Attitudes

From our friend Charles R.

There are no attitudes in higher centers. They admit everything that comes within their sphere of awareness, imbuing impressions with consciousness as well as being vivified by impressions themselves. The steward however, needs attitudes to maintain, as much as possible, an equanimity in the four lower centers, so as to prepare them for the arrival of higher emotional and higher intellectual centers.

Attitudes are the sum of the scale and relativity we bring to each moment, that allows us to introduce and prolong presence. As we begin to remember ourselves and observe more and more objectively the lower self, attitudes that were formed in us mechanically, are replaced with intentional attitudes that support self-remembering. As conscious evolution develops and familiarity with the tools that the system provides increases, selecting a right attitude becomes possible.

So what is a right attitude? It’s any attitude that supports introducing and prolonging the third state, in whatever circumstances in which we find ourselves. Today at the supermarket, while the cashier was processing my huge cart of groceries, the electronics in the cash register completely shut down. The cashier tried re-starting the cash register three times but to no avail. Eventually we moved to a different cash register. At first, groups of i’s circulated that were mightily inconvenienced, especially since my schedule was delayed by twenty or thirty minutes. The attitude that helped me transform an inconvenience into self-remembering was if events and people could be different, they would be. Each store I visited produced one delay after another. And each time, finding the right attitude for the moment became the effort of the day so to speak. There were moments when the steward could not bring scale and relativity to the moment and a silent struggle to not express an irritation ensued.

Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps my efforts, such as they were, were in harmony with some cosmic vibration, or the current quotation on our website was posted in support of this week’s subject. Whatever the reason, the following thought from Marcus Aurelius addresses the subject of attitudes succinctly.

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.”

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Image: William Faithorne Marcus Aurelius 1650s-1670s, National Portrait Gallery, London