Exercises Part III Continued

[Russell Smith]

CONTINUED

4. THREE FINGER – Life is real only then, when “I am”, Pages 112-116, Chapter Third Talk:
You tried that, and you saw how difficult that was. I have replaced that with “Threefold Attention.”

**5. THREEFOLD ATTENTION – RAS 1989:
You can try the “Three Finger” exercise in the future but the most important exercise on the page is “Threefold Attention.” I will give it 2 stars.

This is one that a man can do. He can divide himself into 3 attentions if he does this threefold attention exercise.

An amazing exercise, that show us how we can have; and, focus multiple attentions.

Many people think we can only have attention on one thing at a time.

However, anybody who ever had a song playing in their head, which goes on all day long, knows that we can have an attention on that song, and yet still be able to function in life. So, it’s possible to have more than one attention.

A person has three different parts of themselves, three different brains. They have the reptilian brain at the top of the spinal cord, responsible for instinctual sensing and basic movement, the cerebellum, or limbic system, responsible for coordinated movement, motivation and emotional meaning, and the outer neocortex, which is the intellectually developed brain of higher thinking mammals, responsible for language, abstraction, planning and perception.

Each of these brains has its own memory, its own will, and its own attention… and that’s why, sometimes, if we can’t remember a phone number, we may grab a pencil and try writing it….and by writing it, we remember it, this is because the memory of that number can be in the brain that is responsible for movement, not in the intellectual brain.

So, we have these different brains or centers, and each one of them has its own memory, its own will and its own attention.

If these three attentions were brought together and held on one thing, then, instead of a random song going on by itself, we could have one unified attention directed on the task in hand.

Sometimes, we witness this when we’re driving down the road and have the radio on, and all of a sudden, a song comes on that draws our attention, and we say, “Turn that up, I want to hear that one”.

Why do we do that? Why does that song need to be turned up?

It’s because the memory of that song is in multiple centers. There’s a memory of that song in the instinctive center, we know the melody. There’s the memory of that song in the moving center, we’ve danced to it. There’s a purely emotional memory of that song in our cerebellum, where we feel the meaning of the song, because perhaps we were listening to it when we fell in love. And there’s a memory of it in the intellectual center, because we know the words.

And since we have different centers, and they all have a memory of that song, that one gets turned up.

We didn’t do that for the song before, nor the song after, but THAT particular song needs turning up.

We will also notice that whichever center we were most present in, at the moment the song came on, takes the lead… and the other centers lend their attention to it.

If we were in our moving center when that song came on, we turn up the radio and start tapping the beat on our steering wheel. The moving center will have the lead, and the other centers will support it.

If we were in our instinctive center when the song came on, we will start humming the melody and singing the tune, which will also be supported by the other centers.

If we were in our emotional center when that song came on, we may find ourselves in melancholy thoughts of past loves; or, remember the wonderful time we had at the beach party when we first heard it.

If we’re in our intellectual center when the song came on, we might start singing the words, and may be surprised to find that we actually know more words to that song than we thought.

So, if you ever had these things happen, you would have seen that different centers are involved. Each with its own memory, its own will, and its own attention.

OK, the exercise is called the “Threefold Attention Exercise”.

I will instruct you how to establish three separate attentions and then show you how to unify them into one.

Find a comfortable place to sit and start to count your breath.

Don’t alter your breathing, don’t try to change it. Just count it.

You can choose – you can count 1 on the inhale and 2 on the exhale, or 1 on the exhale and 2 on the inhale, it doesn’t matter. Some people like to double count. They count the whole cycle.

They inhale as 1 and they exhale as 1, so they can hear and confirm the number they are on.

It doesn’t matter which one you do, it just matters that you have a rhythm to count: 1,2,3,4.

It is important when you start this, that you understand you are trying to bring every part of you to the count. Every part of you should come there and count.

All of you.

We don’t want to get to 80 and wonder if we have done the 80’s. We don’t want to have a moment of uncertainty, where we ask, “Am I in the 80’s or the 90’s?”

We want to get to a moment where there is enough of us doing it, that something in us knows that we are never going to lose the count. We KNOW the next number is 83, and the one after that is 84, and the one after that is 85.

There is something in us that recognizes we are not going to forget our count. It is like we are locked into it. We are there.

It may take 50 numbers, or 60 numbers, or 70 numbers, or less…somewhere. But, there will be a moment where you can say, “I’ve got this! I am all here. Every part of me knows where I am, and I am not going to forget the number I am on.” That is, there is not counting in one part, and other parts are doing other thing and thus corrupting the count.

Every part of me is counting. I brought all of me to the count.

The moment I have that realization, the moment I sense that I am all there counting, and I am not going to forget what number I am on, I will try to create a second attention.

I pull my instinctive center away from the count and say. “Now, you, sense.”

Focus on some sound, the sound of your breath, or on a ticking clock, or on the sounds of traffic, or on any nearby sounds.

Continue counting your breaths while you do this.

If you do this right, all of a sudden, there will be two things taking place.

One part will have an attention on the count of your breaths, and another part will have an attention on what it hears… and, it hears.

Sounds will be bigger, bolder, clearer and more distinct, and there will be a remarkable awareness that you are doing both. That is, you still have one attention on counting, and now you have another attention on what you are hearing.

And it is like, “Wow, I have two separate attentions! One is counting; and, one is sensing.”

And sometimes the counting gets even stronger because the instinctive part has been pulled away and is no longer there to corrupt or influence it.

So now, I get both of these going until I have a firm realization that there are two things there.

There is this counting; and, here I am… 75, 76, 77. And at the same time there is an awareness of this great scope of sound and a dimension of sensing that I also have; and, they are separate.

There are two things simultaneously taking place. I am not jumping back and forth. I am not going 84, smell the air, 85, hear the traffic. It is not one attention jumping from one thing to the other; it is two separate attentions that are happening at the same time… on two separate things.

The moment I lock into the 2nd, I then go for the 3rd.

I pull the emotional center away from the count, which leaves the moving center doing the counting, and I say to the emotional center, “You come here. You feel.”

Now, sometimes people don’t know what to feel. If you don’t know what to feel, start with something like gratitude. There is always something to be grateful for.

Grateful for your family, grateful for your work, grateful for being alive, grateful for being a human, grateful for something. You can get a feeling of gratitude. So, find something that you are grateful for and hold that image.

See if you can get a third attention going, in addition to the part of you that is counting, and the part of you that is sensing. If you can, your counting may get even stronger.

So now, I have one attention on counting, a second attention on sensing, and a third attention that is feeling gratitude. And there is something in me, if I do it right, that gets the sense that all three are taking place at the same time.

One part is counting, still nailing the numbers, not missing a thing. Another part is sensing, everything is loud and full and noticed. And a third part has a feeling going.

It’s an incredible moment when you get all three.

And, if you get all three, your physiology may change, just like if you ran up the road and back. When you got back, you would be breathing differently. The body would say, “Whatever demands you put on me, I will regulate the bodily rhythms in order to provide what is needed for that effort.”

For most people, their breathing will go shallow and become very rapid. Out of nowhere, they will be sitting there counting their breaths and all of a sudden, the rhythm of their breathing changes and starts going very fast and shallow; and, they didn’t do anything to change it. However, the body knows that in order to hold these three separate attentions, it is going to have to re-regulate the system and breathe differently.

For a few people, the breathing will slow down and become very elongated. But, for most people, it will speed up and become shallow.

Sometimes, the breath can go so rapid that the mind cannot say the numbers, yet you can hear the moving center going 145, 146, 147, etc. It is like, wow, the moving center can count that fast, but the mind cannot. You can hear the moving center ticking off the numbers, even when the breath is going super-fast.

OK, you now have one attention sensing, a separate attention feeling, and a third attention counting; and they are all going fast and furious. In fact, the counting may lock-in even tighter. And you may have an incredible realization that there are three separate attentions happening in you without the participation of your intellectual center, which will create a fourth attention, that of the intellectual center… who will be astonished by the strength of having these three attentions: One attention sensing, a second attention feeling, and a third attention counting.

Hold that full state for a few counts, until you realize that you can hold these three separate attentions. Three distinct and separate attentions.

Then, when you are ready, unify them on one thing; the awareness of you… the presence of you.

Now they are all holding attention on just one thing… the wholeness of you.

Well done, stop and hold the presence of yourself for a few moments.

6. HANDS IN MOTION – RAS 1992:
The “Hands in Motion” exercise is an exercise that causes the Moving Center and the Intellectual Center to work together. 

To do it properly, you simply take your two hands, hold them in front of your chest, and rotate them over and under each other in a circle. 

But you don’t try to do it with just your Moving Center, you also try to do it with your Intellectual Center. You try to have the mind see all the movements that have to be done, and all the muscles that have to be used. 

That is, you try to get the mind to see the muscles that are needed to lift one hand up and drop the other down; the muscles that are needed to push one hand forward and draw the other back.

And of course, you start your rotation very slowly, otherwise the mind will not be able to participate.

If you do it correctly, it is almost as if the Moving Center says to the Intellectual Center, “Hello, I did not know that you were here. Oh my goodness, you are doing this with me. We are both here moving our hands. I am doing it, and you are participating. I am making the movements, and you are seeing all the movements that need to be made. Wow! We are both capable of rotating our hands. Cool!” 

And when that happens, and when you know that they are both there doing it, you slowly try to speed it up, to see how fast you can go and still have the mind there seeing all the movements. Of course, there will come a speed when the mind can’t do it anymore. That is, the mind can’t participate if the hands rotate too fast, because the Moving Center is much faster than your Intellectual Center. But at a slow enough speed, the Intellectual Center should be able participate.

It is an awesome feeling, when the Intellectual Center joins the Moving Center, and both of them, together, are performing the movements.

*7. OBJECTIVE PRAYER – RAS 1982:
This one needs a star: “Objective Prayer.”

The Objective Prayer exercise helps you identify the most important, and uplifting moments of your life; and arranges them in the most meaningful, and impactful order.

We have all had meaningful moments that have touched our lives and triggered our emotions. They are known as magnetic center moments, because, once experienced, they stick with us for a very long time. For instance: they may occur when we see a beautiful sunset, get a promotion, get married, or witness the birth of a child, etc. We have had many great moments that have taken place during our lives.

Now what I want you to do, is to make a list of them. That is, to write them down. Write down the Magnetic Center moments of your life. For example: a particular walk you took on the beach, when you got your diploma, your first puppy, your first kiss, when this happened, when that happened, when you met this idea, or encountered that one. 

The vivid moments of your life that touched you. 

We all have them.

What if we gathered them together; the sacred moments of our lives, the Magnetic Center moments? We gathered them up, and made a list. Wouldn’t they have more force if they were gathered up?

Our inner world is a dense and tangled jungle. Our Magnetic Center moments are like little clearings in that jungle. 

We know that somewhere in that jungle there is a big clearing, and we want to find it. 

To do so, we try connecting the little clearings created by our magnetic center moments, with pathways, perhaps they will crisscross the big clearing.

So, as I said, what I want you to do is create a list of your magnetic center moments. Then review them. Edit your list, to where you have around ten of the most important moments of your life. You may have started with 30 or more on your list, but when you are done editing, you should only have around 10.

The aim is to find the really dynamic ones. The ones that are the most vibrant. The ones that when you think about them, they put warmth in your heart, and every time you remember them, they put tears in your eyes.

Then you arrange them in different orders. That is, now that you have 10 of the most uplifting moments of your life, you try to find the most effective order of recalling them. You start by remembering this one, and it changes your chemistry. You then remember another one, and it changes your chemistry a little more.

Singularly, they can both change your chemistry. But together, they can change your chemistry even more. The second one will pick up where the first one left off, and you say, “Wow! That is pretty interesting!”

A little later, you try a different order. You try that one first, another one second, and another one third … and wow, that order is better than the first! “I am going to keep those three together.” And, by doing this, you find the most objective order of recalling your magnetic center moments. You find an order that picks up on the momentum created by the magnetic center moment that preceded it, and collectively, they become for you what is called an Objective Prayer. A prayer that you can recite, which takes you right to the top. An objective order of recalling your magnetic center moments that changes the state of your being more than any other.

So, play around with that order until you find the one that is most effective for you. When you do, you will have found, with just a simple set of memories, the best way of changing your state. 

So firstly, make your list. Then secondly, identify the ones that are the most important, dwindling them down to a handful of 7, 8, 9, or 10 moments. Next, try arranging them in one order, then in another. Until you find the most effective order for you.

Magnetic center moments touch us, they have meaning for us, they enliven us, and they objectively lift us up; even in the darkest of times.

As an example of what magnetic center moments are, here is one of mine.

There is a movie called Yankee Doodle Dandy. It is about the life of George M. Cohan. The movie is a true story of his life. At the end of the movie, he has been ushered in to meet the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. He does not know why he was summoned by the President, and thinks that he is in trouble for mocking the President in a play that he is currently in. 

After hearing Cohan’s life’s story, the President says, “Sounds like you have had an amazing life Mr. Cohan. The reason I called you here today is because I wanted to give you this,” and he hands Cohan The Congressional Gold Medal of Honor; the highest military honor that one can achieve for serving his country.

No one in Cohan’s profession has ever received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. The President says to Cohan it is for his two songs, Over There and You’re a Grand Old Flag, and explains to him that those two songs were just as beneficial to the war effort as any gun, or any person. 

After being handed the Congressional Medal of Honor, he leaves the White House, and walks out onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The Second World War is in progress, and the troops that are preparing to go to battle, are marching down the street, singing his song Over There. It is their marching song. Cohan, who is still stunned, and a little bit dazed, but beaming with pride, joins them, and begins walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, along with the troops, which many smiling and singing other civilians are also doing. Then, one of the soldiers looks over at him and notices that he is not singing, so he says, “What’s the matter, old-timer, don’t you remember the words to this one?”

I get choked up every time I remember that scene. I feel what it means.

For Gary Eggleton, one of his magnetic center moments came from his dying cat, who looked up at him, and, in its last breath, gave the longest purr of recognition before passing. 

Even thinking of Gary’s moment brings tears to my eyes, as it does to his.

It is worth noting that your magnetic center moments do not have to be as profound or as moving as those. In fact, one of mine is from a cartoon show that my kids used to watch called, “He-Man.” In it was an evil villain called “Skeletor,” and whenever Skeletor showed up in the cartoon, He-Man, a mild-mannered guy, would take the sword off his back, hold it up into the air, and the narrator would say, in a strong and definite voice, “I … have … the p-o-w-e-r.”

For me, whenever the narrator said those words, it always sent shivers up my spine … and, when I say them at the right place in my Objective Prayer, they always turbo-charge it.

Additionally, what may be a magnetic center moment for you, may not be a magnetic center moment for someone else. Magnetic center moments can be: Cohan walking with the troops, a dying cat acknowledging his caregiver, or the line “I have the power.” It is whatever touches you, or has meaning for you. Moments, that when you recall them, change your chemistry. Moments like these are the magnetic center moments of our lives.

In addition, your Objective Prayer will change as you encounter other meaningful moments in life, and will become for you a living list.

8. LYING STILL FOR ONE HOUR – RAS 1982:
Now the next exercise is “lying still for 1 hour.” It is a tough exercise. Now one thing that is nice about it, you do it every couple of weeks or so, but while you are doing lying still, you can do a lot of other exercises. You can do an Objective Prayer while you are laying there. You can do I AM’s while you are laying there. You can do a Threefold Attention while you are laying there. You can occupy yourself with some of these other exercises. You can’t do hands in motion, because then you would be moving, you would not be lying still, but you can be going over an Objective Prayer. You can be counting your breaths and separating into different attentions. You can fill that hour with a lot of other exercises. Gurdjieff references if you want to grow a soul lie still for an hour, because you will come in contact with your body. Your body will start to say, “Hey, I want to move.”

And you will say, “No, no I am in charge of this. You are not moving.”

The body says, “Just a little adjustment, just a teeny bit.”

I say back, “No. no, no, no, you are okay, it is not death, it is not going to kill you, it is not going to hurt you.”

The body says, “But it itches.”

I say, “I don’t care, do not scratch it, let it itch.” And then the itch goes away because it doesn’t get scratched. You start to realize that you have some prowess over the body. The body starts to realize you are serious about this development and that its participation is needed.

I tell you a funny story on the I AM exercise. Ken Scrivener in England, he has been here on several journeys, had really got himself into a great place. He had his I AM, he could do his I AM and go right to a 10. And then one day back in England, he called me and said, “Russ my I AM, I can’t get it. It just does not have the oomph. I can’t get it anymore. I don’t know what’s the matter, but I don’t get it. What do I do?”

I said, “That is easy Kenny. Do it for 3 days.”

He said, “Huh?”

I said, “Do it for 3 days. Sit down with the “attitude” that you are going to sit there for 3 days until you get it.”

He said, “Really?”

I said, “Yeah. Go out with that much tenacity, that you are going to go with so much resolve, that you will sit there for 3 days, and do it constantly, steady for 3 days to get your I AM where you want it to be.”

He called back the next day and said, “Well, I did it for 12 hours and then I did another one for 4 hours and I got my I AM there. It is back. I’ve got it. It is back, I am at better than a 10, it’s like I am at an 18.” And he said, “Now what do I do?”

I said, “Now all you have to do is say ‘body I want it on the 10th breath or we will be here for 12 hours, take your pick’.” And guess what the body does now? It says, “This idiot will sit here, we better get there quick. This fool will put us through it, he will make us sit here for 12 hours, come on you guys, we got to get there quick.” And the body responds and now he says, “10th breath” and I am at a 20. Because he told the body, “It is your choice. You get me there at 10 or we will spend 12 hours sitting here. Take your pick.” And the body mobilizes itself pretty quick once you show it what the requirements are and show it that you are willing to go the 3 days or the 12 hours to get to your aim. And the body knows you are fool enough to do it, it will get you there quicker. It will say, “We will get you there fast. We don’t want to sit here 12 hours, we will do whatever we have to do to bring you to this stage you want to attain. Because we know that you will put us through that, what we perceive as torture of not being able to move and having to sit there.” Definitiveness of purpose is very important.

So the centers learn to respect the master. It is a subjugation of will inside where your will is saying I am going to do this, and the machine knows you will, and it will give you all the force it can because it knows that you will go through with your dictates. I am going to cut off my finger if I am not at a 10 in 22 seconds. And if it knows you’ll do it, I guarantee you are going to get to a 10 in 22 seconds. If it knows you are bluffing…it won’t do it.

But Kenny sat there for 12 hours, he already showed his machine that we will put you through 12 hours to get where we want to go. Now that we have done that, now all we have to say is, “Take your pick, we will do the 12 hours, or we will do the 10 breaths, I don’t care, take your pick.” The machine quickly says, “We will do the 10 breaths: one, two…”; Thank you very much, and it mobilizes every aspect of itself and brings in all its force to get you there.

9. CHI – RAS 1989:
“Chi” is a wonderful little exercise that can be done everywhere, sitting on a plane, standing in a line at the grocery store. The name Chi was just given to me. I don’t know if we can relate it to the ancient art of Chinese energy, but it is kind of like that. There is a model of self-remembering that we try to remember too big of things. We want to remember ourselves and remember this big thing. In truth you’d be better off remembering the little thing, making a little thing in self-remembering. Little things can get remembering, big things are too big. I suppose that one of the models to use would be the old war movies, Cowboy-Indian movies. Everybody has watched enough of those in their life. Remember the scene – it is just about in every one of them – where they are surrounded by the Indians or surrounded by the Mexicans or surrounded by the Germans, or somebody, and they are caught in, but they always figure this out: one guy can get through. We can send one guy. If we send a lot of guys, they’ll get spotted. But one guy, we can send one guy. One guy can make it. He can sneak through the lines, he can get past. That is what Chi is about, finding one guy. One guy to become higher. One guy to self-remember, one guy to get through, instead of the whole army.

Now self-remembering in our food diagram is talked about as the impressions becoming higher; and, we get from Ouspensky, a model of what an impression is: an impression is the smallest unit, or increment, of either a thought, sensation or emotion. The smallest bit of one of those is an impression. So we only have to find a small one and then let it become higher. And so to do that, we do what I call Chi. And the way we do it is, we take our middle finger and our thumb on both hands and we start with them about half an inch apart. And then, without looking at them, we start to draw them together very slowly and close the gap. And we know it is getting close. We don’t know when it is going to touch, but we know the moment that the finger comes in contact with the thumb that will be one little teeny impression. And in the process, I am waiting and there is an anticipation that builds. It feels like my fingers have already moved a foot and they haven’t touched yet, but I know they are going to sooner or later. And slowly but surely, I approach them, knowing that they are moving, they haven’t reached, it feels that they should have by now, but I am waiting, and I am waiting and waiting, and all my focus now is waiting, looking at that moment when those fingers are going to come together. And then there might be a moment when one of them touches and your arm jerks, you feel the electricity just move up your body, down your back, into your head…somewhere. It almost makes you leave the chair because everybody is waiting for this one little thing to happen and the moment that it does, there is an impulse of that little teeny impression being registered, that little tiny sensation. Sometimes it will make you jump. There it is! And then you break contact and do it again.

You can stand in the grocery line, waiting on the clerk, and you bring your fingers and you just drop them down beside yourself and you start bringing them together while you are waiting and you are waiting and then there is that sensation, that little, teeny guy, one little small piece is made higher. One little guy is amplified out of all proportion to its own little sensation because of the focus and the anticipation and the waiting and the waiting. Everybody stops and is waiting and then there is the touch, there is the sensation, a little teeny impression. A little guy gets through.

10. MAKE ONE THING YOUR GOD – Views from the Real World, Pages 90-93, Chapter “How can we gain attention…”:
And again this is about little things. Gurdjieff says if you want to change the machine, do not pick something big, you will never do it. Pick something small. You have a garage at home that needs to be cleaned out. Don’t say, “I am going to clean out the garage.” You’ll never start. It is too big. Say, “I am going to move 1 box, just 1 box.” That is not too big. And you make that one thing your God and you clean that 1 box out. Now you have gained some momentum and maybe you think, “Well I am this far I may as well clean another box.” Next thing you know, the garage is cleaned. But it got cleaned only because you went after one little thing. You make one thing your God. You pick one little thing and you bring that into your life and you try and hold that. The rest will accomplish itself because little things are done; small aims.

*11. I WISH TO REMEMBER MYSELF – Views from the Real World, Page 234 (hb) Page 226 (sb), Chapter “To all my question…”:
You read about this one. The reason this is on at this position is that these are the words we will use in April Fools. We will do it a little different then you read about it in the book, but we will use those words. And when you read about it in the book, Gurdjieff said say the word “I” and just see where your center of gravity is; it could be in the moving center. Don’t try to make it anywhere, just see where it is in you. Where your center of gravity is when you say “I”.

Watch what happens in you, when you say “wish”.

When you say “to remember” he says there’s supposed to be some barely perceptible reverberation in the solar plexus or the chest.

And when a man says “myself” he is referring to all of himself, including his atmosphere.

As if different bells sound. “I”, 1 bell sounds; “wish”, a different bell sounds; “to remember”, a third bell sounds; and “myself”, the general bell goes off. That is the official exercise in the book. But we will use those words in a little slightly different form in the April Fools exercise.

12. APRIL FOOLS – RAS 1990:
“Voodoo” if shared!

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