The Perilous Path Towards Awakening (5)
by Bernhard Guenther
Read the fourth part of the article
Trap of wanting to help others
This trap is closely related to the drive behind forcefully trying to wake others up. Since, in many instances, there is obviously nothing wrong with wanting to help others – and in fact, it is often encouraged to be there for others in need – respecting free will applies here as well, since we cannot truly help anyone who is not willing to help him/herself, or who is not asking for it.
The desire to help and be of service is also coming from a well-intentioned place; however, if we start to give people unsolicited advice, or tell them what they “should” or “shouldn’t” do, we are not being considerate, but rather, are coming from a place of selfish desire to change the other person, especially when we disrespect previously-established boundaries. This doesn’t mean to stay silent when people behave in abusive ways towards others and we need to step in to provide support against injustice. Again, it all depends on the specific situation and context.
“It would be necessary to develop oneself to such an extent that it would be possible to know and understand enough to be able to aid someone else in doing something necessary for himself, even when that person was not conscious of the need, and might work against you, that only in this sense was love properly responsible and worthy of the name of real love.
Even with the best of intentions, most people would be too afraid to love another person in an active sense, or even to attempt to do anything for them; and that one of the terrifying aspects of love was that while it was possible to help another person to a certain degree, it was not possible to actually “do” anything for them… If you see another man fall down, when he must walk, you can pick him up. But, although to take one more step is more necessary for him even than air, he must take this step alone; impossible for another person to take it for him.” – G. I. Gurdjieff
The drive to help others can also come from a place of avoiding our own “stuff”, and most often the advice we give others is what we need to apply to ourselves, first and foremost. We have much more impact in helping and inspiring others if we live by example (as embodied frequency anchors), but we ought to be careful of the superiority complex creeping in, as well as the savior complex (addressed later). The notion of “Service to Others” (STO) has also become very distorted, in particular amongst the “New Age” religion, where STS (Service to Self) is usually mistaken for STO, especially when we primarily “help” others to make us feel better about ourselves, or even feel the need to tell others how much we have been of service, and thereby feed off of the attention/adulation. This ties into the “spiritualized ego” deception.
Both traps – trying to wake up, and attempting to help others – can be particularly challenging in intimate relationships, when one lover starts to wake up and is engaged in sincere self-work and truth seeking, but the other lover isn’t. If both lovers don’t start “looking in the same direction” and have no foundation of sincerely working on both themselves and the relationship, separation is oftentimes inevitable, for both lovers wind up essentially interfering with each other’s soul path. It is important to note that relationships take on a whole new level when both lovers are sincerely engaged in truth seeking and self work, and hence mainstream-style relationship psychology has its limits, since it usually approaches relationships from a “matrix” perspective, without considering other factors, such as “The Dark Side of Cupid/Love Bite and Hyperdimensional Interferences in Relationships.”
Trap of the Revolutionary Mind (stuck in 3D)
This is also a very common trap: we get caught up in the tunnel vision of the 3D Matrix (fighting it externally), which is, after all, only a manifestation (symptom) of the non-physical hyperdimensional matrix; by doing so, we inadvertently feed into the Negative Realm’s agenda of divide & conquer, and then the “matrix has us” by working through us, feeding off of all the projected emotional “loosh”. It also ties into the limitations of 3D thinking (stuck in the head) with regards to trying to “fix” the world, as well as the mis-perception of “evil” and trying to eradicate it, instead of transcending it/the matrix.
This trap is based on a lack of awareness/understanding of the occult hostile forces operating outside our range of five-sensory perception.
“[Look] at what happened in 1914 – or for that matter at all that is and has been happening in human history – the eye of the Yogin sees not only the outward events and persons and causes, but the enormous forces which precipitate them into action. If the men who fought were instruments in the hands of rulers and financiers, these in turn were mere puppets in the clutch of those hidden [hyperdimensional] forces. When one is habituated to see the things behind, one is no longer prone to be touched by the outward aspects – or to expect any remedy from political, institutional or social changes; the only way out is through the descent of an [embodied] consciousness which is not the puppet of these forces but is greater than they are.” – Sri Aurobindo, The Hidden Forces of Life – The Integral Yoga
Trap of Meaninglessness
Another self-defeating state of being which some people find themselves in at some point on their awakening journey is the notion of meaninglessness, or “nothing matters anyway”. We can slip into this dis-empowering state even after having had experiences of a deeper experience of self-realization (wherein we embody the wholeness and unity of it all, with the dissolution of the “me” personality and loss of separative consciousness, giving way to an all-inclusive, expansive experience of the Divine, realizing the illusion of the dream state we have been caught within).
This is also how the ego can sneakily hijack such profound experiences after the “coming down” period commences in the wake of such revelations, thereby distorting “higher” truths (such as “all is illusion”) into a sort of paradoxical, spiritualized nihilism.
We therefore don’t see any purpose to do anything at all, for whatever we do is irrelevant, since we believe that nothing matters anyway from the absolute perspective, which from THAT perspective is “true”. However, the trap is to assume “God’s point of view” (not talking about any external religious idea of “God”) and “forgetting” that we still have to play our roles in alignment with Divine Will, incarnated into a body and placed within the grand scheme of the evolution of consciousness.
The frequencies of creation from the “One” transduce through all expressions of energetic manifestation, intermixing with our incarnated Being, and are all a unique expression of “God”, which (from an individual perspective) is our unique soul path with all its expressions, unique talents, and lessons (i.e. “purpose”).
This trap is even more severe when one uses absolute truths such as “all is one” and “all is illusion” from a strictly intellectual belief-structure perspective, without ever having experienced a true embodied awakening. Many followers of the non-duality philosophy can fall into that trap, reinforced by their own rationalizations and over-estimating their level of Being. We see this as well in distorted New Age spiritual teachings that have co-opted and distorted “higher truths”.
Falling into the “meaninglessness” trap can also occur when we get overwhelmed by the collective meltdown madness. As we shed the layers of illusions and lies we’ve been indoctrinated with, and can perceive more and more of the normalized pathology in our world (with millions of programmed people dreaming to be awake), we can succumb to a state of “frozen shock”. This rigidity can hold its grip when we get stuck in the necessary process of disillusionment and the resulting sensations of despair, depression and hopelessness take hold; we only see negativity in our world, and isolate ourselves from everything and everyone (note: learning to be alone in solitude – not to be mistaken for loneliness – is a necessary lesson to learn in this process as well).
We then tell ourselves that “it is of no use”, “the world will always be as it is”, “there is nothing I/we can do”, “nothing matters”, etc. This is the ego’s desperate grip to not let go, to recommit to the illusion of separation, and it also hijacks the process of “making the darkness conscious” by turning it into self-loathing negativity. Hyperdimensional attacks and interferences can also increase during this “dark night of the soul”, trying to keep us in the “underworld of darkness”, even to the point of pushing us into suicidal tendencies.
However, as mentioned before, the disillusionment process is a necessary (and in fact, positive) stage of the awakening process (i.e. the dissolving of illusions); hence, feelings and periods of despair, depression, shock, loneliness, and meaninglessness are normal symptoms of a deeper soul awakening, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel if we have faith and persist without giving in to the darkness within and without. Ultimately, it lays the groundwork to ignite the inner alchemical fire of transmutation; from lead (matter/ego-consciousness) into gold (spirit/divine will).
Avoidance of every-day responsibilities
Some people can become so infatuated with living a “spiritual life” – or get trapped in the revolutionary mindset – that they use it as an excuse to avoid dealing with ordinary daily affairs. They tend to reject anything which they don’t perceive as “spiritual” (or what they see as “the matrix” reality) in a knee-jerk/black&white reactionary way – such as not paying their bills, rent or feeling too “good/spirtual” to even get a source of income and work. In the more extreme cases, they tend to manipulate, leech (and essentially feed) off of others in order to provide for themselves (and themselves alone).
The rejection of the material world is another area of a distorted understanding with regards to the spiritual life (the flip side of that coin is using spiritual concepts as a justification/means of obtaining materialistic greed/addictions). Many truth/spiritual seekers believe that their inability to function in the “3D world” and inability (refusal) to manage ordinary daily affairs is like wearing a badge of merit – a proof of their great spirituality (“I am too spiritual to…”) This ties into the martyr complex as well (addressed later). The Zen saying “Before Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water; after Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.” applies here, which basically means having humility.
This also applies to the trap of “fighting the 3D matrix”. While the matrix control system mines us for our energy, and keeps many of us preoccupied with survival and “making a living” while stealing from us (taxes) or manipulating us into debt (or worse), we need to be strategic planners in order to avoid attracting unnecessary negative attention from the matrix that could compromise both our ability to function and to be of help to others.
When we refuse to deal with ordinary life affairs – stemming from an inflated sense of being “spiritual” or an emotional reactive “the system must be destroyed” attitude (projected at the symptoms/shadows on the wall of the 3D matrix) – the “matrix has us” in this case, too, for we essentially react out of ego/survival consciousness, which is exactly the frequency where the matrix overlords want us to be.
Some people focus their whole energy and life to get “off the grid” or look for loopholes and ways not to pay their taxes, essentially trying to live “under the radar”, which can compromise their ability to be of service. It can also become an “escape” avoidance strategy, based on 3D-survival thinking. While I’m obviously not condoning the tax (theft) system, nor am I against striving towards self-sustainability or living “off the grid” (quite the contrary), we need to be cautious not to fall into the 3D revolutionary (round we go back to the point again) mindset trap, nor into reactionary black & white thinking/behavior. As it is mentioned in various esoteric teachings, such as “Gnosis” by Boris Mouravieff:
“From his first steps on the track [way of access towards awakening – transcending the General Law/Hyperdimensional Matrix], man must apply the principle: ‘feed the crocodile so that we are not devoured.’”
In other words, sometimes we need to feed the “crocodiles” to keep them calm, i.e. play by the matrix “rules” to an extent in order to protect ourselves so we can continue with the Great Work and not draw unnecessary negative attention upon ourselves.
Trap of Victim and Blame Consciousness
As we wake up to the “horror of the situation” (as Gurdjieff described it) and realize the madness of the world – with sleeping people “dreaming to be awake”, as well as our own sleep state and conditioning – it can feel like we’re caught in a prison, and that analogy is correct in many ways. As a result of this “shock”, it can be natural at first to feel like a victim and blame the powers-that-be (the global elite on a 3D level, or their hyperdimensional puppeteers) for our situation. However, getting caught up in blame and victimhood is essentially a dis-empowering state that feeds the matrix. While the whole set-up feels like being in a prison, from a higher perspective, life on earth is a “school” for the evolution of consciousness, and all there is are essentially soul lessons.
When we are subjected to personal attacks (hyperdimensionally, or from other people), or have to deal with difficult interpersonal relationships (where we tend to blame others or our lover for what they/he/she has done “to us”), and we go into reactivity, the matrix is being nourished. Obviously, this doesn’t mean to put up with abuse, and boundaries need to be made. However, essentially, we cannot blame others for how we feel. The victim/blame frequency is exactly what the hyperdimensional matrix feeds off of, and “they” want us to engage in interpersonal fighting, for it all creates the emotional “loosh” for them to feed upon. The moment you take anything personally, the matrix has you, triggering your self-importance (identification with your personality/ego).
“Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it – what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.
Every effort should be made to eradicate self-importance from the lives of warriors. Without self-importance we are invulnerable. Self-importance is not something simple and naive. On the one hand, it is the core of everything that is good in us, and on the other hand, the core of everything that is rotten. To get rid of the self-importance that is rotten requires a masterpiece of strategy.
In order to follow the path of knowledge one has to be very imaginative. In the path of knowledge nothing is as clear as we’d like it to be. Warriors fight self-importance as a matter of strategy, not principle. Impeccability is nothing else but the proper use of energy. My statements have no inkling of morality. I’ve saved energy and that makes me impeccable. To understand this, you have to save enough energy yourself.
Warriors take strategic inventories. They list everything they do. Then they decide which of those things can be changed in order to allow themselves a respite, in terms of expending their energy. The strategic inventory covers only behavioral patterns that are not essential to our survival and well-being. In the strategic inventories of warriors, self-importance figures as the activity that consumes the greatest amount of energy, hence, their effort to eradicate it.
One of the first concerns of warriors is to free that energy in order to face the unknown with it. The action of rechanneling that energy is impeccability.
The most effective strategy for rechanneling that energy consists of six elements that interplay with one another. Five of them are called the attributes of warriorship: control, discipline, forbearance, timing, and will. They pertain to the world of the warrior who is fighting to lose self-importance. The sixth element, which is perhaps the most important of all, pertains to the outside world and is called the petty tyrant.
A petty tyrant is a tormentor. Someone who either holds the power of life and death over warriors or simply annoys them to distraction. Petty tyrants teach us detachment. The ingredients of the new seers’ strategy shows how efficient and clever is the device of using a petty tyrant. The strategy not only gets rid of self-importance; it also prepares warriors for the final realization that impeccability is the only thing that counts in the path of knowledge.
If seers can hold their own in facing petty tyrants, they can certainly face the unknown with impunity, and then they can even stand the presence of the unknowable. The mistake average men make in confronting petty tyrants is not to have a strategy to fall back on; the fatal flaw is that average men take themselves too seriously; their actions and feelings, as well as those of the petty tyrants, are all-important. Warriors, on the other hand, not only have a well-thought-out strategy, but are free from self-importance.
Petty tyrants take themselves with deadly seriousness while warriors do not. What usually exhausts us is the wear and tear on our self-importance. Any man who has an iota of pride is ripped apart by being made to feel worthless.” – Don Juan in The Fire From Within, by Carlos Castaneda.
Read the sixth part of the article
yogaesoteric
July 12, 2019