Re: [BardonPraxis] Re: One-pointedness status

["Rawn Clark" <rawnclark@...>]

Dear Amberlyn,

>> First, elemental equilibrium: In the physical world, could this be
seen as a balance in time spent attending to EARTH (health, nutrition,
meals, etc.); FIRE (exercise, energy and motion); AIR (breath, mind and
mental affairs); and WATER (bathing, hydrating, emotions and feelings of
well-being)? RM and I were discussing how when we focus, say, on the
Bardon mental
exercises (or spirituality in general), other habits, such as formal
exercise, seem to suffer. It seemed to me that applying elemental
equilibrium to Life is a point that Bardon makes but skims over (or
perhaps we are skimming over it <shrug>). <<

This is important. Hermetics is a path of balance -- in all areas of
one's life. But defining it is a personal act and the balance must be
*your* balance, not what you think others will think of as balance or
what someone else told you balance looks like. Equilibrium is unique in
each individual because each individual is unique.

>> In other words, does blessing a Big Mac and a super-coke really cut
it <shutter>? I have known people who sit down to a huge platter of some
heart-attack-on-a-plate and say it won't make them fat or ill, because
they "mentally took the fat and calories out of it." Am I naive, or does
that really work? <<

Well, no that doesn't work. That is just self-delusion and wishful
thinking of no value whatsoever. However, it is possible to impregnate
your Big Mac and super-Coke with your chosen desire, as in 'the magic of
food and water'. The Eucharistic magic doesn't depend upon the specific
healthfulness of the food you're using. ;-)

>> When Bardon says to keep the body flexible, does he mean fit? Or
does fall under whatever works for *me*? <<

This is one of those, 'whatever works for you' things. We each have our
own definition of what feels right in terms of our own bodies. Bardon
was just saying that you should do what makes *your* body feel fit.

>> Point Focus, etc: It seems that in Life, if we *focus* on what we are
doing, such as being in the moment, we can find a point-focus, or at
least a point-priority with it. <<

Yes. This is the very first part of the "thought discipline" exercises.

>> Being in a flow - one with it - often allows me to fall into an
emptiness of mind, inwhere I observe an alternate or expanded "reality,"
concerning whatever is at hand. Steady exercise does this. I am speaking
here of a feeling somewhat akin to a "runner's high" - that moment, in
physical point-focus, that slips into Something Else. Taking a long
shower in the morning has also allowed me to fall into an emptiness of
mind wherein solutions to issues in my life flow into
consciousness. Dicing a quantity of food for a meal, peacefully alone,
sometimes allows this too. <<

What you are describing here has to do with how a point of focus can
distract your surface mind. When your surface mind is focused upon a
relatively mindless task, you then begin to notice the deeper layers of
what's going on in your whole mind. This is a sort of "brain in
neutral" observer state, not a true emptiness of mind. Generally, it
reveals the sub- or un-conscious levels of mentation -- that part which
continuously processes things without your conscious attention or
intention.

>> Obviously I am also being carefully with the knife, but it feels like
the hands are in control, rather than the mind. Hmmm. And why didn't I
write MY hands and MY mind just then? This is what happens to me with
this kind of point-priority. I become the Observer. <<

Exactly my point. This however is not what's intended when Bardon
wrote: "Above all you must become accustomed to performing all tasks
with complete awareness . . ." [Thought Discipline, page 67 of Merkur
edition.]

This places you in a different mental state than the one you've
described. A state in which one is completely engaged in one's action,
whatever it may be. Here, the "mindless acts" which distract the
surface mind, become *mindful acts* which integrate and focus the
*whole* consciousness. This places you into closer harmony with the
objective reality, instead of distracting you from it. In other words,
if instead of using your point of focus to distract your surface mind,
you were to maintain the full involvement of your entire consciousness
in your point of focus alone, without splitting your awareness between
the mindless act and your sub-conscious content, you will become aware
of the *present* moment in an entirely different way.

There is great wisdom in the simple saying: "Be here now." As Paul Case
put it, "All the power that ever was or will be is here NOW."

>> The point is that I have become very aware of the Bardon exercises
manifesting in Life. They are no longer confined to meditations. <<

:) Good! The sit down meditations are where we learn the basic
techniques and do some of our most intense work, but the rest of each
day is where we make those techniques our own and where we make use of
the lessons we learn during our sit down times. With time, this becomes
more of a flat-line continuum in which the sit down time and the rest of
life merge to become equally significant aspects of one's advancement.

My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
07 Feb 2003
rawnclark@...
rawn@...
http://www.ABardonCompanion.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BardonPraxis