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9: A state of hyper-vigilance

On a discussion forum an ex-student once criticised the whole idea of self-remembering. Why would one want to be in a constant state of hyper-vigilance? 

A senior student once led a meeting in which he invited us to consider that he did not know how his foot got from flat on the floor to crossing his other leg, as though this were a problem, something to remark on. On reflection I am content to let my body do stuff without asking my permission every time, within reason. 

To me, self-remembering is not a state of hyper-vigilance but a state in which one may rest in gentle alertness if one wishes to. Hyper-vigilance is more related to an adrenaline-fuelled state of ‘fight-or-flight,’ and I can quite see why trying to be in such a state would be uncomfortable. 

There are clearly pitfalls in the fourth way work (known as the Work), opportunities for misunderstanding. This ought to be one of the reasons why the Work is carried out in schools, so that students can be mentored and misunderstandings corrected. The structure of the school I was in depended on the students teaching each other in meetings in the peripheral centres, and on big meetings led by Robert Burton in the headquarters. In practice everyone had their own path. I think the Teacher was detached from the students to a large extent, and the teaching was given as it were from on high rather than interactively. As time went on there were fewer and fewer and eventually no questions or observations from students in the big meetings. Put another way, the school such as it was and in as far as it worked well was a product of its students working together with what we understood to be fourth way methods.

The misunderstanding in relation to self-remembering, though, would not be fully solved by discussion or mentoring within a fourth way school. This is because of the underlying assumption that persistent self-remembering will ultimately cause one to ‘crystallise’ as a higher being. Thus serious students of the fourth way try to practise self-remembering as often as possible, as a necessity, the failure at which will lead to their becoming food for the moon or lapsing into mere mechanical existence. In this way an exercise that can lead to being more at peace with oneself in the present moment, or what the Stoics called equanimity, instead becomes directed at a future and possibly imaginary accomplishment. 

While in my experience practice makes coming into the present easier and more natural, it is open to question whether there is any merit in making it a moment-to-moment struggle. It is a tool, and how you use a tool depends on your aim.

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