24th August 2003

If we accept the idea that there is no way of separating mind from matter and all that mental phenomena, even the most lofty, have a chemical basis, it will follow that the depletion of erroneous metabolism of certain materials in the body will produce defects in behavior.  This is as obvious as the fact that wine can turn to vinegar if exposed to air or milk, unsterilized, will turn sour.  But what, if anything, can be done about it?  If people have these essence defects, does this render them incapable of playing the Master Game?  Does the inner work become actually harmful rather than beneficial to a psyche already teetering on the edge of dysorganization?

A few examples will illustrate the problem. Consider the case of Joe. 

Or here is Sue. 

Or here is Willy. 

Or here is Sandra. 

Joe,Sue, Willy, Sandra , hold no difference for the One.

Come, as you are,

Come.

Come laughing, come crying.

Come with an agenda, come without an agenda.

Come as you are.

Leave your shoes outside

or come inside with them.

Come.

Any genuine teacher will immediately detect the essence weaknesses which have made these aspirants failures from the ordinary life standpoint.

The failures or successess in your life, as of, the point of coming, has no relevance for the One.

For what is to happen, next, will be a happening totally appropriate to the milieu which occurs in that moment.

 A teacher trained in the "tough" tradition would chase all four applicants out of his presence after sharply reproaching them for their rashness in coming to him at all.  Such teachers insist that the methods of Creative Psychology can be used only by those who are already in good health and already successful in whatever life game they have chosen.  They will declare that the Way is not for weaklings nor for dabblers, nor is it for misfits or "neurotics".  They insist on stern practicality, absense of sentimentality, ability on the part of the aspirant to estimate correctly his inner resources.  "If you have not the strength to climb some trivial hill, how can you hope to ascend to lofty mountain? Go back! Stop fooling yourself!  This is presumption and stupidity as if a cripple were to set out to run the four-minute mile."

Such is not a One.

Other teachers make no attempt to warn ill-prepared applicants that they are undertaking something far beyond their strength.

There is nothing beyond an instruments capability.

The Lord can never give a pain beyond my capacity to bear (or something to that effect).

  They accept the pupil with all his defects, with all his weaknesses, in a spirit of experimentation to see what will happen.  They are willing to take chances, to accept the risk that a borderline schizophrenic, for example, may disintegrate completely under the additional stress imposed by the inner work.

That might well happen, if it was meant to happen.

Teachers trained in the "mild" tradition do what they can to protect the pupil from the effects of his own weakness, patiently picking him up when he falls, forgiving his failures, endeavoring, as far as possible, to do for him the work he cannot or will not do for himself. Such teachers, needless to say, are frequently regarded as saints.  But adherants of the tough tradition reproach them with being altogether too sentimental, with a failure to provide the student with proper challenges, with misunderstanding that principle which states that one can no more do another's inner work for him than one can digest his lunch for him.  By trying to make the Way easy, they declare, one merely enourages self-deception and laziness.

The One, neither makes it easy nor makes it tough.

Neither encourages self-deception, nor self-realization.

If the arriver find's it easy, it's his or her reflection

If the arriver finds it tough, it's his or her reflection.

The One does nothing, achieves nothing.

And all flows from the One, into the One.