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Gnosis Correspondence Course - Unit 7 The Different Levels of Being and Psychological Self-Observation

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The Different Levels of Being

and Psychological Self-Observation

Introduction

In the previous Unit we learnt that the Essence can only grow, by itselfand unaided, to a very small extent. The spontaneous and naturalgrowth of the Essence is only possible during the first three, four andfive years of age, that is, in the first stage of life.

From those ages onwards starts the second stage, which corresponds tothe growth of the Personality. What happens then is that, because ofhumanity’s wrong way of living, there is a maladjustment in thebalance that there should be between the Essence and the Personality:the formation of the Personality takes place at the expense of theEssence. And so, the latter becomes inactive and stagnant in itsdevelopment.

Generally, man spends the rest of his life in this second stage, wherethe Personality and the pluralized I continue to strengthen themselvesand the Essence hardly receives any attention. But when a man gets toknow the Inner Work, he can start a third stage in his life, that is, hecan take up again the growth of the Essence, in this case at the expenseof the Personality and the pluralized I. This third stage is for the ‘few’who work on themselves.



Being and Knowledge

The inner growth of a man’s Essence follows two lines of development. These lines arethe Line of Knowledge and the Line of Being.

What a man knows belongs to the line of knowledge. What a man is belongs to the lineof being.

In a correct growth, the line of knowledge and the line of being should developsimultaneously, in a parallel way and helping each other. Otherwise, there is anunbalance that is harmful to man. For example, if the line of knowledge is far ahead ofthe line of being, or vice versa, the development of man’s Essence is incorrect and,sooner or later, it ends up becoming stagnant.

We have to understand that knowledge and being are different. People know whatknowledge means, and understand the possibility that there are different levels ofknowledge in a man. But they do not understand that there can be different levels inrelation to being. To many, being simply means existence; which is opposed bynon-existence. They do not understand that being or non-existence can be of verydifferent levels and categories. Let us take, for instance, the being of a mineral and thatof a plant. They are different beings. The being of a plant and that of an animal are againdifferent beings. The being of an animal and that of a man are different. But also thebeing of two people can vary from each other, even further than the difference in beingbetween a mineral and an animal, and yet people find it more difficult to understand.

Being and knowledge in man can have different levels, and it generally happens that aman’s being is far below his knowledge. For example: someone can know a great dealabout mechanics, or can know a great deal about medicine or about architecture, ormay have studied in different pseudo-esoteric and pseudo-occultist schools and maypossess great philosophical learning, but there could happen that that person’smorality were very low.

Particularly in the Western culture, it is considered normal that a man can possess greatknowledge, that he can be a competent scientist, carry out important discoveries, makescience progress and, at the same time, he can be mean, selfish, faultfinding, cruel,stingy, envious, conceited, naïve, absent-minded, etc., and yet, such is his being. Thereality of that man, however eminent he is in the field of knowledge, is what he is.



Nowadays, great value is attached to aman’s level of knowledge, but a man’s levelof being is not valued in the same way, andthey are not ashamed of the low level oftheir own being. They do not evenunderstand what this means. And so peopledo not know that the degree of knowledgeof a man depends on the degree of hisbeing.

The concept of the value and importance ofthe level of being has been completelyforgotten. And people forget that the levelof knowledge is determined by the level ofbeing. In reality, at a given level of being,the possibilities of knowledge are finite andlimited. Within the limits of a particularbeing, the quality of knowledge cannot bechanged. A change in the nature ofknowledge is only possible with a change inthe nature of being.



Knowledge and ‘Understanding’

On the other hand, the important thing to understand in all this is the relationship ofknowledge and being with ‘understanding’: Knowledge is one thing; understanding isanother thing.

People usually confuse these two concepts, and do not clearly understand thedifference between them. Knowledge, by itself, does not give understanding. Andunderstanding does not increase when knowledge alone increases. Understandingdepends on the relationship of knowledge with being. Understanding is what resultsfrom knowledge and being. Understanding is the result of the mathematical conjunctionbetween the level of knowledge and the level of being. The 'flare-up of understanding'appears when something that we theoretically study and learn is at the level of ourbeing (that is, when we consciously experience that knowledge).



At the same time, the relationship of knowledge with being does not change with asimple increase in knowledge. It only changes when being grows simultaneously withknowledge. In other words, understanding only arises and grows in a man with thedevelopment of his being.

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In any case, being and knowledge are completely different, and this is something thatwe have to try to fully understand. If knowledge is far ahead of being, the latter becomestheoretical and abstract, and cannot be applied to life, and if it is applied, it is reallyharmful because, instead of serving life and helping people to better fight thedifficulties they encounter, it begins to make man's life complicated, bringing him newdifficulties, new problems and calamities that did not exist before. The reason for it isthat that knowledge, which is not in accordance with his being, cannot be big enough orsuit sufficiently to a man’s true needs.

Being and knowledge are also different in theway in which they are defined in man. Ofsomeone who has some knowledge, forexample, of cosmography, we could say thatwhat he knows is either true or false. Ofsomeone who has great knowledge ofgeography, we would say that his knowledgeis exact or wrong, but in relation to beingthere is no room for 'true' or 'false', 'wrong' or'exact', but for 'good' or 'bad': ‘so-and-so is agood man’, ‘somebody-or-other is a badman...' So then, the terms used to designatethe degrees of being and of knowledge showus that being and knowledge are verydifferent.

Unquestionably, for us Gnostics, the mostimportant thing is Being. What would be thepoint in possessing great learning andknowing of many things if our inner being isnot developed, if we have horriblepsychological faults? There would be no

point in it. Someone may have studied many spiritual books; he may even know a great



deal about Yoga, or may have read a great deal about Theosophy, but what is the use ofit if he is, nevertheless, capable of stealing, fornicating, committing adultery, etc. Theimportant thing is Being!

It is therefore necessary to understand the work we are carrying out on ourselves inGnosis. For example, if we take an ordinary person, an ignorant person, to make abetter person of him, where should we begin? First, we would find that that person inreality knows nothing. Secondly, we would discover that the Being of that person hasno inner development. We need to see that double aspect in a man’s Essence. If wewant to do a good work, as far as the development of our Essence is concerned, wehave to begin with Being.

We must also understand that, with regard to knowledge, what is important is trueknowledge. Let us bear in mind that the type of knowledge which man generallypossesses in life is acquired knowledge; it belongs to his personality; it is not his own. Itis a passing knowledge that will be lost at death. It does not merge with his being. It doesnot reach his Essence, and so it does not become his own.

True knowledge belongs to the Essence, to the Being: Who are we? Where have wecome from? Where do we go? What purpose do we live for? Why do we live?...

Regrettably, as we have said in other Units, man not only does not know, but also hedoes not even know that he does not know. The worst thing about all of it is thedifficult and estrange situation in which we are. We are ignorant of the secret of all oursufferings, and yet we are convinced that we know everything.

Generally, we imagine that man can grow and develop in a way that we could callnaturally normal, simply by education, example, study, culture, etc. Man thinks that hecan get along very well in life with manners manuals, primary studies, secondarystudies, university, daddy’s good prestige, etc. Unfortunately, and in spite of so manystudies, good manners, degrees and money, we know very well that any stomach achemakes us sad, and deep down we continue to be unhappy and ignorant.

Man thinks the best of himself, but we only have to read World History to know that weare the same barbarians of old, and that, in many aspects, instead of improving we havebecome worse... The last 20th century, with all its spectacular events: wars,prostitution, worldwide sodomy, sexual degeneration, drugs, alcohol, exorbitantcruelty, extreme wickedness, monstrosity, etc., is the mirror in which we have to lookat this humanity's Level of Being. So, there is no good reason for us to boast of havingarrived at a higher stage of development.



The Exterior is the Reflection of the Interior

The social mass is the sum of all individuals in it. As the individual is, so is the mass. Thesocial mass is therefore the extension of the individual. The transformation of themasses, of the peoples, of humanity, is not possible, if the individual, if each person, isnot transformed.

Certainly, what matters is the way every person is. Some people are drunkards; othersare teetotallers; some are honest and others are crooks. There are all kinds of people inlife. Just as no one can deny that there are different social levels: there are churchpeople and brothel people, trade people and countryside people, rich people and poorpeople, etc., there are also different Levels of Being. What we are internally,open-handed or mean, generous or stingy, violent or gentle, chaste or lustful, attractsthe different circumstances of our life.

A lustful man will always attract scenes, dramas and even tragedies of lust, in which hewill always find himself involved. A drunkard will attract other drunkards and will always



find himself in bars and pubs. That is obvious. What will a usurer attract? What will aselfish person attract? How many problems, jail sentences and misfortunes?

Nevertheless, embittered people, tired of suffering, want to change; they want to turnthe page of their life’s stories. Poor people! They want to change and they do not knowhow. They do not know the method. They are stuck in a dead end. What happened tothem yesterday happens to them today and will happen to them tomorrow. Theyalways repeat the same mistakes, and do not learn the lessons of life, not in a millionyears. All things repeat themselves in their own lives: They say the same things. Theydo the same things. They regret the same things. This boring repetition of dramas,comedies and tragedies will continue as long as the undesirable elements of Anger,Greed, Lust, Envy, Pride, Laziness, Gluttony, etc., which mark our level of Being, exist inus.

What is our moral level? Or to be more precise, what is our level of being? As long asour level of being does not radically change, the repetition of all our miseries andmisfortunes will continue. All things, all circumstances which take place outside us, inthe theatre of this world, are only the reflection of what we carry within.

We can rightly and solemnly assert that ‘the exterior is the reflection of the interior’.When a person changes internally, and such change is radical, then his exterior,circumstances and life will also change.



The Ladder of Being

We have to long for a true change, get out ofthis boring routine, out of this merelymechanistic and wearisome life. To this end,first, what we must clearly understand is thatevery one of us, whether we are bourgeoisieor proletarian, well-to-do or middle-class,rich or poor, is really in some level of being orother, and if we want to develop ourEssence, we must rise in the levels of being.

Let us imagine a ladder that extends frombelow upwards, vertically, and which hasvery many rungs on it. Unquestionably, weeach are on one of these rungs. On rungsbelow there are people who are worse thanus. On rungs above there are people who arebetter than us.

It is clear that, on this extraordinary vertical,on this marvellous ladder, we can find all thelevels of being. Every person is different, andthis no one can refute. Now we are not speaking about ugly or nice faces. It is not aquestion of age either. On this ladder of being there are young and old people; thereare old people who are about to die and newborn children. What is related to time andyears: to be born, to grow, to develop, to get married, to reproduce, to get old and todie, is exclusive to the horizontal line. On the marvellous ladder, on the vertical, thereis no room for the concept of time. We can only find levels of being on the rungs of thisladder.

People’s mechanical hope is completely useless. People think that things will get betterwith time. This is what our grandparents and great-grandparents also thought. Factshave just proved the opposite. The level of being is that counts, and this is vertical. Weare on one rung, but we can go up to the next one.

The marvellous ladder we are speaking about, and which refers to the different levels ofbeing, has certainly nothing to do with linear time. A higher level of being lies



immediately above us from instant to instant. It does not lie in any remote horizontalfuture, but here and now, in ourselves, on the vertical.It is evident, and anyone can understand, that these two lines, horizontal and vertical,of which we are now speaking, meet from moment to moment in our psychologicalinterior and form a cross.



The Horizontal Path and the Vertical Path

There are two paths or lines in life. One could be called horizontal; the other vertical.These two lines form a cross in us, here and now, not a second earlier, not a secondlater. We need to further objectify these two lines.

The horizontal line begins at birth and ends at death. Before every cradle lies theprospect of a grave. Everything that is born must die. On the horizontal line are found allthe processes of being born, growing, reproducing, getting old and then dying. On thehorizontal line are found the vain pleasures of life, liquors, fornication, adultery, etc. Onthe horizontal line is the struggle for the daily bread, the struggle not to die, thestruggle to exist under the light of the sun. On the horizontal line are all those innersufferings of practical life, of the home, of the street, of the office, etc. The horizontalline cannot offer us anything marvellous.

The Personality develops and unfolds onthe horizontal line of life. It is born anddies within its linear time. It is mortal.There is no tomorrow for the deadperson’s personality; it is not the Being.

The vertical line is different. On thevertical line are the different levels ofbeing. On it are also found thetranscendental and transcendentfaculties of the Consciousness, theesoteric powers, the deifying virtues. Onthis line is the Revolution ofConsciousness. With the forces of thevertical line we can positively influencethe horizontal aspects of our practicallife. We can completely change ourdestiny. We can turn our life intosomething completely different to whatwe have been, to what we are, to whatwe have known in our unhappyexistence.



The levels of being, the Being himself, does not belong to time. He has nothing to dowith the horizontal line. He is within ourselves, now, on the vertical. It would bemanifestly absurd to search for our own Being outside ourselves.

So, there is a mathematical point in us. Unquestionably, that point is never found eitherin the past or in the future. Whoever wants to discover that mysterious point mustsearch for it here and now, in himself, exactly in this moment, not a second earlier, nota second later.

The two logs, vertical and horizontal, of the cross meet at this point. We stand,therefore, from instant to instant, in front of two paths: the horizontal path and thevertical path.

It is evident that the horizontal path is very commonplace. It is the path travelled by Mrand Mrs Average, by every Tom, Dick and Harry. It is obvious that the vertical path isdifferent. It is the path of the intelligent rebels, that of the revolutionaries.

When we remember ourselves, when we work on ourselves, when we do not identifywith all the problems and sorrows of our life, in fact we are travelling along the verticalpath. Certainly, it is never an easy task to eliminate our negative emotions and to loseany identification with our own life: all kinds of problems, dealings with people, debts,payment of instalments, mortgage repayments, telephone, water and electricity bills,etc.

Those who are unemployed, those who have lost their jobs for one reason or other,evidently suffer because of lack of money, and it is in fact dreadfully difficult for them toforget their case and not to worry about, or be identified with, their own problems.Those who suffer, those who cry, those who have been victims of some betrayal orinjustice in life or some act of ingratitude or slander, or of some fraud, really forgetthemselves, their Inner Real Being; they are completely identified with their moraltragedy.

The Work on oneself is the fundamental characteristic of the vertical path. No onecould tread the Path of the Great Rebelliousness if he never worked on himself. TheWork we are referring to is psychological in nature. It is concerned with a certaintransformation of the present moment in which we are. We need to learn to live frominstant to instant.



For example, a person who is desperate because of some sentimental, economic orpolitical problem, has obviously forgotten himself. If that person stops for a moment,observes the situation and tries to remember himself, and then makes an effort tounderstand the meaning of his attitude. If he reflects a little, and thinks that everythingpasses, that life is illusory, ephemeral, and that death reduces all the vanities of theworld to ashes. If he understands that his problem actually is just a ‘flash in the pan’, awill-o’-the-wisp that soon goes out, he will suddenly see in amazement that everythinghas changed.

It is possible to transform mechanical reactionsthrough logical confrontation and the innerself-reflection of the Being. It is evident that peoplereact mechanically to the different circumstancesof life. Poor people! They often become victims.When someone flatters them, they smile. Whenthey are humiliated, they suffer. They insult if theyare insulted. They hurt if they are hurt. They arenever free. Their fellow human beings have thepower to take them from joy to sadness, from hopeto despair. Each of those people who walk in thehorizontal path is like a musical instrument, onwhich every one of his fellow humans plays whatthey please.

Those who learn to transform mechanical reactionsin fact enter into the vertical path. This represents afundamental change in their level of being... an

extraordinary result of psychological rebelliousness.

The vertical path is therefore marvellous. It is revolutionary by nature, and in order totread it, what is needed is to have a deep desire for inner self-realization or a deeplonging to be. In the vertical path our aim is, first of all, to know ourselves, because onlyby knowing ourselves can we know the Universe and its marvels.

In this Work we have to make a psychological inventory of ourselves, in order to knowwhat we have got and what we lack, in order to know who we are, where we come fromand where we go. There are many things in us which we have to eliminate, and we stillneed to conquer many things.



People work every day, struggle to survive, want to exist in some way, but they are nothappy. Happiness is all Greek to people (as it is commonly said). The most critical thingabout it is that people know it, but among so many afflictions they seem not to lose thehope of being happy some day, even though they do not know how or in what way. Wesuffer a great deal. And yet we want to keep on living. We are afraid of losing our lives.If at least we understood something about Revolutionary Psychology, perhaps we wouldthink in a different way. But we really do not know anything. We just want to survive inthe midst of our misfortunes, and that is all.

There are very pleasant moments in life, but that is not happiness. We confuse pleasurewith happiness. Binges, drinking sprees, orgies, etc., are all pleasures, but they havenothing to do with true happiness. There are also decent parties, without excesses, butthat is not happiness either... All this belongs to the horizontal line. We spend our lifesearching for happiness everywhere and die without having found it. The horizontal linewill never bring us happiness.

Many hope to win the lottery jackpot one day. They think that they will achievehappiness if they win. Some manage to win the prize, but that does not mean that theyachieve the much longed-for happiness. When one is young, one dreams of the idealwoman, some princess of the Arabian Nights, someone extraordinary. The harsh realityof facts comes later: a wife, small children to support, difficult economic problems thatincrease on and on and even become impossible. In short, in this cruel world in whichwe live there are no really happy people; all poor human beings are unhappy to someextent or other.

In life we have known many well-off people full of problems, lawsuits of all kinds,overburdened with difficulties, etc. They are not happy. What is the point in being rich ifone does not have good health? Sometimes they are more unfortunate than anybeggar.

Everything is ephemeral in this life. Everything passes. Things, people, ideas, etc., allpass. Those who have money pass and those who have no money also pass, and no oneknows what real happiness is. Many want to escape from themselves through drugs oralcohol; however, they not only fail to escape but, what is worse, they become trappedin the hell of addiction and slavery.



Happiness is not achieved by running away from the I, from the Myself. The interestingthing would be to learn to tread the path of the vertical line.

In the vertical path is found the Revolution of Consciousness. Undoubtedly, when weadmit that we have a psychology of our own, then we begin to work on ourselves. It isthen obvious that we enter into the vertical path.

We are a real enigma to ourselves, an enigma that has to be figured out, an enigma thathas to be solved, an enigma that has to be unravelled. Regrettably, we do not knowourselves, even though we think that we do. We need to be sincere with ourselves. Weneed to dissect our I, our Myself, our Oneself.



We easily admit that we have a physicalbody, an organism, but few reallyunderstand that we have a personalpsychology. When we understand that wehave a concrete psychology, we begin towork on ourselves, here and now. When weunderstand that we have a personalpsychology, we begin with the process ofpsychological self-observation. Anyone whobegins to observe himself in fact becomes adifferent individual, an individual completelydifferent to anyone else.

But people have a tendency to solely admitthe existence of this three-dimensional,physical world, including their own body,because they can see, hear and touch it.Those who sincerely accept that they have apersonal psychology of their own are reallyvery few. When someone accepts it, he infact begins to observe himself, and this

makes him a person somewhat different to his fellow humans. To observe oneself inorder to know oneself is the best of the best.



PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF-OBSERVATION

Just as we have the sense of sight, which allows us to see and observe everything thathappens around us, we also have a psychological sense that allows us to see andobserve ourselves. In our studies we call it: the Sense of PsychologicalSelf-Observation.

To Observe and to Observe oneself are different things

To observe and to observe oneself are two completely different things. Nevertheless,both demand attention:

In observation, attention is directed outwards, to the outer world, through the windowsof the senses.

In self-observation, attention is directed inwards, and for this purpose the senses ofexternal perception are useless. This is the reason why the observation of innerpsychological processes is difficult for neophytes or beginners.

The starting point of official science on its practical side is the observable. The startingpoint of the Work on Oneself is self-observation, the self-observable.

Unquestionably, these two above-mentioned starting points lead us in completelydifferent directions. Someone could grow old engrossed in the intransigent dogmas ofofficial science, studying external phenomena, observing cells, atoms, molecules, suns,stars, comets, etc., without experiencing any radical change in himself.

The type of knowledge that can internally transform someone could never be obtainedthrough external observation. The type of knowledge that can really produce an innerchange in us is based on direct self-observation.



To Know and to Observe are also different things

To know and to observe are different things. Many confuse self-observation withknowing. We may know that we are sitting on a chair in a room, but this does notmean that we are observing the chair. We may know that, at a given moment, we arein a negative state, perhaps thinking about some problem, or worried about somematter or other, or in a state of uneasiness or uncertainty, etc., but this does notmean that we are observing it.

For example, do you dislike someone? The key question here is, why? You may say thatyou know that person... Please! Observe him or her. To know is never to observe. Do notconfuse knowing with observing.

Self-observation, which is one hundred per cent active, is a means of self-change,whereas knowing, which is passive, is not. Certainly, to know is not an act of attention.However, attention directed inwards, towards what is going on in us, is indeedsomething positive, active.

In the case of a person we dislike for no particular reason, just because we want to,when we observe ourselves, we can notice a multitude of thoughts crowding into ourmind, a group of voices confusedly speaking and shouting in us; we can also noticewhat they are saying, the unpleasant emotions arising in us, the unpleasant taste thatall of this leaves in our psyche, etc.

Obviously, in such a state, we also realize that internally we are treating the person wedislike very badly. However, and unquestionably, in order to see all this, what is neededis attention intentionally directed inwards, not passive attention.

Dynamic attention actually comes from the observing side, whereas thoughts andemotions belong to the observed side. All this makes us understand that knowing issomething completely passive and mechanical, in evident contrast to self-observation,which is a conscious act.

We do not mean by this that mechanical self-observation does not exist. Such a kind ofobservation, however, has nothing to do with the type of psychological self-observationwe are referring to.



To Think is not to Observe either

To think and to observe are also very different things. Anyone can give himself theluxury of thinking about himself as he pleases, but this does not mean that he is reallyobserving himself.

To think about oneself is a form of mechanical self-observation, which does not produceany result. In order to observe ourselves, we need to remember ourselves. Only in thisway does our self-observation become conscious.

Now it is necessary to remember a paragraphwritten by Master Samael, included in Unit 3:‘Unbelievable though it may seem, when astudent observes himself, he does notremember himself. Beyond any doubt,aspirants do not really feel themselves; theyare not conscious of themselves. It seemssomething hard to believe that when theGnostic aspirant observes the way he laughs,talks, walks, etc., he forgets himself. This isunbelievable, but it is true. It is absolutelynecessary, however, to try to rememberoneself while one observes oneself. This isfundamental in order to achieve the Awakeningof Consciousness. To observe oneself withoutforgetting oneself is tremendously difficult,yet it is urgent to achieve the Awakening ofConsciousness’.



Why Must we Observe Ourselves?

Observation is a means to modify themechanical conditions of the world. Innerself-observation is a means to changeinternally.

We must understand that there are twotypes of knowledge: external knowledgeand internal knowledge, and that, unless wehave in ourselves a magnetic centre capableof differentiating the qualities of knowledge,this mixture of the two planes or orders ofideas could lead us to confusion. Forexample, 'sublime' pseudo-esotericdoctrines, with a marked degree ofunderlying scientism, belong to the sphereof the observable, and yet they are acceptedby many aspirants as inner knowledge. Inthis context, this is what we mean by beingconfused.

These two types of knowledge belong to the two worlds in which we are all the time:the outer world and the inner one. The first of these is perceived by the senses ofexternal perception. The second one can only be perceived through the sense of innerself-observation.

Thoughts, ideas, emotions, longings, hopes, disappointments, etc., are internal; theyare invisible to the common, ordinary senses, and yet to us, they are more real than thedying-room table or the living-room armchairs. Certainly, we live in our inner worldmore than we do in the outer one. This is irrefutable, incontestable. In our inner world,in our secret world, we love, desire, suspect, bless, curse, yearn, suffer, enjoy, aredisappointed, rewarded, etc.

Unquestionably, the two worlds, inner and outer, can be verified experimentally. Theouter world is the observable. The inner one is the self-observable in oneself and withinoneself, here and now.



Whoever really wants to know the inner worlds of the planet Earth or of the SolarSystem or of the Galaxy in which we live, must previously know his inner world, hispersonal, inner life, his own internal worlds. Man, know yourself and you will know theUniverse and the Gods.

The more we explore this inner world called oneself, the more we will understand thatwe live simultaneously in two worlds, in two realities: the outer one and the inner one.And just as it is essential that we learn how to walk in the outer world so that we do notfall off a precipice, not get lost in the streets of the city, select our friends, not associatewith evil people, not eat poison, etc., in the same way, through Psychological Work ononeself, we learn how to walk in the inner world, which can be explored throughself-observation.



Actually, the sense of self-observation is atrophied in the human race of these decadenttimes in which we live. As we persevere in the practice of self-observation, the sense ofinner self-observation will gradually develop in us.

Conclusion: Inner self-observation is a practical means to achieve self-knowledge andthe development of our Essence.

How Must we Observe Ourselves?

If we truly and very sincerely begin to observe ourselves internally, we will divideourselves into two: Observer and Observed.

If such a division did not take place, it isevident that we would never take a stepforward in the marvellous path ofself-knowledge. How could we observeourselves if we make the mistake of notwanting to divide ourselves betweenObserver and Observed? If such a divisiondid not take place, it is obvious that wewould never take a step forward in thepath of self-knowledge.

Undoubtedly, when this division does nottake place, we continue to be identifiedwith all the processes of the pluralized I.And anyone who identifies with thedifferent processes of the pluralized I isalways a victim of circumstances. Howcould those who do not know themselvescan change circumstances and stop beingvictims of them? How could those who havenever observed themselves internally know

themselves? How could someone observe himself if he does not previously divide himselfinto Observer and Observed?



Inner Separation

Those who always believe that they are one will never be able to separate themselvesfrom their own undesirable elements. They will consider every thought, feeling, desire,emotion, passion, affection, etc. of theirs, as different, unchangeable functionings oftheir own nature, and they will even justify themselves to others by saying that these orthose personal faults of theirs are hereditary in nature.

It is very clear, and not difficult to understand, that when someone begins to observehimself seriously from the point of view that he is not one but many, he really begins towork on what he carries within. When a person continues with the absurd convictionthat he is one, that he possesses a permanent I, it is altogether impossible that he cancarry out a serious work on himself.

Those who accept the doctrine of the many I’s understand, through observation, thatevery desire, thought, action, passion, etc. of theirs, corresponds to some different I orother. Any athlete of inner self-observation works very seriously in himself and strivesto separate from his psyche the different undesirable elements within him, throughinner separation.

If we give the feeling of 'I' to everything that happens in us, if we say 'I' to everythingthat we think, feel, say or imagine, nothing can change in us. If we practiseself-observation on this basis, everything that we observe will be 'I', when in realityeverything in us, practically speaking, is of another's. Instead of ‘I’, it would be moreproper to say ‘it’. Instead of saying, ‘I think’, we have to understand that we would befar closer to the truth if we said, ‘it thinks’. And instead of saying, ‘I feel’, we would befar more on the right side, saying ‘it feels’.

If every time that we have a negative emotion, we say, ‘I feel bad’, ‘I feel disappointedwith so-and-so’, ‘I have got annoyed about this or that’… If we say ‘I’ to all of this, itmeans that we are so identified with ourselves that it is impossible for us to internallyseparate ourselves from the false feeling of the ‘I’.

It is possible to avoid negative thoughts and feelings, if they are not taken as oneself,as I, as me… There are in us very destructive inner states that we should not identifywith and which we need to avoid; otherwise, they can ruin our life. We should not takethem as ‘I’. Let us bear in mind that the most estrange thoughts and images can appearin our mind at any time, and when we say to appear, we mean that they appear



involuntarily, in a mechanical way. The question is the following: If we have not createdthem, if we have not thought of them voluntarily, why do we say ‘I’ to all of them? Ifwe believe that we think of them, then we ascribe them to ourselves, and so they havefull power over us. Then, how are we going to eliminate the different I’s within us, so thatonly our Reality is left in us?

For example, let us suppose that we are standing on a board and we try to lift it, and weendeavour to achieve it with all our strength. Will we succeed? No, we will not, becausewe are trying to lift ourselves, and this is impossible. It will be necessary for us toseparate ourselves from the board and, once separated, then we can definitely lift it ormove it.

The same happens in psychological self-observation. If we are identified with everythinghappening within us, we will not be able to observe it. We need to internally separateourselves into Observer (the part that remembers and observes itself) and Observed(thoughts, feelings and actions that appear in us mechanically).

No one can begin to change radically until he or she is able to say, ‘This desire is ananimal I which I must eliminate’, ‘this selfish thought is another I that is tormenting meand which I need to disintegrate’, ‘this feeling, which is hurting my heart, is an intrusive Iwhich I need to reduce to cosmic dust...'

When we divide ourselves into Observer and Observed, then we will exclaim: ‘What isthis I doing?’ ‘What is it saying?’ ‘What does it want?’ ‘Why is it tormenting me with itslust, with its anger…?’

Naturally, this is impossible for those who have never divided themselves betweenObserver and Observed. Those who take all their psychological processes asfunctionings of a single permanent I are so identified with all their errors, they are sostuck to them, that, as a result, they have lost the ability to separate them from theirpsyches. Obviously, people like that can never change radically. They are condemnedto the most complete failure.



RECOMMENDED PRACTICE

We advise that you try to observeyourself psychologically following theinstructions that you have been given inthis Unit. Study and understand why andhow we must observe ourselves. In thisway you will gradually learn how to do it.

Observe yourself during the activities ofyour everyday life. Everyday life is amarvellous psychological gymnasium,where we can know ourselves internally.It is by interacting with our fellowhumans, at home, at work, at school,etc., that the psychological faults thatare hidden in us can appearspontaneously, and if we are alert andwatchful through psychologicalself-observation, then we can discoverthem. Self-observation is a means forknowing ourselves.

In the Unit for the next week we willteach where inner observation has to be directed to. We will make a detailed study ofthe Centres and Psychic Functions of the Human Machine.



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