Keys To Self-Remembering: The Healing Armonya

 

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

–Matthew 25:13

It was around the Spring of the year 2000 that the introducer of yoga in Spain recommended me to read In Search of the Miraculous to understand Gurdjieff, since I had asked him about the Armenian teacher and his music. I was barely 18 years old and bought the book immediately, realizing I had found what my soul was looking for. Of course, I did not fully understand all the book was telling, but a few passages got my attention and were somehow familiar, as if something in me had already come across this Teaching, somewhere, somwhow.

And while reading Ouspensky´s testimony of Gurdjieff way of teaching, it was shocking to me finding out how Master Iesous already told his disciples to wake up, remain awake.

And Gurdjieff related this to the third state of consciousness called Self-Remembering, different from dreaming sleep and dreaming waking:

Self-consciousness is the moment when a man is aware both of himself and of his machine. We have it in flashes, but only in flashes. There are moments when you become aware not only of what you are doing but also of yourself doing it. You see both ‘I’ and the ‘here’ of ‘I am here’- both the anger and the ‘I’ that is angry. Call this self-remembering, if you like. Now when you are fully and always aware of the ‘I’ and what it is doing, you become conscious of yourself.

–G.I. Gurdjieff ,Views From the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff (New York: E.P.Dutton, 1973), pp. 79-80.

Initially I thought this was just part of a russian jargon, since Gurdjieff explained there is a russian expression mentioned when one forgets about something important and suddenly comes to his senses to remember it. 

Yet nothing far from the truth. Right in the New Testament we see one of the two thieves tell the crucified Christ:

Yeshu, remember me when you come to your Kingdom (Luke 23:42)

Discovering the depth of that whole passage in all its details took me over twenty years of inner work and search, but it would take some in-depth explanations which might be too much for this brief introduction. Maybe in another occasion. Just keep in mind true Self-Remembering comes when we are touched by the vibration of the Witnessing Master within us. the Holy Spirit of Truth, having an uplifting of body sensations, feelings and mentation. A true common sense, as Pythagoreans would say.

As for the the two thieves, these represent the opposites and contraries of existence which drain our energy: something inside likes and does´t like, I sleeps or wakes up, says yes or no to one circumstance. Yet the true Master is the Intelligence of Life that reconciles in the middle. 

Now, this is not something we can experience in the first state of consciousness, which is dreaming while sleeping on bed. A state not too disimilar to the wrongly called waking state, which is full of a stream of mechanical associations, and therefore is another type of dreaming.

Gurdjieff with Ouspensky and some others, early XXth century

According to the Armenian teacher of dances, self-remembering is the third state of consciousness, the only possibility to access a fourth state of consciousness he called Objective Conscience. Again, a brilliant term which finds echoes in the so called Fourth or Turiya in Vedanta Advaita, which speaks of a Witnessing State where we start seeing things as they really are; although the richness found in Yeshu´s teaching concerning awakening and later transfiguration exceed by far any oriental teaching.

The Buddha got close speaking of the middle way and the eighthfold path of right intention, right attention, right concentration, right thought, right feeling, right effort, right word, right action.

When the Awakened One walks, he´s aware of it; when the Awakened One lays down, he´s aware of it; when the Awakened One eats, he´s aware of it...(Canon Pali, Buddha´s Sermons)

Not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves.You do not  feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, ‘it observes’ just as ‘it speaks,’ it thinks,’ it laughs.’ You do not feel:I observe, I notice,I see.

In order to really observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself. (He emphasized the see words). Try to remember yourselves when you observe yourselves and later on tell me the results. Only those results will have any value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourself do not exist in your observations. In which case what are all your observations worth?

[...]

The very first attempts showed me how difficult it was. Atempts at self-remembering failed to give any results except to show me that in actual fact whenever remember ourselves. 

“What else do you want?” said G. “This is a very important realization. People who know this (he emphasized these words) already know a great deal. The whole trouble is that nobody knows it.If you ask a man whether  he can remember himself, he will of course answer that he can. If you tell him  that he cannot remember himself, he will either be angry with you, or he will think you an utter fool. The whole of life is based on this, the whole of human existence, the whole of human blindness. If a man really knows that he cannot remember himself, he is already near to the understanding of his being.”

[...]

I realized that moments of self-remembering do occur in life, though rarely. Only the deliberate production of these moments created the sensation of novelty. Actually I had been familiar with the m from early childhood. They came in either  new or unexpected surroundings, in a new place, among new people while travel- ling, for instance, when suddenly one looks about one and says: How strange! 

I and in this place; or in very emotional moments, in moments of danger, in moments when it is necessary to keep one’s head, when one hears one’s own voice and sees and observes oneself from the outside. I saw quite clearly that my first recollections of life, in my own case very early ones, were moments of self- remembering. This last realization revealed much else to me. That is, I saw that  I really only remember those moments of the past in which I remembered myself. Of the others I knew only that they took place. I am not able wholly to revive them, to experience them again.But the moments when I had remembered myself we realive and were in no way diferent from the present.

–In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ouspensky  (New York: Harcourt, 2001), pp. 117-119.

After studying that wonderful work in depth my soul felt the need to work deeper and over a period of twenty five years I experienced many stages in the work, coming across different people in the field, from many countries. And of course, all my experiences led to develop ENArmonya, a project that keeps growing.

Now, here we have other interesting quotes on the magic of self-remembering. Enjoy and awake, if you dare:

“A man cannot remember himself because he tries to do so with his mind-at least, in the beginning. Self-remembering begins with self-sensing. It must be done through the instinctive-motor centre and the emotional center. Mind alone does not constitute a human being any more than the driver is the whole equipage. The centre of gravity of change is in the moving and emotional centres, but these are concerned only with the present; the mind looks ahead. The wish to change, to be what one ought to be, must be in our emotional centre, and the ability to do in our body. The feelings may be strong, but the body is lazy, sunk in inertia. Mind must learn the language of the body and feelings, and this is done by correct observation of self. One of the benefits of self-remembering is that one has the possibility of making fewer mistakes in life. But for complete self-remembering all centres must work simultaneously; and they must be artificially stimulated; the mental centre from the outside, the other two from inside. You must distinguish between sensation, emotions, and thoughts; and say to each sensation, emotion, and thought, “Remind me to remember you”, and for this you must have an “I”. And you must begin by separating inner things from outer, to separate “I” from “It”.” (14) C.S. Nott Teachings of Gurdjieff: The Journal of a Pupil (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974), p. 37.)

“In a moment of self-remembering, body, soul and spirit are all aligned. Understanding flows between them. Therefore, in a moment of self-remembering we have no sense of time, we have no fear, we have no doubt. Forget ourselves again and time, fear and doubt return. But in self-remembering they have no place. It is true freedom.”

–Rodney Collin, The Theory of Conscious Harmony

“When true self-remembering comes, one does not want to alter oneself, or others; one somehow rises above their weaknesses and one’s own. There can be no blame anywhere. One swallows what is, and becomes free.”–Rodney Collin, The Theory of Conscious Harmony

“Now I begin to feel that that all that is important comes in quietness and waiting; activity should be only the working out, the digesting and putting forth of what one learned, so that one may become empty again to receive more.”–Rodney Collin, The Theory of Conscious Harmony

“To feel beauty, to feel truth, that is self-remembering. Self-remembering is the awareness of the presence of God.”–Rodney Collin, The Theory of Conscious Harmony.

In order to do this one must struggle with mechanical thoughts, and one must struggle with imagination.

If one does this conscientiously and persistently one will see results in a comparatively short time. But one must not think that it is easy or that one can master this practice immediately.

Self-remembering, as it is called, is a very difficult thing to learn to practice. It must not be based on an expectation of results, otherwise one can identify with one’s efforts. It must be based on the realization of the fact that we do not remember ourselves, and that at the same time we can remember ourselves if we try sufficiently hard and in the right way.

We cannot become conscious at will, at the moment when we want to, because we have no command over states of consciousness. But we can remember ourselves for a short time at will, because we have a certain command over our thoughts. And if we start remembering ourselves, by the special construction of our thoughts–that is, by the realization that we do not remember ourselves, that nobody remembers himself, and by realizing all that this means–this will bring us to consciousness.

You must remember that we have found the weak spot in the walls of our mechanicalness. This is the knowledge that we do not remember ourselves; and the realization that we can try to remember ourselves. Up to this moment our task has only been self-study. Now, with the understanding of the necessity for actual change in ourselves, work begins.”— Ouspensky, “Fourth Lecture,” Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution, p. 93-94.

“Without the relationship with higher energy, life has no meaning. The higher energy is the permanent Self, but you have no connection with that. For that connection, a fine substance needs to be generated. Otherwise, the energy of the body is too low to make contact with the very high energy which comes from above. You must persist—stay in front of the lack. Gradually, arrange to be in conditions which help you.”

— Jeanne de Salzmann, Heart Without Measure

Unveiling the Grail

 

Hundreds of years have passed since Grail stories of chivalry circulated through European medieval courts and roads, with their knights in pursuit of the Grail or/and distant ladies. And although it may seem like something outdated, it actually represents a purely Western spiritual paradigm, rarely understood in its true inner dimension, since people like pink sauce more, with stories of love affairs, ecclesiastical immorality, inquisitions, persecutions with Templars, genetic descendants of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, all of them popularized in novels such as The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet or even The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

But the truth about the Grail stories is very different. There are multiple stories in the Arthurian cycles, and although each one seems different, they seem rather  aspects of the same teaching, full of incredible nuances.

This cannot be understood without understanding the symbolism behind the figure of King Arthur and his knights, which was popularized in the Celtic work Historia Regué Britanniae, by the Welsh clergyman Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the 12th century. In these stories Arthur appears as a rather mythological figure, a bastard son of King Uther Pendragon, who, disguising himself, sneaked into the royal bed, posing as the husband of the Duchess of Cornwall.

That is to say, the story does not begin well, because in those times illegitimate children were seen in a worse light than today. However, therein lies the key, since in the surname Pendragon, we already have a cabalistic allusion, which recalls Ben Dagon, son of the Dragon, an old nod to the Fall in the Garden of Eden, when the human Soul, Adam, he mixed with the genetics of the Serpent, incarnating and eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

They tell me on YouTube that Pendragon could also be an allusion to the Penis Dragon or Phallus of Osiris, the prototype of the Fallen Angel in Egypt, which also makes a lot of sense.

Later I will comment on the Djed or Spine of Osiris, where the idea of ​​the Jedi may come from, who in ancient times were more like the Dhjedi or workers of the Djed.

Anecdotes aside, the boy Arthur was picked up from a cave by the wizard Merlin, and educated away from his parents. And although he grew up as a spoiled child, developing a lot of pride, he received an instruction that in his day allowed him to fulfill the prophecy.

Some time before, Merlin had designed a Round Table where up to 150 knights could sit who served King Uther, who finally succumbed to death, the fatal fate of the Tree of Knowledge in the world ruled by astral influences, the Wheel of the Zodiac.

Then the knights wondered who would succeed him on the throne. And Merlin told them that the king would be the one who was able to pull a mysterious sword from the stone. So many gentlemen tried, but failed.

However, one day, young Arthur was sent to find a replacement sword for his half-brother Sir Kay, who had broken it. And searching he found the Sword in the Stone, pulling it out easily to the astonishment of everyone.

That made him the chosen one to become the King who would unify the five kingdoms of Albion, the ancient name of the British Isles.

And as I already explained on one occasion, Excalibur has to do with the exercise of Will and Consciousness to remove the Ibur – the cabalistic notion of the soul in gestation – from the Wheel of Rebirth, Kali, the Goddess of Destruction.

Merlin also has its symbolism, since Mer is the waters, the energy of existence in Egypt and in the Hebrew language (sea is bitter waters), and Li is proportion and beauty in languages ​​such as Chinese.

As for the five kingdoms, they can be a perfect allusion to the five senses, the five human centers (motor, organic, sexual, emotional and mental), just as it happened with the five kingdoms from which the Tuatha de Danan of Ireland came, or the five kingdoms in the Bagavad Gita and other mythological stories with spiritual background.

So Arthur succeeded his father Uther, son of the reptilian nature that plagues humanity. Uther Pendragon was in fact a king whose draconian policies prohibited even magic, and he was never able to maintain peace between the five kingdoms of old Albion, invaded by the Saxons and ravaged by sorcery.

In his reign Arthur had to face the dark arts of the witch Morgana, and also maintained the prohibition of magic, although his best friend and servant was the wizard Merlin, inseparable advisor and protector.

And although Arthur had many victories, he expelled the Saxons, managed to unify Albion from his kingdom Camelot and searched for the Grail with the help of his knights, he never came to possess the Grail, which was associated with the cup where Jesus drank his wine, and with which later, his father, Joseph of Arimathea, the carpenter architect, collected the blood that flowed from his son's side (another nod to Adam and his side, from which they extracted Lilith to replace her with the Woman or feminine aspect of the Adamic soul).

As if that were not enough, Arthur set his sights on the daughter of the king of Scotland, a young woman named Ginevra, who he assumed was his fiancée, until he learned that she had flirted with Lancelot, one of his Knights of the Round Table. Upon hearing this he pursued Lancelot, who had fled to France. But upon leaving the kingdom empty, Arthur's nephew, Mordred, takes command of the kingdom, until Arthur's return, who finds himself with a kingdom at war, where most of his knights die, and he himself ends up wounded, sunk. in his sense of defeat, which is why he takes Excalibur and throws it into the Lake before setting off in a boat to the island of Avalon, to heal his wounds and where he continues to wait for his return.

Since then he has been known as the Once and Future King, The One an Future King.

The Grail Quest

When the 13th century arrived, Arthurian-Celtic narratives appeared again but more focused on the search for the Grail and the Castle where it is kept, called Corbenic, an alchemical-cabalistic code, with roots like Cor, i.e. Corona Borealis, Boreal Constellation close to Arthur and associated with the angelic royalty of adams who fell. In fact, in later versions of the Grail saga, the Grail is kept in the Castle of Souls.

One of the simplest works was the so-called Vulgate Cycle or the Grail-Lancelot Cycle, where the famous stories of the knight Lancelot appear, who serving in the Court of King Arthur, with his other 11 knights, falls in love with the King's fiancée. , opening Pandora's box for all kinds of moral and spiritual confrontations and a war that will lead the kingdom of Camelot to desolation.

Then there is the Little Grail Cycle by Robert de Boron, and the famous Percival and the History of the Grail, by Chretien de Troyes, a troubadour and poet who wrote extensively about Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, such as Percival, Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad, the purest-hearted knight.

In this version by Chretien, Percival appears as a child raised by his mother far from civilization, in the Welsh forests, until in his adolescence he sees some knights fighting in the forest, and wanting to be like them, he heads to the King Arthur's court, going against his mother's advice. And there he even manages to defeat a dark knight who had given Arthur problems. So as a reward he receives the Vermilion Armor, i.e. alchemical symbol of Rubedo, and Percival receives training at the hands of Gornemant, even managing to rescue his niece Blancheflor, i.e. White Flower, alchemical stage of Albedo or whitening of the soul.

Remembering his mother crying after her departure, Percival returns to visit her, but on the way he meets the Fisher King, who is fishing in his boat, like the Apostle Fisher of men, just as the Messiah had assigned in the stories of the New Testament. . And the Fisher King invites him to dinner at his castle, where young Percival watches some young people carrying sacred objects: a young man carrying a spear, two children with a candelabra, and a young woman with a Graal. Finally a young woman with a silver tray served them dinner. And paying attention to his instructor, Percival remains silent, without even expressing his curiosity about those objects. But the next morning a young woman admonishes him for not asking the right question about the Grail, since that would have cured the king. And he also learns that his mother died.

From here on, the figure of Percival loses strength in the story of Chretien de Troyes.

However, there were other versions. This work actually inspired others to follow the line, with new stories and different destinies, some glorious and not as fatal as that of the first immature Percival.

This paradigm of an immature Knight later took on the cartoonish form of Don Quixote, an initiation book if there ever was one, since not every aspiring knight is in tune with his true purpose, and often falls under the spell of windmills that look like giants, and the mirages of some imaginary lady.

Now, in Wolfram von Echenbach's version, Percival also begins his journey as a knight until he finds himself in a forest with his Saracen half-brother, Ferzifiz, and they fight hard, Pervical receiving a touch on his parts, he responding with another blow to the Saracen's head, until they both recognize each other, embrace each other, and go together to King Arthur's court.

Doesn't this remind us of when Jacob fights with the angel of Esau, who hits him in the groin and after being defeated, gives him the name Israel?

Curiously, after entering King Arthur's court, both half-brothers, Percival and Feirefiz, go to the Grail Castle, which in von Eschenbach's version is known as Montsalvat, Mount of Salation, which was once associated with the Castle of Montserrat. in Catalonia, where according to tradition the Grail was kept.

And it is in this other version where Percival manages to ask the King the right question: Whom does the Grail serve? After which the Fisher King, who had been injured in his parts with his spear, is healed, i.e. improper use of energy. sexual, which led to the famous Wasteland, the Desolate Land, the absence of creativity and divine reign on earth.

Likewise, the Saracen converts to Christianity to be able to see the Grail. And he marries the young bearer of the same, having a son named Prester John, who reigns in a famous Paradise, The Land of Prester John.

In this we see the reconciliation of the masculine and feminine. A true Knight cannot be conceived without his Beloved, the source of inspiration that catalyzes true love, not only human, but also divine, and in due time, without wanting to skip steps or steal the wife of any king.

However, the most interesting thing about von Eschenbach's version is the explanation he gives of the Grail.

The author introduces a troubadour named Kyot from Provençal, who claims that in reality the Grail was a jewel detached from Lucifer's crown in his fall. That is to say, it would have more to do with the astral bodies that arose as a consequence of the interaction of the Children of Elohim who mixed with humanity and at the beginning could not be rectified. Therefore, their last hope for redemption is to be a Cup, Chalice, Recipient of the new Blood of the Messiah, and do what they were commanded to do: Serve Adam.

The Grail of Desolation

Reflecting on all this, I realized that this myth continues to speak of the same present conflict between Christian and Muslim culture, which has returned to Europe with greater force.

As we know, according to the Torah, Muslims descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham with his servant Hagar.

And the struggle is the externalization of an inner conflict between the angelic, djinn-astral and animal nature, which fight until a mediating astral nature arises to reconcile them. That is the Grail, which can carry the new blood or Dam of Adam.

Therefore, all these stories speak of a reconciliation between humans and the fallen angels who accused Adam of being a mere sinner, when they themselves became Adam by mixing in Gan Eden.

But those who were dismissed continue to make trouble and are the cause of the global conflict, which today is accentuated in Gaza, Palestine and the Israeli State (not Israel). In the Israeli land there are as many fallen angels (disguised as Khazarian Jews) as in Palestine (disguised as Hamas and radical Muslims). That's why they bomb each other in the land of Giants who never left.

And it seems that David, who defeated Goliath, and Lug, the Irish hero who defeated the Giant Balor, are a little confused in Spain, Ireland, France, Germany and Scandinavia.

Just as George Lucas's Jedi were confused, cutting off physical heads left and right, when the real heads that need to be cut off are those of the false internal egos.

The same can be said of false spiritual practices that focus only on Kundalini energy without the help of new understanding. This paradigm comes from Ancient Egypt, where the pharaohs and priests were busy working with the Djed or Spine of Osiris, becoming Dhjedi, who finally perished like dogs until they were forgotten, without solving any problem.

One more proof that neither the Mysteries of Osiris nor the wisdom of Atlantis could solve the problems of the human race, which must be guided by the Universal Logos, the Divine Mind-Heart, which forgives yes, but putting each one in its place.