The Instinctive Center is Heavy; Real ‘I’ is Light

The Instinctive Center is Heavy; Real ‘I’ is Light

According to the Fourth Way, human beings are four-brained; each of us has instinctive, moving, intellectual, and emotional brains or centers. Not just one brain. And the norm for most people is, as it is for me, being dominated by the instinctive center. It looms large and heavy over the other brains. The instinctive center considers itself complete and does not value the other centers as it values itself. In other words, the instinctive center does not comprehend that three other lower centers are competing for the energy, and it is completely unaware of the possibility of even reaching Higher Centers.

This limited misreading by the instinctive center reminds me of an esoteric Aesop fable, called the Gnat on the Bull’s Horn.

A gnat settled on the curved horn of a bull. After lingering there for a moment, he said with a buzz, “If I’m weighing down your neck and bending it, I’ll go away and sit on that poplar tree yonder by the river.“ Said the bull, “It doesn’t matter to me whether you stay or go; I wasn’t aware even of your coming.”

The instinctive center is heavy, like the bull in the fable, and is grounded to the Earth; it is not interested in pursuing higher aspirations and can barely discern them, like the presence of the flying gnat. You might say that the instinctive center is unaware of anything beyond itself. It is primarily concerned with safety, security, and health.

What does this mean in practice? When I rose from bed today, I observed that my attention revolved almost exclusively around matters concerning my physical body, about the adequacy of rest, the need for coffee and food, toileting, and assessing the weather, a rainy day. It is the instinctive center that says, "just stay in bed," or "this is a yucky day," or "I will have to change my plans since it is rainy." When dominated by these impressions, I am the bull. My identity is lost in the instinctive center. I do not perceive the presence of lightness, like a gnat alighting on my horn. It takes something else to remember that the sun is shining above the clouds or that there is eternal beauty in the falling rain.

Self-remembering restores my connection to consciousness, lifts me above my lower centers.

Being lighter in all respects means, like in this fable, the bull or the instinctive center is completely insensitive to higher, more ethereal energies and possibilities. Fly above the instinctive center and discover a new world waiting for you. There you will find your Master.

The Master understands without leaving, sees clearly without looking, accomplishes much without doing anything. ─ Lao-Tzu

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Lao Tzu, Igarashi Shunmei