Red Hawk

I Keep A Different List

My neighbor counts his losses and his gains,

but i keep track of raindrops when it rains;

he makes note of coins and dollar bills

while i am watching ants upon their hills;

while he is in the office making money,

i go out among the bees to gather honey,

and when he comes home tired and goes online,

i am in the back yard drinking wine.

My wife and i sit in the gathering dark

and watch the lightning bugs and bright stars spark

until we disappear, covered up with night,

while my neighbor plots his life by computer light.

La conscience dépend d'une compréhension de la souffrance objective.
Le minimum qui nous est demandé en tant qu'homme accompli est d'endurer les manifestations désagréables d'autrui envers nous-mêmes et les autres sans ressentiment, de ne pas agir contre le tort qu'ils nous font, et d'avoir de la compassion envers ceux dont la nature est plus puissante que leur être.

Know Thyself, weary Traveller.
I am lost. I have forgotten who I am and why I came here.
Know Thyself is one of the foundational spiritual teachings of humanity. It has been taught by masters as long as there have been humans as we know them, that is, with a neo cortex or human brain. It was written over the gate to Pythagora’s school. It was above the entrance to the Oracle at Delphi. Socrates taught it to his students, Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Jesus, Rama, they all taught it. On the path of awakening, this teaching is fundamental.
And the essential tool to Know Thyself is simple self-observation. Buddha calls it watching. Krishna calls it meditation. Jesus calls it witnessing. Mister Gurdjieff calls it self-observation. It is a form of prayer without words. It is meditation in action. Unless and until I come to know myself, I am driven by habits which I do not see and over which I have no control. I am a machine, an automaton, a robot moving in circles, constantly repeating myself.
I am not aware, but unconscious, habitual, mechanical; I imagine I am conscious, aware because my eyes are open. But habit is unconscious, automatic- pilot, without volition or intention; inside, I am asleep.

We are so conditioned to believe that when we see a problem, we must immediately fix it, that one of the most difficult things to do in this Work is to observe without interference, neither judging nor changing what is observed. Lay down your sword and cease fighting, oh weary Traveller. To fight is a trap. One “i” fights another, a self-divided and the madness is perpetuated endlessly. There is no end to what must be “fixed”. It goes on and on. But because the human biological instrument was created by a wise, kind and benevolent intelligence, it comes with a single operating tool: self-observation. I am a hopeless idiot and yet, even I have learned slowly how to use this tool. You can too.