Impressions as Nourishment

Impressions as Nourishment

“The sense of Beauty is the exclusive domain of Conscious Minds, minds which through the experience of living have gained a depth that transcends explanation by any mere set of rules.”

─ from Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

In a Fourth Way School, one learns about and applies in a practical way the idea of the three different kinds of food which are necessary for the human organism: 1) the ordinary food we eat, 2) the air we breathe, and 3) our impressions. The first two, ordinary food and air, speak for themselves and need little or no further clarification. P.D. Ouspensky writes, “We have an enormous range of impressions, but we have no choice of air or food.” We all have an understanding of the need for food and air.

However, it is the third kind of food, impressions, that I wish to speak about here, and the need for impressions and the energy we receive from them is less understood. Impressions are those experiences which we receive through our five senses. The common adage, “we are what we eat” is even more applicable to impressions than to the ordinary food we eat. These impressions can be represented or categorized into hydrogens and Ouspensky writes at length in his book, The Fourth Way, about impressions and the Hydrogen Table and its connection to The Ray of Creation. It is not my intent to explore the Table of Hydrogens, but to explain how the idea of impressions as food is practically applied to our everyday life.

Impressions are energy. Just as we eat ordinary food to receive bodily energy, we “take in” impressions in much the same way to receive a certain matter or energy. Rodney Collin explains that digestion of impressions “is not automatic ... It depends entirely on the degree of consciousness of the receiver. And with increase in this consciousness, perceptions may be refined” through attention and understanding. In other words, we can be intentional and receive very fine energy through refined impressions such as beautiful art, music, nature, poetry, dance, and by surrounding ourselves with refined impressions. The highest of these impressions, such as those created by conscious artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Johann Sebastian Bach, impart to us - even centuries later - their conscious energy with which they were created. Rodney Collin says “the inner transformation of impressions to create a soul will resemble the process by which a body glows by its own light. It will be analogous to the Sun.”

Over the course of the next week, I invite you to observe your surroundings and try to feel the energy created by impressions. For example, compare the energy of a kitchen full of dirty dishes with the energy of a flower in your garden. Take a trip to an art gallery and make observations of your state upon entering the gallery and upon exiting and see if the art influences your energy and state. Take a walk into nature – forest bathing – and compare it to a walk on a busy street. Look up at the clouds versus the trash along the road, etc. There are countless examples of ways in which we can choose impressions to nurture our soul and connect to higher consciousness.

Please listen with awareness and attention to the musical impression of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” performed on piano by Leon Fleisher. Compare it with the inevitable commercials which may pop up before the music plays.

https://youtu.be/flwLWUSzQf0?si=2gUo1ObyL9NktRqm

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The Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani),

Leonardo da Vinci (circa 1490)