Paul is often asked how it is that he no longer gives personal advice.
(He still does – it is now mostly indirect. If you really want to hear,
all that you need to hear is contained in what he still occasionally
shares – like this offering.)
Getting past a persons behavioural defences is almost impossible –
unless the hearer is ready to stop holding – everything.
“Unless you die, and be reborn.”
The human system is designed not to allow this. Nothing romantic –
the whole system is designed to stay intact, survive – in order to
reproduce.
When someone wakes up to the fact that they have been asleep,
even to a small degree, to who/what they really are, they look at how
they can share their experience so that other people can have the fun
and freedom of realising who they really are/are not.
Some persevere, some give up, and most do not even attempt it.
So how come, what is so obvious to the one who has woken up
is not embraced by the ones still asleep. I will attempt, once again,
to tell you how I see it.
Not only is it very rare for anyone to wake up, is it very rare for anyone
to have the realisation that they are asleep!
(As soon as you do have the realisation, you are awake. That simple.)
So again, how come so few people have the realisation!
The realisation can only come from what we call – within.
And in order for a person on the outside to get to the inside,
we have to get past a life and death defence. Almost impossible.
Krishna Murti talked about the phenomenon for forty years –
to thousands of people, and on his death he is reported to have said
that no one had heard him.
Thousands meditate for most of the day. Same result.
Same with George Gurdjieff – only he took a very different approach.
One story is when he and one of his disciples were travelling on a train
and the disciple declared that he had become completely detached
from everything. Gurdjieff stood up, opened the carriage window,
took the disciples suitcase – which contained all his worldly goods,
and threw it out of the window.
Many such stories. And still, when he died he is quoted as saying that
no one had heard him.
In the old Encounter Groups we tried everything – even to the point of
possible death. We did have many breakthroughs (and broken bones)
and, the breakthroughs did not last. Although quite a few have had
significant awakenings, none that I know have lasted.
Let me try and explain it this way. One person I know has spent many
tens of thousands in a genuine attempt to get past their behavioural
patterns in order to wake up. They have had small realisations, for a
while, then, without really realising it, go back to their old behaviour.
Here is how I see the process. I met his mother. She was one of the most
unpleasant people I have ever met – to everyone – including her husband
and her children.
(Not her fault, she developed her patterns in order to survive her
childhood, and did not drop them when they were not longer needed.)
In order to survive her children had to develop a very, very strong
survival defence. It had to be so strong, even the toxic mother could not
get through and destroy the child.
So – how to get through such a strange defence – even if the person
themselves want to! Almost impossible.
Some people I know even if they are not fully awake,
have had great changes.
How to tell? Jesus is quoted as saying: “By their deeds ye shall know
them.”
I translate that as saying – they are now available for something beyond
themselves, and their main orientation in life is to be available to assist
people who need assistance.
As usual – not to be taken too seriously.
On some level we are all awake – and just playing being asleep.
Just – it is a lot more more fun being free from being asleep to who we
really are.