CALISTHENICS April 22 1980 AWARENESS OF THIS CONTINUUM -- LIVANCE, ALL ENCOMPASSING, - CONNECTION
If the link is obvious, you can now connect in a way that relates to what we really are and what ,we are really doing. Now what we really are and are really doing is not the incarnated appearance. It's something that has been going on steadily for centuries, for thousands of years whether incarnated or not. That means the perspective is, fully and completely different. It's an ongoing action which has to be seen as a team action, each one according to their ability, and that action being continuous, whether you are incarnated or not. As opposed to the usual relation which is based (.please, follow closely) a consciousness you have built since you were born this time. A consciousness that does not remember the past, does not know what you are or what you are used to being based upon ,-- that kind of temporary base. Now I ask you to shift to a more stable base.
You cannot do this with the mind, by deciding to do it. of course, if the mind agrees it's already something, but it's not sufficient. It's not sufficient because you have to realize that the mind as you know it (not the fullness of mind -- that's another story) has characteristics belonging to this personality, it ,is built for this personality. How does that compare to something that goes on through thousands and thousands of years?
If you want to connect you have to go through your feeling of belonging .. Maybe that word would fit for some, but there is something that is obvious : There is knowing / feeling inside. On the personal level of consciousness it can manifest in any sort of way. It might be just a pure belonging inside. It might translate as personal attraction -- of any kind.--sometimes the reverse. As you know, opposites are usually very close together.
Personal attraction is something that happens very often because it's the easiest for the mind, to catch. If this is the case, and what I say applies not for just this case but for any kind of relation you are aware of, you have to acknowledge the symptom and then look for what is behind. Behind you'll find something else, and you look for what is behind that, until you land in a condition that cannot be expressed by the mind. Should I say an overall "feel"? But then it's kind of delicate because the overall feel is not a feel, it's much more subtle than a feel, but we have no words to express it. It is a clearness of experience that is no longer based on the personality-related consciousness, When I say "personality-related" I mean the tool of the personality. So you go into the soul or spirit realm if you want to use words. When you do it, there are no words. So you don't bother if it's soul or spirit, that's just plain academic. Then that so-called higher life becomes something obvious.
Then you wil lalso understand the difficulties we have always had. We have told you to have a sharp mind -- as sharp as possible -- and at the same time we say don't care about the mind, and you are perfectly confused . Sometime you will outgrow this confusion. What I propose today, is the way to outgrow it.
When you live that other condition, you realize that you cannot rely on your mind to live that condition. You have to find out that behind the symptoms given by the mind, or the feelings, or even the sensations, there is something living at the base of these.
You have to find out what is going on, and what is going on does not cover the span of just one lifetime. Definitely not. And this is where you meet some sort of recognition that you cannot even express in words.
What we did last time with the music was prepare you with the first two pieces, the second one put things in place, for instance, but with the third one we played according to what is going on steadily-- what I call that continuum.
An image would be: You have the continuum, and then there are dips in the continuum -- that's an incarnation. Then you come out again, then you incarnate again, and so on. But there is that continuum -- that which is veiled to the mind, but that you sense anyway, if you feel a relation.
if you do not feel a relation you cannot do what we are asking, because you have to have an active feature in you to start with-- not a concept. If you don't feel the relation, for instance, and you try to relate to that steady ongoing continuum, you will do it conceptually. Then the only thing you can do is build up images upon images -- more beautiful and more beautiful -- but still images. You have to start ,with a fact. This is one of the reasons that I have always said, especially for the beginners: if you cannot find a relation with us within a given time (one or two years) forget it, because a deeper work cannot be done-- the work is based on that relation. If we want a cooperation a cooperation means a relation.
I hope you can follow what I can say somewhere inside. It's not too difficult. The point is that starting from personal consciousness, you have to face the shift of the center of gravity from the personal condition to another one that is a continuum. And this one is plain evident for those who know it and plain not evident for those who don't know it. That means a connection has to be established or reestablished. And it cannot be established on the basis of the dip. It is established on the basis of the continuum itself.
Now the basis of the continuum itself, in the action going on ,is found symptomatically in that relation you might feel with us. Some of you have worked with me for lifetimes upon lifetimes. You will notice that as soon as you connect to that continuum condition all the bickering about methods, about being fit or unfit, about being lost or troubled, whatever... everything is a mess -- all that falls away. These are conditions proper to the person, but there is something else going on. Now when that something else becomes alive, every trouble in the person begins to make sense, or no sense at all -- which means you drop it. If it doesn't make sense what will you do with it?
There is a practical part-- and hard training-- that belongs to it. With your-present-day consciousness, you are linked to this time, to this period of evolution, historically speaking, this kind of civilization -- and it won't be so next time. Every time there is a difference.
Now there is an awareness that belongs ,to this continuum-- not the usual awareness -- it's another one. The other one is plain evident right in front of you-- right within your head -- it's simply not recognized. We have no words to define it. The closest usual words are "I feel", but it is not the usual feeling. Usual feeling is kind of tentative. This other feeling is facing an evidence . It's completely different. There is something perfectly obvious in the feeling itself, or in what is felt. It's perfectly obvious, perfectly evident. It does not require, the usual processing; it does not require the usual analysis; it does not express in sensation, in fee
lings , in thought. These only reflect the other condition. The training is to follow with what I call livance , which is all-encompassing. Learn to come back on the livance , and back on that livance , and back on that livance . Which means, seen the other way round, don't get caught by thoughts you suddenly have, feelings you suddenly have, sensations you suddenly have. These are symptoms. You accept them as symptoms and then drop them, because you are not interested in them, at that moment. You are interested in livance so you come back into livance -- back into what is going on, to what is not shaped in the usual way, to what is perfectly clear, but not understood. You don't need to understand, it's just too clear, too evident.
Then, when you bring it out into the world, you need your personality, you need a sharp mind, clear feelings, tuned sensations. But you don't need these to live that continuum we speak of. Here you need something else, and, in order to live something else, you have to be able to center on that something else -- fully, completely.
For instance, as I said a moment ago, you have to relate to something you feel deep in yourself-- sensations, feelings, heart, soul, spirit, or further up --in a way that does not speak. You cannot mind it, you cannot feel it, you cannot sense it, and still you know it.
Our task (and that our is a big OUR). is to activate that continuum in all of you, until consciousness begins to join in. Your part is adjusting the consciousness of each personality that means different types of personalities -your part of you as the continuum. You cannot sit in a chair and wait until we have done the work on you, and then everything will be fine. No, if you don't do your part it doesn't work. And as you know from experience, doing your part is not easy. You go through quite a few crisis, disorientation, troubles, and whatever, until things begin to smooth out, because the base is more evident, more obvious.
Every once in a while, some of us feel that when the time is ripe it will fall on you. Until the time is ripe, you already have a lot of work to do. I remember, for instance, that when I was twenty-four I was told that nothing would reall y stir before I would be twenty-eight. I thought that would be a long, long time to wait -- for what! It was only afterward that I realized that until that time I had plenty of work to do.
There is a point you have to realize, as a matter of maturity: We want to put you on a new track related to a basis that does not start from this life only. This does not mean that any kind of teaching is obsolete or wrong. As soon as you start working this way you will notice that you have to reeducate your person.Now among the types of education that there are--the physical, the etherical , the astral, the mental -- you have everything to educate. This also includes your ability to handle concepts; your ability to handle sensations; feelings, how to shape them, how to use them as tools and so on. In someof the various teachings there are methods that work. They might or might not work for you. This is for you to find out .. You might not use any method and work directly from here. But it's not easy.
......and then I noticed that I could feel it all by myself directly. If I hadn't read the book I don't know when I would have noticed. So don't reject what exists.
I'll take another example: Someone told me that an Ashram somewhere in California wrote us to remove them from our mailing list, and she thought that weird. I said, " no" ,I second their motion. Why? Because they are an Ashram that is organized, hopefully oh a definite base. why should they bring into that something that is, different and which, none of them knows about. They are much better off to deal with things they know of.
You will also notice that when we live on the higher level, all those considerations are completely gone. We just don't proceed and think in those terms. When that condition or rather the center of gravity, which is usually on the personal, level switches, when that other condition is the base of your life, you decide from there what you will do with whatever form social life requires. The more the center of gravity is on that level the easier it is to handle your own personality. For instance, when we speak of "down-and-away", from that other level it's quite easy-- self-evident, From the personal level, it's a harder work.
You will notice also that when you live that ongoing relation you can just plain forget your usual way of consciousness. In the beginning it is usually short, but later on you can do it for quite a while. The consciousness works on the borderline somewhere, but you are fully into that other condition -- fully and completely So you have done "down-and-away" without thinking of it. I have said in the book that sometimes everything stops. That's right. And it stops much more easily and much more obviously from that other position.
But the training on the personal level to stop a movement has to be there. Don't delude yourself .-- don't think that things just go by themselves, that you just have to wait for it. There is nothing to wait for. We do work on a relation which we now bring out in a more concrete way, and this simply means that your work will be more specific, more directed.
As a practical example: in the book you have the unfoldment of the desires, thoughts, sensations . If you can do it, if you have practiced, it is very precious, because it helps you, for example, when you have lost contact with the base. If you are lost, but you still feel a link, let us say in a personal shape, whatever, if you have trained to
go behind then you can start from something existing -- that symptom of a relation on the personal level. Now, you go behind and behind and there you are. Otherwise you have to wait for the next rain squall to wash off what is bothering you, and in this country you might have to wait for a long time.
Questions?
Participant: You talked about two different conditions when you spoke of the continuum. You talked about awareness and you talked about livance .
Martin: They are the same. Livance can be seen as-a type of awareness, but being an all-encompassing awareness, all forms of awareness are included. You can have sensations, people might call it E S P, extrasensory, but it's just a continuum of sensation. You can have feelings, but they don't have the limitation of the usual feelings. There is one point that you will learn: all the classifications we have, like sensory, emotional, mental , are very relative. When we speak of extra-sensory we assume a limit to the sensory, and if we go beyond then this and that happens. When you work in the way that we speak of, there is a continuum. There is no limit none whatsoever. So, for instance, for me, an extra-sensory whatever is just plain sensory and usually very coarse. You can sense much finer points, and I cannot see any limit to that function. The thing that usually happens is that if it is too fine you don't want to speak of sensing, because you are aware that people interpret sensing in much too coarse a way. That is a limit.
Does that satisfy your question?
Incidentally, when I speak of livance and all-encompassing awareness, you have to realize that in an all-encompassing awareness your existing awareness, as you know it, is such a small part of what is playing that you might be shocked by the smallness of that part. Meaning it definitely does not have the importance you give it in your usual awareness. This is why we have to urge you to realize that you can be aware in totally different ways, and the bulk off the awareness is totally different -- if we want to speak of it that way. The whole is much bigger than that which consciousness encompasses. It's so much bigger that consciousness is only a small part -- a needed part related to a quality of life -- but by far not as important in volume as people think. It is important as function goes, because we are incarnated and we work here. That means on this level of expression something comes out, and the tool of consciousness is needed for that but it is needed among other things only
Questions?
Participant: It all comes back to the question of what can be done without doing something... to facilitate the change of the center of gravity. I guess I'm hearing you say that a training here would be one way to facilitate that, and I want to make sure that I'm not misunderstanding what I'm putting together.
Martin: I was going to answer your question before you reacted because I noticed that type of processing going on in some minds. Did everyone follow?
Generally speaking, the question is: What shall I do? I have to remind you, very seriously, insisting on it, well whatever you need... You have to be aware of, and that means live, the link that makes you realize that we are linked to something that is way beyond the usual dip. Now your mind does not follow that, but your link does. That means you have to live the link until it is obvious and clear, free from the symptoms. You start with the symptoms and you go beyond.
We have met many times. Some of you have some kind of memory from past relations. Some memories that you feel now are very vivid and they qualify your relation in a certain way. This is natural and normal. Behind those symptoms, behind the dip aspect, what is? This you find by living the link not by processing with your mind. Your mind has no way to know what is.
I'll give you an example. You've heard about the Hierarchy , initiates , spiritual masters, different levels, all the way up. You can grasp it with your mind-- as a concept, as an image, not as a reality. Face it. Because in a condition of reality you face the master, it is real. So you may believe in the Hierarchy, that does not mean that it is real. You might feel a connection, symptomatically. Okay you have a symptom of a connection; practically speaking, it is not there. Theoretically it might be there, but practically it is not. You have to go along the line of connection beyond the symptom of it, which might be a desire of connection, which might be a feeling of connection, which might
be nearly a mental evidence of connection, but it still is not a connection. Go beyond, but within the movement of.connection Itself .
So I repeat again don't go home and start thinking about shifting that center of gravity to that other level that must exist. You have done that with the Hierarchy, you have done that with all your dreams about spiritual masters and so on. So I tell you start on something you live, you feel. If that connection is not in your awareness, look for it somewhere, somehow. If you cannot find any, don't try to work without the connection.
When you meditate, some of you do, about some spiritual masters and so on, you meditate better and better, more deeply and more deeply, but actually what happens? Without knowing it, and this takes a long time, you go along the line of a connection, until the connection is evident. And all the imagery you do around it -- you will always lose it. Your understanding of what someone is -- you will lose it. Your understanding of what a master is -- You will lose it. Your understanding of what the spiritual work of the Hierarchy is, or of what a Logos is -- you will lose it-- as soon as you face reality. The same with your own identity. The image of what you are-- you will lose it --once you have faced reality.
Another Participant: What is the value of a feeling of connection that occurs during dreams? Because it's really in the unconscious time of the day, in the sleep, and I was wondering what is the place of this experience-- if it has any validity at all?
Martin: First, psychologically speaking, you cannot say that something that happens to you has no validity at all. The simple fact that it happened means that there must be something going on. The comment that it has no validity at all shows that you simply don't understand it. Of the practical purpose, I won't answer you, for a very definite reason. You begin putting your mind in motion again ,instead of following the lead of the connection. How come? There is a conscious connection -- even conscious in the dreams. Follow the connection, not the processing of the mind trying to understand. You can go back into the meaning of dreams, the activity of dreams, why there are dreams, and so on -- to what avail? You cannot say there is no value in the dream-- there is. But you can mishandle that value very easily, because, as you say it's on another level, another type of consciousness-- more unconscious. The point is not to understand. You could connect consciously and find that connection shows the same quality as in the dream -- at the best of it -- not in the imagery but at the base. If you can do that, you will notice that there is an activity of a certain type going on at that time. You won't grasp it mentally, you will grasp it holistically. Follow that movement. That would be within the framework of what we do now. That also would train you to look first at what is going on and then work accordingly --not according to what we think we should do -- but according to what is going on -- to the movement of the moment. Or in other words, we consciously tune into the movement. If I say: What is going on? That means that my consciousness is asking itself the question, so there is a tuning in to the whole movement....