Weekly Topic: The Intellectual Center

Weekly Topic: The Intellectual Center

From our friend, Lindsey V.

Working with Attitudes

Attitudes function as a third force—the way we look at something determines the way we react to it. ― Girard Haven

If we wish to change our level of being and not be limited by identification and the mechanicality of our four lower centers we need to understand our attitudes, finding and changing the ones that bind us. Fortunately, we have a certain control over our attitudes and with the aid of the intellectual center we can develop attitudes that are consistent with our aim to awaken, and we can let go of those that hinder our evolution. Some of our attitudes we received unknowingly as children through our families and education, others we absorb from the media and the circumstances of our lives. Problems arise when we take them as objective truth without further examination.

Everyone finds that nothing is being done in the way it ought to be done. Actually, everything is being done in the only way it can be done. If one thing could be different everything could be different. ― G.I. Gurdjieff

We may not even see that expressions of irritation actually result from an attitude that this present moment can be different than what it is or that it is no big deal to express small negative emotions such as irritation. Another attitude that affects how we engage our lives is thinking that some moments are more worthy of our attention than others, that awakening is not in the present moment but somewhere else. Such hidden attitudes shape our spiritual work.

Weekly Exercise

This week’s exercise is to observe the attitudes behind multitasking. The exercise is to do one thing at a time.

The man who chases two rabbits, catches neither. ― Confucius

A specific suggestion might be while speaking on a cell phone not to be simultaneously walking or driving or while eating, just focus on the experience of eating, not to be simultaneously talking or reading. When we find ourselves doing more than one thing at a time, use it as a shock to return to presence, and then look at your attitude towards the activity you were engaged with. Did you feel a need to rush? Is the activity of the present moment not worth all your attention? Is it possible to be present and multitask? Is multitasking really possible? Please share your observations.

Our attitudes are like wires which connect us with events and … determine the kind of influence we receive from a given event. If a certain event produces an influence on us, this influence can be changed by our attitude. — P. D. Ouspensky

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Children's Games, Pieter Bruegel the Elder