We wish to change, but what are we starting from? What is our inner reality?

Our inner world is often scattered. Our habits are ingrained in us, much as the movement of the celestial spheres is. These habits are similar in the sense that they are both mechanical—the celestial bodies move in very repetitive paths, and so do we, humans.

One of the reasons for this lack of reality^[1] and for these habits is that our lower centers^[2] often function without sufficient attention to penetrate reality. Certainly, like Pinocchio, we wish to turn from being puppets, and to become real boys^[3]! How, then, can we find a way out of this unreal labyrinth? 

We first need to acknowledge the fact and verify that we are indeed as unreal as wooden puppets. We are in imagination. By imagination we mean the constant churning of thoughts in our mind.

The Wheel of Fortune

We see this depicted in a Dutch image from the 15^th century [cover image]. A maiden, blinded by her hair, holds slack the reins of a donkey caught in the spokes of the wheel of fortune; the scene is framed by a head placed in darkness; a crescent moon forms the back of the head. The wheel of fortune depicts imagination. We literally are every little creature that is momentarily at the top of the wheel. We call each such creature ‘I’. 

“Who am I, standing in the midst of this thought traffic?” – Rumi

Combatting Imagination

Imagination about higher centers is easy to have. It satisfies the lower centers, but the real thing is the only thing worth having. However, this requires real work, real friction, not just trying to have nice external circumstances to be comfortable in.

Once we have verified our imagination, our sleep, change becomes possible. We do need help, however. In fact, we need a tremendous amount of help. Peter Ouspensky said that “One must have help from those who have escaped before.” Ouspensky is speaking of men or women who were present in sufficient quantity and depth to produce an immortal astral body. These immortal beings constitute the inner circle of humanity. They are the Absolute’s celestial order of angels.

We need the help of conscious beings. Yet at the same time we must do everything we can ourselves. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) said, “God helps those who help themselves.” This statement is true on many levels. A first step can be to recognize a conscious teacher, when we find one. This is the first step. We must recognize that the teacher is a higher being than his students–ourselves. This means that he can see us, but we cannot see him.

Next Steps

Practical steps come next on our path of spiritual evolution. For instance, Ouspensky advises us that many corners of our being need to be ’rounded off.’ He adds that this is one of the reasons that it is often so useful for ascending souls, or students in a spiritual school, to live together. We can always be a little more considerate, a little more compassionate to our fellow human beings and to spiritual aspirants in particular. Sharing the same physical environment offers many such opportunities. In ‘rounding off corners,’ Ouspensky is referring to the development of character.

Change is possible for us, yet it requires a great deal of work. At the same time, this work can be exciting, and fun! Ouspensky once said to his student, Rodney Collin, “Self-remembering, for the unprepared person, means having a sense of humor about oneself”.  A fine sense of humor can emerge from realizing our limitations in a compassionate way.

We eventually realize we need to construct our lives around the effort to increase consciousness, or presence. To change requires working to deconstruct, transform, and transcend whatever within us resists or distracts us from acceleration into higher worlds. We come to realize, with time, that every moment of presence is a triumph, and a reason to be grateful.

“Don’t hope for Plato’s utopian republic, but be content with the smallest step forward, and regard even that result as no mean achievement.” — Marcus Aurelius

For another article by Benjamin B., see https://fourthwaytoday.org/world-6-and-world-12/ and https://fourthwaytoday.org/created-and-uncreated-light-2/.

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^[1] In the reality possible to a human being, we mean the two higher centers described by Fourth Way authors; the higher emotional center, or World 12, and the higher mental center, or World 6.

^[2] We here mean the four lower centers described by Fourth Way authors; the moving, instinctive, emotional, and intellectual brains.

^[3] According to a modern Fourth Way teacher, founder of the Fellowship of Friends, Robert Earl Burton, the ‘real boy’ mentioned in the the children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio is the higher mental center, world 6.