Basic Picture Of Man

The following is taken from The Teachings
-- Tape 2 --
By Rhondell

We are going to study man as a unit ..........not his physiology one time, psychology another time, his psyche one time, his biology another time, and his spirit another time. We are going to put it all together.

We're going to make a drawing called the picture of man. Take a piece of paper and make a large V. About a third of the way up, let's make a line across the V and about another third of the way up, draw another line. From the very point of it draw an arrow going outward.

Label the closed portion physical body. The middle box, let's put awareness. Above it put X in the space that no matter how far you extend those two lines, that would still be X. It is the unlimited aspect of mind (i.e., Spirit, Intelligence, Biological Source........just as in algebra where something is known to exist but cannot be defined). Awareness and physical body is limited. A circle arcs around it, which represents the environment.

Draw a dotted line into awareness. Draw another dotted line from physical body to awareness so there are two arrows coming into the awareness from the environment and the physical body. Both of these will be labeled. The one from the environment is impressions and the one from the physical body is sensations. Now all are really sensations because they go through the body to get to the awareness, but certain ideologies or beliefs come from the environment without necessarily having a sense of it first. There is constantly impressions and sensations impinging on the awareness. The awareness has two basic functions:

1. Decides what is true
2. Decides what is valuable

A SENSATION

One may have experienced at sometime or other some irritation to the nervous system......... and having a feeling of insects crawling on the body. One could look and see that it was not true, so one wouldn't use insecticides or start picking ants off oneself.

AN IMPRESSION

One has had many impressions that one interpreted as not being true. One might see a rainbow and it looks very much like it is a permanent structure when one first looks at it; but one knows and interprets it as being an optical illusion due to the breaking up of sun rays in a prism action with water vapor, and one knows that it is not a permanent structure. We may see the moon come up over a hill and it looks as if the moon is lying on the hill. Our senses say it is, but we interpret it that that is not the truth.

We can draw this same drawing again with the same three divisions and functions. We will have a further road map for our observation of self to see what is really going on and to give us an understanding of what goes on about us.

We said in a previous discussion that when a person had a fundamental purpose of living (a basic program) that the person then REACTED, always with that basic programming or basic ideology.

So............... in the center of the V, just above the physical body and inside the awareness, let's make a half circle and color it dark-black. Now this is man's fundamental purpose of living (to be non- disturbed) which was made unconsciously as a newborn.

WHEN BASIC PROGRAMING OCCURRED

Probably in the process of being born, a person had a fundamental purpose of living which was a basic programming and from which person always reacted . He had been existing and somewhat conscious in the prenatal world, the uterine world, where he floated around in a la-de-da existence. There were no challenges, no sudden loud sounds because they were muffled through the layers of soft tissue and water that surrounds the child. He was not subjected to sudden changes in temperature even if the mother's temperature went up and down a degree or two, there were no drafts, was never hungry because food was supplied to him before he could be hungry. But the birth is a process of dying to the uterine world and being born into the earth world which is an entirely different world. Everything is strange, there are all kinds of unusual sensations, sudden changes in temperature, sudden blows, maybe an irritation in his eyes from silver nitrate, being restricted by clothing, and any number of other sudden unusual situations. So the infant "with feeling" (of course, not with words but we will put a word on his feeling) comes to a very basic fundamental idea as to the purpose of living. He decides something like this: "The purpose of living is to regain the nondisturbed state by gaining and by escaping." First we want to gain comfort or pleasure -- the sensations we like. Another person may not like the same things that seem comfortable or pleasurable to us, or whatever sensation we want to gain or to escape. Now this, you might say, is the ideal that has been set up to regain and have permanently in existence that nondisturbed state by gaining pleasure and comfort and escaping pain on all levels.

Very quickly the infant decides on a course of self-improvement. This is the first idea that the infant has to improve his situation to gain more pleasure and more comfort, and especially to escape pain. This is another decision, another Not-I, it decides that the way to gain pleasure and escape pain at this stage of the game is something like; "It is important to have my way now and the way to get it is to complain." Now our little one starts complaining by crying. Most of us still may use crying when we are not getting our way, but we have found more sophisticated methods of complaining.

This week write down MY WAYS OF COMPLAINING.

It may be by pouting, putting on a hurt front, it may be overdoing something, it may be by drinking too much, it may be by leaving the house and driving speedily down the street, etc. We are not going to show these notes to anyone -- they are personal and for our own enlightenment, not with the idea that we are going to quit it, but to gain information. Before we can do anything, we have to know what is going on.

Some weeks later, as infants we all learned another technique. When complaining did not get us our way (because the parents grew tired of the complaining, saying "let him cry"), we found another way. The infant felt he had a "right" to get rid of discomfort, that he had a right to be picked up and cuddled (one form of comfort) or that he had a right to be fed right now, etc. The baby, of course, could only cry, hold his breath, get blue in the face and other little tricks that the infant learns. Very quickly mother learns that he is just mad and doesn't exactly get carried away with taking care of him. However, he can be so obnoxious with this belligerent behavior (a form of communication) and usually gets some results.

This week write down: HOW I STICK UP FOR MY RIGHTS.

Keep a little running diary of these.

Now.......... the infant was going along, not in conflict with self, but only with the environment. When mother has put up enough with the angry crying (complaining) she begins to complain and stick up for her rights. So she insists that the little one make another fundamental effort at self-improvement. You know that most self-improvement is getting other selves to improve so that I won't be disturbed.

Mother, by her efforts, is convincing by suggestion, possibly physical suggestion, producing pleasure and pain and various other sensations in our young one, that he must make another effort at self-improvement, in order to get the pleasure and escape the pain "it is important to please them." Now the little one smiles, grins, does various things as he is trying to stop his belligerency which is bringing pain.

So another in the list of observing is: HOW I TRIED TO PLEASE THEM.

This brings the split in awareness: A and B. Obviously, B will be out numbered frequently and there are going to be many times when A gives the idea of what is true and valuable to X. A does this, then B will shortly say, "Now you are in for it, you did wrong" and one begins to feel that basic emotion that was never intended for man for he is not equipped to handle it. He starts feeling guilt (regret). So one is in conflict now. A says "Well, let's do it." Maybe B is asleep and there is no argument. A goes ahead, giving what is true and valuable to X. B wakes up and says, "Now you are in for it" and sends the message to X that things are in a terrible state of affairs and one feels pretty terrible. Maybe B gets the word in first, then A wakes up and says, "We never get to do anything we want, we just have to do what they want to do." This is, of course, the feeling of inferiority or self-pity, which today is called depression. So the infant very early starts into this - a state of conflict within. He is trying to find a way to oneness.

A bit later one is brought into contact with various people in the environment that say "You must do so and so in order to please or something terrible will happen." SUGGESTION BEGINS!

Now the little one comes up with a very similar decision like: "It is important to believe and do everything I am told by my authorities."

This week write down:
HOW I BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE BECAUSE IT WAS FROM SOMETHING OR SOMEONE I CONSIDERED AN AUTHORITY.

We were all sent to school and we learned to repeat what was in the book, so we began to believe the printed word as an authority. (We have since recognized many other authorities.)

The Decisions on the diagram below numbered 5 & 6 will a subject of the next discussion.

I will draw these pictures of conditioned man a few more times during the course of these discussions and there will be small differences to emphasize what we are talking about at the time. The basic idea remains the same though.....that we are conditioned to have as our fundamental purpose to be non-disturbed.........that our awareness is fragmented with the "Not-I's" experienced as thoughts creating inner struggle, resistance and conflict in the attempt to acheive non-disturbance. In that case we do not control our own inner state. In that case we can not really see what is going on. The way that we can control our own inner state is to change our purpose of living completely. Indeed, that is the only thing we can change.

That will keep us pretty busy this week......... along with what we've been doing so far.
Have fun.

But before we complete this page, here is one more chart of the
-- Master Decision or Primal Purpose --
Encompassing the Physical, Mental, Emotional & Transcendental
THE FOUR DUAL BASIC URGES

I hope you will discover many things that will begin a liberation from all the inner turmoil that complicates our everyday affairs and clutters the mind. It is also to our advantage to remember that every other person we meet during the day started with this basic programming. Doing the "work" can add a bit of understanding to our day--both for ourselves and others. Perhaps our day can be more enjoyable, perhaps we can make decisions easier and drop off some of the conflict that keeps us in turmoil and misery.

I'd also like to remind us that we are to "observe without criticizing or judging"or even trying to change anything. It is also helpful to KEEP THE MOOD UP, and not make anything important........

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