A check-list for getting into and practising
self-remembering
(made sometime in ’01, by c.t.)
Self-remembering, for the most part, is the first conscious shock. It is how you accumulate energy of consciousness into your being. It is very explosive energy. Non-identifying, for the most part, is the second conscious shock. It is how you contain and refine and eventually transform that accumulated energy. This is very difficult to do. There are different kinds of self-remembering (see message #280 of the work_celestial site). One kind is the basic intentional practice of self-remembering for duration, depth, and frequency. Like an athlete would train to increase speed, strength or endurance. Here is a list of 16 things to go through or keep in mind when attempting to get into a state of self- remembering…
Of course to start the basic act of self-remembering is to become consciously present in the moment in your environment. To say, “I am here” and feel it. To come out of being identified with thoughts or external things and events and people and environment, etc. Observing I is needed for this because it is to (an inward/upward movement) Observing I that you go when you become ‘present’ in a given moment (and Observing I emerges out of a developed Magnetic Center, without having attained the basic level of inner fusion that is Observing I Self-Remembering will be a mystery to you). Then you make the effort to hold that sense of ‘I am here’ presence for duration and increase it in depth.
1. sense your body (put your consciousness in each part of your body) and be aware of your five senses
2. (this is big) try to draw to yourself a ‘higher perspective feeling’… Other than getting the ‘I am here’ feeling, think of something that gives you perspective on yourself, your life, etc. The thought of your own inevitable death, maybe, or the thought of galaxies, or the work ideas themselves. The strangeness of being in a body, and being here now alive. whatever works in the moment… getting perspective in time also reduces the ‘importance’ of small and vain things
3. think about and practice divided attention
4. while you self-remember be aware of your aim. A near aim or an overall aim. This puts your immediate effort into perspective and gives it the importance that it should have and reminds you of the importance the effort has. also, practice self-remembering during an activity that has a beginning, middle, and end…this gives structure to the act…
5. separation – I from ‘it’… Find observing I… Think about what interests you have (had) – influences (and also activities: physical, creative, intellectual) – that brought you to the work to begin with, i.e. remember your history and the doing of those things and find those ‘I’s; those ‘I’s will be associated with Magentic Center and hence with Observing I which emerges from developed Magnetic Center…
6. remember the idea of non-identifying to stay honest with your effort. remembering non-identifying when attempting to self-remember is kind of a safeguard from mechanical or imaginary self-remembering. (It should be pointed out that non-identifying when at the critical point where accumulated energy – accumulated from doing self-remembering – needs to escape your system – usually in a negative way – or be transformed is the second conscious shock yet it and self-remembering are also two sides of the same coin…)
7. If you can’t rid yourself of useless thoughts or fantasies or negatives scenarios in your mind try pondering the work ideas. One good rule to remember when you seem to be captured by thoughts you can’t get rid of is to say to yourself, ‘Think of something more important.’ This will change the scale of your thoughts.
8. for all incoming impressions think of replacing mechanical associations with conscious associations
9. be aware of your chief feature (if you havn’t yet found your chief feature just be aware of the various features of false personality that tend to affect you more than others)
10. remember that self-remembering is above centers and involves an energy that is above the energies that work in centers. it involves energy of consciousness. so, practically speaking, if you can be attentive in the higher divisions of all your centers together it will help to induce self-remembering, which, again, is above centers
11. be aware of the moving, external world of things and events. be aware of them for what they are
12. stopping thoughts. this means stopping trains of thought that lead to identification or negative imagination or just to mechanical thoughtlessness rather than thinking intentionally, choosing what to think
13. be aware of your posture and your gestures and body language. Just have good posture and be aware of anything mechanical going on like tenseness or too much exertion for what you’re doing… (A rule to follow when in the midst of an emotional state and expressing that emotional energy negtively is to concentrate on controlling three things: out-of-control body language and gesture and deeds; out-of- control thoughts and negative imagination; and your out-of-control mouth. Keep your mouth shut. That is a big effort and a big accomplishment.
14. think of your chest and solar plexus area as a clear mountain pool of water. that pool of water can be calm and clear or it can have been riled up and made muddy from the sediment at its bottom. If that pool of water is not clear let it settle… (This is just a visual metaphor for your emotional state at the moment…)
15. be aware of your time-body. of your life in all the circle of your time. realize that work efforts done in the present affect your life in all the parts of your time, ‘past’ and ‘future’
16. breaking up, in a sense (though not literally), self-remembering with acts of external-considering (in thought or in a real time event) and then going back to self-remembering can be a way to keep an effort to be awake alive, a means of control and reinforcement
Fourth Way 