Leave No Trace
- smcculley
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Leave No Trace
This topic took me on an unexpected journey. As I began to assemble my thoughts about octaves and bridging intervals – in this post, the si-do interval – I turned to several of my favorite Fourth Way sources that describe this theory and its practical application to my psychological life. To observe circumstances related to this theory and to gradually verify its truth, it requires me to be, at a minimum, in a higher state of awareness. Something in me – the Observer – has to engage and be able to view events from a more objective perspective. Following are excerpts taken from sources in preparation for writing this post:
Octaves — All processes and events proceed through steps (as in music) with intervals at mi-fa and si-do. Octaves are either ascending or descending. Intervals are points at which the direction of the octave may change; this can happen either by accident with unpredictable results, or, with training, a more awake person can keep an ascending octave from deviating or act to abandon or disrupt a descending octave. From A Map to Awakening by Sergio Antonio
Intervals — The point in an octave where energy pauses and may be deviated from an original goal or direction. Octaves may be either ascending or descending and always have two intervals: mi-fa and si-do. Octaves may deviate by accident or can be deviated on purpose, resulting in different outcomes. A more awake person can fill an interval and thus keep an ascending octave on track or may re-direct a descending octave, e.g., by responding with kind words to another person’s negativity. From A Map to Awakening by Sergio Antonio
This recent topic of intervals is especially useful and applicable to me. In this post, I am speaking exclusively about ascending octaves. Awakening is an ascending octave and the efforts to remember myself are not mechanical and therefore, the intervals in an ascending octave are more difficult to bridge than a descending octave. Ascending octaves can be likened to swimming upstream.
In sleep, I cannot recognize when I am in an interval. Often the second state of sleep itself feels like an extended interval, like a dream punctuated with moments of waking into higher states of clarity and then falling back to sleep again. Last evening, I mentioned to another student that I was feeling “lost” and had low energy which felt like I was “dreaming” through the day and trying to keep up with my various responsibilities. As I spoke these words, there was a detachment that I felt – I could hear myself offstage, so to speak – and I realized that my low state was attributable to intervals in various octaves and my inability to make efforts to bridge the intervals. My Observer was watching and listening offstage as I spoke these words, and my next stage entrance is to apply the knowledge of how to bridge the intervals.
Another frequent weakness in formulating aims is vagueness about duration. Every unfinished octave is a drain of energy …Unless the duration is specifically defined, efforts inevitably diminish, will is defeated and an octave which started intentionally ends mechanically, thus becoming its own opposite. From The Prize is Eternity by Gerard Haven.
To bridge the si-do interval is tricky because the flavor of this interval is illusory and comes at the very end – it feels as though the octave has already been completed when it has not. In addition, many of my responsibilities – referred to in the Fourth Way as octaves – have not begun with intentional aims nor are they distinguished by a clear idea of duration. Most are vague or have become vague through time or simply happened to me. I am realizing that this “lost” feeling is a result of the energy drain of unfinished octaves.
The Teacher has said that one of the hardest things to do is to follow one’s own good advice. Borrowing from the will of the Teacher, I can follow his advice and begin sorting out my octaves. For instance, reestablishing smaller aims within the octaves, writing down clearly formulated aims, specifying the duration, and balancing my energy with three lines of work: 1) first line is work for myself; 2) second line is work with other students; and 3) third line is work for the school. In this way, when one line of work is in an interval, another line of work can help me to bridge that interval.
“Leave no trace” is a motto in America’s National Parks that is a good example of completing an octave and bridging a si-do. I try to use this motto in simple ways, such as leaving the kitchen, the bathroom, or any room in a condition that others would not know I had been there. The aim of leaving no trace – or better yet, leaving it better than I found it – encourages an ascending octave.
If you try this aim in your environment, you will begin to notice si-do intervals in other people’s actions: shoes left under the coffee table, mail piled up on the counter, last user left the office copier out of paper, etc. Then the next octave is a psychological one, to be present and not descend into judgment of others for their lack of bridging these intervals. At this point, I remind myself that it is my aim, not theirs. The exception is to find someone who is more awake and can bridge intervals, not just with shoes, mail, and paper. Consistently bridging intervals cannot be done in sleep.
Aims and efforts can be seen as two angles on one thing, and that thing … is self-remembering. — Gerard Haven
The human “instrument” has four lower centers in which most of our lives are lived. It is possible to balance and tune the lower centers into an instrument that can hear the music of higher centers and bridge the intervals in octaves. If I hear one of the voices in the “choir” singing too loudly or dissonant, it is a signal of being out of tune, indicating an interval that needs effort and renewed energy. At that point, if I listen to my own advice, I can bring the voice back into tune and into harmony with the aim of the octave.
Please join us this Saturday, December 13th for an insightful, on-line meeting, “Wisdom Schools: Hidden Teachings of Awakening.” To register, please click on the link:
Keyboard illustrating the Si-Do Interval of a musical octave
Note: Ti-Do and Si-Do refer to the same interval.
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