Conference A16
SELF-OBSERVATION
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Intimate self-observation is a practical means to achieve a radical transformation.
Knowing and observing are different. Many confuse self-observation with knowing. We know that we are sitting in a chair in a room, but this does not mean that we are observing the chair.
We know that at a given moment we are in a negative state, perhaps with some problem or concerned about this or that matter or in a state of unease or uncertainty, etc., but this does not mean that we are observing it.
Do you feel antipathy towards someone? Do you dislike a certain person? Why? You will say that you know that person... Come on!, observe them, knowing is never observing; do not confuse knowing with observing...
Self-observation that is one hundred percent active is a means of self-change, while knowing, which is passive, is not. Certainly, knowing is not an act of attention. Attention directed inward, towards what is happening within us, is something positive and active...
In the case of a person for whom we have antipathy, just because, because it suits us and often for no reason at all, one notices the multitude of thoughts that accumulate in the mind, the group of voices that speak and shout disorderly within oneself, what they are saying, the unpleasant emotions that arise in our interior, the unpleasant taste that all this leaves in our psyche, etc., etc., etc.
Obviously in such a state we also realize that we are treating the person we have antipathy for very badly internally. But to see all this, an intentionally directed attention inward is unquestionably necessary; not a passive attention.
Dynamic attention really comes from the observing side, while thoughts and emotions belong to the observed side. All of this makes us understand that knowing is something completely passive and mechanical, in stark contrast to self-observation, which is a conscious act.
We do not mean to say that there is no mechanical self-observation, but such observation has nothing to do with the psychological self-observation we are referring to.
Thinking and observing are also very different. Any subject can afford to think about themselves as much as they want, but this does not mean that they are actually observing themselves.
We need to see the different "Selves" in action, discover them in our psyche, understand that within each of them there is a percentage of our own consciousness, regret having created them, etc. Then we will exclaim:
- "But what is this Self doing?"
- "What is it saying?"
- "What does it want?"
- "Why does it torment me with its lust?"
- "with its anger?" etc., etc., etc.
Then we will look within ourselves, all that train of:
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Desires,
Passions,
Private comedies,
Personal dramas,
Elaborate lies,
Speeches,
Excuses
morbidities,
beds of pleasure,
pictures of lust, etc., etc., etc.
Many times before we fall asleep, in the precise moment of transition between wakefulness and sleep, we feel different voices within our own mind talking to each other. These are the different Selves that must break all connection with the different centers of our organic machine at such moments in order to then immerse themselves in the molecular world, in the "Fifth Dimension".
THE TWO WORLDS
Observing and observing oneself are two completely different things, however, both require attention. In observation, attention is directed outward, towards the external world, through the windows of the senses. In self-observation, attention is directed inward and for this the external senses of perception are not useful, this being more than enough reason for the novice to find it difficult to observe their intimate psychological processes.
The starting point of official science in its practical side is the observable.
The starting point of the Work on Oneself is self-observation, the self-observable.
Undoubtedly, these two starting points cited in the lines above lead us in completely different directions.
Someone could grow old immersed in the intransigent dogmas of official science, studying external phenomena, observing cells, atoms, molecules, suns, stars, comets, etc., without experiencing any radical change within themselves.
The kind of knowledge that transforms someone internally could never be achieved through external observation.
The true knowledge that can truly originate a fundamental inner change in us has as its foundation the direct self-observation of oneself.
It is urgent to tell our students to observe themselves and in what sense they should self-observe and the reasons for it.
Observation is a means to modify the mechanical conditions of the world. Inner self-observation is a means to change intimately.
As a sequence or corollary of all this, we can and must emphatically state that there are two classes of knowledge: the external and the internal, and that unless we have within ourselves the magnetic center that can differentiate the qualities of knowledge, this mixture of the two planes or orders of ideas could lead us to confusion.
Sublime pseudo-esoteric doctrines with a marked scientism in the background belong to the realm of the observable, yet are accepted by many aspirants as inner knowledge.
We are therefore faced with two worlds, the external and the internal. The first of these is perceived by the senses of external perception; the second can only be perceptible through the Sense of internal self-observation. Thoughts, ideas, emotions, desires, hopes, disappointments, etc., are internal, invisible to ordinary, common and ordinary senses and yet are more real to us than the dining room table or the living room chairs.
Certainly we live more in our inner world than in the outer one; this is irrefutable, undeniable.
In our Inner Worlds, in our secret world,
We love,
we desire,
we suspect,
we bless,
we curse,
we yearn,
we suffer,
we rejoice,
we are disappointed,
we are rewarded, etc., etc., etc.
Undoubtedly, the two worlds, internal and external, are experimentally verifiable. The external world is what is observable. The internal world is what is self-observable in itself and within itself, here and now.
Internal World
External World
Whoever truly wants to know the "Inner Worlds" of the planet Earth or the Solar System or the Galaxy in which we live, must first know their intimate world, their particular inner life, their own "Inner Worlds". "Man, know thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods". The more this "Inner World" called "One's Self" is explored, the more it will be understood that one lives simultaneously in two worlds, in two realities, in two realms, the exterior and the interior.
Just as it is essential for one to learn to walk in the "outside world", so as not to fall into a precipice, not to get lost in the streets of the city, to select one's friendships, not to associate with the wicked, not to eat poison, etc., so also through Psychological Work on oneself, we learn to walk in the "Inner World" which is explorable through self-observation.
The sense of self-observation is truly atrophied in the decadent human race of this dark age in which we live. As we persevere in self-observation, the sense of intimate self-observation will progressively develop.
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Conference A17 - The Three Factors of the Consciousness Revolution