Kindled Flame of Kindred Spirits

Kindled Flame of Kindred Spirits

It is a tricky business to be in the Work and establish an emotional balance where I can offer help to others by sharing observations and insights into mechanicality without judgment, feminine dominance, opinions, or pressure to change anything. P.D. Ouspensky cautions us that in the beginning, if we try to change even the smallest thing, there emerges a corresponding new mechanical behavior in its place that was unanticipated. Perhaps it is one of the lessons from the Greek myth of the Hydra. In the story, when one head of the serpent was cut off, two grew back.

The Work starts with self-remembering – in other words, it starts with beginning to see myself from a more conscious perspective. When I sincerely observe myself, it is clear to me that it is nearly impossible to change even the simplest manifestation. This realization gives me more relativity and a kind heart when offering help to others. For a very long time, it is enough to observe myself and others as though I were a stranger completely detached from the wish to change what “I” might see as undesirable. What continues to be true for me is that awareness and observation bring about a mysterious resolution of its own if self-remembering is in first place and foremost in my mind while making observations.

To impose our own feeling or ideas on others is absolutely wrong. There can be no right relation to others but bringing out their own real and deepest purpose and understanding. —Rodney Collin

You might remember the twelve attributes of Higher Centers that were discussed in my recent post. Three of these attributes come to mind that are directly related to work with other people:

Acceptance – Self-remembering means acceptance—of oneself, of others, of all that is. —Rodney Collin

Accepting other people as they are can be difficult, yet this seemingly passive act can build trust between people. The effort to meet myself or another person where they are without expectations is a labor of love, requiring a foundation of trust. This brings me to the next attribute:

Love – Esoteric relationships have to be human relationships transmuted to something higher … Love comes when we forget ourselves and feel other people, feel our Masters, feel God. —Rodney Collin

I have had inspiring moments of remembering myself when a friend was able to be loving and compassionate toward me at a time when I was nearly unlovable. These moments reveal to me that I am intimately connected to others – whether ‘I’ like it or not – in a way that is so essential for progress in the Work.

Service – If we really understood what the word “service” implies, many things would already be very different for us. —Rodney Collin

Service is not something I have to make efforts to develop. It is the result and an outward expression of gratitude for the realization that I am connected to the thread of higher worlds through self-remembering. It is a baby step toward objective consciousness. As mentioned earlier, for a considerable time, my personal Work has been to raise my state in the direction of self-consciousness and to make the effort to remember myself and to see what is under the hood of my mechanicality. Through time, the desire to serve appears through the efforts and verifications of my mechanicality.

Yesterday, I attended a Zoom meeting with a group of Fourth Way students from all over the world. These world-wide meetings occur twice a week and there were about 105 attendees, all prioritizing self-remembering and carving out an hour on Monday to bring presence and consciousness into daily life.

Presence is strongest when we are together—always. —The Teacher

The subtopic for the meeting was courage – the courage to Be. The overarching focus in these meetings is always the same – self-remembering and learning how to live more of my life in higher states of consciousness. It is a unifying element of the Fourth Way teaching and holds together those interested in pursuing the same aim. It is a foundational truth that all other tangential ideas revolve around – it is the hub of the Work that all agree upon and that all other concepts are weighed against, and therefore, it is also at the heart of working with other people.

Suddenly a light, as it were, is kindled in one soul by a flame that leaps to it from another, and thereafter sustains itself. —Plato

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Female Saints of the Hours, Jean Colombe