Phat Talks: Recent Episodes
Esoteric Talks
The Phat Talks are about learning to apply the universal truth of esotericism to ourselves, where we find ourselves in the Universe. Applied anything is more difficult than theoretical anything. Our quick fix, instant access society doesn't well support these efforts. All the more reason for this spaced repetition of Universal Principles.
Coming to terms with esoteric ideas as relating to our internal world takes some time and effort. We're so turned outward that we ordinarily think in the language of the outer world. What's out there is only a reflection of what's inside us.
What's to keep us from imagining that we're developing when imagination is so powerful, satisfying every center? Are we really struggling against imagination? Is there a way to test our work on ourselves to find if it's true work?
One of the wonderful things about the Infinite is it's infinite. There's no end to it. To grasp this idea with the sense mind is impossible. Another mind is needed. A mind built by higher ideas, not data from the senses.
The simply stated law of Cause and Effect is not nearly as easily understood experientially. This causes an infinite number of errors to thrive. These errors bring untold misery into our personal lives and the lives of countless others. There is a remedy.
Esoteric ideas necessarily fall externally on us. It takes more years than we like to think for them to become more internal to us. There are things that we can do to aid the process. There are signs that they have begun to be more internal.
A tour of the need, purpose and use of parable, allegory and fable in the transmission of esoteric ideas. Sadly, if this is misunderstood it can act as a barrier to the reception of these ancient ideas seeded on the earth to open the way for man's possible transformation.
The purpose of an esoteric school, represented in esoteric literature as a vineyard, has as its purpose the production of fruit. The fruit can and must be produced in an individual. Knowing what blocks the production of fruit is a crucial study.
Ridding ourselves of identification and negative emotions is only half the job before us. There's a great danger in leaving an internal vacancy. Esoteric literature warns us of this danger but most of us don't understand the language well enough to get the message.
This Work, esoteric ideas, will never work for those who take it very heavily, very seriously. There is an eternal boy in each of us able to receive these ideas properly and be nourished by them. This is the intermediary between the two worlds.
What makes this Work so difficult? It's the lower centers we use to touch life. How can we get the lower centers to get something from the Higher Centers? We need a new force.
The First Conscious Shock needs to be as regular as breathing for us to develop. Unfortunately, there's a good deal of jive talkin' that stands between us and that First Conscious Shock. We've got work to do!
Perfection is such a frightening idea to the False Personality that we've had to change the definition of the word to get some peace so we can continue to sleep.
Esoteric ideas don't amount to a hill of beans if they are not properly ordered in our intellectual part. We can think all sorts of things that aren't true. The ideas must be arranged properly and that is the work of our emotional part.
There's a reason some people stay with esoteric teachings, enter into the process of internal transformation while others fall away. This is hard and painful! It takes a long time. It can't be accomplished without a lifeline.
We may be born awake but we don't stay that way long. There's a reason for that. It's the reason we contract a disease that both protects us and at the same time keeps us from developing into our full potential as spiritual beings.
Esoteric teachings show us there is an opposing force integrated in all creation and says we are usually blind to it. There is also a second second. If we remain blind to this we will never change our level of Being.
Part of being the way we are is taking the most incredible things for granted. At birth we receive a great gift. One we rarely appreciate for what it is, but this is just the beginning of our journey towards what is possible for us.
The Fourth Way defines man in many different ways according to where they stand in relation to this Work. Good Householder, Tramp, Lunatic and Hasnamous are four classifications. There is a fifth, often overlooked but very important.
Some might wish for the ability to be in two places at the same time, but it's only because they are unaware of their location in the most important place in the Universe. To those places we remain blind until we learn how to work on ourselves.
Just as it's not wise to judge a book by it's cover it's also unwise to judge the internal man by how the external man appears or behaves in our perception. It's up to us to adjust our own mismatch between our inner and outer selves.
Self-Remembering sounds easy. It may well be easy for someone who is awake. Since we're not, we need to make the kinds of specific efforts needed to move along toward something more real, more internal than where we ordinarily live.
Esoteric teachings tell us we are not the body. This can make sense to us intellectually and even emotionally to some degree. It's hard to rise above body consciousness however. Here are some practical ways to assist you in this vital realization.
Not all imagination is negative, but we don't know much about the part that isn't. This doesn't mean we can't learn. Properly directed imagination can be a powerful tool helping us to bind that which enslaves us.
There aren't many people who wouldn't accept bliss if it were offered to them. The numbers thin quickly when the idea of making effort to attain the inner state of bliss is introduced. Nonetheless, effort is required and that effort must be of a specific kind to be effective.
No offense to the occupy movement, but people who wish to really alter the course of our world are those who have realized that this is self-development. There's an internal world we need to occupy if we wish to develop.
All the talk in the world won't change our Being. It may help us to gather the knowledge we need to apply to ourselves. Proper application on a daily basis will bring us understanding and ultimately change our level of Being.
Being is a difficult idea for us to grasp. Mostly we're being and only dimly aware of what that is and not very aware at all about what it means. Since "Your Being attracts your life" is such a big part of esoteric teachings we may wish to explore this fu
There's not much of the kind of agreement in the world that leads us to better understand and communicate with our fellow beings. The tragic result is a world at war almost all the time. New meaning is what can bring new understanding.
There's a great deal about the machine that life has made of us which is out of whack. There is one particular faculty that causes us and others an enormous amount of useless, unnecessary suffering. No development is possible until we begin to adjust this
Putting off till tomorrow what you can do today may seem like a good idea at the time, but it may not be a wise choice when it comes to the work of self-development. Biting the bullet and applying the work to your own being is something most people never
Being annoyed is easy in today's world with global access to so many annoying people. Here are some ideas on how to deal with those two legged irritants.
Discussion about Gurdjieff's talk, The Last Hour of Life. It's a great daily exercise if you're looking for a way to make esoteric ideas a practical reality in your life.
According to esoteric teachings there is no difference between the mechanically good man and the mechanically bad man. The mechanically good man will have a more difficult path to development.
There is a spiritual war being waged in the heavenlies. What we fail to realize is where heaven and hell are located and what our part is in the whole thing. According to esoteric teachings man is a battle ground between good and evil.
Mechanical man has the nasty habit of judging others. Esoteric teachings show us how those judgments boomerang on us causing more damage to our possible development than we imagine possible.
Some folks live there lives simply wishing to be happy. There's little lasting happiness when we look for it in life. Esoteric teachings train us in another form of happiness that is lasting.
Has the whole world lost its mind? It's unbelievable what people will believe when they listen to ordinary mind.
The food that we eat helps determine the health of our physical body. We've got another tummy that is much more important than the physical. What are we feeding that one?
There's something that spoils our happiness, peace and life. It's not the weather, at least not outside.
What could be more annoying than getting it all figured out and then finding that we didn't really have it all figured out?
There's a rewards program that comes with work, but it's not what we might think it is.
Why is it there are so many millions of Good Householders yet so few who pursue esoteric ideas?
If you're going to make the necessary effort to develop all you are meant to be you'll be doing a balancing act.
It’s probably not what you think, but you may have a choice if you can just reach a little higher. Esoteric teachings show us that raising our level is much better than meeting Leviathan on his own turf.
There are many kinds of poisons. Some act quickly while others are accumulative and slow. There are antidotes too. It’s good to know the antidote and better to recognize the poison before you ingest it.
We all know people who need an attitude adjustment. What we don't usually know is that we're the people who need the attitude adjustment.
Living amongst the living dead is one thing. Not being one of them is an entirely different matter.
There's a great deal that sounds like Mumbo-Jumbo to us in esoteric teachings. We can cut through that if we wish. Depends on our aim.
With man's overall failure to properly understand and apply the esoteric ideas embedded in religion another system is introduced to mankind in an attempt to convey new meaning.
How real are we? Not very. Why is that and what might we do about it? Let's hear what esoteric teaching has to say about it.
We've all heard of natural selection and evolution. It's time we heard about unnatural selection and evolution.
There is something beyond life, but it's not evident to us from this side of life. It's not what you think.
The very word conjures shame, guilt and contraction. Let's have a look at the inside of confession.
A cover story isn't just something that sells magazines. It's something we need to decode to find the real story.
This one turned out to be over an hour long. You'll need patience to listen to it. It's okay to pause and take a break.
Mary may have appeared healthy but the disease she spread was deadly. She's alive and well today spreading an old poison that's even more deadly than typhoid fever.
We've forgotten something very important. Esoterica teaching aim at making us remember what that is.
There is a line of least resistance that we follow. It's necessary, but it's also necessary to leave it at some point if we wish to develop further and in a different direction.
If you're paying attention you've noticed that destruction crops up everywhere on our planet again and again. We need to understand what this is if we are to develop.
Mapping our internal world is a must if we're going to learn to navigate it. The Work has maps.
Just how harsh is the Work when it rubs up against us? Why does it have to be that way?
What goes up must come down, but it's got to go up first and that takes more effort than we're now making.
Disarming the world isn't going to change anything in any meaningful way. There is, however, a disarmament that will make a difference.
When we really begin to understand what this Work aims at we realize we're in a strip show.
We miss the mark more often than we hit it. That's not a bad thing if we know how to use it for our development.
Spotlighting can help us to see through the imaginary pictures we have of ourselves that block our path to development.
The Time Body is not to be confused with the physical body. We can and must work on the Time Body to transform it.
We're keen to suit ourselves but the Work has another idea about how we may suit ourselves to work in life.
Everything in our world is sucking energy at an alarming rate. What does the Work have to say about that?
There's a reason life can make us so dizzy we don't know if we're coming or going. Here's something to help remedy that.
If it's alive and on this planet it must make effort. There is effort that leads to something else, but only one being out of all earth's beings can make that effort.
We hear that we're food for the moon but it's not well understood what this means in our personal work. If it was we'd be working better and developing more.
Three story house? More like a jungle hut on fire. How to see this is where the Work starts.
We're all Being, but what is our level of Being and how do we change it? For that matter, why should we?
There is a time to work. That's the easy part. Knowing when that time is may not be quite so easy.
Somewhere along the line we learned how to manufacture misery. When and how do we learn to stop?
We imagine we're free when the truth is we've been bewitched and are under the power of a harmful force that wishes to keep us enslaved for its own purposes.
If we had possession of some attention we might be able to direct it. Since we don't, how can we get some?
A silver bullet for completing four years of weekly Podcasts. What is a silver bullet in our work?
Life is full of problem no matter who you are. Who in their right mind would want bigger problems and why?
Demons, devils and evil spirits populate myth, legend and literature. What does the Work have to say about all this and what may it have to do with us?
With so many people trying to be good you'd think there'd be more goodness in the world. What's up with that?
Sometimes it's good to step back and have a look at where we've been and where we're going.
The question is asked all the time but we rarely see it for what it is. It's a challenge. What will you do?
We're familiar with mind over matter. It works both ways and it would serve us to be aware of them both.
The ideas of reincarnation and recurrence in the Work are not pivotal but now that you've heard about it you may as well know a little more.
If there's been an erosion of quality in our lives it's because we have made quantity more important. Stop it!
When you live with people explosions of negative emotions come around more often than we'd like. What's that about and what can we do about it?
How can people sincerely wish to awaken and eschew the things that lead to awakening while they embrace the things that put them to sleep?
Not everything has to be difficult. If it is it may well be our own doing and not the process.
What's all this about death and dying in esoteric writings? Sounds creepy but it doesn't have to be.
We have our ups and downs. It's up to us to pull it all together harmoniously and meaningfully. Esoteric ideas are here to help us do just that and so much more.
Our internal work needs to be like espionage. It all has to happen behind the scenes. We need a spy to bring us good intelligence.
This Work, the work of esotericism, the work of transformation into a different, higher order of being is not for ghosts. Are you a ghost?
There's always a tender nerve behind the bull's eye. This can be cause for alarm or an alarm to call us to remember ourselves.
Our lives are limited by any number of things. We never seem to notice them when the limiters are internal.
There's something in us that prevents our forward progress and development. This Thing must be recognized and rendered passive. It's not what you think it is. It's deeper than that.
There is a proper way to enter this Work. That path is rather grown over with weeds and not nearly as attractive as the way the False Personality would rather enter.
Ordinarily we don't think of ourselves as thieves and liars but a little light reveals some unexpected things when we look inside ourselves.
Unless we can view ourselves in scale we'll not be able to think relatively. Then we'll continue to be at the mercy of Pride, Vanity and Life's purpose for us, which isn't beneficial to us.
What is the Work talking about when it says that impressions are food that we can't live without for a moment?
It's not just oil and electricity about which we need to think. We need to understand the energy that keeps us going personally and can fuel our transformation.
We know the five outer senses but we remain unaware of all the inner sense that we may develop if we are willing to make the effort.
In our story the One Ring is firmly attached in our noses and we blindly serve our own worst interests thinking how happy we are.
All this talk about transformation and we still have trouble understanding it. It's because we take ourselves for granted as well as everything around us.
People speak of one world government without realizing the world is already being governed by one world government. We're convinced we're free the whole time we're enslaved.
It's not bad enough to have a monkey on our back. We have hundreds, perhaps thousands. Learn how to deal with them.
Though faith may be greatly misunderstood there comes a point in our work when we cannot move forward without its force.
Why are you wearing that silly hat? It may seem like a rude question but it's valid if properly understood.
Like the clerk in the shop the Work asks you what you want. Do you know or do you just think you know?
Moving from the man in the moon to the moon in the man is something we each must do along the way to self-development.
Our perception is always askew. Until we learn to see it can be more or less accurate based on our understanding.
Defining truth, beauty, virtue and goodness are things upon which we find it difficult to agree. There's a reason for that.
If we can't do why should we concern ourselves with non-action? Shouldn't that just come naturally?
There's a song that is singing us and a song that could sing us. Can you get to the place where you can let the new song sing you?
This Work isn't about making our lives easier, neat and clean. At first it gets very messy and may stay that way for a long time. There is a way out of this quandary.
Order is heaven's first law. There's a specific order to internal development just as there is to the unfolding of a rose.
We're born real and not so gradually become something else. We can get back to our reality if we're willing to work.
Many people view prayer as a superstitious practice of the unenlightened. Most often it is but that doesn't mean there isn't something to it.
Today the gold rush is on as more people are going after the fool's gold than the real deal.
If this way is new to you or not, sometimes a jump start is what we need to help move us forward.
More about how to identify which parts of us are at work so we can bring the light of consciousness to our unconscious actions.
Parts is parts until you can distinguish the difference between the parts. We can learn to know our parts and thereby better know ourselves.
In many ways we're like a tire that has gone flat. We look okay in most areas except for the flat spot that makes proper operation impossible. If we wish to develop we must develop both sides.
The business of our life is run by three bosses who don't know each other but share a secretary who's not very bright. We need a work around.
There's a reason it's so difficult to understand certain people and easy to understand others.
Treating people as objects is a very unpleasant habit. There is a place in our work for objectification.
Esoteric teachings appear to contain an enormous amount of contradictions. If we wish to develop something's got to give. If we desire to change we're going to have to understand things differently.
Life is made a mystery because of the ignorance in which we live our lives due to our inner blindness.
If we wish to develop we're going to need to be able to experience a whole set of new emotions.
Unless we begin to see in greater scale we will remain imprisoned at our current level.
Sometimes we have to reach the end of our rope before we learn that life is a balancing act for those who wish to develop.
Just because we make ourselves bulletproof doesn't mean we've made ourselves foolproof.
Without knowing it we defy the laws of physics every day. We're in two places at once. Get to know your neighborhood.
Magnetic Center, just like all the other centers is an arbitary intellectual concept. Getting the Work out of our heads and into our Being is simple.
Awakening, enlightment, transformation are all words pointing to the esoteric idea of a reversal that can take place with an individual.
A cartouche is hard to read without a Rosetta stone. You can get off the hamster wheel and get some real movement in your life with the right tools.
If we can create some space between our internal world and the external world we'll find we have time to respond with inner awareness rather than automatically.
We get so wrapped up in this world it takes something from outside it to remind us there is another world.
A crowd can easily turn into a dangerous and unpredictable mob. It's valuable to know how to control a crowd.
There's much struggle that we pass off as effort. It doesn't move us forward. There is an efficient way to advance.
There's a wall separates us from who we really are. We've helped the world build it and built ourselves into it in the process. We can deconstruct it.
Within each of us is a buried treasure that links us with the infinite and will work for us as we seek to separate our feeling of I from that which we are not.
The difference between Essence and Being can help you navigate your internal world more easily.
There's a difference between blind obedience and obedience that comes as a result of understanding.
If we can remember ourselves we can do. If we can't remember ourselves we can't do. If we can't do we'll have to be. Oh, how sad.
It might not be a bad idea to miss the train sometimes. We don't have to ride every train that comes into the station.
If you are what you eat . . . Oh, let's not even go there. Let's just say we could do better than we do when it comes to our psychological diet.
The visible Work has a secret. The horrible truth becomes a beautiful thing when we understand it.
One good way to know if you got the point is whether or not it hurt. If it didn't you didn't. If you only got it once you didn't.
To what inside ourselve we choose to listen can mean the difference between life in prison or living free.
Identity theft is most damaging when we don't know our identity has been stolen. Awareness mitigates the damage. Get some.
With everything there must be a place to begin, a starting place. With the Work this is a good place to start.
Sometimes it takes a hammer to crack the hard shell of attitudes that have grown up around us.
Our species has an annoying habit of making mountains out of mole hills. Don't let it undo your work.
When we realize the need for separation we begin to value the tool that makes it possible.
There are different ways to juggle as there are different ways to deal with what the Work shows us about ourselves. Choose wisely.
The last few episodes have been connected by a general theme. This one is designed to wrap up the ideas presented and give a practical exercise for making it ours.
There comes a time when we must have a clean enviornment in which to practice this work internally.
Life isn't a dress rehersal. If you've realized that and you desire to work it's time to put on your Work Shoes.
After becoming masters in the art of suffering we're asked to give it up. Is it any wonder we struggle so much?
Sometimes the truth hurts and sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately the times it seems to hurt most is when it's about us.
If our level of Being is our level and we can't do how can we change our level of Being?
This is a lot of effort. Why should I work? And, how the Fourth Way and Vipassana meditation may work together.
For a number of years the Work is small and fragile within us. It must be nourished and protected. That's your job.
We all know better and act worse. What we wish to do we don't do and what we don't wish to do we do. What's up with that?
Imagination plays a large role in our level of unhappiness. Seeing it is the first step toward freeing ourselves from it.
We live in a violent world. There is a way out, but it's not the direction we are accustomed to look.
It's been said what we don't know won't hurt us. The truth is different. It's what we don't see that has power over us.
Parables have been used in esotericism to teach inner meaning for millennia. To properly understand what they teach we need to know who represents what.
There's not much of value can be accomplished without some form of obedience. The idea is not that you obey but rather what you obey.
There is a psychological country as vast and varied as the outside world. Whether we choose a country club or a slum will determine our experience.
There's much talk about being present. Unless we deal with what prevents us we'll never experience it.
Emotions sap an incredible amount of energy. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to conserve some of that energy and be free from certain unwanted emotions?
Learning to read body language can be helpful in relationships but learning to read your own can help you to adjust what causes it. That can help you to harmonize your centers and move closer to the freedom you desire.
One of the problems with the concept of so many I's inhabiting our inner world is seeing them. Here are some tips for how to Observe those I's.
The idea that we attract the circumstances in our life is a difficult one to accept. If we can see it we can change our fatal attraction.
Like a ghost who doesn't know he's died we walk through life unaware of our condition. Learn how to see your ghost.
The world has seen the effect of dangerous ideas. Have we seen what makes ideas dangerous is where we mix them with ourselves inside?
Life demands decisions from us but it also teaches us how to make those decisions. We'll keep doing what we always do if we don't learn a new way to make decisions.
How much responsibility do we have for how other's perceive us? From the perspective of this Work the answer may be somewhat surprising.
If we're healthy and have our bills paid our biggest problem is other people. It's also our greatest opportunity for real work on ourselves.
Peace and happiness are easily confused with one another. There is a difference and which you choose could make your life heaven or hell.
The internal chatter that goes on almost unnoticed can suck the life out of us. Here's a way to begin to deal with it that works.
It's so difficult to catch ourselves sleeping because we're dreaming about how awake we are. There's a way out!
There's a difference between ordinary effort and intelligent effort. The quality of the result is different as well.
If we wish to move from point A to point B we must know where point A is first. No matter how horrible that knowledge may appear.
Self-poisoning is much more prevalent than we are aware. If we want to live healthy, productive lives. Develop as we may. We must become aware of how we poison ourselves so we can take steps to stop it.
We've got to isolate ourselves from the Life forces that drive us, not isolate ourselves from the Work forces that show us what we don't want to see about ourselves.
Yes, it's easy to say but it's not easy to do. There are ways we can use to help us remember ourselves.
Living unconsciously is so easy we can do it unconsciously all the time thinking we're conscious. There is a way to do it differently.
Changing our Being may not be easy but it's also not impossible. Though we can't do in life we can do the Work. Just do it!
We've got to build something in us that can see us, as we are, without going crazy with what it sees.
No matter what we wish from life it's going to take some kind of force to realize it. Learn which kind of force to use when and where.
You wouldn't want to live in a toxic waste dump if you knew what it was. We're living in one and we don't know it.
There's an invisible law active in all things. It would serve us well to be aware of this law and learn to employ it to our benefit.
Whether we know it or not we are each stuck someplace. First we need to find out we're stuck. Then we need to learn how to get unstuck.
We’ve a very powerful asset within us but it’s out of our direct control. Here’s a way to gain some control.
Our final presentation in the series of Unifying Opposites deals with the practical application of the ideas in our everyday life.
To find balance is to find a place between the opposite poles of our current personality.
It's effortless for us to think in terms of opposites. We do it mechanically. When we make right effort our internal world benefits greatly from the joining of opposites.
We hear a great deal about our inability to do, in this Work. Some things we can do with a proper understanding of the principle of Yes and No.
We have the ability and the right to change, but only in certain ways. Ultimately, it's why we're here and what we are supposed to be doing.
Learning to say no to ourselves, after a lifetime of saying yes to anything and everything "It" demands, can be quite the challenge.
Learning how to think in a new, balanced way can turn the events of life into stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks. It won't just happen though.
A crucial part of the Fourth Way is joining in ourselves the science of the West with the wisdom of the East. It's not always pleasant but it can be extremely fruitful.
The road is long and difficult with little hope of reaching the final destination in the time we appear to have. Why bother?
We have so many mouths for a reason. Each has its own food.
You may not be what you eat but what you eat profoundly affects your internal world.
Few of us realize how much pleasure we take in negative emotions. Boy, are we in for a shock! If we learn how to observe ourselves properly and then begin to practice it.
We exist in two worlds at once. One has the power to change the other. Mostly we're aware, if it can be called awareness, of the wrong one.
When thinking of freedom we must know what keeps us from being free as well as what freedom may be. Would you rather have a picture of freedom or freedom?
Part two on making a Real Work Aim that will take you where you wish to go. Even if you don't know exactly where that is right now.
If you're going to hit the target, it's a good idea to take aim. As with everything else in our dualistic paradigm there are two kinds of aim. Real aim gives you a better chance of spiritual success.
Two kinds of conscience are discussed. Acquired conscience and Buried Conscience. Real conscience is what we need to realize the philosopher's utopia.
Let your conscience be your guide. It's a good idea if you know which conscience to let guide you. Like most everything else we've got more than one.
Different groups of I's lead us under the influence of different laws. To be under fewer, better laws results in more freedom.
If love makes the world go round, why does the world seem to have a flat tire? There must be another kind of love.
Further discourse on the Fourth Way teaching of the doctrine of I's and how you may apply the ideas to your own life. The application of these ideas help one to realize deep inner healing of our fragmented personalities giving us the ability to discover our true nature.
The Doctrine of I's revisited with an emphasis on the possibility within man and how it may be realized.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this world is violent. Discover what makes us that way and you've got the keys to preventing yourself from being part of the violence of our planet.
Third presentation in the series on Self-Remembering. This one gets a little rough so you may wish to fasten your emotional safety belt before you embark.
The second talk in the series on the spiritual state of consciousness known as Self-Remembering in The Fourth Way system.
The first discourse in a series of three discussing the state of consciousness necessary to practice Self-Remembering. We also touch on what Self-Remembering is as well as what Self-Observation is.
The Doctrine of I’s part two is the completion of our recent discourses on Gurdjieff’s teaching about our fragmented personality. To attempt to affect inner change without an understanding of this fundamental fact is like trying to lift a bucket in which we’re standing.
This is the first of six talks discussing one of the basic teachings of the Fourth Way system. We’ve got to start some place and this is where we’re starting.