Evaporating Prisons and Slavery towards Freedom — Part 3

Towards Liberation

Awaken, Break-Free, Transform

Despite our thinking that the prisons are out there, they are inside us and outside too. The inside prison is dangerous because it feeds our comfort, it’s invisible and unknown to us. We spend our entire life (and/or lives) thinking we are free, living under its illusion. Transforming prison into living free is non-linear work.

Two Paths to Awakening and Beyond

All inner work is aimed at liberation from illusions, fostering mastery, and being present. I can write to what I know — the two ways to break free: the Gurdjieff Work and Vipassana Meditation. Of course, there are many more practices than I am presenting here. I am sure you are either searching for one or have found the one that fits you right now.

Vipassana Meditation is also called insight meditation. Its physical technique is simple: breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth — and repeat. Your thoughts will wander. When you catch yourself wandering bring your attention back to your breath.

The Gurdjieff Work is more complex because much of the work is targeted and pervasive when fully utilized. There are practices for the morning which look like meditation from an outside casual observer. Gurdjieff called them Morning Exercises because they help develop and stretch attention for receiving wider arrays of consciousness. The Work, as it is called amongst its practitioners, lays foundations with the physical body and is necessary for all subsequent work. A systematic relaxation of the body begins each exercise.

The energy generated originates with the physical body. Resistance and discomfort may be expected. Struggle with resistance makes friction which can be used to create energy for increasingly higher levels of work to make contact with higher consciousness. This work is not limited to the morning exercise which provides an anchor for practical work aka manual labor throughout the day. When pauses are created the self can be remembered. Energy flows throughout the day for times of self-observation, decision exercises, contact with interfaces throughout our physical bodies where the Higher Self meets the body and ego, making light and Being Work by bending time to name a few.

Pauses to remember oneself throughout the day utilizing whatever morning practice you already do can help foster expanding awareness.

The mind can be a trickster creating illusions out of imagined awarenesses that can prove to be circular brain games. This is where a Master Teacher, a Steward, a guide, or a group can be a good reality check for current and ongoing work. [A Steward is a person who has the power of self-knowledge and when the novice experiences their being they can feel safety and presence. It may be felt like a kind of quiet resonance.]

“Fight Club” Rules 1 and 2 Transposed

Don’t talk about your inner work with anyone. Don’t talk about your inner work with anyone save your Teacher, Steward, or guide. Talking about your inner experience with friends or others besides the four sources/people listed above will stroke your ego; may sully and diminish the power of your original experience. It will impede your inner work.

Self-Observation

The initial purpose of self-observation is to gather information about yourself from a neutral and compassionate observer within. Practicing self-observation over time feeds your core being, essence, or inner self. Your essence is high vibrational energy or light that runs from the top of your head to near the tip of your spine.

Eventually, as your essence grows you may become a Steward of your parts on the way towards Mastery.

I have been engaged with Vipassana Meditation and the Work for 46 years.

©2021 by the author