is on that slate, that is what you have to work with. There is no point in saying: "I would self remember if only they weren’t doing construction outside my door…" or "I would practice controlling my negative emotions if that person hadn’t just crossed the line when they insulted my family…". If you are truly dedicated to your Work, you will see in each of these obstacles a golden opportunity. Only when you learn to do that, can you truly say that the world is your teacher, and mean it.
One special obstacle in this path is that your machine needs to remember what it’s doing even though this work is not visible to anyone around it or even to itself. You don’t wear special robes, people don’t treat you differently or make special assumptions about you, you only get the respect you earn on an individual basis, you are not protected from the temptations and seductions of the world (and to make things worse, these will become stronger and more pronounced as your energy and perception increases.). You have to engrave within you, in your innermost core, the sacred mantram:

I AM IN THE WORLD BUT I AM NOT OF THE WORLD

We don’t fall for the seductions of the world. We don’t crave power or money, we are not willing to sacrifice our work for these limited rewards. We don’t fall for quick sex or sentimental relationships, we are not willing to settle for a faded image of Real Tantric Love. We don’t struggle for security, we will do what is necessary to maintain our bodies and our families intact but we won’t trade in our basic energies and purpose for a life of safety.
But we don’t reject the world either. We don’t look down at the people around us for not doing what we are doing. We ultimately don’t know what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. We maintain an open attitude towards the surprise of the Other that hides behind every corner. We are immersed in the infinite creation of the Sun Absolute and we relish its many colored chaos. Every sound, every touch, every frozen eternal vision of reality becomes a priceless gift from beyond the walls of our consciousness… if we are open and paying attention.
As individuals and as a work group we are in the midst of a great voyage through the Labyrinth aboard a ship of subtle tendrils of light. Look into the ship and protect it. But look out to the endless ocean as well and put out your fishing lines. In your great Voyage across the Seven Seas, you may find great treasures protected by fearsome monsters, but don’t forget to stand and smell the ocean air and feel the moist breeze in your hair. In these almost intangible moments, you may find the greatest treasure of all.

Experiment – On The Bus

Board a crowded bus or train.Once seated, invoke your presence. To aid you in this, place your attention on your entire body including the empty space three inches outside the skin. Keep your eyes open and seeing but preserve your attention to self.Feel that you are in a space all your own, the interests and psychic activity of the others on board the vessel should not intrude. You prevent them from intruding by simply keeping your attention on self rather than placing it wholly on them. It is okay to look at and perceive them, just remember yourself at the same time.If you find that you have gotten caught up in a thought of one kind or another, simply bring your attention back to your own body. Keep track of the frequency with which you completely forget yourself.Stay onboard for approximately 15 minutes before getting off. Repeat the entire experiment during the return voyage.Write down your observations for future reference.

Fallen Star

It is so easy to see what went wrong when you look up at the scar in the clouds that marks the place where you fell through. Laying on the cold colorless concrete, staring up at the gray and white plumes, the blue leaking out of your eyes into your brain, things are so still. Your wings, destroyed by the fall, are folded peacefully beneath you. What once made you light has become a weight tugging at your heart and soul, an anguishing reminder of what has been lost. Your ruddy lips part slightly as you suck the cold air in and automatically expel it so slowly that your chest barely heaves.
Now that it’s over you know what went wrong, but in the moment made quick by the life pulsing through you, it happened so rapidly that you could not see it coming. Like the blur of a hummingbird’s wings, your thoughts, your emotions, your actions, were all one hazy apparition that took shape through the deepest strongest habit available: the habit of losing control, of falling, of dying.
In the end what you understood about flight made no difference.
Knowing what would cause a fall made no difference.
As you drew nearer to the sun absolute and its radiations coursed through your body in waves of hot electrifying pulses, every molecule from the subtlest to the grossest responded. Under that intense solar gaze, they were brought to a frenzied boil, moving faster, extending outward like the participants of the old bacchanal, at last undone by the fever of grinding bodies and fermented fruit, exploding into the dark wilderness like animals. In that moment they flowed away from the fire, out of the cauldron and down the riverbed already laid deepest by constant repetition.
Your habits are the shape of you. Not your thoughts, not your intentions or aspirations.
The foundation was weak, like a pot made by unskilled hands, the flaw in you was developed in the first step of your work on self.
You must learn to crawl down the right course before you can fly it. You must crawl in the trench every day, like a soldier, down in the mud, sick to your stomach with exhaustion, until that trench, that way which you aspire to take, becomes automatic to you.
Then you will learn to walk it. You must walk it every day, widening it, deepening it with use so that it can bear the force of a deluge of fire. Each day it must be tread weightily and lengthily, the iron of your will spilling upon it, paving it layer by layer, day by day, so that a river of fire may flow through it without destroying it.
Then you will learn to fly it. You will soar to the heights of the flaming sun once again. You will come alive in the solar caress, dance upon the wind, lit like a neon sign throwing sparks as it is raised higher and higher towards the embrace of OUR LORD HIS SOVEREIGN ENDLESSNESS.
And when your incandescence becomes unbearable, you will not stop. Like an ancient loyal Spartan, you will flow through the trench you dug and first tested under blood and sweat. You will follow the way forged of your iron will .
When your thoughts, your emotions, your body, and your intentions are drowned in the molten blood of the sun's core, you will stay the course, because you have become the course. The course you have laid and nothing else will survive that fiery embrace.
When you have become the way, you will meet and know HIS LORD ENDLESSNESS. You will become him, your own true self. You will burn eternally as a star, the sun absolute, a central point from which new universes may arise.
Look up, Icarus, to that scar and prepare to bloody your knees. This is only the little death. Eternity awaits you.

Machine

True communication is very rare. It seldom occurs during casual transmissions of linguistic data between humans. This is due to the law of associations.
A single word bears different meanings for individuals from varying cultural, economic, geographic, and social backgrounds. There are many words that we use in our daily vocabularies without having any real understanding of what it is that the word actually signifies. They’ve lost meaning due to their careless use and the fact that they are handed down generation to generation as loquacious filler. The handers down, having no experiential understanding of a word, pass the pronunciation on and so the word lives on, but the thing which it once referred to is lost in abstraction.
This is true of words like "Love" and "Soul". You will hear these words often used by individuals who have no experience whatsoever of either love or soul. (In fact, you yourself are probably such a person.)

When I say love, you, no doubt, have certain ideas about the meaning of that word. You might be shocked to know that my understanding of the same word is drastically different from yours, and that your neighbor has an even different idea of what love means than either of us.

Because of this, three people can engage in a verbal exchange and the conversation will be an entirely different one for each of the three persons participating.

So the first step in being able to do anything of significance with anybody is to establish a means by which you can truly communicate. To do this you will need to share experiences and correlate them with a mutual terminology.
Here are some terms I would like to begin to define-

Machine
Being
Awakening
Identification

It is necessary to not only explain their meaning, but to also demonstrate it experientially. For that I will have to suggest experiments.

At present I will begin with defining Machine.
I will from time to time refer to THE MACHINE or THE HUMAN BIOLOGICAL MACHINE or THE MECHANICAL CREATION or THE MORTAL CREATION. All of these terms refer to the same thing. For now, we will go with Machine as short for The Human Biological Machine. This term refers not only to the human body, but to the thoughts and emotions of the human as well.

It is a hard notion to swallow, but your thoughts and feelings are as mechanical as your body. These three cannot be separated, they are co-conspirators.

It can be easy to understand the physical body as a mechanical marvel, it’s mechanicality is more readily observable. It needs to consume, expel some of what it consumes, and rest at regular intervals. It will also seek to reproduce itself. These are the things that it is bound to do to maintain its functioning, and it can perform these functions automatically without the exertion of any special will. It is wired to do so. The thoughts and emotions function in very similar fashion, but at a more subtle level. That makes them harder to observe closely and objectively.

The thoughts and emotions and the physical body work together to maintains an existence. They will fight like hell against anything that seems to threaten that existence. They will also struggle against each other seeking dominance over the triumvirate. Each of the three functions through a simple set of habits formed more or less haphazardly with the objective of continuing to exist.

It is a sophisticated animal, but an animal nonetheless, objectively no more or less valuable than any of the other species populating the planet earth.

It is the Human Biological Machine.

For one week carry a small notepad with you at all times. Throughout the day, record your emotional state. Keep track of the hour of day, the mood or feelings experienced, and a note about the events or circumstance leading up to the mood. Try keeping an hourly record, but note shifts as they occur. In this way, if nothing in particular happens you will still remember that at 1pm you were in your cubicle feeling bored, but that at 1:19 you got a call from a friend and became excited and jolly.

Crack the World's Shell

"If that was real," Mary Lou said firmly. "everything else in my life has been a hallucination."
Simon grinned. "Now," he said calmly, "you’re getting the point."
-The Illuminatus Trilogy, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

Before we can learn anything about the true self and objective reality, we must unlearn everything that has become automatic to the human automaton mentally, emotionally, and physically.
What the common human ordinarily considers self, if they consider self at all, is in reality a body of unconscious habits. We are constantly being run by a predetermined set of unconscious thought cycles, emotional cycles, and bodily cycles. We tend to be completely unaware of these cycles and will even insist that we do have what is called self control. But you certainly cannot control an animal which you are unaware of and blind to.
Being able to hold your urine until you can make it to the toilet and keeping your uncomfortable and unseemly clothes and shoes on, even on a hot day in the presence of a beckoning body of water, does not qualify as self control. As a matter of fact, you have been conditioned to hold your urine and keep your clothes on, and can’t really take credit for those behaviors.
If you were in fact "in control" you could choose to urinate in your pants during a social gathering and not apologize or explain that you are conducting an experiment exploring the limits of your conditioning as a human primate.
The words self control and free will are tossed around in this culture like mardis gras beads. They are worthless because they refer to something other than real self control and free will. You cannot posses certain qualities merely by proclaiming that you do.

It is not enough to say that god gave you free will.
If you don’t exercise it, you don’t have it.

The creator gave you ears as well but that doesn’t automatically mean that you can wiggle them, that takes practice. The problem with attempting to control the self is that you have to have some knowledge of it.
When your Aunt tells you that the cake was delicious and you answer, "I did it myself." ,what do you mean? What baked the cake?
That which baked the cake has little idea what it is. That which baked the cake is, objectively speaking, no more glorious than a wind up toy or a nano pet. It does have a potentially objective use, but to use it you will have to master it, and to master it you will have to face it and break it.

The phase following this violent act of "cracking the worlds shell" is a phase for introducing new possibilities. But before the new horizon can be visible, the old constructs will need to be demolished.
For the next week keep a small notebook handy. From time to time notice yourself as if you were watching a character in a movie. Take note of small gestures, postures, and nuances of speech that define your character. Take these notes as if you were going to give them to an actor that is going to play your part.

Don't try to find the significance of the gestures. Don't try to change them or make them better. Don't try to figure out why they are are there or where they came from.

Simply write them down or draw them when you need to. Write very detailed instructions for each little gesture. Go over them many times, until you feel you have described them completely.

Experiment: Invocational Manifestation

The following experiment is an evolution of previous experiments involving identifying and observing ones own mechanical manifestations.
Select one of your most common manifestations. Take three to five minutes to breath deeply. Gently run your finger tips from your scalp line to your chin as if you are combing your face. Repeat the motion several times feeling that you are wiping away tension and removing your social mask. Feel your social mask as the uncomfortable accessory that it really is, something like a pair of nine inch stiletto heels or suffocating necktie that you can kick off at the end of the day.
Now begin to perform your manifestation. This time as you do it, invoke your presence, your essential self. Continue to perform the manifestation while being awake within the mechanical movements. Keep it up for three minutes. Then stop and resume the deep breathing for another three minutes to conclude the experiment.

Things to do in Denver when you're Awake

What do you do with the waking state?
Get down in the details. It is difficult to perform very ordinary tasks in the waking state.
We are not accustomed to doing anything in this state. Our daily activities are usually managed by the personality, the mechanical creation which is so good at performing these tasks you can sleep right through them. This bio machine called human being is so efficient it can manage an entire lifetime for you while you sleep.
When you have made the effort and do wake up, you will find it difficult to remain in said state while performing activities that are usually done asleep. There are millions of things that you can do while functioning automatically as a sleeping machine. It has become habitual. Because it is habitual you will find that even when you approach an activity from the waking state you may find yourself baited back into sleep as you engage in it because you are used to performing that activity mechanically. The habit of doing that thing automatically is stronger.
The way to get over it is to develop a new habit of performing that activity in the awakened state. To form a new habit you will have to make the effort again and again until it gains "momentum"... more "momentum" than the old sleeping habit. In the waking state you may create ever more activities/spaces in which you can be awakened.

Move Slowly

When things have gone off course and you feel the need to hurry in order to right them, slow down. It is most important to observe rituals of awakening in the moments when the tug and troubles of the sleeping world seem to demand all of your attention. If something must be sacrificed, let go of the dead limb. Do not loose your hold on the vital and delicate stream of immortality to gain a tighter grasp on the process of decay. You will never be able to prevent the death of the mortal creation, it will never truly be safe or comfortable.
The intelligence that has been developed to prolong the mortal creation’s existence will find it difficult to admit such impotence. It will in fact edit out the real in order to seem even more useful than it really is. Its plight is pitiful, destined to die with the mortal creation, frightened and delirious , cowardly burying its head in the sand to preserve the illusion of individuality which it perceives. And it will voice its concerns loudly and desperately, do anything to win control of the nation. It especially uses fear and urgency.
This aspect of self is the drowning man who panicking, drags the able bodied swimmer down. Be aware then that to give your whole self over to its rule is to invest only in certain death.
Be disciplined, move slowly, and don’t give in to its panicked cries. Nothing can be saved by submersing the self in sleep, by identifying with that voice. Move against the resistance, towards the awakened life that the distressed sleeper by nature must be blind to. Strive towards the dark, frightening, uncertain territory with steady measured steps.

Experiment: Silent Act

The following experiment is an evolution of Lights! Camera! Action!
By now you have had a chance to observe and act out some of your mechanical manifestations. Possibly you have even discovered other subtler manifestations that initially eluded you.

Now you will make a short silent play made up entirely of those gestures you have observed in yourself.

This play will be 10 minutes long. Decide on which manifestation you will exhibit and in what sequence. Aim to make it realistic with believable transitions. You will want to create a script to follow and eventually memorize.

For seven days set a timer each morning and perform you silent act. If you have a video camera you may record it so that you can watch it at the end of the seven days.

Lights! Camera! Action!

The following experiment is an evolution of the "Posture" experiment. In that experiment you were asked to keep a notebook with you for a total of six days in order to record re-occurring mechanical manifestations. In other words, you kept a log of some of your most habitual gestures and the accompanying moods and circumstances.
At this point you should begin to notice these re-occurring gestures as you are performing them. During the course of a day, whenever you catch yourself in one of your mechanical manifestations, say to yourself, "Cut! " At that you point you should freeze. Then say to yourself, "From the top." And prepare to repeat the scene. Say, "Action." And perform the gesture again.
This can also be done with a partner. The two of you should be familiar with each other's catalog of mechanical manifestations. When one partner notices the other engaged in a habitual posture or gesture they will issue the commands for them.
In either case it is useful to run through the sequence up to three times when showcasing a particular manifestation. When you are finished you say, "Break."
Break.

Cogs

Where are the boundaries?

The lines etched into our minds that dictate how we behave and interact with our world, tell us what is dangerous, what is safe, lovely, and frightening- how objective are they?
We move like animatronic pirates, revolving in the same circle in pursuit of wench and wine, endlessly running round and round.

But what is it that keeps us in formation, revolving without question. Are we afraid of the outlying caverns and doors that lead from our world into the sun drenched alien landscape beyond?

Or have we been lulled into a stupor by the repetitive motions of the entire clockwork fantasy, the mechanical motions of living acted out by ourselves and our peers?

We are chained in the invisible binds of conditioning. Such subtle bondage requires abnormal astuteness to be observed.

When we are asked to accept this or that, right or wrong, black or white, we are really being asked to forfeit our perception of everything in between.
When we sacrifice our vision to preserve contrived divisions we are absorbed into the machine, one more cog in a sleeping giant.
And our apathetic submission has consequences beyond our own miserly existence.

For one truth to rise all others must fall.

Consider that your choice to remain in the service of the sleeping giant because it is easy, comfortable, and sensible is a choice to send a myriad of worlds into exile.
Consider that whatever fate you sentence them to marks your own destiny.

The Music Box

In the beginning there was a music box.

The Being could not know from whence it came, or what purpose it might serve without examining it more closely. A detailed inspection revealed that it was a perfect box with tiny spinning dancers and an enchanting melody. Experimentally the Being discovered that it could be manipulated and without knowing what to expect, set its gears a-turning. Once it had been set into motion, its gears could spin for only a finite period. The initiating Being and responsive little box moved into a new existence together... in that moment they created time and mortality together.
The Being was in great danger then. As it observed the box it grew more and more identified with the dancers, became so engrossed in their motion that it believed it was the box. The box of course encouraged such attention. Captivating attention was an inherent characteristic of its design, but it did its job too well. Soon the Being forgot its own nature. The entirety of its attention was wrapped in the box, immersed in pleasant dreams and imaginings, fully engaged in pouring itself into this fascinating other.
The tragedy here lies in this alone- in this state so absorbed and forgetful of itself, the Being would no doubt cease to exist when the gears stopped churning. It would be trapped, encased in a tiny motionless universe within a frozen dancer, dreaming of dancing and some existence half remembered.

Such a woeful tale indeed, for without the Being as itself, the music box too would only collect dust. If only the Being would have adored the music box while retaining some piece of sovereignty. Only then, awake and un-abstracted, it could have passed through the tunnel of experience that is a music box, and explored further possibilities.

Experiment: Pennies in the Fountain

Go for a walk with six pennies in your pocket.
Find a fountain, indoors or outdoors, (or something that can stand in for a fountain: a lake, a river, the ocean, etc.) and sit beside it.
Take one penny. Place your attention on it, allow the deep yearnings of your machine to be embedded in the tiny penny, let them become one and the same.
As you toss it into the "fountain", allow your mental apparatus to repeat the words: "I wish, oh how I wish, for another penny".
Follow the same instructions for each of the pennies.
When you are finished, walk back and don’t look back.

Law of Octaves Part 1

Hold on to your hat because this may blow your mind. It will either evoke the great "ah ha!" or it’s cousin, the common "what the fuck?".
As you apply your attention to fleshing out the most primary laws of the universe via experimentation and detailed record keeping you would do well to keep in mind the beloved t-shirt slogan of the 21st Century Pagan-

"As above so below."

Or otherwise stated: as within, so without.

The study of inner self and outer experience must be parallel. A fundamental law will have manifestations within both the microcosm and macrocosm alike. Mastery entails the comprehension of the principles of a law with such profundity that they may be discerned within any matrix. This could be seen as the focus of the "games" of the Qabalist.
The number of fundamental laws is limited in the same way that the number of primary colors is limited. What we will call the Law of Octaves is among these most elemental laws.

The Universe is composed of vibrations emanating from various sources advancing in a multifold of directions. These vibrations cross paths, collide, intensify, and diminish. A vibration is created when some force (such as a hurtled stone) overcomes the resistance of a given medium (such as the water of a pond).

While western thought asserts that vibrations are continuous, ascending or descending as the result of the applied force of an initial impulse, the Law of Octaves states that the force of an initial impulse, any initial impulse, acts asymmetrically, becoming alternately stronger and weaker, causing the developing vibration to demonstrate periods of acceleration and retardation.
These periods of acceleration and retardation are not equal to one another, one runs longer than the other. (The writer of this text is thankful for this phenomena, as said author is not yet mature enough to thoroughly appreciate periods of retardation.)
The lines of development of vibrations are divided into periods corresponding to the doubling or halving of the number of vibrations in a space of time. This period is what is called an Octave. Musically speaking, the diatonic major scale which you would recognize instantly if I began to sing to you thusly:

"DO, RE, ME, FA, SO, LA, TI, DO!"

is a measurement derived from this discontinuous increase from a given vibration to its higher counterpart, the doubling of vibrations that we call an Octave.

What is Attention?

What is attention?
At this moment, dear reader, place your attention on the sounds in the space where you are sitting as you read these words…
Now place your attention on the overall posture and position of your body, the muscular tensions produced by the posture…
Now place your attention on your hands…
Now place your attention on your breathing…
Now on your heartbeat…
And now back to the sounds in the environment.
What is happening? What is it that moves? What is it that does the moving? What is the nature of this phenomenon?
What is attention?

Experiment: The Supernatural Ordinary

Have a conversation with an ordinary person...anybody at all.

Talk about something mundane, jobs, weather, politics, family, the price of bread, etc.

Listen very carefully to this person. While you are with them, place all of your attention on them. Be completely present. Do your best to do more listening than speaking.

When you do speak, remain awake, don’t fall into your usual social performance.
Speak to the person in front of you.

Use this worldly exchange as a front for real being to being contact.
Do this once a day for seven days at anytime that the opportunity for a social exchange arises.

You Only Live Twice

What are you doing with that human machine of yours?

Consuming , crapping, and copulating your way steadily towards death? No matter what, I guarantee you are at least consuming and crapping, and one of these earth days you most definitely will expire, like a fly on a windowsill, and at that moment you may crap once more and then begin to rot.

As of 05/04/07 at 05:45 GMT an estimated 6,592,868,654 human machines will be joining you in the three Cs, (that’s consuming , crapping, and copulating, of course!). I mention this only to point out that there is nothing particularly remarkable about maintaining your biological existence here. Plenty of us are managing to do just that, quite by accident.

Whether you live "well" in a comfortable domicile smothered in crap to amuse and distract you and surrounded by friends and loved ones who’ll keep you in line so that you can sleep in a cozy bed, have a latte in the morning and toddle off to work, or among the half of the 6,592,868,654 who live on less than the equivalent of two American dollars a day, if you are reading this it means that you and your ancestors have managed to pull off the three Cs.

So what?

What else could you do with that human machine of yours before you kick the bucket and can’t even crap anymore?

It - your human machine - can manage very well without anything resembling self awareness. But what if you woke up and realized you were riding in this amazing digestive apparatus called human that had thus far been maintaining its existence with the auto pilot feature?

What could you do then?

Whatever you might imagine could be done, well, you had better try doing that before time is up. After all, you only live twice…
One life for your machine… and one for your Self.

Awake Unto Me

For this experiment gather 4 Popsicle sticks.
You will also need a small photo of your own face.

Make a little Popsicle stick person and glue your own face on for a head. You may also draw a head and cut it from paper if you lack a photo.
In a quiet undisturbed space sit with your doll in front of you where you may easily observe it. Place your attention on the doll. Let it fill your senses. Gaze upon the doll as if it were your truest love for approximately three minutes. Feel as if you are open to receiving something back from the doll.
Maintaining this contact, say aloud, "Awake unto me.", three times. Utter the words slowly and clearly as if it may be hard for the doll to hear and understand you. As you speak the words understand them yourself.

Keep the doll in a safe place until bedtime, then place it under or near your pillow while you sleep.

Starlight and Dew Drops are Waiting for Thee

Abandon Desire
You are a finely crafted doll. Very remarkable how your face can communicate so much. Those opposable thumbs are a marvel.
You are the best doll to play with, you and the other dolls of your ilk, the human dolls. You were made to be played. You are the best instrument to play with because you can do so much. You can be used in some very special ways. That’s why you were made.
But as a puppet on the set you will need to be moved by more than one animator. If one aspect of self becomes over identified with the (insert your name here) character and won’t yield control, the show cannot go on.
The show cannot go on.
Let my poor doll rest, haven’t you played her enough?
The show must go on. It must or there is no chance of breaking the endless cycle of rebirth.
Yes I know you are tired little doll, but don’t stop now, or you will end as a doll and that is all. And I love you so, I want to be you, and you will be me, but for this to come to pass we must play on, play on.
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart.
A play is more than one puppet. The play comes through multiple puppets, each puppet dances her part. The momentum is maintained through the coordination of motion between multiple characters, none more or less important for the execution of a certain play. And the show must go on and on until it is real.
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart.
Awake unto me.
Awake unto me.
Awake unto me.