Robert Earl Burton Archives - Page 11 of 18

The Three Lines of Work

When students work only on the first line, it is a form of identification with themselves. The idea is that “I want to wake up,” but that ‘I’ cannot wake up. Something has to take us out of ourselves and into a larger scale than “me, me, me.” The danger of working only on the […]

by Walther Sell

Balancing Yin and Yang

Human beings are subjective. Each person sees the world through his center of gravity. Man has four brains, an instinctive, moving, intellectual and emotional center. Part of a person`s make-up is the fact that one of these centers is predominant and a person experiences the world more through this center than the other centers. A […]

by Ernst Newman

A Journey of Balance and Regeneration

Balance and imbalance From one point of view, the work is a play between balance and imbalance. If we were in balance, would we still need to search for the meaning behind our lives? If the machine is very much out of balance, the foundation for our work would be unstable. It requires presence to […]

by Natassa Cavalli

The Function of the Steward

What is the function of the steward in work on ourselves? Both science and objective wisdom indicate that to restore balance to our shaken “being,” practical work on ourselves is necessary. Science informs us that our thymus gland is the first thing affected by our emotions. It is responsible for our immune system and the […]

by David Tuttle

Working with the Lower and the Higher

How do we learn to work with both the lower and the higher impressions that surround us? At the beginning of the work, we hear that man is a machine. The work begins with the study of this machine. We study the lower and the higher within us. We learn of our four lower centers […]

by Ruth Atkins

Perspectives on the Idea of Balance

“If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well.” – Rainer Maria Rilke This was the poet Rilke’s response to a proposal of psychoanalysis. At first glance, it appears to be a frightened and irrational claim. And yet it is based on an a concept of balance that […]

by William Page

On the Faculty of Judgment

Who We Admire Any man can speak truly; but to speak with order, wisely, and competently, of that few men are capable. ~ Montaigne There is something ridiculous about a learned man who lacks the discipline to use knowledge in a way that benefits his soul. Nor would we glorify the ignorant who move from action […]

by Ernst Newman

Location, Location, Location

The more experience we gain in using the work ‘I’s, the more we follow their direction to the present, the more often they will come. They create an inner circle of identity that is more interested in the work than in the subject of identification of the many ‘I’s. Even if this identity collapses and needs to be recreated, it represents a more permanent state.

by Rowena Taylor

The Changing Sense of ‘I’

In this work to awaken fully, we experience a changing sense of ‘I’. First, our sense of ‘I’ develops in childhood, as we grow away from the simple essence with which we are born. We develop personality, trying on aspects of new personas into adulthood. When we begin to seek a way out of the […]

by The Editors