Go Out and Live, Part 3— a Single Action of Being

Cairn at St. Martin Du Canigou

 Photograph by the author

As the parts of me that are able to perceive life in a more complete manner begin to cooperate more fully, I see the peculiar and extraordinary way in which impressions form inner tendrils that connect themselves to one another within me, in much the same way that fungi form mycorrhizae (innumerable tiny threadlike rootlets.) These rootlets— which can actually be physically sensed at times, a fascinating experience — connect the elements of my being, the totality of my physical, intellectual, and emotional impressions, in a single network that supports the existence and function of my psyche. I begin to see more specifically that the fragments of my impressions can be gathered together into greater wholes. What is perhaps even more interesting is how so many different wildly disparate impressions of life, which involve every single aspect of the many worlds we inhabit, come together in a single action of being. 

 The manifestation of the work within me, the way that it arises within the inner darkness of my own Being (actually a Being of countless much tinier creatures, which I supervise) relies on how soundly I digest my impressions by the work of the three different faculties which receive them, and how well they integrate themselves with one another. The more fully integrated they are, the more food I receive, and the healthier my psyche is. So it’s my responsibility to become more sensitive, more aware, more intelligent, more obedient to this process in order to see how I am and what my life really means.

 This idea of a single action of being, which has become its own thread of discourse in my examinations of life, is the purpose of my inner work. That is only a beginning premise; because the single action of being by itself only matters in a relationship, and, just like the bacteria on the floor of the ocean, or the centers I have which come into relationship with one another, it is only in the coming into relationship with others that I can contribute the elements of Being that they do not have to their support in life; and that they can do the same for me. In this way, it’s possible to see that all communities and relationships are built on the same premise of supporting one another so that we make up for the lack that the other has, understanding that they will do the same for us (we hope) so that all of us benefit in supporting our efforts to live responsibly and with an intelligence and love towards one another that helps us feed ourselves both individually and as a community.

 This was what Gurdjieff called the law of reciprocal feeding; and if we study biology carefully, we can see the way in which the material universe and all of creation is structured in a manner to support the development of the psyche, the spirit and the soul, to a very subtle kind of reciprocal feeding which, though it may have its roots in the material world, provides a molecular path for the evolution of the spiritual within the conscious range of living beings.

—Part 3 of an essay written November 18, 2018, Sparkill, NY

warm regards,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.