Class
Wednesday, December 1st, 1982
Edited transcriptClick the series name to view more
CLASS at Wisdom's Goldenrod, Hector, NY
with Anthony Damiani (AD)
December 1, 1982
PB PARAS; PHILOSOPHY; SAGE
TOPIC: PB Paras
SUBJECT: Philosophy
SUBSUBJECT: Sage
CONTENTS:
PB PARAS ON THE SAGE; PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PB
NATURE; SAGE'S (PB'S) SENSITIVITY; SAGE'S SLEEP
THE SAGE POSSESSES THE SKILLFUL MEANS TO TEACH STUDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR SITUATION; PB ON HIS OWN BOOKS
BEING CALM AND CAREFREE WHILE WORKING
THE SAGE'S LOYALTY TO HIS HIGHER SELF ENABLES HIM TO KEEP HIS EGO THROUGH WHICH HE IS ABLE TO HAVE SYMPATHY FOR, AND COMMUNICATE TO, OTHERS
ONLY THE SAGE CAN SAY "THE WORLD IS MY IDEA"; THE SAGE'S EGO IS INCLUDED IN THE WORLD-IDEA AND CAN SAY "I AM I"
THE SAGE HOLDS HIS EGO LOOSELY; SOME SAGES WORK IN THE BACKGROUND
CONTACTING THE BEING OF THE SAGE; PICTURES OF PB AND RAMANA
BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:
Paul Brunton, Notebooks. 16 vols; Vol. 1 entitled Perspectives.
Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret Egypt
Paul Brunton, The Quest of the Overself
NOTES:
The PB paras are from Red Volume 12 (12v) and Brown Vinyl (bv).
Anthony does not speak at all on Tape 1 (=Audio File 1982 1201a), although for completeness Tape 1 PB anecdotes and PB paras discussed by AD on Tape 2 (=Audio File 1982 1201b) are transcribed.
Because so many paras were read, only those discussed are transcribed.
Earlier transcript versions exist.
TRANSCRIBED from Audio Cassette Tapes by MS, JF, et al. in 1992 as part of the set for Living Wisdom. V11 version 2018. Reformatted from V11 version by JRM & JF 2019-2020, with Subheads and Table of Contents added by JRM. In 2024, IT updates prefatory matter and footer, replaces tape markers with audio file markers, adds and alters Subheads to make more accurate, completes Book List, corrects typos/errors, adds new notes within transcript, reformats to accord with new conventions. Readable edited transcript – V14.1r.
AUDIO FILES: 1982 1201a, 1982 1201b. [Note: "Tape" and "Side" refer to original audio cassette tapes that were later digitized into .MP3 Audio Files.]
1982 12/01 at Wisdom's Goldenrod
PB Paras; Philosophy; Sage
Readable Edited Transcript
PB PARAS ON THE SAGE; PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF PB
[Audio File 1982 1201a Begins]
(PB quotes)
RC: Oh, one thing, too, that Anthony asked me to mention--he thought would be a good idea, if in reading any of these things, people who had spent some time with PB or had an incident of any kind that they think would be good to bring in, gets triggered off as an association by one of the passages, I want to encourage people to do that.
(PB quotes)
PB: "The sage expresses self without selfishness, individuality without individualism." (25.3.244 (12v/95/68))
PB: "What is the sage's reaction to the cosmos? It is very different from that of the ignorant who have never asked the question"What am I?" and who may regard the calm visage of a Yogi as a "frozen face." The sage has no sense of conflict, no inner division. He has expanded his notion of self until it has embraced the universe and therefore rightly he may say "the universe is my idea." He may make this strange utterance because he has so expanded his understanding of mind. Lesser men may only say "the universe is an idea." (25.4.43 & Perspectives p. 358 (12v/95/69))
RC: Jeff and I were talking about that last night. One of the problems we have with mentalism, even though we may be willing to say that my experience of the world is mental, we're not usually willing to say the world is mental. I think the problem with that is that we operate with the presupposition that we know what our minds are and so given that presupposition that my mind is this, then therefore the world can't be of the same stuff as my mind. But what he's saying here is that the sage has so expanded his understanding of what the mind is that he can make this kind of statement.
(LR/RC/)
RC: 'Mind' is with a small 'm'.
(Student discussion)
TS: I wondered occasionally when we were in Switzerland, people who were not aware of, had not been introduced to, PB, how they experienced him and what they would be sensitive to. . . . And very often one encountered different reactions in waiters or what-have-you. But one particular encounter I remember really spoke to that peace was that one day we got on a bus in Lausanne, and usually when we got on a bus I would hastily boot the youngest person I could find out of their seat, and see if I could get PB to have a seat to sit down in, if there were no seats available. And we got on this bus and there were a number of seats open on the bus, but PB stood up on the bus. And this elderly woman who he was standing next to looked at him and asked him to sit down next to her. And he promptly sat down, and this INCREDIBLE glow came over this woman. It was this immediate reaction, it was remarkable and his sensitivity or the immediacy of his response to her request and the look that she had, was just really precious. The rest of the story was, later on in the same day, we stopped in a vegetarian restaurant and there was the same woman eating her meal. (Q: this anecdote is retold in 02/29/84.)
EM: We had a similar experience when we went to a bank with him where there were all these iron grates between the teller and PB. And there was just this moment when PB reached through to get something, some money, and this fellow reached back and touched his hands like this and it was like--it was such a powerful benediction happened there, like a real blessing. And the guy--I don't know if he knew PB--but I get all choked up just thinking about it--it was very powerful--there was nothing said. He was just a teller in a bank, but there was such a powerful sense of communication without any words being said at all.
RC: There was a guy that gave us a lot of help--he'll probably be coming here sooner or later--he's got five planets in conjunction in Leo--he's from what used to be Beirut, and probably won't be going back there. PB told him three times to come here so Anthony figures it will take him three years to get here.
He saw PB on the street one day--the night before he read his book about these things--he read something that Gurdjieff had written about the existence of Masters, and he didn't really understand the book very much, but he was on the way to the macrobiotic restaurant and he saw PB and said, "That's one of them." (laughter)
He used to just want to hang around whenever he could, he didn't want to ask any questions or anything, but he was just a very happy fellow. I noticed after a while that he was really happy when he was around PB, but when PB would go someplace else and we'd be together, he'd be more concerned about what was going on. Finally PB asked him why he always wanted to come around whenever he could, and he said he didn't understand why, but whenever he got within twenty feet of PB he just got so happy inside, he just couldn't control himself, and he didn't want to go away.
One remark that PB made about him was that he already had half his wealth in his temperament--he was well disposed to be able to receive the joy.
He said to PB--"I don't know why it is--you must just love everybody, and being around somebody that loves everybody is such an uplifting trip for me." PB said, "I don't love everybody."
I really don't feel like going much into detail now, but one of the amazing thing about his arrival at the hospital was that the peace was so UNUSUALLY intense and rich. It took about twenty minutes for anybody to realize that there was anything wrong. Because when we got there--you know how emergency rooms are usually hustle and bustle and people moving around--when we got there everything slowed down and nobody was in a hurry to do anything. And everything felt just fine. And it took about twenty minutes to get them to realize there was something wrong and that they should deal with him.
(More PB quotes read and student discussion)
NATURE; SAGE'S (PB'S) SENSITIVITY; SAGE'S SLEEP
PB: "The true sage seeks to lead men into a life that is noble, beautiful and intelligent, and to save them from their sins of self-exhaustion through febrile and foolish conflicts. The sage has lifted his thinking above the level of both free will and fate, matters which concern the ego. He lives in the Witness Self. The practical result is that he does not feel the caress of pleasure or the sting of pain so keenly as others. He exemplifies the truth of Nature's dictate"To him who asks nothing everything is given."" (25.3.259 (12v/95/72)) (reread)
TS: . . . I had a lengthy discussion at one point with PB about Nature with a capital 'N' and a small 'n' for editorial purposes and he wanted to make a distinction between nature with a small 'n' as trees and flowers and birds and frogs and all that. That would be nature with a small 'n'. But Nature with a capital 'N' as this quote here was that intelligence of the World-Mind which is present in Nature, which is present in the world. There was an intelligence he spoke of as being, when he used 'Nature' in that way I understood it to be part of the creative and protective power of the World-Mind. I think that's what he's referring to as what (is?/he's?) speaking [of] here, is that intelligence.
(Student comments)
DB: . . . In an earlier quote he spoke of how a sage is living apart from men was due to the fact that his state had been paid for with increased sensitivity, and then in the last quote he spoke of not experiencing pleasure and pain as intensely as other men. I was wondering, because it's not a contradiction, but what exactly is the difference.
RC: . . . One of the chapters that we read back when we first started to read--there's a section called "My Personal Initiations into the Overself" and PB talks about after he had had his first major mystical opening that everything was wide open to him, in terms of other people's feelings, whatever they were feeling, their thoughts and so on, just came right into him. He actually had to go though a period of getting that under control, not being dominated by it so much. (Ref. = V8, 12.1.2, "My Initiations into the Overself")
So that's the way I would understand those two quotes, in the sense that there's not feeling pleasure and pain as keenly as other men, he's talking to the fact that he doesn't appropriate it and grasp at it, he's not cringing now because it might REALLY hurt in five minutes, he's only feeling what's there right now. On the other hand with respect to other people's pain he's much more sensitive to it than I would ordinarily be to yours, or you would be to mine.
AB: . . . There's also a much increased sensitivity just to physical objects which contain a kind of astral matter that most of use are not aware of, but that he would be sensitized to.
RC: Who was it that gave him a cup or something that--
TS: Yes. There was a cup that-- yes. He had bought a cup because someone was coming-- not someone here but someone was coming to drink coffee. So he wanted to buy a cup to serve him coffee and-- And, we came into the house, the apartment. I mean this cup was sitting in the middle of the floor. And I'll never-- it was just sitting there and I was wondering what in the world the cup was doing there. And he said, "Please remove this cup." It had been made in a town whose name I don't remember but in one of the towns--
S: Dachau.
S: Yes.
TS: But I swear it wasn't-- And he said, "The Earth remembers."
S: What do you mean?
S: The manufacturing [TS simultaneously: He was meaning--] company is-- It was built in this town.
S: Where?
RC: Well, it was the site of a concentration camp.
S: The site where the factory was that made these cups was where a concentration camp used to be.
TS: And he felt that he was--
JG: Was it made from the earth there too?
TS: From somewhere around there. Yes there's-- yes. So, the cup was taken out.
(couple students talking in background)
TS: There was something he discussed, it was-- at length one day was sensitivity. . . . One day there was-- I queried PB about his sensitivity of thought and feeling and physical sensation. He told a story of giving an interview to a man who was about to have a heart attack and sensing the pain that this person-- physical pain this-- the man was having. And it was this curious--
(Side 1 of original cassette tape digitized as 1982 1201a Ends; Side 2 Begins)
TS, cont.: --that the man [one/two words inaudible] the heart attack and he didn't have to go through it again, which was-- But, he-- I'm just telling you what he said. He discussed how he most of the time was capable of inhibiting the input of thoughts, emotions that he would be aware of, but that the physical sensitivity was much harder to protect himself from. And I had asked him if since when a person might look at a picture that something was emitted from the picture, was something also-- was it a two-way situation, was something also received back through that. And he said yes, that was so, that whatever was-- but that most of that was kept out because it was mental. But the physical contact he said he was much more-- he found much more difficult to-- it would sometimes catch him unawares.
(RC/TS/JG/)
TS: The question was when one looks at a picture--remember there's a thing in The Quest of the Overself he says that there's certain emanations given off of a picture of a living master. [Note: See Paul Brunton, The Quest of the Overself, Ch. 12, "The Mystery of the Eye".] And my question was well, but then does that living master also through that, is that-- can he be aware of what is being directed towards him in terms of thoughts, prayers. And he said yes, there could be, but that usually that was kept out by this-- that sense that there was a way that could be kept out and he wouldn't have to be aware of it [one/two words inaudible]
(silence)
(RC relates PB anecdote about visitors)
(PB quotes)
(Student discussion about the sage and deep sleep)
RC: I asked PB some questions about that. He told me that he slept three hours a night and naturally the question formulated in my mind, "Ah, you do sleep!" He said, "But I don't lose consciousness." He said, "I enter the sleep state but I don't lose consciousness."
(DB/RC/)
THE SAGE POSSESSES THE SKILLFUL MEANS TO TEACH STUDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR SITUATION; PB ON HIS OWN BOOKS
TS: I wanted to mention again, one of the ones you read here on the way in which the sage has many different outward modes and would adjust to the listener. PB spoke a number of times about the different schools of Advaita and occasionally about Plotinus or Buddhism. And it was only when I began reviewing all the notes I had that I realized, was that although he frequently used technical terms in those discussions he never once used a term I wasn't already familiar with. If he had spoken in terms of Japanese Buddhism or Chinese Buddhism I never would have followed some of these conversations. Although there was never any obvious interviewing done, (myself?/felt?/(inaudible))--what our reading background was or self-education was. There was an incredible precision of what kind of language and similes he used when he spoke of specific philosophic doctrines. I observed that with other people that were there--according to their precision of education within certain traditions of philosophy that would be there--it would be present and if they were fascinated by the jargon they would get a lot of jargon.
RC: . . . I sat at lunch with him one time in that macrobiotic restaurant, with the fellow I was talking about before on the one side, and he was just blissed out, and a German-Swiss intellectual who had been writing journal articles about Buddhism and Vedanta for many years. And they had both asked PB if they could get together with him, and it turned out that that particular day they both got together at the same time. And one was all head with a big empty place where he wanted his heart to be, and the other guy was all heart but he was just so blissed out he wasn't going to tell anybody anything about--
So PB had told me--the more intellectual fellow--the way that he had agreed to meet with him was, "I will have a cup of tea with him." And so he met for tea. And the guy was asking questions, pretty similar to the kind of questions you get in class here. And PB was asking him, "How is your tea? Isn't your tea getting cold? Would you like a different kind of tea? You don't seem to be drinking that tea!" And the other guy was sitting over there, saying who is this guy with all these crazy questions. And he says--why doesn't he just dig it. And PB was saying--can you answer that question? (laughter) It was great.
He told a story that-- Anyway it ended up that the intellectual fellow was very frustrated--there was a story that was told--right now I don't seem to remember and I didn't get the point. And he was very frustrated that PB hadn't answered his questions and PB said, "I only said that I would have a cup of tea."
(silence)
(More PB quotes)
TS: The first day that I met PB he was sitting in the couch that is up there in the library now, and totally engrossed in A Search in Secret Egypt. He said, "This is a FASCINATING book." (laughter) "I can't wait to see how it comes out." (More laughter) He said, "I can't put it down." And he was reading it.
RC: The Larsons in Sweden published study guides to go with PB's published books. Robert had talked Anna into talking PB into letting them do one, and so that meant sending it to PB to get his approval before they put it in with the book.
And he just didn't want to bother with those old things. "Those books are what they are and I just don't want to spend any more time because there's new work to be done, creative original work to be done. I don't want to go back over those old things. I used to tell people that the man who wrote those books was a dim figure in my distant past, but now I don't even remember him." (laughter)
He did say, by the way, that the books were a lot better than anything anybody ever had before they were written--let them be that and not keep trying to rehash the work that had already been done.
(PB quotes)
BEING CALM AND CAREFREE WHILE WORKING
PB: "Because he ever practises calmness, other persons may think him to be indifferent to them, to what is happening, and to his own actions, as if he were performing them somewhat casually; but in this they would be mistaken. For the detachment within him lies deep down and consists in a general attitude towards worldly life based upon knowledge, understanding, philosophy. He is not heedless but attentive, not unresponsive but touched by situations calling for sympathy, not neutral where right or wrong are concerned, not neglectful of duties and responsibilities, not careless in work but carefree." (25.3.511 (bv/256/2))
[Audio File 1982 1201a Ends]
[Audio File 1982 1201b Begins]
PB: "Because he ever practises calmness . . ." (reread)
RC: I remember one day I was trying, I really wanted to get something done before I went home, and it was the first time I noticed--it was uncomfortable for him to have me (taxed?/fast?/(inaudible)). And if I started to getting into a "I want to get this thing done" he wanted to get me out of there or distract my mind or whatever. And this particular evening I was trying to work as hard as I could without getting stiffened up in order to get this thing done. And he sat me down and he said "The first thing that you have to realize is that you've undertaken a work here, it will NEVER be finished. Its very nature is that it will never be completed. So you can just work at it, one day at a time."
LR: . . .
RC: When you could participate in that calmness, the concentration was so heightened and the faculties that you were using become so efficient that I was astounded one time--this is just the opposite of what I was just talking about--
He had decided that he wanted to send me home an hour earlier so I could watch the sunset over the lake and it was really nice--he was right, to get a chance to walk along the lake and watch the sun go down, and it was very pleasant. And about three or four days in a row I got so I really liked that and in order to get back to where there was a nice place to sit I had to make the bus that left at 8. And then I had to get out of PB's place at 10 minutes of 8 in order to get to that bus to get to that place to BE CALM. So about 20 minutes of 8 he brought out a big stack of work. And my first reaction was, we're not going to get that done before 10 minutes of 8, so just forget about it, maybe we'll get done by, no, we won't even get done by 8:30. And anyway we sat down and went through this stuff--we went through a pile of things--it must have been about that thick--just tucked things back and forth and note things down, put them in place, and he said, "Good, you can go." We were finished--10 minutes of 8! Just blew me away. That you could get that much work done in such a carefree manner. Very calm, no agitation, no "We've got to hurry up and get this thing done." Do one thing at a time, and when you're done you're done and put your full attention on something [else].
(RC & students on PB's organization)
TS: There was quite an incredible filing system PB had--'Urgent,' 'Immediate,' 'Now,' (laugher), 'Later Consideration.' There were two or three different file systems and then there was 'Most urgent' and so forth.
There were times when, as Randy said, he would be working on one area and it just simply seemed as though nothing was being accomplished there, so then he would pick up one of the other files. At one time he had decided today was the day to go though the 'Urgent' file and deal with the matter that was in it. And the first thing on the agenda that was in it was to answer a letter which had been written to him eight years before. (laughter) The timing of those things was something besides the calmness, something besides the deliberateness. There was a remarkable appropriateness of timing that went with this.
THE SAGE'S LOYALTY TO HIS HIGHER SELF ENABLES HIM TO KEEP HIS EGO THROUGH WHICH HE IS ABLE TO HAVE SYMPATHY FOR, AND COMMUNICATE TO, OTHERS
PB: "His goodwill to, and sympathy for all men, rather empathy, enables him to experience their very being in his own being. Yet his loyalty towards his higher self enables him to keep his individuality as the inerasable background for this happening." (25.4.20 & Perspectives p. 358 (12v/87/116)) (reread)
(more PB quotes)
(Student comments on above and quote reread)
TS: Anthony, do you have a suggestion on that?
AD: Take the first part alone.
PB: "His good will to, and sympathy for all men, rather empathy, enables him to experience their very being in his own being."
AD: Yes, that part. What's he saying? That his soul can experience the soul of another? Let's read the next part.
PB: "Yet his loyalty toward his higher self enables him to keep his individuality . . ."
AD: Stop right there. Go over it.
PB: ". . . his loyalty toward his higher self . . ."
AD: Loyalty to his own soul.
PB: ". . . enables him to keep his individuality . . ."
AD: Enables him to keep his ego.
PB: ". . . as the inerasable background for this happening."
AD: The means by which he can have sympathy for other men. If he doesn't have that ego, he's not going to be able to be sympathetic with other men.
So the first part is the recognition of other beings in terms of real being, he recognizes they're real being because he has real being.
And the second part--because he's capable of devotion to his higher soul, that ego is capable of acting as a medium through which that transference and communication can take place. So it's a very difficult thing he's speaking about there.
(Two PB quotes (including the one below) and student comments)
ONLY THE SAGE CAN SAY "THE WORLD IS MY IDEA"; THE SAGE'S EGO IS INCLUDED IN THE WORLD-IDEA AND CAN SAY "I AM I"
PB: "There is still a centre of consciousness in him, still a voice which can utter the words or hold the thought"I am I." The ego is lost in an ocean of being, but the ego's link with God, the Overself, still remains." (22.6.266 (12v/85/111))
TS: . . .
AD: Read it again slowly, Tim. Read it again slowly. Who is it that says, "I am I"?
PB: "There is still a centre of consciousness in him, still a voice which can utter the words or hold the thought"I am I." . . ."
AD: Now who would that be?
S: Ego.
S: The ego?
S: (inaudible)
(pause)
S: Louder?
AH: The "I am I" must refer to the ego.
AD: What do you think, Tim?
TS: Well-- Here it seems that he's saying that it is the Overself that is this "I am I," the identity of individual being.
AD: No, if you read it--who has the voice--does the Overself have a voice? Is the Overself going to say "I am I"?
TS: No.
PB: "There is still a centre of consciousness in him, still a voice which can utter the words or hold the thought"I am I." . . ."
TS: Well, the voice that would utter the words or the thinking would have to be of the ego.
AD: Yes.
TS: The center of--
AD: In spite of the fact that it projects the whole universe and can hold the whole universe to be an idea, within that idea the ego still retains its place and can still use it and communicate to others--"I am I." (pause)
DB: It would seem in the following sentence he speaks of the ego as being lost in the ocean of being. It would be, so to speak, aware of being itself as within that ocean of being, saying "I am I" and along with that would be this awareness of being, so to speak, lost in this ocean of being. Does that follow then?
AD: Yes. That's what we just said.
If the sage is the only one who understands, truly and precisely, what it means to say the world is my idea, my idea, alright, then included in that "my idea" is a representation, what you're referring to as his ego is included in that "my idea," and it is the very means by which he communicates with others and by which also the ego representing that sage could say "I am I."
(pause)
DB: So this-- that the-- what he's refer--
AD: You and I can't say the world is my idea. We could only say the world is idea. The sage could say "The world is my idea." Well just think of what that means. 'My' here refers to that universal consciousness with which he is in identity with. So anything it produces--and in this case we're speaking about the world--he can say "It's my idea." You and I are not identified with that consciousness. We cannot say the world is my idea, we can only say the world is idea. The difference between the two is monstrous if you're not aware of it.
A good example would be Schopenhauer, right? Schopenhauer said, "The world is my idea." Well when the landlady aggravated him, he threw her down the stairs. (laughter) In other words, Schopenhauer wasn't a convinced sage. Not yet. [Note: See WG Class 1983 0316 for more on this topic.]
JG: Is that true, did he throw her (down the stairs)? (laughter)
AD: Yes, that's true. Obviously his mother threw him down the stairs when he got her aggravated. You should know about that . . . he's a German.
(Student comments/inaudible)
AD: Go ahead, Tim.
PB: "Knowing such men convinces us better than printed arguments of the eternal Spiritual truths." (25.4.108)
(Request to reread the other quote)
TS: One last time.
AD: No. Don't make it one last time. Just read it now and the next time will be the next time. (laughter)
(Student comments)
PB: "There is still a centre of consciousness in him, still a voice which can utter the words or hold the thought"I am I." . . ." (reread)
RG: I don't understand it. (And inaudible student comments)
AD: You're lucky.
(AB/St/)
AH: Anthony, in this quotation, is there a distinction being made between God and Being, in the way that you did last Friday night, perhaps?
AD: I don't remember last Friday.
AH: You made a distinction between Being and God, you talked about how the Scholastics had erred on that point--is that distinction being held here? Because the Overself's connection is with God and not with Being?
AD: The Overself is God.
AH: Is it also Being?
AD: It's the soul which manifests. Yes, it is true Being, it is the Overself which manifests the World-Idea for you and through you. And naturally the ego is going to be included in part of that World-Idea. You can't cut off the ego from the Overself which it is representing. So the ego is going to be the residue or the repository within which the statement can be made "I am I."
AH: Isn't it also possible for the sage to say "I AM" without the second "I"?
AD: But even if he says I AM, he's going to be an ego, it's going to be someone within a body or working through a body, saying I AM.
RG: Don't you distinguish between the saying of it and what the saying of it refers to? I mean just because it's spoken, doesn't mean that refers to the vehicle of speaking.
(DB/RG/DB/(student conversation about "horse sense"))
AD: Where did we get off?
(PB quotes)
THE SAGE HOLDS HIS EGO LOOSELY; SOME SAGES WORK IN THE BACKGROUND
PB: "Though he has been caught up into something immensely greater than himself, he still remains an individual--albeit a loosely held one." (25.2.219 (12v/83/90)) (reread)
S: And I think my problem with all three of the quotes is where the individuality is-- was marked with the ego. But I always think that the individuality increases as the ego is put further and further away.
(couple student comments)
RC: Actually this particular-- in PB's terms I think this particular problem is better put off until we do the Overself section and go through some of the definitions that . . .
LG: Explain "loosely held individuality".
AD: The ego is loosely held.
RC: The thread of three questions here.
(LaurD/RC/LaurD/)
AD: I didn't hear what you said, Laurie.
LaurD: You started off the class with a quote that said the sage expresses individuality without individuation.
S: Individualism.
S: (inaudible)
LaurD: It was individualism? [students assent] I don't understand it. What he means by individualism. The sage expresses individualism without individuality.
S (simultaneously): Individuation. (laughter)
LaurD: Forget it. (laughter) . . .
AD: The sage expresses individuality without individualism.
LaurD: Right.
AD: But we-- wouldn't that be the same like saying he can express his ego without being egotistical? [students assent] The same thing like this quote here. He holds onto his ego very loosely. He doesn't grasp. Very gingerly held.
(silence)
LaurD: What do we mean when we talk about a higher individuality?
AD: Whenever he's using the term 'individuality' here usually refers to the ego. He points out that everyone has an individuality, and it's unique. And there are no two that are alike. The reference here can only be to each person's ego, or let's say the body-mind complex through which he is operating from. And you know that from your own studies, that there are no two identities. The chart would never PERMIT the existence of two individuals that are identical. So he usually refers to individuality that way, he doesn't use it in the way Plotinus, referring to the higher individuality as soul, doesn't use it that way.
LaurD: I think that's how I'm thinking about it, yes.
(PB quotes)
PB: "Some behave as if they know nothing, these hidden illuminati." (25.3.394 (12v/80/449))
TS: Someone was interviewing PB and asked him why he remained so much in the background and didn't come forward, and he explained the role of some sages was to be more public but that wasn't the case for all of them--some preferred to work in the background. And he said, "For example, as Ramana's teachers did."
And this man said, "Oh I didn't know Ramana had any teachers." (laughter)
And PB said, "It works!"
(PB quotes)
(Side 1 of original cassette tape digitized as 1982 1201b Ends; Side 2 Begins)
CONTACTING THE BEING OF THE SAGE; PICTURES OF PB AND RAMANA
PB: "It is a privilege to come into the company of a great soul, but even more so to come into intuitive affinity with him. This is far more necessary than coming into geographical propinquity with him, for when that happens the link will not be severed by death, but his unseen presence will continue to be a vital thing." (25.5.212 (bv/254/5))
(pause)
Inge: That means separation. Would it mean that there will be no separation then?
RC: If there's intuitive affinity. One of the things that PB told this fellow, this Lebanese fellow--he was very straightforward with this guy, and he told him about Ramana. He said "Ramana-- they tell you at the ashram that if you go to the ashram you could still meet Ramana. But I would tell you that you don't have to go to the ashram and you can still meet Ramana. Because he's become Being, and Being has no physical place."
And, see I didn't know exactly what to make of that and then later on I asked him, "You mean, if I could concentrate the whole of my mind on someone who is not present, that there would be possibility of having some flow of grace or contact or communion with him?" And PB just smiled and said, "If you could concentrate the whole of your mind on him." (laughter)
JG: What would be intuitive affinity?
RC: I think that's what we were trying to develop in studying the ideas and understanding the teachings.
LaurD: Isn't it opening us up so that we can be connected with the Overself?
RC: . . .
LaurD: The point is not to idolize the person in himself but to try to connect with what he represents.
RC: Exactly.
LaurD: And that would be what intuitive affinity is--
RC: With a great soul.
AD: It's alright, you could start by idolizing him.
AB: I remember once we were talking about the pictures that were taken of PB, and he was saying, well, he hadn't realized that all these pictures (were taken?/being around?). And Tim said, "Well, is it still ok if I keep my picture of you?" And PB smiled and said, "Well, I guess it won't hurt you."
TS: Also he spoke once of Ramana. Someone had asked him if he had maintained communication after he had left the ashram for the last time, and he said, "Yes, there had been a link." And he quoted a thing he said a number of times (Q: Ref. = 15.2.462). Ramana had sent him a message, "when heart speaks to heart what is there to say" through another person. And then he went on to say that even after Ramana's death there was still that link.
RC: It's interesting because the last week he got out all his books about Ramana and he was looking through a lot of pictures. He had the whole living room littered with books that were open, pictures of Ramana (inaudible)--he was so happy.
RG: Vic, do you want to tell us about the picture?
EM: . . . Vic could tell the story better because I wasn't there. Anyway he found this little picture of Ramana--it was funny--like a little newsprint clipping or something cut out of an Indian book--it was like blueprint on Indian sort of paper. And he said, "Well what should I do with this picture?" And I don't remember if Vic said he should give it to me or he said he would give it to Vic . . .
He said--"Well, let me autograph it for you." And he signed it for you. And so he wrote Ramana Maharshi on it, and he said, "Well, this is for Ramana because he's not here to sign it now." (incredulous laughter)
(Bell rings)
AD: Thank you.
[Audio File 1982 1201b Ends]
1982 12/01 V14.1r: CLASS: PB Paras; Philosophy; Sage. Copyright 2024 Wisdom's Goldenrod p. ii