A Story About Appreciation
When Appreciation first came into form, it was about building a higher value in something. But it got distorted. Once upon a time...
One day, you went into a room where the Lord of the Universe was, and you said you had decided something. You were going to build a higher value out of something.
“A higher value than what?” the Lord asked. “Something the Lord made? The whole universe?”
This was the beginning form of the ego, the beginning form of selfishness.
The Lord thought, “So, I guess that it’s going to be more valuable than me.”
“Oh no, not at all. I am just going to make something better, that’s all.”
“But it’s all my stuff, my universe, my mind, my creation. I am just trying to understand what you are going to do.”
“Well, yes, sure, but see… the thing is, this will be mine. That’s all. I will be making something out of matter. I’ll be making something matter. And it will be me that will have taken the substance and essence of life and made this thing that I am going to make.”
“Oh. I see... Hmm… well, okay… but while you are at it, why don’t you put a little gratitude into it, recognizing the source of it?”
“You mean I have to recognize who built all this? I have to acknowledge that what I am building value on all came from you in the first place?”
“Well, yes, at least a little, because if you don’t then you are going to get lost out in matter, in things that matter. Just Respect the Source value, even if it is just a little.”
July 28, 2009 at 15:10 | MW
I much appreciate this post, MW. I especially liked:
If all you did was run Gratitude, you couldn’t show your relationship to anything in matter. The only way you can move out into creation is through Appreciation, but if you don’t do that with Gratitude you will get lost.
I have this image of Adam and Eve being like two people on a Kalamazoo (a hand-pumped railway cart). Both pump the cart, one either side of a rocking lever, and the cart can be made to go in either direction along the line by mutual agreement. Wherever they are on the line, Matterwards or Sourcewards, they are working in harmony in the moment. If Only Eve pumped the cart and Adam sat out, then wherever they currently were, the movement would tend to be Matterwards; Eve wouldn't primarily be concerned whether that movement were taking into account the relationship between it and the real reasons for being. Conversely, if only Adam pumped, he wouldn't be primarily concerned about the application of reasons for being in manifested creation.
I suppose one could be, on the face of it, far out into the realm of Matter, e.g. running a profitable business. However, what is important is the internal reason for doing that. If it is for purely personal gain, then Eve is dominating. On the other hand, maybe the focus is on providing reasonably-priced goods and services, and justly-paid employment, which in the end conduces to the spiritual development of others as well as of oneself. Hence, Adam and Eve should be working in tandem to fulfill real reasons for being at a specified locus - that is, with certain Values consonant with real reasons for being, at that locus.
Conversely, on the face of it far into the realm of Source, e.g. in what appears to be religious or spiritual practice, the focus could be, internally, on personal gain: e.g. making sure we “get to heaven”, and not concern about anyone else’s real needs and aspirations, or even, for that matter, our own. But something that might not look like spiritual practice – could be building a wall, playing football, or anything else - could have Values in operation that are factoring in reasons for being.
Hence, I don’t think we can judge, merely by looking at externals, the Value of someone’s current locus of activity. Intention is all. If intentions are selfish, then wherever one ostensibly happens to be, the movement is towards more negative Values - and if selfless, towards more positive ones. More important than the apparent position seems to be the direction of movement. From moment to moment, situation to situation, Adam and Eve need to be cooperating. Eve gets the cart where it needs to be Matterwards to factor in Appreciation (giving outwards in life), but then Adam supplies the Gratitude to move it Sourcewards (giving inwards in eternity, as I see it, whether to oneself or others).
It’s difficult to come up with an adequate metaphor. I find the “Kalamazoo – railway line” image defective in that it may, as it were, be a different line when in different circumstances and/or states of being. The line we travel today isn’t necessarily the same line we might have travelled a couple of years ago or even yesterday. At any moment, I see it as if we are working on a limited segment of a conceptual “line” with a certain starting point, aiming to move Sourcewards; all the while maintaining Appreciation and Gratitude in a dynamic balance, at the “Adam and Eve” (“pre-Fall”) point as I interpret that.
As I see it, from what Sensei says, both Adam and Eve, in cooperating, are learning, so that we can become more refined in our perceptions and actions. Adam can learn more about Gratitude through Appreciation, and Eve, more about Appreciation through Gratitude. They are co-evolving in unison within us.
I think this co-evolution can be seen in human beings both in past and present times. There have always been individuals well ahead of the trend, but it wasn’t that long ago we lived in tribal communities primarily focussed on survival. We’ve always had some idea of the divine, but typically, in the past, religions cast God or gods in the image of man – a being or beings who kept people under control through threat of punishment and hope for reward. The Values of this viewpoint aren’t, I’d say, very high on the scale in relation to true reasons for being. Movement is still possible in one direction or the other, but the “line segment” is, conceptually, more over towards Matter than Source.
I think there is still a version of this in modern people. Some highly-educated Westerners, for example, still hold to literalistic interpretations of scripture, or if they don’t, still have latent ideas of punishment and reward, which is what keeps them behaving in a relatively civilized manner. We might not have inquisitions or hang, draw and quarter people these days, but the underlying mentality could still be there.
At some point in my personal development, something that one of the great spiritual figures, Rabia of Basra, said, made a profound impact on me:
O Lord! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.
There is an enormous shift in Values, I think, embodied in this statement. It’s one thing to say it and even to believe it, quite another to act it out in my living and giving. Yes, I wanted to worship God for His own sake, but was aware that I was actually incapable of doing that; I was still motivated through fear of punishment and hope for reward. My Values still had a strong Matter component, were still tainted by a “what’s in it for me” mentality. I personally think you just have to keep working at things before you can begin to get beyond this, to see that actually, the most satisfying things, those in accord with real reasons for being, don’t “have something in it for me”. Until then, one is locked in Matterwards positions, with limited scope for Sourcewards peregrinations.
I don’t know why or how it happened that one day I saw that “What’s in it for me?” was the central stumbling block to my progress, what kept me going round and round the same loop of track. It wasn’t that being selfish was “bad” and being selfless was “good”, but that being self-interested was preventing me going Sourcewards, from acting in accord with my real reasons for being. I actually perceived that, rather than just understanding it intellectually. Then it ceased to be a matter of “good” or “bad”. Beating myself up for being “bad” was actually all part of the problem, because it’s a tacit recognition that the divine is a punisher/rewarder, just a big man in the sky who thinks like we tend to.
I think that what Sensei is doing is formalizing a methodology for catalyzing the gradual shift of viewpoint, and that it really comes into its own when we start to get glimpses beyond current stumbling blocks; hopefully, it helps us transcend them. I value it because it helps explain and contextualize my current situation, and gives me a different way of communicating that.
July 30, 2009 at 5:57 | ML
ML,
Sensei recently told me that you are catching on to what he is conveying. His comment was based on your EA discussion comments, and was relative to the four principles of the Art of Giving and to the role of the Adam and Eve nature within each of us.
I think your metaphor of the “Kalamazoo – railway line” is really well done, nicely illustrative of some of the things he is teaching, including, "It is important that we can move both inwardly and outwardly through our givings, as this enables us to navigate through life's many circumstances and to line up with the spiritual values and matters of the moment." It can be easy to get confused when we are told something like "move inwardly and outwardly through our givings." Such are the paradoxes of the masters. Yet your artful illustration of the Kalamazoo helps make the indecipherable clearer.
Similarly, we can get confused with things like "achieving a state of balance within ourselves." What exactly does that mean? Or, what does Sensei mean when he states that "Adam and Eve... were originally in a state of being dwelling right on the edge of the earth's spiritual/physical plane connection"? What is that state of being?
Well, we don't get our clarity by wringing our hands, or by nodding our heads and then slithering back into our lives without any further work on our parts. Instead, we need to practice. We need a constant working and reworking, among ourselves as individual students, between ourselves (student-to-student), and between students and teachers.
This site offers a venue for that kind of practice. I know you have never been shy about sort of 'putting it all out there' when it comes to web-based discussions, but I am nevertheless struck by the quality of your practice here. And, because you are practicing, we all have the benefit of seeing someone practicing well, as well as the beneficial insights that practice can bring: "From moment to moment, situation to situation, Adam and Eve need to be cooperating. Eve gets the cart where it needs to be Matterwards to factor in Appreciation (giving outwards in life), but then Adam supplies the Gratitude to move it Sourcewards (giving inwards in eternity, as I see it, whether to oneself or others)."
So, it is a matter of finding the tools and methods, as well as the will, to achieve or practice this. Or, as you put it, "What Sensei is doing is formalizing a methodology for catalyzing the gradual shift of viewpoint, and that it really comes into its own when we start to get glimpses beyond current stumbling blocks; hopefully, it helps us transcend them."
Yes, and part of what is giving us that glimpse is when we put in a dose (or more) of Gratitude - then, the awareness 'ball' truly begins to roll.
August 2, 2009 at 14:42 | MW