The Dismantling of the Approval/Disapproval Mechanism

[Plenum]

one of the greatest advances in my own journey in the last 6 months has been the systematic and progressive dismantling of my Approval/Disapproval System. Well, what exactly do you mean by this plenum?

in one of the passages on mental discipline, Ra talks about the completeness of the mind, and the polarity of this density. The dualism of this place means that almost anything that can be conceived here is dipolar, that is, it is charged either positively or negatively. This charge, in itself, is unbalancing; irrespective of the qualities involved.

Ra gives the example of patience/impatience. Patience is normally regarded as a 'good quality', something to cultivate in oneself as a 'good trait' as opposed to impatience, which can lead to many destructive and disastrous self-created situations. This is in itself true; but the problem begins when we start elevating or 'approving' of the state of 'patience'; which in turn leads to a disapproval when we witness impatience in ourselves and others; ie this disapproval becomes something that is separative because we have elevated the former quality of patience to too high a level.

that is not to say we do not have a relationship to patience or impatience ... which is best characterised as a preference or an understanding of that dual quality. It is not the patience/impatience understanding which is the issue; it is the approval/disapproval that becomes attached to that dipole.

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Perhaps Ra can lay it out much more succinctly than myself:

it begins with 5.2:

To begin to master the concept of mental discipline it is necessary to examine the self.

The polarity of your dimension must be internalized.

Where you find patience within your mind you must consciously find the corresponding impatience and vice versa. Each thought that a being has, has in its turn an antithesis.

--> The disciplines of the mind involve, first of all, identifying both those things of which you approve and those things of which you disapprove within yourself, and then balancing each and every positive and negative charge with its equal. <--

The mind contains all things.

Therefore, you must discover this completeness within yourself.

WOW! find everything that you approve, and find its antitheses, and also find everything that you disapprove, and apply its antithesis. Do you know how big a place the mind is, and how many thoughts that one has thought in decades of life? how many things one has 'approved' and 'disapproved' over time? I can tell you, its a lot

having gone through this process myself, and seeing the defusing of almost all reactivity (well, there are always more and more subtle levels of reactivity that reveal themselves, its an endless meditative process essentially).

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but anyway, the reason why this passage came to mind today is that I was reading some Rudolf Steiner (epic mystic, and a man who left a wide and varied legacy, and his Steiner schools and pegagogy are a model of enlightened understanding towards children, and he essentially began the modern practice of permaculture), well, I was reading one of his books, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, and he essentially speaks to this identical point.

Let me back up a bit on passage 5.2.

the whole reason for pursuing these mental disciplines is to open the self to intelligent infinity. But first, the mind must be quietened, the silence of the individual self (apart from the 'whole' self) must be attained.

here is why the process is pursued:

We begin with the mental learn/teachings necessary for contact with intelligent infinity.

The prerequisite of mental work is the ability to retain silence of self at a steady state when required by the self.

--> The mind must be opened like a door.

The key is silence. <--

now the following Steiner passages speak identically to this process:
and the motives are the same:

Of very great importance for the development of the student is the way in which he listens to others when they speak. He must accustom himself to do this in such a way that, while listening, his inner self is absolutely silent. If someone expresses an opinion and another listens, assent or dissent will, generally speaking, stir in the inner self of the listener. Many people in such cases feel themselves impelled to an expression of their assent, or more especially, of their dissent. In the student, all such assent or dissent must be silenced.

assent/dissent here equates to approval/disapproval.

and further, one is placed in situations where one hears a lot of alternative, contrary, and confused viewpoints. The test of a silent mind (non-reactivity) is to be able to read/hear such viewpoints, and be left unmoved (only feel love for the speaker/writer, and not reactivity towards their viewpoint/opinion). The silent mind is the indicator of non-reactivity.

The student feels it his duty to listen, by way of practice, at certain times to the most contradictory views and, at the same time, bring entirely to silence all assent, and more especially, all adverse criticism. The point is that in so doing, not only all purely intellectual judgment be silenced, but also all feelings of displeasure, denial, or even assent.

this is mind-boggling epic! Such a perfect paralleling.

and of that, I do not approve or assent to lol.

peace fellow seekers,

plenum