Inner Octaves: Talks and Exchanges, Michel Conge
I am subject to to two implacable and opposing currents, and it is the fact that they are inexorably opposed that makes liberation possible. —The Idea of Evolution
To be free of all attachment – this false hope is deeply rooted in us! But there is another conception of freedom… and this real freedom is only possible if I recognize my attachments…
Freedom is the freedom to serve a purpose infinitely greater than anything I can imagine. …
Freedom is, at the same time, submission. There is no other freedom. It is the opposite of anarchy. It is clear that an order is established, and that I find my place in this order. Until then, I have no place; I have neither place nor being. And even when it may seem that I have being, in fact, without the cosmic order, I have neither place nor being. —What Freedom?
One undeniable fact underlies everything: man does not like obeying and, under one guise or another, always manages to serve his personal self and nothing greater…
It cannot be otherwise until I understand that obedience is good, just, and necessary for my evolution, and until I discover the true source of obedience…
Obedience is a universal question…. All other forms of being—suns, planets and satellites, or angels and archangels—obey unconditionally. Such is their nature, and they cannot do otherwise.
The Ray of Creation is the symbol that most clearly evokes the harmonious state of the Universe. No celestial body shirks its role. The Earth is obeyed by the Moon, because the Earth itself obeys the Sun, which in turn obeys what is greater than itself. The result is a harmony of the spheres from which we benefit…
Man is not on the Ray of Creation… He finds himself inserted into it because the lateral octave of Organic Life, to which he belongs, penetrates the Ray of Creation. Man’s relationship to this octave is very different from the relationship of the celestial bodies to the Ray of Creation.
The stars are represented by one note… Man…does not correspond to only a single note of the octave of organic life. He corresponds, or at least ought to correspond, to the whole octave. (diagram below)
(T)he centre of gravity of man’s consciousness is not fixed. He is at liberty to move along the full length of this octave; and if it is not this way in fact, it is precisely because he does not obey what is offered him.
Obedience is neither a hindrance nor a condemnation, but the condition – the way of living- that could crown all man’s aspirations…
This is what really distinguishes man from other forms of being: other forms cannot disobey; they obey passively and without suffering. Man must give himself willingly, in full awareness, and at the price of a certain suffering…
(W)hile he is unable to escape the laws, it is nevertheless possible for him to serve one particular level of laws or another. Angels and archangels cannot do this…
(T)his…would be impossible if man had no ability to disobey one order of laws so as to obey another…
It is to make this obedience possible that disobedience is granted. In our certitude and in our love, active obedience can be born. We have to want it, wish it…
But even when I am able to understand… I don’t necessarily become immediately able to obey. Because I am afraid. Because I am grasping. Because I am ruled by a belief in myself, which is the counterpart of my relative freedom to disobey.
I do not want to give up anything. Even if knowledge penetrates me, I want to keep it and eat its fruit for myself. But this fruit is something I must not touch, since its vivifying force is intended for the seed of my real ‘I’ and not for my ego.
It is from this knowledge, which falls on my essence…that the act of obedience must arise, and not from my ordinary thought or feeling… —Obeying
Every one of us is an instrument, and that’s all we can be…
Our only freedom is to be either an unconscious instrument or a conscious one, either to suffer passively or to submit voluntarily—to accept to be what we are. —The Functions Enlisted to Serve
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I have to understand that the birth of will is dependent on the union of wanting and not wanting. But if this opposition is not clear… if I don’t see it really clearly, there will never be any will-power… However, we can begin to become aware of what calls us and what refuses.
Stubborn as a mule! We can become aware of that. But if we succeed, little by little – and it can be done – if we succeed, with time, in holding together in a single perception this strong demand and this systematic refusal that is in us, if we succeed in keeping them clear while truly understanding what they are, then will can be born. Otherwise, it will never be born.
There is no other solution. As long as we are unable to experience this, we will continue to be tossed between two poles. And there is nothing more disheartening, because when you are obstinate, you are not happy, and when you are at the other extreme, you are not happy… —Stubbornness and Will — Excerpt from a group exchange – Reims, January 19, 1965.
Views From the Real World
(O)ne exercise is very useful… This exercise is: entering into the position of another. This should be undertaken as a task… This is the first step.
The second step is—practice in concentration… Self-observation is very difficult, but it can give much material. If you remember how you manifest yourself, how you react, how you feel, what you want—you may learn many things…
It is very good to combine this exercise of putting oneself in another’s place with self-observation. —America, March 29, 1924: Essence and personality
