Master Exercises

[Russell Smith]

Here are the Master Exercises.

We know from the model of the cards that the instinctive, moving, and emotional centers are united in the higher emotional center. Thus, awakening conscience in the machine – the April Fools moment – wherein a new state of consciousness is present.

The only center, not in the higher emotional center, is the intellectual center.

Gurdjieff tells us that we have no contact with the intellectual center. We only use the formatory apparatus… other than that, there is no thinking.

We, now, have to develop the thinking… because the intellectual center (the mechanical part of the Higher Mental Center) follows conscience. It is the next center to be developed (after the diamonds, clubs, and hearts). So we need to have the intellectual center working properly if we are going to have the potential of waking up objective reason and obtaining objective consciousness.

So after a person has Steward, I give them the task of starting to work on the development of their intellectual center.

The only way to prove that a lower center is developed is to repeat manifestations of that center. Whether it is playing a trumpet – and being able to play it the same way over and over again, or singing a song, or recognizing a smell, etc.

I am certain that anybody could sit at the piano and punch keys and make sounds. But can they do it the exact same way again?

To have the ability to repeat the same thing, to play the notes the exact same way, to repeat a thing… indicates a certain development of the Queen in that center.

We also must develop this ability in the intellectual center… and the only way to prove that we have a Queen of Spades is to memorize something, i.e., to have memory work that we can repeat, thus, showing that we have the required prowess in the intellectual center.

We are a part of the oral tradition. In the past, truth had to be handed down orally. This required that the people, who handed it down, knew it very well… had it memorized. Otherwise, how could they pass it along without deviating it or changing it? Change the story, even a little bit, and it becomes a completely different story. We have all heard the model I use of, “I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school”. But, what does that mean?

What if I said, I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school. – I did not, but maybe somebody else did. The emphasis on “I” would infer that.

How about: I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school. – maybe I heard it or smelled it? The inflection on “see”, changes the meaning.

I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school. Perhaps, I saw a giraffe or maybe a rhinoceros. The emphasis is on the word lion.

I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school. I saw one off the bus.

I did not see a lion on the bus on the way to school. It was on the way home.

Do you see what is happening? If you change the inflection of one word, i.e., if you use the same exact words but change the inflection… you change the meaning.

So not only is it necessary to memorize, but it is necessary to find out where the right inflection goes – the inflection fixes the meaning of what we have memorized. The oral tradition demands this. The story tellers probably emphasized the same words every time they told the story. Here is where they talk softly, here is where the crescendo is. So we have to be a part of that oral tradition, too.

So, after a student awakens Steward, they start on the development of their intellectual center… with the aim of acquiring 1,001 words of memory… in order to receive the master exercises.

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THE MASTER EXERCISES
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EXACT RE-TRANSMITTAL

You have already been given the precursor to the Master Exercise. It is your memory work. It is actually called exact re-transmittal. This is an exercise: exact re-transmittal. It means… memorize something.

Exact re-transmittal requires memorization. There are several kinds of exact re-transmittal. It can be done visually, it can be done comprehensively – through memorization, it can be done audibly. Exact re-transmittal is the oral tradition…. You must be able to transmit things… exactly.

I suppose this is similar to the General, who gives the orders to the Colonel, who then gives the orders to the Lieutenant, who then gives the orders to the Sergeant, who then gives the orders to the troops. The orders have to be exactly re-transmitted… all the way down, “At 1500 hrs, take hill 302 with Battalion Z”. If there is a breakdown in the exact re-transmittal, there could be trouble… or – without exact re-transmittal – if a sentence is passed along a chain of people, when it reaches the last person it will come out totally different.

We see exact re-transmittal in many art forms. A good artist can paint the same picture over and over again and all the paintings will look the same. They can produce the same brush strokes. A skilled musician can play songs and make them sound, “Just like the album”. They can reproduce them perfectly. A good singer can carry the melody and make it sound the same way every time they sing it, etc.

We are judged by what we are able to repeat. So, to be a part of the oral tradition, our first exercise is Exact Re-transmittal. We start to memorize meaningful things in order to develop our intellectual center… particularly the cards that are associated with the Queen of Spades.

We must develop the emotional part of the intellectual center. The Queen of Spades. She requires “drawn attention”. Mechanical parts function with “no attention”, so we need more than the Jacks – more than our formatory apparatus. Thus, by using the drawn attention of the Queen… and her ability to repeat things – we may begin.
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HIGHER FEEDBACK and THIRD RESPONSE

After maintaining Steward for two or three weeks… I give students the first two master exercises, which you have already been given: higher feedback and third response. They make it possible for us to communicate with the Steward and Master. Review them often… and keep perfecting them. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=568

Now that you have memorized 1,001 words (developed your Queen of Spades), we are now – not only going to continue our work on her… but we will begin exercises designed to enhance our other centers.
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SPONTANEOUS EXACT RE-TRANSMITTAL

The next exercise is called spontaneous exact re-transmittal. Many students simply call it, “S.E.R.” – Spontaneous Exact Re-transmittal.

You have already proven that you have the ability to memorize, i.e., to sit down… take some memory work… look at it… go over it… go over it… hold it… put it into the memory… bring it back up, and repeat it. Correct? Now I want you to push it a little further. I want you to begin “spontaneous exact re-transmittal”.

Remember, when we memorize something, it is called exact re-transmittal… but this is beyond that. It is called spontaneous exact re-transmittal.

To do this exercise, you try to memorize something at the moment it enters… and then repeat it. This would be more akin to passing the sentence down the chain of people… and, when it came out the other end, it was exactly as it went in.

Spontaneous exact re-transmittal means you hear it and are able to repeat it… exactly.

I know that I can memorize something (if you give me a week to practice it). But can I memorize it as and when it enters – and then re-transmit it?

So I want you to listen to conversations… and as you hear people talk, repeat the words to yourself. See if you can exactly repeat the words they used.

This helps develop the Queen of Spades, as well as, the Ace of Diamonds and the King of Spades. The instinctive center has to be able to stop itself… and listen – so that the intellectual center can memorize the words as they enter and then be able to repeat them. That is Spontaneous Exact Re-transmittal.
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THOUGHT LONGEVITY

The next exercise is also for the Queen of spades, the Ace of diamonds, and the King of spades.

It is called thought longevity. This can be done either audibly or visually. The model is (now, that you have learned to memorize, retain, and repeat things… and now that you have started to work on spontaneous exact re-transmittal) thought longevity says, “Let us try to S.E.R. something… and then, later, add something to it and hold them both”.

Remember – in the higher feedback exercise – the idea was to ask a question to the higher and when you received a response to memorize it. That would be spontaneous exact re-transmittal, wouldn’t it? And then you were instructed to feed it back… and, when you received another response, you were instructed to memorize it… and then add it on to the first response – and feed it all back, etc. That would be thought longevity.

To exercise or practice thought longevity, you can pick road signs that you pass on the freeway… in order see how many of them you can memorize.

First there was this one, then a mile down the road there was that one… you have to remember what the first one was and then add the second one to it – and now you have them both memorized.

When I read a book, I take the first word on each page and memorize it, example “them”. Then I read the page. When I come to the next page, I will have to add the first word from that page on to the growing memory chain. I remember the first word from the last page “them”, and then add the first word from this page on to it “consciousness”. I finish reading this page and when I turn the page I now have a new word to add… so, I repeat the first 2 words and then I add the new word from this page “never” to my ever growing chain of thought longevity. I am, now, not only able to grab an idea… but to file it, hold it, and add to it.

In a conversation with someone you can, now, remember what they said… and the next time you have a conversation with them, you will be able to remember that data and add more data to it. This is handy when working with a student because, after talking with them about something, perhaps, a year later we find ourselves, again, talking about something similar… and, as I still have the data from last year, I can bring up what we had talked about and then add the new data, from today, to it. Students often say, “Wow, how can you remember that”?

We do exercises to develop our machine and, if we exercise the parts which are needed for higher functions, we will be able to do amazing things… like Thought Longevity.

So, repeat what you hear, hold it, and add to it.

You can do it with commercials on TV while watching a movie… here is the first commercial (in a set of commercials) remember what it was about – Ivory soap. The movie comes back on… you continue watching the movie… and the movie stops for some more commercials. What is the first commercial in this set of commercials? What is it about? The last one was Ivory soap. This one is about Fords. Ivory Soap and Fords. Now you continue watching the movie… and 15 minutes later there is, again, a break for commercials, etc. You are sitting there doing thought longevity with commercials. You have to remember every first commercial… Ivory soap… Fords… the third set started with one that was advertising Pizza Hut. So now you have Ivory soap, Fords, and Pizza Hut… then you add the next commercial, etc. So at the end of a two hour movie, you have eight or nine commercials, which you are still holding. You took one in, held it, and then added another, etc.
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DIRECTED RANDOM ASSOCIATION

The next exercise is called directed random association.

Directed random association. This allows you to construct a pathway between common data. We have a lot of data… it is scattered everywhere. How is it connected? Can we find the data that we have?

Let us now do an exercise designed to connect all this scattered data and train that part of ourselves which is capable of finding it and connecting it.

You start with songs. You have heard many songs in your life. You know most of the words in some, some of the words in many, and many of the words, which are found in the chorus, in most… don’t you? Now I want you to try to remember songs which have the word “blue” in them. In the name or in the lyrics. For example: Blue Suede Shoes.

How about another one? How many songs have you heard that have the word blue in them? Why don’t you have them available? You do not need to know the entire song, but you will know the lyrics where the word Blue is when you find it, right? Give me some songs with blue.

Students responded with many songs…

So far we have blue suede shoes, etc., etc. See, I am also doing S.E.R… and I am also doing thought longevity. I have to remember all the songs, which were already mentioned. Because if you ask me to give one, I cannot give you one that has already been thought of. I have to remember all the songs already mentioned… and I probably will be able to remember the order in which they were given.

What is another song with blue? There has to be many. What else?

Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder. That counts. See what is happening mentally? Directed Random Association… all the songs with blue. Where are all the songs with blue? You sit there long enough, you will have Blue Moon, When I’m Blue, etc.

Use modifiers. Look for words which precede blue – bright blue, dark blue, deep blue. Look for words which follow blue – blue moon, blue cheese, etc., and you will probably find songs which have blue in them… you will connect to more and more songs with blue. Oh yes, there is other one, blue jeans, blue eyed baby. There are a lot of blues. See how things will start to connect? You realize that there are many songs with blue and you keep finding them by finding more modifiers – blueberries. “I found my thrill on blueberry hill”. There you go, another blue.

The next day… you will still be finding songs with blue. Wow!

Directed random association. You can do it with songs; you can do it with just things that connect to a certain word. That is, you can take just blue and say what has blue connected to it. You don’t hear, for example, blue automobile. That is not a common phrase that goes with blue. Of course, there are some blue automobiles, but that connection is not very common. Little boy blue might be in a common group with blue. Then there are some ‘sound alike’ groups, like blew a fuse or blew my mind. Blew is spelled differently, but it is still blue.

Directed random association is about constructing pathways to common data. In this exercise you are attempting to connect as many pathways as possible.

To start this exercise, you sit down in a quiet place and you ask, “Okay, how about the word Moon? How many songs can I come up with which have the word moon in them”… and you think?

And… there you are, sitting quietly, going through data, looking through files, finding things. You are training the mind to keep searching… and you are training the mind to hold fast in a certain direction. Do this and you will find a lot of moons… perhaps, even the one in yourself.

Honeymoon, shiny moon, silvery moon, slippery moons, blue moons, moon beams, jump over the moon. All kind of moons. “I feel the bad moon arising”.

This is an exercise that you can do with other students. If you are with another student who has received the master exercises… and say, “Let us do songs that have the word ‘day’ in them or ‘night’ in them”. If they agree, go for it! Sing to each other and have some fun.

You will probably pick some words and then discover, “Ouch, that one is a hard one. Is there even a song with that word in it”? If you try, you might find one. Maybe you will find two. Oh, I found another… ye-haw!

Do this and you will train the brain to find stuff. So later on, when you want to find everything you know about identification, your brain has already been trained on how to do that, i.e., to connect with all the places that contain the word identification.

You will broaden yourself… and have much to draw upon – instead of just one thing – because you have trained your brain to find all the places which have the data that you are looking for. Are you with me? That is Directed Random Association.
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Note: when the next exercise was being formulated, my higher inserted, “Only give the master exercises to students who have memorized 1,001 words”. I said, “Okay”… and then it continued to explain the objective dying exercise. So blame him for making you memorize 1,001 words!

OBJECTIVE DYING

The next master exercise is objective dying.

I want you to disassociate from your body; that is, kill yourself from the bottom up. Lay down, find a comfortable place, you can do this during your “Lying still for an hour exercise”.

While you are laying there, start with your feet and try to disassociate from them. By suggestion, try to bring them to a moment where they are not there… I can’t feel my feet, they have gone to sleep, they are numb, there aren’t any feet. The nerves don’t function, they are not there. There is no sensation in my feet, etc., etc.

And then you start thinking about your legs and move up to your legs. Usually, when you move on, it actually happens, i.e., you begin thinking about not feeling your knees, when suddenly you realize that you can’t feel your feet. OMG, have they really disappeared? Sometimes I have had to peek to see if they were still there… because it really sensed like they were not.

See how far you can go. See if you can work it all the way up to your head to where you become some form of energy without a physical body, just the knowledge of who you are, which is totally independent of any associations of the body.

Some day we may be in a position where we don’t have a physical body. Instead, we will exist apart from the sensations of the body. So let us now see if we can disassociate from these sensations. Objective Dying. Kill yourself from the bottom up.
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7TH DAY REST

The next master exercise is 7th day rest. God rested on the 7th day. I think this is a model which says that you can’t always push. There has to be time without force, that is, no planned force. So I want you to try to take at least one day a week, maybe one day every two weeks, but take a day and make that day a day of no intentions.

Take the day off. You don’t have to read anything that day, you don’t have to do a threefold attention exercise to strengthen your Steward. You don’t have to do third response. You don’t have to do anything… but you could, if you wanted to – but you do not have to.

On this day, there does not have to be a conception of plan.

You do not have to think about occupying the place, following any work agenda, or doing any specific exercises, etc. You get to do whatever you want to do, and let what ever happens, happen. If you decide to go dig in the garden, go dig in the garden. If you get there and then decide not to dig in the garden, then don’t dig in the garden. There are no penalties. Live each moment without any conception of plan. Just be present in the moment. Live each moment without an agenda.

This does not mean that you are forbidden to read or to do exercises, you are just not planning to read or to do exercises. You might get half way through the day and start to think about some work idea… and find yourself reading. That’s okay. It does not mean you can’t do something, it just means that you are not under any obligation (on that day) to do anything.

It is quite funny. Often, students do more work on their day of 7th day rest than they do on other days. Because, by not being under any force to do something, they are liberated to make force on things that interest them… and they, quite often, end up doing even more work on themselves than they would have done had they followed some agenda.

So that is 7th Day Rest. Take at least one day a week or one day every two weeks and live that day with no conception of plan.
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LIGHT WALKING

Another master exercise that was given out to students during our April extravaganza was an exercise called light walking. It is for the Aces in scale 2 of the top story.

We only perceive the reflection of things. We don’t perceive the things themselves.

What colors are the leaves on a tree? We would say green.

They are not. Green is the color they do not want. Which means that a tree uses all the other colors for its existence – and absorbs them, but it does not use green. Green is what is rejected by it and therefore reflected – so we see green. Leaves are not green?? Correct, they are not! They are everything but green. Green is what they do not want. They reflect it, they do not use it. They are everything but green. DISCLAMER: trees are not green they are ever color but green, however, if I did not tell you that, someone would have said, “See, I know more than Smith, trees are not green, they are every color but green. Trees are not green. I know more than him, I know more than him,” and they would have corrupted you on to focusing on green, not on feeling the tremble of the branch. So, I told you, along with everything, cause it is my aim to give you truth. But by telling you, I forced you into looking at green, not that the branch can feel you. My bad, I am cursed either way. As to the butterflies, Alison could not divulge it was the branch, cause branches don’t move, so we will make it about butterflies. Thus, I was corrupted again. Sorry if I corrupted you.

We don’t see a thing, we see the reflection of it. Our attention is attracted, in life, by motion. We don’t see anything unless it moves. If you are in a room right now, you are probably not even seeing the stuff in the room. But if something suddenly went across the arm of the chair, you would see the movement. It would be the movement that drew your attention. In the animal kingdom, when an animal perceives danger, it freezes. It stands perfectly still… because it knows that, if it moves, it is going to be spotted.

So what I want you to do now is to attempt this exercise called light walking. Sit and look out a window or sit outside and pick a tree, pick a bush, or pick a tall blade of grass and just focus on it, focus on its movement. See the reflection of the movement and just stay on that movement. Just watch it, just watch the movement. And imagine yourself moving along the light, walking along the light. Light walking, walking along the light, closer and closer to the movement. Try to experience the movement… and not just see the reflection of the movement. Move along the reflection towards the motion. Until there is no separation between you and the motion of the thing itself.

That is Light Walking. Excellent exercise to attempt… and then it happens… you have a moment when you become the branch of the tree. You experience the tree. It is a new way of perceiving it. Not just seeing the reflection of it but actually participating in the movement of that branch. It is like, “Becoming one with the force”… or something like that.
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THOUGHT RECORDING

The last one of the master exercises is called thought recording. The idea is to become comfortable with talking aloud to yourself, so that you can hear how you think.

Sometimes, I tell students, “If you have a tape recorder, put it on record and talk aloud to yourself so that your thinking process can be recorded”. Try to record your thinking… that is what we are trying to do here… trying to record how we think… so we can hear the way we think, which will be revealed by the words we use.

One student told a marvelous story of going to a dry cleaner one day to drop off some clothes… he had his cell phone in his pocket.

He had called and checked his messages, by calling his own number… and since he had just checked his messages, his number was the last number dialed.

He had the phone in his pocket when he went in the dry cleaners. There was this pretty girl working there… and he got into a conversation, and somehow, inadvertently, he had bumped the button on his cell phone and dialed the last number called. He was now recording his conversation with this pretty girl… and 45 minutes later, when he got back to his car, he saw that he had one message. It was him, and he was able to listen to the conversation and hear the way he thought. He could hear the flow of his thinking. He was running his game, enticing this little girl, having quite a conversation with her, and convincing her of his thises and thats.

That’s the model… try to record your thinking.

Now what is thinking?

Thinking is not sensing. Thinking is not feeling. Thinking is not moving. In other words don’t think about what you are sensing or feeling or how you are moving. Think about what you are thinking.

Sensations and emotions, etc., are thoughts of the formatory apparatus. Thoughts of the formatory apparatus concern impressions on monitors. And it is the formatory apparatus, which is seeing these impressions of sensing and feeling and motion. But that is not thinking. That is just looking at what is on the monitors of the other centers.

Now, let me try to figure out what I am thinking. What am I thinking? I am sitting in a chair. Is that thinking or is that recording the impression on the monitor of sitting in the chair? The light is coming through the window, the room is round. That is not thinking, that is the impressions on the monitor of the instinctive center, the impressions on the monitor of the emotional center, or the impressions on the monitor of the moving center.

So there is no reason there. Because impressions on monitors are only connected with sensing and feeling and motion. So if you think you are thinking but you are just repeating what is on the sensing, feeling, or moving monitors, then you are not thinking. Sensations, emotions, and movement are thoughts of the formatory apparatus. They are just impressions on monitors. If I am just going over the impression on the monitors and constating them aloud… that is not really thinking… that is just repeating what is on the monitors.

I want to record how I think. I am trying to warn you that thinking is not, “Oh I can see the chair, and there is a chart with a diagram on it and over there in the corner is the number 1.8”. That is not thinking that is just repeating something that is on the monitor, which is being sensed, being seen, being heard, being felt, or monitoring my movements… or recalling a label from the monitor of my intellect. But none of these are thoughts. You are just announcing what is on those monitors, i.e., sensing, emotion, movement, or a label…. That is not thinking.

Do you see what I am saying? Announcing what is on your monitors is not thinking.

Then, what is thinking?

Thinking is creation. Thinking is discovery. Thinking requires formulation.

Before we started to work with the Queen of Spades and do our memory work, we did not do much thinking. It was all just impressions on monitors. It was all just data of the formatory apparatus. We have to get out of the formatory apparatus and learn to think.

Formatory apparatus requires formation. Real thinking requires formulation.

An example of formulation: When I built the shed for the lawn mowers, I did not begin the shed until I could see every board in my head… and had figured out exactly where the screws went… and how it was all going to fit together. Everything was seen. The whole thing had been formulated – Intellectually. There was thinking going on. Where do the boards meet? How do I get the boards to meet there? It is going to have a roof. How is the roof going to meet the walls? How many screws do I need? — This is Thought Recording.

Become comfortable with talking out loud to yourself. You are trying to say what you are thinking.

You have probably heard people do this when they say, “Okay the board was 8 inches, we are going to have to fit it into an area that is 6 1/2 inches, which means we have to cut an inch and 1/2 off the board.

Have you ever done that?

If you have, you were going through your thinking process and, by saying it out loud, you could hear how you thought. You could actually hear what you sounded like when you were thinking. So, that way, you could tell the difference between “when you were thinking”… and, “when you were just blurting out the impressions on monitors”…. Oh, there is a noise over there, oh, there goes a rabbit. That is not thinking.

If all your thoughts are just reading what is on your monitors, there can be no reason there… just impressions on monitors.

So that is it, those are the Master Exercises. You should start working on them today. Add them to your repertoire.

Practice, practice, practice… and report your progress. The reports of your progress will indicate, to me, when you are ready to receive the Double or Nothing Part I Exercise, which is a guaranteed path out of the higher emotional center and in to the higher mental center.

The Dog

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