New girl in the Fellowship: A few Things, and many Thanks

Delizco

The Force is Strong With This One
Hello Beautiful People!

A few things I'd like to share today :]

First, I finally received my membership package from FOTCM in the mail yesterday. For me, they are the most amazing, priceless pieces of paper I have ever held in my hands, and I can only try to put a dent in the reasons why.
I would say one reason is because, its a new beginning. An initiation of the chapter in my life where I finally have a place where I can express myself, talk about and ask questions on subjects that have been burning inside of me my whole life and not be judged...A pretty great thing to feel...
However, it wasn't the beginning. Maybe in a sense yes, but it all started with a stumbled upon copy of Secret History of the World, by the woman I owe so many thanks to and wouldn't be here writing this if it were not for her work: Ms. Laura Knight Jadczyk...
[I go into more detail about what finding SHOTW led me to in my first post in the Newbies section, if interested]

Then I think of all the people that she was inspired by and worked with, to whom I owe just as many thanks.
So on that note, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made this journey possible; from Laura, to all the members of the forum who have been so welcoming, supportive, caring, enlightening, etc., and everyone in between.


Next, just something I've been wanting to get off my chest... I'm so stressed over the fact that, at this point in time, I'm not able to actually sit down with and talk to people face to face about everything Im learning and wondering. I've tried with the people that are in my life now, friends and family, and learned that it wasn't such a good idea....for many reasons... but "All there is is lessons!" So I like to see the positive in that not so good idea.
I stumbled upon this post a few minutes ago and thought I should include it because one of the responses given fits perfectly in this situation.

Dakini said:
Hello. I have read almost all cassiopean transcripts. My question is: Why do people not want to listen to what they were telling cassiopeae, always make me a fool and how to act towards them?
[sic]
Jerry said:
Try to give only when asked. With patience awareness can develop for the subtle ways in which the asking happens.

In the meantime keep newly gained knowledge to yourself for your own protection.

There's a right time and place for these things, it's not always in a person's best interest to share what's inside you.

That being said, I know it will pass, and the time will come in the very near future, through my participation in the Fellowship, where I will meet the people I can converse with. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for the forum, and not minimizing it's role in any way shape or form, but it goes without saying that nothing beats face to face contact..


I think that's all for right now. I appreciate all input!! Thanks for listening.

Danielle
 
That was exactly what I experinced as well when I stumbled upon the Cass website. Not a good idea. You might want to look up the term "external considering" in the Esoteric Glossary and the forum thread about Strategic Enclosure, where the concepts behind maintaining silence when not specifically being asked are discussed. Hope this helps.
 
Hi Delizco,

I agree with Nicklebleu's suggestion of reviewing external consideration and strategic enclosure. Those concepts are related the Service to Self and Service to Others. Laura goes into the concepts a great deal in Chapter 28 (and onward) of The Wave and the subtleties of the navigating the them. An STS/STO refresher might help in understanding and navigating these things. :)
 
Being able to talk to others about these things is nice to do face to face (in the appropriate circumstances), but I think even with that the focus often returns to interacting here on the forum and the Work being done here. There are thousands and thousands of people reading the forum and we can all do our part to contribute here to reach those who are asking. Maybe think about it in terms of how this online platform has been able to help you and it also has done the same for so many others, so why not put as much energy as you can into that? This might also help with working through those feelings and stresses you mention. I think when our focus on what we do is considered and applied, there's an amplification here that's not usually in our personal lives because there's so many working in the same direction.

And welcome to the Fellowship!
 
Continuing with the "sharing of information" thing and you acknowledging that all there is is lessons.

One of the reasons for not sharing the information that you have gotten from Laura's books and articles and this forum is that not everybody is at the same location on the learning curve. They just aren't ready for this lesson yet. And to try to force this information (not that you were, but they might see it that way) on them is doing them a disservice, messing up their lesson plan and going against their free will. And don't think you are the only one who does this, I would say most, if not all, of us have done the same thing at the beginning.

When we are ready, we find the material. I know that I found this material after reading many books/articles on different topics, and, after finding the RA material. I stumbled on it while trying to find something else having to do with RA. Like it was just meant to be. If you read some of the 'Newbie's' posts, you will see that many others have found this material in very similar manners.

So, as I said, when people are ready for this material, they will find it. :)
 
I think this is the fragment which you may find helpful. My emphasis.

Laura said:
Session Date: May 17th 2014
(...)
A: The blocks will reflect what it is that they are unable to give. If a person cannot be sincere, they will experience people in their personal lives who are not sincere with them. If a person devalues another's efforts, they will find their own efforts devalued. If you need to unblock a certain area of your life, make the effort to give what you want or need yourself.

Q: (L) But are you talking particularly about people engaged in the Work, or just anybody in general?

A: Anybody, but double in the work.

Q: (L) Okay, does this line of questioning inspire any questions in ya'll? Can you think of anything else to ask on this topic?

(Nicolas) This applies in the forum more than it would personally since we're not really interacting with too many people with the Work physically?

A: There are many avenues to interact in the work!!!

Q: [Discussion of letters and misspellings] (L) Just in case ya'll wonder, I'm messing up with calling out letters tonight for some reason.

(Andromeda) Tired.

(L) Yeah. We're going to try to synchronize here a little bit better. I need more tobacco. Okay, so you were saying that you don't how to interact with the Work because you're not physically present. And they said, "There are many ways..." and I would assume that means on the forum and with giving and doing and working on projects and so forth. Whatever's available in small ways, I think, for the moment. And then that opens the door for more direct interaction with others on “the path”, I would think.

(Aleana) What about in your daily life? I mean, even if it's just talking about health issues with people... I mean, not forcing on it on them, but just putting things out there just to see what responses you get? Or is it more just confine it to the forum and work as much as you can on SOTT and the forum?

A: The latter is very important in terms of balancing energy you have received. But you can also extend assistance to those around you if they are asking.

Q: (L) Anything else? Is there anything else we need on this topic?

(Chu) No, I mean, I think what they're saying is for example if you're disrespectful to people outside, or you devalue them or whatever, you're also not applying the Work principles. You have to be strategic.

(L) Yeah, external considering and all that.

(Chu) Yeah.

(L) Okay, anything else on that?

A: Many people are not fully aware of the amount of labor that goes and has gone into this network. For this reason they tend not to value lifetimes of work that go into presenting the fundamental lessons of your reality. And, if they do not see the value and return adequate energy, they find blocks in their path.
(...)
 
I see now that reading and understanding the concepts of STS/STO is a start, but putting them into action is the key, and crucial to spiritual growth. Thank you for putting that into perspective for me.
 
Delizco,

First of all welcome to the forum! :welcome:

I think your struggle with unreceptive listeners is one we all struggle with and soon run into when learning new concepts. I still have a lot to learn about who and when to share my thoughts.

I was trying to remember where Gurdjieff mentioned the concept of strategic enclosure and found the following in Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous:

"Are there any conditions for joining your group?" I asked. "And is a man who joins it tied to it and to you? In other words, I want to know if he is free to go and leave your work, or does he take definite obligations upon himself? And how do you act towards him if he does not carry out his obligations?"
"There are no conditions of any kind," said G., "and there cannot be any. Our starting point is that man does not know himself, that he is not" (he emphasized these words), "that is, he is not what he can and what he should be. For this reason he cannot make any agreements or assume any obligations. He can decide nothing in regard to the future. Today he is one person and tomorrow another. He is in no way bound to us and if he likes he can at any time leave the work and go. There are no obligations of any kind either in our relationship to him or in his to us.
"If he likes he can study. He will have to study for a long time, and work a great deal on himself. When he has learned enough, then it is a different matter. He will see for himself whether he likes our work or not. If he wishes he can work with us; if not he may go away. Up to that moment he is free. If he stays after that he will be able to decide or make arrangements for the future.
"For instance, take one point. A situation may arise, not, of course, in the beginning but later on, when a man has to preserve secrecy, even if only for a time, about something he has learned. But can a man who does not know himself promise to keep a secret? Of course he can promise to do so, but can he keep his promise? For he is not one, there are many different people in him. One in him promises, and believes thathe wants to keep the secret. But tomorrow another in him will tell it to his wife, or to a friend over a bottle of wine, or a clever man may question him in such a way that he himself will not notice that he is letting out everything. Finally, he may be hypnotized, or he may be shouted at unexpectedly and frightened, and he will do anything you like. What sort of obligations can he take upon himself? No, with such a man we will not talk seriously. To be able to keep a secret a man must know himself and he must be. And a man such as all men are is very far from this.
"Sometimes we make temporary conditions with people as a test. Usuallythey are broken very soon but we never give any serious secret to a man we don't trust so it does no matter much. I mean it matters nothing to us although it certainly breaks our connection with this man and he loses his chance to learn anything from us, if there is anything to learn from us. Also it may affect all his personal friends, although they may not expect it."

For us on the forum it is sometimes only here that we feel free enough to share our thoughts it seems to me anyway. There is no formal concept of "secrecy" imposed on us but I think maybe life situations themselves reveal a need to use "strategic enclosure" more as a self-preservation tool.
 
Delizco, I know what you mean regarding FOTCM membership. When I received my membership package, the smile on my face lasted all day and into the next!

Regarding sharing the info with others, I must plead guilty to trying too hard to share when not being asked. Especially with regards to diet, many people are very reluctant to change their diet habits or accept new information and I need to continue to learn to accept their choices . I have left the recommended books on diet laying about, but to no avail, even as the only available reading material in the dunny (toilet)! Bet if I left a magazine in there, it would be read to death by now.
 
Hello and welcome fellow listener! One of my favourite quotes for the C's is "Grow where you are planted" as to me it says even though you may not have face to face contact with anyone doing the work you can still learn and grow and contribute wherever you are in the world. I'm from Scotland and it feels like I am the only one. Some times is seems hardly anyone around me even questions their existence here let alone has any spiritual beliefs and the few that do are quite happy to let things drift along by themselves. A sort of I guess I'll find out when I die kind of belief. My best friend outright told me he is quite happy in 3rd density smoking, eating and having sex and that he certainly didn't want to leave just yet. So I feel you when you say you yearn for face to face contact. Still we must do what we can where we are and who knows what the Universe has in store for us if we keep actively involved in the forum!
Good luck to you in your journey :)
 
Welcome to the Fellowship Delizco. Nicklebleu expressed the exact same response that I had while reading your post.

nicklebleu said:
That was exactly what I experinced as well when I stumbled upon the Cass website. Not a good idea. You might want to look up the term "external considering" in the Esoteric Glossary and the forum thread about Strategic Enclosure, where the concepts behind maintaining silence when not specifically being asked are discussed. Hope this helps.

Most people are simply not yet ready to receive most of the material that is discussed in this forum, even when they ask - at least not in its undiluted form. That is why SOTT is such a valuable tool. It provides ideas and perspectives from other media sources that are collinear to the work here, but presented in formats more acceptable to people just finding their way to the path. Sharing this 3rd party information on social networks offers a ladder for them to climb if they are so inclined, without violating their free will.

Ones who sincerely ask can be gently directed, step by step, to material and topics that are most interesting to them. Easy does it. Once they know where to look, they will find their own way to that of which they resonate. In my experience very few ever actually find the work and realize its importance, even after asking and being offered a way. That's just the way it seems to be.

Check out nicklebleu's suggestions about familiarizing yourself with External Considering and Strategic Enclosure. Important stuff there.
 
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