Gurdjieff, a Russian mystic from the beginning of the last century, always told his students that the human body we use is a machine, loaded with automatic behavioral programs that run out of control, or under the control of the mind, making us all, basically, automatons that we navigate through life unconsciously, letting ourselves be carried away by the programs and patterns of behavior that we activate, according to n the needs of the day.
Eckhart Tolle, in the book The Power of Now, told how a moment came when he said: I can no longer live with myself, which He led me to think that there had to be two Yo s, at least, so that one of them could not live with the other. Both Gurdjieff and Tolle tell us about the same thing, the mind / character / personality we have, and the soul / consciousness that we are.
Deprogram the automaton, enhance awareness
It is quite an exercise of will and internal work, tremendously intense, to bend to the automatic and automatic part of the soul / mind symbiosis. In almost every moment of our life, it is these automatic and unconscious programs that govern us (I include all mental components such as ego, subconscious, behavior patterns, etc.) Tolle says that, really, To realize that there is this control over us of the automatic part, we just have to focus on bringing awareness to the present moment, to the now.
Gurdjieff and his entire El Camino Camino school, as they have been called his teachings, put a lot of emphasis on deprogramming the human being from the automatic patterns of behavior to stop being reactive machines and that the consciousness takes the controls being 100% of the present time and conscious of the body it occupies, of what enters through the five senses and of what happens at this particular moment. The goal is to block the mind and our personality from going to the past, or the future, where we always tend to be, either remembering things or events that have happened to us (which I ate yesterday or what I did last week), or Well things we expect to happen or we believe will happen. While we are with the mind in that past or in that future, we are not "present", and, not being "present", the automaton that directs this organic body that I inhabit is in control. While Gurdjieff proposes to dismantle the automaton, Tolle proposes to enhance consciousness so that the automaton has no power. Two paths for the same goal.
Experience it yourself
Even as I write this article I notice the struggle between my automaton and my conscience to have control. The automaton is thinking the words that I am going to use, the ideas that I am going to write in two paragraphs, but my conscience is trying to notice every key on the computer that I am pressing and to concentrate on the right thought that I am writing at the moment, not in which I will write a little later. My conscience wants to flow with what comes at every moment to write it, my mind is asking me to plan what I am going to write and keep it, to reinforce its presence with multiple attempts to stay out of the "now." When, continually, by simply using your willpower, you return again and again to the "now", to the present, we block a little more the drifts of going to a past or future state, so that I can have control about my existence with a little more constancy and for longer.
The power of Now
The state of being "present" is tremendously powerful. In it, there are no problems or situations to solve, no worries. Test it. Be present, dissociate yourself from the automaton and become an observer of yourself. Every moment you stay anchored in time drags you to think about everything we have to do in our lives, what awaits us, the things we have to solve. While, on the contrary, every moment that we are in the “now” is only an instant of experiencing life 100%, and then letting it flow and bring experiences to which we do not anticipate, but we are managing under the baton of consciousness "in the present" as it becomes necessary.
The goal is only one, that suddenly, from so much coming and going from consciousness to unconsciousness, that is, from so much regaining control over our automatic mind, losing it again, running our usual programs, disconnecting them again. and again, it is that one day the cycle will stop and having constantly exercised our will over our programs, consciousness no longer loses control, and the perception of the "present" moment in us is permanently established, living constantly and harnessing the power of "now."
a hug!
David
