A Way in Life, Lawrence Morris
…the only means we have for self-study is our attention…
Ordinarily we never make this movement of directing attention to the sense of self. …we find it impossible at first to do so for more than a moment…It is the simplest thing in the world, and the most difficult. Such a moment is the first step towards awakening. But a long road to full awakening lies ahead, and it cannot be traveled alone. No one of us has energy enough to awaken and to stay awake without help, in the face of all the forces loose in the world that are opposed to any conscious effort…
Toward Awakening, Jean Vaysse
…Self-study can be brought to a successful result only in a properly organized group.
But for a long time the work itself will be only a preparatory work. So many things in the human machine are broken or rusty that preliminary repairs are first necessary….
…the preparatory work also Is only possible in a group. One man alone cannot see himself. But a number of people who come together for this purpose will help one another, even involuntarily. It is characteristic of human nature always to see the faults of others more easily than one’s own—this happens very “spontaneously.” But on the path of self-study a man soon learns that he has in himself all the characteristics and faults that he sees in others—the difference is only in degree. … But in order to see himself in the features, defects and faults of his fellow-workers and not just see their features and faults, he needs to have a special inner attitude, a vigilance, an attention of a particular direction and quality, which requires great honesty and above all great sincerity toward himself. A man can only speak honestly about what he himself has experienced. Complete sincerity and willingness to put oneself in question again and again must be respected by each member of the group, or such a work is not possible; the failure of one person is enough to “defile the atmosphere.”
Thus, in the work of self-study, each student begins to accumulate material resulting from his observations within himself. Here again group work is indispensable. Twenty people will have twenty times as much material, most of which can be used by everyone. …
But above all, each student must remember that he is not one—that one part of him is the man who wants to awaken, but the other part, his personality, has no desire whatever to awaken… A group is usually a pact concluded between the real I’s of a number of people to engage in a common struggle against their false personalities. …if twenty I’s join together to struggle against each of their personalities they can become stronger than it; in any case they can disturb its dominance and prevent the other I’s from sleeping so peacefully.
The Reality of Being
#55 Real exchange
When I exchange in a group, I need to know to what I am calling the other person, to what participation. At the very moment of speaking, I may be awkward or insufficient. I do not know what to trust and I agree too easily to lie in affirming a false image of myself. Nevertheless, I need to know the nature of the cooperative effort in which I am engaged. …How can I understand the other, understand his question and relate it to my own in order to have a real exchange? …
There is an attitude that we must not allow in ourselves, which ruins our work and that of others. We are here with the others to see our nothingness, which otherwise is too difficult to perceive, and to open to the possibilities in ourselves and with others…
Nobody can teach. We can only work….Nobody can ask us to be more than we are. …Above all I need to work myself, to take my measure…
We need to exchange what we have received in order that this material remain alive in us. If it is not exchanged, it will not live. But an exchange cannot be unilateral. At the moment of exchange, I need to be in question myself, open to my inquiry, truly living it, sensitive to all my own reactions and to those of the others sharing my experience…
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 10
…G. said: “…A group is a big thing. …We shall prepare ourselves so as in the course of time to become a group…
“A group must work as one machine. The parts of the machine must know one another and help one another. In a group there can be no personal interests opposed to the interests of others, or opposed to the interests of the work, there can be no personal sympathies or antipathies which hinder the work.
The Reality of Being
#56 This Form
…this work requires certain conditions, depends on certain conditions. One of these is that we unite our efforts…
…We can do nothing without one another. … We make efforts alone—we struggle alone, suffer alone, respond alone. But a moment comes when exchange is indispensable… And without this exchange, we cannot go further. …Only in the beginning is it necessary to create groups artificially with a leader answering questions ….Later the organism forms itself naturally among those of the same level who together feel the need. …We may work separately, each making efforts alone. Yet at certain moments it is imperative to come together to verify and exchange, and in order, by a certain common effort, for truth to emerge more strongly. There is a time for everything. I speak of the form that our work today has taken, of groups, and of the possibility that has been created.
If this possibility is not sufficiently realized, this form will degenerate by itself, and will never give birth to a new, more inner form, with a new possibility. Forms do not invent themselves. They arise from the need to work together that certain elements feel is necessary to preserve their existence.
…I need to collaborate in a common effort of ascent. If I do not, whether or not I wish it, I am responsible for the stone I do not bring to the edifice…