Calisthenics March 1984 EASTER SACRIFICE RESURRECTION INCARNATION BRINGING HEAVEN DOWN BRIDGING THE GAP DYNAMIC OF CONSCIUOSNESS TRANSPARENT WITHOUT TENSION PRIOR TRAINING PERSONA MUST LEARN TO RESPECT IT CENTERS SUBCONSCIOUS FUTURE REQUIREMENTS WORK OF THE GROUP USE OF MUSIC TAKE A HOLIDAY SYMBOL AND LIFE -- Last week we had our Easter session, and I want to come back to it, along the line of symbolic language. The Easter session is related to the symbol of the cross, and the cross itself, in its major aspect, is the symbol of the fourth major initiation, which is accepted as the line that divides, let us say, the initiate without title from the high initiate. In the Christian religion, the Catholics have a cross with the body of Jesus on it, which symbolizes the aspect of sacrifice, and Protestants have a cross without the body, which symbolizes what comes after the cross. So for the Protestants the resurrection is more important and for Catholics the sacrifice is more important, each putting an emphasis on a certain point within the whole event. There is also a third aspect and that is the one with which we are directly involved. For this we have to go back in the history of Jesus to the baptism. As you know, when Jesus was baptized, a dove symbolically came down on him and he was completely changed. Now according to Christian initiation, the dove represents the coming down of that entity we call the Christ or that others call the Planetary Logos, which dwelt in Jesus for three and one-half years, from the baptism to the cross. Then on the cross another symbol was used. When a drop of blood fell from Jesus to the earth and was absorbed (blood being, in the old symbol, the carrier of the soul), this was the symbolic incarnation of that being, Christ or Planetary Logos, into the planet itself -- his body, with all the life on it, became the whole planet. We work along the line of this symbol. In the first two symbols, there is the sacrifice and the resurrection followed, if we use children's language, by going to heaven. With the third symbol, there is a complete reversal: the coming down or incarnation of heaven on earth. Now maybe you can understand a little better the words found in The Statement of Purpose: "...the still difficult task of incarnating the Principle/principles." This is what we are involved in -- not escaping earth to go to heaven, but the reverse, bringing heaven down. So, the symbolic pattern -we are following, at this crossing of the roads, is one of incarnating, helping Christ to incarnate, helping people to incarnate what is on the other side of the divide that you (persona-wise) have forgotten. There are huge implications. First the principle in itself is very simple, but the practice is not, because if, on the level of your rational mind, you can accept the situation, it does not mean that your subconscious does. You are used to dealing with your subconscious as if it were your own, and it is not -- you carry in the subconscious all the tendencies of the race. of course, you have tendencies of your own, but these are the smallest aspect. So this means you have to outgrow not only your own tendencies but also the one's of the race (the pressure of society around). So it's not sufficient to say, "yes"
and "amen," it has to be done, and this is a task for every day, until it is done. And, as you know by experience, it's not done that simply. All that pertains to subconsciousness follows a psychological rule: repetition. Unless you can reach the subconscious directly by its opposite, super conscious, you have to follow the rule of repetition. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until the new pattern is established on that same level. Let's make a practical example. Suppose you tune into Christ right now. Now when I say this, some of you try a little bit, some hesitate and so on, but you always find when you tune to Christ that the tendency is to automatically go "up." It's funny. That entity called the Planetary Logos has been incarnated for 2,000 years now, has taken the planet as a body. Is there any reason, any reasonable reason, for you to,look elsewhere when he is here? Your reaction is a subconscious one which defies even your own logic (which actually happens all the time), so it takes some time to adjust the functioning of consciousness to the fact that that entity you are looking for is really here. You don't see it simply because you are blinded by an old pattern. What I want you to become aware of is precisely that patterning. It's not a question of it being "right" or "wrong," that's not the point. The point is that patterns are playing, and you learn to make those patterns more relative and little by little come to trust what you live, in spite of the patterns. That takes some training. As another example: I have said the principle i's to bring down to earth that which is on the other side of that divide, that gap which the Alice Bailey books call the "ring-pass-not." You may think that first you have to reach what is on the other side of the divide, but this is precisely the old pattern. I have told you many times that the gap has been very effective up to now, but little by little you have to learn to take it practically instead of theoretically. It's changing only now -- this incarnation for you, not previously. So bridging the gap is brand new, and you have to deal with an awareness(subconscious, conscious, and super conscious) that was patterned at a time when you couldn't cross the divide because there was no bridge. Having no bridge you have always had a faint memory of something existing on the other side. When you are incarnated you don't remember where you came from, you have lost your memory, but a little bit of it, undefined, unformulated, still exists and creates a longing for that which is on the other side of that blank. I want you to become aware that this is the pattern as it was. We are here to begin the bridging of the gap, meaning that which is on the other side begins to come through -- and this changes the whole situation. But you have to realize that you have very strong patterns printed in the making of the persona, not just you personally speaking, but everywhere on earth. All the personas on earth have that patterning that implies the faint memory of something on the other side, and therefore the need, the urge, to go there. You don't have it here so you try to leave here to go there. But with what is coming, and the bridging of the gap, the "there" comes here. Of course it changes everything, including the "here." Do you have questions relating to the Easter symbolism and the coming change? Participant: Up to the last Easter session I had experienced a lot of pressure for something to happen, and I guess I was probably expecting something to come of that evening. After I left here I felt a deep sense of sadness. I just stayed with that until the next morning. I got up and I was very irritable. I went to work and I was irritable with everyone around me. Then I had to go to the store. I left, and I was by myself in my car, when I remembered to go back to loving God.
As soon as I did that I sensed the sadness disappear. My irritability went away. I realized I was doing exactly what you were talking about: I was reaching for something and missed what was going on. As soon as I brought myself back into loving God, it put me back in touch with something that already is and freed me of that condition. I guess what I want to ask is the best way to continue loving God? Martin: I would like to say yes, but I don't dare to, because these are words. If your love is real it works every time. But is your love real every time? Let's take an example. This time, as you described, it did work. Now let's suppose you come into another situation and you suddenly remember that the last time you loved God it worked, so you do it again. It might or might not work, depending on how alive your love is, but the incentive, the prime motivation, is certainly not good -- meaning you use loving God to solve a problem. Your interest is in solving the situation not in God. See what I mean? This is always A tricky situation, so when you ask in general if it is a good way to do it, I have to say "certainly," but it's not foolproof. And by experience I have to say that if I said it is the best way, you will find a lot of people starting to love God for the sake of solving problems -- not for loving God. Then is doesn't work. So they would be entitled to say it doesn't work. Still I would have to say that it does work, every time. But you have to realize what you do. Incidentally, your example shows that something did happen at the session. You simply took some time to realize it because there was an expectancy. You have to find a way to break the pattern of expectancy. So, for instance, seen from that angle, your loving God was the breaking of the pattern -- then you were free to enjoy the other situation. This is a very important point. Few of you realize that you stay more or less blind to what is going on simply because of patterns of expectation. You might also begin to realize why I gave you the practice of living finer and finer, facing "Other" or facing Christ -- but with intelligent relaxation. If I take your example, you will notice that expectation creates a tension, and the practice of relaxation allows you to recognize the tension and let go. You broke the pattern by loving God, you could have broken the pattern by recognizing it and relaxing. I say "Could have" because you need some practice with relaxing so that you really can do it. But suppose you had that practice, then it would have been another way to join what was present in you since the prior evening. Participant: Until it broke I wasn't aware I was in it. Once it went away I recognized it. Somehow I have to be able to acknowledge it as it starts and let it go then. Martin: You know in the experience of training, as it goes, first you recognize what happens after it happens. Then you recognize as it happens. If you continue, you recognize it as it starts building up. For all practical purposes you are never free of old patterns. After you have mastered your own personal tendencies, you still have the tendencies of the society around that your persona is sensitive to and picks up as its own. So it's up to you to establish the balance you want. And I have to repeat that it's not a matter of judgment, it's a matter of understanding the dynamics of consciousness and what is related to it, so that you can use them when you need them, but can also stop a movement when you need to stop it. It's not a matter of "right" or "wrong," it's simply a matter of dealing with existing functions.
Other questions? Participant: In practicing finer and finer, I'm not certain that I'm doing it right. I start with the best that I can do at loving God, and then when I practice finer and finer, it seems that practicing finer and finer is just an extension of loving God. When I try to put my attention on something subtle and "Other," I'm still back where I started from. I don't seem to get out of it. I don't seem to be aware of something else than that. I don't know if that's correct. Martin: You give a pretty good description. The first step is always to be aware of what you do. You are pretty aware of what you do, but you are not very sure that it is how it has to work. It's good that you come up with the question, because you all have to understand this point. We spoke a moment ago of the old tendency to go beyond that gap, beyond that ring-pass-not, reaching up, and so on. When you practice finer, you look for something fine or finer that you have known up to now. It's the same pattern. When I watch you speaking of finer, nothing in your body moves. Finer does not imply getting into finer regions, but living as a whole and everything getting finer. You exude fineness -- not just in your consciousness, but throughout the whole structure, comedian and persona both. This means that when you live finer you feel the movement all over -- not only finer regions, they do come, yes they do, but all the structures begin to vibrate at a much finer rate. One experience that is very definite, very concrete, is that sometime during one of your practices you will experience being completely transparent. I wonder if you have noticed that when you look "higher": loving God, addressing Christ, facing "Other," facing whatever is higher, you always have a kind of veil. The atmosphere is not completely clear. You might be so used to the veil that you don't notice it. Like the people in LA who live with smog. They don't know what clear atmosphere is, they have lost possibly even the concept of it. I use this example because this is precisely what happens. You see through a kind of veil. If you are aware of it you will notice that it is as if between you and your subject of observation there is a haze that has some light in it. You know if you take a photograph on a hazy day, the haze will show stronger in the picture than it will show for your eyes, because your eyes make the correction automatically and the film doesn't. This haze brings some unwanted light between the subject and yourself, so that you don't see the subject as clearly. If you watch closely you will notice that veil. When you live finer, finer, there comes a moment when what you see is perfectly clear -- no haze whatsoever - - and believe me you notice it. It's like with the previous participant, once you experience it then you realize that there was a haze. It does not mean that the haze will not come back, it will, nearly instantly, but at least you know that there is another position and you can come back to it. But practicing implies living it, and in your question, for instance, you speak of a practice that reaches toward something. No, you live it right here. I will try to give you another clue.let's say, for instance, that you know you are here. You're sitting on a chair in this room. You have the known feeling of being right here, not somewhere on the street, but right here in this room. Don't analyze it, you don't need to, just feel being here. Now, keep that feeling of being here when you live finer and finer, and live it so that very feeling of being here is touched and lived finer. Then you will notice that there comes a kind of radiation of fineness. So start collecting the feeling of being here -- very concrete, not special at all, very ordinary. In that feeling you come
with all higher life that might come through, not only finer, finer, but whatever you live. Does this make sense for you? I hope it helps. Other questions? Participant: I was reading in your book about attention, and I was confused about the ad-tension, tension in the direction of. I can't understand it as far as relaxing goes. Martin: This is a good question, it reminds me to tell you a few things I forgot. All the functions in the persona proceed along the principle of establishing a tension between points. With the relaxation exercise there is simply the proposition of finding dynamics that don't work the same way. If you look at those roses in the middle of the room you establish a tension. The only way not to establish a tension is to look with the roses. If you look at someone there is a tension, but if you look with, the tension is gone -- meaning you function in a way that is different. I do not say that one way is right and the other is wrong, it simply happens that a basic principle in the persona is to work along the line of tension and you want to realize that there are other modes. In electricity, if there is no tension, there is no electricity -- it's the same principle. You cannot say electricity is wrong, it's simply the way it works. okay, the persona, under the guidance of ego, works along the line of tension. Or if you want to express it psychologically: all possessiveness implies tension. If you can relax all tensions you have no possessiveness whatsoever -- not even over your own identity. For instance, if you learn to relax you can enter into syntony with another -- you enter and you sing or dance or move in the same way. Incidentally, when you help someone, there has to be a syntony. So when someone speaks, don't look at them, don't listen at them (meaning you create a duality) -- look with, listen. Then you might be able to make modifications in the life that the other one cannot yet make, and you might, in practicing these modifications, solve some of the problems at hand. Then you can communicate. Then you can say things. But as you say them, you live them. Then, as you live with the other, the person senses it, instead of just hearing words. You need no tension. But you can follow all the tensions happening in the persona of the other one. Then there is a further step -- symbiosis -- in which you completely live as the other one lives. That kind of "You" doesn't create tension. So, as far as training is concerned, you have to establish a control on the tension side so that you can keep the balance of tensions in a safe zone. Then you must also discover what works without tension. And to make the difference between the two modes is very important, because when you live a condition that comes from the other side of the gap, figuratively speaking, if you are fully relaxed you can live it clearly. There is no possessiveness, it's simply so, it's simply here. But the tendency of the persona is to grab it. You make a picture of it, you establish some sort of possessiveness and you start telling yourself that you have to do something with it. You introduce tensions instantly, and most of the time you lose the original livance, because you cover it up with tension functions. It's mode is the reverse -- no tension. So you have to go into the no-tension state again. So stop wanting to do something with it and let it be. Let it be as long as is needed for your persona to get used to it. What you don't realize is that to keep your persona in touch with that no-tension condition educates the persona by itself. Persona begins to realize its different nature, it begins to respect it, and begins to let it act of its own authority, instead of
the persona being the sole authority in the whole territory. This is the risk you take when the gap that is limiting you begins to be lifted. The center of gravity is no longer in the persona. Actually it has never been, but for the persona there is the illusion. It strikes me lately, because of what is going on, how much you can function with an awareness that belongs to this part of the century, or let us say, from your birth date, and you deal with this situation as if it were the only situation you know. Of course you know also that you have been incarnated before, but this is not taken into consideration. Do you take into consideration that you might have had prior training and that prior training could come out? Do you take into consideration that you have abilities pertaining to that prior training to which you are completely blinded simply because you deal with a local awareness instead of a holistic awareness? With the action going on we cover thousands of years. What about prior training? For this you have to look with a relaxed awareness, because the tense awareness doesn't know a thing about it. Let me give you an example of what happened to me long ago. A friend of our family made my horoscope and told me that I had the power to make the occult more concrete. At that time I was just starting to study and I found it fantastic. I was completely elated, but I was also fully aware that nothing was operative and that I didn't know what it meant -- but it sounded good. Later on I forgot about it, but obviously I can do it. It didn't come as a self-fulfilling prophesy because I did forget about it, it came because of a lot of work. You might think you have a training from the past, and you might imagine what kind of training, but for all practical purposes that power might not work, and for me it certainly didn't at that time. Even if I imagined whatever I might have imagined,and I certainly did, nothing worked. But the man was right and now I can acknowledge it. So memory of past training does not mean that you can function accordingly, it simply means the ability has already worked, so you have to rework to adjust the persona -- but it does go faster. Let us take another example of the illusions existing. We spoke earlier of the baptism of Jesus. Does anyone know what happened at that time? At that time, and for a long time prior to that, there existed techniques in which you could relax the bonding between the persona and comedian. So you had the high initiate Jesus and he had trained up to that time to give that body over to Christ. There is a way to do it. It's not known to the general public, but it's known in occult training. The one baptizing has to know this technique, he has to know what is coming, in this instance Christ, and he has to adjust the connections so that they fit Christ. This is highly sophisticated and highly technical and this is completely forgotten. Absolutely and completely forgotten. I tell you this so that you may beware of your minds. Real situations are a lot richer than they appear. There is so much that is lost. So be very careful with your minds. Incidentally when you learn to relax, I have to insist on one point: do it intelligently. This means with very keen interest. Once you are a bit handy in the practice you will be surprised at how you can, for instance, relate a physical tension, or even any ailment, to an emotional tension, a mental tension, or a combination of these. Then you can have fun playing with it. For instance, you release a physical tension and you realize that an emotional tension goes. or you release an emotional tension and you realize that you relax physically. That's highly interesting. You begin to realize the relation that is called psychosomatic, not by reading about it in books but lived --
without need of explanation. You don't need to know a theory when you have the actual experience. Then you begin to observe interrelations. Thus you learn to know how a persona functions -- provided you practice finer, finer, facing "Other." "Other" has to be present all the time because your discoveries don't go along the way the mind thinks. Then in that climate you relax and see what happens -- livance -wise not mind-wise. You live the condition. All this to introduce a new situation. As I have said, when we go along what I have called the symbolic path of incarnation, the reaching up has to go in favor of what is coming down. It is also known that what comes down comes down of its own authority -- the mind cannot compel it in any way. Steiner says what is from soul comes from soul. By this he means that there are so many people who "think" soul, or who try to compel soul to show itself. No, if soul wants to show itself, it shows itself of its own authority. If the comedian wants to take over, it takes over from its own authority. If Atman wants to take over, it takes over from its own authority. It has always taken over but the persona is blind. Now the time comes when the persona stops being fully blind, meaning something really comes through, and the persona must learn to respect it. So live that finest of fine conditions and learn to stay with it. This is your base. Stay with it until the person begins to be able to formulate. Don't be too hasty, if you are too hasty you lose the base and keep only images. Related to this, I recommend that when you work, if Christ is not known to you, use "Other". By "known" I mean you can live Christ without any reference. It has a very specific quality to it. If you cannot, do not use an image. Christ quality will come naturally when "Other" begins to be really lived. The change coming on is this. Practically speaking, we are equipped to bring through the divide what is on the other side. We open the bridge. By "well I don't mean the two of us, I mean there is a "we action. What we would like to do is to concentrate fully and completely on the task of awakening in you, reinforcing in you those aspects that belong to the other side of the gap, so that you may live them until your persona can acknowledge them, until a different awareness dawns in you, an awareness that is not dependent on your minds, or emotions, or sensations. As you know, we are equipped for that, and the burden of dealing with you persona -wise is getting too big. And it's not really helpful, contrary to what you might think. Meaning it maintains you in a position of processing persona-wise, rather than acknowledging what is done. As an example, every once in a while, one of you is asked what we do as a group, and you don't know what to say. This always makes me smile, because it is defined quite clearly in The Statement of Purpose. Incarnating the Principle/principles is a reality. We do it in front of you. It's part of the task. We do the sounding all the time. You might not hear it, but we do it anyway. We have often spoken, and even worked a little bit with centers of awareness. When you really work in the sense of incarnating, it implies the sounding, the radiation. You center on a center of awareness, you sound it, and everyone responds. When we do it, it works. When you do it, it ought to work too. The difference is simply a difference in training. It has to be done until, when you sound a certain center, that note responds all over, whether the others are fully conscious or not. Some are more sensitive and some are less, but group-wise you can perfectly well see how the response goes. That kind of test is absolutely needed. You have to come out of the dream - the dream of reaching that, of being able to do that. It's not a reaching up it's a coming down.
Take another example. We have spoken of the subconscious, which is that part on the instinctive or nature side that is not yet conscious. And I told you that one of the ways of dealing with it is to create new patterns -- repeating and repeating until it sinks in. There are several other ways. one is to deal with the opposite, on the super conscious side, and bring it down all the way. There is another way. You live Christ and you begin to realize that the simple fact of living Christ reaches all the way down into the subconscious. This is possibly the simplest way, but it has to be real, otherwise it doesn't work. So the proposition is that from now on we will work with you either silently, or with music, essentially with that part of yourself that pertains to what is on the other side of the gap, and the bridging of the gap to make your persona sensitive to it. This is actually true occult work, it does not require words. But it would oblige you to stay with what you live and more especially with what you live during the practice that you cannot express in any known way. You know the usual tendency is to describe to yourself what you live: "This I understand." "This I know already." These are abstractions from the mind, and you learn to skip all that completely, and stay with what is lived -- again, and again, and again, until there is the dawning of an awareness pertaining to that condition, which creates a relation with the persona. But this implies that all the training pertaining to the persona has to be done by you and under your responsibility. It has always been so, but in the past I have tried to help you along. Yesterday someone asked if it implies working this out alone. I suggest that as a whole group you work at least once a month, and it even occurred to me that this is precious little, unless you set very definite tasks and you really work on them. Then within a month you can bring out something. But it also means that the life and development and the action of the group is taken over by you. Is the group doomed to be self-enclosed or will it open out and you will become available to others? This is for you to find out. Is the group going to become a breeding ground of dissent, or is it going to be a group of true friends, each relating with the other as what you really are? Helping each other as such. Under these conditions, opinion is never a point to be considered -- just plain never. What the other lives is important. I could repeat something I have already said. When you express your opinion, you never express what you really live. It's an abstraction, sometimes an abstraction so clumsy that you insist on an opinion that you don't even have. If you are among true friends you go back to what you truly live -- always, systematically. If you derail somewhere and you need help to re-rail, that's the work of the group. Also, something else. When you work constructively in groups, the larger the numbers, the more intense the climate, the more intense the climate, the easier the task. It is a lot easier to be one group, wholeheartedly pursuing a definite task than working alone. There is an old rule that says the power of one person is one, the power of two persons is four, the power of three is that of nine, and so on. This is one of the reasons that in the time to come group action will be taken very seriously. The same applies in the reverse, if you want to destroy, but apparently it's not the goal of our groups. There is another point. Chronically, through the years, some people have preferred to come only to the groups where I am present and not to the others. In the new situation this has to go. If what
we do is not complimented by the working out through the persona it is useless. You will gather a hint of what is going on, but you will have to work it out in another incarnation. There is no way you can participate in what we two do here (and we two is more than we two), and bring out something with only that. it has to be worked throughout the persona, and whatever practice is done in the persona is not done to reach higher but to bring that out. You have to remember the tendency is to go back to the old mode, and all of you have to be very attentive. If you have a group session and suddenly someone realizes you are reaching up, someone must say so. Anyone can suddenly become aware of that. When you do an exercise you can be completely caught in the interesting technical points, so completely caught that the exercise becomes the goal and you miss why you do the exercise. So everyone must be attentive. Everyone can get caught, but there are always one or two who realize that something is wrong. The exercise is never a goal in itself. The exercise does not originate the movement. What originates the movement is what we do together. It's a point in occult history you might not be aware of that you cannot bring it through by yourself, so we have to help you. Once it's under way then you can go on, but we have to open the door for you. This is one of the reasons why we are here, and this is one of the reasons why we work together. This change will allow us to do what we are meant to do, and you will become more responsible at what you are meant to do. The whole group has to become useful, and you cannot become useful by giving out theories, you have to come out with something that really works. Now the question. Do you accept that we take this step? How many of you, may I see it? Seems to be everyone. Good, it was the same yesterday. So you are stuck with it. Now in a moment we are going to play a piece of Paganini. As you know from experience, we have used Paganini many times and I think practically every time to work with the A center. In the new training I want you to become aware that the music played cannot be related to any past experience, because these are known references. If you start thinking that you have to center on A because we play Paganini you might be completely wrong, as you will notice in a moment. There are many ways of using music. There are many octaves, there are many levels that are related if you know the symbolic language. If you don't know it, live what is happening and respect that. Don't try to bring it down to any concept or feeling you might have. Live it whole and stay with it. Yesterday I was asked something about the consequences of your decision. We will be in a situation where we will work without speaking. We will work with silence, with music, or with both -- only that. You will learn to dwell with what is going on without analyzing it. You will learn to keep that livance and stay with it. You have heard me say very often that I see you differently than your see yourselves. This is always true. We see on both sides of the divide, but we address mainly what is on the other side and incidentally what is on this side (the persona). This you will notice when we work with the music. It addresses mainly what you really are and that does respond. The more we do it, the more familiar that other side will become, until you can shift the center of gravity to that socalled other side, which is actually the same side, it's simply that there is a blindness.
You decide to take a holiday away from everything. Perhaps you land on another planet, but definitely away from human pressure as you know it -- away from your own persona and all the personas of the world. You are just there, enjoying the climate, the sunshine, and so forth, completely free of every personal movement. I would suggest that you dare to do it. It pertains to what we are going to do. You might not realize it right now because you haven't done it, but one day you will do it and it will work. And you will be surprised at how differently you can live without the burden of the persona. I don't say that you will be aware of, let us say, heaven, no it's not that. You will be free of the weight of the persona and realize that you are a free being. You really are. So I suggest that you practice this, but it means you have to actually practice, because if you try right now to take that holiday, placing yourself in the middle of nowhere just enjoying the sunshine, or perhaps on another planet, the first thing you will notice is that you cannot do it. You simply cannot free yourself from the weight of your persona. So some practice of relaxing will begin to awaken that sense of another condition that does not create tensions because it works differently. Then you can make the jump and just take holidays -- even for only five seconds. Then you will become aware that, yes, there is that other condition, and even if you have not the awareness linked to it, at least you have the feeling, the livance, that you cannot define but that sounds so clearly. And little by little you establish the connection between the two -- meaning you recognize the presence of that other condition, right within the persona. So now we are going to play that Paganini. Just live it. Don't try to analyze. Focus rather on the climate of what is going on. ( music ) So here we have one situation. Now we are going to play another piece of Paganini, this time we will introduce the Christ factor. Of course, the Christ factor is never absent, but it's not really evident now. When we play the next pieces you will notice the difference. So again, don't analyze the difference. Simply be in the climate and you might recognize that the climate is different. That's all. And you stay with it. Little by little, practicing that, you become aware, livance -wise not mind-wise. Or if you want another word, you become aware experientially of the qualities of the work. Little by little you recognize them. You can work without Christ presence, you can work with Christ presence, but there is a very definite difference. Christ activity is a definite activity, so there is a definite difference. How you are going to act on that in your consciousness -- well, that's what you do. The symbol you are going to use to anchor that is your own symbol. You might adopt a universal symbol, or a personal symbol. You can translate in terms of light, you can translate in terms of song, you can translate in terms of images... whatever. But be sure before you make any abstraction or symbolic representation that you live that condition perfectly, so that when, if you bring the symbol down to your consciousness, every time the consciousness touches the symbol, that life automatically comes up. That's the relation between symbol and life. The symbol is knowingly established as a symbol, not as being "it." The abstraction or representation is accepted as being symbolic so that when the symbol is used the presence of the condition or climate is here again. But live the climate first, and repeatedly, until it's very clear.
So let's go on to the next piece. ( music ) As you can see, the climate is different. The proposition is not to analyze the difference, but to stay living with it in whatever is active. And I have to say "in whatever is active" because if you could see yourselves as I see you, you would find it very interesting. There are a few of you who respond quite intensely to the Christ factor, meaning you have had, let us say, a Christian training, and I don't mean a religious training. It gives a very specific color. You have to learn to respond to it by yourself. When you feel it in you, not as something to reach, but as something that is here, then you bring it all the way down into your sense of being here. But the bringing all the way down is done by living it overall as is, not transforming it into a persona, not transforming the persona into it -- nothing of this. Just let it be present. You will notice that if you do only that, stay with your experience without grabbing it, then the whole climate of the group will change. Your personas will become transparent -- which means they will let that which is present trans- appear throughout. So we will play two pieces of Chopin and that will be it. ( music )