Know thyself

[Black Panther]

After reading a lot of books, being on forums day after day,
watching a lot of videos, the only thing we can do at this
moment is to work on ourselves.

We have to be the change we want to see in the world.

Letting go of the conditioned self and go deeper within.

Many people talk about the awakening as a feeling
of dying. The illusion / ego dies and we as a soul
become conscious again of being part of the big
consciousness.

is3CPHzCg_w

[Eram]

Welcome to the club BP,


I drew the same conclusion some time ago.

The ego MUST be out of the drivers seat before we can start to make a change.


a quote from the vid:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg801/scaled.php?server=801&filename=naamloosyqz.jpg&res=landing

[Kimberley]

I found this a couple of days ago...

The Empowered Woman (this can be change to Empowered Man also :-) )


“The Empowered Woman,
she moves through the world with a sense of confidence and grace.
Her once reckless spirit now tempered by wisdom.
Quietly, yet firmly, she speaks her truth without doubt or hesitation
and the life she leads is of her own creation.

She now understands what it means to live and let live.
How much to ask for herself and how much to give.
She has a strong, yet generous heart
and the inner beauty she emanates truly sets her apart.
Like the mythical Phoenix,
she has risen from the ashes and soared to a new plane of existence,
unfettered by the things that once posed such resistance.

Her senses now heightened, she sees everything so clearly.
She hears the wind rustling through the trees;
beckoning her to live the dreams she holds so dearly.
She feels the softness of her hands
and muses at the strength that they possess.
Her needs and desires she has learned to express.
She has tasted the bitter and savored the sweet fruits of life,
overcome adversity and pushed past heartache and strife.

And the one thing she never understood,
she now knows to be true,
it all begins and ends with you”.

~Sonny Carroll

[Eram]

Another snippet from the vid:


Try for a moment to accept the idea that you are not what you believe yourself to be,
that you overestimate yourself,
in fact that you lie to yourself.
That you always lie to yourself every moment,
all day,
all your life.

That this lying rules you to such an extent that you cannot control it any more. You are the prey of lying.
You lie,
everywhere.

Your relations with others—lies.
The upbringing you give, the conventions—lies.
Your teaching—lies.
Your theories, your art—lies.
Your social life, your family life—lies.
And what you think of yourself—lies also.

But you never stop yourself in what you are doing or in what you are saying because you believe in yourself.
You must stop inwardly and observe.
Observe without preconceptions, accepting for a time this idea of lying.
And if you observe in this way,
paying with yourself,
without self-pity,
giving up all your supposed riches for a moment of reality,
perhaps you will suddenly see something you have never before seen in yourself until this day.

You will see that you are different from what you think you are.
You will see that you are two.
One who is not, but takes the place and plays the role of the other.
And one who is, yet so weak, so insubstantial, that he no sooner appears than he immediately disappears.
He cannot endure lies.
The least lie makes him faint away.
He does not struggle, he does not resist, he is defeated in advance.

Learn to look until you have seen the difference between your two natures,
until you have seen the lies,
the deception in yourself.
When you have seen your two natures,
that day,
in yourself,
the truth will be born.

~jeanne salzmann~

[A Simple Human]

We have to be the change we want to see in the world.

Letting go of the conditioned self and go deeper within.


“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” - Mahatma Gandhi

[Tenzin]

Being the change since late last year; still in a middle of a long overseas meditation retreat. I realised it is impossible to think myself to true awakening, thus the only way out, is to 'see' myself out.

Despite the quiet days, every day was a tough battle, now stretching into months. Some people may take years, some take a whole lifetime. But at least starting is half the journey walked.

The programmings are so deep that the untrained/distracted/desperate mind will grasp at anything that promise salvation to the ego, an ego that exists because of our attachments, to ideas, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

And I was taught, that not all thoughts are ours. That helped me a lot in this course of change.

[Eram]

Being the change since late last year; still in a middle of a long overseas meditation retreat. I realised it is impossible to think myself to true awakening, thus the only way out, is to 'see' myself out.

Despite the quiet days, every day was a tough battle, now stretching into months. Some people may take years, some take a whole lifetime. But at least starting is half the journey walked.

The programmings are so deep that the untrained/distracted/desperate mind will grasp at anything that promise salvation to the ego, an ego that exists because of our attachments, to ideas, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

And I was taught, that not all thoughts are ours. That helped me a lot in this course of change.

In the end, it is about getting the ego mind convinced to "give up trying", to "step aside".

Some people do this in a heart beat.
It is not a road filled with struggle and effort by definition.

[ulli]

Another snippet from the vid:


Try for a moment to accept the idea that you are not what you believe yourself to be,
that you overestimate yourself,
in fact that you lie to yourself.
That you always lie to yourself every moment,
all day,
all your life.

That this lying rules you to such an extent that you cannot control it any more. You are the prey of lying.
You lie,
everywhere.

Your relations with others—lies.
The upbringing you give, the conventions—lies.
Your teaching—lies.
Your theories, your art—lies.
Your social life, your family life—lies.
And what you think of yourself—lies also.

But you never stop yourself in what you are doing or in what you are saying because you believe in yourself.
You must stop inwardly and observe.
Observe without preconceptions, accepting for a time this idea of lying.
And if you observe in this way,
paying with yourself,
without self-pity,
giving up all your supposed riches for a moment of reality,
perhaps you will suddenly see something you have never before seen in yourself until this day.

You will see that you are different from what you think you are.
You will see that you are two.
One who is not, but takes the place and plays the role of the other.
And one who is, yet so weak, so insubstantial, that he no sooner appears than he immediately disappears.
He cannot endure lies.
The least lie makes him faint away.
He does not struggle, he does not resist, he is defeated in advance.

Learn to look until you have seen the difference between your two natures,
until you have seen the lies,
the deception in yourself.
When you have seen your two natures,
that day,
in yourself,
the truth will be born.

~jeanne salzmann~

Jeanne de Salzmann was one of Gurdjieff's disciples who carried on with "the work" after his death in 1949.
There were many others. I was deeply immersed or years, and as a typical Capricorn still believe that nothing comes easy.
But then again, I could be wrong. Gurdjieff himself said something about never underestimating "the law of otherwise", which probably was supposed to warn people against becoming too dogmatic.

Anyway, one of the best books on this whole subject is "The Forth Way" by P.D.Ouspensky.

Just learning how not to be identified, or training oneself to not express negative emotions can turn one's life around.
Here is the book:

PDF file

http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Ebooks/The-Fourth-Way-OUSPENSKY.pdf

[Black Panther]

Being the change since late last year; still in a middle of a long overseas meditation retreat. I realised it is impossible to think myself to true awakening, thus the only way out, is to 'see' myself out.

Despite the quiet days, every day was a tough battle, now stretching into months. Some people may take years, some take a whole lifetime. But at least starting is half the journey walked.

The programmings are so deep that the untrained/distracted/desperate mind will grasp at anything that promise salvation to the ego, an ego that exists because of our attachments, to ideas, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

And I was taught, that not all thoughts are ours. That helped me a lot in this course of change.

In the end, it is about getting the ego mind convinced to "give up trying", to "step aside".

Some people do this in a heart beat.
It is not a road filled with struggle and effort by definition.

So did Eckhart Tolle. In his latest June video he talks in detail
about his awakening and about his inner state. If I look at myself
there is still a LOT of thinking instead of Eckhart's thinking being reduced
with 80%.

And being on this forum and thinking too much about the conspiracy
stuff doesn't quiet the mind at all.

So by being together on this forum and talking about solutions isn't
the solution. Most of the time it's focusing on the bad things happening
in the world and that will make us feel bad too. Although we know
that we keep running in circles.

[ulli]

Everyone who finds it comes in with their own pre-conditioning.
I have a feeling that at the end of his life even Gurdjieff himself had reservations about his method.
And it is true, for some the step is easy.
They may have all their ideals in place.

Yet, once they leave a big city and plunge into a third world country village then it becomes another matter.
Just to find oneself in a culture where animals are mistreated with no one even questioning it and having to live life being perceived by the locals as the big savior/ provider just because one is a westerner can challenge one to the core of one's being.
So I would say it is relative.
Because it all depends on conditions in the end.

[ulli]

Being the change since late last year; still in a middle of a long overseas meditation retreat. I realised it is impossible to think myself to true awakening, thus the only way out, is to 'see' myself out.

Despite the quiet days, every day was a tough battle, now stretching into months. Some people may take years, some take a whole lifetime. But at least starting is half the journey walked.

The programmings are so deep that the untrained/distracted/desperate mind will grasp at anything that promise salvation to the ego, an ego that exists because of our attachments, to ideas, beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

And I was taught, that not all thoughts are ours. That helped me a lot in this course of change.

In the end, it is about getting the ego mind convinced to "give up trying", to "step aside".

Some people do this in a heart beat.
It is not a road filled with struggle and effort by definition.

So did Eckhart Tolle. In his latest June video he talks in detail
about his awakening and about his inner state. If I look at myself
there is still a LOT of thinking instead of Eckhart's thinking being reduced
with 80%.

And being on this forum and thinking too much about the conspiracy
stuff doesn't quiet the mind at all.

So by being together on this forum and talking about solutions isn't
the solution. Most of the time it's focusing on the bad things happening
in the world and that will make us feel bad too. Although we know
that we keep running in circles.

Right. You need to find your personal agenda.
Find out what you want to do with your life, then do it to the best of your ability.
Knowing yourself means knowing your limitations.
It also means knowing your talents and skills.

You don't need challenges which traumatize you to the point of becoming ineffective.
But in the end all those choices are up to the individual.
I personally like to point out that the world we would like to see needs our input, in a practical way.
That can be in any field of science, agriculture, culture, anything that helps the big picture.
I left the fashion world when I realized too many people wanted to become fashion designers.
I saw new priorities.

[Fred Steeves]

Hi Black Panther, "Know Thyself" might just be one of the best pieces of ancient advice that's almost never really taken seriously and attempted. For one it's just too damn simple, and for two it's a terrifying thought. Truly observing one's self is comparable to taking center stage at a sold out stadium event, and stripping down buck naked for the crowd.

If one discovered that they could withstand this, then perhaps they might even discover that the moment was actually empowering. Perhaps they may even go back out and do a naked little jig.(LOL) Hell, after some time they may even get dubbed "the freeist person in the world", or "the craziest". Kind of in the eye of the beholder isn't it?

There was just one thing I skipped in this silly little exercise: Where/who was the teacher of this newly found freedom?

Cheers,
Fred

[ulli]

Hi Black Panther, "Know Thyself" might just be one of the best pieces of ancient advice that's almost never really taken seriously and attempted. For one it's just too damn simple, and for two it's a terrifying thought. Truly observing one's self is comparable to taking center stage at a sold out stadium event, and stripping down buck naked for the crowd.

If one discovered that they could withstand this, then perhaps they might even discover that the moment was actually empowering. Perhaps they may even go back out and do a naked little jig.(LOL) Hell, after some time they may even get dubbed "the freeist person in the world", or "the craziest". Kind of in the eye of the beholder isn't it?

There was just one thing I skipped in this silly little exercise: Where/who was the teacher of this newly found freedom?

Cheers,
Fred

According to this site the adage "Know Thyself" has appeared in a variety of cultures,
although is commonly associated with ancient Greece and the Oracle at Delphi.

http://thyselfknow.com/history-of-know-thyself/

[eileenrose]

Hi, a good question for Project Avalon...but I don't consider it (PA) a source of inspiration enlightenment material, myself. Just not that type of forum. I mean I don't find inspiration of that kind here black panther.

But I do on Eckhart's own spiritually based forum (and Paul Lowe's IML email list...a sort of forum).

[Kimberley]

These videos are in total over 7 hours...Santos Bonacci is a friend of mine...

Much love to us all!! :grouphug:


Uploaded by MrAstrotheology on Aug 17, 2011

'Know thyself', was the ancient admonition of the Oracle of Delphi

The ancient wisdom traditions always depict "man" (male and female) as a composite being and frequently as the microcosmic reflection of the conscious living universe: as above, so below. Plato, for example, allegorizes the kingdom outside (the ideal State) and within (ourselves) as a Republic composed of many citizens. He describes it as a diverse yet interdependent polity ideally ruled by the philosopher, the wisdom-loving hero who has struggled up the steep and rugged ascent from the prison of ignorance to the luminous realm of truth. Self-discovery is a process of self-transformation: progressively taming and refining the disorderly elements of the soul, and "solarizing" one's inner nature by identifying with the author of one's being and its radiant ideals of Justice, Beauty, and the Good
Socrates' guiding rule was, "Know Thyself." These words are among the most powerful ever uttered, and of eternal significance. No better advice has ever been given to man or woman. When one begins to explore this dictate it leads to profound understandings about all of creation. It makes unhappiness, fear, sadness, doubt, and all the negative emotions meaningless.

'The kingdom of God is within you'. Jesus

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor 3:16).
To thine own self be true. ~ Shakespeare

Turn the spotlight inward. ~ Gandhi

Trust yourself and you will know how to live. ~ Goethe


Know Thyself Part 1


b2luC4AHmHE

Know Thyself Part 1 Continued

Ww_9lA_0d6U

Know Thyself Part 2

vBcWQsG8gMQ


Know Thyself Part 2 Continued


dzaafl3M0xM


My first interview with Santos....Oct 4, 2011

En1AYx47Jx4

[Black Panther]

Hi Black Panther, "Know Thyself" might just be one of the best pieces of ancient advice that's almost never really taken seriously and attempted. For one it's just too damn simple, and for two it's a terrifying thought. Truly observing one's self is comparable to taking center stage at a sold out stadium event, and stripping down buck naked for the crowd.

If one discovered that they could withstand this, then perhaps they might even discover that the moment was actually empowering. Perhaps they may even go back out and do a naked little jig.(LOL) Hell, after some time they may even get dubbed "the freeist person in the world", or "the craziest". Kind of in the eye of the beholder isn't it?


Hi Fred, it reminds me of David Icke being ridiculed in the Wogan show in his turquoise peroid :)

0nMq6gc1yMg

After the show there were two choices: crying as a baby with the doors closed
or get over it and share the knowledge he received after his Kundalini experience.
The ridicule set him free, because he found out it was the illusory personality called
David Icke being ridiculed and he just knew everything was still alright and it
was leading him in the right direction.



There was just one thing I skipped in this silly little exercise: Where/who was the teacher of this newly found freedom?


Of course our teacher is Fred Steeves, as always :p

[Fred Steeves]

Of course our teacher is Fred Steeves, as always :p

Strike One!!! :lol: