40 Essays on the Concepts in Long Thought 1: Introduction

by Fr. E.S.Q.S.

Introduction

Seeing as the forums are somewhat slow at this particular juncture and there is not much to respond to as of yet, I have decided to challenge myself to write 40 essays on the concepts in long thought 1 a la LA. Seeing as there are 40 concepts, there will be a total of 40 essays - 1 essay for each concept.
I will do my best to delimit the essays to roughly a page or so - which should be plenty enough. This is an exercise in both concentration and meditation. There will be no time limit for this challenge; however, I will try my best to do one a day - so long as I am not working that day or some unforeseen event transpires that requires my attention.

That being said, should anyone have any comments or questions, feel free to post them in this thread (so as not to clutter the forum with unnecessary threads) and I will get back to them as I can. After posting this introduction, I will post the first essay concerning concept 1 in a comment to the thread once it is up.

Thanks for your time,

Sincerely,

Fr. E.S.Q.S.

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Sep 09, 2016
 Concept 3: Sleep
by: Fr. E.S.Q.S.

Concept 3: Sleep

The state of sleep that we are referring to here isn’t so much sleep in the common sense; however, there are certain similarities. By sleep we mean, essentially, that the human monad is not self-conscious, is unaware of itself; rather, it is has identified itself with the envelopes and their content, has identified itself with the kaleidoscope of separate "I"s - all manner of thoughts, feelings, and sensations; all manner of masks, personalities, and complexes. Then, in a certain real sense, the human monad is said to be asleep and the first self is said to be but an unconscious robot acting under the impress of various forces - most often external ones. A few correlations between sleep and the sleep of the human monad:

1. We often don’t know that we are sleeping: one of the first and foremost correlations is the fact that we don’t know that we are sleeping when we are asleep; in fact, we - more often than not - seem to think that we are wide awake. Waking up in a dream, becoming lucid, is a rare occurrence for most people just as much as waking up in life is a rare occurrence for most people. So long as we are being taken for a ride by the many "I"s, the human monad is asleep - and, yet, we think that we are awake and aware. We don’t know that we were asleep until we wake up.

2. We do not know what happened: discrepancies in consciousness, all manner of distortions, are very common when dealing with sleep. For example, when we awaken in the morning - more often than not - we do not immediately, if ever, recall what happened in the night. If we do recall what happened in the night, we realize that - at some point or another - we must have slipped into a relatively unconsciousness state, and while we were dreaming away, we didn’t realize that we were dreaming at all; rather, we had thought that we were awake the whole time. It isn't until after we have woken up that we see the gaps, the various discrepancies and distortions in consciousness. The same goes for the sleep of the human monad. We all think that we are awake when, in fact, we are - more or less - asleep. So long as we are without self-consciousness, we are not really living at all; rather, the envelopes are living through us, are impressing us with all manner of vibrations and making us dance on just so many strings. When we wake up, we realize that we were dreaming and we see that we did not see, however much we thought we did. We see the various discrepancies and distortions in consciousness.

3. We see what isn’t true: our dreams are full of fantastical things; likewise, our waking life (if we can even call it that) is just as fantastical when we are not yet awake. We are full of illusions and fictions, see everything through the lenses of the many "I"s with their many, varied positions. These lenses disbar us from experiencing reality as it is, but everything is colored by them. Self-consciousness, at the very least, lets us see that these "visions" are false, indicates to us the fact of the lenses and their coloring. While we sleep, we take the "I"s, the lenses, to be our eyes and its "vision" to be true and clear; however, when we wake up, we see that this is not so. We see that we are wearing lenses. We can, if we work at it, learn - in due course of time - to take off the lenses and see things as they truly are.

Seeing as we are - more or less - asleep, this indicates that we can also awaken. They are two sides of the same coin: that which is asleep can become awake - and the human monad is supposed to do just that. The human monad has the right to right consciousness.

Thanks for your time,

Sincerely,

Fr. E.S.Q.S.
Aug 25, 2016
 Concept 2: Many "I"s
by: Fr. E.S.Q.S.

Concept 2: Many "I"s

The second concept to be explored is the concept of many "I"s, which we touched upon near the end of the last concept. This is yet another concept brought to us by G. I. Gurdjieff - and one which Pythagorean Hylozoics a la HTL and LA will be able to explain in even greater detail. Re-capping somewhat from above, we had seen that the concept of the machine has two particular meanings:

1. The envelopes and their conscious activities and content

2. The human monad without self-consciousness and, therefore, at the beck and call of its envelopes

The first point was explained quite fully; however, the second point was just touched up. Near the end of concept 1, we began to consider the fact that there as many different "I"s (separate "selves") as there are thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. Once more, the envelopes consist of all manner of complexes, all manner of personalities - some of them quite contradictory, even.

So long as the human monad is not self-conscious, it is - in a certain sense and to a greater or lesser degree - an unconscious machine, a robot being impressed upon by all manner of external forces. If it is not self-conscious - conscious of itself as being a separate thing in its envelopes - then it is identified with some one envelope and its conscious content. The human monad is the Self, the truly unitary "I", whereas the envelopes and their conscious content (i.e.: the various masks, personalities, and complexes) are the self - or, more precisely, the "selves", the many "I"s, in that they are certainly not unitary. For example: we have these masks, complexes, and personalities that we wear at different times. At other times, perhaps, they wear us. When the human monad identifies itself with the kaleidoscopic conscious content of its envelopes, it losses its Self - its self-consciousness - in it. For a time, it has become some one mask, personality, or complex. Thus, at one time we are - perhaps - more or less saintly, whereas at another time we are - perhaps - more or less a devil. We swing hither and thither between these various masks, personalities, and complexes; thoughts, emotions, and sensations. One minute we are this "I" and then we are that "I" - and then, in the next minute, we are another "I", altogether. The human monad passes from one identification to another, from one "I" to the next, almost as if it were trading partners on a dancefloor during a waltz.

Thus, we must realize that, so long as we are not self-conscious, so long as the human monad is not aware of its Self, we are - on the whole - a disunited smorgasbord of many "I"s. So long as the human monad is being whirled about the dancefloor, we are all but unconscious machines, robots being impressed by all manner of external forces. Our envelopes live, but we do not. This is the very crux of the matter. So long as the human monad is being whirled about, so long as the various masks, personalities, and complexes are taking turns upon the throne and the master (the human monad, the Self) is out, so long it is that we can say that we are fast asleep.

Thanks for your time,

Sincerely,

Fr. E.S.Q.S.
Aug 20, 2016
 Concept 1: The Machine
by: Fr. E.S.Q.S.

Concept 1: The Machine

The first and foremost concept to be considered is the machine. The concept of the machine comes, undoubtedly, from G. I. Gurdjieff; however, it can be more fully understood in terms of Pythagorean Hylozoics a la HTL and LA. One of the first things that comes to mind when we say, "The Machine" is that of a robot - for that is, precisely, what a machine is: a robot. It is, in and of itself, unconscious. It is but a tool. It can be given commands and it can carry them out, but it is still not conscious, thereby. In terms of Pythagorean Hylozoics a la HTL and LA, then, we might consider the machine to be a perfect representation of the various envelopes of man and their consciousnesses. For example, we have a mental involutionary being or envelope (consisting of 47:4-7), an emotional involutionary being or envelope (consisting of 48:2-7), a physical-etheric evolutionary being or envelope (consisting of 49:2-4), and a dense physical organism (consisting of 49:5-7). The mental envelope is the envelope we use to think, to apprehend thoughts; the emotional envelope is the envelope we use to feel, to apprehend emotions; and the physical envelope (consisting of the physical-etheric envelope and the dense physical organism which it surrounds and inter-penetrates) is the envelope we use to sense - also to speak and do, to apprehend physical sensations. That being said, we are none of these. We are none of these precisely because we are able to observe the conscious activity, the conscious content. For example, I can see the process of thinking, I can see thoughts; I can see the process of feeling, I can see emotions; I can see the process of sensing - also speaking and doing, I can see the physical sensations. As such, I cannot be those things. I must be something else, altogether. I must be that which is observing those things. Thus, that which is being observed is the machine, the robot, and/or the tool(s). These envelopes, however, are only the envelopes for the triad units of the first triad (consisting of a physical atom [49:1], an emotional atom [48:1], and a mental etheric molecule [47:4]). The units of the first triad are, themselves, the envelopes of the human monad (an evolutionary atom, a primordial atom [1:1]). The human monad in its first triad (the physical atom [49:1], the emotional atom [48:1], and the mental etheric molecule [47:4]) - and the triad envelopes (the physical envelope [49:2-4 and 49:5-7], the emotional envelope [48:2-7], and the mental envelope [47:4-7]) - are surrounded and inter-penetrated by an involved or incarnate triad causal envelope (a causal involutionary being [47:1-3]) - a small portion of the greater causal envelope which remains in the causal world and is kept by the Augoeides.

That being said, the human monad - in general - is hardly ever self-conscious (i.e.: the human monad is - in general - hardly ever aware of itself as being something different from the conscious activity and/or conscious content of its various envelopes), although it has the possibility of being self-conscious, thanks to it having a causal envelope, having involved causal matter of at least the lowest kind (47:3). As such, the first self (i.e.: a monad in a first triad [consisting of a physical atom, emotional atom, and mental etheric molecule]) - in general - often behaves more like a machine, a robot. Some thinking happens, some thought passes by and the human monad identifies with it momentarily; some feeling happens, some emotion passes by and the human monad identifies with it momentarily; likewise, some sensing happens, some physical sensation passes by and the human monad identifies with it momentarily. As such, the human monad - which is none of those things, none of those processes and/or their products - is, largely, an unconscious automaton, altogether unaware of its own self. Thus, the concept of the machine means both the envelopes and their consciousnesses that a human monad must learn to make use of in the worlds of man (world 47-49), but also the human monad without self-consciousness; the human monad that is identified with the conscious processes and/or their products: thinking, thoughts; feeling, emotions; sensing, physical sensations.

Though there is only one true self - the human monad in the envelopes - until this self has discovered itself and lives in self-consciousness, the self is largely divided into as many different "I"s as there are thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. The envelopes consist of all manner of complexes, all manner of personalities - some of them quite contradictory to each other, even.

Thanks for your time,

Sincerely,

Fr. E.S.Q.S.
Aug 20, 2016
 RE: A brief explanation
by: Fr. E.S.Q.S.

Thank you for explaining the nature of a long thought, JR.

That being said, a few more words (to everyone), then, before I begin this little project: please be mindful of the fact that, as JR has noted, what I am doing here is certainly not a long thought; rather, what I am doing here is taking the 40 concepts of long thought 1 as a basis for 40 short essays; as a basis for 40 short meditations. There should be no confusion in this.

Thanks for your time,

Sincerely,

Fr. E.S.Q.S.
Aug 19, 2016
 A brief explanation of long thought.
by: Esoteric Law (JR)

Briefly; "long thought" refers to a method of meditation utilizing a relaxed alpha state for the purpose of consciousness development of both knowledge and being. The meditative process starts with NR . 1 and proceeds through 40 progressively interconnected ideas (esoteric principles) ultimately emerging as one single, continuous thought (hence long thought).

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