A Harmonically Distributed Sensation—Part II

Pediment of the sarcophagus of the abbot Raymond de Montpezat, 

Moissac, France

When we investigate the question of sensation, we need to begin very low down within the body, and within Being. 

Not quite sure how to explain this. 

Let's try this, which is inaccurate but close: 

none of the effort to establish a solid foundation of Being "begins" as such with the higher rates of vibration energy that we're capable of receiving. 

This higher energy can feed the foundation of Being; and because it is such a powerful force, when we encounter it, we always look up towards it because it’s wonderful—and we never knew that such bliss was available. 

One may become hypnotized by avidity, the idea of getting more of that.

What we too often fail to do is look downward, to what we stand on. 

 It’s worth  referring here to Matthew 16, in which Christ told Simon that he was Peter (the rock) upon which he would build his church. This rock is the foundation of one’s harmonic sense of Being, one’s organic sense of Being, and it recognizes the emergence of Being from the living nature of God through our sensation.

 We can think of God all we want. Human beings have been doing that for thousands of years. 

But it's not enough to think of the living quality of God as a force. One must sense the living quality of God as a force. Swedenborg called it the inflow; Jeanne de Salzmann called it an influence. Either way, it's the living force of Being which arrives within our molecules first, and then concentrates in ourselves, increasingly, as a slowly but steadily intensifying vibration-of-Being. 

A study through one's own intimate sensation will directly verify that this vibration emanates from the sacred Om, the fundamental tone of the universe (from which Gurdjieff’s sacred chant Aieioiuoa, the foundation of the vowel-based language of the angelic kingdoms, also emerges.) It carries within it the very life-force of Being itself, sometimes referred to as prana. We all know of Gurdjieff’s written contempt for the word; yet ignore his superficial dismissal. The actual Gurdjieff practice is in fact very deeply invested in the effort to come into contact with this living force of Being than his writings indicate.

We can only cultivate such an inner impression looking downwards. By forming a relationship with the level below us, upon which we then stand within our Being.  

This level rests in the permanent sensation of Being, from which all other inner manifestation must arise. 

It doesn't rely on words or concepts in order to sense and receive impressions of the world; it rests within perfect silence and stillness to receive impressions. Once it's awakened, it's inviolable, and isn't touched by the mind and its nonsense. 

Meditation exercises may bring people to a temporary sense of this. From my experience, they get awed and excited about it, because they had no idea that such a depth of inner Being and sensation was available. Even the least contact with may produce an excessive counter-reaction if it isn’t properly developed; and that has the paradoxical effect (often described by people who are struggling with this question) of undermining it and causing it to dissolve. The ego overpowers and steals the energy that the physical center needs to sense itself. 

If one understands the question from the other end of this particular stick, that is, through an awakened and permanent sensation, one can even see this happening— another aim of the work, although it can’t be clearly seen except "from the other side." De Salzmann attempted to explain this in her journals, which give some helpful indicators about the kind of work that's necessary.

Of course, many preparations don’t help... we meditate. We go to collective events where we all get together and share a pool of generated energy, which helps. Then off we go to our own individual life and we discover that there is no durability to our sensation. 

We can’t stay connected to it.

I bring up this question of looking inwardly down into the details because it is so essential. Sources as diverse as Meister Eckhart’s last sermon and Peter Brook speak of such matters; yet the discussion of it is, in a certain sense, parenthetical and outwardly directed. 

Just paying attention with the outer parts to the texture of the wood on one’s desk or the way that the shadow of the eyeglasses falls on it is not enough. 

Something has to take place before this. An inward attention, wholly contained within Being in an action of pranayama.  

That action does not take place through the intellectual mind. It has to begin within the sensation.

Wishing the best for you on this day,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.