Shocks Are All Around Us, Are We?

Shocks Are All Around Us, Are We?

A shock has a particular meaning in the Fourth Way as taught by my Teacher. When my sleep is interrupted by an outside disturbance, a dissimilarity, or some kind of break in my mechanical continuity, then I call this a shock. A shock is a taste of real suffering.

The shock provides an opportunity to be awake, a chance to discard the state of sleep and to embrace a higher state of consciousness. The shock can sometimes contain information about my mechanicality, point to a deeper understanding of a concept I need to suffer to understand, or give instant relativity or scale on a particular troubling matter.

If one identifies with suffering, one wastes it. Remember that there is nothing personal about suffering. ─ The Teacher

So, shocks are special outside sources of help. I say outside here to make it clear that it is not something that I make. While it is possible to use an exercise that disturbs my sleep and provides a shock of sorts, the shocks I am speaking of are the ones that hit me unexpectedly, like a two-by-four piece of lumber to the head. They pop me into the Moment.

The next time you find yourself jolted by something, remember yourself right then and there. The jolt could be a piece of news about the world, your personal life, or the death of a loved one. It can also be an abrupt change in whatever you are doing, like somebody's shopping cart crashing into your shopping cart in a store.

The best way to work with the shock [of death] is to accept it, to accept it. Rodney Collin said, “We must reaffirm and reaffirm and reaffirm.” Presence over imagination. Work ‘I’s over mechanical ‘I’s. ─ The Teacher

I was once standing in a line waiting to get into a restaurant at the Kennedy Center when the man in front of me suddenly turned around and told me that I was standing too close and to back off. From one angle, this was a story of someone whose bubble I had inadvertently crossed into, or someone who was sensitive to their personal space, or something of the sort. On the other hand, in that moment I took it as an opportunity to wake up, to suddenly be where I was --- now I was truly standing in line at the Kennedy Center restaurant and not idly daydreaming as I killed time waiting in line. The shock woke me up if I chose to accept it on those terms.

Shocks can be large or small, a pinprick or car accident, a paper cut or a death notice. Regardless of the size, the most important ones are the ones in which I remember to be present.

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Benjamin Franklin and the Kite Experiment, Benjamin West